7th official language of U.N.

The best thing of this all is that Anglo-Saxons don't have this bossy mentality. I think it's that that has contributed greatly to the spread of the English language. There little to no superiority complex, yes there is British chauvinism, but that's not a linguistic chauvinism like we see with French and Spaniards.
Anyway, I still promote polyglottery of course, even among anglophones themselves, it's good for the educational value.

I believe that linguistics and science are complementary and both important for the development. It shouldn't be a taboo in countries of bigger languages, more compulsory.

German must be official language of U.N.

<<yes there is British chauvinism, but that's not a linguistic chauvinism>>

So, expecting that the rest of the world speaks English and adressing people in English , no matter if he is an old Frenchman in rural France , is not linguistic chauvinism?Because that's what the English speakers do when they visit other countries.

"Swahili should be added and promoted.
Here in Mozambique there are few people who use Swahili as their 1st language (including Mozambican dialects of Swahili: Kimwani
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimwani
or Makwe), but most people from Central and Northern Mozambique understend Swahili or speak it as their 2nd language, even more than Portuguese (that is restricted to southern Mozambique around Maputo)..."

I have no clear vision on African languages, but it sounds a swell idea.

"The spread of English across the globe is a seismic event in our species’ history. French is dying outside France. “Francophone” Africa is turning to English.

All people know that. All Fanatic French Fans really know that French is in dramatic decline.

"Portuguese Africa is abandoning Portuguese. German made a small, temporary advance across emergent Eastern Europe but elsewhere outside Germany it is dead. Russian, which we once thought we would all have to learn, is finished. The Japanese are learning English, and developing their own pet variant."

Yes. I agree.

"China will resist, but Mandarin and Cantonese are not advancing beyond their native speakers. More of the world’s new Muslims are learning English than Arabic. Spanish alone is raising its status and reach — but among Americans, who have English already"

Times Online, January 15, 2005

Well, it is obvious that Mandarin Chinese, Spanish and Arabic will resist better to the spread of English in their influence area.

PD. If Times and all experts in languages say the same, it is obvious that they are right.

Portuguese Africa is not abandoning Portuguese. In fact, if Angola continues at the rate it's going, it will be the richest country in Africa. Trade between Angola and Brazil, Portugal and China increases everyday because of this. I don't remember where I read this, but I read somewhere that Portuguese and Spanish are the languages that are going to grow the most in population.

They should actually remove Spanish from the list, it's of no significant importance outside Castilia, Spain and Antoquia, Colombia anymore. Also in ex-spanish colonies Spanish is declining fast in favour of English, Portuguese, French, Italian, Guarani, Quechua, Aymara, Quiche, Nahuatla, Garifunia, and other Amerindian languages.

My 2 cents.

<< The problem of another candidates is English.

You can read this article:

"The spread of English across the globe is a seismic event in our species’ history. French is dying outside France. “Francophone” Africa is turning to English. Portuguese Africa is abandoning Portuguese. German made a small, temporary advance across emergent Eastern Europe but elsewhere outside Germany it is dead. Russian, which we once thought we would all have to learn, is finished. The Japanese are learning English, and developing their own pet variant.

China will resist, but Mandarin and Cantonese are not advancing beyond their native speakers. More of the world’s new Muslims are learning English than Arabic. Spanish alone is raising its status and reach — but among Americans, who have English already"

Times Online, January 15, 2005 >>

The English-language press and the "Anglophone problem" in Cameroon: Group identity, culture, and the politics of Nostalgia

This paper traces the role of the Cameroonian English-language press in creating awareness of the "Anglophone problem," and putting it on the Cameroonian and international political agenda. The analysis is carried out within the framework of the problematic situations perspective which holds that when newspapers report events, they always present the issues in terms of problems that need to be solved in order to maintain individual, political and social equilibrium and harmony. English language newspapers and radio programs made use of identity and nostalgia to present an unenviable picture of the Anglophone minority in Cameroon. The newspapers concluded that Anglo-phones were a marginalized minority whose problems could only be solved by political autonomy and less control from the French-style over-centralized bureaucracy in Yaounde.

INTRODUCTION

One of the greatest challenges of modern nation states is protection of the political rights, cultures and economic interests of minority groups within their borders. The problems of minority groups are usually aggravated in uncertain or fluid political and cultural situations in which these groups consider themselves the victims of the majority. In order to cope with their perceived unfavorable predicament, minority groups develop coping mechanisms. The first is to nurture a high sense of group identity. The next stage is to feed, as it were, this identity through the use of nostalgia; a wistful longing for lost opportunities or a desire to return to a specific political circumstance, a junction in the road where the wrong turn that led to the present untenable situation was taken by the group or others. Sometimes, this desire to reset the political clock as it were, becomes the overwhelming objective of the elite and opinion leaders of these minority groups.

The above scenario describes the situation of the English-speaking or Anglophone minority in Cameroon. The community has, through its representatives, elites and newspapers, given an indication that it considers itself a marginalized minority of second-class citizens in the country of Cameroon. Indeed, some of the more radical Anglophone political activists consider Southern Cameroons, the English-speaking region of Cameroon, to have been recolonized by the French-speaking Republique du Cameroun (Republic of Cameroon). The newspapers controlled by, or available to the minority Anglo-phone community, tend to be advocates of the interests of that community, and serve as platforms on which the political frustrations, grievances, aspirations and demands of the group are expressed. As advocates, these newspapers practically set the political agenda for their community.

The Cameroon government has always sought to control or silence these political protests, which it has viewed as voices of discontent and disgruntlement, through heavy-handed censorship and tight control of information flow and exchange. Whenever this was done, journalists from the English-language press resorted to the use of code words, double entendre and even rumor to communicate the political sentiments of the aggrieved Anglophones. As these newspapers feature the Anglophone problem prominently, members of the community and the rest of the country have come to see the problem as an important issue that must be dealt with.

The aim of this paper is to trace the role of the Cameroonian English language press in creating awareness of the "Anglophone problem," -an assemblage of issues that have political, economic, cultural and social aspectsand putting it on the Cameroonian and international political agenda during the reign of current Cameroon president, Paul Biya. The Anglophone problem will be analyzed within the framework of the problematic situations perspective. The research was guided by the following question: How has the English-language (Anglophone) press framed or presented the Anglophone problem in Cameroon during the Biya era?

