[Foundation-l] On Arabic and sub-language proposals.

Sat Oct 11 08:09:14 UTC 2008

Muhammad Alsebaey wrote:
> It is not a political stand that the first body of written non-fiction work
> published in Egyptian Arabic will be on Wikipedia? I said before that there
> is an ongoing debate in Egypt about the adoption of Egyptian Arabic as
> written in addition to being spoken in order to bolster the national
> identity of Egypt. This debate is currently dead in the water AFAIK, with a
> lot of argument going for and against. Wikipedia hosting the first
> non-fiction written work *is* a political stand in this debate IMHO.
>
>   
Of course the process is political.  There's nothing wrong with that.  
Every time two or more people differ on some issue, deciding that issue 
requires political interaction, whether it's choosing between the 
opinions offered or synthesizing a new compromise position.  Politics is 
not just partisan activity connected with established ideologies, though 
politicians umbilically associated with such ideologies are the ones who 
give politics a bad name.

Using "too political" as an excuse for not participating in the debates 
of the day is itself a political act.

Ec