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Parker Delmolino

The Costs and Consequences of Rwanda's Shift in Language Policy | Africa Portal - 0 views

www.africaportal.org/...2%80%99s-shift-language-policy

Rwanda language history of relation to other languages

shared by Parker Delmolino on 30 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • Language policy in Rwanda has revolved around three languages — Kinyarwanda, the indigenous language of Rwandans, French and English
  • In the aftermath of the 1994 genocide, the Rwandan government has worked strenuously to develop the country and construct a new national image; the shift in language policy from French to English is part of this ambitious project.
  • The Rwandan government’s decision to transition from French to English as the country’s main official language is part of the country’s play to join the East African Community (EAC) and to ease economic relations with its neighbours and South Africa.
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  • Kinyarwanda unifies the population because, unlike most other African countries, Rwanda only has this one indigenous language. Estimates show that almost 100 percent of the population speaks Kinyarwanda and 90 percent of the population speaks only Kinyarwanda
  • French was introduced as an official language in Rwanda during Belgium’s rule of the country from 1890 to 1962. Once a school system was established in French, Rwanda became a member of La Francophonie. The significance of French began to decrease after the 1994 genocide, under the new leadership’s obvious preference for English.
  • Two years after the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) took power in Rwanda, they declared English an official language alongside Kinyarwanda and French.
  • The decision to distance Rwanda from the French language also has implications for the country’s post-genocide identity project. It allows for a break from the colonial past and ties with Belgium and France, factors which the Rwandan government specifies as key in the development of genocidal ideology.
  • From 1996 to 2008 the language policy required the first three years of schooling be taught in Kinyarwanda, after which the students chose English or French as the primary language of instruction
  • Officially, the language shift is part of Rwanda’s membership in the EAC and economic relations with other member states.
  • Rwanda’s economic problems are serious. Overpopulation and struggles over land continue to challenge the country and its path toward development and prosperity. Policymakers expect that a move toward adopting the English language will accelerate the country’s ability to improve standards of living and facilitate national reconciliation.
  • Overall, the Rwandan population has a positive attitude towards the use of English language: they perceive English as a valuable commodity (Samuelson and Freedman, 2010: 203). It is important, however, to keep Rwandan realities in perspective when examining policies.
  • The implementation of English as the official language of instruction has led to serious hurdles in the Rwandan education system. Among them has been establishing a teaching force fluent in English.
  • To this end, the government has taken ambitious steps to change how Rwandans perceive their identity.
  • Yet, there are problems with using English as the only language of work. Particular identities and sections of society are linked to this language more than others, putting English-speaking groups at an advantage in socioeconomic relations, and non-English speaking groups at a disadvantage.
Courtney Morrow

What Are the Inuit Tribe's Politics? | eHow.com - 0 views

www.ehow.com/111_inuit-tribes-politics.html

politics inuit 5 organization assimilation show

shared by Courtney Morrow on 29 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • The prized Inuit cultural value of independence, the lack of a written language, and the harsh reality of surviving in the unforgiving Arctic environment were ill-suited to any centralized political structure.
  • Increased Political Awareness and Activism In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the increasing numbers of educated Inuit youth returning to their settlements energized the Inuit, particularly with regard to regaining traditional territories with their abundant natural resources. A main focus of the Inuit's emerging political activism was to ensure they would have greater involvement in the decisions surrounding the disposition of the land's resources, particularly in the energy sector, and to obtain a greater measure of economic stability and prosperity through the processing and sale of these resources. Throughout the late 1900s, the Inuit were generally successful in reaching settlements with national governments granting their claims to large expanses of their traditional territory.
  • Courtney Morrow on 29 Apr 13
     
    The prized Inuit cultural value of independence, the lack of a written language, and the harsh reality of surviving in the unforgiving Arctic environment were ill-suited to any centralized political structure.
Christian Pyros

UNICEF Rwanda - The children - The Situation for Children in Rwanda - 0 views

www.unicef.org/...children.html

Rwanda Contemporary Issue

shared by Christian Pyros on 01 May 13 - No Cached
  • Christian Pyros on 01 May 13
     
    "Child Survival Rwanda has made tremendous progress in improving child survival. Under-five mortality rate has fallen from 153 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2005 to 76, with maternal mortality dropping from 1,075 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2000 to 487 in 2010 (DHS,2010) However, over 50,000 children under the age of five continue to die annually from diseases like diarrhoea, acute respiratory infection and malaria. In addition, 44% of children under five years old suffer from chronic malnutrition and a quarter of the population still does not have access to an improved drinking water source or improved sanitation facilities (DHS, 2010). Education Thanks to a policy to make primary education free, 95.9% of students; more girls (97.5%) than boys (94.3%) are  enrolled in primary school (MINEDUC 2011), but completion (24%), dropout (12.2%) and repetition rates (14%) for both boys and girls, remain key challenges, along with the switch from French to English as the language of instruction. The latter will clearly impact the quality of education for the immediate future, but is being dealt with through the development of a strategy to address broader issues of the quality of education, including major investments in teacher training and development. HIV and AIDS While Rwanda is one of a few African countries with relatively low HIV prevalence, estimated at about 3% of the adult population, prevalence rates amongst pregnant women in Kigali, Rwanda's capital, range between 16 and 34%. Young people, especially girls, remain at increased risk of contracting the disease and an estimated 22,200 children under the age of 15 live with HIV. The country has made significant progress in scaling up services for HIV positive children, with 75% receiving anti-retroviral treatment (ART) and wants to eliminate the transmission of HIV from mother to child by 2015, making remarkable progress in scaling up services for pregnant women. 82% of health facilities provide PMTC
Parker Delmolino

Imminent Anthropological Scandal - 0 views

anthroniche.com/...0055.htm

Scandal allegations Darkness measles

shared by Parker Delmolino on 07 Feb 13 - No Cached
  • The focus of the scandal is the long-term project for study of the Yanomami of Venezuela organized by James Neel, the human geneticist, in which Napoleon Chagnon, Timothy Asch, and numerous other anthropologists took part. The French anthropologist Jacques Lizot, who also works with the Yanomami but is not part of Neel- Chagnon project, also figures in a different scandalous capacity.
  • One of Tierney's more startling revelations is that the whole Yanomami project was an outgrowth and continuation of the Atomic Energy Comissions secret program of experiments on human subjects James Neel, the originator and director of the project, was part of the medical and genetic research team attached to the Atomic Energy Commission since the days of the Manhattan Project.
  • Tierney presents convincing evidence that Neel and Chagnon, on their trip to the Yanomami in 1968, greatly exacerbated, and probably started, the epidemic of measles that killed "hundreds, perhaps thousands" (Tierney's language-the exact figure will never be known) of Yanomami. The epidemic appears to have been caused, or at least worsened and more widely spread, by a campaign of vaccination carried out by the research team, which used a virulent vaccine (Edmonson B) that had been counter-indicated by medical experts for use on isolated populations with no prior exposure to measles exactly the Yanomami situation). Even among populations with prior contact and consequent partial genetic immunity to measles, the vaccine was supposed to be used only with supportive injections of gamma globulin.
  • Parker Delmolino on 07 Feb 13
     
    "Ya"
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