Here's a translation, from a Ruby list, of Matz's slides to his YAPC::Asia talk on why Ruby will not use Unicode, Ruby on Perls.
(That title brings to mind, Cinderella on Ice.)
Linkname: [rhg-discussion] [ANN] Ruby Hacking Guide - New chapters
(and a bonus)
http://rubyforge.org/pipermail/rhg-discussion/2006-April/000136.html>
From the end, Unicode is practical, but not a panacea. Character Set Independence, on the other hand, is not an impossibility.
