Hannah Kelley: Student

Detroit Municipal Parking Department – Violation Code 802 – Improper Parking

Published 12/21/2009 Michigan , Wayne State 4 Comments

Ahh the purposefully vague “improper parking.”

Not easily accessible to read or understand, but readily applied to whatever unsuspecting visitor to the general Wayne State Campus area. Oh how they love to prey on visitors to one of the only thriving business districts in the city.

See my letter to this delightful department, below:

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12/21/2009

Dear Sir/Madam,

I received the attached ticket while parked an extremely reasonable distance away from the mentioned intersection of Prentis and Cass. I frequently see cars parked much closer to the curb than I was, and as far as I know they are not a nuisance to the flow of vehicles whatsoever, nor are they obstructing traffic.

Included is a picture of how far away my car was from the curb at Prentis and Cass.

This is not the first time that I have received a questionable parking ticket from the City of Detroit, where I have previously resided and where I currently study at Wayne State University. I am disappointed that the Municipal Parking Department is enforcing draconian policies to fund their operations.

Like all laws, parking laws should be enforced with prudence, and when it is in the interest of the public.
The ticket issued me on 12-09-09 is not an example of prudent law enforcement.

Given that I was a patron at the Cass Cafe while receiving the ticket – located across the street from where I parked – I might mention my strongly held belief that tickets based on “violations” like these are unnecessarily hurting the business community in Midtown Detroit. Your department’s needlessly strict issuance of these kinds of tickets drives away customers from an area that is already sorely hurting from the economic crisis.

I hope that you will reconsider your stance in my case and in other similar cases.

Sincerely,
Hannah Kelley

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Take a look at the code here.

Readers – I am open to interpretations. I understand the fire hydrant is there, but I still stand that I was far enough away from it.

IJMS – my favorite open-access journal

Published 12/08/2009 Uncategorized 2 Comments

I discovered the International Journal on Multicultural Societies (IJMS) last year. It is published by UNESCO, and since the late 1990s has included themes like “Pluralism and Multiculturalism in Colonial and Post-Colonial Societies”, “Multiculturalism and Political Integration in Modern Nation-States” and “Protecting Endangered Minority Languages: Sociolinguistic Perspectives”.

I’m consistently delighted every time I consult something from this publication. Today I was looking for sources defining multicultural governance, and I downloaded some of the free issues.

I stumbled on the article “Colonisation, Globalisation, and the Future of Languages in the Twenty-first Century” by Salikoko S. Mufwene. Since I’ve read I don’t know how many articles on language politics, I consider myself pretty familiar with the debates and topics that are common to the subject. Not so with Mufwene. He even begins his article by pointing out that he will not be citing the regulars – Fishman, Calvet and others – but instead will look toward a fresh perspective on the exhausted topics of linguicide, language wars etc.

Let it be said that I still think linguicide is happening. I think that language wars are happening too. But Mufwene makes some great points, like:

“Anyone who claims that the spread of English around the world endangers indigenous languages should explain how this is possible in countries where it is only a lingua franca of an elite minority but is barely spoken by the vast majority, or a large proportion, of the population.”

Ahh.. the joys of the information age. Now I have to get back to writing my paper on language and multicultural governance in Mozambique.

Would you help a North American linguist?

Published 11/24/2009 Language , Michigan Leave a Comment

Chantale Marentette, a linguistics student from Toronto, is doing a study on cross-border speech and language patterns in Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan. Torontonians/Torontoans are also included in the study. The following survey was developed by Prof. Jack Chambers from the University of Toronto. It’s entitled “Dialect Topography”.

If you are from any of these metro areas, would you consider filling it out and sending it to her at sceesaw AT gmail DOT com? She especially needs survey takers who are in the 40+ age category.

I think you’ll find it fun to fill out. I’m always trying to figure out which Canadianisms are employed by our friends across the border – mostly so that I can imitate the difference between a Canadian and a U.S. accent for foreign audiences…

Download here: English Dialect Survey

Formal and Informal Legal Institutions in Mozambique

Published 11/19/2009 ADPM 3 Comments

I’ve been reading the book “Law and Justice in a Multicultural Society: The Case of Mozambique. Interestingly I am only one degree of separation away from one of the authors of the book, former supreme court justice João Carlos Trinidade, through one of the student translators from our trip – Benedito.

