ELL: On software for Basque and other lgs ("support")
Jeff ALLEN
jeff at elda.fr
Wed Jul 21 14:39:07 UTC 1999
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Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1999 16:39:07 +0200
To: endangered-languages-l at carmen.murdoch.edu.au
From: Jeff ALLEN <jeff at elda.fr>
Subject: Re: ELL: On software for Basque and other lgs ("support")
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regarding Basque and technologies, here is another article. Take a look at
http://www.expandman.com/EM_Archives/SO_1997/global_basq.html
I just stumbled across this article today while looking up other things.
Best,
Jeff
=================================================
Jeff ALLEN - Technical Manager/Directeur Technique
European Language Resources Association (ELRA) &
European Language resources - Distribution Agency (ELDA)
(Agence Europe'enne de Distribution des Ressources Linguistiques)
55, rue Brillat-Savarin
75013 Paris FRANCE
Tel: (+33) 1.43.13.33.33 - Fax: (+33) 1.43.13.33.30
mailto:jeff at elda.fr
http://www.icp.grenet.fr/ELRA/home.html
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Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 08:56:14 +0000
From: Matthew McDaniel <akha at loxinfo.co.th>
Organization: The Akha Heritage Foundation
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Subject: ELL: Akha Computer Center
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Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 08:56:14 +0000
From: Matthew McDaniel <akha at loxinfo.co.th>
Organization: The Akha Heritage Foundation
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Subject: ELL: Akha Computer Center
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Dear Friends:
I have posted this one email response to some questions, to the list
because it illustrates some of the difficulties with endangered language
work and medical problems among the Akha.
*****
Dear P.
I missed a couple of your questions so I will answer them here.
I am extensively involved in endangered language work and linguistic
rights as related to the Akha and their language.
I should emphasize that my work here is not "development" work but that
it is "defensive" work.
My project is centered around lowering infant death and people death,
adults, children, old people.
Anything which lowers the survivability of the Akha people if you will.
So for this reason I start with medical, then move to preventative such
as water systems and stopping the use of herbicides and pesticides which
contaminate these water systems and poison people.
Books are developed.
The Akha Language and tradition is an oral tradition.
But many Akha People have been displaced from their traditional living
environments due to illegal acts of governments which ignore their
rights. As a result many of their traditional links have been broken
and they have been required to learn majority languages and use books in
that language. For this reason we record the culture in the Akha
language and make books available in Akha for Akha children and adults.
The Akha language script uses Roman letters and we use computers for
this. So the writers are in need for computers. Computers will help
teach the children to write in their language as well and to take it
seriously.
I know of no project currently that has made resources available for a
computer for a single village other than our project. We currently have
two old computers in two different villages, leaves much to be desired.
As well, the logic behind the computer center and gathering room at the
Cultural center village is that I am trying to introduce the Akha to
other world indigenous communities which are fighting to preserve their
culture as well, and I can get a phone line for the internet in this
village. The desired goal is greater leadership, greater impression
that they can do something about their own difficulties on a world
scale, that they can borrow resources and models from those who have
already developed them and learn to communicate beyond their own
community. This takes incredible time and patience to encourage these
skills within the heavily stressed environment that the Akha have been
forced to live in.
The Akha at the Cultural center village have many health problems
related to climate change, having to move off the mountains to flat land
which is hot and stifling. The Thais cut down all the trees long ago
and built raised wooden houses to deal with the heat, humidity and lack
of wind, the Akha live in huts on the ground with dirt floors, stifling
heat and mosquitos.
Not the nicest environment. Since I often stay in the longhouse I am
well aware of the difficult conditions for this village and as well I
have brought close to $10,000 in assistance to this village, much of it
medical.
It also occured to me that a computer center could easily double as a
sewing center. I am working on the idea that the flat village can
assist in producing Akha style clothes for other villages, for the
children in those other villages. The Akha are always having people
donate trashy left over clothes of every design, and no longer are able
to make much of their own because they have been displaced from their
cotton growing environments. I am trying to get cotton started at the
cultural center and have a small amount planted currently. We have a
hut for four looms as soon as we can find funding for buying additional
cotton and setting that up. It is hoped that in the future all the
children's clothes will be made of traditionally woven cotton.
If I am of good fortune it may be that I will have the center built
before your arrival and have it stocked with sewing machines and in this
case there will be no problem keeping people busy, because there will be
plenty of hand work to do.
I was going to comment, that for a student to spend two weeks in a
village environment as a volunteer with no cost of housing, that if they
were to donate $100 each it would not be a dis proportionate expense to
their travels.
As well, if the students are up to this and there are say 30, I can go
to other people and ask them to match the students and by this means the
center could get built and then when the students came they could spend
a significant amount for cloth alone, and sew it up at the same time.
Just some ideas to think about.
I should mention, that one of the problems in the village with all the
fever is that Thais who own the land below the village want to take as
much of the water as they can for orchards, Thais who live in Bangkok,
and so I have to deal with this problem on the piping, because that
eliminates the tiny 10 inch ditch the water now runs in and brings all
the water to the village, which still isn't very much. So you see how
human greed and corruption make everything difficult here? To put the
pipe in I have to solve this political problem where some people are
strong arming the Akha on the matter, maybe a few Akha have sold out the
village, and so forth. Meanwhile the children suffer. But this is due
to bad government that doesn't have standards for how people are forced
to live, while many people in Thailand are very rich. The rich always
need the poor.
Anyway, I would try to have that resolved long before you got here
depending on what you want to do.
One of the things that makes this work so difficult is many unseen
motivations like that. One would think that a village would accept
clean water with open arms, but not necessarily, not if some bastards in
the village have everyone bullied and have sold the water rights of the
village to someone else for a ball of opium or some favor. Not if a
Thai can see that the water is needed for drinking in the village but
wants it for his trees with no thought to the children. Everyone wants
to say that the miserable conditions are someone else's fault, duty and
there is no mention of all the colusion going on.
The shortage that I see in much of this area is a willingness to build a
sense of social duty and service among all the the people, especially
here in Thailand and it is much worse in Burma and China.
Matthew
Matthew McDaniel
The Akha Heritage Foundation
386/3 Sailom Joi Rd
Maesai, Chiangrai, 57130
Thailand
Mobile Phone Number: Sometimes hard to reach while in Mountains.
66-01-881-9288
US Address:
Donations by check or money order may be sent to:
The Akha Heritage Foundation
1586 Ewald Ave SE
Salem OR 97302
USA
Donations by direct banking can be transfered to:
Wells Fargo Bank
Akha Heritage Foundation
Acc. # 0081-889693
Keizer Branch # 1842 04
4990 N. River Road.
Keizer, Oregon, 97303 USA
ABA # 121000248
Web Site:
http://www.akha.com
mailto:akha at loxinfo.co.th
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