Dan Lamerik ena li. Parti Demokrat ek Parti Repiblikin. Sa de la tu letan mate ek prezidan sorti depi en sa de parti la. Moris nu pa fin ena sa. Se ki nwena se rekonfigirasyon 4-5 parti dan de lalyans ki sanze a traver letan. Mem an 1967 pa ti vreman ena li parski dan Parti Lindepandans tiena Ptr, IFB ek CAM.
Par kont se kin arive depi 2005 se ki nun retruv nu ek ban Parlman byin regresif ki ti pur reprezantasyon proporsyonel (PR) ek ban politik iltra-liberal. Ptr su Navin Ramgoolam fin trayir ban valer sa parti ki ti lager pu lindepandans ek don nu leta providans. Setadir li pur PR, flat tax kin kas lekonomi ek li pa fin kon byin antur li. MMM usi mekonesab ek nepli ena nanye interesan pu ofer Moris. Ek depi 2015 nun truve ki MSM usi fin vin en parti neoliberal ek fin pratik ban politik bankal kin kontinye kul Moris ek pena respe pu lanatir. Tu sa la fin an parti arive parski ban parti la ena manb infliyan ki ena lintere dan offshore ek zot gayn finansman korporatif inportan.
Bon nuvel se ki lelektora fin kontinye vin pli malin.
Par kont se kin arive depi 2005 se ki nun retruv nu ek ban Parlman byin regresif ki ti pur reprezantasyon proporsyonel (PR) ek ban politik iltra-liberal. Ptr su Navin Ramgoolam fin trayir ban valer sa parti ki ti lager pu lindepandans ek don nu leta providans. Setadir li pur PR, flat tax kin kas lekonomi ek li pa fin kon byin antur li. MMM usi mekonesab ek nepli ena nanye interesan pu ofer Moris. Ek depi 2015 nun truve ki MSM usi fin vin en parti neoliberal ek fin pratik ban politik bankal kin kontinye kul Moris ek pena respe pu lanatir. Tu sa la fin an parti arive parski ban parti la ena manb infliyan ki ena lintere dan offshore ek zot gayn finansman korporatif inportan.
Bon nuvel se ki lelektora fin kontinye vin pli malin.
18 comments:
I can't read this easily enough! Maybe you can write drug/medicine leaflets in creole too?
You’ll get use to it. You just need a little practice. This should help. https://www.lalitmauritius.org/en/dictionary.html
No, I don't think so. This obsessive overemphasis on creole is misguided -- too many people who understand little about the nuts and bolts of language and how it interacts with the pursuits of life (intellect, science, society etc.)have been talking nonsense to the point that it has now become an emotional topic -- rationalist and dispassionate argument have no room.
There are valid reasons as to why creole should not be formalised. Our mother tongue is already serving us well in its oral form and tradition. But this is not the place and time for me to explain this in detail. I however understand your point -- it is all affective/emotional although you may or may not accept it.
You can be brief in English about why kreol shouldn’t be formalised.
Well here is another short-cut so we ''cut to the chase'': try (or get others to try)to teach ophthalmology (the 7 yrs course one does after the MBBS/MCChB)course in the creole medium.
Any lingua-franca of the day belongs to humanity -- be it English/French/Hindi. These have all the ingredients needed to advance the frontiers of knowledge/culture/science etc. Creole, with many other ''languages'' are not rich enough (yet)to take us ahead. Look, as I said this is an emotive issue for many people, and unless all the arguments are put on the table it will be next to impossible to get people to agree on fundamentals. All languages and ''languages'' are valuable (e.g. I think all languages were included on the 1976 voyager disk)but it doesn't mean that each and every one of these are robust enough to be used as tools for serious business.
And just for fun - try translating Thomas Nagel's ''what is it like to be bat'' into creole. Look, I have immense admiration for Lalit but that focus on creole is just sadly such a waste of energy. Anyway, sorry I can't expound more on here. For now all I should say is that I am not one of those who like to re-invent the wheel. Creole is my mother tongue, it is an oral medium and I am proud of what it stands for as a proto-language.
I see no big obstacle in teaching ophthalmology or any other discipline in kreol. In fact when I had CFA seminars of candidates that were 100% Mauritian, I’ve taught in kreol. Done this for many years. And it made the learning experience even better. Kreol should definitely be allowed as an optional medium of instruction in Mauritius. It would be the most natural thing to do considering that 90% or more of us speak it at home. We can use books in English but supplement explanations in kreol.
