I hadn't been working in the UK long when I yelled out across the open-plan office to a south african workmate: "Did you see us beat the Pakis on the weekend?"
things seemed to go a bit quiet, but I didn't cotton on to what was wrong until later that day, when I found myself fronting-up to a disciplinary panel.
I told them I was talking about a cricket match on the weekend, rather than some sort of adhoc racial violence, and tried to explain that the word was in common use in australia, and carried no negative connotations there, just a normal shortened aussie name. There had even been a tv ad for the cricket talking about the windies (west indies), the pakis and the poms. But each time I mentioned the word 'Paki', they gave a cringing look like I'd just flung a turd on the table in front of them. I got a written warning.
Live and learn, ay?
( cumquat may will not be commenting further on the allegations, Tue 17 May 2011, 20:59, 40 replies)

So you didn't tell them about
the abo bashing then?
(Misery McUglywife an attention seeking sociopathic fuckstain., Wed 18 May 2011, 0:18, closed)

Growing up in a council estate in Scotland it was common to refer to the local corner shop run by asians as the Pakies' and any time one went of a chinese meal it was usually refered to as 'going for a chinky'. I haven't used either of those references since I left Scotland, but I now Live in Australia and, frankly, that was mild racism compared to what I've heard over here.
(sleekloon Curing Cancer one cell at a time., Wed 18 May 2011, 3:17, closed)

it depends where you go. I found a lot of horrible racists in both countries popping up here and there.

( cumquat may will not be commenting further on the allegations, Wed 18 May 2011, 4:13, closed)

I've had more friends bashed by them than the other way round, but this is a whole different kettle of fish and not particularly relevant

( cumquat may will not be commenting further on the allegations, Wed 18 May 2011, 3:58, closed)

you couldn't stop yourself from mentioning it though, could you?
oh, those damn pakis, beating US up. how very dare they.
( janet aylia y'all motherfuckers need jesus, Wed 18 May 2011, 10:22, closed)

i was talking about aboriginals
I have a close friend given brain damage from a random unprovoked attack by an aboriginal, and seen other friends of mine bashed. Im just suggesting the picture is more complicated when you live in remote communities, than accusations of abo-bashing
( cumquat may will not be commenting further on the allegations, Wed 18 May 2011, 14:05, closed)

I concur - its not considered a racist term in Australia.
(Joopiter, Wed 18 May 2011, 3:23, closed)

I avoided using the word in england again
but I still took a bit of convincing that there was something wrong with it. I wasn't aware of the history and bad blood behind it in England. It's almost on a social no-no scale with 'nigger'
( cumquat may will not be commenting further on the allegations, Wed 18 May 2011, 4:07, closed)

Pretty much.
I have a nasty habit of getting offended on behalf of other people, too. Call me a bleeding-heart liberal - I just go all knee-jerk 'don't use that language in front of me!'. Funny what language can do to people.
( Bats, Wed 18 May 2011, 5:30, closed)

It's like a different country or summat.

( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Wed 18 May 2011, 10:24, closed)

yes it is

(augsav forgot about B3ta, Thu 19 May 2011, 8:39, closed)

All that fuss over an Acronym

( buffet_the_appetite_slayer ٩(●̮̃•)۶ jacked in to the ICE on, Wed 18 May 2011, 8:01, closed)

don't you mean abbreviation

(TheManWithThePlan cussed your mum on, Wed 18 May 2011, 9:01, closed)

I preferred
it before you suggested that and I had just assumed it was a subtle joke.
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Wed 18 May 2011, 9:02, closed)

^this

( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Wed 18 May 2011, 9:50, closed)

It is an acronym, no? Stands for Punjab, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Sind, and BaluchisTAN (i.e. the provinces that went to make up Pakstan when it was first created).

The "i" was added later to make it easier to say.

Either way it's easier than saying "the shop on the corner run by the former inhabitants of the Five Northern Units of India".

And the whole thing means "land of peace", which seems to have worked out nicely.
(e_logic, Wed 18 May 2011, 11:12, closed)

This is an absolute, total, epic load of
bollocks
( WormuIus, Thu 19 May 2011, 8:42, closed)

Did you check first?
Cos it sounds like you're an absolute, total, epic load of bollocks. To quote Wikipedia:

The name Pakistan means Land of (the) Pure in Urdu and Persian. It was coined in 1933 as Pakstan by Choudhary Rahmat Ali, a Pakistan movement activist, who published it in his pamphlet Now or Never.[18] The name is an acronym representing the "thirty million Muslim brethren who live in PAKSTAN—by which we mean the five Northern units of India viz: Punjab, North-West Frontier Province (Afghan Province), Kashmir, Sind, and BaluchisTAN". The letter 'i' was later added to ease pronunciation." Sources: www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00islamlinks/txt_rahmatali_1933.html www.chaudhryrahmatali.com/now%20or%20never/index.htm
( clockworkrat has nice pants, Thu 19 May 2011, 11:35, closed)

