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Worldwide: 2,500 Languages Disappearing

Simon Maghakyan · 23:51 · South Asia , Western Europe

lingua → id · jp · fr · it · es · bn · zht · zhs · sw · pt

An interactive map of endangered languages, showing 2,500 out of 6,000 tongues at risk, has been released by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The international organization asks users to contribute comments to a project that has many bloggers worried about preserving cultures.

UNESCO Map of Languages at Risk

Iglesia Descalza, a librarian, blogs:

As someone who loves languages, I am chagrined to read the news coming out of UNESCO's presentation of the updated Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger of Disappearing. According to the Atlas, unveiled on the eve of International Mother Language Day (21 February), nearly 200 languages have fewer than 10 speakers and 178 others have between 10 and 50 speakers.

The data shows that out of the 6,000 languages currently in existence, over 200 have died out over the last three generations, 538 are critically endangered, 502 severely endangered, 632 definitely endangered and 607 unsafe.

As the last remaining speakers of a language pass away, the language itself dies. The language of Manx in the Isle of Man died out in 1974 when Ned Maddrell, the last speaker, passed away while Eyak, in Alaska, United States, met its demise last year with the death of Marie Smith Jones.

[…]

We need to prize bio-diversity, cultural and racial diversity, and linguistic diversity because we lose too much by becoming homogenized into one big, white, English-speaking society.

While disappearing languages are mostly those of indigenous peoples faced with globalization and state-nationalism, Daniel Moving Out, a blog by a Portugal native now in the UK, says not all “unofficial” languages are dying out:

[…]

The Galician sounds like a cross between Spanish and Portuguese, somewhat like a dialect originated from the second and enriched with vocabulary and accent of the first. The language is originated from the Galician-Portuguese of medieval times, and it was spoken at all the County of Portucale. […]

This week, the Unesco atlas of world languages was released, regarding Galician as a strong language among those that are not the main languages of any country. It receives protection from the Castilian (common Spanish) from being geographically close to Portugal.

[…]

The blog, nonetheless, summarizes some of the worst data:

[…]

199 languages have less than a dozen of native speakers. In Indonesia, the 4 remaining speakers of Lengilu talk within [themselves]; the Karaim in Ukraine is kept by only 6 people. Over than 200 different languages have disappeared in the last 3 generations. The Manx, from the Isle of Man, here in the UK died with the last native speaker in 1974.

But not everyone is concerned with disappearing languages. Commenting on TED blog, user Magnus Lindkvist says:

[…] Why do we insist on romanticizing ancient languages that arguably noone wants to speak anymore? What about the hundreds of new programming languages that have sprung up in the past decades? Or the infinite variations of English that people are adopting and “remixing” to make their own around the world? These are real languages and show a lot more vitality than Manx and Tirahi.

Abdullah Waheed, a native speaker of Dhivehi – an “official” language yet one with not many speakers in Maldives – explains in one example why language preservation matters:

[…]

Dhivehi language is absolutely vital to the identity of Maldivians as a people and Maldives as a country, because it is the only feature we all share and which few others have. It is a strategic factor in our advances towards sustainable development and the harmonious coordination of our affairs.
Far from being a field reserved for writers, Dhivehi lies at the heart of all social, economic and cultural life. Dhivehi does matter to all of us. It matters when we want to promote cultural diversity, and fight illiteracy, and it matters for quality education, including teaching in the first years of schooling. It matters in the fight for greater social inclusion, for creativity, economic development and safeguarding indigenous knowledge.

[…]

5 comments · read »

Indigenous Activists Seek New .indigi Domain

Simon Maghakyan · 23:34 · New Zealand

lingua → es · pt

Marginalized and oppressed for centuries, indigenous peoples – native communities around the world often considered minorities by states – are seeking Internet autonomy. Encouraged by the opportunity to create new generic top level domains (gTLD), some activists want registration of their own Internet domain – [dot] indigi. But will they be able to overcome the financial challenge of the Internet?

