Thursday, March 6, 2008

How To Prevent Camel Toes

Nobel by Victor-Lévy Beaulieu

Mr. Victor-Lévy Beaulieu argues that a Quebec writer can not win the Nobel Prize in literature before becoming an independent Quebec. It's at least what the following excerpt from the edition March 2, La Presse suggests:

Reporter:
"I asked him if, without independence, it would be possible for a Quebec writer to receive this honor. "

Victor-Lévy Beaulieu:
" No. Because Nobel Prizes are awarded to countries (sic) that do not leave the world indifferent. "

It is a morbid preoccupation, which I can not find the cure, but it looks more comfortable with when shooting less murky.

's claim is accompanied by Mr. VLB two ideas doubtful.

The first suggests that a language adopts a country and a country adopts a language (and not two or more). Note that it is not a fact, but rather an idea. For in fact, on the surface of this planet, many people who do not identify with this 'ideal' unit, the strictly European origin. The people of China, India and Nigeria, for example, bringing together nearly half the world population, share no common language within their respective political boundaries. India recognizes 18 official languages in use among the hundreds in its territory. Mandarin in Beijing, a thousand places identifying the Cantonese dialect is like a sore preferred to Shanghai, should remember. More than 500 languages and dialects are spoken in Nigeria, but English remains the instrument of a vicious minority. It seems that the historical legacy populations are more complex than would Mr. VLB: the inhabitants of these countries (except perhaps in the Indian case, supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the party and ultranationalist retrograde ) do not consider language as the unifying element central to their 'common culture'.

To point out the obvious, it does not follow that they all are monolingual. With millions of bilingual and multilingual individuals, all the towers of Babel does not condemn the misunderstanding. And the spirit of excellence and rigor can model this effect, the Dutch often speak English in a charming Londoner that the unilingual anglophone to win the street sometimes to imitate, if only for the purposes of Vocabulary. This wealth plural taints Does any manner of the Dutch literature? The question is as absurd as the idea of does reserve the Nobel Prize for literature as writers of nations that have (deliberately?) is the choice of monolingualism.

This leads us to the second idea underlying the claims of Mr. VLB: a nation denied a separate seat at the UN would not be worthwhile, it would leave "the rest of the world indifferent."

This is a provocation, but to assume that Mr. VLB was never aware of the powerful echoes of Quebec abroad, which is unlikely. This misconception is none less reprehensible for that other reason that it invites Quebecers to Consider before the problems of the new millennium, the solutions of all centuries. What seems to be asked Quebec to do more to promote the French culture has taken root while sparing reports identity of sympathy with the rest of Canada? More dramatically, how best to establish a certain "cultural sovereignty" with the foundation for a strong Canada-wide solidarity in crises - a mari usque ad pond? The Catalans, our cousins in some way, show a wisdom rare in similar ways because, unlike defer to the Quebec Canada, Catalonia is actually the economic engine of Spain. Deliberating in a calm and not letting the passions fly without the guidance of reason, Quebecois and the Catalans are already offering the world a model of political behavior to copy the beginning of a century 's ad disrupted.

I invite Mr. VLB to think like a great man, as presented in the full measure of his intelligence and his remarkable imaginative power. To his good fortune, we may note that the Nobel Foundation unusually punishes those who think otherwise. I invite him to support the draft constitution, with the inhabitants of Catalonia, the Basque Country, Belgium Walloon and Flemish, the Kashmiri, Corsica and First Nations, among others, a self Nations World Assembly -determined in order to assert their common interests on the world stage and most certainly enrich their local authorities in cultural matters. In a spirit of dialogue with existing international institutions, the World Parliament would have a permanent base and rotating or plural. Promoting peaceful and recognition of cultural diversity will be included in the first agenda. Education Policy, Immigration and comparative research, cultural exchange programs, prices and international forums are among the projects to be considered. With any luck, the initiative itself as the pioneers of respectable politics and history - including Mr. VLB worried too humble to become a 'debris' - would undertake perhaps to remind us!

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