THE ANGLOPHONE PROBLEM IN CAMEROON

What has come to be known as the "Anglophone" problem is an assemblage of political, cultural, economic and social grievances expressed by the English-speaking minority in the predominantly French-speaking Republic of Cameroon (formerly called the United Republic of Cameroon). The question touches on the distribution of political and economic power, the institutional structures of the society, the educational system, and the relationship between the government and the governed. These grievances are expressed in terms of discrimination, second-class citizenship and "marginalization." In the 40 years since the reunification of English-speaking Southern Cameroons and French-speaking Republique du Cameroun, the resulting over-centralized government, run mostly by the French-speaking majority, and operating under what is essentially an Africanized version of the Napoleonic code, has attempted to eliminate the British-inspired educational, legal, agricultural, and administrative institutions which the Anglophones brought to the union. This has been accompanied by a concerted attempt to assimilate the English-speakers into the French-dominated system. Indeed, just months after the reunification of the English and French-speaking parts of Cameroon, the French government sponsored a massive "French by Radio" program in the English-speaking region of Cameroon. Using prepackaged interactive French lessons broadcast from a newly equipped AM and Shortwave broadcast station, Radio Buea, a large number of French and Francophone educators and language teachers were deployed to teach spoken and written French (in that order) in the major primary schools of the English-speaking region. At the same time, three Bilingual Grammar Schools, whose officials and teachers were mostly French-speaking Cameroonians or French citizens, were created in Buea, Mamfe and Yaounde to train young people to function in the over-centralized bureaucracy in Yaounde. To this day, when speaking of English-speaking Cameroonians, many French-speaking Cameroonians use the word "Anglo" as an epithet to mean "uncouth," "backward," "uncivilized," "inconsequential," and so on.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3821/is_200304/ai_n9173452/

<<yes there is British chauvinism, but that's not a linguistic chauvinism>>

<< So, expecting that the rest of the world speaks English and adressing people in English , no matter if he is an old Frenchman in rural France , is not linguistic chauvinism?Because that's what the English speakers do when they visit other countries. >>

And that includes Spanish too because Spanish is facing multiple problems:

1. Disintegration that would result in Neo-Spanishes
2. Threats from Amerindian languages like Guarani, Quechua, Aymara, Quiche, Nahuatl, etc.
3. Threats from English, Portuguese, Italian(Argentina), French.
4. Threats from Catalan, Galician, Basque, Asturian, Aragonese, and Leonese.

Yes, Spanish has a very big problem but the main one is its the danger of disintegration that would result in multiple Spanishes just like its mom Latin. Hispanics are indeed the modern day LATINoS.

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

<< The problem of another candidates is English.

You can read this article:

"The spread of English across the globe is a seismic event in our species’ history. French is dying outside France. “Francophone” Africa is turning to English. Portuguese Africa is abandoning Portuguese. German made a small, temporary advance across emergent Eastern Europe but elsewhere outside Germany it is dead. Russian, which we once thought we would all have to learn, is finished. The Japanese are learning English, and developing their own pet variant.

China will resist, but Mandarin and Cantonese are not advancing beyond their native speakers. More of the world’s new Muslims are learning English than Arabic. Spanish alone is raising its status and reach — but among Americans, who have English already"

Times Online, January 15, 2005 >>

Comparison with other world languages

Of course, when you look at the increase in use of English across the planet and the growing influence of Chinese, it’s easy to jump to the conclusion that French will lose out and gradually disappear. And a lot of people are jumping to that conclusion.

All I can say is that it’s hard for anyone to predict.

WE TOOK A CLOSE LOOK AT THE PICTURE IN SENEGAL, A FORMER FRENCH COLONY CONSIDERED THE CULTURAL CAPITAL OF WEST AFRICA. AT THE TIME, GEORGE W. BUSH WAS SORT OF COURTING SENEGALESE PRESIDENT WADE TO TRY TO BOOST US INFLUENCE IN A PART OF THE WORLD WHERE IT DOESN’T HAVE MUCH CLOUT. THE OBVIOUS WAY TO DO THAT IS TO PUSH ENGLISH. BUT MOST PEOPLE WE TALKED TO THOUGHT THE PLAN WAS PRETTY FUTILE. AS ONE UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR EXPLAINED, SINCE FRENCH IS THE LANGUAGE OF SENEGAL’S EDUCATION SYSTEM, SENEGALESE CAN ONLY LEARN ENGLISH IF THEY ALREADY SPEAK FRENCH.

As I learned at a recent language conference, the number of native English speakers is increasing only as fast as the number of native French speakers – and that’s not too fast. The real powerhouse languages today are Chinese and Arabic.

Rwanda Ditches French

In the corridors of the Francophonie Summit last weekend in Quebec City, there was surprisingly little discussion of Rwandan President Paul Kagame’s decision to ban French from the central African country’s education system. Most of the journalists I met there were talking either about French President Nicholas Sarkozy’s declaration of non-support of Quebec’s separation movement, or the fact that they weren’t getting any information about what was happening in the closed - door discussions of the Summit.

Getting information really was a problem - not to mention getting around. There were some 3000 police officers on the site; security was intense and traffic was constantly blocked by motorcades as the dozens of heads of states moved about the city.

Inside the press center at the Hilton, brief announcements came out occasionally, and heads of state and other important figures came into the media center to give interviews, but no one really knew what was being discussed, or who said what about a particular issue. It was strange to see 700 or 800 hundred journalists there just waiting around for news that rarely came. Which tended to confirm the reputation the Francophonie has of not communicating its goals very well.

Anyway…Like Sarkozy’s slap in the face to Quebec’s separatist movement, Rwanda’s slap in the face to French was significant because of it’s timing, not so much because it had much to do with the essence of the Francophonie Summit.

And Rwanda’s decision was not so much a slap in the face to French, as it was to the French. And not without reason, given suspicion about France’s role in fomenting the Rwandan genocide.

THE THING IS, THERE’S A BIG DIFFERENCE IN SAYING YOU WILL BAN FRENCH AS A LANGUAGE OF EDUCATION, AND ACTUALLY REVAMPING AN ENTIRE EDUCATION SYSTEM — WHICH IS WHAT KAGAME’S DECLARATION AMOUNTS TO. IN OTHER WORDS, IT’S NOT VERY LIKELY TO WORK. LIKE MOST (BUT NOT ALL) FORMER FRENCH AND BELGIAN COLONIES, RWANDA HELD ON TO FRENCH AS THE LANGUAGE OF ITS SCHOOL SYSTEM BECAUSE IT COULDN’T REALLY AFFORD TO CREATE ANOTHER EDUCATION SYSTEM WITH A NEW LANGUAGE, WHICH WOULD MEAN TRAINING NEW TEACHERS FROM SCRATCH. FRENCH IS THE LANGUAGE OF SOCIAL PROMOTION IN RWANDA, LIKE IT IS IN SENEGAL. THE ELITE SPEAKS FRENCH. AND THOSE WHO WANT TO JOIN THE ELITE BY GETTING AN EDUCATION, LEARN FRENCH.

