Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez this month will launch a $15 mobile phone complete with a camera, WAP internet access, an FM radio and MP3 and MP4 players. Perhaps the world's cheapest cell phone, access to it will help further Chavez's socialist agenda. He debuted the phone on his television show yesterday, and even called Mama Chavez from it to wish her a happy Mother's Day. But there's just one problem with it: its name. In fact, Chavez himself can't even mention the phone without smirking.
The phone is called the Vergatorio, which is derived from a slang word for "penis."
Why the president chose it remains unclear, but he enunciates each syllable with a grin. Some laugh, others are affronted.
Verga is slang for penis and vergatario is a newly minted word which signifies excellent but retains connotations from its root.
The word verga, and variations of it, are associated with Venezuela's second city, Maracaibo. Residents are famous for swearing and using Spanish verbal constructions uncommon in the rest of Venezuela.
"It's gross. I can't believe they named it something so vulgar," said Leonor Diaz, 52, a cleaner.
Whatever, this is coming from the man who pretty much called George W. Bush a pube.
"This telephone will be the biggest seller not only in Venezuela but the world," he said. "Whoever doesn't have a Vergatario is nothing," he joked.
We can't wait until the kids start sexting on this thing.
[Guardian: Chavez launches $15 mobile phone with a name to make his mother blush]
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