The Polls

We zll lost. Non-negotiable Eindhoven debates. Only thing that matters is someone getting owned. Literally there is no debate. One side wants to cut funding for social services and fiesntvgiveca fuckvaboutvthe environment, refugees, natives. The other has an unrealistic dream because didn't hhough money is completely fictional, it runs the world. I still hate the former side, though.
It's the sad thing about most debates, including the ones in social media. People are not talking to each other, every side is only talking to their (potential) supporters and every side is only waiting to hear what they want to hear to applaude. The opponent can say what he/she wants, it will be judged as bs anyway.
 
Canada is a dual-lingual country English + French.
Other countries like that:
Switzerland = four languages. German, French, Italian and Romansch.
Belgium = three languages. Flemish, French and German.
Spain = lots of official languages, too many for me to count or to know. I only know of the major ones. Spanish, Catalan, Valenciano, Basque.
Malaysia = I think it is three languages, but I could be wrong.

Not sure about many other countries or if the different languages are recognized as official languages, which means all official govt documents must be prepared in all official languages.

Fun fact: my newer Belgian birth certificate is in four languages: French, Flemish, German and English. I was born in Belgium as my parents liked the obstetrician in the clinic where my sister had been born three years earlier. It also has a key for six additional languages of the European Union. I can make out Spanish, Greek, Portuguese, Italian, Hungarian (??) and one of the Slavic languages.
My original birth certificate was only in French as I was born in a French speaking sector of Brussels and they did not have the EU back then.
PNG has over 800 languages. ‘Countries’ where colonial powers often drew arbitrary lines and forced many different peoples and cultures together, such as Nigeria, Ethiopia, India have hundreds. People in one village may not understand the people in the next. South Africa has 12 (?) official languages.

Many First Nations languages in Australia have disappeared, but many others survive; some are having orthographies created for them.

I researched my Masters (on language acquisition and politics) in little Timor-Leste, which has at least 16 languages. It always comes down to what is classed as language and what a dialect. The languages spoken across China are more different from each other than those of some different European countries, but don’t get this recognition due to the uniformity demanded by the government, who decides they’re actually all speaking Mandarin :)
 
So for becoming canadian prime minister you need to speak very fluently both french and english? That's not nothing - for successfully debating in some language it's not enough to speak it a bit. Many canadian prime ministers / candidates have french names, so having grown up in a bilingual environment seems to be a good start. I guess somebody from Vancouver who never lived in a french speaking area will never succeed in a french debate. So french speakers may be over-represented amongst canadian politicians?

in my opinion, if you govern a country populated by English and French speakers, you need to speak fluently in both languages because you are obligated to be the Prime Minister of every Canadian, even so, there have been canadian prime ministers that did not speak french....if i'm not mistaken, the first leaders debate was held in 1968, the election winner was Pierre Trudeau, a native french speaker that spoke fluent english....his opponents were Real Caouette that only spoke french, also Robert Stanfield and Tommy Douglas that only spoke english, Trudeau alternated between French and English giving him the opportunity to reach french and english speakers, take care all
 
in my opinion, if you govern a country populated by English and French speakers, you need to speak fluently in both languages because you are obligated to be the Prime Minister of every Canadian, even so, there have been canadian prime ministers that did not speak french....if i'm not mistaken, the first leaders debate was held in 1968, the election winner was Pierre Trudeau, a native french speaker that spoke fluent english....his opponents were Real Caouette that only spoke french, also Robert Stanfield and Tommy Douglas that only spoke english, Trudeau alternated between French and English giving him the opportunity to reach french and english speakers, take care all
Fantastic n theory, but already in Spain and Switzerland that would reduce the number of potential politicians to linguists, and in PNG the president would have to be a genious. :)
 
Fantastic n theory, but already in Spain and Switzerland that would reduce the number of potential politicians to linguists, and in PNG the president would have to be a genious. :)

Spanish is the primary official language of Spain....its status is enshrined in the Spanish Constitution, making it the main medium of communication across the country's diverse regions, in other words, Spanish is the only language the Prime Minister needs to speak....in Canada, it is a different story, in my opinion the Prime Minister needs at least a partial mastery of the French language, this is the opinion of someone that never has been to Canada :)
 
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You Belgians have to fight for your right to give official names to the Belgian versions of Moule frites and éclair in Flamish! :) I never had better ones than there, including Bretagne (where Moules are fantastic, too, of course)
I am not Belgian by nationality. I was only born there.
My favorite Belgian foods in no specific order:
Gauffre (waffles)
Moule frite
Pomme frite

They have the best of the best. Nowhere on the planet comes close. Others have tried to imitate. They have failed.
 
Fantastic n theory, but already in Spain and Switzerland that would reduce the number of potential politicians to linguists, and in PNG the president would have to be a genius. :)
I doubt that there many people who are fluent in all four Swiss languages. Currently, Romansch is only spoken in a small part of the Kanton Graubünden where the primary language is German.

Afaik, they do not do many political debates between candidates in Switzerland. People vote for parties and the lead candidates may or may not speak on behalf of the entire political party.

Also, in some countries, Switzerland included, it would be considered non-authentic for a candidate to not speak in their native birth language and try to curry favor with voters of other language groups for electoral purposes.
 
Afaik, they do not do many political debates between candidates in Switzerland. People vote for parties and the lead candidates may or may not speak on behalf of the entire political party.
Tons of them!

I doubt that there many people who are fluent in all four Swiss languages. Currently, Romansch is only spoken in a small part of the Kanton Graubünden where the primary language is German.
Probably most (or many) rumantsch talking people speak them all, as usually french is (or used to be when I was in school) obligatory in school and italian really close to rumantsch - but of course you're right.