I don’t know if it’s normal for 22-year-olds to enjoy reading this kind of book, probably not, but I am enjoying it. It’s helping to link some of the different topics in Mozambican development that we’ve covered in our class on Democracy in Mozambique.

Many systems of justice mix in this country to create a highly diverse legal scene. The first chapter of the book is, aptly, The Heterogeneous State and Legal Plurality.

Starting at the beginning of the revolution, Frelimo organizers wanted to stress the re-creating of justice in Mozambique. Participants of the Third Frelimo Congress on Justice expressed with “urgency…the ‘destruction of the existing judicial structure, as part of the destruction of the colonial-capitalist apparatus’” (Justiça Popular, 1980:3, as quoted in Law and Justice). This thinking was much embedded in the creation of Popular Courts, which were meant to create a new paradigm of justice in the country. Instead of exclusive, private Portuguese courts that only served Europeans and assimilados, Popular Courts would have local Frelimo party members serve as justices, and would draw on community participation to determine sentencing. At the time of independence Mozambique was grossly underprepared to meet the human resources requirements of staffing a new justice system. “Out of 75 existing positions, the number of magistrates appointed amounted to 25″ (Law and Justice, 34). This meant that the justices were by and large laymen – workers, party organizers, secretaries. Many were illiterate.

With the peace accords in 1992 and the transition to a market economy and multi-party state came about changes in the justice system. The executive, legislative and judicial systems, whereas before one in the same, became separate. A broad review of the courts decided to un-officialize Popular Courts and to create a clause for Community Courts, which, although unofficial, would still serve the needs of the community for minor disputes and act as a helpmate to the district courts. Unfortunately, the clause was never developed. Community Courts in Mozambique have nearly all same justices as their previous existence as Popular Courts. Community Courts are also still strongly affiliated with the Frelimo party, causing them to appear partial in many districts with Renamo supporters. This isn’t helped by the fact that many Community Courts meet in dynamizing group* space or party headquarters. (Law and Justice, 208)

Since the Community Courts aren’t official, they receive no funding from the Ministry of Justice. This is problematic given that District Courts are not present everywhere and are routinely inaccessible when available; Community Courts are the de facto body relied on by thousands of Mozambicans to resolve disputes. Especially in cases of domestic disputes, District Courts often refuse to hear complaints, and forward cases to Community Courts and Traditional Leaders (the other, largely unrecognized entities of the legal system). However, the Community Courts lack basic tools to conduct proceedings. There is no uniform provision of meeting places, no furniture, storage space for documents, no money for support staff (or even for judges), in some cases even paper and writing utensils are scarce. Judgments do not follow formal procedure, but rather take the form of community justice that typified the predecessor to Community Courts, the Popular Courts.

District and Provincial courts are accessible most often in developed, urban areas. This creates an obvious discrepancy in access to the Mozambican legal system, whereby rural citizens are precluded from taking their cases to official bodies. Yet, even if they did have access to the District Courts, and said courts didn’t send them running back to the unofficial courts, most rural patrons wouldn’t have representation by a lawyer.

Although all Mozambican citizens have legal representation de jure as enshrined in the constitution, lawyers are scarce in Mozambique, and mostly centered in the country’s capital, Maputo. Efforts have been made to increase legal consultation services through paralegals, but even paralegals are insufficient for the demand. Most legal services are contracted by urban middle-class elites. Apparently wealthy elites shy away from the legal system, preferring instead extra-legal negotiations. This is reportedly because of reservations concerning the legitimacy and consistency of the official courts.

Other topics of interest raised in the book were the judicial roles of traditional authorities vis-a-vis the state, and also data on NGO’s and other bodies working toward proportional legal representation in the country.

*grupos dinamizadores. These groups were used in the revolutionary period to provide technical and management expertise to new industries across the country.

