Feb 22, 2017 02:10 AM
US resumes its provocative actions in sea
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/201...295577.htm
EXCERPT: The USS Carl Vinson Nimitz-class carrier strike group has begun patrolling the South China Sea, proving the speculation over the past few days was true. On Feb 12, the US Navy Times reported that the United States Navy was planning to dispatch warships to the South China Sea for "freedom of navigation" operations－in a move apparently meant to challenge China's sovereignty claims over some islands and reefs in those waters.
In response to the US Navy's anticipated provocative move, Chinese Foreign Ministry reiterated China's indisputable sovereignty over the South China Sea islands and adjacent waters. Beijing has consistently respected every country's right to freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea in accordance with international law, but it firmly opposes any country's attempt to undermine China's sovereignty and security.
Despite China's strong opposition, the US Navy announced the nuclear-powered USS Carl Vinson began "routine operations in the South China Sea" on Saturday. This is the first time after the inauguration of Donald Trump as US president that a US Nimitz-class carrier strike group has sailed into the South China Sea.
Thanks to the joint efforts of China and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the situation in the South China Sea had started to stabilize. Given this important fact, any responsible power should have welcomed the development and made efforts to help the different parties maintain the positive momentum.
But the US has its own agenda. By dispatching the USS Carl Vinson to the contentious waters, the Trump administration has signaled that it has no intention of respecting the regional countries' efforts to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea. Yet by doing so, the US has made the international community realize that its so-called freedom of navigation operation is nothing but an effort to hide its real intention....
Warning: Canada is not what you think it is
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion...10262.html
EXCERPT: . . . if you believe Canada is a pretty, picture-postcard Islamophobia-free zone, then I recommend you stop reading this column. You're about to be profoundly disappointed, shocked, or both. Scratch its inviting surface and you will discover quickly that, as in most other Western democracies, Islamophobia is not only alive and rampant in Canada, but it has long been a defining characteristic of at least one of its major political parties and large swaths of the country's corporate media.
[...] What to do about the Islamophobia that was stoked into a raging bonfire by some of the very politicians and media that were pleading - with all the faux solemnity they could muster - for harmony and understanding? Wisely sceptical of the flowery rhetoric, the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) - a prominent voice for Canada's Muslim community - has written an open letter to politicians of all persuasions, urging them to take concrete steps to confront Islamophobia and racism and discrimination that exists plainly in their midst....
Why does English outpace vernacular languages?
http://www.tribuneindia.com/mobi/news/co...67245.html
EXCERPT: A few years ago, the fabled entrepreneur and the founder of that middle-class dream and place of aspiration, Infosys, the redoubtable NR Narayana Murthy spoke about how English offered a competitive advantage that his own native language, Kannada did not offer. He was quite content to do away with vernacular-medium education in preference to English medium education, he said. This raised the hackles of many scholars who stated their obvious discomfort with such a position and were appalled that such a public figure as Narayana Murthy had gone public with such a statement.
Today, things have come to a dangerous tipping point. English has completely invaded our lives and sensibilities. Regular pleas for the resurrection of Indian languages abound. Decidedly, English has become a marker of socio-economic privilege and in that sense, it is more than a language in today's India. It is a symbol of aspiration and of having “arrived”. And in a manner of speaking, it is the wrong kind of symbol.
Indian languages have become identified with backwardness and English with modernity. It's a significant loss. It would not bode well for our society to lose these languages, which is the way we seem to be headed. Also, given that English was implicit in the imperial project makes it even more problematic that it should occupy such a pride of place in a post-colonial society.
Yet, it would be wise to unpack what lurks beneath an otherwise benign-sounding term “vernacular”. In doing so, it might become clearer why it would be a half-truth to view English as something of a boa constrictor that is consuming the Indian vernaculars. While many nativists might want to imagine otherwise, the way our regional and linguistic identities have been constructed is as problematic as the creeping influence of English on our lives. And often, this has resulted in a form of violence that is as serious as the violence that the pre-eminence of English is doing to Indian languages....
