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hate language.... TV for cockroaches





> e les jurons sont aussi le fait des
> dominants dans la langue des domines. Dans mon enfance tunisienne, le peu
> d'arabe que nous parlions (nous= les jeunes fran軋is) etait surtout
> constitue d'insultes. Dans les ecoles francaises aujourd'hui, les enfants
> apprennent des injures en arabe,en portugais, en espagnol,en comorien, des
> bribes de langues, un pseudo plurilinguisme.
>

I just would like to point out one very interesting critique I got at the
Venice Biennial:

among other things I showed a video where I translate one sentence into 11
languages: the piece is called
basic conflicts: justice
English: I am always right
German: Ich habe immer recht
French: j`ai toujours raison
etc...

there is basic conflicts: currencies (I only believe in dollars, Ich glaube nur
an die Mark etc... ) languages (I only need to know English.... ) and some more
sentences that imply conflicts...

the review writer used the critique of my video for the entire article in Die
Welt (Sunday 6/13/99) and entitled the article
Fernsehn fuer Kakerlaken  (TV for cockroaches)

Again, I find this wording extremely significant for some basic racist attitude
towards languages (and people) that are not from Europe or the USA.  Since the
video can only be understood in what it utters by people who can speak or
understand several languages   (the meaning of the video ^- how it functions,
how it works - can be understood also by people who don`t understand Korean,
Japanese, Chinese, Russian and so on.... ) the writer regresses into the most
insulting language reserved for people one really doesn`t want to
understand....

I was pretty shocked but it teaches me a lot....

rg