I had two busy days, having taken rather more than one could complete in a normal working day, so I was drowned in words. The best thing that has come out of the past days is probably that I am now fully clear on differences between youth, youths, etc. Basically, here’s the deal:
- youth singular, which has as its plural, youths: young man.
- youth singular, which has its plural youth: technical term for young people aged 15-25 years.
That said, it’s an ugly old word.
In the meantime Imran Khan is now prime minister. Shameful scenes at the National Assembly vote yesterday, with the PML(N) creating a ruckus and Imran Khan responding with a Trumpian speech – or a container speech as it’s known in Pakistan, because that’s the sort of speech IK gave during his famous dharna, standing on a shipping container blocking off an Islamabad road. To his credit, Shah Mahmood Qureshi seemed thoroughly abashed and read out IK’s actual speech in third person. Meanwhile PPP had refused to back the opposition candidate and then gave a moralising speech as though they had any high ground at all. Shameful.