David Jardine
Southeast Asia-based writer.

THE excellent US website run by Wayne Grytting, American Newspeak, recently had this to say: “an estimated 10 percent of an ave-rage 2-year-old’s vocabulary is made up of brand names…” We can naturally assume that he is talking of American children but it could equally apply in many other countries, not least Indonesia.

Why should or can I say that?

I recently on two occasions let half an hou