Re: Off Topic: Anglofixilization

[Chuck Silva <any1particular@mac.com>]

Rick.

  I hate to sound like a dumb ass but how do I contribute to these  
ramblings 'off topic' and with out eating up bandwidth? I am a  
neophyte and appreciate your help/

You are the man!

Chuck Silva

On Oct 1, 2007, at 2:50 AM, Rick Walker wrote:

> I'm really enjoying the Anglofixilization thread
> but it is most definitely Off Topic.
>
> Since a lot of people have been disturbed by the volume of
> off topic posts here at the list,  can we at least be sensitive
> and discilplined enough to their needs to write  OT:   
> Anglofixilization
> on these posts.
>
> This will allow people who are not interested in this very, very  
> off topic subject
> to automatically filter the discussions out.
>
> That being said and done, my ramblings on the subject:
>
> ***************
>
> I have read the most linguists are agreed that
> some form of Chinese (Mandarin or Cantonese most likely),
> Spanish and English will become the Linqua Franca (lol, how  
> Eurocentric is that term?)
> of the world in the next 50 years.
>
> About the future of English as an international language of  
> commerce which has been
> disputed:
>
> I've read that many German banks are now having their meetings in  
> English not German.
>
> Additionally, the Chinese are spending literally millions of  
> dollars to try and teach
> the people in Bejing enough English to be able to greet guests,  
> journalists
> and the athletes at the upcoming Olympics.   They have hired and ex- 
> American
> military officer, specifically,  to go around the city and clean up  
> the
> Engrish signs that are everywhere in the city currently.
>
> None of these are signs that English is on it's way out as a so  
> called 'world' language.
>
> The danger is not so much that the Chinese won't learn English but  
> more that the United
> States, Great Britain and Canada won't learn Chinese.
>
> As powerful as the Chinese are becoming, however, their up and  
> coming economic might rests
> on the strength of the so called '1st world' economies staying not  
> only solvent but
> strong.     Someone has to not only buy but also be able to be able  
> to afford to buy what they are going to make.
>
> A huge percentage of world resources are controlled by the Europeans,
> British and Americans and the Chinese (and the Indians) need access  
> to these resources
> in order for their economic climb to occur.
>
> A lot has been said about the decline of the US in the future.   If  
> this is entirely true, then
> why are the Chinese and Indians investing so heavily in buying  
> land, corporations and resources in the US.
> They are, you know, faster now that even the Japanese did in past  
> decades.
>
> I don't say any of this as a flag waving 'love em or leave em'   
> American patriot.
>
> I'm about as radically left in my politics as one gets in the  
> USA,   but there is a lot of knee jerk hysteria
> going on in our country about our coming demise.
>
> Basically, world is going to be coming more geographically and  
> economically homogenous,  although given the current
> capitalistic models, this will still be at the expense of the  
> lion's share of the world's inhabitants.
>
> The Rich will get richer and the Poor will get  
> poorer..............it's inevitable unless a huge shakeup occurs.
>
> The scariest thing about it all is not that things are going to  
> change radically in the economics of the globe but more
> that the ecology of the earth is going to suffer horribly because  
> the Chinese and Indians will rise with a commensorate
> rise in the destruction of the ecosystem as the 1st World powers in  
> the past few hundred years.
>
> The largest destruction of the ecosytem has occured within the last  
> 50 years and is accelerating (declining airable land, declining  
> forests, declining
> fish and animal populations, declining air quality,  rising  
> temparatures, et. al.).
>
> It's 4th and 5th page news in American newspapers but China is on  
> the verge of a horrible ecological catastrophy.
> They are running out of useable water at an alarming rate and their  
> rivers are very polluted on top of it due to unchecked growth.
>
> They are building  gigantic coal manufacturing plants at the rate  
> of 1 a month , currently, which is causing terrible air pollution.
>
> Their destruction of the environement will rival the US's  
> destruction of the environment (although I should really say, the  
> Major Corporations
> destruction of the environment) which is already unconscionable.