The following is an excerpt mentioning language from a much longer
longer column in Egypt's Al-Ahram Weekly Online about current Egyptian
politics entitled "Time for a Change." It was seen on lgpolicy-list.
The entire article can be read at
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/900/op5.htm
...
"Many cabinet members, including [Egyptian prime minister Ahmed]
Nazif, act as if being presentable and fluent in a foreign language is
the key to the future. But talking to foreign correspondents in their
own language is not how one gets the confidence of investors. It is
not how one gains the trust of international organisations. A laptop
in meetings is not a magic wand. E- governments, for all their
language and computer skills, fail too. The government failed to get
its message across to average citizens. It failed to connect with the
people, mostly because it spoke a different language. And when the
government handpicked writers and journalists to write about it, it
chose those who have no credibility and no skills to mention, not in
language, or even communication.
In Germany, France, Japan, China, Russia, the US, the UK, Latin
America, and even Israel, officials use exclusively their mother
tongue in press conferences and in front of the media. This is
because, even while talking to foreigners in public, they are actually
speaking to their constituency at home. They want their message to
reach ordinary citizens and they want to keep their language alive. In
meetings I attended in foreign countries, this was always the case.
This is something that may not seem essential to our government, but
it is crucial in other countries that understand what progress is
about. Choice of language matters."
...
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