Babel: The multilingual, multicultural online journal and community of arts and ideas

“World leaders and philanthropists have pledged nearly $3bn (£1.6bn) to fight malaria at a summit in New York.”

The meeting, at the UN, is looking at ways of meeting the Millennium Development Goals — targets on reducing global poverty by the year 2015.

Donors hope the money will be enough to eradicate malaria by that time.

Malaria still kills more than a million people each year, according to the World Health Organization.

- BBC News, 26 September 2008: Link.

See also:

• Roll Back Malaria
• Global Malaria Programme @ WHO
• Malaria @ CDC

~ Karl Jones

KABUL, Afghanistan:

The U.N. said guns fell silent across much of Afghanistan yesterday for an International Peace Day that saw pledges by the United States, NATO, the Afghan government and the Taliban to halt attacks.

Violence still marred the day. A Taliban attack killed two guards in one province, while in another a battle that began Saturday continued.

Still, the U.N. said tens of thousands of international troops, Afghan soldiers and Taliban militants “all stood down from offensive military operations in support of the biggest International Peace Day effort that Afghanistan has known.”

Most government officials around the country reported no violence, and several credited Peace Day efforts.

- Boston Herald: September 22, 2008: Link.

~ Karl Jones

“They stood up for the hillbillies who worked beside them to design and build the Saturn V, the only rocket of its kind that flew the first time and never failed.”

Len Bullard recently posted a moving account of man’s humanity to man:

I grew up in a town where I was born and to which 200000 people came in a period of a few years to build rocket ships. I was one of the 15000 aborigines, a native, a redneck if you will. The first group were former enemies, German rocket scientists. My uncle who was pulled from a pile of dead bodies after the battle of the bulge wouldn’t even come to our house because our neighbors were former Nazis. Do you know what they did? They created the symphony. They created one of the best technical universities in America. They created the German language club, the public observatory where Mercury astronauts trained.

And they were the first most vocal group to demand the signs over the water fountains and the bathrooms come down. They by experience had come to understand the crime against humanity of apartheid, of the sub-human other. And they would not stand for it. When the government demanded they move to California to work on the Moon project, they told them they were citizens, this was their home, and the government could go screw themselves.

They stood up for the hillbillies who worked beside them to design and build the Saturn V, the only rocket of its kind that flew the first time and never failed.

In the bad, you may find the good. In the good, some go bad. You can’t just require people to stay in their stereotype. It’s like demanding that The Beatles once established as a pop-blues band remain that.

Mark Twain wrote in his story of the old man who died and went to heaven about the woman who had come to heaven looking for her baby who had died many years before, except the baby had elected to grow up and she not recognizing the baby she was looking for couldn’t see what the baby had become. He said they would come together by and by, but it would take a long time.

It may take a long time for the reds and the blues to find each other, but they will, by and by in a heaven of their own making, or a hell.

Choose wisely.

- Len Bullard @ Jon Taplin’s Blog: “Redneck Pride”

I believe that the town in question is Huntsville, Alabama.

~ Karl Jones

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My mother recently passed away unexpectedly, and going through this has left me with a few tips to give to friends of the bereaved.

First of all, most importantly, is to do something. Call, visit, write, text: it doesn’t so much matter what you do, just so much that you do something. Everything is appreciated.

Second, give the person all the grace you can muster. They are damaged, weak, afraid and overwhelmed. Don’t be offended if they don’t call back, or if they seem like they don’t appreciate you because they do. All the phone calls I could never answer or return still mean a lot to me.

Third, after the initial onslaught of support (which is amazingly important) keep in touch. A strange thing happens. Everyone calls and brings food right away, but then a week or two goes by, and all of the food goes bad, and the phone calls stop coming. It becomes a very strange and lonely time.

I thought I understood death and grieving until my mother passed. Now I know that I’m just another clueless soul in the face of one of life’s great mysteries. To reiterate the sentiments of my contribution to her eulogy, “I feel lucky and blessed to have been her son. And I feel lucky and blessed to be surrounded with such an amazing group of people.” That ever-growing group of people continues to support me, and there isn’t a day that I don’t appreciate that as one of the greatest gifts of my lifetime. A million thanks to them and to my mother.

-David Rodich

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My mother recently passed away unexpectedly, and going through this has left me with a few tips to give to friends of the bereaved.

First of all, most importantly, is to do something. Call, visit, write, text: it doesn’t so much matter what you do, just so much that you do something. Everything is appreciated.

Second, give the person all the grace you can muster. They are damaged, weak, afraid and overwhelmed. Don’t be offended if they don’t call back, or if they seem like they don’t appreciate you because they do. All the phone calls I could never answer or return still mean a lot to me.

