There are hints in the spring air of a diplomatic thaw: The Clinton administration is poised, they say, to let Libya out of the doghouse. Sanctions may be lifted, and Americans may once again vacation in Tripoli. Modest celebrations are in order, but there is one caveat. Washington should not let the thaw proceed without clearing up once and for all that perennial impediment to better relations between Libya and the English-speaking world: Nobody knows the name of the man at the helm over there. Moammar Gadhafi? Muammar Gadaffi? Moamer Kadhafi? Muamar Qadhaffi? A quartet of interchangeable cousins? The world has not been dealing with a statesman all these years, but a spectral shape-shifter. No wonder tension has been rife.
Nor is the problem confined to Libya. A moment's reflection confirms that it may have fanned diplomatic fires the world over.
Take Asia and the Problem of the Floating Hyphen. Are we talking to North Korean President Kim Jong Il these days, or Kim Jong-il? (We once saw a headline about Kim Jong Ill as well, but that was probably just a report on the health troubles of Mr. Kim Jong). Relations with China have also stumbled on the hyphen question, though matters have been further complicated there by the complete orthographic chaos that broke out with respect to that country some decades ago. Instability has been the hallmark. No sooner had we finally assimilated the transmutation of Mao Tse-tung into Mao Zedong, Nanking into Nanjing and all the rest of it, than the British went and handed back Hong Kong, thereby reigniting the dormant hyphen problem. Will Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa (a.k.a. Tung Chee Hwa and Tung Chee-Hwa) hang onto his hyphen as a sign of Hong Kong's independence? (Or is that Hongkong?) The world waits.