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/201...295577.htm
EXCERPT: The USS Carl Vinson Nimitz-class carrier strike group has begun patrolling the South China Sea, proving the speculation over the past few days was true. On Feb 12, the US Navy Times reported that the United States Navy was planning to dispatch warships to the South China Sea for "freedom of navigation" operations－in a move apparently meant to challenge China's sovereignty claims over some islands and reefs in those waters.
In response to the US Navy's anticipated provocative move, Chinese Foreign Ministry reiterated China's indisputable sovereignty over the South China Sea islands and adjacent waters. Beijing has consistently respected every country's right to freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea in accordance with international law, but it firmly opposes any country's attempt to undermine China's sovereignty and security.
Despite China's strong opposition, the US Navy announced the nuclear-powered USS Carl Vinson began "routine operations in the South China Sea" on Saturday. This is the first time after the inauguration of Donald Trump as US president that a US Nimitz-class carrier strike group has sailed into the South China Sea.
Thanks to the joint efforts of China and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the situation in the South China Sea had started to stabilize. Given this important fact, any responsible power should have welcomed the development and made efforts to help the different parties maintain the positive momentum.
But the US has its own agenda. By dispatching the USS Carl Vinson to the contentious waters, the Trump administration has signaled that it has no intention of respecting the regional countries' efforts to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea. Yet by doing so, the US has made the international community realize that its so-called freedom of navigation operation is nothing but an effort to hide its real intention....
Warning: Canada is not what you think it is
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion...10262.html
EXCERPT: . . . if you believe Canada is a pretty, picture-postcard Islamophobia-free zone, then I recommend you stop reading this column. You're about to be profoundly disappointed, shocked, or both. Scratch its inviting surface and you will discover quickly that, as in most other Western democracies, Islamophobia is not only alive and rampant in Canada, but it has long been a defining characteristic of at least one of its major political parties and large swaths of the country's corporate media.
[...] What to do about the Islamophobia that was stoked into a raging bonfire by some of the very politicians and media that were pleading - with all the faux solemnity they could muster - for harmony and understanding? Wisely sceptical of the flowery rhetoric, the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) - a prominent voice for Canada's Muslim community - has written an open letter to politicians of all persuasions, urging them to take concrete steps to confront Islamophobia and racism and discrimination that exists plainly in their midst....
Why does English outpace vernacular languages?
http://www.tribuneindia.com/mobi/news/co...67245.html
EXCERPT: A few years ago, the fabled entrepreneur and the founder of that middle-class dream and place of aspiration, Infosys, the redoubtable NR Narayana Murthy spoke about how English offered a competitive advantage that his own native language, Kannada did not offer. He was quite content to do away with vernacular-medium education in preference to English medium education, he said. This raised the hackles of many scholars who stated their obvious discomfort with such a position and were appalled that such a public figure as Narayana Murthy had gone public with such a statement.
Today, things have come to a dangerous tipping point. English has completely invaded our lives and sensibilities. Regular pleas for the resurrection of Indian languages abound. Decidedly, English has become a marker of socio-economic privilege and in that sense, it is more than a language in today's India. It is a symbol of aspiration and of having “arrived”. And in a manner of speaking, it is the wrong kind of symbol.
Indian languages have become identified with backwardness and English with modernity. It's a significant loss. It would not bode well for our society to lose these languages, which is the way we seem to be headed. Also, given that English was implicit in the imperial project makes it even more problematic that it should occupy such a pride of place in a post-colonial society.
Yet, it would be wise to unpack what lurks beneath an otherwise benign-sounding term “vernacular”. In doing so, it might become clearer why it would be a half-truth to view English as something of a boa constrictor that is consuming the Indian vernaculars. While many nativists might want to imagine otherwise, the way our regional and linguistic identities have been constructed is as problematic as the creeping influence of English on our lives. And often, this has resulted in a form of violence that is as serious as the violence that the pre-eminence of English is doing to Indian languages....