Well, stan means "land of the" so Pakistan literally means "land of the pakis"

Technically you were perfectly correct to use it in that context. Sadly, a few pricks used it in a negative manner so now it's a blanket term used to mean middle eastern by thick people.
(Mong goose, Wed 18 May 2011, 8:21, closed)

Pakistan means Land of the Paks, not Pakis.
In the same way Aghanistan is the land of the Afghans, not the Anfghanis, and Turkmenistan isn't the home of the Turkmenis.
( Dr Preference AjcuiVd289, Wed 18 May 2011, 10:07, closed)

Just like
WOG stands for Westernised Oriental Gentleman.
still wouldn't use it
(andythepieman Is surfing the waves of indifference on, Wed 18 May 2011, 14:39, closed)

next you'll be telling me that BMW doesn't really stand for Black Man's Willy.

( janet aylia y'all motherfuckers need jesus, Wed 18 May 2011, 14:47, closed)

Its a backronym
it comes from G*llyw*g or P*llyw*g.

I'm staggered that people believe this shit.
( WormuIus, Thu 19 May 2011, 8:44, closed)

Oh you shower of utter spastics
It's a good job my nigger mates don't mind me calling them that, they're nowhere near as touchy as those paki cunts.
(bogus official shove it up your cunt, Wed 18 May 2011, 10:06, closed)

You tell 'em Sammi.

( stuj (^(^;;^)^) GO TEAM SPIDERS!(^(^;;^)^), Wed 18 May 2011, 10:10, closed)

Pardon

(bogus official shove it up your cunt, Wed 18 May 2011, 10:13, closed)

That reminds me of when I had a south african client; the first south african I had ever spent any real time with.
He kept on going on about Kaffers, he would say "Look at that kaffer over there" and stuff like that, said it so much that I thought it ment "Bloke", "Guy" or "Friend". We then went to the pub one day and his black south african friend came along and I said "Hello kaffer, what can I get you?" and the table went deadly quiet.
( G/PP 💩💩💩💩💩&#128, Wed 18 May 2011, 10:17, closed)

Nice
(Peno Lives In a Coal Bunker, Wed 18 May 2011, 14:03, closed)

Yeah, but, here's the thing:
It's a racist word here.
You now know that.
You should just apologise instead of trying to justify it.
There's no great freedom of speech issue here.
( Zuowan, Wed 18 May 2011, 13:18, closed)

well said, that man.

( janet aylia y'all motherfuckers need jesus, Wed 18 May 2011, 13:24, closed)

He
didn't say there was a big issue, in fact he said "you live and learn", and went on to say in the comments that he never says it any more. Get a brain moran.
(Hippo_of_Doom, Wed 18 May 2011, 15:05, closed)

are you calling zuowan a moran?
dylan? diana? WHICH IS IT?
( janet aylia y'all motherfuckers need jesus, Wed 18 May 2011, 15:11, closed)

It takes something special to use only four words to call me an idiot and manage to get both the spelling and the punctuation wrong.

( Zuowan, Wed 18 May 2011, 16:05, closed)

Amen, Hippo
I think, depending on who you've replied to.
(posage As I turned the corner I felt muscular and compact, Wed 18 May 2011, 15:13, closed)

In fact, he said
"I told them I was talking about a cricket match on the weekend, rather than some sort of adhoc racial violence, and tried to explain that the word was in common use in australia [...]each time I mentioned the word 'Paki', they gave a cringing look like I'd just flung a turd on the table in front of them"

Which, judging by the implied repeated use of the word when he has already been told it is offensive in this country, suggests that Zuowan is being perfectly reasonable and doesn't deserve to be abused by someone that can't even spell 'moron'.
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Wed 18 May 2011, 15:34, closed)

I don't know, we all deserve a bit of abuse from time to time.

( Zuowan, Wed 18 May 2011, 16:00, closed)

That's true you cunt.
Just not for that you didn't.
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Wed 18 May 2011, 16:05, closed)

I'm not sure he was trying to justify what he said.
Explain it, perhaps. Defend it, even. But neither of those amounts to an attempt at justification.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Wed 18 May 2011, 15:47, closed)

I would posit that explaining + defending = something not dissimilar to "attempting to justify" but we should probably take it to the OED rather than bore people with bickering over semantics.

( Zuowan, Wed 18 May 2011, 16:07, closed)

Everyone should shut the fuck up
be nice and never try to work out where things went wrong?

A plumber accidentally hits a pipe because he wasn't told it was there. He fixes it and finishes the job. The next time a plumber comes along, he hits the same pipe.

Now I know that if an ozzie in my company says "Paki" then they're not necessarily being racist, and I can explain to them why it isn't used here.
( clockworkrat has nice pants, Thu 19 May 2011, 11:44, closed)