Noam Chomsky: On the Bombings

[Kristina Efimenko]

Dear All,
    I hope I can express clearly what I mean to convey on the discussion of
whether certain people's comments should be allowed to be printed on SEELANGS
listserv. I feel I must present my opinions. First of all, I guess I really
don't understand that there could be "rules" to abide by for participants of
SEELANGS listserv that could spell out what a person may and may not say. Is
it in question whether Fisk and Chomsky have the "right" to air their
personal or political views on SEELANGS? Or is it because they hold views
which are not held by the majority?  At issue, I believe, is what topics are
permissable to discuss on SEELANGS.
    I challenge everyone to think about this: Is SEELANGS only for discussing
issues relating to the Russian language? and does that mean that we can only
discuss the Russian language through literature and poetry? Does it mean that
issues of Russian ( or more properly, Russian used to be used to be used to
cover all of the 15 former republics of the Soviet Union ) culture are not
even appropriate? No, of course not you might say : the study of language is
part of learning a language. Yes, so therefore we are also involved in
possibly how to teach students about Russian culture, certainly about the
Russian Revolution, etc. Actually before the breakup, students didn't learn
so much about the names of the 15 republics of the Soviet Union until it
broke up and those all had become countries. After the break-up, some school
teachers in my children's school even asked me to come explain to the school
children where these newly independent countries were and what the names of
them were. They were not even knowledgeable enough to teach students about
those regions.  Professors scrambled to publish books about these newly free,
almost newly discovered, countries. Some Russian Studies professors or
Russian language were consulted by  the local media who had little knowledge
of that part of the world, looking to them for information.Was information
about those former republics taught to students who were taught the Russian
language? Today, people of the general public look to people who have studied
Russian to be knowledgeable about all the areas of the former Soviet Union.
Usually students of Russian often were not  taught that not all the people of
those republics spoke Russian as their native language? I think because
Russia (the Soviet Union) wanted the U.S. to think of them as one nation.
This obscured reality and misinformed students and the general public.
    Well, but I am getting off track, this concern about "unity" in regard to
how the American people "should" respond to the tragedy is a misguided and
dangerous outlook, one which could lead to our freedom of speech being
curtailed for fear of saying something not understood or accepted or held by
the majority. Differing views should be encouraged about any topic, about
views on the recent tragedy in NYC and Washington D.C., about how to teach
students to acquire a language, and about what is appropriate information to
include in teaching the Russian language.
    The interest in studying language in our schools, high schools and
universities, is dying. Why? And this does relate to what I am trying to say.
In the recent mailing from AATSEEL describing the election candidates for
Vice president, especially in the write up about John Chevalier's bio and
opinions, I found a point I do agree with about what people in the profession
- of being Russian Langauge professors - must do to retain or maybe even
increase the number of students choosing to study Russian : "Rather than
clinging to the nostalgia of the past, we need to develop effective,
innovative strategies ...We should consider curriculum that goes beyond the
bifurcation of language and literature, integrating cultural studies, working
with colleagues in other disciplines in music, art, history, and
anthropology."
     Therefore, the point I am trying to make is that there is more to
teaching Russian than teaching about how Russians would call "kitty litter"
and how the language is constructed. And actually, the study of Russian
culture should include art, music, history, foods, etc. and not just of
Russian culture but Uzbeki, Kazak, Ukrainian, and all the former republics
who are still speaking Russian and affected by life under Russian domination.
Now, some students of Russian (or other related languages) have found jobs in
far flung areas of the former Soviet Union and they are not only relied on to
speak about Russian literature in Russian, sometimes they might be asked
their opinions about newsworthy events or life in the newly independent
countries or to share their thoughts about events in America. What if that
student could not discuss his political views in Russian because he does not
have the vocabulary and more importantly maybe because he had no knowledge of
historical, cultural, political affairs in any of those former republics of
the Soviet Union or any place except his own country? What if he  had no
experience talking about his own personal views even in his native language?
    I do believe that we have to encourage the presentation and discussion of
different views to educate ourselves better and reach a better understanding
of our world, especially tragic events wherever they occur. Then perhaps we
can try to search for solutions. If we make people afraid to speak, or
prevent their offensive thoughts from appearing before our eyes, we will be
the losers for not having that information to add to our knowledge to help us
think and arrive at our own conclusions and perhaps prevent future such
events. And this is what it means to live in a free and democratic society.
    By the way, I think it would be helpful to know not only a person's name
when he/she enters his opinion, but also where he is a teacher / professor or
what his background is, as far as academic or interest area he aligns himself
with. We know who Chomsky is, but I do not know who John Fisk is, except a
small mention that he is some kind of expert on Middle Eastern Affairs -
where? and what is the Independent? a newspaper?
    However, if people wish to enter comments anonymously, that should be ok,
too.
    And another thing, what is AATSEEL? One person said "Slavists," or maybe
it was "Slavophiles" - Well, scholars of Russian language and culture are
often interested in the other languages of the Balkans and Eastern Europe,
and only recently finally some of the languages of the former Soviet Union.
That, I think is one way Russian language departments might be saved and that
is by studying different languages and culture of the entire area of the
former Soviet Union, the Balkans, and Eastern Europe, such as at Arizona
State University where Albanian, Macedonian, Serbo-Croatian, Tatar, and now
recently Armenian are all offered in the summer as part of the Critical
Languages Consorteum. Except for Armenian, the languages of the former S.U.
for the most part are not offered. Why? One reason is because the government
of the former S.U. wanted all the world to think of the S.U. as ONE nation
with one voice.
    Here in the U.S., we should not feel we have to speak with one voice to
be called loyal and patriotic Americans. We all are affected by the tragedy
and feel terrible for the victims, and the victims are all of us, but that
should not mean that we cannot ask ourselves WHY it happened and try to
figure out some answers.
    That's all. I hope I got my points across.

 Kristina in Arizona, Russophile, Slavophile, and appreciator of all cultures
graduate of Russian in 1972, one of several lucky students to study Russian
in Salt Lake City onTV after Sputnik went up into space.

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