Monday, November 21, 2011
Paulo Coelho and Irina Bokova on Endangered Languages.
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Saturday, November 5, 2011
Vjetnama ambasadoro cxe UNO akceptas kopion de The Life of Zamenhof, lastatempa traduko anglen pri Zamenhof. La originalo estas de Aleksander Korzhenkov.
Neil received an invitation to meet the Vietnamese Minister of Foreign Affairs from the deputy-ambassador after informing the deputy ambassador about the World Esperanto Convention in Hanoi this coming summer .In the picture, Neil just gave, as a gift, the new English translation of Alexander Korjxenkov's book on Zamenhof to the ambassador. Neil was among a hundred people to come to the inauguration of the New York City Vietnamese Consulate--adjacent to the UN Mission Offices on Sunday, September 25th, 2011.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
51. English Comedian Discusses Esperanto at UN
Gxisdatigo MARTO 2012:
[Update: after writing this article I was able to give a copy of it to Stephen Fry in New York City in 2011---Here is a photo report about my direct contact with him:
(Here is a link I found for BABEL in December 2013: Jen la segmento (lasta kvarono, speciale cxe UNO) pri E-o: Kelkaj partoj cxe la fino (lasta kvarono) traktas Indo-europa Lingvo kaj Esperanto. http://www.dailymotion.com/.../xqa1zt_frys-planet-word-1... )
Fry menciis Esperanton. Unue kiel idealisma ideo... Je la fino de la programo, li demandas al tradukistino de la UN se la mondo estus pli bone se chiuj parolu Esperanto... La tradukistino respondas: "Neee! estas beleco en lingvoj, ĉiu lingvo havas sian propran belecon, propran muzikon" kaj "estos granda perdo se tiu lingvoj ne ekzistus!"
Mi vidis la tutan horan programon, rekomendas gxin ekster tiu lasta komento pri Esperanto. Mi aldonas precizajn minutoj de interesaj partoj.
Mi korespondis kelk-foje kun la asocia produktorino/enscenigistino, Annie Macnee, antau' jaro kaj antau' monato, originale cxar sxi sugestis pretecon intervjui novjorkajn esperantistojn por la programo. Tiu ne realigxis. Mi petis gxisdatigon pri mencioj de Esperanto, sed sxi ne certis antau' monato.
I corresponded a few times with the documentary producer, Annie Macnee, a year ago and month before writing this letter (in September?). Annie had considered interviewing New York Esperanto speakers but that couldn't happen. Recently I requested updates from her but she still didn't have information at her writing a month before my writing this.
Mi skribis al sxi antau' kelkaj minutoj denove pri tiu-cxi/nia diskuto. Kelkaj aktivaj esperantistoj ankau' havis kontaktojn kun sxi.
Mi sugestas ke ni disvastigu la precizajn minutojn de la traktitaj temoj de intereso de pluraj esperantistoj:
56:30-gxis la fino la esprimoj de la interpretistino.
55:00 Pri UNO lingva politiko
38:40-42:39 Pri plan-lingvoj/Klingon
43:00-49:00 Internacieco de gesto-lingvoj
49:00-55:00 La indo-europa familio de lingvoj
11-23-11
I wrote this a few weeks ago and distrubuted it to a few Yahoo groups:
Since I recently had contacts with several translators/interpreters (French dep.) at the UN this past Thursday and believe that I will eventually speak with the translator, Zaha Bustemi from the T.V. program, "Planet Word", I wanted to analyse better the words of the interviewer, Stephen Fry, a minute before and after the misrepresentation of Esperanto in front of possibly milions of people.
Cxar mi sukcese havis kontaktojn kun pluraj tradukistoj/interpretistoj (franca fako) cxe UNO (pasint-jaud'e) kaj mi kredas ke mi devas eventuale paroli kun la tradukistino, Zaha Bustemi, en televida programo "Planet Word" (Planedo-Vorto)
mi volis analizi pli bone la vortojn de la intervjuanto, Stephen Fry, minuton antau' kaj post la misreprezento de Esperanto antau' eble milionoj da homoj.
Mi prezentas la anglan dialogon pli detale cxi-tie kaj eventuale volas akiri tradukon/mem traduki gxin. Cxar ili parolis iom rapide kun akcento/akcxento (ne mia usona) mi eble devis au'skulti 30 fojojn la celatajn frazojn.
(Inter malmultaj // brakoj // mi aldonas klarigajn vortojn)
Minuto. 54:53
(Post 2 minutoj pri infan-lernado de patrino-lingvoj)
Somechildren do not stop learning one language... and there are plenty of other languages to choose from.
(Stephen Fry, enirante UNO-n)
There are currently 194 member states belonging to the United Nations with over 6,000 languages spoken in them.
Maybe many of our species troubles could be avoided if we understood each other better? Would having one world language--be it Esperanto, English or to be utterly neutral and positively perverse--Klingon, even be an advantage?
