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Off Topic: Anglofixilization
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.