NOT ONLY WILL KAGAME HAVE TO OVERCOME THE RESISTANCE OF THE ELITE OF HIS OWN COUNTRY. HE WILL HAVE TO CHANGE A MENTALITY THAT’S BEEN IN PLACE SINCE RWANDA BECAME A BELGIAN COLONY ALMOST A CENTURY AGO, IN 1925 (IT WAS A GERMAN COLONY STARTING IN 1899): THAT FRENCH IS THE WAY TO A BETTER LIFE. WHAT WE SAW RESEARCHING STORY OF FRENCH IN SENEGAL — WHICH GEORGE BUSH WAS COURTING AT THE TIME TO TRY TO GET A FOOT IN WEST AFRICA — WAS THAT WHILE LEARNING ENGLISH SOUNDED GOOD TO EVERYONE, IN A COUNTRY WHERE THE ELITE SPOKE FRENCH, THE ADVANTAGES OF SPEAKING ENGLISH WERE PRETTY REMOTE.

Algeria tried very hard to get rid of French as its language of instruction and government and ended up provoking a civil war that cost the lives of some 200,000 Algerians. You’ve got to wonder what kind of price Rwandans are going to pay to send a message to France. If Kagame sticks it out, the price will probably be huge.

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/the-twelve-most-useful-second-languages-for-english-speakers.html

LANGUAGE POLICY IN HISPANIC AMERICA

LANGUAGE POLICY IN SPANISH-SPEAKING LATIN AMERICA DEALS WITH CHALLENGES TO THE STATUS OF SPANISH AS THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE, A STATUS INHERITED FROM THE COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION OF THE NEW WORLD. THESE CHALLENGES COME FROM SEVERAL SOURCES: THE ASSERTION OF THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS GROUPS, THE ‘DANGER’ OF FRAGMENTATION OF SPANISH INTO A MULTITUDE OF LOCAL DIALECTS, THE GROWING PRESTIGE OF ENGLISH AND INFLUENCE OF THE UNITED STATES, AND ALONG THE SOUTHERN BORDER OF BRAZIL, CONTACT WITH PORTUGUESE.

In the initial phase of colonization, the Catholic Monarchs and later Charles V required all of their new subjects to learn Spanish, just as their predecessors had imposed the learning of Castilian on the conquered Arab territories in order to bind them more closely together in the nation governed by Castile. However, it soon became clear that the linguistic diversity of the New World was too great to allow for the immediate implantation of Spanish, and some allowance had to be made for the usage of indigenous languages in teaching and evangelization. In 1570 Phillip II reluctantly authorized a policy of bilingualism in which instruction could be imparted in ‘the’ language of each Viceroyalty: Nahautl and in New Spain and Quechua in Peru, with the consequent extension of these two languages into territories where they were not spoken natively. Even this measure was not enough, however, and in 1596 Phillip II recognized the existent multilingualism: Spanish for administration and access to the elite, and a local indigenous language for evangelization and daily communication in indigenous communities. This policy lead to a separation of colonial society into a minority of Spanish/creole Spanish-speakers governing an indigenous majority speaking one of many indigenous languages. The separation became so great that it all but halted the Hispanization of rural areas and created local indigenous elites with considerable autonomy from the central adminstration. A reassertion of central authority commenced in 1770 when Carlos III declared Spanish to be the only language of the Empire and ordered the administrative, judicial and ecclesiastic authorities to extinguish all others. After Independence, the new nations and their successors maintained the offical status of Spanish as a means of strengthening national unity and pursuing modernization through education. This tendency was reinforced at the turn of the century through the 1940’s with notions of Social Darwinism, in which the vigorous hybrid groups of Latin America would eventually overcome the ‘weaker’ indigenous groups. It is only since World War II that this policy has suffered any substantial change.

Several processes converged in the post-War period to shake the linguistic status quo. One is the growth of industrialization, which requires an educated workforce and thus lends urgency to effective education. Another is agrarian reform, which raises the social status of the farmer while increasing his need for vocational training. These two processes create a growing pressure to learn the language of technology and mechanization, Spanish. As a counterpoint to this pressure, there was an understanding among policy makers of the failure of the pre-War incorporationist policies to acheive their goal of Hispanization. The confluence of these tendencies was a shift towards the usage of indigenous languages in primary schools to ease the transition to Spanish. Moreover, the dynamic of questioning the entire model of development grew, a dynamic that was reinforced by the emergence of indigenous activists educated in the new national schools. These contradictions came to a head during the labor and peasant movements of the 1950’s and 60’s, where calls for the preservation of indigenous languages served as a vehicle for the preservation of entire indigenous societies. The subsequent official response to these movements had diverse outcomes throughout Latin America. In Mexico, the new indigenous consciousness continued to grow unabated, as it did among the Bolivian Aymara and Ecuadorian Quechua, and to a lesser extent among the other Quechua speakers of Bolivia and Peru. Elsewhere, many organizations were driven into marginality or outright armed resistence, with the paradoxical result that often the only officially-tolerated supporters of indigenous languages were foreigners: scholars pursuing linguistic or anthropological fieldwork, linguists trained by the Summer Institute of Linguistics for the translation and dissemination of Christian texts, or members of other non-governmental organizations engaged in aid or relief work.

Only recently have indigenous defensors of indigenous languages found any standing on the national stage. This new tolerance has been said to reflect the neo-liberal reforms required as conditions for loans from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund since the early 1990’s, with the threat of Communist takeover having receeded. There are now a multitude of protective measures that go from bilingual primary education (Honduras), to constitutional protection (Columbia), to the establishment of indigenous languages as co-official with Spanish (Guatemala).