Santos, Boaventura de Sousa, João Carlos Trindade, and Paula Maria G. Meneses. Law and Justice in a Multicultural Society : The Case of Mozambique. Dakar, Senegal, Matola, Mozambique, Coimbra, Portugal: Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa ;Centro de formação Jurídica e Judiciária; Centro de Estudos Sociais, Universidade de Coimbra, 2006.

the days in Moçambique/Mozambique are running together.

Published 11/02/2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment

Hours collide, often with my head and bones aching, scrambling to eat breakfast, starting the day and ending it with the sentimental weather. (overcast, sunny, overcast, sunny…)

I went to Chibuto and Xai Xai in Gaza province on Thursday. The landscape mostly flat, wiry trees and scattered crops passed quickly by the window.

I wonder how long I will be able to recall those scenes. For a month? Two years?

How long can I trust my memory for

I speak to Costa*, the bus driver, and he tells me that he wants to get married next year. Unmarried men after his age aren’t considerado. He’d like to have someone to wash his clothes, make his favorite dish, go to the beach with and curl up with on cold days. He says this very casually and matter of factly.

(*Costantino)

I kid with him in Portuguese about his scheme to pick out a girl sometime next November for marriage, and I get occasional support from Lucio, a Mozambican student who came along with us.

We stop and eat toasted cashews from children on the side of the road.

We stop in Chibuto. There my group (education and legal system) stop at a district court. We aren’t allowed in because we don’t have a letter from the Ministry of Justice, and the guard – worried about job security – won’t even tell us if the court employs translators for native languages. We are sent to the tribunal, but they don’t have time for us and want us to come back Monday.

Kevin spotted the STAE office (Secretariado Técnico de Administração Eleitoral) and we went in to visit the district elections administrator to see how things fared in Gaza. They hadn’t finished their count yet, having a district of around 140 polling stations, but they hoped to have things counted by the end of the day.

More stops were made to Chissano’s house and church. Costa’s uncle, stepmother and step-grandmother all live as caretakers on Chissano’s property. His step-grandmother (who he referred to as simply grandma) was over 100 years old. She had many tattoos on her arms. When I asked Costa what they were he said that he didn’t know, she had always had them.

We ate chicken in Xai Xai for about 4 dollars. I wish I had taken a picture. I think it was the best chicken I’ve ever had in my life. I had a coffee which sparked a 30 minute english lesson for Costa on top of a paper table cloth.

The trip was long. We returned at night, the bus asleep, and me and Costa in front talking about life and desires, gospel songs in english and changana.

Canimambo Ozi. Lusí ene enjeleke.

Friday we go to the Chissano Superior Institute of International Relations. It is the University Santos went to. Kevin gives a lecture on Democracy and political/voting trends/analysis in the United States. It is interactive and the students are very engaged.

I wish that all of my peers at Wayne State were as excited about learning.

It’s cold that day. We go to an MDM district headquarters office in Xipamanine but they are closed.

Saturday. Ponta D’Ouro.

We leave relatively early. A ferryboat, a muddy ride through african savannah and 3+ later we arrive.

After checking into our hotel, we are received by Todd and Dawn who are living in Ponta do Ouro as part of the Dream Project. We visited a children’s home. They make their own bread, they run to the beach and up the nearby mountain. I have so many things running through my head – about them, me, places I’ve been and want to return to..

I stand in the bed of the truck and try to steal some images on film.

The next day we go on a boat to try and swim with dolphins. We didn’t swim with them, but we saw them.

The water was beautiful and I thought of Lake Michigan and Easter Island.

Later we go to the plot of land that Todd and Dawn, our hosts, will build another children’s home on.

The area is also breathtaking. I think of Chinua Achebe, of sitting under one of those wily trees, of wearing capulanas and living in a different world.

Santos asked me if I could live in Mozambique.

I could.

Before we leave we run to the Indian Ocean and play in the sand. We ran to the sea and were thrashed by waves and sent away by jellyfish that passively stung our exposed legs. But it was still amazing to be there and see and breathe in front of that ocean.

