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E A B N E T N E W S No 13 (21 Nov 2002)
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*** Keeping you up-to-date about Esperanto, for people in the UK ***
From Esperanto Association of Britain
(For contact details, archive address, discussion groups,
subscribing, unsubscribing please see footer)
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1. FREE COMPUTERS FOR (ESPERANTO) EDUCATION
2. SPONSOR A CHILD
3. EU THINK TANK PUBLISHES VISION FOR FUTURE LANGUAGE POLICY
4. LIBERTE, EGALITE, FRANCAIS
5. WEIRD AND WONDERFUL WAYS OF WESTMINSTER
6. A FOOTSIE PUTDOWN
7. LANGUAGE SURVEYS
8. INTERGALACTIC LANGUAGE - AND NOW IT'S ON THE WEB
9. THREE BRITS INTERPRET FOR COUNCIL OF EUROPE SEMINAR
10. WHAT'S ON
11. ACTION AND REACTION
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1. FREE COMPUTERS FOR (ESPERANTO) EDUCATION
A Rotary-supported project, Free Computers for Education, is now
looking to help schools which teach Esperanto, particularly in
developing countries. The charity encourages industry to provide them
with second-hand computers, which would otherwise be dumped in
landfill sites, refurbishes them, and provides them to schools where
they could be made good use of. Because of the 'thin client'
technology that they use, they are able to make them more reliable
than second-hand stand-alone PC's normally would be.
Grahame Leon Smith, who runs the charity, is now planning to target
schools where Esperanto is taught. He has reached an agreement with a
Brazilian school in Alto Paraiso to provide them with 15 refurbished
PCs. The school, Bona Espero, is in two parts. The main part is a home
for disadvantaged children, set up to offer a good home and education
for the children, and to provide them with a humanitarian outlook.
Esperanto plays an important part in their lives, and they are
regularly visited by helpers from all over the world, who can
contribute to the children's interest and education. The older
children go to the Bona Espero school in the town, where they join
other children in Alto Paraiso. I understand that about half of the
teachers in Alto Paraiso were educated at Bona Espero.
Grahame is planning to extend the scheme to Africa. "We've aleady
provided free computers to various schools in Africa", Grahame told
NetNews, "and we can now set up an Esperanto operation as part of our
African project". Free Computers for Education works through local
Rotary clubs. Bona Espero and their local Rotary club are already
working together in other ways, and this connection should make it
easier to persuade an airline to provide free transport of the
computers from the UK to Brazil. The African project has already
supported schools in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Tanzania.
The cost of refurbishing the computers comes from donations. Grahame
now wishes to set up an Esperanto fund. Refurbishing the computers
costs fifty pounds each, and donations can now be accepted over the
web on a secure server by credit card. Details of how to sponsor the
activity, or how to help in other ways, are given in their website
under 'Sponsor us, please!' - but
indicate somewhere in the form the word 'Esperanto'.
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2. SPONSOR A CHILD
An Italian charity, which promotes social and economic development in
Tanzania, has announced a plan to sponsor a child's schooling for a
year. The child would receive, as part of the sponsorship, an
Esperanto textbook in Swahili, and a booklet in Swahili about
Esperanto.
The organisation is called Changamano, which is Swahili for
'solidarity'. Changamano aims also to promote a culture of solidarity
and co-operation, "in particular, in our country [Italy], where
'immigration' and 'criminality' are constantly equated", says their
website.
The children are selected by a group which includes the head teacher,
parent representatives, the village head, and a local Esperantist.
Changamano is working in co-operation with the Universal Esperanto
Association, who will accept the sponsorship payments on their behalf.
The village receiving the sponsorship is Nyamuswa, in Mara, Tanzania.
Sponsorship for one year's primary education is 50 euros, and this
will cover everything necessary, such as registration, school uniform,
writing books, exercise books and writing implements. The sponsor will
be kept informed on the child's progress.
Changamano's website is at , and there's a
link to 'Esperanto' in the left-hand column of the entry page, where
details of Esperanto sponsorship are given. The rest of the site is in
Italian, but you can get to the page with further details and
pictures, by selecting 'Progetti' and then 'Progetto n. 2 - Adozione
di un bambino'.
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3. EU THINK TANK PUBLISHES VISION FOR FUTURE LANGUAGE POLICY
The European Convention - a think tank
set up by the European Commission to "propose clear and consensual
answers to basic questions" concerning the future of the EU - has now
published its thinking in the form of a Preliminary draft
Constitutional Treaty
.