Third, after the initial onslaught of support (which is amazingly important) keep in touch. A strange thing happens. Everyone calls and brings food right away, but then a week or two goes by, and all of the food goes bad, and the phone calls stop coming. It becomes a very strange and lonely time.

I thought I understood death and grieving until my mother passed. Now I know that I’m just another clueless soul in the face of one of life’s great mysteries. To reiterate the sentiments of my contribution to her eulogy, “I feel lucky and blessed to have been her son. And I feel lucky and blessed to be surrounded with such an amazing group of people.” That ever-growing group of people continues to support me, and there isn’t a day that I don’t appreciate that as one of the greatest gifts of my lifetime. A million thanks to them and to my mother.

-David Rodich

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“The first attempts are now being made to find some of those who were buried in mass graves in the 1960s and 70s.”

An hour or so north of Acapulco lies the town of Atoyac …. We had come to find its former army base.

… Up to 470 people are thought to have been tortured and killed at this one location, we were told. And there were many other camps.

It had taken years to persuade the government to allow this dig to take place, Mexico’s first.

… There are documented cases of up to 2,000 people who are known to have disappeared during this period.

- Duncan Kennedy @ BBC News: Link.

~ Karl Jones

[lang_en]I was encouraged to make my first post to the Tower of Babel blog an introduction, so here’s a little bit about me.  My name is Jim Rovira.  I’m currently an Assistant Professor of English at Tiffin University in Tiffin, Ohio.  My dissertation, which I successfully defended last April (graduated with my Ph.D. last May), is about William Blake and Soren Kierkegaard.  I am actively publishing in my field.  My most recent publication is a book review of a recent Blake study for undergraduates for College Literature, and I’m currently reading two books on reception studies of Jane Austen and Sir Walter Scott for my next review.  I will be presenting on William Blake at the upcoming International Conference on Romanticism this coming November.

I live here in Tiffin with my wife Sheridan and two youngest children, Penn and Grace, but have four older children from a previous marriage in the Central Florida area. They are almost all grown; my youngest from my first marriage is going to be a senior in High School this coming academic year.

I’m a displaced Californian.  I lived the first seventeen years of my life in Southern California (I have an essay published on the Tower of Babel website about growing up in So. Cal.), the next seventeen in Florida, the next five around the New Jersey/Pennsylvania area for graduate school, then back to Florida for four years to teach college in a full time, non-tenured position while I worked on my dissertation, and now to Ohio for my first Assistant Professor level job. You can get more details about me on LinkedIn.com and connect with me through jamesrovira (at) gmail (dot) com.

I hope to be posting here about the upcoming elections as I observe them happening in and around Ohio.  This, to me, involves writing a bit about Ohio –  I don’t think we can fully understand people’s attitudes without understanding the place where they live.  But the person writing needs to be understood as well: not just where that person lives, but where that person has lived.  What you need to understand about me is that until this last June I’ve lived 38 of my 43 years of life within twenty miles of either Disneyland or DisneyWorld.  So when my wife and I were driving from Tiffin to Fremont, watching mile after mile of corn, wheat, and soy fields, it made perfect sense that my wife would turn to me and say, “You’re going to lose your mind before I do.”

Maybe I already have![/lang_en]

I always sit and wonder why the world is just an unfair place…then something hit me…we were all born on a different day, time and way.

Some were born in the rural areas where even the talk of a dispensary is like a dream hence it is never mentioned, others while their mothers struggled to rush to the hospitals only to realize that the baby was to anxious to stay in the womb rather than wait for the doctor…hence born somewhere maybe along the road, near a forest or maybe just outside the hospital gate, many were born in the hands of careful midwives either in the village, estate or hospital while those who were lucky even got a gynecologist, a pediatrician, a nurse and better still their husband to be with them when they went through the not so easy to describe moment.

All in all even in real life we have got classes of people those who are poor poor meaning that no matter what they do they will still end up sleeping under some cold, unhealthy conditions that are only a sorry state to the ears of many, others make do with perhaps one unhealthy just a survival meal, others take two while others have all three square meals maybe with a struggle but they still do. The irony I when some are having this kind of life there is somebody somewhere either trying to lose some weight due to overfeeding and taking plenty of junk food and stuffing that could help a needy family somewhere for a whole week! It is amazing how they will even refuse to eat and not willing to share that meal with someone who may have slept hungry all in the name of keeping in shape or losing some weight.

Imagine this scenario, if there are some people trying to cut some weight by refusing to eat and all this people decided that that food will be shared to those that sleep hungry? If all those people who built big houses enough to host a whole village back at home would build s house enough for just them and perhaps if touched built some houses for those that sleep out in the cold? If those that buy expensive cars could perhaps buy a cheaper more environmental friendly vehicle so that perhaps the money could be used to subsidize transport for the poor poor people?

