What's in a name?

Last week, the World Health Organization announced it would stop referring to Swine Flu as "Swine Flu." Instead, the WHO is going with the even-catchier "H1N1 influenza A."

Why? To protect the pork industry and pig farmers.

Too late. Consumers already equate the influenza strain with pigs and, in Egypt, 300,000 pigs were killed for absolutely no reason. (I wonder why there are so many pigs in Egypt as Islamic law forbids pork - I think.)

Renaming Swine Flu to its more accurate, technical name will be an exercise in rebranding that the WHO certainly will not want to get into. Perhaps the pork industry will.

But one thing's for sure: simply changing its name will about as effective as (ahem) putting lipstick on a pig.

Dear Kind Friend. If you deposit $10,000 into my account in Nigeria...

My friend Aparna, a graphic designer, forwarded to me this wonderful Reuters piece about Nigeria rebranding itself.

The country, known for its emails and various other forms of online scammery, is hoping to shed its seamy image with some t-shirts and caps with the power to restore self-confidence.

I wonder if a US-based firm is helping and, if so, they were required to deposit some money into a third-party bank account, secure in the knowledge that a huge payday awaits.