The official campaign website is www.dotindigi.com, with support groups on Facebook and Google. The Dot Indigi project is headed by New Zealand’s native Maori activist Karaitiana Taiuru, who was appointed by the International Indigenous Task Force to lead the project. Mr. Taiuru was the first to break the news on February 5:

[…]

.indigi is a self governing generic Top Level Domain Name for the international Indigenous Peoples population to participate in their own self governing domain name.

[…]

Today we officially begun our publicity campaign[…]

Indigenous People's Issues Today gives more details about the project:

The Dot Indigi organization will apply to ICANN [Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers] for a new gTLD < .indigi> (or other if the community suggest a different version) to represent all indigenous groups of the world, thus removing the existing indigenous representation issues of the predominantly English DNS. The ability to include non English characters will be a priority at the 2nd and subsequent Levels.

The < .indigi> gTLD will offer registration at the 2nd Level Domain to indigenous organizations who would then govern their own domain name space and resell/distribute 3rd Level Domain names or retain a general project type name at the 2nd Level via the official .indigi registrars. Several other 2nd Level Domains will be made public to cater to indigenous individuals or smaller such groups who cannot justify the expense and set up of their own 2nd Level Domain.

[…]

For example: NZ [New Zealand] Māori may apply for .māori.indigi and create a new set of domain names to accommodate their culture. So say for Māori schools, there could be .kura.māori.indigi . Then Māori schools can have their name at the start of the address.

[…]

Singing to the Plants explains the process:

A top-level domain is the last part of an Internet domain name. The original set of these TLDs, defined in October 1984, is still the most familiar — .com, .edu, .gov, .mil, and .org, to which .net was added in the first implementation of the domain name system. Management of TLDs is in the hands of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which operates under contract to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Over the years, new TLDs — now called generic TLDs, to distinguish them from, say, country-code TLDs — have been added, and now .aero, .biz, .coop, .info, .museum, .name, and .pro are all operational, even if not widely used. Several additional new gTLDs have been approved in principle, although only .mobi, for the delivery of the Internet to mobile devices, seems to have aroused much interest.

Most important, in June 2008, ICANN approved the recommendation of a new gTLD program which would allow just about any organization to apply to reserve its own gTLD. Under this system, for example, Microsoft could apply for .msn, Google for .google, or New York City for .nyc. The implementation plan for the new system is expected to be published in 2009. The plan must then be approved by the ICANN Board before the system is implemented. ICANN is currently aiming to receive applications for domains starting in the second quarter of 2009.

This new plan is now seen as an opportunity for indigenous peoples to have their own gTLDs — .taino, for example, or .shipibo. But applying for a gTLD requires significant resources of time, money, and expertise.

[…]

With an application fee of $185,000 - money may be the bigest obstacle in this campaign, says consultant Antony Van Couvering:

[…]

Although I applaud the idea and the effort, I admit to being steamed at ICANN that they have allowed a fee structure that blocks new TLDs for these, certainly among the most deserving applicants.
[…]

1 comment · read »

Armenia: Remembering the Budapest Murder

Simon Maghakyan · 15:11, February 20th, 2009 · Central Asia & Caucasus

lingua → es · zhs · zht

Yesterday marked the fifth anniversary of the murder of 26-year old Gurgen Margarian, an Armenian officer attending a NATO Partnership for Peace program in Budapest, Hungary. Killed in his sleep with an axe wielded by his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ramil Safarov, Margarian is commemorated by special posts made by some Armenian bloggers.

A slideshow of the February 19, 2009 commemoration in Yerevan, Armenia

Considered a hero by many in Azerbaijan because of the bitter war over the disputed region of Nagorno Karabakh, many Armenians instead argue that Safarov's act proves the two peoples can never live side by side again. Posting a commemorative banner with Margarian’s face, Noni-no reflects on the incident.

Any time I see this face I shudder. I shudder to realize the fact that this guy was murdered in such brutality and by a cold-blooded animal.

One wants to speak out, to say how one feels, but the words are really not enough….

