[Linganth] Talking to Defense Contractors and to Colleagues about Defense Contractors

[Maggie Ronkin]

Linganth folk,

Can some of you perhaps help me reply to unsolicited email, such at that
pasted below?

I'd like to respond to the correspondence briefly in a way that encourages
its senders to consider working toward positive goals of justice and peace.
In this case, for good reason, undertaking such work is contrary to
fellowships that I've held and am deferring, and (I think still) to
non-covert agreements between the US and Pakistan Governments. Further, it
amounts to dishing out cans of worms in a cultural and political matrix in
which translation and interrogation often are conflated.

But these points perhaps aren't the best ones to get the message out and in
circulation. Nor is hitting "delete" or citing a "weird" professional code
of ethics, although such responses are ones on which my colleagues seem most
often to rely. Permission to share your suggestions with others--e.g. with
colleagues in language studies, linguistic anthropology, and South Asian
Studies, with proper attributions--also would be appreciated. Many thanks.

Maggie

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Dear [my name],

I'm very impressed with your cv.  You are working in an unusual and
important field, and I'm wondering if you would be interested in doing a
one-day seminar for us on current events in Pakistan.

I work with [name of huge defense contractor], producing area studies for
our linguists. [name of huge defense contactor] works for the Department of
Defense, and our associates are deployed all over the world.  Our linguists
have an urgent need to deepen their skills in [name of language] and to
understand what is happening - and why - in Pakistan.  If you are interested
in pursuing this - and I do hope that you are - we would spend time refining
the subject matter with you.

[details regarding the training site and schedule, followed by "name your
price"]

[closing]
[signature]
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