<div>Dear friends,</div>
<div>I am writing this message in a sincere response to Ramon's message, with the hope it may be useful.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Dear Ramon,</div>
<div>Let me begin by saying I am very glad with what you have accomplished for the deaf Catalan people, and I do congratulate you for that remarkable feat I understand you have produced: am original Catalan Sign Language dictionary.</div>
<div>Let me say also that you have my full solidarity because I know just how hard it is to obtain funds to publish an original bulky Sign Language Dictionary. Even though I do not have the time to enter Facebook, you may count on my support for the publication of your first general and etymological dictionary of the Catalan Sign Language.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>I am not sure whether my experience may be of any utility for you. I am writing in the hope it may be. In case you judge what I say as irrelevant top your case, please forgive me, just ignore this message and move on.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>I managed to obtain support from both non-governmental agencies (arguing based on federal laws pertaining civil rights of the deaf population) and Federal Government (Ministry of Education and Ministry of Science and Technology). But they only cared to start hearing me after I managed to conduct more than 40 major research programs over the last 25 years and publishing more than 50 books and 400 science papers. It was not easy at all, and I do comprehend your frustration with just how hard the road for noble idealistic people like yourself may be.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>You may detest what I have to say next (I apologize should that be the case), but, for genuine love (for your noble cause abd yourself as a person) and painful experience, I must say it:</div>
<div>Typically what I would recommend is that authors pay themselves for the cost of publication of the first edition of their dictionaries (instead of keeping them in the drawer while waiting for a whole year of promises that may never be fulfilled). </div>
<div>Twenty years ago I discovered the wisdom of that strategy after spending my time running after funds, and realizing my time was far more precious than the funds themselves!!!!</div>
<div>So I paid for the publication of my first dictionaries 20 years ago. Three years later that was no longer necessary. Nowadays, of course, I have all funds I need to publish whatever I need. </div>
<div> </div>
<div>Why is it that I should recommend you something like that?</div>
<div>Well, people usually do not believe us, unless they have some good reason for doing that. </div>
<div>I know what we say to ourselves all the time: </div>
<div>"Oh, if only we had a chance of showing them how good the reason is! How important our sign language dictionary is for deaf people! Then they would understand! It is a darn, darn catch 22! We need funds to publish, but they will give us funds only once we have demonstrated to them that we are indeed capable of publishing! Rats!"</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Yep! Welcome to the real world of idealistic authors of virgin sign languages of this strange planet of ours!</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Do I mean we have to create and obsessively perfect unendlessly the whole dictionary from scratch and then we have to pay with our own scarce money in order to have it published?! Yep! (and the money is scarce, of couse, because we have never been paid at all for creating the dictionary - instead we have spent each and every penny of our thin piggy-like safe over the last years financing deaf informants, illustrators, etc etc etc...)</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Once we go being extracting milk from the rocks (in my case, borrowing monet from the Bank!) and finally manage to publish the dictionary we manage to put before people's physical eyes what was only in our tearful mind's eye.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>And then?</div>
<div>Then aha! </div>
<div>People finally start seeing what we can do, start changing the way they see us, and start putting their trust on us, and their money on our projects. Then they finally see we are, indeed, capable of doing something remarkable, something we knew all along we have always been capable of doing. In my case not only capable but also spiritually obliged. </div>
<div> </div>
<div>We have to pay the price in order to have the opportunity of working and helping. But once we do pay the price for the opportunity of showing just how capable and devoted we are, then they see what we are really capable of doing, and then, only then, funding comes, grants start to pour from heaven to our sacred harvest, and then, only then we can start collecting the crops to feed the hungry children we have all craved along to serve and protect and foster.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>It worked for me. It may work for you too. </div>
<div>I am not saying that is the only way. I'm just saying that was my "via crucis" way (perhaps unfortunatelly, perhaps fortunatelly - it all depends on whether we are materialistic or spiritual).</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Ramon, your country is very rich and prosperous and proud of its culture. Mine, on the other hand, is a dorment giant who is still quite asleep, thence, just a developing one. Things usually are much much harder in here for idealistic people like us, should that be some consolation for you. </div>
<div> </div>
<div>Perhaps you may succeed in raising awareness without having to go through all that. Perhaps you may not even have to pay for the costs of the first edition yourself before they begin trust you.</div>
<div>But if you do, be at peace. In this huge world of ours, there is plenty of unnoticed heroism going on.</div>
<div>(A wise child philosopher named Charlie Brown once expressed this feeling saying something like this: "Doing a good job in here is pretty much like pissing in one's own dark pants: it produces an intimate warm feeling, but nobody notices..." - since I'm quoting from memory and am foreigh to English, I may ascertain that that is the idea, though the phrasing was not exactly that, I'm afraid).</div>
<div> </div>
<div>I do hope for the very best for you and your Catalan deaf population. You definitely deserve all the best.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>True blessings from this odd and old tired warrior.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Fernando Capovilla, Sao Paulo, Brazil</div>
<div><br>PS: I apologize for misspellings.</div>
<div><br> </div>
<div class="gmail_quote">2010/3/7 <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:sw-l-request@majordomo.valenciacc.edu">sw-l-request@majordomo.valenciacc.edu</a>></span><br>
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<br>When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific<br>than "Re: Contents of SW-L digest..."<br><br>Today's Topics:<br><br> 1. pro publication CSL dictionary? (ramon ferrerons ruiz)<br><br>
<br>---------- Mensagem encaminhada ----------<br>From: "ramon ferrerons ruiz" <<a href="mailto:rferrerons@gmail.com">rferrerons@gmail.com</a>><br>To: <a href="mailto:sw-l@majordomo.valenciacc.edu">sw-l@majordomo.valenciacc.edu</a><br>
Date: Sun, 7 Mar 2010 17:40:11 +0100<br>Subject: [sw-l] pro publication CSL dictionary<br>
<div>Dear Friend,</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>I don't know if you're aware that, back in October 2000, I presented my work <i>The signs on the inside</i> (which was an etymological research project about Catalan Sign Language, and had the backing of the former Chancellor of the University of Barcelona, Ph.D. Antonio Caparros) to a prestigious award, without success. After that, I began to work in the first general and etymological dictionary of the Catalan Sign Language, the text of which I almost completed in late 2007. </div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Since then I have held parallel talks with two publishers -I'm still in contact with one of them- in order to publish my work, and also to find out if there are any grants or subsidies we could use, either from the Catalan Government or the Catalan Institute of Cultural Industries. Another important issue has been trying to obtain purchase commitments for a certain number of copies per edition from many public catalan institutions... And this is going on and on, like if it wasn't important having a waiting deaf community . </div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Finally, on March 15th I'm going to have a critical meeting, that I hope it will be conclusive. In order to make known all this facts, I have started a<b> </b><a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=341128522603" target="_blank"><b>campaign through Facebook</b></a> to denounce this scandal and demand that the agreements needed between government, private enterprise and myself come to fruition. I need YOUR support, and the support of all those that relate to the CSL, even if you simply are in favor of culture and solidarity with the excluded. This campaign will be closed on March 13th. Do you have a minute to spare? Then join us!</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Ramon</div><br>____________________________________________<br><br>SW-L SignWriting List<br><br>Post Message<br><a href="mailto:SW-L@majordomo.valenciacc.edu">SW-L@majordomo.valenciacc.edu</a><br><br>List Archives and Help<br>
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