Posted 05 August 2008 - 06:19 AM
Salam all,
It's a great step towards the cultural reunification of the three major Farsi-speaking countries. Since Farsi has survived many all-sided cultural invasions, with Arabs crowing them all, the minimal and optional inclusion of Pashto will not dim its strength in anyway. For Pashto to attract an audience, it has to be presented alongside Farsi. Such is the sustainable yet worrisome development of modern Pashto in Afghanistan, which can be argued to be its birthplace. While this language faces such a shaky fate in its birthplace, will its faint inclusion in a predominantly Farsi TV have a worrying effect?
Afghanistani Tajiks understand how entertainment programs and news sessions on Afghan TVs unexceptionally have two presenters--one in Farsi and one in Pashto. Given the suppressive and brutal essence of Pashton governments, it will be naive to think that Afghan officials equally promote the two official languages simultaneously. It's because in the absence of Farsi, Pashto programs will have minimum viewership. They brutally impose Pashto on the Farsi-speaking, and even Persianized Pashton, viewership, out of desparation to preserve that language.
My argument is not for the inclusion of this language in the proposed joint TV, but rather against the inhibitions and concerns that have been presented against its inclusion. In other words, while I every bit resent its inclusion in that culturally homogenous TV network, I want to highlight the unimportance of its ludicrous inclusion in a TV channel that will have Farsi viewership (and promote the culture of Shahnaama, I hope).
The materialization of such a TV will have more positive impacts on the strengthening of our language with its rich dialects. It will also bring the Afghanistani Tajiks alot more closer to their brothers in Iran and Tajikistan. Otherwise, they will have no option but to suffer watching predominantly Pashto programs through solely Afghani TVs.
Pedrod