Crossed lines…

CHRIS BENNETT ponders how we talk to each other.

GLOBAL warming has been high on the discussion list along the South Coast these past few weeks. It seems, so far, to have been a fairly cold October down here, and what with the floods in India and poor old Samoa’s tsunami, who knows?

And now we see the great Copenhagen conference. The idea is for the world’s great minds to discuss global warming and its implications for humanity. I, for one, do not perceive the planet earth being under any kind of serious threat, but the human population certainly seems to be. Let’s hope that those attending the conference can talk to each other.

On several occasions in this column I have bemoaned the sorrowful standard of English taught, not only here, but all over South Africa. The burgeoning use of the awful sms-speak among the population is a disturbing trend. It has now found its way into emails, and doubtless newspapers will soon follow.

The problem lies in two things, as I see it. In the first place those who use sms-speak usually have nothing to say. If they have something to say they have a problem. Idea cannot be expressed through this contrived nonsense.

I recently read (about a week ago) a quote by an English writer, Raymond Tallis. I read it twice.

“The centuries of prattle, of air time and screen time, the miles of column inches, are a sickening misuse of the gift of life; of health and adequate nutrition, of freedom from oppression, of the access we now have to the world of knowledge and the arts. They are stolen from thought about, or discussion of, things that are truly important or worthwhile; fighting poverty, disease and the iniquities and injustice of the world; the profound joy afforded by literature and the arts; questions about the meaningful purpose of life.” *

Food for thought if ever I saw it.

Copenhagen will come and go. It will, in all probability, achieve nothing.

But we can do something, and that is to instil into our young the love for language, and at the risk of being pilloried (or worse) I mean the English language.

It is through this medium that the world communicates, and the fact Julius Malema could not find the hermaphrodite in his Zulu dictionary helps no one, least of all Mr Malema.

Should some of the money from the forthcoming football festival find its way into the library shelves of our schools and the legitimate pockets of our poorly paid English teachers, then the future will be a good one.

*Raymond Tallis is a writer and physician. His latest book is The Kingdom of Infinite Space: A Fantastical Journey Around Your Head (Atlantic Books). Tanya Potts at Ramsgate Stationers will know about it.