In the autonomous regions of Spain there is language dispute and language imposition. You want to have some facts about languages? This series provides information and consists of 6 parts:

1. South Africa: Bloody insurrection against language imposition click, to read part 1
2. Catalonia: language imposition and the division of a nation click to read part 2
3. Language imposition, falsification of history and indoctrination
4. Language impositions in the Ukraine click, to read part 4
5. Ways out of language conflicts - What is Language? click, to read part 5
6. Language protection - does this work in France? click, to read part 6

Language imposition and democracy
Part 3 language imposition, falsification of history and indoctrination

Imposition of language is always a tried and tested means of domination, because it makes it more difficult to discover falsifications of history from those in power, and indoctrination is facilitated in the educational system.

The regime in South Africa had always claimed that the whites were the first settlers on the Cape, so the blacks had no rights to the land. Even today one still finds remnants of such views, as for example in the „Kapstadtmagazin“[1], where a relatively detailed „overview of the history of South Africa“ does not begin with the colonization by the blacks, but with the discovery of Cape 1488 by the Portuguese and 1652 with the colonization by the Dutch. It was not until 1679 that the Dutch encountered the Xhosa and „disputes“ began.

The ideology of apartheid included not only a concept of racial purity, but also a justification of slavery and exploitation of blacks and coloured.

Although the South Africa of the last century can hardly be compared with the Catalonia of today, it is significant to see how much language compulsion, history falsification and indoctrination go hand in hand.

In Spain schoolbooks with the same title from the same publisher are published with different content, depending on whether they are for Madrid or Barcelona.[2]. The most important forgeries relate to the fact that a Catalan nation has existed for centuries and has always been oppressed by Spain. It should be remembered that nations and the concept of nations only emerged after the French Revolution of 1789. Previously feudalism prevailed and Catalonia did not exist, only a county of Barcelona as vassal of the Kingdom of Aaragonia. If the feudal lords of that part of Spain now called Catalonia were oppressed by the Spanish king, it remains true that in feudalism all peoples were oppressed by their feudal lords, no matter whose vassals their lords were. The statement that Catalonia was oppressed by Spain serves only to produce hatred against the Spaniards.

A falsification of history that is consequently continued with indoctrination. No wonder when 10-12 year-old pupils are marched through the streets of Catalonia under the guidance of their teachers and chant separatist slogans[3] and the German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reports that Catalan television only shows criminals and mentally handicapped people speaking Spanish.[4]

Secession or annection?

Even the most recent events have been falsified in the Ukrainian conflict. History is also falsified in the Ukrainian conflict. After NATO's borders were extended to Narva in Estonia, about 270 km from St. Petersburg in Russia, contrary to promises made during the Soviet Union's withdrawal from reunited Germany, Ukraine came under Nato's sights. Ukraine is an „ideal“ area to divide the population, because the western part, which makes up about 2/3 of Ukraine, is roughly speaking more „western“, while the rest is more oriented towards Russia. The completely corrupt President Yanukovych fled to Russia in 2014 after American Secretary of State Nuland (famously known for her „Fuck the EU!“) announced that the Americans had already invested 5 billion dollars in a change of government. The demonstrations and massacre of unknown marksmen on the Maidan and the appointment of the equally corrupt but Western-oriented oligarch Poroshenko followed, putting Crimea, the most important naval station of the Russians in the Black Sea, at risk.

The predominantly Russian population in the Crimea organised a vote during these turmoils - certainly with the support of the Russian government - and seceeded from Ukraine before joining Russia, similar to the way the East German states joined the Federal Republic of Germany in reunification. This process was a secession, as the lawyer Dr. Wolfgang Bittner [5] also writes and quotes the lawyer Reinhard Merkel, who published the same on 7 April 2014 in the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. [6]

This secession was certainly illegal within the Ukrainian legal system, but a secession is not illegal under international law. The former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and the now president of the German parliament, Wolfgang Schäuble were caught [7] with black money, carried in plastic bags. Of course, that was illegal as well (of course, they themselves never had to stand trial, though always found accusing others as being corrupt) but not illegal under international law. Illegal does not automatically mean illegitimate. While the illegal money campaigns of German top politicians can hardly be justified as legitimate, the situation in Crimea, with a Ukrainian population of only 15.7% [8], can certainly be judged differently.

The false story of the annexation of the Crimea by the Russians does not come true because Western governments and media support this fairy tale today. This legend serves only to justify sanctions against Russia. Russia is to be demonized, as the journalist Gabriele Krone-Schmalz writes, who has worked for German television since 1976 and has worked as a Moscow correspondent since 1987. In this context it is astonishing and embarrassing to see to what extent the German government submits to the sanctions order of the US government, which of course does not adhere to its own sanctions.

In this situation, where Ukraine is torn between the geopolitical demands of the USA and NATO on the one hand and the demands of Russia on the other, it is interesting to look at the language problems in Ukraine.

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Footnotes

language imposition, falsification of history and indoctrination

[1] https://www.kapstadtmagazin.de/geschichte-s%C3%BCdafrikas
[2] The Spanish teachers' union had investigated this. An English translation of this report can be found at :
http://www.catalonia-conflict.eu/pdf/Blog-Indoktrination-en.pdf
[3] https://twitter.com/rhg_cat/status/1141425684465803264
[4] Paul Ingendaay: Die Sprache der Blöden (The Language of the idiots), FAZ 13.06.19
[5] Die Eroberung Europas durch die USA, Dr. jur. Wolfgang Bittner (The conquest of Europe by the USA)
[6] http://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/debatten/die-krim-und-das-voelkerrecht-kuehle-ironie-der geschichte-12884464.html
[7] https://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-17375684.html
[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimea#Demographics