Article 5 briefly sets out the rights attaching to European
citizenship, and this includes the "right of petition, right to write
to, and obtain a reply from, the European institutions in one's own
language".
The Convention's website contains a forum on the Preliminary draft
Constitutional Treaty
,
where members of the public may contribute with ideas and comments.
There doesn't seem to be anything on language policy within the
European institutions, and how their constitutional policy is to be
accomplished. If taken literally, it would mean that these language
rights would be extended to those whose own language is not an
official language of the EU. This could, of course, include Welsh and
Esperanto.
The European Convention was inaugurated on Feb 28 this year, and is
due to report back to the European Council some time in 2003 (their
last scheduled meeting is April 25). So we're now more than half way
through the deliberations, with no signs of any detailed thinking on
language issues.
An alternative way to make representation may be to turn up at the
town hall in Tours on November 23, to hear the chairman of the
European Convention, Mr Valery Giscard d'Estaing. The English language
version of the Convention's website, under 'Agenda', gives the
details: "Le Pr\xc3\xa9sident prononcera, dans les salons de
l'H\xc3\xb4tel de Ville de Tours, une allocution sur le th\xc3\xa8me
"l'Europe face \xc3\xa0 son avenir".
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4. LIBERTE, EGALITE, FRANCAIS
The chairman of the European Convention, M. Valery Giscard d'Estaing,
took questions from the public in an online Internet chat on October
28. The chatlines were open in all eleven official languages of the
EU, with simultaneous interpretation.
In the English channel, the first question on language issues came in
16 mins into the debate, when Respro asked: "M. President VGD: Will
the convention choose a COMMON, SIMPLE, NEUTRAL SECOND language for
all USE citizens as the USA did in 1776? If not, you can forget your
USE!". USE, by the way, is the proposed United States of Europe. He
was asked to repeat the question, but Respro seemed to have dozed off
for eight minutes. I found him browsing around on the other language
channels. M. Le President hadn't yet responded to any of the
questions on the English channel, and people were wondering whether he
was there at all.
The second version of the question came up: "Here my Q again M;
Moderator: Will the Convention choose a common language, which must be
SIMPLE (not English, French or German, none of the 11/21 ), NEUTRAL
(not linked to any specific culture or ethnic group) and it MUST be
the SECOND tongue of all USE citizens? Cfr USE 1776."
Two minutes later the first reply on the English channel arrived (the
other questioners weren't all prodding in other language channels, I
presume): "To Respro: The citizens of Europe are very keen on keeping
their languages. It is a right we must respect. However, we should
promote the practical use of a smaller number of working languages in
order to have direct dialogue and not to have to rely always on
translations." Point taken: he doesn't like translations. But was this
just the conventional wisdom, or was it the wisdom of the Convention?
Unfortunately, no-one seemed to twig that this was actually M. Le
President speaking. The interpreters had got so bored that they'd
been joining in on the chat to pass the time away.
In the mean time, the participants chatted amongst themselves, with
the frustration level gradually rising. Respro plugged away at
Esperanto, whilst others pushed Latin and English.
Then 47 minutes in, intereter Conv_EN1 commented "there are SO MANY
questions coming in, but hardly any in English!!!". "Is M Valery
GISCARD D'eSTAING IN THE CHAT?", asked PeterCosm. "Well yes, he is -
have a question for him??????", replied the interpreter. "By the way,
where is Giscard d'Estaing? Haven't seentoo many replies yet",
commented Sivah. "Mr President. Monsier - yoohoo", called Cathy. "The
time is almost 9... When are you going to be here the next time?",
cynically asked nicco_zzz. And so it went on. "[Think] of us here
sitting idly by waiting for some replies so we can translate them...",
added the interpreter.
"I was wondering whether we could skip for a while this whole language
issue and go a little further...", suggested Angelos, 57 minutes into
the debate, adding a couple of minutes later, "I'm afraid the Mr
Chairman is chatting with the french room and we all, in the other
rooms, are chatting with the moderators...". "I'm just joining in your
discussion because I'm bored. No work is coming my way", replied the
interpreter. "Conv_EM1, what is your work then?", asked Silvah. "I'm
one of the interpreters into English for this chat. But since we're
not getting any replies to translate, we're not doing a great
deal...", came the reply.
"Already an hour has been wasted an how many answers have we gotten to
relevant questions? 1? 2?", comlained RobertB, " Conv_2: Why is the
president ignoring us?? There seems to be LOTS of activity in the
French room but I don't understand French". "Mr. President: I thought
that this chat room was meant for all EU citizens and not only for the
Frenh!", protested Master.
