Re: President Lao PDR urges use of French to maintain peace

Bingo!
You got it Dr. Pao. Of what interest is the preservation and promotion
of 'parlez Francais' to the news world in general? If you think there is
something wrong with my assessment then I would invite you to contact a
couple of your favorite Aussie media outlets and ask them yourself. If their
response was signifcantly different than my explanation I would be very
surprised.

Your own linked article outlines it, "In 1999, French was the 11th most
common first language in the world, with 77 million first language speakers
and another 51 million second language speakers,..." Of what interest to the
general world is the 11th most common language, with a first language
populace less than 1/2 the population of the USA or all speakers still
accounting for less than population of the USA? Did you read through the
list of countries in that reference? Do you see any other news from 90% of
those countries regulalrly in your general news? Of those 64 countries how
many of them would you even be able to name without reading the list? I
would bet maybe 18 at most. And of those countries probably 2/3rds of them
speak French only as a second, minority or colloquial language.

As for filling you in on the future meeting in Quebec, you can search
the internet as easily as I can and that is all that I would/could do. Such
things are not on the general Canadian news radar either, at least not this
far in advance of the actual meeting. However, there will surely be some
limited coverage of the event when it does occur, just the same as any
international conference that happens to occur on our soil with or at our
government's request.

Here is a link you may find interesting:
http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/france-priorities_1/francophony-french-language_1113/francophony_1932/the-promotion-of-cultural-diversity-and-the-actions-of-french-speaking-countries_5499/index.html

France backing and promoting a UNESCO policy on preservation of cultural
language and policy? When probably 80% of those Francophone countries had
the French language and policies forced upon them through colonial conquest
at the expense of their original languages and cultures? Hypocrisy has truly
reached it's finest hour and they have a bunch of their conquered minions
backing their policies against their own original cultures! Or is that the
point of these lesser Francophone countries, they see the UNESCO policies as
aiding them in restoring and protecting their orignal pre-colonial language
and culture? Oh, what a back-stabbing for Francais if that were the case.

Phi Dung Mo


As you said, the answer is too simple. but in that meeting, based on
the reportin Viemntiane Time , Mr Soubanh Sritthirath, the head of the
Lao delegation to the 23 rd Ministerial Conference of French Speaking
Countries, said that there were "256 delegates from 64 countries and
seven international organisations had attended the conference; 22 of
the delegates were ministers. The Lao government also invited three
honourable delegations from China , Thailand and the Asean
Secretariat". If there are so many countries attending and there is
no interest to the major world media, does it mean that the meeting is
not really that important on global scale?

Sure... it is important to the Francohonie countries
http://www.fll.vt.edu/French/francophonie.html
and I would have expected that this group of countries, as a group,
must have some importances on the global scale...

Since Canada is part of theis group, Phi Dung Mo, you should be the
right person to fill us about this group since they are heading to
Quebec next. Is it so?


.

Relevant Pages

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    ... of 'parlez Francais' to the news world in general? ... Your own linked article outlines it, "In 1999, French was the 11th most ... common first language in the world, with 77 million first language speakers ... those countries regulalrly in your general news? ...
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