Chirac flees summit in a fury over use of English

[civman2000]

Originally posted by Gatekeeper


'Tis true, India — with its population projected to surpass even that of China in the next 20 to 30 years — is another potential Goliath. Hmm. Perhaps a future world will have six power blocs:

1. China/India
1. India/China
3. North America
4. European Union
5. Russia
6. Argentina

That, of course, leaves the Middle East and Africa on the outside looking in, unless something radical changes for the better in those areas.

Gatekeeper

I'd remove the European Union and Argentina from that list. I highly doubt Europe will get united enough to really be a "power bloc". 90 years ago, everyone thought Argentina was the future: booming economy, massive influx of immigrants, and for the first time, real democracy. Then Argentina failed to become the economic powerhouse people expected it to become and has never been a serious global power since. It's called the "Miracle of Argentine Underdevelopment," and there's no strong reason to expect any major change in Argentina's status.

[Drogue]

Originally posted by Gatekeeper
*tsk* I know it's hard for the Western world to accept, but accept it, it must: Chinese will become the global language of the future, either by economic necessity ... or at the business end of a bayonet.

Gatekeeper

("Oh, no! The Russians, err, Chinese are coming, the Chinese are coming!")

And they speak English. As do the Indians. I wouldn't be surprised if English remains the world language, with China and India as the two largest superpowers. How else would they communicate?

[Barnabas]

Argentina? lol it has only 37 million people

Brazil which has 180 million people and growing is the big power here, altough Argentina will most likely remain the wealthies per capita country in latin america with chile.

[Jaguar]

Originally posted by Kidicious
I find this difficult to comprehend.

Kind of like economics?

[OzzyKP]

o snap

[Flip McWho]

Not really. Bush is only in power by the barest bit over fifty percent of the vote, and he only got his power and kept it this long through the stunning incompetence of the Democrats.

Does that actually mean anything though. I mean sure he's losing his majority but its not actually gonna result in an election. He's still gonna see out his term almost regardless of what the polls say.

[DaShi]

Originally posted by VetLegion
Well I'm not pissed off, I'm just curious how does one get such a skewed picture of Europe. Please don't tell me mainstraim media in the US portrays it like that.

No, it just portrays Europe as full of pooftahs.

[DRoseDARs]

Originally posted by Flip McWho


Does that actually mean anything though. I mean sure he's losing his majority but its not actually gonna result in an election. He's still gonna see out his term almost regardless of what the polls say.

"A Republican Congress is not going to impeach a Republican President."



Perhaps if the Democrats take majority in both the House and Senate in November, but I'm not holding my breath.

[Sandman]

Originally posted by Elok
Maudlin victimization? Arru? Who are you saying I'm saying is the victim? I thought I was just claiming that your civilization and way of life were dying of old age and so on. That, and the thing about your declining population, which really does seem to be a problem in all seriousness. We're having problems supporting the Baby Boomers in the U.S., but over there it appears you just aren't having enough kids to sustain the population (at least in a lot of countries, according to all the statistics I've seen). That's not just a temporary economic problem, it means eventual extinction.

After that it was just the bleary half-nihilism of people like Camus, followed by a slew of pompous deconstructionists. America is beginning to catch the same rot, but it's got you down to the core. When we look for unmerited pretension and failed pride, our heads turn eastwards.

Oh, you fat, overbearing brute across the pond.

[Flip McWho]

"A Republican Congress is not going to impeach a Republican President."



Perhaps if the Democrats take majority in both the House and Senate in November, but I'm not holding my breath.

Yeah I doubt we'll ever get rid of bush prior to his planned exit date. Mores the pity. Though we don't want whoever replaces him to be even more of a prat.

[DRoseDARs]

Senate majority leader Sen. Bill Frist charged the other day that Senate minority leader Sen. Harry Reid wouldn't rule out impeaching President Bush. Senator Reid shot back, "Quite frankly I'd probably rule it out because the only President who could possibly be worse than George Bush would be Dick Cheney."

Reid may not be perfect as minority leader, but that was awesome.

[Flip McWho]

Yeah thats a good comeback

[SpencerH]

India and China will not become superpowers for a very long time (if ever). We'll run out of freely available fossil fuels long before that time and the lack of cheap power will severly slowdown their modernization.

[Drake Tungsten]

I know it's hard for the Western world to accept, but accept it, it must: Chinese will become the global language of the future, either by economic necessity ... or at the business end of a bayonet.

Chinese will never be a global language. The writing system is too ridiculous.

[DanS]

I agree with this. Maybe if they changed to an alphabet like pin-yin or Korean characters.

But even if they changed, I think the tonal nature of the language is a big hindrance. Few others have a tonal language, so it's something that has to be learned from scratch.