We begin our return, but this time it’s not muddy and there is blasting techno inside of the rickety minibus. Michelle and YoungKey dance to it for over an hour and I laugh uncontrollably at their inventiveness. The savannah rolls past outside. The bush, as Santos says.

We arrive in Catembe, the border town; there are kiosks and bright apple red storefronts selling soda and snacks. A tin storefront has a pool table inside and lightbulbs illuminating the players.

I step off the bus to look at the Maputo skyline on the other side of the water.

There is music blasting from one of the businesses and the local kids are in a group dancing. It’s fun to watch.

I talk to Santos while we lean on the outside of the painted tin enclosure of the pool table place.

We are only going to be here for today, it’s Monday, but I try not to think about it and I will enjoy living in the moment. In a way it’s all I have.

Tuesday was Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Wednesday was election day

Published 10/28/2009 ADPM , Language , Travels , Wayne State , languagepolicy 2 Comments

On Tuesday my group went to the Universidade Eduardo Mondlane again. My teammates and I spent some time on reflection and goal setting, then we waited to see our newfound contact at the school — a cheery Portuguese teacher who goes by his surname Goba. I found it hard to focus on new acquaintances and student perspectives…I was anxious to walk only steps away to the office of the director of the Social Sciences Faculty, Dr. Armando Jorge Lopes, to see if I could meet with him and pick his brain on sociolinguistics in Mozambique.

I wasn’t given the chance to talk to Mr. Lopes. It is one of my biggest regrets of the trip. Lopes has done extensive work documenting and analyzing the state of Mozambican languages, has published dozens of articles and written five books – along with being a contributing author to several books. He was Editor-in-Chief of the Linguistics Association for SADC (Southern African Development Community) Universities in 13 African countries. I have tried to read everything available to me that he has written, including a somewhat authoritative 40 page article from 1998 entitled: “The Language Situation in Mozambique”. It’s one of the most interesting things I’ve read on the country.

I haven’t been able to find any of his books. I can look harder. And I will. I wouldn’t mind having some of his books in my permanent collection.*

*in case this post was missing an added dose of pretension

I trudged back to our table. My disappointment was soon lifted by talking to some students that Goba had corralled for us to interview. We went to a small room on the second floor of the Social Sciences building. It was a shared space, clearly meant for group work or faculty meetings. A small office at the end of the space was locked, and inside I could see FRELIMO posters lying face up on the desk.

The open topic for our interviews with the students was about their reflections on education in Mozambique. I didn’t know what to expect. The students were looking at us inquisitively in much the same way – some looks were closer to amusement, others closer to boredom. This changed exceptionally once we began filming. Although we stumbled over placing the lavalier mic, a beeping cellphone with an eternally low battery, noise from a study group in the next thinly separated cubicle over, the students responded with fervor and emotion to the state of education in their country.

I was impressed by my Mozambican peers – they had clearly put to use every ounce of their studying time reviewing whatever materials available to them in their fields of study. José, Amarilis, Ansalmo, Vacitissa – these are names and faces that may fade, but whose ideas will always strike me because of their honesty, urgency and clarity. Women in education, mother tongue language instruction, political accountability, seriousness of mozambican educational theorists, budgetary concerns…there were few areas left untouched. I left with a head full of things to grok, a deep respect for students at University Eduardo Mondlane, and a challenge to understand as well the educational system of my own country.

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matola

Election day we went to Matola. Our driver that day, Jacinto, lives in Matola, an outerlying area half an hour from Maputo. The difference in infrastructure was apparent very soon after leaving Maputo City proper. Paved thoroughfares gave way to sandy lanes – lanes that Jacinto noted were failed election promises to Matola residents.

Jacinto’s passive cynicism regarding FRELIMO seemed in line with the overall direction of my discourse with Mozambicans up to that point. Students protested pressures to carry FRELIMO party cards in order to achieve academic success, and a meeting with the US Embassy was telling that professors faced similar if not more intense coercion.

We rumbled down the road on the left side, dodging cement trucks, minibuses, market-goers and sometimes reached clearings of open sand. We were in search, if it isn’t clear, of polling stations.