With respect to the status of Spanish among native speakers, Independence lead to the creation of national educational institutions and a desire to reform Spanish orthography so as to facilitate its learning by American speakers, as well as to foster a literary tradition independent of Spain. Such reforms come to little in the face of the turbulence created by Independence, but a second round of standardization began as part of the modernization process initiated around 1870. Increasing immigration to Latin America and the strengthening of trends towards democratization lead to the fear among the intellectual elite that the linguistic unity of Latin America would collapse into a cacophomy of local variants, much as the Latin of the Roman Empire fragmented into the variety of Romance languages.

THE FINAL THREAT TO THE OFFICIAL STATUS OF SPANISH IS THE GROWING CONTACT WITH OTHER EUROPEAN LANGUAGES: WITH ENGLISH THROUGHOUT LATIN AMERICA, AND WITH PORTUGUESE ALONG THE SOUTHERN BORDER OF BRAZIL. CONTACT WITH ENGLISH ARISES THROUGH MIGRATION TO THE UNITED STATES FOR ECONOMIC OR POLITICAL REASONS OR SOJOURNS FOR BUSINESS OR EDUCATION. THIS CONTACT IS PARTICULARILY ACUTE IN THE CASE OF PUERTO RICO, WHERE ITS ADMINSTRATIVE DEPENDENCY ON THE UNITED STATES HAS LED TO AN EXTENSIVE DIFFUSION OF ENGLISH, AS WELL AS THE THREATENED IMPOSITION OF ENGLISH AS THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE SHOULD PUERTO RICO EVER GAIN STATEHOOD. THIS THREAT HAS SPARKED INTELLECTUAL DEBATES THAT ECHO THE SPANISH-VS.-INDIGENOUS-LANGUAGE DEBATES HEARD ON THE MAINLAND: LANGUAGE IS AN EXPRESSION OF IDENTITY, PERHAPS THE FUNDMENTAL EXPRESSION OF IDENTITY, AND IT SHOULD NOT BE GIVEN UP LIGHTLY.

Selected references
Angel Rama (1996) The Lettered City. Duke University Press.
[spelling reform after independence, p. 43ff; foundation of Spanish American Academies, Cuervo, Caro & Bello p. 59ff]
Julio Ramos (1989) Desenceuntros de la modernidad en América Latina. Literatura y política en el siglo XIX. Tierra Firme, México.
[Ch. II sobre Bello]
Julio Ramos (1996) Paradojas de la letra. Ediciones eXcultura, Caracas, Miami, Quito.
[Ch. 1 sobre Bello]

http://www.tulane.edu/~howard/Pubs/LALangPol.html

The "SPANISH" LANGUAGE: Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries

Films for the Humanities and Sciences, based in Princeton, New Jersey, performs an invaluable service in providing us with a vast array of informative films, useful in teaching and fascinating as documentaries. It has issued a six-part series, "Biography of the Spanish Language." It is not aimed at specialists, who might argue with many of the statements, but at the broad public; indeed, it began as a series of programs for Mexican television and possibly schools. To attract a wide public it uses the tricks of the trade: noisy background music, lighting effects, and slapstick humor. The problem is that these effects tend to drown out the speech, the subject of the series.

It treats language as the expression of a culture and its history, with literature, especially poetry, as its elevated form as opposed to the vernacular. It views Spanish from a Mexican perspective, which is understandable, since Mexico has more inhabitants than any other country. However, it mentions only briefly other Latin American forms of Spanish, with not a word about Catalan or Portuguese. The first film deals with the history of Spanish down to its introduction in the Americas. The conquistadores appear as a violent, rather stupid lot, while Indian life is romanticized. There are pictures of beautiful colonial cities, but no credit is given to the Spanish civil authorities who planned them. The Inquisition is condemned, while the missionaries,are praised. The Jesuits are lauded for having promoted the cause of independence in the colonial period. are there any books on that subject?

THE SECTION ON MODERN COLLOQUIAL SPANISH, ESPECIALLY THAT SPOKEN ON TELEVISION, IS DISCOURAGING. IT IS OFTEN DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND, EVEN FOR PEOPLE FROM OTHER SPANISH-SPEAKING COUNTRIES. THE FILM MAKES LIGHT OF THIS, BUT IT IS A PATHETIC DECLINE FROM THE BEAUTIFUL SPANISH PROMOTED BY THE SPANISH ACADEMY. EVEN SOME LATIN AMERICAN STUDENTS AT STANFORD USE A SLANG UNKNOWN TO ME AND OFTEN TO OTHER LATIN AMERICANS. SOME WAISERS DEFEND THE VARIANTS AS THE EXPRESSION OF A PEOPLE, BUT THEY SEEM TO HAVE A ROMANTIC LONGING FOR THE GOOD OLD TIMES WHEN THE INHABITANTS OF ONE VALLEY COULD NOT UNDERSTAND THOSE OF THE NEXT. JOHN WONDER COMPLAINS ABOUT THIS, AND ABOUT THE MACHINE-GUN LIKE SPEECH OF YOUNG PEOPLE. INDEED, IN THE BOGOTA I FIRST KNEW, THE "ATHENS OF AMERICA," THE INTELLECTUAL ELITE SPOKE A VERY BEAUTIFUL SPANISH. NOW SCOLA REBROADCASTS NEWS PROGRAMS FROM CALI. THE YOUNG WOMEN ANNOUNCERS ON THE PROGRAM RATTLE OFF SPANISH IS HIGH-PITCHED VOICES WITHOUT THE INTONATION INDICATING COMPREHENSION. THE DECLINE OF SPANISH IN COLOMBIA IS A TRAGEDY, ADMITTEDLY INSIGNIFICANT IN COMPARISON WITH THE MAJOR TRAGEDY OF LIFE THERE.

The influence of politics on language may be baneful in many parts of the Spanish-speaking world. In 1932 I went to Barcelona to study Catalan with Pompeu Fabra, revered as the father of contemporary Catalan studies; a university is named after him. The atmosphere was very pleasant. Then came the Civil War and Franco, who suppressed Catalan autonomy and the Catalan language. The backlash has been distressing. I am probably the only surviving pupil of Pompeu Fabra, and I thought that would earn general respect. Nevertheless, a young Catalan has accused me of insulting his language, while others have charged that I am a victim of Spanish propaganda. This mentality is counterproductive, endangering Barcelona's leading place as a publisher of books in Spanish. One WAISer tells me she has an American friend who speaks very good Spanish and is married to a Barcelona businessman. They live in New York, but he does not want his children to learn Spanish. Does he realize that he is closing the door to opportunities which would open to them in the vast Spanish-speaking world?

