I was doing a little digging on languages when I came across this page from MSN Encarta. It lists Indonesian as being spoken by just over 17 million people in Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and the Netherlands combined.
Is there something I'm missing here? Is this the right Indonesian we're talking about? The one which translates "oxtail soup" as "sop bontot*"? The one from the country with just under 240 million people, which is so pathetically insecure about their own cultural heritage that they had to outlaw the Chinese diaspora from speaking Chinese, having Chinese names or even allowing Chinese to be taught in schools? The Indonesia that, in addition to this slow cultural genocide, has seen fit to continue with the more direct ethnic cleansing still occuring in West Papua?
I mean, granted, the bottom of the table does come with the disclaimer "All numbers are approximate" but to be out by an order of magnitude is a bit much, even for a physicist! Not so sure how seriously I can take Encarta anymore...
* Literally, "butt soup".
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1 comment:
maths = fail.
haha
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