[…]

517 Design [RU] posts photographs from the official commemoration held in Yerevan and comments on attempts by some Azeris to turn the killer into a hero.

Сегодня Рамиль Сафаров сидит с пожизненнымм сроком в Будапеште…. На родине у себя его успешно возвели в ранг национального героя за то что тот убил армянина. Поиск дать если в сети «Рамиль Сафаров», дает огромное колличество сайтов, видео на ютюбе призывающих либо освободить его вовсе, либо же экстрадировать в Баку, где естественно тот будет незамедлительно отпущен на свободу…

Today Ramil Safarov sits in life-term in Budapest…. In his homeland, he has successfully made himself to the rank of a national hero for having killed an Armenian. A search of “Ramil Safarov” brings a huge number of [Azerbaijani] sites and YouTube videos calling for [Safarov’s] release or repatriation to [Azerbaijan’s capital] Baku, where he would naturally be immediately set free [….]

Although some prominent Azeris spoke out against attempts to glorify Safarov, and while the authorities in Baku did disperse and prevent small rallies in his support, Kevork quotes from some of those who didn't.

[…] A drafted soldier or a committed volunteer fighter is different from an insane “patriot”, who [Azerbaijan officer Ramil Safarov] makes his way to Budapest, to find the Tesco supermarket for one reason only: “I feel sorry that I haven’t killed any Armenian” and put as simple as: “The only motivation for me for fight against Armenians and to kill as many as possible in the fight”.

[…] such people as the ones responcible for Human Rights issues from safarov's home republic declare : “r. safarov must become an example of patriotism for the Azerbaijani youth.” Elmira Suleymanova, the Ombudswoman of Azerbaijan.

[…] Let alone interesting literary characters such as Agshin Mehdiyev, Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Azerbaijan to the Council of Europe with his wise advise to the infidel Armenians, the guy: “does not advise Armenians to sleep safely until the Karabakh conflict is settled. Incidents like in Budapest cannot be ruled out.”

I am not sure that every single person from Azerbaijan could or would do the same and I am also not sure it is impossible to find someone in Armenia who would do so too. What I want to be sure about is that the society in the neighboring state does not accept this rotten food of the state-run policy of kill them, because then you get … I dont really know what exactly they get. […]

Rest in peace, Gurgen.

8 comments · read »

Serbia: Protect the Children of Drug Addicts

Ljubisa Bojic · 13:42 · Eastern & Central Europe

lingua → es · sr · mg · zht · zhs

Jelena's ex-husband, a drug addict, comes to her home and threatens her child. Jelena divorced him, two years ago. The court ordered that he can see the child, because this can help his therapy to stop drug addiction, and yet he never paid any child support and has become a threat to Jelena and her child.

Jelena talked to the class of Serbian Web Journalism School. Her talk was part of a Facebook activism lecture. Students made a Cause Page on Facebook to promote this and similar cases. More than 250 individuals joined the Cause Page. Dragana Banković, Goran Necin and Dragan Milošević published stories about what happened to Jelena and her family in an effort to spread the word about the case. They wrote (SRB):

A drug-addict in Serbia can threaten his child’s life during court-ordered child visitation privileges. This story is for those who are worrying about established laws. Or for those who should be worrying.

This is the story about government institutions which don’t seem to be able – or willing – to protect a mother and child from a dangerous drug addict. Without any intention to prejudge the authorities, by writing this text we only want to draw the public’s attention to this issue.

Who?
Jelena is the mother of a four-year-old child. After three years of marriage, she divorced from her husband - a drug addict. She divorced because of his addiction and pathological behavior. Then she moved far away, in order to start new life, and eventually found a new man. Thereupon the problems started. The ex-husband is not satisfied with the fact that he can see his child only once in two weeks during the weekend. He comes to their door under the influence of drugs and alcohol, making verbal threats, and even banging on the doors and windows with hooligans. All that Jelena, her new husband and her child hear from official departments is that their peace and security is not their concern.

