FT 10-04: Fremont Language Rights Act of 2019 (Tabled)

[ON Progressive]

An Act
To ensure all Fremont residents have equal access and opportunity

Section 1. Title
1. The long title of this act shall be "The Fremont Language Rights Act of 2019".

Section 2. Definition
1. We, the Parliament of Fremont, recognize that many languages are spoken among the residents of the Fremont Region
2. We recognize that residents who speak less common languages deserve equal access and protection under the law
3. In accordance with the above recognitions, we submit that all government and election materials be made available in the following languages:
English
Spanish
French
Cantonese
Tagolog
Korean
Vietnamese
Japanese
Portuguese
Mandarin
Arabic
Greek
German
Italian
Hini
Bengali
Punjabi

Sponsor: RFA09

24 hours to advocate

[Galaxie]

Again, love the bill, but my question is how was this list determined? I'm guessing its by language prevalence in Fremont, in which case I would think it would be necessary to add a clause to automatically add new languages to the list once they reach the same threshold.

[Fmr. Representative Encke]

I'd be very wary of this bill because 'government and election materials' exist in-game in the form of ballots and legislative threads, and this could be construed as requiring that those materials be printed in all of the listed languages.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

I'd be very wary of this bill because 'government and election materials' exist in-game in the form of ballots and legislative threads, and this could be construed as requiring that those materials be printed in all of the listed languages.

This was my thought as well.

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

Amendment to clarify the bill's intent:

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[ON Progressive]

24 hours with no objection, the amendment has been added on. Here's what the bill looks like:

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[KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸]

I find it funny that absolutely no Native American languages are on this. I can guarantee you more Fremonters speak a Native American language than speak Punjabi. I believe that if we don't include these languages, yet include several languages from Asian countries that don't have significant populations here, we are putting our priorities in the wrong places. I know much more people who speak Bosnian than people who speak Bengali.

Honestly, if we truly want to make all languages be treated fairly, we shouldn't prioritize any languages over others, and not allow legislation like this that protect small pockets while actively ignoring people and languages that have been spoken in Fremont long before even English.

[ON Progressive]

I have to agree with Koopa on this one. Our region includes 9 of the top 10 states by Native population share in the entirety of Atlasia, so we certainly have many people who speak Native languages. 

[Orwell]

This would be establishing official languages practically, and I don't believe that's within our rights as a region or as a people.

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

Here's a new amendment to expand the list to cover Native languages, taken from this map.

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[Orwell]

Or we don't accept this legislation in any state as it's just a bureaucratic mess

[Lumine]

Or we don't accept this legislation in any state as it's just a bureaucratic mess

I'm tempted to agree with JacksonHitchcock here. On one side, cultural inclusion and the importance of protecting cultural diversity - particularly of Fremonters with a signficant variety of native or first languages - shouldn't be understated, but there is also a point in which the promotion of such diversity also hits practical or bureaucratic problems which significant limit the efficiency or the impact of such a measure.

Wouldn't it be problematic to have such a large variety of government or electoral printed or made available on 39 different languages? 39 copies of countless documents - there's also an environmental issue there with the use of paper and such other materials - for a large number of languages actually spoken only by a small amount of our citizens, and requiring an expansion of bureaucracy by virtue of requiring translators for again, 39 languages.

I certainly think there's an effort to be made about Native Atlasians and their inclusion and either this bill significantly amended or a different bill focused on them would be a great idea. This, as it stands, seems to have a noble goal but present a bureaucratic nightmare in terms of actual implementation.

[Lumine]

It's been more than a week here and no responses to the concerns raised. I should like to motion to table to at least see where the House stands.

[ON Progressive]

I second the motion.

I can actually table it myself under Article 3, Section 2 as RFA09 never advocated for the bill. I'd rather see where the rest of the House stands before I do it though.

[YE]

This really should be tabled.

[KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸]

This really should be tabled thrown in the trash can.

[ON Progressive]

Alright.

I think it's pretty clear nobody wants this bill. Under the powers I have in Article 3, Section 2 of the Standing Orders, I declare this bill tabled.