Perhaps in World Forums like here in the UN Security Council, which is currently in session discussing the Libyan Crisis it would.
But then it would also put /translator's like/ Zaha Bustemi out of a job.
Stephen Fry: How many working languages are there?
Zaha Bustemi: Two: English and French
S. F. Ony two...I see. And then there are the official languages?
Z. B. Six of them
S. F. Only Six!
Z. B The official language are English, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Arabic, which is the most recent addition to the official languages.
S. F. "Zaha..it's rather wonderful watching you translate simultaneously..it seems to us like a...extraordinary..like a conductor able to read a music score..its an incredible thing that a human brain can do. I look down here //while in a UN tranlating booth// it's almost like a living symbol of the Tower of Babel...of the fact that mankind split into so many languages.
Stephen Fry: Do you sometimes think of...//that// the world would be better if everybody spoke Esperanto?
Zaha: 56:57
//Emotionally speaking//
No...there is a beauty to languages... every language has it's own beauty, its own music, it's own imagery, it's way of expressing the sentiments and the nature of the people who speak that language...it would be a loss if that language did not exist // and if everybody spoke Esperanto //
Oh...I'm very much in favor of the Tower of Babel.
//Malrapida klasika muziko au'digxas//
Stephen Fry paroladistas/narrates.
This building where the General Assembly of the United Nations meets perhaps symbolizes more than any other what happened to humankind after Babel:
Thousands of voices upraised in different mutually different, mutually incomprehensible tongues trying to comprehend to understand eachother, trying to build some kind of peace after the wreckage //li ridas iom moke al historio// of the 20th century. Well they sought to solve their problem by reducing all those lanugages to the 6 working languages of the UN in that way people do understand eachother. They understand how they think.. perhaps how they communicate a little bit of the history of each other.
Languages do so much more than that. Languages, in many respects define our identity.. who we are. And that's what I'll be looking at in our next time.
From Kenya to Israel, Ireland to Occitan, New Castle to (Brownsville (ne klare au'debla loko) I'll be looking how our 6,000 plus languges and myriad ---(actions--ne-klara vorto) are threatened with extinction as our global village becomes a reality.
Ni ne volas ataki la dialogantoj--ni konsideras ecx- inviti ilin al nia decembra programo.
Viaj opinioj estas bonvenaj.
http://www.esperanto-un.org/
Other comedians who discuss or used Esperanto are the duo: Penn and Teller (Raymond Joseph Teller and Jillette Penn): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ1X-7COb1M
and Charlie Chaplin
The transliteration of Stephen Fry's Youtube clip named Esperanto is as follows:
I'm setting myself to task, of trying to learn Esperanto, for the purposes, because that's another interesting thing, is a universal language, a made-up language, that's to say.
They're a bit like Brazilia, or Milton Keanes, made up cities. Instead of organically growing the way you feel a community should they've been actually planned, and the most famous of those is Esperanto. Though of course there are fictional ones, that had become quite successful, the most successful at the moment is Klingon, of course, where there is a degree and course as you probably know, and I think someone is doing a musical in Las Vegas, all in Klingon. Linguists genuinely go into it, it has the full range of verbal structure and prepositional/pronominal structure, that languages must have substansives and all of those extraordinary things that languages need in order to express ideas, and sounds quiet complex.
And the new one is the one used in Avatar, by the people of that planet, and actually speaking to the person who devised that language, because is a very interesting thing to do. If he only lived around the corner from here. If only Anthony Burgess was still alive, because, of course, he devised a language too for a film called "Quest for Fire". Do you remember that? He sort of devised a very early sort of caveman language, a sort of "Ugh" as it were, which is sort of exciting.
Now there is so much to think about the language, I mean there is language in art, of course, in poetry, in persuasion, in advertising and in rhetoric, that's the way languages develops and I'm afraid there is language extinctions, as you probably know, almost the sort of similar rate to the extinction of species, and the bio-diversity of the world languages is under a terrible threat.
I was in Australia talking to a linguist there, as well as to a member of an aboriginal community about the disappearances of their languages. I mean there is a huge number of discrete, individual languages in Australian learners.
And then you get real mystery like in New Guinea there are thousands of languages, and you can literally have a valley where one side speak one and on the other another, and those languages are not in any way related. They have no common ancestor. Philologists studied it. And seen that they are utterly separate.
Language also tells you an enormous amount about the human mind. For example, color theory is mentally important to in trying to understand; one of the most important questions linguists have faced over the past hundred years is whether growing up with one language, that is your native tongue, your lingua materna as they say, whether that alters the ways you think, whether it does affect the way you see, the way you see the world, the way you apprehend the world. It's called the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which has been hugely rubbished over the last 30 years, almost as fraudulent. But, a man, a great linguist in his own way, but who by our standards would be considered an amateur, who claimed the Hopi Indians have no sense of time or no sense of distance or differences of this or differences of that, and that it alters, entirely the way they saw the world, because of their language. And this became a popular idea, and this is a sort of Orwellian idea, if you take away freedom out of the language then you take the concepts out of the language.
