ELL: Moderator

Sun Oct 3 16:26:21 UTC 1999

x-mac-creator="4D4F5353"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
To: owner-endangered-languages-l at carmen.murdoch.edu.au
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: endangered-languages-l at carmen.murdoch.edu.au

*** EOOH ***
Return-Path: <owner-endangered-languages-l at carmen.murdoch.edu.au>
X-Authentication-Warning: carmen.murdoch.edu.au: majodomo set sender to
owner-endangered-languages-l at carmen.murdoch.edu.au using -f
Date: Sun, 03 Oct 1999 23:26:21 +0700
From: Matthew McDaniel <akha at loxinfo.co.th>
Organization: The Akha Heritage Foundation
X-Accept-Language: en
To: endangered-languages-l at carmen.murdoch.edu.au
Subject: Re: ELL: Moderator
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; x-mac-type="54455854";
x-mac-creator="4D4F5353"
Sender: owner-endangered-languages-l at carmen.murdoch.edu.au
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: endangered-languages-l at carmen.murdoch.edu.au

I think it would do well to describe what flaming is and is not.

Do you moderate a list so that only those people with whom you agree are on
it?
Gee that would be a little boring.

I don't know about others but I really don't care what people say to me in an
email
as long as they have a valid point.  I don't have to agree with it.

But in the recent exchange, I did not note anyone being disrespectful, calling
names, calling for physical violence against people, or suggesting we go out
and
burn the flag.

Destroy churches yes.  But then one might ask what one means by that and they
would
soon find that it means a little more complicated than it appears.  Some
people
don't like the word destroy, but I don't like the word dismantle.   I never
saw
concrete get properly "dismantled".  Wooden structures maybe. But concrete is
messy
if you ever took down anything made with it via sledge hammer and I think in
the
end one would be able to honestly say the building was destroyed, and the
debri was
sent COD back to the mission or neatly tucked into the potholes in the village
road, the latter probably being more useful to the villagers.  Something with
bad
karma they will not take into their own houses, so it probably ends up in the
road.

On the other hand, SIL never came to its own defense, so who cares if they got
a
little mud on the windscreen.  In numerous discussions on numerous web sites I
have
never seen SIL answer to criticism, nor New Tribes Missions, so there is
seldom
formal place for specific criticisms to be mustered awaiting specific
answers.  One
would think that with all the concern for SIL that they would at least be able
to
admit that wether they believed in it or not, liked it or not, many people
spoke
ill of their groups.  This would seem to make some curious, but having grown
up
around evangelicals I know how automated the rationalizations are to criticism
of
the agenda.  Brainwashing can go a long ways on the blissful road of
ignorance.

I think some people did jump to some conclusions.

However, I am also of the opinion that missionaries should know why a church
must
be knocked down, and in fact I think, unless they are willing to do it
themselves,
that they should be billed for it.  Just like religious toxic waste cleanup.
Isn't
that what all the lawsuits against Christian organizations is these days?

Otherwise we would end up with a headline like "Missionary destroys own
church".
Now that would be the day.

However, there did seem to be more voice of concerned people from South
America and
other places about the roles of certain peoples and their effect on
endangerment of
languages.

Who knows, maybe some collective institutions will change their attitudes
towards
the cultures of indigenous peoples beyond the borders of their own country.

I remember talking to this one group here in Thailand, and the site manager
was
shocked, she just couldn't imagine that you don't do these things to
indigenous
peoples.  Then she finally, dumfounded, asked me what I would do?

I said for starters I wouldn't tie up all my money in a mission compound and
imposing outrageous churches in every village, that I would try to understand
why
the Thai army didn't want them in the mountains, (the foreign religious
workers)
and I would spend a little more time outside the compound living in the huts
of the
people who I claimed to be interested in.

She looked quite surprised, but she was the first worker who ever asked me in
many
many years what might she do different.  I guess she deserves the "missionary
with
an open mind" award.

Matthew

alain.cedelle at irisa.fr wrote:

>  Hello,
>
> >I vote for an unmoderated, spontaneous list, even though exaggerations are
> >likely to happen
> >in the list as in the world. Slammings and flames, unpleasant as they may
> >be, do not
> >usually last too long. I'd rather be in a lively, emotional
> >exciting list in which people talk, discuss, argue and even fight than in
>an
> >unnatural antiseptic list.
>
>  I have the same point of view. I haven't been annoyed by the recent
> messages, but i must confess that i only read the ELL from a great
> "virtual" distance.
> As long as i do not feel extremely involved. My general reaction about all
> this was
> more on the style "Oh.. at least, something happens here..." :)
>
>  I understand that the level of flaming should be kept low, and personal
> attacks should be avoided, as they could be damaging.
>
>  But among all these recent messages, i have read some very interesting,
> and moderated, comments, that might have never been written in a moderated
>list.
>
> Trugarez vraz d'an holl.
>
> a.c.
>
> ----
> Endangered-Languages-L Forum: endangered-languages-l at carmen.murdoch.edu.au
> Web pages http://carmen.murdoch.edu.au/lists/endangered-languages-l/
> Subscribe/unsubscribe and other commands: majordomo at carmen.murdoch.edu.au
> ----

--

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.
66-01-881-9288

US Address:

Donations by check or money order may be sent to:

The Akha Heritage Foundation
PO BOX 6073
Salem OR 97304
USA

Donations by direct banking can be transferred to:
(Preferred)

Wells Fargo Bank
Akha Heritage Foundation
Acc. # 0081-889693
Keizer Branch # 1842  04
4990 N. River Road.
Keizer, Oregon,  97303 USA
ABA # 121000248

Or In Thailand:

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

Web Site:

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

Discussion Groups:
akha at onelist.com
indigenousworld at onelist.com

----
Endangered-Languages-L Forum: endangered-languages-l at carmen.murdoch.edu.au
Web pages http://carmen.murdoch.edu.au/lists/endangered-languages-l/
Subscribe/unsubscribe and other commands: majordomo at carmen.murdoch.edu.au
----