[Scotland] Gaelic-Speaking Only Will Get A House.

[BIAD]

The fracturing continues... 

SNP minister condemned for plan to BAN English-only speakers from Scottish housing estates

'The SNP has come under fire for after a member of Nicola Sturgeon's Cabinet backed plans to create
housing developments in Scotland where only those who speak Gaelic can live.


Kate Forbes doesn't like anyone who speaks foreign to Scotland.

Ms Sturgeon’s Finance Secretary Kate Forbes backed a proposal for housing developments where residents
must speak Gaelic, or commit to learning it. The concept by language campaigners would see English-only
speaking people banned from living in the developments, which could be widely prominent across the Scottish
Highlands.

Currently, only around one percent of the population can speak any Gaelic, meaning most Scots would be barred
from applying to live there unless they committed to learning it.
Ms Forbes said: “This is probably the most controversial thing I’ll say to you – I would be very supportive of that.

“There are big issues in terms of conflict with equalities legislation, because of perceived discrimination.
“But I think we need to take increasingly positive action and intervene in trying to support Gaelic-speaking communities.

“The one caveat I’d make to that is that you cannot artificially create communities. “So right now I would far rather focus
on saving what we have.” MSP Alexander Stewart, the Scottish Tories Housing spokesman, labeled Ms Forbes's comments
as  “unhelpful”. He added: “Housing should be available on a needs basis for Scots, not on if you speak English or Gaelic
over the breakfast table.

“With the SNP Government on track to miss their affordable housing target, the focus should be on delivering roofs over
people’s heads rather than unhelpful ideas.” Ms Forbes, the MSP for Skye and Lochaber, speaks Gaelic fluently and has
bemoaned the decline of the language, adding: “Gaelic is extremely fragile right now.”

According to the 2011 Scottish census, 57,375 people (1.1 percent of those aged three or over) reported as able to speak
Gaelic. Academics from the University of the Highlands and Islands said Gaelic is "in crisis, and that within remaining vernacular
communities of Scotland, the social use and transmission of Gaelic is at the point of collapse".

They claim the language could be dead by 2030 unless the Scottish government takes radical action to save it.
Professor Conchur O Giollagain, a professor of Gaelic research at the University of the Highlands and Islands in Inverness, added:
"Our statistical evidence indicates that the Gaelic vernacular community is comprised of around 11,000 people, of which a majority
are in the 50 years and over age category.

"The decline of the Gaelic community, as especially shown in the marginal practice of Gaelic in families and among teenagers,
indicates that without a community-wide revival of Gaelic, the trend towards the loss of vernacular Gaelic will continue.”...'

The Express:

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

This is a hard topic for me because I am in the middle of this and I can see the pros and the cons on both sides.

I have family and friends that are still on the reservation. Most have a foot in and a foot out. It is heartbreaking to lose the cultural and  language of any group, considering that knowledge, history, and beauty is lost forever when that happens. But most don't have the luxury of being able to live in two worlds, so they are forced to have to choose a side.

My grandmother was of the Pima tribe, in Arizona. I don't know one word of her native language, I was two years old when she died of breast cancer. My mother and her siblings were not taught it, because it was considered an obstacle in the society where they already had enough challenges for survival. I grew up hated by some of my relatives and we were frequently called half breeds, so I personally know this particular burden.

What’s Left Today

In spite of everything, there are still approximately 150 Native North American languages spoken in the United States today by more than 350,000 people, according to American Community Survey data collected from 2009 to 2013. That’s out of 350 total spoken languages in the country.

Though most of these languages are on the verge of dying out, some are holding on. The Navajo language, for instance, is the most spoken Native American language today, with nearly 170,000 speakers. The next most common is Yupik, at 19,750, which is spoken in Alaska.

However, the majority of Native Americans today speak only English. Of the roughly 2.7 million American Indians and Alaska Natives counted by the 2016 census, 73 percent of those aged 5 years or older spoke only English. That’s down slightly from 73.7 percent in 2005, though in 2010, that number had dipped to 72.2 percent.


Via the U.S. Census Bureau

https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/nativ...-in-the-us

[BIAD]

This is a hard topic for me because I am in the middle of this and I can see the pros and the cons on both sides...

No problems, I dropped this piece in to see if -what it was originally designed for, would work
or whether Gordi or any fellow Scotsman might see through the veneer of dividing nations.

The reason behind the article I posted is actually two-fold. One is the supposed media-ratings
narrative of the nationalistic politics of Scotland demanding that those south of Hadrian's Wall
shouldn't be able to purchased property in Scotland.

That same narrative could be stretched to frowning at migrants coming ashore in England being
transported into Scotland to save political face in Westminster -London. But that's a guess.

I believe the actual complaint from Ms Forbes is to do with land-banking. In many areas of the
North-East England and Scotland, large estates created by the town Councils are uninhabited
due to those same Council groups having to accept a certain law put in many years ago.

Council estates in the UK are traditionally homes for low-paid families known as the true working
class. Often, these families couldn't afford to get on the housing market and so took to paying
rent to these governing bodies and any repairs and upgrades are performed by the Councils.

The 'Right-To-Buy' law allowed families to purchase the Council-owned property and for a discount
too. This was seen as a 'step-up'... a way to set struggling families on a better foothold with the
possible option of selling their property to upgrade to a larger home in a possibly better neighbourhood.

However, what was discovered in many cases is that whole streets were bought-out by those who
wished to deposit part of their wealth in property and had no intention of living in the houses.
So the Council funds the building of the estates for benevolent reasons and people -usually from
outside of the UK, buy the residents who need the money and the area remains barren of poor families
who need a place to live.

So... Ms Forbes may not actually be talking about those who speak with an English accent, but someone
who has never visited the British Isles and wishes to keep their monies out of the banks.


But the MSM aren't going to say that because many of the London-based Journalists own property
around the south for the same reasons.

[Ninurta]

Butbutbut...

Will I still be able to buy a square foot of Scotland and declare myself a Laird? Or will I have to learn Gaelic first?

Does Irish Gaelic count, or Manx? Or does it have to be Scottish Gaelic?

I have a nephew that speaks Scots Gaelic. he's an American citizen, served in the US Army, but would this give him an "in", despite those disabilities?

Inquiring minds want to know!

==============================================

@"NightSkyeB4Dawn" - I speak a little Shawnee, but wouldn't class myself as fluent in it. At last count, there were only 260 or 270 people left who are fluent, and as far as I know, all of them are in Oklahoma, where one of the subdivisions have started a school in Shawnee, with apparently little success. The number of fluent speakers has stayed constant now for 20 or 30 years or so, instead of increasing.

I understand what you are saying about trying to stand with a foot in both worlds - it seems that when you do that, both worlds tend towards a total rejection of you, leaving you standing with nothing but your own two feet. And yes, it's heartbreaking.

Having the blood or speaking the language or observing the culture tends to cut no ice with most Oklahoma tribes. Instead, they point to the Federal Government approved Dawes Roll, and if you can't point to a name on it and prove a connection, then you're out. So you can't be "one of them" unless the Federal government says you can, and there is damned little chance of that ever happening, given the Federal habit of chipping away at the tribes. I got state recognition in NC, but not Federal, so everywhere outside NC I'm as white as rice. Funny how crossing an invisible state line can change you entire makeup, isn't it?

But maybe if I learn Gaelic I can be a Scotsman?

.