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Not only that, dropping the acute accent in the diphtongues of paroxytones (so “idéia” becomes “ideia”) was totally dumb. This renders Portuguese a language whose writing does not match the reading.

On the other hand, in terms on information technology, it helps to have a single dictionary. Currently, people have to keep up different customizations for both the Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese versions.

I personally like local and national linguistic distinctivness and inimitability. These are what give communities and cultures and regions and nations uniqueness. Wouldn’t the word be a more boring (though somewhat simpler place) if everything was streamlined into charcterless and manageable uniformity?!

As an intermediate (Brasilian)-Portugues speaker I do understand the desire on some fronts for linguistic clarity and uniformity. I also understand that internationally the Portugues language ultimately is represented in today’s world by Brasil. No doubt in the future European Portugues will lose even more of its influence internationally (outside of the Eurozone that is).

I don’t think that Portugues usage needs to be united, but perhaps Portugues grammer could be simplified.

Read the blog:
http://www.craigdylan.blospot.com

Craig Dylan – The Abstract Gaucho

I’m not going to argue with you about Brazil’s interest in the Agreement. You clearly have a chip on your shoulder.

As for Timorese education, the issue of official languages aside, which is a Timorese choice, there are plenty of countries in the world where children learn to read, write and speak in a language in school that they do not speak at home.

In many parts of Indonesia this is the case, and children learn Indonesian through a combination of television and school.

Books make all of the difference. Timorese community organizations rightly take whatever donations they can get of reading materials. (Are you suggesting these be monitored?)

Have you ever been to a place where there is virtually NO accessible written material in the official language? Timorese people are so thirsty for reading material that when a floating bookstore arrived late last year, people waited in long lines to get in.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jp-esperanca/3147148834/in/pool-easttimor

In the education sector in Timor, there are no mystery “Luso” agencies at work. It is the Portuguese government and the Brazilian government.

Portuguese and Brazilian bilateral aid budgets are public, if you would like to read more, just do a little research. The Timorese government also reports on its budget execution so you can track what aid has been spent where.

And FYI, Brazil is a net donor country now on the world stage, even though it does not like to advertise that fact. So it does have money to spend.

Portugal and Brazil of course are the only ones making donations for portuguese matierials.But if Brazil was really concerned with portuguese in Timor it would supply and help with portuguese that is already commonly used in Timor.

Now to make matters worse the portuguese language in Timor has to change meaning Brazil is the number one supplier on “brasilian portuguese” in a country where european portuguese has always been taught!

I suspect the reason why Timorese children are having difficulty learning portuguese has to do with the fact that it is most likely a language not used at home and a language not used as a way of communication in the day to day life.

Do not tell me it has to do with the fact that there few reading materials.

Fact of the matter is the educational system in Timor is not by majority portuguese speaking or taught anyway.So sending public funds from Portugal or Brazil is absolutely ridiculous,considering the fact that Portugal and Brazil do not have the public funds anyway!If anything the donations should be made by private non-profit organizations.

Since I am on the topic of “Luso” world and charitable donations can anyone name me one independent watchdog group from any portuguese speaking country which watches and reports on the charitable funds??How they are being used, where they are being used and if they are being used how much of it is actually used as a donation and where the majority of the money ends up.

I have yet to see any oversight.

This is the reality of the portuguese speakers around the world:

Mozambique:52% of the population is illiterate.

Guinea-Bissau:63% of the population is illiterate.

Angola:58% of the population is illiterate.

East Timor:40% of the population is illiterate.

Cape Verde:25% of the population is illiterate.

Sao Tome and Principe:20% of the population is illiterate.

*Brazil (updated data): illiteracy rate of persons over 15 years of age decreased from 14.7% to 10%; however, there were still a number of persons who could not read or write: 14.1 million illiterate ones…

sources:
-http://www.cbl.org.br/content.php?recid=6464&type=N

*http://www.ibge.gov.br/english/presidencia/noticias/noticia_impressao.php?id_noticia=1233

The data posted is of people who can not read or write(illiterate).

The data for people who are classified as ‘functionally illiterate’ is actually even higher in all of the countries.

To make matters even more confusing,countries in Africa who are officially portuguese speaking have more than one language spoken other than ‘portuguese’.Portuguese is not the first language which the citizens use as a first language of communication within those countries anyway.

Example:

“Mozambique, for example, the illiteracy rate reaches 56.2% of the population, that even with the Portuguese as official language, together with more than 25 national languages and 33 dialects, according to the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO).”
http://www.abrelivros.org.br/abrelivros/texto.asp?id=1813

And they say the problem of communication is a few silent letters?It never the problem!

The real issue is between Portugal and Brazil.Brasilians claim to be proud of speaking portuguese but yet the push for spelling changes is from Brazil.

This is not the first time in which Brazil has changed portuguese and Portugal followed.

This ridiculous ‘Orthographic Agreement’ serves in the interest of Brazil and not the rest of the “luso” world.The rest of the “luso” speaking countries of the world was already in reform of “Gonçalves Viana”.

Now every country Portugal,Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe, and East Timor Macau and Indian territories of Goa, Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli has to change.

The lie being spread is that the brasilian way is easiest and will help to combat illiteracy.When the reality is Brazil will not be changing anything or very little, therefor no money spent on changes.And with Brazil with 90% of speakers of portuguese anyway it’s easy to see why.

Illiteracy is the real issue and the fabricated issue to cover up the interests of Brazil who produce the largest shares of printing portuguese books is that the reform is needed to help with illiteracy!What a joke.

Combating illiteracy means building schools and spending money for education.With education society of the country will benefit from better health to better conditions of living ect ect.

Corruption is the second bigget problem of the “luso” world.Even education will stop corruption because the citizens of the country will be able to read and write so that they can vote out corrupted officials.

The problem is not that portuguese needs a reform it is that the “luso” countries individually need to address and reform there own country in the way they are neglecting EDUCTION.

As I said in the first sentence the biggest joke in the “luso” world.

On top of it, donations and materials have come from Brazil and Portugal. Both Portuguese and Brazilians have been working with the Ministry of Education in different sectors and in the Ministry of Justice, I imagine it has been difficult to verify a universal Portuguese in what has been produced.

The Accord would be welcome relief to Timorese students.

Apparently Timor signed the Accord in 2004 but has yet to ratify as far as I know…