Re: Speaking about languages...

It's a question of priorities. The national broadcaster has a duty to
promote local culture, not imports.

Yes, but it doesn't take long for imports to become local. And such
processes are much faster today than they were in the past.

I'm paying TV licence, which funds BBC. I'm not interested in rap
music, but I don't mind the programs about it because many people in
UK are interested in rap, and because BBC also produces programs that
interest me.

TV licences, eh? I remember those from AUstralia, plus the door to
door inspectors (even radio licences).

-)) We don't have radio licences, and door to door inspectors don't
seem to be present anymore, but some years ago one could spot
specially equipped "TV licence" vans patrolling the streets.

Australia abolished them in
the 1980s. It was not a bad idea, perhaps (based on the user-pays
principle) but I think the Australian Government found that the
revenue raised barely covered the cost of the policing. Maybe it
works better in UK because UK is more compact, the population more
highly concentrated?

Yes, I would imagine that it is much more difficult to police such
matters in sparsely populated country.

It's an interesting example of certain things that Australia still did
as late as the 1980s just because they were first done to copy the way
things were done in "Mother England". For example, it took that long
for people to admit that most of Australia does not have a climate
suitable for nice green lawns and the amount of precious water that is
wasted to keep them green is just criminal, given the state of
Australia's environment (practically permanent drought since the
greenhouse effect started relly kicking in seriously). The sensible
folk have moved on to eco-friendly alternatives (e.g. front yard
covered with bark chips with just a drought-resistant shrub sticking
out here and there), but some people still stubbornly want their
English-style lawn, regardless.

Long time indeed. I hope that "the sensible" are the majority.

I couldn't help to spot some analogy with Latvian Russians. Sensible
ones integrated into Latvian society, stubborn ones still dream that
they live in "Mother Russia" (to put it bluntly).



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