Reading a lot in kreol is a bit difficult for many people because we don’t have enough practice. This is changing. Our brains will adapt quickly. Just like they did learning those horrible French accents. Plus people already use it to write on FB, in emails and to text.
I was like you too. Then a friend sent me an email in kreol. I responded in a kind of French-Kreol and after a few iterations it got a lot better. A few years down the road I was able to write this http://kozelidir.blogspot.com/2012/07/ki-groser-enn-telefon-bizin-ete.html and more recently this http://morisk.blogspot.com/2018/08/freymwurk-pu-analiz-dekolonizasyon.html which is a write up of a 100%-kreol presentation I gave at a Lalit symposium.
Just go your own pace and you will see what happens. Who knows, you might be writing beautiful leaflets in kreol soon?
Back to the subject matter: the bi-polar political regime is a myth in Mauritius simply because one policy is being promoted and sustained without question since the early 90's: that of allowing the popyétérr of large conglomerates to maintain the status quo on their sense of privilege abetted and aided by kess-nwar managed by the sirdars who are fed with crumbs falling off their table, branded as 'unprecedented generosity' - sirdar lifestyle fed by company cars, pie-dan-lo property, prestige/asset vantage/select banking facilities, you name as long as you feel 'whiter', meaning, managing your anger as a plebeian by giving you glimpse of colonial privilege.
This system will be maintained as such until the time comes that we open our eyes collectively: that our land is not the property of these 1%. That privilege (theirs and those of the sirdars - any form of privilege, in fact) needs to be put in check by the strict application of the rule of law - san get figirr.
Otherwise, the sirdars will continue make you believe that 'san bann-la, pena developman', la-lang kreol pena valerr sa, flat tax ki kree rissess, rissess kree zis par bann-la zot bizness, donk bizin privatiz tou, socio-kiltirel ki pli gran risk, etc. bref, nek ena pou ekoutt radio-sirdar Rweydjo-wouaann pou konpran ki kalité sosyété ki bann sirdar oulé pou zott bann mettr...
Regarding our mother tongue: I too wrote kreol with French words, and also disliked the idea of a standardised grammar. Especially when someone explained how his children found it difficult to make the transition from grafi larmoni to French language. But the déclic came during a conversation with a schoolteacher telling me: French language at school has no other purpose than passing the French language exams, nothing else. Excelling in French language either makes you a French language teacher at best or an entry-level journalist, but nothing else. It pained me, an Alliance Française buff, to have to accept that, but she was right, absolutely. This was the domino that made me realise that each country has its own language or dialect, and delivers knowledge in that same medium of expression. If there is a need to import knowledge, they invest in learning a foreign language - usually the former coloniser's language or another. It's no use killing local dialects (Singapore) as a new one will spring up naturally...
A bon entendeur, salut!
''Excelling in French language either makes you a French language teacher at best or an entry-level journalist, but nothing else. It pained me, an Alliance Française buff, to have to accept that, but she was right, absolutely. This was the domino that made me realise that each country has its own language or dialect, and delivers knowledge in that same medium of expression. If there is a need to import knowledge, they invest in learning a foreign language - usually the former coloniser's language or another. It's no use killing local dialects (Singapore) as a new one will spring up naturally...''
This is exactly the sort of thinking/reasoning I feared/dreaded in my comments above when I said people get irrational and emotive about such issues. Anyway, the simplistic reasoning speaks for itself. One can only hope that for those who wish it, they should have the option of using creole exclusively wherever they want it, be it in the courts, parliament, hospitals etc. And they should then respect the choice of others too.
There’s nothing emotive here. It’s a natural thing for people to speak and write kreol. And we don’t have to speak it exclusively (squeezing in some more sarcasm here my friend?). We can speak as much or as little as we want. It’s also ridiculous thatkreol can’t be used in our parliament when we know in which language electoral campaigns are carried out. Are there any other countries where this kind of nonsense happens?
Btw, how much progress did you make on our labels?
Of course it is natural to speak Creole. Didn't I say it is my mother tongue.
Here you hit the nail on its head '' We can speak as much or as little as we want''
Which brings it to one fundamental point: creole is a mere derivation of French or English (I say English because we can't help it now that it has become and parcel of our idiolect (think about the word ''learner/licence'', i.e. we hardly say ''permis de conduire'')and we naturally have to transliterate from another language to ''create'' a new creole word each time we are faced with a paucity of words/terms/idioms/etc. Now, think about it -- it is hardly a language ,is it? So in the end all we end up with is a never-ending dictionary which will be of no use because language is grounded in culture and use(think frequency!!) of terms. As I said above, creole lacks the requisite vocabulary -- it might grow but that can't be goal-directed ...it has to follow its natural course and that will take a long time. It might get there one day but it can't be propelled by mere ideology.
