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Kinofest NYC 2013 April 4-7 Independent film from post-Soviet space
Posted by Alex on December 02, 2005 at 00:24:29:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Linguistic preferences... posted by Neptune on December 01, 2005 at 22:43:30:
Latvian and Lithunian? Oh great, the only First World countries in the world who officially glorify Nazi Party circa 1930's policies? Just great! Especially that part where Latvia stripped half of the population (most of whom who voted for independence) of their citizenship and made them second class citizens. Their policies are nothing short of a throwback to U.S. segregationism. Ireland IS a multi-lingual state, where today both Irish and English exist side by side irrespective, what kind of beef the Irish have had with the English because the local majority was smart enough to move on past those grievances. Canada by the way (which is where I know reside) was de-facto unillingual until the 1960's when Trudeau introduced the Official Languages Act, which 9 times out of 10 has served the country (and Quebec) really well. Now regarding Russia, ALL Russian liberals and even some of the Kremlin cronies do accept the fact that Russia is multi-ethnic and multi-lingual. Most ordinary Russians too, while being proud of their language and culture do respect national/linguistic minorities. You may claim that no all Russians are nothing but a bunch of racist thugs who hate Jews, Ukrainians, Chechens (a hate campaign against whom is unfortunately organized by the state authorities for political gain) etc. but that's just your stereotype. If that would be the case than I, as a Jew would never talk to one of them. And guess what in some regards Russia is even more advanced than Ukraine in promoting minority language rights. For example in regions such as Tatarstan, South Ossetia, Bashkiria and Ichkeria, state services can be provided in the local languages in addition to Russian and this policy is enforced, I personally know people who lived in these areas who told that that's indeed the case. In schools in these regions it is also possible, although still hard to obtain education in the local language. In Ukraine on the other hand, public services are forced to speak Ukrainian to the population and some are even PROHIBITED from speaking Russian! I'm sorry but even in Canada, a country that has only 300,000 Russian-speakers out of 32 million (and Russian is obviously not an official language!), I can obtain service from a Russian-speaking public service official if I know where to look for. Then there's the Russian school closure in Ukraine for the stupidest reason of not being able to find Russsian-speaking teachers! Hahaha!This is just as ridicolous as not being able to find a single Catholic in the Vatican. Ukraine has a lot to learn in that respect, not from Russia but from Europe and the West.