[DEFEATED] Freedom Of Language Act (by South St Maarten)

[Farwood]

Robotic Overlord Stanley Tweedle desires everyone in his country to speak the same language for the sake of convenience. Community-specific secondary signage is all well and good as the Robotic Overlord acknowledges the existence of ethnic and immigrant communities, but does not condone citizens being given carte blanche to post signs, banners, advertisements, et cetera, in whatever cockamamie lingua populi they happen to desire. It's already hard enough keeping hobo signs and gang-related graffiti out of communities.

[Yohannes]

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It is my pleasure to stand in support of the principle behind the drafting of this Resolution At Vote, but sadly not this proposed piece of legislation as it currently stands. Parliament has therefore voted AGAINST the General Assembly Resolution At Vote: Freedom Of Language Act. However, I congratulate the Ambassador of South St. Maarten and the government of His Royal Highness the King Edward the Third, on caring so much about the cause of freedom of opinion and the principle of freedom of expression.

Her Excellency Elisa Wake, Emperor’s Counsel
World Assembly Ambassador of Yohannes

[Fauxia]

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It is my pleasure to stand in support of the principle behind the drafting of this Resolution At Vote, but sadly not this proposed piece of legislation as it currently stands. Parliament has therefore voted AGAINST the General Assembly Resolution At Vote: Freedom Of Language Act. However, I congratulate the Ambassador of South St. Maarten and the government of His Royal Highness the King Edward the Third, on caring so much about the cause of freedom of opinion and the principle of freedom of expression.

Her Excellency Elisa Wake, Emperor’s Counsel
World Assembly Ambassador of Yohannes

“This has nothing to do with freedom of opinion or speech, ambassador.”

[Yohannes]

“This has nothing to do with freedom of opinion or speech, ambassador.”

the principle of freedom of expression.

have been denied the right to publish text in certain languages:

denial of that right is a violation of the freedom of expression:

denial of that right is a violation of the freedom of expression:

It is my pleasure to stand in support of the principle

of freedom of expression.

denial of that right is a violation of the freedom of expression:

but sadly not this proposed piece of legislation as it currently stands.

Her Excellency Elisa Wake, Emperor’s Counsel
World Assembly Ambassador of Yohannes

[Deropia]

OOC: Dude, was it nessicary to put the 'denial of that right is a violation of the freedom of expression:' so many times?

[Fauxia]

“This has nothing to do with freedom of opinion or speech, ambassador.”

the principle of freedom of expression.

have been denied the right to publish text in certain languages:

denial of that right is a violation of the freedom of expression:

denial of that right is a violation of the freedom of expression:

It is my pleasure to stand in support of the principle

of freedom of expression.

denial of that right is a violation of the freedom of expression:

but sadly not this proposed piece of legislation as it currently stands.

Her Excellency Elisa Wake, Emperor’s Counsel
World Assembly Ambassador of Yohannes

Wrong. Language used is not opinion.

[Yohannes]

Wrong. Language used is not opinion.

"Ambassador of Fauxia: very good observation! I'm impressed. Tell that to the author of the Resolution At Vote. Not us."

Her Excellency Elisa Wake, Emperor’s Counsel
World Assembly Ambassador of Yohannes

[FreethinkingAnarchists ResidingWherever]

This proposal is the first good one in the WA for weeks.

Support freedom. Vote for it.

[FreethinkingAnarchists ResidingWherever]

to all who vote against, learn to use the damn translator!

Agreed!

[Willania Imperium]

This proposal is the first good one in the WA for weeks.

Support freedom. Vote for it.

"It wasn't drafted, it has crap reasons, and it looks like medal grabbing. What's so important about it?"

[Wallenburg]

This proposal is the first good one in the WA for weeks.

Support freedom. Vote for it.

This is what looks good to you? Not "Convention on Internet Neutrality"? Not even fucking "Ban on Secret Treaties"?

[Kayem]

I cannot see why so many are voting against this proposal - although it could result in obscure languages being used, if one person translates them it could be published easily in another.

Hang on a minute! You don’t have time to traslate a road sign when you are driving, confusion amongst citizens could actually have fatal results. A Nation State should have the right to have their own national language(s) without being forced to adopt ‘any’ language. The proposed act is way to broad and would need to be ammended and specified so as it stands I am against it.

[The Nordic 5]

The 5 Scandinavians whispered for a good long while, before breaking away and having Matthias say, "We actually support the proposal, to a point. I'm thinking we do multilingual road signs, like in Danish, Swedish, and more, in every language so everyone's welcome!" Berwald nodded, and Tino said, "And advertisements can be in any language, it's the ad maker's choice! The other two were quietly talking to each other, probably thinking of something else to say, but they seemed to be speaking a different language. Norwegian and Icelandic by the sound of it, if you knew your Scandinavian languages well enough.