Then one hour and three minutes into the chat, Elmo put it into words:
"In this Chat We can see the disadvantages(chaos!!) of not having a
common second language in the Eu".
By this time, the language question had taken over completely. Those
who wanted to ask about other issues of the future of the EU just
couldn't avoid it. "I have both chat rooms in front of me..", said
Angellos, "the difference is impressing...". "Angellos: indeed it is.
Please, could some interpreter who speaks French ask the president
what the heck is going on here??", pleaded RobertB. "We are arguing
and talking among ourselves, The President is talking to the
...french", observed Elmo.
Then came the great revelation. One hour and twenty-eight minutes into
the debate, M. Le President had spoken. A statement on the European
Convention's thinking on the EU language issues, after eight months of
deliberation on the future of Europe, with the imminent increase in
the number of official languages about to jump from eleven to over
twenty . What
conclusions had they reached so far? How were they to implement
language equality in practice? What did they think of the idea of an
easily learned and culturally neutral second language?
"To Respro:", stated M. Le President, "The Convention has not debated
the language issue".
"Mr. President in view of the large number of people interest in the
language issue, will the convention study it now?", asked Elmo. "Than
it is high time they address this burnig problem! Politicians seem
either not to understand the importance of the issue, or they seem to
be scared to propose a sound log term solution", said Respro.
No-one quite knew when the chat ended. Respro concluded with: "That's
all folks. VGD went home. It's past 21:30 in Brussels", and HezbollaH
said a gentle "Thank you mister president for sparing your time".
There'll be a chance to question Romano Prodi on enlargement and the
future of the EU on November 27. This time you can put questions in
advance (like, now), so that the session can get started with a
pre-prepared compilation. Have a look at the Europa Chat pages
. This also gives the full
transcripts of the European Convention chat, in all 11 languages. If
you wish to read just the bits relating to language issues, have a
look at the NetNews archive site
(. The chat is also covered in The
Guardian
, but I
can't find where in the chat anyone said "Esperanto is ridiculous".
I think that bit's in the journalist's imagination. This article is
now doing the rounds, in translation, in the EU press.
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5. WEIRD AND WONDERFUL WAYS OF WESTMINSTER
MPs must have thought they were listening to a perfect case for the
introduction of Esperanto as a common language for the EU on November
6, when Gosport MP Peter Viggers
launched into his ten minute rule bill, under the title "Single
European Language".
His proposal was "That leave be given to bring in a Bill to require
the Secretary of State to make proposals to the European Council for
the establishment of one language as the official language of the
European Union; to provide for the development of a single European
language; and to establish a date by which the language will become
the official language of the United Kingdom".
"My starting point is a concern about language differences in the
European Union, which are a barrier to communication and trade", he
explained. "There are 11 recognised languages and, currently, the
rules of the EU say that any citizen has the right to communicate with
any European institution in any recognised language and to receive a
reply in the same language. As the Commission has said, linguistic
diversity is an essential aspect of the common cultural heritage; in
other words, 'We agree to differ'", he continued.
Mr Viggers then went into the combinatorial arithmetic of language
translation: "The formula for calculating the number of language
combinations within the EU is 'n squared minus n' where 'n' is the
number of languages in question. If we have 11 languages, that is '11
squared minus 11', making 110 language combinations in the EU at the
moment. The addition of one extra language would take the number of
language combinations from 110 to 132".
"The EU spends about 150 million pounds on translation and
interpretation", he explained, "it has about 1,200 full-time
interpreters, 600 support staff and about 2,000 contract staff. Their
work is to translate about 1.25 million pages that go in the 40-truck
convoy that makes its way monthly from Strasbourg to Brussels to
Luxembourg".
"As the EU expands, as is planned, and if the number of official
languages goes, as is expected, from 11 to 23, the number of language
combinations would increase from 110 to 506... We cannot go on like
this. For some of the smaller countries, the number of recognised
interpreters is quite small". Mr Viggers ruled out the national
languages, since it is a principle of the EU that all languages are
equal, and also that the chances of persuading the French to give up
French as the second de facto drafting language in the EU must be
assessed realistically as zero.
"We must look for a European solution", he suggested, "and here we
have a precedent to guide us. The EU faced up to a similar problem
with its currencies. Instead of choosing the strongest and most widely
used currency, the deutschmark - as one would have thought was natural
- it chose to create something new and artificial called the euro.
