-Caveat Lector- http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/2000/01/07/timfgnrus02001.html?999 English wins official status in Siberia FROM ALICE LAGNADO IN MOSCOW ENGLISH will become an official working language in the Siberian republic of Sakha, Mikhail Nikolayev, the President of the remote region, decreed yesterday, committing his government workers from ministers of state to minor bureaucrats to intensive language lessons. Mr Nikolayev is determined that the one million people who live in Sakha, a diamond-rich but poverty-stricken republic where winter temperatures can drop to -60C, will be able to work freely in English as well as Russian and Yakut, the other two official languages. Besides ordering his government staff to learn the language, he has made it a staple of the national curriculum. Mr Nikolayev said the decree was designed to bring about "the intensification of planetary intergovernmental relations" and the republic's "striving to integrate into the global economic fellowship". It is doubtful whether many of the Russians, Yakuts and other 80 nationalities who live in Sakha, 3,700 miles east of Moscow, have the means or the desire to study English intensively. The republic, also known as Yakutia, is a place where people should be living in luxury off the profits from a lucrative diamond industry and a rich supply of oil, gold, platinum and other metals. In fact, the population is among the most miserable in the former Soviet Union. Millions of people were paid by the Soviet Government to settle on the permafrost, many in towns where every house is built on stilts, to mine its riches. Before that, it was home to political prisoners exiled under the tsars. The Soviet authorities shipped the new settlers unlimited quantities of food and oil from St Petersburg - so much that the residents of Sakha have been living off their Soviet reserves since 1991. But these have now run out. Medical care is poor and unemployment is high, but there is no money to improve dilapidated schools and hospitals or to relocate people to more habitable areas. But there are still optimists who hope that diamond profits will one day filter down - and, of course, that everyone will speak perfect English. -- ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ----------------------- DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