I know some of us reading these are thinking she is crazy but just try to imagine? The problem with us is that we are so full of ourselves that we cannot even almost think of helping that person who is our neighbor and we have no idea of what his/ her name is? We cannot at any one point imagine how on earth we are going to share our hard earned wealth with those we think do not deserve? We know that we have to use money to get money these days and that is not the case when we share knowing there is nothing in there for us?

As much as we would like to reduce poverty, it may be just a waste of time if it does not start with us as individuals. We should be able to accommodate the people who cannot afford to make ends meet, those that live from hand to mouth……..Can anyone out there hear me?

Terri
http://te-cs.com

Technology for human needs:

• The Outquisition
• Engineers Without Borders
• MIT International Design Summit
• Free/Open Appropriate Technology
• Transition Towns
• Technology for Humanity

(more…)

Dancing event is first in nation

specialolympics.org

~ Karl Jones

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“Shih” is an insightful, elegant kind of knowledge from Chinese into American English

–Howard Rheingold, They Have a Word for It

This article fosters an awareness of cross-cultural issues inherent in language communication through our perception of the world, non-verbally or verbally whenever we speak, listen, read, and write. Language communication offers cross-cultural insights and knowledge about speakers of English and other languages. We can communicate non-verbally through gestures without any sounds or verbally using symbols as words to form phrases and express our thoughts. Thus, we can explore a closer cross-cultural understanding of speakers of English and other languages whenever we exchange a cross-cultural perception through language communication by examples used in encounters, conversation or through readings.

• How does one perceive a culture as a language communicator?
• To what extent do culture and environment influence a language?
• Or does a language prescribe how one perceives the world?
• How does the acquisition and knowledge of languages open new words to people across cultures?

In order to understand a cross-cultural perception of the world, we must be aware of the fields of Anthropology and Ethnography and how these influence our cultural perception and understanding of language interaction. Anthropology and Ethnography are both scientific disciplines. While Anthropology studies the origins of man, physical and cultural development, biological, social customs, and the beliefs of humankind, Ethnography describes the varieties and characteristics of language use within a cultural group and derives into ethnolinguistics and psycholinguistics. So, Anthropology helps us to understand a perception of culture and Ethnography analyzes language use within the context of a cultural group.

“How Does One Perceive a Culture as a Language Communicator?”

Perception can be described as primarily known to be dual and more in the 21^st century: that is to say, sensory, extra-sensory, hypersensory, non-sensory, and beyond the senses.

Sensory perception is an awareness of any stimuli through the known senses, that is sight (visual), hearing (auditory), taste (gustatory), touch (tactile), and smell (olfactory).

Extra-sensory perception is an awareness of any stimuli beyond the known senses through telepathy, “mind reading”, clairvoyance, precognition, listening, psycho-spiritual sensing, psychokinesis, “minding”, dreams, other psychic phenomena, hypnosis, hypnopaedia, trances, meditation, astral projection through out-of-body experience, drugs and otherwise.

Hypersensory perception is an extreme awareness and sensitivity to any stimuli described before.

Non-sensory is an unconscious state where the senses have been numbed and only vital signs of life remain without consciousness.

Perception beyond the known senses is not easy to describe though it is intuitively known to exist as an awareness.

We can perceive a culture through various modes in language communication as the “awareness” of a group and its expression in a non-verbal way, verbal, written or through visual imaging and otherwise, by which we exchange information. It is during this dynamic process that cross-cultural perception takes place. Cross-cultural perception develops when we become aware of sensory, extra-sensory, hypersensory, non-sensory, and beyond the senses stimuli across cultures and contexts, through observation, experience, exposure, interaction, exchanges within an environmental context, point in time, here and now—a fluctuation across cultures becomes cross-cultural transcendence.

Whenever we engage in the process of identifying with another beyond ordinary or common experience, feelings, emotions, thought or belief, spiritually, psychically, sexually, culturally, and linguistically—across time, space, and physical presence—within a cultural context, then we experience cross-cultural transcendence, that is to say, “You Are Me; I Am You”. The Transcendental Processes take place in a mutual exchange.

In the 21^st Century, we can fluctuate and move easily across cultures and contexts, perceptions, worldviews, and states of mind, transcendentally, “You Are Me; I Am You”—through the known senses and beyond… while we acquire a cross-cultural perception of the world through language communication.

One’s life in the United States of America, in the Windy City of Chicago, acquires a Cross-Cultural Perception of the World Through Language Communication, thanks to people like Mayor Richard M. Daley.

