LL-L "Language politics" 2010.11.29 (02) [EN]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 29 November 2010 - Volume 02
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From: Marcus Buck <list at marcusbuck.org>

Subject: LL-L "Language politics" 2010.11.29 (01) [AF-EN]



From: Mark Dreyer <mrdreyer at lantic.net>

Lastly, if we may impute malign motivations, Afrikaans schools & indeed
everything Afrikaans is being targeted for exclusion, marginalisation &
absorbtion.


Well, apparently Afrikaans and English native speakers account for 25% of
the population of Gauteng, while the education sector seems to be completely
dominated by these two languages.

The constitution says "Recognising the historically diminished use and
status of the indigenous languages of our people, the state must take
practical and positive measures to elevate the status and advance the use of
these languages."
_Positive<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_discrimination>_
measures.So, if Afrikaans gets less focus then that's only in the spirit of
the constitution. Of course it is not in the spirit of the constitution to
shift the focus to English. It should rather be shifted to the African
languages (and I do not count Afrikaans as an African language). If
mismanagement of the black schools is so prevalent, what is the root of the
mismanagement? Is it racial or genetic traits that make them more
susceptible for mismanagement? Hardly. Is it functional limits of their
languages that make it harder for them to manage their schools properly?
Hardly. Is it perhaps socio-economic reasons rooted in the suppression of
Blacks during the Apartheid regime? Sounds kinda likely. So if Afrikaners
feel like falling into a "stone age" that's because they are now equal to
the Blacks. They are not a priori "better" any more. The Blacks always lived
under hard "stone-agy" conditions during the apartheid. And now the
Afrikaners for the first time have to realize how that feels. There's no way
back to the former privileged status. But that doesn't mean your status has
to deteriorate. There's another option: just help the Blacks raise to the
same higher statuses.

If going to a black school means rape, theft and not getting education then
take measures to prevent this. The expertise to manage schools apparently
exists in the better-managed schools. And if the "better" Black teachers
quit working in the Black schools and are hired by Afrikaans schools, then
apparently the Afrikaans schools have more money than Black schools.
Solution: Take the money away from the Afrikaans schools and give it to the
Black schools.

If this sounds harsh: don't worry it's not against Afrikaners in specific. I
have the same sentiment against e.g. Germans who whine about economic
migration but at the same time engage in economic protectionism that creates
the migration-inducing wealth gap in the first place.

Marcus Buck



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