ELL: clarification about SIL from an external point of view

[Matthew McDaniel]

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Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1999 11:59:06 +0700
From: Matthew McDaniel <akha at loxinfo.co.th>
Organization: The Akha Heritage Foundation
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Subject: Re: ELL: clarification about SIL from an external point of view
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> SIL

> evangelization, not "research results", is their overriding purpose, and I
> deeply appreciate their
> honesty.

I have nothing against people having their belief and their willingness to
practice them.

But the issue here is the well being and preservation of the right of
Indigenous Peoples to have and protect their traditional cultures and
religious beliefs.

There has been much question about the tactics that SIL uses and its effects
on the indigenous communities they impose their efforts on.

There has also been much discussion of the relationship between SIL's founder
Townsend and the political wishes of National Governments in South America
when it comes to indigenous peoples and natural resources the national
governments wish to exploit.

It has been said that SIL has helped "passify" some of these groups in return
to have rights to evangelize them.

These are the issues that people are concerned about, that linguistics is not
their main goal and that they have a bad track record in many cases with the
indigenous.

Many missions which SIL coordinates with are extremely racist in their world
view.
The American Baptist are one of them here in Northern Thailand.

This is the issue that penetrates to the core of a holistic approach to
endangered languages.

Many people firmly believe, many academics I might add, that SIL is directly
contributing to the marginalization of tribal communities and thus their
languages.

Sure they might get a Bible, but they might get extinction also.

And my final question is this, just because a person thinks the Bible tells
them to do it, does it give them the right to walk all over the fundamental
rights of others.

I would not bring this up except that I had correspondence with SIL here in
Thailand and in Portland Oregon.  They were not interested in literacy (you
can assume this is after evangelism as a goal also) and certainly have made
no attempt to advise missions to change the errors that are found in the Akha
New Testament.  They were only concerned about orthography, but not a major
error in the final text.

Wouldn't a linguist find this odd?

I call into question the integrity and racism of the organization and there
is far too much evidence to say I am the only voice in this.

It may be good that they have lots of language materials, but it is almost
like they have minded these into a vault and what is it that the indigenous
groups got of it.

SIL certainly got wealthy.

SIL has often been accused of being connected to the CIA.

Is this true?

Why doesn't SIL ever come on line to say that they either cooperate with the
CIA or they don't. Certainly they have lots of gathered info to loan.  Did
the indigenous agree to that.

Who owns their own language.

Linguistic Ethics.
Are there any?

There should be and it could start with an examination of SIL.

Matthew McDaniel




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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.
01-881-9288  when in Thailand
66-1-881-9288  when out  Thailand

Web Site:
http://www.akha.com
mailto:akha at loxinfo.co.th

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:

In the US can be transfered to:

Wells Fargo Bank
Akha Heritage Foundation
Acc. # 0081-889693
Keizer Branch
Keizer, Oregon, USA

Outside the US:

Matthew Duncan McDaniel
Bangkok Bank Ltd
Acc.# 3980240778
Maesai Branch
Thailand


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