Most linguists now don't believe that, there is no evidence to suggest that if you are a German you are better able to express abstract ideas of philosophical thoughts then if you are Finnish let's say.
All the works of Wittgenstein or Voltaire can be translated into any language an intelligent person can understand, I mean there are of course; you see this idea of the primitive language not having the same mechanics, not been able to express things. It's certainly true that we in English have a massive vocabulary, way larger than any other language. Just that because we're most sophisticated complex people than Norse or Sicilians or any… *whispers* I don't think so to be honest, I think, the culture which we live, the speed in which we demand communication, which is a factor of technology certainly.
That's another thing that interest people enormously, is what technology has done to languages, whether is dumbing us down, or the abbreviations, and the things you referred to earlier are somehow cheap and coarsening the language. I don't believe that, and I urge people to look at some of the greatest letters ever written in the English language were written by Lord Byron. And partly through the economy, he was not necessarily the most economical person, but letters were crossed, and since they were very expensive to send, especially because he was, a lot of the time, in Italy and Greece, and sending them to England cost a fortune by courier. And they went by the number of pages. So he would abbreviate in exactly the same way, and for the same reason. There was a lack of bandwidth, with bandwidth being the amount of paper you could send. So, he filled it with as much as he could, crossing it so you write like that, and crossing so you write the other way like that. And "your" would become "yr", and so on. And just the same sort of thing-- abbreviating. Now, was Byron illiterate? I really don't think so. Hard to find anyone more literate, in fact.
The point is, we can change our discourses as we change our clothes. You can't judge someone by the way they're speaking when they're speaking with their friends. Sensible people have a different language for different people and different circumstances. I swear in front of my friends. I wouldn't swear in front of my great-aunt. It would upset her. It would just be rude! And, similarly, you know, people who moan about political correctness, I don't think they'd use some of the words they'd use that are politically incorrect when in the presence of the minority were it to offend them because it's just bad manners. And that's actually what it comes down to, this whole thing about political correctness, or swearing. It's just good manners, it's considering your interlocutor, thinking about their feelings. That's what being a decent person's about.
The transliteration of Stephen Fry's Youtube clip named Esperanto is as follows:
I'm setting myself to task, of trying to learn Esperanto, for the purposes, because that's another interesting thing, is a universal language, a made-up language, that's to say.
They're a bit like Brazilia, or Milton Keanes, made up cities. Instead of organically growing the way you feel a community should they've been actually planned, and the most famous of those is Esperanto. Though of course there are fictional ones, that had become quite successful, the most successful at the moment is Klingon, of course, where there is a degree and course as you probably know, and I think someone is doing a musical in Las Vegas, all in Klingon. Linguists genuinely go into it, it has the full range of verbal structure and prepositional/pronominal structure, that languages must have substansives and all of those extraordinary things that languages need in order to express ideas, and sounds quiet complex.
And the new one is the one used in Avatar, by the people of that planet, and actually speaking to the person who devised that language, because is a very interesting thing to do. If he only lived around the corner from here. If only Anthony Burgess was still alive, because, of course, he devised a language too for a film called "Quest for Fire". Do you remember that? He sort of devised a very early sort of caveman language, a sort of "Ugh" as it were, which is sort of exciting.
Now there is so much to think about the language, I mean there is language in art, of course, in poetry, in persuasion, in advertising and in rhetoric, that's the way languages develops and I'm afraid there is language extinctions, as you probably know, almost the sort of similar rate to the extinction of species, and the bio-diversity of the world languages is under a terrible threat.
I was in Australia talking to a linguist there, as well as to a member of an aboriginal community about the disappearances of their languages. I mean there is a huge number of discrete, individual languages in Australian learners.
And then you get real mystery like in New Guinea there are thousands of languages, and you can literally have a valley where one side speak one and on the other another, and those languages are not in any way related. They have no common ancestor. Philologists studied it. And seen that they are utterly separate.
Language also tells you an enormous amount about the human mind. For example, color theory is mentally important to in trying to understand; one of the most important questions linguists have faced over the past hundred years is whether growing up with one language, that is your native tongue, your lingua materna as they say, whether that alters the ways you think, whether it does affect the way you see, the way you see the world, the way you apprehend the world. It's called the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which has been hugely rubbished over the last 30 years, almost as fraudulent. But, a man, a great linguist in his own way, but who by our standards would be considered an amateur, who claimed the Hopi Indians have no sense of time or no sense of distance or differences of this or differences of that, and that it alters, entirely the way they saw the world, because of their language. And this became a popular idea, and this is a sort of Orwellian idea, if you take away freedom out of the language then you take the concepts out of the language.
Most linguists now don't believe that, there is no evidence to suggest that if you are a German you are better able to express abstract ideas of philosophical thoughts then if you are Finnish let's say.
