All reactionaries are paper tigers

One of the main topics of this conference I'm attending is whether the spread of English as a global language is good (yay intercultural communication!) or bad (boo Anglo-American hegemony!).

As I suspect is typical wherever Anglo-American academics gather to criticize Anglo-American hegemony, there has been a fair bit of capitalism-bashing going on. The opening plenary speaker extensively quoted Marx in his talk on whether English is a panacea or a pandemic. The final speaker of the day wondered whether English can ever be culturally neutral, or whether it is too tied to the failing capitalist international regime.

I'm not normally one to sing the praises of rampant unchecked capitalism, but giving a speech on the failure of capitalism in the middle of Hong Kong struck me as a little humorous.

Sponsorship law change

A new sponsorship law has been kicking around for some months. Apparently, this week the Advisory Council sent the draft back to committee for some changes.

The draft would allow residents to bring their relatives into the country, which currently is only possible for high-paid residents; the Advisory Council says they should only be allowed to bring a few relatives (spouses and children). The draft would let workers keep their own passports; the Advisory Council is "apprehensi[ve]."

It's nice to at least hear what's on the table.