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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hush Piers you've blown my cover! I LOVE
press-the-button activism. It makes me feel like an active
activist.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><BR></DIV>
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<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=piers.kelly@gmail.com
href="mailto:piers.kelly@gmail.com">Piers Kelly</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, April 01, 2009 12:27 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=margaret.florey@gmail.com
href="mailto:margaret.florey@gmail.com">Margaret Florey</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Cc:</B> <A title=Resource-Network-Linguistic-Diversity@unimelb.edu.au
href="mailto:Resource-Network-Linguistic-Diversity@unimelb.edu.au">Resource-Network-Linguistic-Diversity@unimelb.edu.au</A>
</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Re: Siraya petition</DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>Hi Margaret and RNLD,<BR>I've signed the petition but it got me
thinking off the topic. <BR><BR>I've never had much faith in the value of online
petitions and a part of me believes that they may be counterproductive in that
they provide 'participants' with the satisfaction of having engaged in a worthy
campaign by simply clicking a button. I may be wrong: this is simply an
impression.<BR> <BR>I can think of various cases in Australia where the
description of a language-endangerment issue is fantastic but the subsequent
action strategy is ineffectual or nonexistent. I'm not blaming linguists or
casting judgment, I just wonder if there might be an inherent inefficiency in
how we approach things. <BR><BR>I'd love to get a discussion going on the
practicalities of successful language activism. Environmental movements have
been very good at separating the tasks of scientific description and
action/intervention. These are discrete skills and rarely are they embodied in a
single individual. Perhaps as descriptive linguists we should even think about
stepping back a bit to encourage other skilled people to enter the
space.<BR><BR>Thoughts? Examples?<BR><BR>Piers<BR><BR>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>On Wed, Apr 1, 2009 at 2:22 PM, Margaret Florey <SPAN
dir=ltr><<A
href="mailto:margaret.florey@gmail.com">margaret.florey@gmail.com</A>></SPAN>
wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=gmail_quote
style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid">Dear
RNLDers,<BR><BR>Chun (Jimmy) Huang is asking for support with a petition
seeking official status for the Siraya people of Taiwan (and for other
unrecognized low-land Aboriginal peoples). Recognition would provide Siraya
people with access to funding and resources to support the revitalization of
Siraya language and culture.<BR><BR>He has set up a petition at <<A
href="http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Siraya-reclamation"
target=_blank>http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Siraya-reclamation</A>> and
has provided detailed background information at that site.<BR><BR>Chun is a
Linguistic consultant with the Tainan Ping-pu Siraya Culture Association and
PhD candidate in Linguistics at the University of Florida. He can be contacted
on <<SPAN><SPAN><A href="mailto:huangc20@ufl.edu"
target=_blank>huangc20@ufl.edu</A>> for further
information.</SPAN></SPAN><BR><BR>kind regards,<BR>Margaret<BR clear=all><FONT
color=#888888><BR>-- <BR>Margaret Florey<BR><A
href="mailto:Margaret.Florey@gmail.com"
target=_blank>Margaret.Florey@gmail.com</A><BR>Ph: +61 (0)4 3186-3727
(mob.)<BR></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Eleonora Deak :))<BR>0428 140 891<BR><A
href="http://picasaweb.google.com/eldeak">http://picasaweb.google.com/eldeak</A></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>