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From: elna@netcom.com (Esperanto League N America)
Subject: Re: Single European Language
Message-ID: <elnaDAA1ss.Gv9@netcom.com>
Organization: Esperanto League for North America, Inc.
References: <690061730wnr@afin.demon.co.uk> <3rqb6l$mcg@fido.asd.sgi.com> <3rqgpv$ota@lyra.csx.cam.ac.uk> <3rqkha$366@fido.asd.sgi.com>
Date: Fri, 16 Jun 1995 17:55:40 GMT
Lines: 32
Sender: elna@netcom9.netcom.com

livesey@solntze.engr.sgi.com (Jon Livesey) writes in a recent posting (reference <3rqkha$366@fido.asd.sgi.com>):
>
>The net has been around for a lot time now, and it would be an ideal
>meadium within which to prove the claims that Esperanto actually 
>*does* facilitate communication between people of different cultures, 
>rather than simply being *claimed* to do so.
>
>In other words, it would be an existence proof.   But if, after all
>these years, there are only 500-1000 Esperanto speakers on the net,
>that leaves me feeling that Esperanto is still at the enthusiast
>stage, and that the claims to be able to do something useful for
>the world simply have not panned out.
>
The overwhelming majority of Esperanto speakers live in countries where
internet-access is too expensive for normal (non-elite) persons to be
able to use this medium. 

>After a hundred years, that's not very encouraging.
>
But the thousands of books in print, the hundreds of magazines, the 
millions of conversations and letters-- these are all not merely
encouraging, they are the above-requested "existence proof." Those of
us who use Esperanto know that it functions quite well, thank you. We
do not need encouragement. Mr. Livesey attempts to discourage, but his
bad attitude and thick refusal to listen to rational demonstration
serves but to display his anglophonic arrogance. 

Miko.



>