After interviewing voters at a polling station along the way, a school, we ended up at another school in the sector/bairro of Kongoloti. Wearing my poll observer/press credential I walked into several of the classrooms used as polling areas and observed the process.

After doing this for 20 minutes or so I emerged, along with teammate Sebrina, to talk to some people in the lines.

Jacinto timidly walked up to us and asked me in Portuguese if we would be interviewing many people in Kongoloti. I replied in Portuguese that I wasn’t sure, it depended on who talked with us and the desires of the rest of the group. After minutes of indirect questions he explained that this was his voting station. He was wondering if he would have enough time to vote. Sebrina and I were emphatic that he should vote, we told him to (of course!) get in line and after he had done so, remarked between ourselves that if we hadn’t come to Matola he might not have had the chance to vote at all.

Primeira Reportagem do Moçambique (i.e., I’m in Africa, y’all)

Published 10/26/2009 ADPM , Language , Travels , Wayne State Leave a Comment

Portuguese, Changana, Echuwabo, English

Elections, Observation Missions, Fliers, Capulanas

Students, Orphans, Believers, Peddlers

Embassies, Credentials, Maps, Interviews

…………..

This Morning the class visited the U.S. Embassy. One of the diplomats made an appointment for us to interview the director of the law school of the main university in Mozambique, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane. We interviewed a professor of Portuguese in the Social Sciences faculty as well. Tomorrow we go back. I appreciate the openness and candidness of the people who received us at the university. There was so much communion, so much good will. Our group has a lot to learn and I am excited for this challenge to fit so many interviews and lessons into the one week that we have remaining.

I am surprised by my Portuguese. I am surprised by the Portuguese of others too — “meh-tee-kigh-sh” instead of “meh-tee-kighs”. I didn’t expect to be this functional in the language, but I’m glad. It’s a blessing. In Maputo province Portuguese is very widespread, although I have met a number of people who are bilingual in other languages or who have limited Portuguese skills.

I went to an Assembly of God church service on Sunday and they were singing songs in Changana, one of the local languages. The message was missions. The service was linguistically taxing but the congregation was very open, there were doors even open to the outside at the front of the church, the whole thing felt light and much like the christian/protestant churches that I know from the United States.

We went to the main Frelimo political rally and interviewed various people about their party affiliation the same day. Who will they vote for, and why? What is the difference that their vote will make in this election?
What if an opposition party wins?

The hats, shirts, political fans walking around with bumper stickers and sticky posters stuck to their clothing, wrapped in skirts (capulanas) with Guebuzas face radiating from the hip, or the calf, or perhaps the temple of their well wrapped head. There is a creativity and soul to Frelimo that I know little of in the United States. I would never put a candidates headshot all over my car or my clothing. I might go as far as a tank top.

The day we arrived in Maputo, I think it was Saturday, we met the former president of the country – Joaquim Chissano. I asked him a question about the officialization of native languages in Mozambique (on camera during our interview) and also had the job of presenting him with our class gift. It turns out that his birthday was the day before, so it doubled as a birthday gift.

I was interested in the living memory of the occasion. How could it be possible that someone who has extended themselves into literature, poetry, songs, history books, a person that will not be forgotten, not for a long time, be listening to me (from Downriver Michigan) ask a question about my nascent interest in his country? My interest in his country is six decades younger than his. I am fascinated.
But these are the strange happenings of life, and I embrace life.

I am learning so much about developing nations, nationalism, poll observation missions

and the reddest dirt

that rivals the earth and anthills

of Hamilton, Alabama.

O meu Moçambique

Published 10/20/2009 ADPM , Language , Wayne State Leave a Comment

It’s 4:11 a.m.

I have a midterm to do for another class, intro to nonprofits. There is no way that I can finish it decently and also sleep, not die, shower and get dressed and on time to the airport tomorrow while also remembering to: eat, not forget my toothbrush which is lying out on the desk so that I don’t forget it, pay a last-minute parking violation ( I know :/) and also get some coffee in my veins before the plane takes off.

Oh, I was saying, so I’ll have to do that midterm on the plane. Which means carrying a heavy book to Mozambique – something I didn’t want to do.

But I’ll do it. I don’t want to send in bad work.