Ronald Hilton - 4/15/01

http://www.stanford.edu/group/wais/Language/language_mexandothers41501.html

Indian Languages and effects on radio broadcasting

LANGUAGE AND RADIO IN PERU AND BOLIVIA

To put the Guatemalan sociolinguistic situation and its manifestation in radio broadcasting in perspective, I feel it is useful to briefly examine Peru and Bolivia, two other Latin American countries with large Indian populations. Peru has about three-and-a-half million Quechua speakers out of a total population of seventeen million. In addition there are about half-a-million Aymara speakers. Although their numbers are small, compared to the total population, the Indians are concentrated in five southern mountain departments, where they make up as much as ninety percent of the population. Over half of Bolivia's 5.2 million population are Indians, about equally divided between Quechuas and Aymaras. As in Guatemala, the Indians of Peru and Bolivia were subdued by the Spanish and then relegated to the roles of peasants at the bottom end of society.

However, there is a major difference between Guatemala, on the one hand, and Peru and Bolivia on the other hand. Both of the latter countries have had governments which have taken a positive approach to bilingual education and language planning. The Indians and peasants of Bolivia began receiving a more active role in the government since that country's 1952 revolution. In Peru, serious attention was given to the peasants after a leftwing military coup in 1969. Although other governments have come and gone in the interim in both cases, what was started could not be stopped.

Bilingual education has been at the forefront of both countries' policies. In recent years "there has been a tradition of positive government policy towards bilingual education programmes in Andean Latin America" (Minaya-Rowe,1986, 468), and moreover, the aim of these programs "as officially stated, is not to produce a nation of monolingual Spanish speakers, but rather one of bilingual Spanish-Quechua speakers" (Minaya- Rowe, 1986, 475). Bolivia's education system uses "a bilingual approach which will educate its adult population, allowing them to retain their own
languages and cultures, while at the same time providing the opportunity to learn Spanish (Stark, 1985, p541). Peru designed its bilingual education program "to draw the indigenous groups into the Peruvian mainstream efficiently and with respect shown to their language and culture" (Hornberger, 1987, 206).

Both countries have even gone a step further. IN 1975, QUECHUA WAS MADE AN OFFICIAL LANGUAGE OF PERU (ESCOBAR 1981, HORNBERGER 1987), WHICH EVEN INCLUDED THE TEACHING OF QUECHUA TO SPANISH SPEAKERS. SIMILARLY, BOTH QUECHUA AND AYMARA WERE MADE OFFICIAL LANGUAGES, COEQUAL TO SPANISH, IN BOLIVIA (MINAYA-ROWE, 1986). ONE OF THE MANIFESTATIONS OF GIVING OFFICIAL STATUS WAS "THE USE OF BOTH QUECHUA OR AYMARA AND SPANISH ON (THE) RADIO" (MINAYA-ROWE, 1986).There are, in fact, some great differances between these countries and Guatemala in regards to the use of Indian languages in radio broadcasting.

Both countries, like Guatemala, have Catholic and Protestant stations that use Indian languages (Ballon, 1987; Fontenelle, 1985; Gavilan, 1983; Moore, 1985; Oros, 1987; Perry, 1982; Povrzenic, 1987b, 1987c). But what about privately owned commercial stations? In the Andean highlands of southern and central Peru, there are at least several commercial stations known to broadcast in Quechua and/or Aymara, in addition to Spanish (Hirahara & Inoue, 1984a, 1984b; Llorens and Tamayo, 1987; Povrzenic, 1987a, 1987b). These include at least one member of the Cadena de Emisoras Cruz, one of Peru's largest radio networks (Hirahara & Inoue, 1984a). In addition, Peru's most powerful commercial radio broadcaster, Radio Union in Lima, has an hour long program in Quechua every morning (Hirahara, 1981; Montoya, 1987). Likewise, in Bolivia commercial broadcasters are known to broadcast in indigenous languages (Gwyn, 1983; La Defensa, 1986; Povrzenic, 1983).

What is most significant, though, is that in both cases the official government stations have added Indian language broadcasts. Peru's Radio Nacional broadcasts in both Quechua and Aymara (Povrzenic, 1987a), as does Bolivia's Radio Illimani (Moore, 1985). IN FACT, THE PERUVIAN GOVERNMENT WENT A STEP FURTHER IN 1988 WHEN THEY RENAMED RADIO NACIONAL WITH THE QUECHUA NAME RADIO PACHICUTEC (KLEMETZ, 1989).

In summary, the sociolinguistic situation in Peru and Bolivia is markedly different from that in Guatemala, although all three share Spanish as a dominant language over various native languages. The difference, though is that in Peru and Bolivia, efforts have been made not only to preserve, but to give status to the native languages. Furthermore, the status of native languages in the two countries is reflected in their use by all levels of radio broadcasting in each country; private, religious, and governmental.

http://aymara.org/listarchives/archivo2001/msg00322.html

Le jour où le Rwanda est devenu un pays uniquement anglophone.

En plus du kinyarwanda, sa langue maternelle, mon grand-père me disait qu'il parlait couramment le français, l'allemand, l'anglais, le kiswahili et bien entendu le latin. Sa fonction de sous-chef l'avait, selon lui, amené à étudier toutes ces langues. Face à l'incrédulité de mes copines de l'école primaire, je les emmenais devant mon grand-père, qui en rechignant un peu pour la forme, s'exécutait et faisait une démonstration de son talent polyglotte. Elles repartaient ébahies, et moi j'étais très fière. Quelques années plus tard, je me rendis compte que mon espiègle grand-père parlait et écrivait magnifiquement bien le kinyarwanda cette langue métaphorique et complexe dont il m'aida à acquérir toutes les nuances, par contre, pour le français, l'anglais et le kiswahili, j'ai trouvé plus sage de m'en remettre à mes professeurs !

A leur arrivée au Rwanda, les allemands n'ont pas imposé l'allemand. Ils ont utilisé comme langue de communication, le kiswahili, la langue de Zanzibar, beaucoup plus accessible que le kinyarwanda. Plusieurs interprètes rwandais ont été formés à cet effet, et le Mwami Musinga apprit cette langue qui a quelques similitudes avec le kinyarwanda. Après la première guerre mondiale, la langue française a été introduite par le nouveau colonisateur, la Belgique. Les Pères Blancs qui étaient déjà au Rwanda depuis une quinzaine d'années, étaient en majorité francophones, ils se sont chargés de l'enseignement du français. C'est ainsi que le Rwanda est entré dans le monde francophone, celui qui a «le français en partage». Mais la francophonie, c'est plus que cela. La francophonie, pour certains pays, c'est un combat, un combat contre l'anglophonie dominante. Du combat à la guerre, il n'y a qu'un pas, un pas qu'ont franchi les politiciens français des années 1990 qui ont vu dans l'attaque du FPR contre le régime d'Habyarimana, une guerre de combattants anglophones venus d'Ouganda contre un pays membre du pré-carré francophone de la France, ce qui a légitimé à leurs yeux un soutien inconditionnel au dictateur Habyarimana.