What?
From Clause 173 of Procedural Law, Chapter 11, about submissions and reports: “The obligation of the court of law is to protect his reputation and reputation of clients and other participants from insults, threats and any other attack”. The court of law must do their jobs… and police should do their jobs too!

Where?
This family bought a small house and orchard in the rural outskirts south of Belgrade. In the remote location, they are alone and vulnerable to attack (and the Belgrade Court told Jelena they cannot authorize her to legally purchase a firearm until the issue with her ex-husband is resolved!)

How can we help?
Time is critical for Jelena and her young son. If you do it, then do it for real. If we want to help, the ideas have to be materialized: mother and her child must have adequate help. In this case that means protection.

When?
The best help is when it is on time and totally. The answer to the question “When” is the same for you and court of law and police and social work institutions. The answer is NOW.

3 comments · read »

China: Riding on Chairman Mao's head

Bob Chen · 06:30, February 20th, 2009 · East Asia

lingua → mg · es

On Feb19，a set of pictures that shows a girl riding on the head of Chairman Mao was circulated around the internet. Of course, what she rides is just a statue erected on the plaza in Hunan, Mao's hometown. However, the story with the pictures immediately secured the headline position in various portal websites; in particular, over 50000 comments were left after the story in Netease.

$Girl riding on Map\'s statue. Picture from Hunan Online$ Address: Hunan.voc.com.cn

Maomania is not waning away. Though books and researches today more clearly reveal to Chinese his mistakes that results in millions of death during the Great Leap Forward, and critiques float not rarely on the internet, Mao has still a solid support among Chinese. Recently, as Russia sank a Chinese ship and Philippine claims sovereignty over islands at south sea, people grow more reminiscent of Mao's iron-hand foreign policies.

In Netease' reply page of this news story, the single comment that is bumped to the top by 27000 times is a curse from a Qingdao netizen

一看那群人的样儿，就他妈的土包子。老巴子

Look at those people, just the goddamn bumpkins. Ill-bred.

Someone from Jiangsu said:

太缺教养!

So uneducated!

Interestingly, this comment takes a leading position too:

想跟那个女的发生关系的点支持，不想的点反对

Click support/bump if you wanna have sex with her, click “oppose” if not.

Support[17322] Oppose[8823]

However, when we proceed to another popular site, Tianya, which is famous for its agitated atmosphere, and powerful “flesh search engine”, more moderate voices, nonetheless, are frequently heard.

油条大果子 thinks people are overacting:

草,有什么可上纲的? 不就是骑块石头照个像吗? 什么新生活? 现在还不比以前呢? 以前最起码还能成立个工会政党什么的,现在让吗?

F**k, why so big a deal? Just a picture with a girl riding on a stone. Mao brought us new life? It is not better than before. At least we could still organize something like labor union and parties before, but are we allowed to do so now?

An intense debate was then kicked off.

什锦糖cici thinks we don't have to be so harsh to Chairman Mao

毛主席是我们的开国领袖啊
就算犯过错，也不用这样吧

Mao is our founding father!
Even though he might have done something wrong, you don't have to be so harsh!

wo草泥马 rebuked:

靠，不要这么上纲上线，着有啥，不就一块石头嘛？
共CD当年烧了、砸了多少中华民族真正的英雄，真正的先烈的塑像，

Come on, why attacking the girl? It is nothing but a piece of stone, isn't it?
The Communist party itself has ruined and burned numerous statues of Chinese historic heroes.

我是散户我怕谁呀 followed, comparing Mao to Saddam:

开国？开的一个什么国？一个腐败的、独裁的专职的、草菅老百姓的国？

什么开国元勋？战犯而已，有朝一日会像美军解放伊拉克时，萨达姆的塑像被群众推翻。

A founding father? What has he founded? A country of corruption, dictatorship and careless treatment of people?
A war criminal he is. Someday it will be just like the statues of Saddam toppled down in Iraq.

