re SIL

[Dave Pearson]

Richard,

I have never found accusations based on guilt-by-association
(SIL-NTM-Rockerfeller-CIA etc.) to be convincing. Your addition of Hitler to
the list (below) simply weakens an already feeble argument. In any case,
even if there were truth in these accusations there's nothing I or anybody
else can do about the SIL of 40 or 50 years ago. Incidentally, Pullum's
recent obituary of Derbyshire
(http://www.linguistlist.org/issues/19/19-1.html ) is a sobering reality
check of the period. 

The fact that current criticism is based upon events of a previous century
is a testimony to the SIL of today. As an ardent supporter of human rights
in general and indigenous rights in particular I can assure you that the
organisation that you describe is not one that I would be willing to join.

At some point I'll post a report on the half-day debate on indigenous
languages held last month at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. 

Dave Pearson, SIL International

-----Original Message-----
From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU]
On Behalf Of Richard LaFortune
Sent: 05 May 2008 19:07
To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
Subject: Re: [ILAT] re SIL

I forwarded this earlier to Rudy and rec'd a response.
 Some people would assert that some evangelical
translations efforts have advanced applied
-not theoretical- linguistics...except First Speakers
are required for applied fieldwork and other tasks of
science.  And the early and emerging information about
these outfits over the past couple of decades
convincingly alleges that these reactionary
denominational translators were all about neutalizing
(and you can interpret that word in its most sobering
sense) the very people who were first speakers,
because of fights over natural and political
resources.  There is no valid argument for any
government surveillance that wipes out a quarter
million Native first speakers; there is no balance in
which a list of languages outweighs the lives of
sovereign people in our ancestral domains by force of 
violence.  My own family are leading heirarchy in one
of the minority evangelical denominations in North
America, so I know from missions; and I'm a Native
person whose lineage is straght-up medicine people as
well.  I was raised not to express an opinion unless
it was considered and useful in some way.  But
that's...

Just an opinion
Anguksuar (Richard LaFortune)


> A lot of people in the field disagree with you Rudy-
> with all due respect- folks from the aeryies of the
> Academy, to the corn fields and jungles where SIL
and
> New Tribes Mission have operated over the decades.
> This includes people who have spoken to me
anecdotally
> and have no particular political axes to grind.  
>
> I suggest interested people on ILAT take a look at
> "Thy Will Be Done:  The Conquest of the Amazon :
> Nelson Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oi";
> and "The Missionaries", by Norman Lewis.  To use the
> phrase 'without substantiation' suggests that a
great
> deal of scholarship and actual substantiation from
> international government agencies, to personal
> communications by people of regard.  Who cares if
they
> have done important things in linguistics - Hitler
> built nice highways.
> Richard



 
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