De vira lata

"Brasil still has what its writer Nelson Rodrigues called 'o complexo de vira-lata' - the mongrel dog complex." (WSJ 01/28-29/2012, p.C12.)

Toca

A method of torture during Spanish Inquisition now known as 'waterboarding'.

Pato

Pato aka horseball is a 17th century sport that resembles a cross between polo and basketball - using a live duck. Played in Argentina.

Antinomianism

A theological and philosophical notion that is skeptical of law based on a flawed notion of grace.

Goodluck Comfort Dotcom

Goodluck Jonathan is the President of Nigeria.

Comfort Ero is the Africa Program director for the International Crisis Group.

Kim Dotcom, in news this past week,  is the German founder of the Megaupload website.  Birthname Kim Schmitz.

Boko Haram

Boko Haram is the Islamic militia targeting Nigeria's Christians.


Boko Haram,  means "Western education is sin."

Huomai

Huomai, a catchphrase in China, according to the Wall Street Journal,  means "buried alive".

Mr. Yu (Jie) says the security agent used the term after Liu Xiaobo, a close friend of Mr. Yu's, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010.

On the night before the prize ceremony, Mr. Yu writes, he was wrestled into a car and taken to an unknown location where he was stripped naked, kicked and had his fingers bent back one by one. After that, his statement says, the security agent in charge spoke.

"If the order comes from above, we can dig a pit to bury you alive in half an hour, and no one on Earth would know," the agent said, according to a translation of the author's statement provided by the New York-based rights group Human Rights in China. "As far as we, state security, can tell, there are no more than 200 intellectuals in the country who oppose the Communist Party and are influential. If the central authorities think that their rule is facing a crisis, they can capture them all in one night and bury them alive."