However,baino5 appealed people to show respect to a past leader:

且不说你们对国家，对政府有什么意见，但和这件事完全不相干，你爸爸的骨灰不过就是一把土，老子是不是可以撒泡尿和泥玩？

Whatever complaints you may bear against the government and the country, it has nothing to do with the incident. Along your line of argument, the bone ash of your father is nothing but soil, so that I can pee on it?

Several people agree with the point, saying a grave is not to be for fun.
But qwerty_a ridicules the point, thinking that putting statues for public memory is another matter.

哈哈，你家祖坟放在广场中央？

Ha, so you put your family cemetery at the center of the plaza?

Finally,如是我译 speaks boldly:

他骑了几亿人民一辈子，

凭啥就不能让别人骑一下下？

He rides on millions of people for his entire life.
Why can't people ride on him for a while?

Translator: If you are interested to know more about Mao and his legacy, I recommend you to visit Utopian world, the political and cultural base of modern leftism in China, which has numerous articles advocating Mao's thought and ideals.

12 comments · read »

Clinton visits Indonesia

Mong Palatino · 06:02 · East Asia

lingua → fr · id · mg · zhs · zht · sw

United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Indonesia last Wednesday. She affirmed “Indonesia’s role in handling global problems, including terrorism, protectionism, climate change and the economic crisis.” Indonesia is the largest Muslim nation in the world and the third largest democracy.

Aside from meeting the leaders of Indonesia, Clinton found the time to visit a slum community in Jakarta. She also appeared in a teen-oriented TV show.

Everything Indonesia believes Clinton's visit to Indonesia starts a new era in American foreign policy:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to Indonesia starts a new era in American foreign policy. A lot less unilateral arrogance, a lot more inclusiveness and so-called smart power.

Mbak Rita observes that Clinton looks younger today:

“I really think that she looks younger and more goodlooking, maybe it was because of her constant smile she gave during her visit here…Some people on some boring TV talkshow mentioned previously that Jakarta is a little overreacted with her visit. I am glad that I was wrong about that.”

Devi Girsang was surprised about Jakarta’s traffic on the day Clinton arrived:

As a Jakartan who used to stuck in traffic, I tend to be panicky if the streets are quiet and deserted look-alike. There are only two things popped in my mind in that case; there's a bomb terror or rampages. Remember 1998 Jakarta riots or 2003 Marriott Hotel bombing? Then you must know what I mean

Around 2 PM today, it turned out to be US Secretary of States Hillary Clinton's arrival in Jakarta that stopped the traffic! Lucky for me, there's still battery power remained on my digital camera to take a few snapshots.

Therry, in a comment, wonders if the US sent a fake Clinton:

I saw the speech Hillary made on television and I don't know whether it's just me but that woman doesn't look exactly like Hillary.

I'm starting to think the US government sent a fake one to us, because that woman looks too old and motherly to be Hillary!

protest
Not everybody was cheering the visit of Hillary Clinton in Indonesia. Picture from Jakarta Today

Andreas Harsono wanted Clinton to raise the issues of religious freedom, impunity, and military reform during her visit:

“(Clinton) should be careful not to say that Muslims in Indonesia are “moderate,” as most diplomatic visitors like to say. For members of persecuted religious groups in Indonesia, it is a useless and inaccurate cliche.

“Concern over rising religious intolerance is not the only human rights issue Clinton should raise with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Freedom of expression is also a huge problem on islands where ethnic minorities show their resistance toward the Indonesian state. But in Indonesia, even peaceful acts like a flag raising can land you in jail for a long time

“Clinton may be tempted to gloss over issues like religious freedom, impunity, and military reform, in favor of closer Indonesian-US ties. But if she does, she’ll miss a golden opportunity to transform the lives of many people in Indonesia who need pressure on the government to recognize their rights.”

Via Twitter, below are some reactions to the Clinton visit:

waxinglyrical: someone asked who is Hillary Clinton??

mirageinblue: saw hillary clinton at the lobby. awesome

oplet: Obama Fans Club stages protest against Hillary Clinton in Jakarta, saying they're just not that into her since presidential race

menteng
Picture from Flickr page of US Department of State