‘A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.’ But what if the name was ‘hell’? A boy was rejected a place in a catholic school in Australia because he was named Max Hell. The boy has Austrian roots and ‘hell’ means ‘bright’ in that culture.

The authorities of St Peter the Apostle school only agreed to enrol the boy after talks among the principal, the parish priest and the family. However, the father, Alex Hell, would rather ask the school to sock it and go to hell. The boy faced discrimination even before he entered school. The father feels that they have been victimised because of their name.

Fear of the unknown is still strong among many people and determines our sometimes irrational behaviour. We are superstitious as hell and our fear can make us cruel and ludicrous. People with the surname ‘Coffin’, ‘Sex’, ‘Dick’, ‘Lust’, or will never make it as premiers of their country. But what is Bush doing as president of the USA and Pitt as one of the highest paid film stars in Hollywood?

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