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Facts in Brief
This page contains brief updates of various societal
developments in different nations
Defending the French language
A French government commission has recommended the country's offices and schools to stop using the word "e-mail"
and replace it with le courriel, in the latest attempt by language "watchdogs" to stem the use of American English. By law,
civil servants are supposed to use the French terms in communications, but the officials accept that they have no power to
force people to adopt new mandatory linguistic inventions. Rarely, for example, does anyone give up hacker to talk of le
fouineur or insert une frimousse (smiley or emoticon) into a mèl. La toile (web) has made no inroads and not many people
use un numériseur for a scanner. A state commission that promotes Gallic technology and business jargon has decreed in
2003 that le courriel should take over from le mail. However, the English term, often pronounced as le mèl, is more popular
than the indigenous courrier électronique. The commission, which reports to the Académie Française, the arbiter of linguistic
purity, hopes that le courriel will follow half a dozen recent words that have beaten off English terms. Examples of successful
and unsuccessful "replacements" are below.
Successful French terms:
Ordinateur: computer
Numérique: digital
Informatique: information technology
Logiciel: software
Télécharger: to up/download
Puce: chip
Bogue: bug
Agenda électronique: personal organiser
Site: website
Amorcer: to boot
Fenêtre: window
Planter: to crash
Moteur de recherche:search engine
Unsuccessful French terms:
Toile: web
Courriel: e-mail
Arroser: to spam
Incendier: to flame
Causette: chat
Gestionnaire de périphérique: driver
Cédérom: CD-ROM
Fouineur: hacker
Frimousse: smiley
Logiciel de navigation: browser
Diffusion systématique sur la toile: webcasting
Numériseur: scanner
Souris: mouse
Source: Charles Bremner July 10th 2003 for the Times (London) http://www.timesonline.co.uk
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Cultural customs and legal rules
A Florida judge ruled in June of 2003 that Sultaana Freeman, a 35-year-old Muslim woman cannot wear a
veil in her driver's license photo. This ruling supported the argument that a person's right to free exercise
of religion is not burdened by showing her face on the license. Freeman had sued Florida after the state
revoked her license in 2001 when she refused to have her photo retaken with her face uncovered, saying it
violated her religious beliefs. Her previous license showed her veiled with only her eyes visible. Freeman and
her lawyers claimed her religious beliefs require her to keep her head and face covered out of modesty and
that her faith prohibits her face from being photographed. However, a state attorney countered that Islamic
law has exceptions that allow women to lift their veil and expose their face if the action serves a public good.
Assistant Attorney General Jason Vail said arrangements can be made to have Freeman photographed
only with women present to allay her concerns about modesty.
Source: Associated Press, June 6, 2003.
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Violent crime in Japan
Although Japan has some of the developed world's most
stringent gun restrictions, the number of serious crimes
committed with handguns there last year was the highest
since the National Police Agency began keeping such
statistics more than a decade ago. And the rate of gun
crimes in the first six months of 2000 promises to
exceed that record. Japan takes comfort that its
incidence of violent crime is still minuscule compared
with the United States. But comparison with the First
World's most violent country is not the only valid one;
Japan's murder rate is higher than that of England or
Australia, for example. Guns remain a small factor in
the violence. Japanese police say 158 felonies were
committed with handguns there in 1998, compared to
364,776 felonies with firearms in the United States,
according to the latest FBI figures available.
Source: Washington Post Foreign Service, August 11,
2000 ; A17
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Violent crime in Brazil
Guns are used in 70 percent of the homicides in Brazil.
Experts say the presence of guns is the most prominent
reason why, between 1979 and 1998, homicides in Brazil
skyrocketed by 173 percent. Although experts caution
that comparing crime rates from country to country can
be deceptive because of differences in counting methods,
Brazil, with about 26 murders for every 100,000 people,
has by all measures one of the highest murder rates in
Latin America. Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil's
biggest cities, are burdened with two of the highest
homicide rates in the world: 60 deaths per 100,000
residents in Rio and 66 per 100,000 in Sao Paulo. The
rate in Washington is 44 per 100,000. In many of
Brazil's largest cities, avoiding violent crime has
become an obsession. Schools have begun to install metal
detectors. The wealthiest Brazilians live in gated
communities, buy armored cars and spend tens of
thousands of dollars a year on private security. The
surge of violence has led to a shift in public opinion
about how to combat the problem. For many years
politicians, seeking to please voters, touted get-tough
policies that urged police to fight violence with
violence. In June 2000, Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper
published results of a poll showing that 64 percent of
that city's residents believe the government needs to
invest more to improve education and to provide jobs.
Source: Stephen Buckley. Washington Post Foreign
Service, June 17, 2000 ; A13
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Women and poverty
Of the world's 1.3 billion people who live in absolute
poverty -- earning less than $1 a day -- 900 million are
women. In most developing nations, women with education
and work experience comparable to their male
counterparts typically earn 50 to 70 percent of what men
do.
Source: Washington Post Foreign Service, July 16,
2000 ; A20
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Suicide in China
Suicides claim 250,000 lives in China every year,
according to official figures. Other estimates by
medical researchers put the number closer to 300,000,
while organizations such as the World Bank say the
figure could be higher still. China has one-fifth of the
world's population, but the 300,000 figure represents 42
percent of all known suicides worldwide. Somewhere
between 700 and 800 Chinese people kill themselves every
day, twice the rate per head of population as that of
developed countries such as Australia and the United
States. (The Australian Bureau of Statistics recorded
2,683 suicides in 1998.) Almost four times more people
in China kill themselves than die in road accidents.
China accounts for about 55 percent of all female
suicides worldwide every year. It is the only country
where the rate of suicide among women is higher than
among men. Until the 1980s very little was known of the
suicide rate in China. As in other authoritarian
countries, figures were suppressed. The opening up of
the country through economic reforms over the past two
decades has resulted in the suicide problem not only
becoming better known, but also, it is believed, to be
increasing. However, the data that researchers have at
their disposal is flaky, which is why a serious study is
being conducted, using figures from 24 sites across the
country.
Sources: Dr. Michael Phillips, head of the research
center at Beijing Hui Long Guan Hospital and an
Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School. The
Sydney Morning Herald, 08/04/2000.
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