All the works of Wittgenstein or Voltaire can be translated into any language an intelligent person can understand, I mean there are of course; you see this idea of the primitive language not having the same mechanics, not been able to express things. It's certainly true that we in English have a massive vocabulary, way larger than any other language. Just that because we're most sophisticated complex people than Norse or Sicilians or any… *whispers* I don't think so to be honest, I think, the culture which we live, the speed in which we demand communication, which is a factor of technology certainly.
That's another thing that interest people enormously, is what technology has done to languages, whether is dumbing us down, or the abbreviations, and the things you referred to earlier are somehow cheap and coarsening the language. I don't believe that, and I urge people to look at some of the greatest letters ever written in the English language were written by Lord Byron. And partly through the economy, he was not necessarily the most economical person, but letters were crossed, and since they were very expensive to send, especially because he was, a lot of the time, in Italy and Greece, and sending them to England cost a fortune by courier. And they went by the number of pages. So he would abbreviate in exactly the same way, and for the same reason. There was a lack of bandwidth, with bandwidth being the amount of paper you could send. So, he filled it with as much as he could, crossing it so you write like that, and crossing so you write the other way like that. And "your" would become "yr", and so on. And just the same sort of thing-- abbreviating. Now, was Byron illiterate? I really don't think so. Hard to find anyone more literate, in fact.
The point is, we can change our discourses as we change our clothes. You can't judge someone by the way they're speaking when they're speaking with their friends. Sensible people have a different language for different people and different circumstances. I swear in front of my friends. I wouldn't swear in front of my great-aunt. It would upset her. It would just be rude! And, similarly, you know, people who moan about political correctness, I don't think they'd use some of the words they'd use that are politically incorrect when in the presence of the minority were it to offend them because it's just bad manners. And that's actually what it comes down to, this whole thing about political correctness, or swearing. It's just good manners, it's considering your interlocutor, thinking about their feelings. That's what being a decent person's about.
Resumo de la granda programo pri Lingvoj en Planet Word: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fry%27s_Planet_Word
www.dailymotion.com
Fry's Planet Word 1of5 - Babel. It tries to uncover the origins of human language.
OLD INVALID LINKS that oncer worked for BABEL:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2P6DcSyon4&feature=player_detailpage#t=570s Por elsxuti la programo Planet Word: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=AS7VXCDN Por vidi rete: http://www.putlocker.com/file/8847BA37BC6314D2 http://www.megavideo.com/?v=MKBMYH21
Thursday, August 18, 2011
50.Summer-4 Country-Northern European Tour 2011
1. I only had one phone E-o contact in Hamburg (July 15th to 19th), where I arrive on July 15th.
2. In Copenhagen I began my Esperanto activitiy with a International League of Esperanto Teacher's (ILEI) Dinner. Heads of the Copenhagen University (where the conference occured) were met. Professors Tove Skutnabb-Kangas and Robert Phillipson were also greeted. (They are notable advocates of linguistic diversity.) About 40 Esperantists were present at the Ravelin Restaurant with the strongest rain beating on the roof making conversation a bit difficult.
A two-day multilingual program (for non-esperantists) was attended, organized by ILEI. Translation or interpretation was usually available.
3. During the Universala Kongreso I collaborated with Humphrey Tonkin at 4 events. a) The Club Fair on Saturday. b) Lecture on the essential bodies with the UN. c) Lecture on Esperanto at the UN where I spoke for 10 minutes. d) Esperantic Studies Foundation lecture with Martin Schaefer. At several of these events I was able to better aquaint myself with Stefano Keller, UEA Director for External Affairs, and with whom I've corresponded with a few dozen times.
Regretably I missed a program on the translation of the Tivadar Soros book. (Elsewhere, I wore a t-shirt, just made to order, with the group photo of the Zamenhof Symposium 2010 twice during the UK, a cause for a few conversations. George and Jonathan Soros are in the picture.).
After the UK I was hosted by esperantists, Jan and Lene Niemann in Elsinore (Helsinore). Jan is a leading member of the International Federation of Esperantist Railroadworkers. I returned to Copenhagen to enjoy a service at the Unitarian Church of Copenhagen with Esperantists, Arne Kasper and Tara Gregors, important organizers of the UK. The nearby cemetary spoke many words when I saw the tomb-stone with a green Esperanto star stating "Magarete Noll, Mother of the Danish Esperanto Movement". With no doubt the founder of the Danish Esperanto movement was also a Unitarian. We'll enjoy photos of this forgotton history. One of the UK conference rooms was named Noll for this founder.
4. In Gothenburg, Sweden (Goteborg-pronounced Jo-te-bu-re in Swedish written in Esperanto) a meeting occured on my behalf at the Esperanto Cafe, a few feet from the large Esperanto Place (one of the largest in the world). The Esperanto flag and that of a dozen other countries stands at the entrance). Language clubs meet there and take the flag of the respective country to there table. The Esperanto Plaza was renovated in 2008 and its glass signs in Esperanto are damaged due to crazed skate boarding which occurs in numerous plazas.