I got the parking violation because of another midterm I had this morning. I fed the meter twice but it still wasn’t good enough. Hopefully my performance will have made the ticket worth while.

I was walking out of Manoogian today with my freshly visa-ed passport, eating a sandwich from Avalon, while thinking, “thank god for 24-hour Meijers”.

And then the meaning of that thought came to the fore and I was disturbed by my life, the way I am viewing things — why am I walking briskly, holding hundreds of dollars worth of documents (my passport) and thinking about 24 hour convenience shopping centers with relish? Is this my life?

The only reason that I needed a 24-hour store in the first place is because I still wanted to pack a few things for my trip. My trip is on an airplane, that requires specialized air-travel items and Mozambique is a place that requires special measures (deet lotion, money belts, immunizations) from me.

But why does it require special measures?

Because I don’t belong there.

Then why am I going to Mozambique if I don’t belong there?

Good question.

Another:

How can we respect other cultures in an age of globalization that requires wifi, english skills…

I mean, speaking of this midterm again, I needed to look up the website for our first hotel to see if I would have wifi access to e-mail it to my professor. And if it weren’t on the website I was going to call the hotel directly in South Africa and talk to them in English to see if they did have it or not.

Demands.

The U.S. is young but has such a horizontal amalgamation of history attached to it now that it’s personality is big, so big that it’s hard to remember why the midwest is the midwest instead of the mideast. But if that weren’t the case, if we weren’t so loud, didn’t have so much political history and making a name for ourselves in these past years since the 1700’s, then maybe we would be like Mozambique too.

Mozambique is a country of multiple languages, dialects, cultures and folkways. It should be all of those things without the politically carved territory – but the Portuguese would have had it otherwise, and they did – Mozambique is now a country of many nations.

I could go on typing and thinking about these things, and I am doing so largely to show that this is the stuff of my head right now. I’m thinking about origins, history, relations, technological advancement, poverty, linguistic legitimacy, cultural hegemony, and other things that pop up when you’re considering such complex things as the intersection of humans and life. The ongoing now. Eckhart Tolle.

I listened to an NPR interview with Eckhart Tolle a week or so ago.
To consult the might wiki:

Tolle writes that “the most significant thing that can happen to a human being” is “the separation process of thinking and awareness” and that awareness “is the space in which thoughts exist”.[13] He claims “the primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it”.[14] He defines the “ego” as an “illusory sense of self”[15], which is the source of inner and outer conflict, and that only by becoming aware of the ego may people begin to see beyond it and experience themselves as unconditioned consciousness, which is their true nature.

Oh I have my individual goals for this trip. I have goals, hopes, desires.

I want to understand what it does to a persons psyche when the language that they speak doesn’t have a place in their liberated country.

I want to understand the difficulties of being stuck in a geographical area that doesn’t represent you because you are not Portuguese, but you can’t change things because the boundary was created a long time ago and it would be difficult to adjust.

I want to understand bases of power – is it in electoral policies? State planning? Media control?

I want to understand how people feel about their daily lives constantly being analyzed by foreigners who have brought questionable change to them and their ancestors.

On paper, I want to know about the educational and legal system in Mozambique – it’s trials (npi) and triumphs.

And on paper, too, I want to know how changes to life in Mozambique in recent decades compares to that of Bolivia, another multi-lingual, multi-cultural country with many societies, carved up and trying to find the best path to good governance.

But most of all,

I want to sleep.

reflections on native michigan languages

Published 10/12/2009 Language , Michigan , Wayne State , languagepolicy Leave a Comment

Looking through materials this morning regarding language use in Mozambique, I was led to a series of websites ranging from the Organization of Portuguese Language Countries, the Observatory of Cultural Policies in Africa, UNESCO, and now to an interactive map of endangered languages.

(other wanderings can be found on my delicious page)

I’m very passionate about the preservation and/or maintenance of endangered languages, and where it is within my power to promote these, I do. In my personal life this has meant anything from taking on the study of lesser known languages, to social media and word-of-mouth promotion of language rights ideals, or planning potential documentaries on Michigan culture with my friend Michael Merriweather.

