English and the US

[Joe Laferriere]

I hesitate to reply to this message, both because of the comments I have
seen on Taxacom complaining about the continued discussion of this
peripheral subject, and because of my own general policy not to respond to
haughty, childish, condescending comments like "that's just the reality of
it, Joe ..." However, I felt that I could not let this frontal attack on
my previous posting slide unchallenged.

On Sun, 25 Feb 1996, Neal Evenhuis wrote:
>
> > The use of English
> > is deeply resented by many people in many countries.
>
> As far as "deeply" resented: I am Dutch. The Dutch language has been in
> the news as possibly going "extinct" due to the necessity of English in
> commerce (and other factors), yet I have not heard that English is
> "deeply" resented among the Dutch.

The Netherlands is only one country. I have noticed a great deal of
resentment in Latin America, where the US is viewed almost like a
colonial power. I understand that French-speakers tend to resent English.
French is the official or coofficial language of 30 countries, mostly in
Africa. I know the resentment against English is very passionate in
Quebec, and everyone I know who has visited France says the same thing
about that country.

> > If the political > > power of the US should falter, as seems likely
given the self-destructive > > political situation here at present, the
world-wide use of English will > > very likely disintegrate with it. > >

>This, I think, may be the view of some subscribers to
>alt.rec.anarchism.bomb.bomb.bomb, but I don't think many others can
>possibly believe that the US will falter as you say. Too many countries
>have a vested interest in the well-being of the US to let that happen.

  Any economist will tell you that the US is experiencing very serious
structural problems which are not getting addressed. The country's economy
is largely dependent on 100-year-old factories in the industrial north
which cannot compete against newer factories and newer technologies in
East Asia. The nation's agricultural base is dependent on increasingly
eroded topsoil, which is floating down the Mississppi into the ocean and
not being replaced. The educational system is thoroughly inadequate, not
producing enough scientists or engineers to keep the country moving
forward. The government has run up a serious debt, which prevents it from
tackling these and other problems. Personal debt is also serious, with
people running up credit-card bills and not saving anything for
investment. This places the country in a precarious situation and will
make it unable to respond to any crisis which might arise. All this might
not presage a collapse of the US on the scale of the Fall of Rome, but it
will undoubtedly signal a decline at least as great as that of the UK
after 1945. The US 50 years from now will not be able to call itself a
"Superpower."

> I can appreciate trying to keep that Esperanto head above water--but
> let's get real, it's a lost cause. After it drowns, don't bother with
> "mouth-to-mouth".

Nonsense. Esperanto is used by 10,000,000 people all over the globe.
Radio Vatican and Radio Beijing both have weekly broadcasts in the
language. I personally have received mail in Esperanto from China, Japan,
India, Iran, Brazil, the US, and a dozen countries in Europe.

I realize that all of this is peripheral to a discussion group on
biological systematics, and I apologize to anyone bored by this. All I
can say to that is that I have yet to see a computer keyboard without a
"delete" key.