Reply to : Latvian language law

[mlepretre at retemail.es]

Dear Roland,

Just a short question ore doubt: doyou think that "our dear Comrade Stalin" asked Russians workers if they really wanted to go to work and rellocate to Latvia (as well as in other republics of the former USSR)?

Dr. Marc Leprêtre
Ph.D. Contemporary History
Secretary General
Institute Linguapax
Barcelona
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De: "roland.breton" <roland.breton at fnac.net>
Fecha: 2002/05/15 mié AM 09:29:10 GMT+02:00
Para: lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu
Asunto: Reply to : Latvian language law

Dear Harold,
Russian speaking population in Latvia is mostly the descent of Russian
colonizers sent by Stalin and his successors to settle in the houses, flats
and farms of the Latvians sent in deportation to Siberia or killed on the
ground. I wonder the Westerners are helping these people who were taking the
place of autochtonous population for half a century in the oppressed society
of Latvia and are still refusing to consider themselves as a minority, but
are wanting to continue to dominate the country. I wonder how the latvians
have been keen enough to not expell them from their country. These Russians
want to stay there, so they must learn and use the language of the country
they prefer to reside, as any immigrant has to do everywhere. If not, the
solution is to go back in the marvelous land of their ancestors, so rich, so
powerful and so civilizerd. We, in the West are too much indulgent or blind
about the Russian colonization, oppression, persecution and extermination of
Baltic peoples and the eradication of their languazges and cultures for
fifty years. We must take the defense of the Balts and not at all of their
oppressors.
-- Roland J.-L. Breton, Prof. Emerit. Geogr. Univ. Paris 8 (Vincennes-St
Denis)


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>De : "Harold F. Schiffman" <haroldfs at ccat.sas.upenn.edu>
>À : Language Policy-List <lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu>
>Objet : Latvian language law
>Date : Ven 10 mai 2002 14:41
>

> NYTimes, Friday, May 10th.
>
> World Briefing
>
> LATVIA: LANGUAGE LAW DROPPED Parliament voted 67-to-13 to drop a language
> requirement that hindered ethnic Russians in the former Soviet republic
> from running for political office. NATO and the European Union had
> demanded the change, which lawmakers hope will smooth the way to an
> invitation to join the defense alliance. Russian speakers make up
> one-third of Latvia's 2.4 million population. The law had required
> candidates running in national and local elections to prove their fluency
> in Latvian. Now they will be required only to give a self-evaluation of
> their language skills.
>

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Un homme debout ne se couche que pour mourir (Léo Ferré)