Thanks to Margareta for joining me two days.
Inga Johanson and Siv Burell were the main organizers. I could talk about the UN and Esperanto among several subject during a two hour meeting.
Inga (pronounced Inja in Swedish as written in Esperanto) is a librarian and collected some 300 E-o books at the main public library where she has worked. Because of renovations and her future retirement, this collection is at notable risk.
The library-computer time she offered me was essential in organizing the last 10 day days of my program.
5. Douglas Draper is the motor of the Norwegian Esperanto Association and the Esperanto Office in Oslo, Norway. A half an hour walk, or 15 minutes by bus or tram, this office can accept 20 people for meetings. It was aquired-purchase- in 1981 and had more numerous meetings in previous years. Thoughts for rental arrangement have been considered. As noted in a UN-NY teleconference, like Humphrey Tonkin, Douglas is an expatriate of Britain, base abroad for most of his life. Douglas has given great dedication to learning Norwegian and brought me to a Green Party meeting at a nearby communtiy garden/communty center--by bike.
Six local Esperantists, several immigrants among them, came to hear me talk about my activities in New York at the UN. I showed several enlarged pictures of meeting with UN leaders.
6. In Olso, Norway two conferences were collaboratively organized by the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) and International Liason Committe of Freethinkers (ILCAF). On Wednesday ILCAF brought a hundred people together from over a dozen countries, with a French majority. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday 400 more people arrived from a total of 50 countries. Unique contacts occured with Indians, Pakistanis and Africans of several countries. ILCAF's website is partially in Esperanto, among 14 other languages. I was informed that Christian Riviere, President of ATEO (atheist Esperantist organization) provide translations.
I photographed the extensive damage to windows in about 5 square blocks of downtown Oslo by an indivdiual who later killed some 70 teenage activists of the Norwegian Labor (Workers) Party. Windows of our Convention Center were also damaged. This tragedy was referred to in several talks at the convention.
Half of the 500 IHEU conference-goers were Norwegians. Fortunately I had ample flyers on Esperanto in Norwegian, provided by Douglas.
When I brought out the large plastic Esperanto sign on Wednesday, a French 18 year old youth, Alex Meyer approached me in enthusiastic Esperanto, pointing out that he rarely used Esperanto outside of his small town on the French Swiss border. He was a friend of Mireille Grosjean, an active Esperantist of Switzerland--sometimes UN representative in Geneva. He said he met another Esperantist already at ILCAF and at lunch introduced me with Dominique Simeone, whose name I heard, and mistakenly thought was a women.
Of some note, Alex was with a group of some 10 younger participants, who undoubtedly heard of Esperanto from him.
Later at the headquarter of Norwegian branch of IHEU I met up with Jose Antonio Vergara, (a former UEA director) where we took a photo with Knut, the head librarian there and a New Yorker of Sri Lankan background and interests, Hemantha.
Speakers of the convention noted that the IHEU buildings in Oslo, Norway and Manhattan, New York (Ethical Culture) are by far the largest offices/centers of the organization.
I set up a larger exhibit of Esperanto materials on Friday, including photos taped to a nearby column of me with Ban Ki-moon and Michelle Bachelet (UN Women) seen by all 500 participants, but discussed individually by about 125 of the participants with me, Jose and Dominique. Since peace and religious tolerance, with acceptance of atheists was key to the discussions I showed literature from a variety of religions and the Esperanto atheist organization.
I estimate that I exchanged some 40 business cards, notably with Sonja, a Dutch organizer who enthusiasticaly agreed to utilize an Esperanto translation of the conference resolutions/conclusions.
I returned to the USA on August 15th with notable jet-lag.
On, Wednesday, August 18th, after a visit to the UEA/NY a teleconference was held with 5 activists, including myself, motivating me to complete this summary of my summer travels to Europe.
2. In Copenhagen I began my Esperanto activitiy with a International League of Esperanto Teacher's (ILEI) Dinner. Heads of the Copenhagen University (where the conference occured) were met. Professors Tove Skutnabb-Kangas and Robert Phillipson were also greeted. (They are notable advocates of linguistic diversity.) About 40 Esperantists were present at the Ravelin Restaurant with the strongest rain beating on the roof making conversation a bit difficult.
A two-day multilingual program (for non-esperantists) was attended, organized by ILEI. Translation or interpretation was usually available.
3. During the Universala Kongreso I collaborated with Humphrey Tonkin at 4 events. a) The Club Fair on Saturday. b) Lecture on the essential bodies with the UN. c) Lecture on Esperanto at the UN where I spoke for 10 minutes. d) Esperantic Studies Foundation lecture with Martin Schaefer. At several of these events I was able to better aquaint myself with Stefano Keller, UEA Director for External Affairs, and with whom I've corresponded with a few dozen times.
Regretably I missed a program on the translation of the Tivadar Soros book. (Elsewhere, I wore a t-shirt, just made to order, with the group photo of the Zamenhof Symposium 2010 twice during the UK, a cause for a few conversations. George and Jonathan Soros are in the picture.).