– Gardenia C. Hung

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We, the youth representatives from different youth organizations from all regions of Kenya under the banner of the Global Youth Action/Activista, have come together in a two day workshop in Nairobi, to bring to the fore local experiences, communities’ coping mechanisms and propose possible solutions on the current food crisis. This declaration provides recommendations to our government on the priority areas that must be addressed to mitigate the effect and impact of current food crisis.
Many projects started by youth organizations in the recent past, particularly in the service industry, are now under serious threat of collapse with the rising inflation and food prices. The impact so far experienced has led most of this youthful generation to a point of destitution as most of them now depend on handouts as a means of survival.
We are aware that;
 The current food crisis has largely been attributed to the increase in price of fossil fuel which has had and continues to have a knock on effect on key productive sectors.
 The high transport costs have had multiplier effect resulting into increased cost of agricultural production and retail food prices.
 As the poor grapple with the high food prices, neither small scale producers nor consumers benefit. The huge profit margins accrue into the pockets of multinational companies and middlemen.
 The high cost of food has led to reduced access to adequate food and basic commodities resulting to promotion of cheaper and substandard alternatives.
We are concerned that;
 the causes of the crisis are both global and national and they are political as well as economic.
 the subsidy incentives to farmers in developed countries for production and subsequent conversion of cereal crops into bio-fuel is to blame for the spike in food prices.
 the Government’s implementation of structural adjustment programmes leading to withdrawal of support & commitment to smallholder agricultural production has compounded this food crisis.
 the trade liberalization agenda promoted by the WTO, EPAs, WB/IMF are all in favor of multinational companies that has led to the crowding out effect of small scale farmers in the market;
 the World Bank/IMF aid conditionalities have in many ways prohibited use of subsidy programmes to aid small scale producers have sustained access to quality seeds, affordable credit, fertilizers and agro-chemicals.
 failure of the Kenya government to direct the market and closely monitor and regulate the food trade has further complicated the food crisis.
 despite the agricultural sector in Kenya being the most analyzed and over-researched sector, the country has been flagged by FAO as one of the 22 most vulnerable countries in the world experiencing famine.
We recommend that;
 The GOK should allocate more resources to the agricultural sector to meet the recommended budgetary allocation of at least 10% (Abuja/Maputo Declaration);
 Fast track legislative process of all food and agriculture related Bills in Parliament and monitor policy implementation;
 A certain proportion of devolved funds especially CDF fund should be used for agriculture and food security initiatives at the community level;
 Government should step up its irrigation efforts and make use of the idle irrigation potential in the country;
 Government should direct the course of the market, monitor and regulate trade in food and agricultural commodities;
 Government should take deliberate measures and put in place targeted subsidy programs for small scale farmers with a view to enhance their productivity;
 Need to invest in innovative research and extension programmes that promote skills and technology transfer to the farmers;
 Pursue a land reform agenda that ensures that poor people especially women, the landless and youths have more access to land;
 Invest in Cereal and seed banks at community level to promote timely access and control of seeds (quality and otherwise).
 Ensuring accountability and regulatory frameworks for transnational and multinational corporations.
 Introduce guaranteed minimum returns for small scale farmers in key agricultural sub-sectors.
 Increase and enforce the minimum wage requirement for workers and social protection for the vulnerable organizations including the unemployed;
 Lastly, all Government ministries and departments should be encouraged to demonstrate how their policies and programmes being implemented on the ground contribute towards food security for all Kenyans.
Finally, we take due cognizance of the 25th FAO Regional Conference for Africa and recommend that the issues raised above are seriously deliberated on and appropriate solutions as well as political and legal choices made.

“[Slums] are generating wealth the way cities have always done.”

Stewart Brand — lifelong activist, optimist, and gadfly — recently addressed the problem of urban poverty:

The mindset must shift from “city as problem to city as solution,” said Stewart Brand, president of the Long Now Foundation, which aims to raise awareness on solving long-term problems.

Historically, Brand said, squatter cities have always been areas of economic expansion; within them there is virtually no unemployment, and their inhabitants are constantly striving to lift themselves out of destitution, he said.

“[Slums] are generating wealth the way cities have always done,” Brand said.

- Lara Farrar for CNN (June 11, 2008 ): Link.

Stewart Brand @ Wikipedia: Link.

The Long Now Foundation: Link.

Flashback to 2003:
“Every third person will be a slum dweller within 30 years, UN agency warns.”

One in every three people in the world will live in slums within 30 years unless governments control unprecedented urban growth, according to a UN report. The largest study ever made of global urban conditions has found that 940 million people — almost one-sixth of the world’s population — already live in squalid, unhealthy areas, mostly without water, sanitation, public services or legal security.

The report, from the UN human settlements programme, UN-habitat, based in Nairobi, found that urban slums were growing faster than expected, and that the balance of global poverty was shifting rapidly from the countryside to cities.

- John Vidal @ The Guardian (October 4, 2003): Link.

~ Karl Jones