An article that may be of interest to jbopre:
"Could a new phonetic alphabet promote world peace?"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21505114
Some quotes:
"The reason why Finland shines in education is because their children have to spend very little time learning to read and write. It is completely phonetic."
"Utopian language projects, in which an artificial system is put forward as an alternative to what's developed naturally, tend to fail. People are strongly attached to the distinctiveness and idiosyncrasies of whatever language they use."
"Shared language can dupe us into thinking we share other things - values, beliefs, goals - when in many cases we don't. Does it minimize differences, or merely mask them?"