After the UK I was hosted by esperantists, Jan and Lene Niemann in Elsinore (Helsinore). Jan is a leading member of the International Federation of Esperantist Railroadworkers. I returned to Copenhagen to enjoy a service at the Unitarian Church of Copenhagen with Esperantists, Arne Kasper and Tara Gregors, important organizers of the UK. The nearby cemetary spoke many words when I saw the tomb-stone with a green Esperanto star stating "Magarete Noll, Mother of the Danish Esperanto Movement". With no doubt the founder of the Danish Esperanto movement was also a Unitarian. We'll enjoy photos of this forgotton history. One of the UK conference rooms was named Noll for this founder.
4. In Gothenburg, Sweden (Goteborg-pronounced Jo-te-bu-re in Swedish written in Esperanto) a meeting occured on my behalf at the Esperanto Cafe, a few feet from the large Esperanto Place (one of the largest in the world). The Esperanto flag and that of a dozen other countries stands at the entrance). Language clubs meet there and take the flag of the respective country to there table. The Esperanto Plaza was renovated in 2008 and its glass signs in Esperanto are damaged due to crazed skate boarding which occurs in numerous plazas.
Thanks to Margareta for joining me two days.
Inga Johanson and Siv Burell were the main organizers. I could talk about the UN and Esperanto among several subject during a two hour meeting.
Inga (pronounced Inja in Swedish as written in Esperanto) is a librarian and collected some 300 E-o books at the main public library where she has worked. Because of renovations and her future retirement, this collection is at notable risk.
The library-computer time she offered me was essential in organizing the last 10 day days of my program.
5. Douglas Draper is the motor of the Norwegian Esperanto Association and the Esperanto Office in Oslo, Norway. A half an hour walk, or 15 minutes by bus or tram, this office can accept 20 people for meetings. It was aquired-purchase- in 1981 and had more numerous meetings in previous years. Thoughts for rental arrangement have been considered. As noted in a UN-NY teleconference, like Humphrey Tonkin, Douglas is an expatriate of Britain, base abroad for most of his life. Douglas has given great dedication to learning Norwegian and brought me to a Green Party meeting at a nearby communtiy garden/communty center--by bike.
Six local Esperantists, several immigrants among them, came to hear me talk about my activities in New York at the UN. I showed several enlarged pictures of meeting with UN leaders.
6. In Olso, Norway two conferences were collaboratively organized by the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) and International Liason Committe of Freethinkers (ILCAF). On Wednesday ILCAF brought a hundred people together from over a dozen countries, with a French majority. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday 400 more people arrived from a total of 50 countries. Unique contacts occured with Indians, Pakistanis and Africans of several countries. ILCAF's website is partially in Esperanto, among 14 other languages. I was informed that Christian Riviere, President of ATEO (atheist Esperantist organization) provide translations.
I photographed the extensive damage to windows in about 5 square blocks of downtown Oslo by an indivdiual who later killed some 70 teenage activists of the Norwegian Labor (Workers) Party. Windows of our Convention Center were also damaged. This tragedy was referred to in several talks at the convention.
Half of the 500 IHEU conference-goers were Norwegians. Fortunately I had ample flyers on Esperanto in Norwegian, provided by Douglas.
When I brought out the large plastic Esperanto sign on Wednesday, a French 18 year old youth, Alex Meyer approached me in enthusiastic Esperanto, pointing out that he rarely used Esperanto outside of his small town on the French Swiss border. He was a friend of Mireille Grosjean, an active Esperantist of Switzerland--sometimes UN representative in Geneva. He said he met another Esperantist already at ILCAF and at lunch introduced me with Dominique Simeone, whose name I heard, and mistakenly thought was a women.
Of some note, Alex was with a group of some 10 younger participants, who undoubtedly heard of Esperanto from him.
Later at the headquarter of Norwegian branch of IHEU I met up with Jose Antonio Vergara, (a former UEA director) where we took a photo with Knut, the head librarian there and a New Yorker of Sri Lankan background and interests, Hemantha.
Speakers of the convention noted that the IHEU buildings in Oslo, Norway and Manhattan, New York (Ethical Culture) are by far the largest offices/centers of the organization.
I set up a larger exhibit of Esperanto materials on Friday, including photos taped to a nearby column of me with Ban Ki-moon and Michelle Bachelet (UN Women) seen by all 500 participants, but discussed individually by about 125 of the participants with me, Jose and Dominique. Since peace and religious tolerance, with acceptance of atheists was key to the discussions I showed literature from a variety of religions and the Esperanto atheist organization.
I estimate that I exchanged some 40 business cards, notably with Sonja, a Dutch organizer who enthusiasticaly agreed to utilize an Esperanto translation of the conference resolutions/conclusions.
I returned to the USA on August 15th with notable jet-lag.
