ELL: NEW SIL ALIAS

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From: maia at acd.ufrj.br (Marcus Antonio Rezende Maia)
Subject: ELL: NEW SIL ALIAS
To: endangered-languages-l at carmen.murdoch.edu.au
Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1999 11:04:25 -0300 (GRNLNDST)
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 Dear D. Quesada,
 SIL, ALEM, NTM, ILV, JAARS, and other initials may stand for different
 organizations from a strictly legal point of view, but it is a truism that
 they represent the same ethnocentric and imperialistic interests. They have
 often exchanged and supported missionaries (who happen to be good linguists
 in some cases) in different parts of the world. One of the oldest programs of
 SIL in Brazil is the Karaja Program in the Bananal Island in Central
 Brazil. SIL started their actions in the Karaja area in 1958, already aided
 by New Tribes missionaries who "attracted"several nomadic Karaja groups to
 form the villages of Macauba. SIL missionaries then took over did their
 educational training programs, bible translation, etc. Then they levt and NT
 missionaries took over. As a Karaja leader once told me: They are all "crente
 mahadu" , as we say in Portuguese," farinha do mesmo saco", perfectly
 interchangeable, hybrid beings, who take the shape which is best suited  to
 fulfill their same o!
 ld purpose and who even use the same kind of money. There is extensive
 documentation about the action of these groups in the Amazon area which I can
 refer to you if necessary.
 Marcus Maia
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 Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1999 21:11:11 +0700
 From: Matthew McDaniel <akha at loxinfo.co.th>
 Organization: The Akha Heritage Foundation
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tear any individual missionary to shreds if he has it coming.

I can not believe the denial that goes on with this list.

You comment on honesty of missionaries.

This is laughable, the sooner people realize that the trademark of much of
white Christianity is lies, the sooner people can get back to respecting the
person and life of Jesus.

How do you think that they split villages and persuade people to give up
their culture?  Lies, of course.

You want me to document a few for you here.

I am not barking at the moon, rather I have an aggressive anti missionary
campaign in northern Thailand that I am coordinating increasingly with monks,
the army and the police, a few Thai ministries and what else would you like
to know.

We have anti missionary advertisements in several languages and want them out
of the villages NOW.

That is a hec of a whole lot closer than your moon.

We have contacted as people as possible in some neighboring countries to deal
with the matter in the stongest terms possible.  I myself have no time for
people who are basing their beliefs and motivations and agendas on lies that
are about nothing more than racial and political power.

SIL makes its stand to back missions that are hard on tribal people.

And we have taken our stand to mount the widest based anti western mission
campaign possible in northern Thailand.

We believe that the evidence will show that the Thai government is very
concerned about these peoples activities and what their real intentions are.
They have every right.

I know what the missions are doing in the villages and they can only lie to
me about it while still in the village.

If people want to believe that there is no connection anywhere between
missions and the erosion of culture and then language I would bet money they
are middle class white.  The aversion to the investigation of missions is
laughable.

Everybody knows, they just go on saying "oh well, no point in barking at the
moon.  Its always going to be there."  I guarantee you they will not.

Matthew




"J. DIEGO QUESADA" wrote:

> Dear colleagues:
>
> I want to reiterate that the intention behind my posting was not to
> create SIL-phobia; after all, as Trond Trosterud accurately pointed out,
> it makes no sense to keep barking at the moon (a bit of that is what we
> find in Mathews' postings, I am afraid) because it will always be there
> (unless, of  course, the end of the world is to occur).
>
> The reason for my posting was that, during my last visit to the field,
> the people told me that one of the SIL-linguists who had been there in
> the seventies [a decade in which Panama got -at least on paper- assured
> that the Canal would go to Panamanian hands this upcoming Dec. 31; and a
> decade in which General Omar Torrijos -who practically made the US sit
> at the bargaining table over the Canal- started to become a bit of a
> pain in the neck for the CIA. No wonder, he was assassinated in 1980 or
> 81, I do no remember correctly, I am not from Panama. Rumors as to why
> SIL left (or was made leave) the country abound.] was seen as Nuevas
> Tribus came (back?) to Panama. I personally did not see her, and all I
> know is that SIL is also back in Panama. For the people in the community
> at least they are the same people: "los gringos de la religion aquella"
> ('the Americans of that religion'). And other colleagues working in
> other countries in Latin America insist that there is a connection. A
> reliable source at the University of Panama, told me they are the same,
> only that now they are not concerned with linguistic studies but with
> translation of indoctrination material (alias Bible). In Brazil there is
> an organization called ALEM (Associacao Linguistica Evangelica e
> Missionaria), whose members are also SIL members, I've been told. In
> addition, the simple fact of being two formally different organizations
> does not mean much. The White House and the CIA are two separate
> institutions, are they not? When push comes to shove, its the common
> interests that count. The general believe is that Nuevas Tribus, ALEM,
> the so-called Sociedad Linguistica Internacional, etc. are "branches" of
> SIL.
>
> If the scenario that emerges after all this is that indeed an
> organization changes its name (especially after events that happened in
> the past) in order to gain entry into otherwise "forbidden" territory,
> then we have a new element in language endangerment, which as I said the
> other day is nothing but to 'fool the people' by making believe 'we are
> not those, we are somebody else'.  Well, at least in Panama, it has not
> worked because for the people in the community they are the same anyway.
> Anyway, too, it is too much of a coincidence that both organizations
> arrived practically at the same time.
>
> Thus, going back to my original posting and to folow up on Trond's
> suggestion, I will rephrase my point:
>
>         If there is a connection of any sort, be it spiritual or
> "inspirational" -again both groups appeared at the same time there- the
> people in the community should be told the truth -which I understand is
> one of the things that the 'gentiles' are 'taught' at the onset of their
> work. In terms of endangerment, anyway, a single message is being
> conveyed there: be it A or be it B, your beliefs do not count, either A
> or B is here to help you get read of your essence.
>
> As linguists in the field, there is very little we can do because it is
> not up to us to get involved in local disputes (in the case of the
> community where I work, I simply cannot take sides, but by remaining
> silent guess who is profiting). So, I must admit that to counter these
> forces (and the power behind them) only institutional work is possible.
> In Panama the government invited SIL to leave in th elate seventies; it
> left. It was not the community. In other words, individual linguists
> alone can't do much; it must be linguistic institutions (e.g. LSA, FEL
> -Nick, are you there?-, etc.) that have some hope of getting some
> international presence to stop that. That is, it is an
> 'organization-vs-organization-thing'. That is a starting point:
> recognizing the real dimension of the situation instead of 'tearing
> individual missionaries to shreds'.
>
> J. Diego Quesada
>
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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.
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US Address:

Donations by check or money order may be sent to:

The Akha Heritage Foundation
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Donations by direct banking can be transferred to:
(Preferred)

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Keizer, Oregon,  97303 USA
ABA # 121000248

Or In Thailand:

Matthew  Duncan McDaniel
Acc. # 3980240778
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Web Site:

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Discussion Groups:
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