Après le génocide des Tutsi, et l'arrivée de rwandais anglophones, le Rwanda a essayé de rester consensuel et d'enseigner aussi bien en français qu'en anglais. Des classes d'études de mise à niveau pour les francophones et les anglophones ont vu le jour dans toutes les universités. Aujourd'hui on constate que cette politique du bilinguisme universitaire n'a pas tenu toutes ses promesses. Beaucoup trop d'étudiants qui sortent de l'université ne maîtrisent parfaitement aucune des deux langues. Communiquer c'est la base de l'enseignement, nos enfants ont la chance de vivre dans un pays capable de dispenser un enseignement dans deux langues parmi les plus importantes du monde, le français et l'anglais, il faut faire fructifier cette richesse, et donner plus de moyens à ce projet ambitieux.

Mais au contraire, la ministre de l'éducation nationale, Mme Daphrose Gahakwa vient de déclarer que «l'enseignement secondaire et universitaire sera désormais dispensé exclusivement en anglais au Rwanda» parce que «c'est l'une des démarches qui permettront au Rwanda d'adhérer prochainement à l'organisation du Commonwealth»(source AFP).

C'est énorme ! La majorité des enseignants rwandais sont francophones et incapables d'enseigner en anglais («sessions de cours d'anglais obligatoires» ou pas) et seulement 1,8% des Rwandais parlent aujourd'hui l'anglais, «la langue française quoique peu parlée également est tout de même plus équitablement distribuée sur l'ensemble du territoire national» d'après un rapport du gouvernement rwandais (source recensement général de la population du Rwanda-2002).

Le Rwanda a la chance unique dans la région, d'avoir des ingénieurs, des professeurs d'université, des chercheurs aussi bien anglophones que francophones. Beaucoup ont été formés dans les meilleures universités du monde. Des francophones rwandais sont venus par milliers du Burundi, du Congo, de Belgique, d'Afrique de l'Ouest, du Québec, de France, de Suisse, s'ajouter à ceux qui vivaient au Rwanda. Beaucoup d'entre eux sont venus pour enseigner. Doit-on leur signifier qu'ils sont désormais inutiles ?

Est-ce vraiment raisonnable de prendre une décision aussi cruciale pour l'avenir du Rwanda, sans que le peuple, via ses députés et sénateurs, ne soit consulté ? Sans qu'un débat national n'ait lieu ? Est-ce que la coalition menée par le FPR a présenté ce programme radical à ses électeurs avant les dernières élections législatives ? L'adhésion au Commonwealth est-elle si importante pour le Rwanda pour qu'une telle décision soit prise dans la précipitation et l'absence totale de consultation ? Est-ce que cette décision ne pourrait pas être perçue comme favorisant les Rwandais anglophones ?

J'espère que le Rwanda n'aura pas un jour l'ambition d'adhérer à la CPLP, la Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa.

The day Rwanda Became an English-Speaking Country

In addition to Kinyarwanda, his mother tongue, my grandfather used to tell me that he was fluent in French, German, English and Swahili, and, of course, Latin. According to him, he managed to learn all these languages thanks to being a chief. Since my schoolmates in primary school had difficulty believing this, I used to take them to see my grandfather. demonstrate his talents as a polyglot. They found him fascinating, and me, and this made me feel very proud. Some years later, I realised that my good-natured grandfather was a such prolific writer and speaker of Kinyarwanda, a language that is rich in metaphore which he helped me master all the nuances. On the other hand, for French, English and Swahili, I found it better to rely on my teachers!

When the Germans came to Rwanda, they did not impose German. They used German as a language of communication. On the other hand, Swahili, the language of Zanzibar, was much more commonly used than Kinyarwanda. Many a Rwandan interpreter was trained for this purpose, and Mwami [King] Musinga learned Swahili, which bears some resemblance to Kinyarwanda. After the First World War, French was introduced by Belgium, the new colonial power. Most of the White Fathers who had arrived in Rwanda about 15 years earlier were French-speaking. They are the ones who taught French. This is how Rwanda joined the Francophone countries of the world, the ones using French as the common language. But there is more to the French-speaking world than meets the eye. For some, being French-speaking is a struggle, a struggle against the domination of English. It’s a thin line between a struggle and outright war. Some French politicians crossed this thin line in 1990 by characterizing the RPF attack against the Habyarimana regime as a war by English-speakers from Uganda against a member country of France’s pré-carré francophone. For them, this justified France’s unconditional support for the dictator, Habyarimana.

After the genocide of the Tutsi and the return to Rwanda of Rwandans who were English-speaking, Rwanda made a conscious effort to remain consensual and to teach both French and English in its schools. Universities devised programmes to help students improve their language skills in French or English, depending on the case. Today, one realises that bilingual university education has not produced the expected results. A disproportionately large number of students graduate from university without mastering either language. Communication is the foundation of education. Our children have the unique opportunity to live in a country which has the potential to educate them in two of the world’s most important languages. We must not allow this valuable resource to go to waste.

http://kagatama.blogspot.com/2008/10/le-jour-o-le-rwanda-est-devenu-un-pays.html

HOWEVER, THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION, DAPHROSE GAHAKWA, RECENTLY DECLARED THAT “COURSES IN RWANDA’S SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES SHALL HENCEFORTH BE TAUGHT IN ENGLISH, THIS BEING AMONG THE MEANS FOR RWANDA TO JOIN THE COMMONWEALTH”(SOURCE AFP). THAT IS PREPOSTEROUS (UTTERLY ABSURD)! THE MAJORITY OF THE TEACHERS IN RWANDA ARE FRENCH-SPEAKING AND ARE UNABLE TO TEACH IN ENGLISH (REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THEY HAVE ATTENDED MANDATORY ENGLISH CLASSES) AND A MERE 1.8% OF RWANDA’S POPULATION SPEAKS ENGLISH. ACCORDING TO A RWANDA GOVERNMENT REPORT, "THOUGH THE FRENCH LANGUAGE IS EQUALLY SPOKEN BY FEW PEOPLE (…), THESE ARE MORE EVENLY DISTRIBUTED OVER THE NATIONAL TERRITORY.. "(SOURCE: CENSUS OF 2002).

