While bearing the status as a language that unites the world, English has some drawbacks. As ‘we’ reflects the impression of integrality between many people, it brings an image of robustness and is more convincing than ‘I’. ‘We’ is often mentioned hundreds of thousands of times by numerous leaders to drive public trust to anything they have to say, when in a particular context, ‘we’ is exclusive – it doesn’t always refer to nor involve individuals they are talking to.
In English, we (subject)
and us (object) are
plural third-person pronouns that come in handy when it comes to public
concentration purposes; thanks to their exclusivity and inclusivity
stretchiness. As an American president (for example) speaks before a United Nations
summit affirming the urgency of condemning Russia's
military operation in Ukraine, he might be saying, “’We’ condemn Russia's
invasion of Ukraine,” while ‘we’
does not represent the entire UN member states contextually.
The percentage of people who earn living in the language
field are low in numbers compared to the
world’s population, perhaps even lower if avant-garde Artificial Intelligence
(AI) has reached a point that enables it to speak multiple languages fluently.
Regardless of any upcoming progress after us, language remains a bridge to knit
connections with those outside of ourselves. Language has given shape to
everything that comes out and comes into us; which in turn plays the role of a
tool to build a better life. While Subcomandante Marcos said, “our word is our
weapon,” language is military as both have tight restrictions and prohibitions.
A root of language
discrimination
Some Muslim-majority countries seem shy to respond to the
wave of Iran mass protests that have been heating up since end of September
2022, probably because they assume such a movement is a harsh criticism against
Islam sharia. The root of the civil unrest is actually beyond religious
matters, albeit sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini (22) when she was under
Iran’s morality police arrest for not wearing a headscarf in compliance with
the rules. Cultural and language inequality and discrimination against a
particular ethnic group in West Asia is the fire in the husk that burns the
Persian atmosphere these days.
Once upon a time, Hasanwayhid, Annazid, and Ayyubid
dynasties were the greatest Kurdish rulers of their times; unfortunately, the
tribe suffered ceaseless persecution in the modern days. Ill fate of the Kurds
began in 1920 following the collapse of Türkiye’s Ottoman Empire, the final
outcome of World War I. Mustafa Kemal Attaturk, Türkiye’s president at the
time, rejected Treaty of Sevres clause on the formation of special autonomous
region for pre-WWI Ottoman Kurdish people.
Long story short, Treaty of Lausanne (1923) was initiated as
a response to Türkiye’s objection and ruled out any utterance of home for the
Kurds. Consequently, a large number of Kurds drifted away to four countries
(Iran, Iraq, Türkiye, and Syria) while keep fighting for their autonomous
region. Such demand, however, was not only expressed through demonstrations. Terrorism
acts have been the color of their struggles on several occasions, by and
large, after a prominent Kurdish figure, Abdullah Öcalan, declared the
formation of Marxist-Leninist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in 1978. PKK, as
well as its members and partisans, have been designated as a terrorist group by
many countries, including European Union and Türkiye.
Persian (Farsi) has been ruled in as Iran’s national language for decades as to replace languages of sub-ethnic minorities, such as Kurds, Khuzestan Arabs, Azerbaijan Turks, Turkmenistan, and Balochistan. Under the Islamic Republic of Iran, minority local languages perceived as obsolete, and outdated; hence, a restriction to learning and teaching local/minority languages at schools placed. Breaking this rule means heavy punishment and imprisonment. Did you ever assume this phenomenon is an excess of Shiite Islam versus Sunni Islam eternal rivalry? Beware! Don’t let religious sentiment obscure your horizon.
Terrorism is nothing like fast food; there are always long
stories behind a terrorist’s decision to walk down a dark path. On the understanding that
every human on Earth needs concession for their existence, a language ban means
cultural discrimination; you might be deprived of the right to exist in this
world when somebody denounces your culture. Due to the fact that culture is the
product of people’s will to create, sense, and initiate, cultural
discrimination equals a slow bloodless genocide of their intellectuality.
