This was the main idea behind the South African nukes as well. If memory serves, the country had only 6 nuclear warheads, but they were never meant to be anything but a deterrent (and probably a display of power and capability).
In South Africa, Pascal and Delphi are still taught in schools... In fact, the University of South Africa actually has about 2 Delphi semester modules also, along with C++.
Some schools have switched over to Java, and most other universities have jumped onto the Java/.NET bandwagon.
So in a nutshell, I think it's still pretty prevalent in 3rd world countries. It's not a bad starting language to introduce students to programming concepts, although I would prefer Python for a first language.
I don't think Stallman would submit his work for a PhD, mainly because one's PhD work becomes the property of the university. It's against everything he stands for.
Jeff Atwood hates "forum style" interfaces and discussions for Q&A sites. I've always disagreed with this. Forum style discussions not only solve problems, but also branch out into brilliant discussions. I myself have been part of a few math forums before.
For anyone interested: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8248056.stm