RWANDA IS IN A PRIVILEGED POSITION IN THE REGION IN THAT IT HAS QUALIFIED ENGINEERS, PROFESSORS, RESEARCHERS, ETC. THAT ARE FLUENT IN BOTH ENGLISH AND FRENCH. MANY OF THEM ATTENDED THE WORLD’S BEST UNIVERSITIES. FRENCH-SPEAKING RWANDANS HAVE RETURNED BY THE THOUSANDS FROM BURUNDI, CONGO, BELGIUM, WEST AFRICA, QUEBEC, FRANCE, SWITZERLAND, TO JOIN THE ONES WHO WERE ALREADY IN RWANDA. MANY OF THEM HAVE JOINED THE TEACHING PROFESSION. ARE THEY NOW BEING TOLD THAT THEY SERVE NO PURPOSE?

IS IT REASONABLE TO TAKE A DECISION WITH SUCH SERIOUS IMPLICATIONS FOR THE FUTURE OF OUR COUNTRY WITHOUT CONSULTING THE PEOPLE THROUGH PARLIAMENT AND WITHOUT HOLDING A NATIONAL DEBATE? DID THE COALITION LED BY THE RPF SUBMIT THIS RADICAL PROGRAMME TO THE VOTERS BEFORE THE LATEST PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS? IS JOINING THE COMMONWEALTH SO IMPORTANT TO RWANDA AS TO WARRANT TAKING SUCH AN IMPORTANT DECISION PRECIPITOUSLY AND WITHOUT CONSULTING THE PEOPLE? COULD THIS DECISION BE PERCEIVED AS FAVOURING RWANDA’S ENGLISH-SPEAKING POPULATION?

LET US HOPE THAT IN THE FUTURE RWANDA WILL NOT SEEK TO JOIN THE CPLP, COMMUNITY OF PORTUGUESE-SPEAKING COUNTRIES...

I recommend this article: "Rwanda to switch from French to English in schools" http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/14/rwanda-france by Chris McGreal in The Guardian, October, 14 2008.

http://kagatama.blogspot.com/2008/10/day-rwanda-became-english-speaking.html

Le jour où le Rwanda est devenu un pays uniquement anglophone.

En plus du kinyarwanda, sa langue maternelle, mon grand-père me disait qu'il parlait couramment le français, l'allemand, l'anglais, le kiswahili et bien entendu le latin. Sa fonction de sous-chef l'avait, selon lui, amené à étudier toutes ces langues. Face à l'incrédulité de mes copines de l'école primaire, je les emmenais devant mon grand-père, qui en rechignant un peu pour la forme, s'exécutait et faisait une démonstration de son talent polyglotte. Elles repartaient ébahies, et moi j'étais très fière. Quelques années plus tard, je me rendis compte que mon espiègle grand-père parlait et écrivait magnifiquement bien le kinyarwanda cette langue métaphorique et complexe dont il m'aida à acquérir toutes les nuances, par contre, pour le français, l'anglais et le kiswahili, j'ai trouvé plus sage de m'en remettre à mes professeurs !

A leur arrivée au Rwanda, les allemands n'ont pas imposé l'allemand. Ils ont utilisé comme langue de communication, le kiswahili, la langue de Zanzibar, beaucoup plus accessible que le kinyarwanda. Plusieurs interprètes rwandais ont été formés à cet effet, et le Mwami Musinga apprit cette langue qui a quelques similitudes avec le kinyarwanda. Après la première guerre mondiale, la langue française a été introduite par le nouveau colonisateur, la Belgique. Les Pères Blancs qui étaient déjà au Rwanda depuis une quinzaine d'années, étaient en majorité francophones, ils se sont chargés de l'enseignement du français. C'est ainsi que le Rwanda est entré dans le monde francophone, celui qui a «le français en partage». Mais la francophonie, c'est plus que cela. La francophonie, pour certains pays, c'est un combat, un combat contre l'anglophonie dominante. Du combat à la guerre, il n'y a qu'un pas, un pas qu'ont franchi les politiciens français des années 1990 qui ont vu dans l'attaque du FPR contre le régime d'Habyarimana, une guerre de combattants anglophones venus d'Ouganda contre un pays membre du pré-carré francophone de la France, ce qui a légitimé à leurs yeux un soutien inconditionnel au dictateur Habyarimana.

Après le génocide des Tutsi, et l'arrivée de rwandais anglophones, le Rwanda a essayé de rester consensuel et d'enseigner aussi bien en français qu'en anglais. Des classes d'études de mise à niveau pour les francophones et les anglophones ont vu le jour dans toutes les universités. Aujourd'hui on constate que cette politique du bilinguisme universitaire n'a pas tenu toutes ses promesses. Beaucoup trop d'étudiants qui sortent de l'université ne maîtrisent parfaitement aucune des deux langues. Communiquer c'est la base de l'enseignement, nos enfants ont la chance de vivre dans un pays capable de dispenser un enseignement dans deux langues parmi les plus importantes du monde, le français et l'anglais, il faut faire fructifier cette richesse, et donner plus de moyens à ce projet ambitieux.

Mais au contraire, la ministre de l'éducation nationale, Mme Daphrose Gahakwa vient de déclarer que «l'enseignement secondaire et universitaire sera désormais dispensé exclusivement en anglais au Rwanda» parce que «c'est l'une des démarches qui permettront au Rwanda d'adhérer prochainement à l'organisation du Commonwealth»(source AFP).

C'est énorme ! La majorité des enseignants rwandais sont francophones et incapables d'enseigner en anglais («sessions de cours d'anglais obligatoires» ou pas) et seulement 1,8% des Rwandais parlent aujourd'hui l'anglais, «la langue française quoique peu parlée également est tout de même plus équitablement distribuée sur l'ensemble du territoire national» d'après un rapport du gouvernement rwandais (source recensement général de la population du Rwanda-2002).

