A futile battle

Enforcing laws to protect a language and even denying students the right to choose a university education is futile and abusive. Yes give school children the opportunity to learn French at school, even have schools that teach in French but it's up to the parents to choose which school to send them to. It should not be dictated to by the State.

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Language in Canada

"O, Canada", now also in Tagalog, Mandarin and Hindi

EVER since the British victory on the Plains of Abraham in 1759, which led to New France becoming a colony of Britain, French-speakers in what is now the province of Quebec have fought to keep their language alive. Tough laws requiring the use of French in the workplace, in schools and on signs, enforced by a vigilant language police (Office québécois de la langue française), have kept French from being obliterated by the tide of English from the rest of Canada and the United States. However, a linguistic breakdown of Canadians published on October 24^th by Statistics Canada, a government agency, indicates there has been some erosion.

While the number of Canadians who said French was their mother tongue rose to just over 7m out of the total 33m, and those claiming they could conduct a conversation in French was up to almost 10m in 2011 compared with the 2006 census, both categories have declined slightly as a proportion of the population, in Canada overall and in Quebec. Those able to have a conversation in both English and French in what is officially a bilingual country now number 5.8m, or 17.5% of the population, a slight rise. But closer look at those figures shows that it was mainly a result of Quebeckers learning English rather than the other way round.

Statistics Canada says international immigration is having the strongest effect on what it politely calls “the evolution of French in Canada". Over the last 20 years, Canada has accepted an average of 235,000 immigrants a year, and more than 80% of them have neither French nor English as their mother tongue. About 5% of the total move to Quebec. They are mainly from countries where French is already spoken, such as Morocco, Algeria and Haiti. The good news for the language guardians in that province is that an increasing number of immigrants to Quebec report speaking French in combination with their mother tongue at home. But most immigrants move to provinces where English is overwhelmingly predominant, and that is the language they learn. While French is just about holding its own in Quebec, it is slipping elsewhere in Canada.

Bilingualism is growing at a healthy rate in Canada, and just not the French-English variety. Immigrants are mixing one of the 200 languages reported as a mother tongue in the census with English in the home. Tagalog was the fastest growing language in Canada between 2006 and 2011. It leapt an astounding 64% in the five-year period, a reflection of the Philippines’ status as the top source country of immigrants to Canada. The four fastest growing languages—Tagalog, Mandarin, Arabic and Hindi—all had growth rates of more than 40%. The immigrant languages losing ground—Greek, Polish and Italian—reflect the shift in immigration to Canada away from the former source countries in Europe to Asia. Canada's 60-odd aboriginal languages are now spoken by just over 200,000 people.

In a country where multiculturalism is seen as a virtue, the language revelations in the census were mostly noted as a positive sign. The exception was Quebec, where the Parti Québécois government, which supports the eventual separation of the province from the rest of Canada, is preparing to toughen its language laws with new legislation expected this week. The bill proposes to eliminate loopholes in the existing law used by parents to send their children to English-language schools, would bar students graduating from a French-language secondary school from attending an English-language college, and would extend a requirement that French be used in the workplace to cover more businesses. “French is losing ground,” said Pauline Marois, the Quebec premier. “We have to correct that situation.” The battle continues.

Fuwairit Friday Fury Scandal

This Friday at Fuwairit beach during the Eid Al Adha holidays as many as 16 people in Qatar were outraged at a scence of such scandal, this blog is very brave to even print it in full.

At Fuwairit beach two ladies, possibly of European descent were seen wearing bikinis while frollicking in the sea. This was done in the full view of many different nationalities but some were brave enough to turn a blind eye and ignore the decline in civilisation before their eyes.

Mohamed of Dafna spoke exclusively to livingfreeinqatar blog, 'I was driving my Landcruiser up and down the beach, narrowly missing some children playing when I spotted these two ladies in bikinis. So disgusted was I, I had to drive past 9 times staring straight at them hoping they would cover up. I even wheelspun my car several times on the beach to get their attention but they just kept moving farther out to sea.'

Ahmed of Al Rayan was equally condeming, 'I normally go to that beach to drive recklessly, shoot birds and smell women in Abyas. Never in my wildest dreams would I imagine such a scence in Qatar. I called 16 of my friends so they could see for themself the disgusting sight and after 5 hours when the ladies got in their car and drove home we knew it was safe to leave. Luckily I took 378 pictures to show my other friends who are on holiday in the south of France to see the disgrace.'

When the men were questioned by livinginfreeqatar's author that surely they have more important things to worry about in the world than this, such as thousands dying in Syria or the attacks on the Rhiyongi in Burma, both shared the same answer. 'How do you think the trouble in those countries started? Maybe the Jews but probably women wearing bikinis and then the whole of society falls apart.'

When you assidious author asked them why they have vacantioned 6 times this year already in Thailand both Mohamed and Ahmed said it was prayer time and time for them to go.

Assad Enters Arab Idol

Bashar Assad trying to repair his battered reputation has entered the auditions for this year's Arab Idol, with the rumour being that he will audition in Qatar as all theatres and microphones have been destroyed in Syria.

Assad via Skype gave an angry defence of his position to livinginqatarfree blog, 'The world has got it all wrong about me, I'm kind, gentle and I stroke fluffly bunnies. No one who has heard my version of Frank Sinatra's My Way have ever left the room without a tear in their eye. All these nasty rumours that the terrorists in Syria spread about me are all lies, the people love me and what to hear my beautiful voice once more. I told Gaddafi once if he could perform like the Prodigy doing a version of Smack My Bitch Up, the rebellion against him would have finished by lunchtime. However he choose to ignore my glorious words of advice and returned to playing World Of Warcraft.'

