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France lobbies G8 for Internet control and censorship

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Re: France lobbies G8 for Internet control and censorship

#21

Italy + France trying to get some of glory back they once had. Wanting to have the success Germany has had these past years. Problem is that Germans like quality and working while the French, Italians, Spanish, Portugese and Greek do not. The latter countries protest against unemployment (???), higher pensions ages and higher taxes. They waste time instead of working for their countries to get better. Then get in a f…

It's xenophobic, that's why.

Just because you've lived there doesn't make it any better.

Re: France lobbies G8 for Internet control and censorship

#22

Italy + France trying to get some of glory back they once had. Wanting to have the success Germany has had these past years. Problem is that Germans like quality and working while the French, Italians, Spanish, Portugese and Greek do not. The latter countries protest against unemployment (???), higher pensions ages and higher taxes. They waste time instead of working for their countries to get better. Then get in a f…

Your contribution sounds like repeating common stereotypes. Now we all know stereotypes often have a grain of truth to them, but nonetheless it's useless to use them as argumentats.

At any rate, protesting unemployment can be understood in various ways. Suppose the protester's postulates were: less taxation on small business, simplier laws to ease running small businesses, wide-ranging education on running own business, a bit of import/export protection -- now that'd make some sense, right?

The thing about unemployment is that you can't just stand up and work on something and then sell it -- aside of labor (what you have), you need capital (both liquid assets and infrastructure) and enought knowledge to pull bargaining with (parts, materials) vendors and customers as well as to navigate the legal framework.

Re: France lobbies G8 for Internet control and censorship

#23
post #8
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The word you're looking for is "current". "Actual" is a synonym for "current".

no it's not? http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/actual

I'm not a native English speaker (nor French), but other English dictionaries have "existing now or current" as one of the definitions for "actual":

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/actual?show=0&...

http://oxforddictionaries.com/view/entry/m_en_gb0007040#m_en...

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/actual

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=actual&tbs=dfn:...

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/actual

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/Dictionary...

Re: France lobbies G8 for Internet control and censorship

#24
post #9
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no it's not? http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/actual

In french, it's actually (!) more common to say "actuel" than "courrant". So I'm guessing the OP speaks french as a native language...?

Albeit spending most of my time speaking/thinking English, I'd have to confirm that French is my mother tongue. Well, swiss French, but close enough ;)

And I meant to write about the current president indeed.

Re: France lobbies G8 for Internet control and censorship

#25
post #23
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no it's not? http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/actual

I'm not a native English speaker (nor French), but other English dictionaries have "existing now or current" as one of the definitions for "actual": http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/actual?show=0&... http://oxforddictionaries.com/view/entry/m_en_gb0007040#m_en... http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/actual http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=actual&tbs=dfn:... http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/actual http://e…

Speaking as a professional translator, let me encourage you to look beyond dictionary definitions - each definition in a dictionary means that the word in question can stand in a particular role. A true pair of synonyms would coincide in meaning in all situations. Dictionaries can be very dangerous tools indeed in unsure hands. I know I've injured myself with them repeatedly, as has every translator at some time or another.

"Actual" is a common mistranslation from French or German. As a rule of thumb, actuel/aktuell can almost always be translated as "current". "Actual" in English means something more like "true".

In the phrase "actual situation", "actual" does take on the Latin meaning of "existing now or current", but you can see that today's gloss of "true" also fits there: "true situation" works pretty well to describe the actual situation. Although come to think of it, "actual situation" sounds little odd to my ear (although that is a very dangerous metric, because everything can sound odd if you think too hard about it).

Re: France lobbies G8 for Internet control and censorship

#26
post #19
post #13

As a French I don't vote anymore. The truth is that Freedom is incompatible with having full time elected people at all scales of the society, since they need to justify their work by taking all kinds of unsollicited stances and intempestive measures. Left or Right ? Both of them will spend the most of their time fulfulling their purpose : to make new laws. Generally on a wide range of topics they don't understand (n…

I think your stance should be commended. However, while they do say "We want full time parliamentary elected representatives, free to set their own agenda, free to control the country's budget, free to debate all public issues...", what are your thoughts on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Alternative ?

[deleted]

Re: France lobbies G8 for Internet control and censorship

#27
post #24
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In french, it's actually (!) more common to say "actuel" than "courrant". So I'm guessing the OP speaks french as a native language...?

Albeit spending most of my time speaking/thinking English, I'd have to confirm that French is my mother tongue. Well, swiss French, but close enough ;) And I meant to write about the current president indeed.

Small world! Swiss french here too. (grew up in Geneva)

Re: France lobbies G8 for Internet control and censorship

#28
post #19
post #13

As a French I don't vote anymore. The truth is that Freedom is incompatible with having full time elected people at all scales of the society, since they need to justify their work by taking all kinds of unsollicited stances and intempestive measures. Left or Right ? Both of them will spend the most of their time fulfulling their purpose : to make new laws. Generally on a wide range of topics they don't understand (n…

I think your stance should be commended. However, while they do say "We want full time parliamentary elected representatives, free to set their own agenda, free to control the country's budget, free to debate all public issues...", what are your thoughts on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Alternative ?

In the age of the web, we have the power to make democracy more direct. I also believe we don't need so much statemen whose daily job is to make new laws. A strong and centralized state is mandatory during war, and that's it.

In aviation, a lot of crashes could have been avoided if the captain released the commands instead of desperatly hook on them, because the plane is programmed to get back on its feets alone.

It think it would be the same for our governments, people would be really surprised to see that the world wouldn't collapse if you removed the bulk of our elected and non-elected statemen. We give them too much credits. The industrial revolution happened in spite of them rather than thanks to them, that's why every western european country encountered about the same progress overall with different political systems. Unless a certain amount of freedom was missing, progress grew naturally. Thats what happening right now with the Internet.

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