[Sierra Lyricalia]

Wrong. Language used is not opinion.

"I can think of a number of counterexamples, though the ones you'd be most familiar with are the 'Welsh' and 'American Indian' language suppressions in the backstory of the popular MMORPG 'Real Life.' Where the very words you use are outlawed, telling your children you love them is a revolutionary act."

"Don't get me wrong, this proposal is not at all well written. But the underlying motivation is a good one."

[The Protestant Union]

We do not need this act in our multi-lingual union, neither do we care to incorporate more languages that the ones we already have. We allready have like 10 languages

[Fauxia]

Wrong. Language used is not opinion.

"I can think of a number of counterexamples, though the ones you'd be most familiar with are the 'Welsh' and 'American Indian' language suppressions in the backstory of the popular MMORPG 'Real Life.' Where the very words you use are outlawed, telling your children you love them is a revolutionary act."

"Don't get me wrong, this proposal is not at all well written. But the underlying motivation is a good one."

OOC: Was that both IC and OOC, or all IC? Judging by the mention of Wales and American Indian, both.

IC: “You have a fair point, ambassador. I would say I’d support a bill decriminalizing this, but that’s pretty much legalization. That said, I don’t necessarily support the publishing of texts in other languages to be forced.”

[The Nordic 5]

We do not need this act in our multi-lingual union, neither do we care to incorporate more languages that the ones we already have. We allready have like 10 languages

The Danish man nudged one of his whispering colleagues, Emil, who looked up. "10 languages, I understand where you're going. Our commonwealth had multiple languages from English to Swedish, Finnish, Icelandic, and more. What my colleague was talking about was multilingual road signs, written in a multitude of languages." Matthias nodded.

[Fauxia]

We do not need this act in our multi-lingual union, neither do we care to incorporate more languages that the ones we already have. We allready have like 10 languages

“Ambassador, I am opposed to the resolution, but this is an awful argument. This is about freedom to publish text, first of all, not forcing bilingualism on nations, mainly, besides the one clause. But just because your nation already does something doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make other nations do it too, at least according to the WA! This is the point of the WA! If everyone agreed with you, the GA would not exist!”

[The Noble Atlantic States]

Allthough English is widely considered to be the new Lingua Franca, that doesn't mean it's an easy language. In fact it is quite a difficult language to learn. For a start the vocabulary is far more extensive than most languages. English contains approx. 500,000 words, whereas French only has 180,000. Admittedly many English words are taken directly from French. The grammar is also considered to be more complicated as it has a lot of tenses and exceptions. If people want to speak English, fine. But let's not entirely give up on learning other foreign languages, as it can be quite fun to seek simmilarities between seemingly different languages.

[Fauxia]

Allthough English is widely considered to be the new Lingua Franca, that doesn't mean it's an easy language. In fact it is quite a difficult language to learn. For a start the vocabulary is far more extensive than most languages. English contains approx. 500,000 words, whereas French only has 180,000. Admittedly many English words are taken directly from French. The grammar is also considered to be more complicated as it has a lot of tenses and exceptions. If people want to speak English, fine. But let's not entirely give up on learning other foreign languages, as it can be quite fun to seek simmilarities between seemingly different languages.

OOC: Not all these nations speak English anyway. But number of words is a) far from defining what is a difficult language, and b) what counts as a word? Pretty sure Chinese has more words than English, but English has the rep of being the hardest language. In any case, this doesn’t force nations to teach their children foreign languages

[Lt Col Tahir Hussain]

Why is the resolution not being passed ? That's bad !

[Fauxia]

:meh: Why is the resolution not being passed ? That's bad !

Most of the time, the GA doesn’t pass badly written resolutions. Marriage Equality is a rare exception

[The Protestant Union]

As my nation is a loose HRE type state with autonomous states and around 10 spoken languages, this act is not applicable to me. I choose to vote against it because on a technicality, this could be used to justify a state having to adopt hundreds of official languages. Clear it up and define things better and next time I might vote in favour.

- In the name of the Union of Protestant State Churches.

[Brad Lands]

As a member state of The Free Nations Region I believe that there should be no restrictions on who can publish text. Everyone should be allowed to read anything they choose. if you do not like something being published or languages that are being written in do not buy the works and they will not make money and will not publish anymore. I understand that many members of the World Assembly are not as supportive of diversity and freedoms but I beg of you to please support this Act. I also would like it to be known that each individual state can set their own national language(s) if they so choose. I believe that this Act sets forth the potential to be more diverse and supportive of all.

[FreethinkingAnarchists ResidingWherever]

:meh: Why is the resolution not being passed ? That's bad !

Agreed!