Goldsnow,
I live in Belgium, a country where tit-for-tat language-squabbles are even worse than in Canada.... Both French-speaking Qu‚becois and Dutch-speaking Flemings consider their respective languages as the epitomes of their cultural legacies. Hence they view all other languages as potential threats to their very existence as a unique, endangered cultural species! Add to it the political and financial grievances that have plagued these countries for so many years (in Belgium, political pundits routinely refer to "North-South transfers", ie billions of $ syphoned off from prosperous Flanders by no-good Wallonia.....) and you get the current Cultural Cold War that increasingly pervades many countries around the world. I guess it's part of the backlash against globalization (remember how it climaxed in Seattle a few days ago).
Ironically, some countries who vehemently oppose the Anglo-American hegemony in culture are themselves threatened by their own devolutive parochialisms: France's Bretons, Corses, and Basques wanted to change the French Constitution which stipulates that French is the language of the Republic.... and militate in favor of the schoolteaching of their respective patois. But here, the very same linguistic jingoists who got roused by the Anglo-saxon intrusion on the French way of life, turned "global" on a national scale in sweating their diverse linguistic minorities into using French --exclusively. Those Kultur-thumping pundits are, indeed, well aware of the critical role national languages have played in moulding and in fostering the cast of mind of their fellow citizens (remember Ivan Ilich's comments on the invention of Castilian, Spain's official language). So long as a unified lingo is restricted to the national framework, it's fine with the interest of Europe's diverse and conflicting bourgeoisies --since it allows them to stir up enough chauvinism among their respective plebs when required.... But as soon as some new, international officialese starts permeating their social fabrics --such as today's English-- then all alarm bells get lit since a common, universal lingo will inescapably shape a new "global-minded" citizen, less likely to fall prey to the parochial finagling of its ruling elite.
Gus. |
