The 'Killer'

'Add a killer slide' 

Confusing words indeed to receive in a work email, that had no bearing on an invitation to go tubing in Laos. Nor did it have any bearing on the work that I do. Working for a humanitarian agency, words like 'killer' are not uncommon. they can refer to fistula, postpartum hemorrhage and a variety of other reproductive complications that produce the high maternal and infant mortality rates we see across the developing world.

Growing up in a conflict prone zone, where people did kill each other on a regular basis also makes you a bit wary of using the word too easily, especially in formal contexts. But this context was asking me to 'kill' by powerpoint (as opposed to causing death by powerpoint) by producing a slide of such high impact that it would render the audience dead; presumably. Or rather that they would support my ideas without reservation.

Corporate language is able to adapt and thrive in offices, hotels and conference centres far from those that might be suffering from the literal meaning of the words used. Examples of this I am sure are many, though of course they are never meant to be taken seriously.


The purpose of raising it here is to rail against myself as well as others. I should get out more and see how the world really is without the benefit of my invisible knapsack. And for the commercially corporate there is by and large no incentive to look at things outside of your job description and this gap produces the sheltered life and the insular language that allows the pretence that the horrors of the world aren't happening.


They are.