i didnt notice the poems but looking at them now i can understand a nice chunk of it honestly. I try and be an educated hater
Impressive. It's a shame glmchm seems to be unfamiliar with them. Had he been well-versed in the roots of his Francophone culture and literature, he'd see that the literary and cultural masters of the language have generally been a tad more sophisticated in their mind-set than he is.
Heck, even Hugo, one of France's National Poets in the 1800's, was talking about a united Europe. And Octave Crémazie, Quebec's first Bard, also had a much larger view of the world than he does.
We find it too in Tennyson's writings. Tennyson, himself an admirer of Hugo, once wrote:
For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see,
Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be;
Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails,
Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales;
Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rain’d a ghastly dew
From the nations’ airy navies grappling in the central blue;
Far along the world-wide whisper of the south-wind rushing warm,
With the standards of the peoples plunging thro’ the thunder-storm;
Till the war-drum throbb’d no longer, and the battle-flags were furl’d
In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world.
There the common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm in awe,
And the kindly earth shall slumber, lapt in universal law.
Or Blake:
TO Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
All pray in their distress;
And to these virtues of delight
Return their thankfulness.
For Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
Is God, our Father dear,
And Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
Is man, His child and care.
For Mercy has a human heart,
Pity a human face,
And Love, the human form divine,
And Peace, the human dress.
Then every man, of every clime,
That prays in his distress,
Prays to the human form divine,
Love, Mercy, Pity, Peace.
And all must love the human form,
In heathen, Turk, or Jew;
Where Mercy, Love, and Pity dwell
There God is dwelling too.
Hugo, de la Fontaine and many others have similar ideas. Clearly our resident bigot is not too familiar with his own literature and culture.
Here's the difference Machjo: Quebec is restricting the choices and rights of a certain segment of this sector. In the end, the market will reward (or punish) the Real Estate Agents or students, etc. that cannot effectively communicate in French. Having the province legislate this issue is in itself a contravention of a demographic's rights.
Where did I say I disagree with that. While it's fine for the government to adopt French as an official language of government administration, or to require schools to teach it at least as a second language, I'm totally opposed to government imposing French on the private sector. In fact, the great French thinkers of the past, especially Jules Vernes, would certainly have opposed it. Just read A Thousand Leagues Under the Sea to see his ideas on the matter. He must be turning in his grave at Quebec's language laws. Unfortunately few Quebecers are truly informed by their classics, and instead stoop to cheap politics.
Captain Morgan, you're not glofchm are you?