Following that precedent, it would be logical to ...". But then things
started to get a bit weird, when he continued with: "... create a
European language, which I call Eural".
He proposed that before "joining the Eural", we would have to produce
five tests to decide how and when we join (as with the euro). "We
would, of course, need a Minister to decide who should administer the
five tests, and who would be better than the Deputy Prime Minister,
who speaks in virtual Eural already?" He then quoted a long obfuscated
explanation by John Prescott, trying to explain how clear things were.
And then another: "The Green Belt is a Labour achievement, and we mean
to build on it". By this stage there was raptuous laughter, as he
produced more quotations.
Then at last he came clean: "My plea, of course, is for greater use of
English". I thought at first he might have been maneouvering John
Prescott in line for a Plain English Campaign Foot in Mouth Award
. Pity they don't do a
Tongue in Cheek Award, too. The bill passed its first reading, and was
granted leave for a second reading the following day - in the full
knowledge, of course, that the following day was to be the last day of
the parliamentary session.
The BBC published a sober report
, though Sunday
night's Westminster Week (Radio 4) did go off at a tangent on how many
years it would take a committee to decide on enough words in Eural for
it to be useful. But if Westminster has such difficulty with English,
what about Brussels and Strassbourg? Whether the speech was tongue in
cheek, foot in mouth, or hand in hand with the Plain English Campaign,
doesn't really matter; no-one seems to have got their heads together
to ask "And why shouldn't it be Esperanto"? (Text of speech:
)
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6. A FOOTSIE PUTDOWN
The Financial Times on Monday reported on the 6th National Congress of
the ruling Communist Party in China - at least on the the fact that
the Congress web site had appeared in Esperanto.
"[A language] accorded equal status with English, French, German,
Japanese Russian and German, Spanish and Arabic is Esperanto,
allowing Esperanto speaking followers of Chinese politics (who cannot
manage, say, English) to appreciate "Jiang Zemin's Three Represents
Theory" and "Socialism with Chinese characteristics".
"When China eventually exports its revolution overseas, it is
certainly going to be thorough."
Esperanto is obviously not in the footsie's top 10. Do I detect a
subtle hint that they should all manage English anyway? Perhaps it's
not too surprising that the Council of Europe's Year of Languages
doesn't seem to have exactly enthused the readers of our newspapers;
whilst the FT and others poke fun at those who make the effort in
language learning, the teaching profession, as well as the UK
government, are trying hard to encourage sensible language learning in
our schools. What's said about Esperanto often applies to other
foreign languages, too.
Maybe they'd have been more sympathetic if they'd been reporting the
Vatican's Esperanto pages at
- they are
celebrating 25 years of Vatican Radio in Esperanto - or the Pope's
annual message in Esperanto, or the Council of Europe's series of
bilingual seminars in English and Esperanto
,
or UNESCO's speech in Esperanto at the World Esperanto Congress this
August.
China has used Esperanto for communicating with the world for many
years. What a pity the FT didn't set their browsers to 'eo' and try
the China Report site at , or perhaps
check up on Chinese International Radio at
. In 2004 The World Esperanto Congress
will be held in Peking - no doubt with a web site in Esperanto, too
(and I wonder whether they'll do an Esperanto website for the Olympics
in 2008 as well). I know that Esperanto congresses are welcomed by
tourist authorities; I had dealings with the people in Brighton before
the World Congress there in 1989.
I can't help wondering what the knock-on effect would be throughout
Asia if China were to start teaching Esperanto in all its schools. Or
the EU in Europe, for that matter.
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7. LANGUAGE SURVEYS
A survey of Esperanto in colleges and universities has been produced
by Germain Pirlot in Ostend, Belgium.
The full list may be requested from , and it
should have just appeared at the NetNews archive website as well. But
here is a summary: Austria 3; Belgium 1; Bulgaria 1; Chech Republic 2;
China 2; France 1; Germany 3; Spain 2; Hungary 2; Israel 1; Japan 5;
Korea 1; Lithuania 2; Netherlands 1; Poland 3; Russia 2; USA 4. In
all, 35 institutions in 17 countries. Germain will welcome any
updates. So will NetNews, too, so please cc them to
eabnetnews@esperanto.org as well.