Seriously, I'm baffled by your questions. Stick to the fundamentals dear friend.
Kreol has a bright future because 9/10 speak it at home. It has its own vocabulary and idioms. ‘Lin met lisyin pu vey sosis’. And a very good and free dictionary thanks to Lalit. It is following its natural course.
Follow yours. And you’ll be writing your own leaflets soon.
@ Anonymous of 20 August, 2019 12:36
What is emotional and/or irrational in stating a fact (that a teacher told me that French only helps you to become a French language teacher or an entry-level journalist - nothing wrong here)? What part of a fact don't you understand? What is simplistic about that?
@ Anonymous of 20 August, 2019 13:50
"creole is a mere derivation of"
it is hardly a language ,is it?
Now that's precisely the litmus test of a sirdar: to disparage, minimise, or insult whatever does not match his narrow (read: colonial) viewpoint. Bravo...
"we naturally have to transliterate from another language to ''create'' a new creole word each time we are faced with a paucity of words/terms/idioms/etc"
All (I repeat: ALL) languages do this. The most prolific at absorbing foreign words is English because of its exposure, it's certainly a positive. For kreol too: it feeds from others, just like others. Hopefully not like the French which will take ages before its dogmatic Académie accepts, say, feminisation of nouns like 'madame la Ministre' or 'chercheuse'...
"I'm baffled by your questions."
Yes, be prepared to be continuously baffled by the myth-busting, taboo-challenging habit of this blog, and others too.
This seems to be your fixation ''And you’ll be writing your own leaflets soon'' almost meaning you're cajoling me into writing and reading creole when there are other options that are almost as natural as creole. One of the main reason that reading creole is unnatural is that there's a disconnect between the phonological and the lexical ...
Anyway, nice talking to you.
Its own vocabulary and idioms you say? Well some are translations: ''fox guarding the hen house''. Sure it has some unique ones too.
Well, like you I hope it will grow. Keep contributing to the dictionary.
Have you been stung by a tsetse fly recently?
Just a last time replying to Akagugo:
This is simplistic and childish
1. ''Excelling in French language either makes you a French language teacher at best or an entry-level journalist, but nothing else''
2, reading colonial overtones in all and sundry
No, we don't systematically transliterate, we mainly translate. Of course when languages share root-origins the equivalent word might seem/sound identical otherwise we get different words conveying the same meaning although accuracy is still a moot point ...
Too much theory not enough practice. Can you please write something in kreol? One sentence is enough.
Resi truve ki lisyin pa manz sosis pre ek fox guarding the hen house. Kav li pa oper dan en lanvironman an kreol uswa pe fer zes.
@ Anonymous of 20 August, 2019 15:22
"try (or get others to try)to teach ophthalmology (the 7 yrs course one does after the MBBS/MCChB)course in the creole medium."
The medium does not matter, as long as the subject matter is conveyed while abiding my the most stringent scientific rigour that the discipline demands - Ophthalmology is taught in Spanish in Spain, Russian in Russia, etc. and the result is the same: people get trained to become ophtalmologists to treat other people. So, someday, this subject, like anything else, may be taught in Kreol in Mauritius for Mauritians, and we can start any time. If they need to practice elsewhere, they'll need a conversion course for the specific country they need (in the US, doctors from one state may re-do examinations before practicing in a neighbouring state), just like any other discipline. Only the future will tell.
"Of course when languages share root-origins the equivalent word might seem/sound identical otherwise we get different words conveying the same meaning although accuracy is still a moot point ..."
So, I'm wrong then I'm right, then wrong again...? Or is it the other way round? Schizophrenia can be treated, I hear, so I wish you 'prompt rétablissement'...
''Excelling in French language either makes you a French language teacher at best or an entry-level journalist, but nothing else''
Not my words - those are the words of a language teacher - not mine.
But how on Earth can I contradict her if decades of first-hand experience says that? Would you - with which data - contradict her?
"reading colonial overtones in all and sundry"
This and this are the origins of our common history, and what has been, and still being used, to divide us. These are facts - denying them is your choice.
Childish, me?
Yes! Always!
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