Also, in some countries, Switzerland included, it would be considered non-authentic for a candidate to not speak in their native birth language and try to curry favor with voters of other language groups for electoral purposes.
For electoral purposes yes, but in general it is well seen when they make the effort to speak in the local language - excluding rumantsch.
However, I realize I have to correct myself. A really big amount of Swiss speak german, swiss german, french and italian - I do myself, and don't forget Switzerland has tons of Italian immigrants in the 3-4th generation who grew up speaking italian and german/swiss german.
So those politicians may be around a lot more than on my first thought.

In Spain it's quite different, though.
Not many speak catalan, even less euskera and gallego.
But that whole subject is so conflictive in Spain that it's easiest not to speak too much about it - one of the many subjects related to Franco and the civil war that we avoid until today not to find out that your best friend is a fascist etc.
 
I am not Belgian by nationality. I was only born there.
My favorite Belgian foods in no specific order:
Gauffre (waffles)
Moule frite
Pomme frite

They have the best of the best. Nowhere on the planet comes close. Others have tried to imitate. They have failed.
All children will agree with you. Not sure about adults though.
 

UK Supreme Court made a ruling on sex and gender. It rules out gender fluidity in certain aspects of public life, like sports. Defines and clarifies that woman is a born biological female. It is 88 pages.
.

Clarifies that trans are protected under the equality act but not at the expense of the rights of women. That’s how it can be paraphrased.

I am surprised it didn’t get the type of publicity if the same ruling had been made by USA Supreme Court.
 
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UK Supreme Court made a ruling on sex and gender. It rules out gender fluidity in certain aspects of public life, like sports. Defines and clarifies that woman is a born biological female. It is 88 pages.
.

Clarifies that trans are protected under the equality act but not at the expense of the rights of women. That’s how it can be paraphrased.

I am surprised it didn’t get the type of publicity if the same ruling had been made by USA Supreme Court.
I don't disagree with this ruling tbh. Protects everyone. Simple. Flat forehead.
 

Several of these popped up in the newsfeed.

Assuming it’s true or say significant numbers (but not the majority) is, is there a reason being in seminary or priesthood attracts the men who are gay or oriented towards it?

May be because it is a place/club only for men? Or may be because it was not easy to come out before (might be still true in Latin America and Africa where Catholic Church is growing fastest), the seminary was a refugee as well as change to meet men?

Now that homosexuality is more widely accepted (at least in the west), the rest of the younger priests are gay?
 
Assuming it’s true or say significant numbers (but not the majority) is, is there a reason being in seminary or priesthood attracts the men who are gay or oriented towards it?
As a catholic priest you have to swear not to marry a woman - in past decades, when talking sexuality was a taboo and most men avoided ask themselves about it, some young men felt that this swear wasn't feeling like a problem for them (while others dropped out because they felt they don't want to swear that). Only later they may have found out that it was because they felt not attracted to women but men. So it's not surprising that indirectly this was drawing larger than average numbers of gay men. That was not the intention of the church, but as it was taboo to even discuss the possibility it turned out to be like this. It's often the case that something wasn't intended but most people don't think it to the end.

But I wonder if this professor of a catholic university is going to keep his position there.
 
As a catholic priest you have to swear not to marry a woman - in past decades, when talking sexuality was a taboo and most men avoided ask themselves about it, some young men felt that this swear wasn't feeling like a problem for them (while others dropped out because they felt they don't want to swear that). Only later they may have found out that it was because they felt not attracted to women but men.

That is what I was driving at too. But you make an interesting point - that commitment and oath of celibacy probably didn’t seem like a problem for young men entering seminary because they didn’t feel attraction to women. I think they entered seminary at age of 16? So what you say could be more plausible. First feeling celibacy won’t be difficult due to lack of attraction to women and then perhaps discovering that they are attracted to me. Plus all men environment made it more conducive.

My original thinking was that may be they knew they were attracted to men and therefore thought seminary would be a good place to meet other men.
But I wonder if this professor of a catholic university is going to keep his position there.

Yeah.
 
But I wonder if this professor of a catholic university is going to keep his position there.
According to global rankings, Leuven University is the top university in Belgium and at no 43 worldwide.

Elite universities tend to have critics on their staff because they can. This is the reason why Harvard University is fighting back against Trump. They are much more important than any mere President.
 
According to global rankings, Leuven University is the top university in Belgium and at no 43 worldwide.

Elite universities tend to have critics on their staff because they can. This is the reason why Harvard University is fighting back against Trump. They are much more important than any mere President.
All he has to do is swing it that the elite is fighting against the commo. Man and they will lose every time.
 
All he has to do is swing it that the elite is fighting against the commo. Man and they will lose every time.
Nah. Nobody cares about the proverbial "common man/woman". The elite universities are elite because the elite went there. They are good also but that is secondary. Plus in the case of Harvard University, they precede the United States and will still be around when all else fails.
 
Catholic church doesn't care about celibacy, they care about money and power. Priests have sex with men, women, and children. In Vatican there is even a social class of women who serve as wifes for priests, except they are not allowed to talk about that. The whole point of this exercise is to focus money and power within the church and not let peoples instincts deliver it to their families.

And various families of course try to chip away some of that money and power by sending their sons to church schools with aim that later, when they get influence, they can direct that towards their families. The kind of families who have extra sons that have to be sent away so that they don't rob or dilute the wealth and power from other sons.
 
Celibacy only became enforced for Catholic priests in the 12th century.
They were allowed multiple wives until around 300. AFAIK gnostic influence of human flesh being repugnant was the catalyst for the change, though IL have to check my source
 
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