Fear of getting sick
effect
2023
trend forecast by a JPMorgan analyst read, deglobalization is going on an
uptrend during the year. Deglobalization here means the West ceases to be
the mecca in economic development. JPMorgan is, for sure, not a psychic who
looks through the crystal ball and proclaims his prophecy out of thin air as he
gazes into the future. Such prediction that solely relied on logic and plentiful events during 2022, sounded like a mega-class business pessimism about the current
state of developed (West) nations' domination over developing (East) ones.
Global 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns got our eyes opened that
total isolation couldn’t safeguard humans from the plague, as viruses and
bacteria are always able to locate the tiniest cracks to infiltrate and gnaw at
their immunity. Those who have been ill, either physically or psychologically,
since before the virus got in were easy targets for COVID-19. This was like a
veiled lesson about a phenomenon when disease and sadness went savage following
the transmission of an outsider matter with aim to end one’s life. As reported
by some pandemic stories it was lockdowns, instead of virus, that severed the sickness
of patients and their families.
JPMorgan analyst’s prediction above seems to signal that
global lockdowns may return anytime shortly for different purposes. Lockdown is
currently pressed on Russia with 6800 sanctions, also international isolation,
as “punishments” for its ongoing military operation in Ukraine. Will the most massive
lockdowns against a nation succeed preserving other nations’ safety? Who plays
the role of the deadly disease in this drama, does it Russia or the nations who
put the pressure on it?
The Kurds' post-WWI tales and Russians in Ukraine are no
different; they are the remains of glorious pasts. As the heyday ended, the
supposed people to rely on and protect from succumbed to personal or faction
interests, and outside pressures. We could not ask Attaturk why he rejected
approval of the designated establishment of the Kurds autonomous region. But we
can still ask the Western press why they avoided exposing anything meaningful
on discrimination against Russian language and culture in Ukraine with similar
degree of details. It’s hardly believable if such a cold-shoulder response
excuse due to the fear of communism virus, though, since a few hardcore
democracy countries like Sweden, Germany, and France used to and still shelter
more than a few PKK members that were once under the influence of Leninism somewhere in their phase of life.
Nationalism is love?
Nationalism is an alias for love for the motherland, often
used nowadays to express calls to prioritize local products, state interests,
or country-wide fair and equitable development. Homogenous states on day one they
were born unlikely to face critical issues to uniting their citizens. Given
that they are talking and behaving in compliance with a specific standard,
authorities know exactly what they need, and are (supposedly) confident in
driving the country’s ship toward common goals as one nation.
A legion of us long for the past, for the reason that it was
simpler than today. The good news is a bunch of nationalist leaders nod their
heads and can relate with us on this yearning. With globalization and an era of
openness, it was easier for people to roam the world, physically or virtually,
from cross regions to cross countries. Human aliens get into our lives,
bringing their customs, culture, and values respectively, impressing us with
their unforgettable uniqueness. Alien viruses mesmerize, screw up the
homogenous society’s mindset and behaviors, and are the authorities’ headache
altogether.
With that being said, heterogenous society swings in a
completely different challenge. Iran makes Farsi the official language as a
part of the cultural standard that tends to neglect the minority languages. Is
there no other solution for it? Only its authorities know the answer.
Compulsory enforced standard enactment was not only in Iran, for real. A living
witness (now deceased) once involved in and confessed to a movement of
religious homogeneousness in an Indonesian remote island years ago, when people
there were obliged to leave their local religion and must convert to Islam,
Protestant Christianity, or Catholicism. Such standard enactment was then a
policy to unite heterogeneous people further by getting rid of diversity.
It was almost effortless to unify tribes, races, ethnicities, and religions during war, since they had one common goal defeating the enemy and, like it or not, they must thrive and work together. But a perfect life is a hidden test – troubles came for them when the goal reached. Men (and women) are hardly ever satisfied, they will keep evolving for the best of life. Nevertheless, the ideal life standard is never the same for each of us. The unity loses its strength, weakened by the collided interests – therefore, diversity has to be nullified. So, is nationalism love?
