get variable problem

I'm having trouble understanding how variables work

I'd like to use a language cookie to set a variable which I can then use to select which images to display. So to get started I'm testing this code:

<action name="startup">		set(language,'EN');	trace(get(language));/>


---


<plugin name="ENbtn" url="ENbtn.png"  align="topright" x="0" y="0" visible="false" onclick="js(setCookie('EN'));" keep="true"/>
 <plugin name="FRbtn" url="FRbtn.png"  align="topright" x="0" y="0" visible="false" onclick="js(setCookie('FR'));" keep="true"/>


---
<scene name="scene_GareRilly_pano" title="GareRilly" onstart="showLanguageBtn();" thumburl="panos/GareRilly_2_pano.tiles/thumb.jpg" lat="" lng="" heading="" >
---


<action name="showLanguageBtn">
	trace(get(language));
	if(language=='FR',
		set(plugin[ENbtn].visible,true);
	,
		set(plugin[FRbtn].visible,true);
	);
</action>

the first trace shows the correct variable but the second trace, inside the action, shows that get(language) is null

I'm baffled...

I've now got it working by moving the showLanguageBtn() call from the scene onstart

<scene name="scene_GareRilly_pano" title="GareRilly" onstart="showLanguageBtn();" thumburl="panos/GareRilly_2_pano.tiles/thumb.jpg" lat="" lng="" heading="" >

to

<events name="currentpano" onnewpano="showLanguageBtn();" onremovepano="stopsound(bgsnd);"/>

I guess there wasn't enough time for the variable to register