Le Rwanda a la chance unique dans la région, d'avoir des ingénieurs, des professeurs d'université, des chercheurs aussi bien anglophones que francophones. Beaucoup ont été formés dans les meilleures universités du monde. Des francophones rwandais sont venus par milliers du Burundi, du Congo, de Belgique, d'Afrique de l'Ouest, du Québec, de France, de Suisse, s'ajouter à ceux qui vivaient au Rwanda. Beaucoup d'entre eux sont venus pour enseigner. Doit-on leur signifier qu'ils sont désormais inutiles ?

Est-ce vraiment raisonnable de prendre une décision aussi cruciale pour l'avenir du Rwanda, sans que le peuple, via ses députés et sénateurs, ne soit consulté ? Sans qu'un débat national n'ait lieu ? Est-ce que la coalition menée par le FPR a présenté ce programme radical à ses électeurs avant les dernières élections législatives ? L'adhésion au Commonwealth est-elle si importante pour le Rwanda pour qu'une telle décision soit prise dans la précipitation et l'absence totale de consultation ? Est-ce que cette décision ne pourrait pas être perçue comme favorisant les Rwandais anglophones ?

J'espère que le Rwanda n'aura pas un jour l'ambition d'adhérer à la CPLP, la Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa.

http://kagatama.blogspot.com/2008/10/le-jour-o-le-rwanda-est-devenu-un-pays.html

The day Rwanda Became an English-Speaking Country

In addition to Kinyarwanda, his mother tongue, my grandfather used to tell me that he was fluent in French, German, English and Swahili, and, of course, Latin. According to him, he managed to learn all these languages thanks to being a chief. Since my schoolmates in primary school had difficulty believing this, I used to take them to see my grandfather. demonstrate his talents as a polyglot. They found him fascinating, and me, and this made me feel very proud. Some years later, I realised that my good-natured grandfather was a such prolific writer and speaker of Kinyarwanda, a language that is rich in metaphore which he helped me master all the nuances. On the other hand, for French, English and Swahili, I found it better to rely on my teachers!

When the Germans came to Rwanda, they did not impose German. They used German as a language of communication. On the other hand, Swahili, the language of Zanzibar, was much more commonly used than Kinyarwanda. Many a Rwandan interpreter was trained for this purpose, and Mwami [King] Musinga learned Swahili, which bears some resemblance to Kinyarwanda. After the First World War, French was introduced by Belgium, the new colonial power. Most of the White Fathers who had arrived in Rwanda about 15 years earlier were French-speaking. They are the ones who taught French. This is how Rwanda joined the Francophone countries of the world, the ones using French as the common language. But there is more to the French-speaking world than meets the eye. For some, being French-speaking is a struggle, a struggle against the domination of English. It’s a thin line between a struggle and outright war. Some French politicians crossed this thin line in 1990 by characterizing the RPF attack against the Habyarimana regime as a war by English-speakers from Uganda against a member country of France’s pré-carré francophone. For them, this justified France’s unconditional support for the dictator, Habyarimana.

After the genocide of the Tutsi and the return to Rwanda of Rwandans who were English-speaking, Rwanda made a conscious effort to remain consensual and to teach both French and English in its schools. Universities devised programmes to help students improve their language skills in French or English, depending on the case. Today, one realises that bilingual university education has not produced the expected results. A disproportionately large number of students graduate from university without mastering either language. Communication is the foundation of education. Our children have the unique opportunity to live in a country which has the potential to educate them in two of the world’s most important languages. We must not allow this valuable resource to go to waste.

HOWEVER, THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION, DAPHROSE GAHAKWA, RECENTLY DECLARED THAT “COURSES IN RWANDA’S SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES SHALL HENCEFORTH BE TAUGHT IN ENGLISH, THIS BEING AMONG THE MEANS FOR RWANDA TO JOIN THE COMMONWEALTH”(SOURCE AFP). THAT IS PREPOSTEROUS (UTTERLY ABSURD)! THE MAJORITY OF THE TEACHERS IN RWANDA ARE FRENCH-SPEAKING AND ARE UNABLE TO TEACH IN ENGLISH (REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THEY HAVE ATTENDED MANDATORY ENGLISH CLASSES) AND A MERE 1.8% OF RWANDA’S POPULATION SPEAKS ENGLISH. ACCORDING TO A RWANDA GOVERNMENT REPORT, "THOUGH THE FRENCH LANGUAGE IS EQUALLY SPOKEN BY FEW PEOPLE (…), THESE ARE MORE EVENLY DISTRIBUTED OVER THE NATIONAL TERRITORY.. "(SOURCE: CENSUS OF 2002).

RWANDA IS IN A PRIVILEGED POSITION IN THE REGION IN THAT IT HAS QUALIFIED ENGINEERS, PROFESSORS, RESEARCHERS, ETC. THAT ARE FLUENT IN BOTH ENGLISH AND FRENCH. MANY OF THEM ATTENDED THE WORLD’S BEST UNIVERSITIES. FRENCH-SPEAKING RWANDANS HAVE RETURNED BY THE THOUSANDS FROM BURUNDI, CONGO, BELGIUM, WEST AFRICA, QUEBEC, FRANCE, SWITZERLAND, TO JOIN THE ONES WHO WERE ALREADY IN RWANDA. MANY OF THEM HAVE JOINED THE TEACHING PROFESSION. ARE THEY NOW BEING TOLD THAT THEY SERVE NO PURPOSE?

IS IT REASONABLE TO TAKE A DECISION WITH SUCH SERIOUS IMPLICATIONS FOR THE FUTURE OF OUR COUNTRY WITHOUT CONSULTING THE PEOPLE THROUGH PARLIAMENT AND WITHOUT HOLDING A NATIONAL DEBATE? DID THE COALITION LED BY THE RPF SUBMIT THIS RADICAL PROGRAMME TO THE VOTERS BEFORE THE LATEST PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS? IS JOINING THE COMMONWEALTH SO IMPORTANT TO RWANDA AS TO WARRANT TAKING SUCH AN IMPORTANT DECISION PRECIPITOUSLY AND WITHOUT CONSULTING THE PEOPLE? COULD THIS DECISION BE PERCEIVED AS FAVOURING RWANDA’S ENGLISH-SPEAKING POPULATION?

LET US HOPE THAT IN THE FUTURE RWANDA WILL NOT SEEK TO JOIN THE CPLP, COMMUNITY OF PORTUGUESE-SPEAKING COUNTRIES...

I recommend this article: "Rwanda to switch from French to English in schools" http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/14/rwanda-france by Chris McGreal in The Guardian, October, 14 2008.

http://kagatama.blogspot.com/2008/10/day-rwanda-became-english-speaking.html

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