Jersay said:
Do people agree that its usually political for seperatism in most countries??
I would say ethno-political in some cases.
All ethno-linguistic groups want to feel equal (not just legally but in actual fact) to the larger groups. From that standpoint, the larger group has to find a solution to making the smaller group equal indeed, and again, not just legally equal on paper. I can see three major ways in which this can be done:
1. All to English. Bear in mind, however, that since English is a difficult language to learn, most of the non-native speakers shall have failed to learn it adequately even after nine years of study. This causes resentment, naturally as a new class of haves and have nots is born. One solution to this is economic (i.e., the native speakers of English the world over are expected to finance the financial burden for the rest of the world to learn THEIR language. In reality, however, the native speakers of English (and rightfully so) can legitimately argue that they're not the ones forcing the rest of the country/world/whatever to learn English. In the Canadian context, for instance, the English speakers can simply point the finger to the Quebec government and say that they are the ones forcing French Canadians to learn English. Despite this, however, the Quebecois might still feel envious of the English speakers' distinct advantage on the world stage.
2. Multilingualism: This ould mean that all of Canada's indigenous languages are official. Expensive indeed, but certainly equal. So we end up with equality and a bust budget.
3. Esperantism: Not necessarily Esperanto, but any easy to learn second language. Inexpensive (sine it means only one language for the nation so no translation expenses for government, plus easy to learn so little investment of time and money in education too). And equal. All Canadians would be expected to master it as their second language. This woud mean that the government would hire whoever made the effort to learn their second language regardless of ethno-linguistic background. The military would likweise be unified uner one language. As would all Canadians at the grassroots form workers to tourists.
Without this sense of equality, some do come to believe that somehow separation could achieve this equality without having a clear notion of how this will occur. After all, even if Quebec does separate from Canada, it would still face the Englsih language all around it. Even Italy had to pass laws i 1993 to protect itself from the English language. It's already a sovereing nation. So sovereignty does not guarantee protection against foreign language hegemony in the new world order. Only sound education policy can do that.
Instead of separating from Canada, Quebec would be better off adopting the Italian education model. This involves giving students in school the option of whether or not to study English and at the same time actively promoting other foreing language options in its schools. The MEQ could really learn from its Italian counterpart here and thus eliminate the need to separate to protect its language and culture.