LivingfreeinQatar pressed him further asking what outfit would he wear and what would be his chosen song, Assad answer. 'The Beatles were all about peace and love but for me, Elvis was the man of true love. Even the 70s incarnation, overweight and silver jumpsuits the love just poured out of him like too many cheeseburgers. I will open up with Love Me Tender and finish with a rousing rendition of Suspicious Minds while removing my trousers and throwing them into the loving crowd. It's what I call my love embrace finish when I come with joy to the masses. This will show the true face of Assad and the love I have for all people'

Meanwhile it is understood that Qatar will fund all other Arab Idol contestants against Assad, providing them with a budget of 2 million dollars each for clothers, lighting, exotic dancers and shwarmas. A spokeman who did not wish to be named said, 'that'll fuck him, if he thinks he can come here while we are waging war in Syria against him and prance around like a homosexual he has another thing coming'

Qatar Accidently Buys France

Today the world stands stun as the Qatar Investment Authority accidently bought the whole of France. The Qatari Prime Minister, HH Sheik Hamad gave an emotional interview to LivingfreeinQatar blog.

'We had a clear strategy as regards to France, first we bought some small companies, then we wanted a football team so the nice Mr Sarzkozy suggest we buy Paris St Germain the team he supports. All that was going really well and then someone suggested over Shisha lets buy all the cheese in France. Why not I thought, I'm always partial to a little brie with my karak chai. Next thing I know we are handed the deeds to France itself, it turns out that the only thing of value left in France was the cheese and they had secured the national debt against their EU fancy cheese mountain.'

When asked what's was Qatar's plans with France and was there anything sinister behind this move, the PM responded.

'No, no, no. It's not something we wanted to do and we have no plans to change France at all. However we do have the problem of 80 million frenchmen. We call the British PM to see if he wanted them and he said no way, the German Chancellor also turned us down saying they tried that once but it didn't end well. I guess I will just have to get used to shrugging my shoulders and turning my nose up at the British. We might try and auction off the bits we do not want, but the market is depressed for Frenchmen, arrogrant French Women and phallic shaped bread so I guess we will have to hold on until the price is right'

After the complete takeover of France, Italy has put it's salami on the not for sale list, the Swiss their cuckoo clocks but the Spainish said they will sell themselves to whoever wants them as long as they don't expect them to have to take jobs.

As the world gets used to the new reality of Chanel designing the Thobes and Abayas of the GCC, the UN is asking which country is next?

Totally unenforceable and just wrong

Interesting story in the Peninisular about Qatar drafting a law making it an offence to insult religions and they want this to be taken up by the UN and into international law.

What a pointless waste of time for the following points

1. Who decides what religions are protected?
2. Who decides what an insult is?
3. Do atheists also classify for protection who may be insulted by religious references?
4. What are the punishments for having an opinion that is deemed an insult?
If god is all powerful and all knowing does he need protection?
5. Why do religions deserve special protection? Why not footballers supporters whose teams are insulted by opposing fans?
6. When being a believer in one religion contradicts the beliefs of another and is considered insulting which religm takes precedent?
7. How do you enforce such a stupid law, especially in countries where freedom of speech is considered a basic human right?
8. How do you safeguard the people against misuse? In history it has been shown that such laws have been used to target political opponents and crush dissent, this can be used in religious dictatorships such as Saudi and Iran to justify the imprisonment of undesirables.....

Qatar please wake up and do not pander to the violent, vocal minority who wish to take away. Individual freedoms. Freedom of worship is a basic human right, freedom to disagree on even matters of religion is also.

http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/latest-news/211304-qatar-to-draft-law-banning-insult-to-religions-minister-.html

Enemies of Women

I really didn't want to write about Pakistan again but this was too much to ignore. For someone to shoot a 14 year old girl who wanted to promote education for young girls is beyond despicable. Again it either comes down to misguided religious beliefs or is a power play. These evil men and they are nearly always men, know that education for women will free them and allow them to develop in society. Education is the greatest gift but they know it will lead to questioning of their religious dogma and eventually the rejecting of their ideas of rule. If that happens the game is over for them and they lose power.

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Ziauddin Yousafzai said doctors estimated 14-year-old Malala still had only a 50% chance of survival.

She was shot as she travelled home from school on Tuesday.

The Pakistan Taliban claimed responsibility and said Malala, who sprang to prominence for a blog describing life under extremist rule and for her campaign to get more girls into school, was guilty of preaching "secularism". A spokesman said they would try to kill her again if she survived.

Mr Yousafzai told The Daily Telegraph he was grateful for international support but said his daughter still needed the worldﾒs prayers.

"They should pray for her early recovery and support the army's campaign against Taliban. They should help us to rebuild the Taliban-damaged schools," he said.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/9601934/Pray-for-my-daughter-says-father-of-schoolgirl-shot-by-Taliban.html

Does Israel want peace?

It is something that is often overlooked, much is talked about the plight of the Palestinians but do the Israeli's actually want a peace for themselves and a peaceful neighbour?

The evidence currently is that the Israeli government does not want peace in the region, in fact instability suits their aims. While Syria is in turmoil and Lebanon goes through its usual period of imploding and with eyes on the rest of the Arab Spring, Israel goes on building settlement on what is established in various peace processes as Palestinian land. Not only that they continue the blockade of the Gaza strip, ok some of the people that live there are not angels but starving them into submission will only backfire.

In fact another factor is also overlooked. The two pieces of Palestine would not really make a viable state in the two state solution proposed without being propped up with outside help.

The only viable solution for the Palestine’s and Israelis, if they truly want peace, is a one state solution. A new state for all and with religious freedom for all, a secular state if you will that defends the rights of those that see their most holy sites in that land. A new state of enough land mass to be viable and supported by both the Americans and the Gulf Arabs.