Post by Tar A on Feb 1, 2004 15:46:47 GMT -5
(Dilemma #71) - "Minority Group Demands Language Recognition"
The Issue
A group several thousands strong hailing from a remote, isolated corner of The New Pacific Order is staging a massive demonstration on the front steps of your capitol. They demand that their local dialect be recognized as an official language.
The Debate
The Issue
A group several thousands strong hailing from a remote, isolated corner of The New Pacific Order is staging a massive demonstration on the front steps of your capitol. They demand that their local dialect be recognized as an official language.
The Debate
- Option 1: Thomas Hanover, your Minister of Culture, has nothing but disdain for the demonstrators. "The language of The New Pacific Order is as important to our national identity as our history is. A truly erudite individual uses perfect grammar and refuses to speak as those ruffians do." Your Finance Minister is quick to chime in as well, "If business is required to print every road sign, instruction manual, and fast-food wrapper in two languages, it would increase everybody's overhead. That means higher prices for the person in the street."
- Option 2: "Smarker, but ee's gone blongie 'round the clonger! Trandy in the blang warked a newtie on the Cheebers, quaff me a duggle if it's brine. Sorky, hang our trandy high!" says Calvin Clinton, speaking for the demonstrators, in an apparently rousing response that draws a cascade of cheers. After a few uncomfortable minutes with a professional translator, you find the speaker said, "I respectfully disagree with the Minister. Multilingualism has brought stability to richly-cultured nations such as Brancaland; indeed, I challenge you to provide a single counterexample. I encourage this government to adopt a policy of multilingualism throughout The New Pacific Order!"
- Option 3: Violet McAlpin, a radical opposition member who seems to tag along to every demonstration she can find, has her own proposal. "The language barrier is keeping us all apart. What The New Pacific Order needs is a new identity defined by a new language that we can all agree on. That's unity without favoritism."