Also, there are still just a few days left in which to take part in
the Language Advantage 'Languages at Work' survey
. "Please
get as many of your family, friends and colleagues to complete this
survey as possible!", says their website, "Please ask someone from
another company, another country, another culture, speaking another
language". These language surveys are potentially useful. A list of
previous surveys
includes Languages by Email (9% of companies can't respond to an email
in a foreign language), Europeans and Languages (Over 70% of Europeans
consider that everyone should know a foreign language but 74% of
Europeans cannot speak a second foreign language), and a Languagepoll
on 'What will be the world language of the 21st century?' (Spanish
may just overtake English as the next world language).
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8. INTERGALACTIC LANGUAGE - AND NOW IT'S ON THE WEB
Harry Harrison, the science fiction writer, has given permission for
the Esperanto translation of his book 'A Stainless Steel Rat is Born'
to be published in full on the web. The novel can now be read in
Esperanto at .
The book first appeared in English in 1985, and in Esperanto in 1996.
There was particular interest in translating this book into Esperanto,
because of the role that Esperanto plays in the story as an easily
learned intergalactic language. The Esperanto translation was reviewed
in the Ondo magazine, viewable at
.
Harrry Harrison's website contains a
page about his Esperanto interests (click on: Chapters | Esperanto).
His talk 'The Stainless Steel Rat Speaks Esperanto!', given at the
45th World Science Fiction Convention in Brighton in 1987, must be
about the most amusing introduction to the language that I've come
across.
The website also states: "At science fiction conventions and in his
novels - particularly the Stainless Steel Rat series, where Esperanto
is literally the universal language - Harrison has continued to
promote Esperanto. His efforts were recognised in 1985 when he was
elected honorary patron of the Universal Esperanto Association, an
honour he shared with only eight others - linguists, scientists, and
the president of the Swedish parliament".
For anyone who's interested, there's an email list - join by sending
an email to .
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9. THREE BRITS INTERPRET FOR COUNCIL OF EUROPE SEMINAR
The Council of Europe ( - not the EU) employed
three British Esperanto speakers for a week, to interpret between
English and Esperanto at a seminar in Strasbourg last month.
The event was a seminar at the Council's European Youth Centre, run
jointly by the Council of Europe and TEJO , the
youth section of the Universal Esperanto Association. It was attented
by about 35 young people, two thirds of whom were Esperanto speakers,
and one third speakers of English from various European youth
organisations. The topic was "Human Rights under Everyday Exploration"
.
The programme included work groups, role play, a trip to the European
Court of Human Rights (in French, with interpretation into English,
when they visited), two lectures (one from a representative of the
Council of Europe), and a language festival, in which participants
presented their own (or other) languages. One person talked about Toki
Pona, , perhaps not entirely seriously, but
an interesting project never-the-less!
The three interpreters were Edmund Grimley Evans, who lives in
Cambridge, and is president of the Esperanto Association of Britain,
Rick Newsum, who has just moved from Japan to Korea to teach English
there, and Rolf Fantom, who is on a year's work experience with the
RAF, before returning to his sound technology course at Salford.
"The group gelled very well", commented Rolf, "It's good for making
contact with people who are likely to be sympathetic to Esperanto:
young people in international organisations. The aim isn't to teach
Esperanto. It's essentially using Esperanto for discussing important
topics, rather than using it for its own sake." With that, he dashed
off to pick up a bottle of Rumanian wine from a participant of last
year's 'Rainbow of Languages' seminar, now studying international
relations in London - and still impressed by Esperanto".
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10. WHAT'S ON
December 15 is traditionally Zamenhof Day, when local clubs do
anything from reviewing Zamenhof's literary output, to having a
pre-Chrismas party. If you're interested in parties, you might like to
know that Language Advantage is holding another party for language
nerds, in January at the Bar Madrid in London
. They also suggest
a variety of language gifts , which
may come in handy for the festive season. We normally spend the
festive season in Germany at the Internacia Festivalo
. The venue looks rather
interesting - click on 'La ejo'! We won't manage it this year, though,
despite the 'ejo' and two pianos: Helen will still be convalescing
following an operation last week (OK so far). The event has become so
popular, that another one has sprung up near Berlin. It's the Novjara
Renkontigxo . For young
people, the parallel Internacia Seminario is in Trier
.
At the Wedgwood College in Barlaston, the year will kick off with the
'Ni Festivalu' weekend, with an emphasis on theatre. On March 1
there's an Esperanto Day - a practice day for beginners and
experienced speakers of Esperanto. In May is the AGM weekend of the
Workers' Esperanto Movement (SATEB), with discussions on social and
political issues, and an introductory Esperanto course for beginners.