On, Wednesday, August 18th, after a visit to the UEA/NY a teleconference was held with 5 activists, including myself, motivating me to complete this summary of my summer travels to Europe.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
49. History of UEA/New York Office Volunteers
While Rochelle Grossman was the power behind the UEA/New York Office for several decades, there was a time that several people volunteered at the office at 777 United Nations Plaza, Manhattan, each week for a few hours a week or a few days weekly. A notebook called "Volantulaj Kontribuoj- 27 Oct '83-8 Feb. '92" was in the office when I took over August 2008.
Many of the volunteers were active in the Esperanto Society of New York, so I knew them personally. Some are unknown to me. It seems that most of these people never got involved with computers, so this may be the first, if any, documentation on-line of the energy behind the office during the 80's and 90's. Since I came to the office about once a year before 2008, I didn't know so many people regularly came until browsing this notebook.
Known personally to Neil
1. Julius Manson and Elizabeth Manson were a husband and wife team dedicated to Esperanto. Throughout the 1980's they were regulars at the office, several days a week. Like several other active Esperanto speakers they lived in Stuyvesant Town, across the street from where I was born (Beth Israel Hospital). I bumped into Julius a few months before he passed away (a year after his wife), held his arm and slowly walked an hour, just one block with him, near his apartment. He had a cane to assist him. Recently I discovered that Elizabeth's sister was the famous urban planner, Jane Jacobs.
2. Leonid Dzelzitis was known for teaching Esperanto for a number of years at Stuyvesant High School, Adult Education Center. He was an immigrant from a Baltic State. He came a distance (Tarreytown?, New York) to be active for Esperanto, once or twice a week for several years.
3. Lydia Tabor, an immigrant from Poland, came into the UEA office about once a week for several years. She returned to Poland. She gave me (and a Turkish Esperantist, Semra) some furniture when planning to return to Poland. I believe she told me that it was important for her husband to die in Poland. If memory serves me, a portrait of her husband in Polish military garb (pre-communist?) was on the wall. I saw her husband but never got to know him. Lydia was famous for her joviality, her Esperanto-sing-alongs and her support of Servas, where she also volunteered on John St., Manhattan. I was one of the last people to visit the John St. office (which relocated to California), mentioning her, when I joined for one year, a few years back.
4. Nancy Medrano, who at some time was the only paid secretary of the office for a year ( in this time frame, according to conversation with Jim, her husband--probably shortly before I returned from Israel in 1987) visited occasionally, according to the notebook. Nancy, with her husband, Jim, were/are good friends of mine and the motor of the Esperanto Society of New York for over a decade. Jim both edited our paper newsletter, Prismo, and taught our language at Stuyvesant for some years. I hope to revive regular contact with them soon. Jim and Nancy hosted dozens of foreign Esperanto travelers, perhaps until about the year 2000. Their children, Emily and Beka are now 8th gr. highschool and 2nd year college students.
5. Renata Kaczmarska was a new immigrant from Poland (early 1990's) when she volunteered a few times at the office. In recent years she has been helpful as an employee of Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations.
Unknown (personally) to Neil
1. Doris Haim came regulary for several years, once or twice a week.
2. Gerson came occasionally, a few times a month. Could this be Margot Gerson? In the 1950's to early 1970's there was an Esperanto Information Center, headed by Margot, at 156 Fifth Ave, Manhattan. I was among the last people to visit that office (at its doorway), when trying to get my first information on Esperanto in the early 1970's. When Margot Gerson passed away a few years ago, her daughter, Claudia, gave the club a few hundred new and old Esperanto books. (Her daughter used her (native?) skills in German for professional purposes (Lufthansa?).
3. Victor Lopez (several times in May-June 1987)
4. Sharon Bourke came a few times.
5. A. Ried came a few times.
6. In 1984-1985 Neelu Dhoe and M. Tata came seperately a few times.
7. In 1984 John C. Cunningham and Fatima Schoebi came seperately a few times.
8. I. Itzenberger volunteered, i.a. for a conference, a few times in 1984.
9. Irving Shanker came a few times in 1984.
Many of the volunteers were active in the Esperanto Society of New York, so I knew them personally. Some are unknown to me. It seems that most of these people never got involved with computers, so this may be the first, if any, documentation on-line of the energy behind the office during the 80's and 90's. Since I came to the office about once a year before 2008, I didn't know so many people regularly came until browsing this notebook.
Known personally to Neil
1. Julius Manson and Elizabeth Manson were a husband and wife team dedicated to Esperanto. Throughout the 1980's they were regulars at the office, several days a week. Like several other active Esperanto speakers they lived in Stuyvesant Town, across the street from where I was born (Beth Israel Hospital). I bumped into Julius a few months before he passed away (a year after his wife), held his arm and slowly walked an hour, just one block with him, near his apartment. He had a cane to assist him. Recently I discovered that Elizabeth's sister was the famous urban planner, Jane Jacobs.