Well, I looked through that map. I looked for the first thing that came into my head – Michigan.

There are at least two critically endangered languages in Michigan, and several on the UP/Wisconsin border and in southwestern Ontario. To name a few: Potawatomi, Ottawa, Menominee and Oneida.

To get a better grasp of the linguistic context of the first 3 of these languages, look at this Ethnologue site for the Algic language Family. They are all three related, with Potawatomi and Ottawa more closely related, in the Ojibwe sub-family.

For context on Oneida, an Iroquoian language related to Mohawk, look here.

Why aren’t the major research universities doing more to promote the maintenance of these critically endangered languages, like Potawatomi and Ottawa? Why are researchers studying other areas of the world given preferential funding when there has been no effort made to introduce the languages of midwestern North America to Michigan classrooms? Wouldn’t this be a valuable addition to Michigan history classes at a primary/secondary level? Okay, I know it sounds utopic, but…

There should be some type of comparative advantage approach to history and second language research/pedogogy in the states. Nations should concentrate in the “production” of the languages and histories in which they have a more absolute advantage in to begin with. I.e. Don’t we already live in Michigan, have a contact base here, have roots here in one way or another? Why does life have to be so globalized and commerce-centric*; I would rather learn Ojibwe than Japanese or German. I would argue that Spanish is different in the US context because of the influx of latinos in the United States and it’s status as a language of unity throughout the Americas. But there is much to be desired in language diversity in universities. I think that in 20 or so years this fact will come more to the forefront of our national consciousness as we see languages die in coming decades.

*Even as I employ a commerce related terms to make my point. Great.

___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _

On the bright side, MSU offers two sequences for a Less Commonly Taught Language (LCTL) course on Ojibwe.

At the University of Michigan they reach advanced Ojibwe, and seem to have good participation in the courses:

Preserving the language is personal for many students, say Margaret Noori and Howard Kimewon, instructors for the Ojibwe language and literature program. Senior Travis Turnbull, a U-M hockey player, remembers his grandmother using “gegwa,” the Ojibwe word for “don’t do that.” And Noori says that Christy Bieber, a sophomore studying pre-med who grew up in Maryland, chose U-M in part so she could learn the language of her mother, a descendent of the Sault Ste. Marie tribe.

The Ojibwe program was started at U-M in the early 1970s and is one of the strongest in the country. Of the approximately 250 students enrolled in classes, about a third take it because of their personal heritage. Another third take it to learn more about the history of their home state of Michigan and the rest take it to meet their language requirement.

According to an Associated Press story on the program last spring, there are about 10,000 Ojibwe speakers in the Great Lakes region today.

Zhaabwiitoonaa Anishinaabemowin (Program Aims to Preserve Ojibwe Language)

http://www.umich.edu/~ojibwe/news/alumni/alumni.html (and also)

Em fim,

When I have time I want to draft an official proposal to Wayne State and whichever other institution or administrative body in the state for the promotion of critically endangered languages in Michigan. And maybe I’ll take an Ojibwe course.

Radio Moçambique

Published 10/09/2009 Uncategorized Leave a Comment

I am listening to Radio Moçambique and cracking up.

Partido Popular Moçambique – I think that was the one that just came on – had such a wonderful jingle sang by a man with a tenderly cracking, earnest voice, singing of beautiful coast… “Our Mozambique”…it was cute.

Each party is getting a spot on the national radio. Frelimo spoke, MDM spoke, Renamo spoke, and even what sounded like the ecological party, asking voters to vote “sunflowers” (girassoes) have announced their platforms.

Some of them have clips of people on the street saying that they will vote for one party or the other, which plays the popularity game.

Now a lady is speaking in what sounds like something other than Portuguese, or a very very strong Bantu language (I’m assuming) accent. Some words were nevertheless recognizable. The rest of the spot was fun/vibrant music talking about Mozambique in bright terms. The radio personality came back on to say that it was a spot for “PDD”.

Guebuza’s (Frelimo) spot announced a website that was clearly meant to be official, but had “blogspot” in the subdomain title.

This is good stuff.