In August there's the 43rd Esperanto Summer School, for advanced
speakers. There's no beginners' course, though. Not yet, anyway. A
good overview is given at
. The
college's website is at
.
The British Esperanto Congress and the Scottish Congress will be in
Glasgow in May - see the EAB website . If
you're planning your summer holidays now, and you're impatient, there
are Summer Esperanto Courses in January (guess where). These and many
others are given in the Plena Kalendaro de Esperanto-Eventoj
, published by the news service
Eventoj.
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11. ACTION AND REACTION
The last issue of NetNews seems to have been fairly successful in
provoking reactions. Within hours of NetNews 12 being released, Dermod
Quirke, in Halifax, phoned in to say that he'd been working on a macro
system for using accented letters with Word for Windows, and that John
Wells had devoleped this further for use with the International
Phonetic Alphabet. John then wrote in giving some details. More about
this in a future issue.
Then from Bill Simcock I received: "Grateful for No 12 - full of
interest. Re film to be shown in US next Sunday. Have made a few phone
calls; finally contacted "Sci Fi" Company in London. They buy some of
their material from the US Co and seemed interested. Have logged my
interest in showing Incubus, but clearly more "pushing" is required.
The telephone number is 0207 5353500."
Following Bee Wickens' approach to Language Advantage, Elizabeth
Stanley wrote from Gloucestershire: "I too have had an encouraging
response from languageadvantage.com, whom I contacted after seeing
your article in Netnews". I'm now trying to find a few moments to
think what we can do in putting a sensible contribution together for
their website.
Elizabeth then volunteered some information on her school Esperanto
group: "Things seem to be connecting up well for me at the moment -
club has ten pupils and we're writing lots of letters. Can't remember
whether I mentioned to you that I got invited to speak at a summer
school - I even got paid!!! - anyway, one girl borrowed a book and has
just returned it via her brother who started at my school this term -
I think she's keen to continue so we can stay in touch via pupil post.
"We have school open days and open evening this week so I have put up
a small display on the noticeboard outside my classroom - you can
never tell who's going to read noticeboards around the school, we get
all sorts of visitors."
The letter from UEA president Renato Corsetti to David Blunkett was
reported in European Voice . This is a
subscription-only review, published by The Economist, and is an
influential publication. Its circulation of 15 600 includes "everyone
involved in European Union policy making, those who seek to influence
the decision-making process from outside, and those whose work is
directly affected by decisions taken in Brussels", their website says.
A follow up letter from David Curtiss in Weston-super-Mare was
published, in which he supported the idea of encouraging Esperanto in
the UK. "Learning it", he wrote, "would encourage youngsters to
respond to the European Union's pleas for its citizens to learn at
least two foreign languages".
A letter also appeared from Claude Piron, in Switzerland, writing as a
"psychotherapist, specialising in intercultural problems". He took
David Blunkettt to task on his idea that not speaking English at home
would lead to skizophrenic rifts. He didn't happen to know that David
Blunkett is blind, when he drew an unfortunate parallel with languages
and sight. I'm sure people will forgive him though!
The press release was also published by the European Network Against
Racism
.
I mentioned ZEO's in the last NetNews - that's Zamenhof/Esperanto
Objects, like street names, monuments, cafe's etc. Roy McCoy, of the
UEA office in Rotterdam suggested looking at the book "Monumente pri
Esperanto" p. 6, and p. 30-31, where there are 13 listed for the UK. I
don't possess Hugo Rollinger's book, but I did find a list on the
Internet at . Any more
rolling in?
Joyce Bunting wrote: "Alan (my husand) has often remarked on a sign
visible from aircraft landing and departing Heathrow Airport, which
simply reads ESPERANTO. We stopped off on our way to Heathrow some
time ago, and there appears to be an ESPERANTO CAFE attached to a posh
hotel on the northern approach. We couldn't go in at that time. Alan
can't remember the name of the hotel but thinks it's opposite the
NOVOTEL . A local, or regular traveller, might be able to help. If the
name comes to him or the road name, I'll let you know."
And I've just found it! "Bright and invigorating, the Esperanto Health
& Life Club offers an indoor heated swimming pool, children's pool,
sauna, plunge pool and whirlpool, beauty therapy room, solarium and
gymnasium", says the web site for the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Heathrow
.
You can even win a free stay there if you can say how many stars the
hotel has .
Could be tricky, that one!
--
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EAB NETNEWS - a newsletter from Esperanto Association of Britain
Wedgwood Memorial College, Barlaston, Stoke-on-Trent, ST12 9DG,
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