2. Leonid Dzelzitis was known for teaching Esperanto for a number of years at Stuyvesant High School, Adult Education Center. He was an immigrant from a Baltic State. He came a distance (Tarreytown?, New York) to be active for Esperanto, once or twice a week for several years.
3. Lydia Tabor, an immigrant from Poland, came into the UEA office about once a week for several years. She returned to Poland. She gave me (and a Turkish Esperantist, Semra) some furniture when planning to return to Poland. I believe she told me that it was important for her husband to die in Poland. If memory serves me, a portrait of her husband in Polish military garb (pre-communist?) was on the wall. I saw her husband but never got to know him. Lydia was famous for her joviality, her Esperanto-sing-alongs and her support of Servas, where she also volunteered on John St., Manhattan. I was one of the last people to visit the John St. office (which relocated to California), mentioning her, when I joined for one year, a few years back.
4. Nancy Medrano, who at some time was the only paid secretary of the office for a year ( in this time frame, according to conversation with Jim, her husband--probably shortly before I returned from Israel in 1987) visited occasionally, according to the notebook. Nancy, with her husband, Jim, were/are good friends of mine and the motor of the Esperanto Society of New York for over a decade. Jim both edited our paper newsletter, Prismo, and taught our language at Stuyvesant for some years. I hope to revive regular contact with them soon. Jim and Nancy hosted dozens of foreign Esperanto travelers, perhaps until about the year 2000. Their children, Emily and Beka are now 8th gr. highschool and 2nd year college students.
5. Renata Kaczmarska was a new immigrant from Poland (early 1990's) when she volunteered a few times at the office. In recent years she has been helpful as an employee of Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations.
Unknown (personally) to Neil
1. Doris Haim came regulary for several years, once or twice a week.
2. Gerson came occasionally, a few times a month. Could this be Margot Gerson? In the 1950's to early 1970's there was an Esperanto Information Center, headed by Margot, at 156 Fifth Ave, Manhattan. I was among the last people to visit that office (at its doorway), when trying to get my first information on Esperanto in the early 1970's. When Margot Gerson passed away a few years ago, her daughter, Claudia, gave the club a few hundred new and old Esperanto books. (Her daughter used her (native?) skills in German for professional purposes (Lufthansa?).
3. Victor Lopez (several times in May-June 1987)
4. Sharon Bourke came a few times.
5. A. Ried came a few times.
6. In 1984-1985 Neelu Dhoe and M. Tata came seperately a few times.
7. In 1984 John C. Cunningham and Fatima Schoebi came seperately a few times.
8. I. Itzenberger volunteered, i.a. for a conference, a few times in 1984.
9. Irving Shanker came a few times in 1984.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
48. GREENS FOR ESPERANTO/PROGRESSIVES
GREENS AND PROGRESSIVES FOR THE EASY AND JUST SECOND LANGUAGE
ESPERANTO
http://www.labourstart.org/eo/ Multilingual Workers' Site (Esperanto version).
http://www.youtube.com/user/Verduloj Esperanto Green Party videos.
http://www.satesperanto.org/What-is-SAT.html Esperantist Workers' Movement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Party_(Ireland)
(Green Party of Ireland: founded by Christopher Fettes and other leading Esperanto advocates in Ireland).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Fettes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A1ire_Mullarney
(Maire Mullarney, Irish member of Parliament for the Green Party and author of several books on Esperanto)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Green_Esperantists
http://lingvo.org/ Progressive principals in many languages of Universal Esperanto Association.
http://lesverts.fr/article.php3?id_article=645&var_recherche=Esperanto Esperanto Commission of the Green Party of France (Les verts).
http://eo.mondediplo.com/ Esperanto version of a multilingual progressive site.
http://bemi.free.fr/en.htm Esperanto-bicyclists for practical and environmental goals.
http://www.ipernity.com/doc/teva/ World Vegetarian Esperanto Assocation for environmentalism and humane treatment of animals.
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1989-07-27/news/8907272655_1_greenpeace-trident-uss-tennessee
A Greenpeace ship is named “Mond-civitano”, world-citizen in Esperanto.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtpQPIZsXFk Bona Espero School, orphanage and garden in rural Brazil, 200 miles from the Brasilia, founded by Esperantists and teaches it regularly.
http://www.esperanto-un.org/ Advocacy for the United Nations in the Esperanto Community/UEA
http://en.lernu.net/ Free on-line self-instruction of Esperanto used by about 120,000 people.
Contact Neil Blonstein neil_nachum@yahoo.com 777 UN Plaza 212 687 7041
All these links are at http://www.esperantofriends.blogspot.com/
The Radical Party uses Gandhi as its symbol. They strongly oppose the death penalty. http://www.patriaeuropea.it/100/eo/
The German-based Nature Friends Community Centers/Guest Houses has maintained a cordial relationship with Esperanto for decades:
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About Me
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- neil.nachum
- I have lived 16 years in other countries, notably, Israel and Brazil, among another 30 countries.