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Looper's Delight
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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.