promaj

I had an interesting discussion this morning about a phenomenon that I have touched on lightly (so lightly you may have missed it), and for the sake of correctness, we will call the phenomenon ‘promaj’ because that is in fact the correct term for it. The discussion had to be brought to a hasty end because the person I was discussing it with was taking the conversation as a personal slight on their intelligence. Whoops.

Translations of concepts that run so deeply in a culture are often difficult - often, the English words used (or any other language, not to be blaming the English language) just don’t do the concept justice, just don’t go deep or wide enough. Or take into account the ‘ooohh’ factor.
The closest that I can come up with is ‘draft’ … but more deadly.

Not to put a too finer point on it, you are committing a cultural sin to have a draft in your house here. Two windows open and you are playing with the devil. Even in the middle of summer, searingly hot, you are risking your health having a cross-draft blowing through your house. If I am to believe what I am told, the following illnesses could ensue – bells palsy, migraine, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple schlerosis, and the common cold.
The draft thing extends from the house into the car – again, no breezes. Keep those windows shut – or maybe just one at a time (goodness, I’ve been in cars with breezy air con fans… - different thing? Oh, ok..)

You are well-advised not to go outside after a shower without drying your hair – one person told me that you should wait an hour before going outside after washing your hair – because the same sorts of illnesses await you. And don’t even ask how many people have told me that you shouldn’t wash your hair when you have your period, or in the evening just before going to bed. (Just a thought.. is sea water different from shower water in terms of its power to make you sick?)

Definitely no ice-cream eating with bura blowing – you will have a cold justlikethat!

I remember this sort of conversation with my grandmother with comments like ‘wear a longer shirt because you will get a cold in your kidney’. None of which the teenage girls of my generation or this generation ever suffered from, despite ignoring the well-intended advice.

The reason that the conversation started was because I was asking about the number of people here who wear brace-like supports around their waist when they are on a motor bike. I presumed that this was because people had issues with their spines – you know, these braces look like the ones that men wear when they are lifting weights. But I am not in a town of people with bad backs, but a town of people who are protecting their kidneys from a chill. Does the company selling these particular braces really have a morbid concern for the welfare of the collective kidneys, or is it riding on the popularity of the collective belief in promaj?

I mentioned the concept of Critical Thinking the other day. As a nation, dare I say it, New Zealanders are taught to question - and we do. Authority, government - sometimes to our parent's despair and to our detriment. Is this part of that?

Perhaps I need a more scientific approach to this - and so would ask that if anyone living outside Croatia, where they do have cross-breezes in cars and houses, and they don’t wear kidney protectors, (or knows personally anyone who has developed Bells Palsy as a result of having wet hair in the wind), could send me some statistics of the illnesses mentioned above, we could then have a discussion on it. Damn and blast – I may have to leave the top on my car until we have a conclusion on this one!

And in the mean time I am going to go and put a plastic bottle half filled with water on my front garden to stop the dogs from soiling the path….

Looking forward to hearing from you on this one.
(I’m off to Zagreb for a couple of days…)

oh, and I found a new cousin...