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From: elna@netcom.com (Esperanto League N America)
Subject: Re: Single European language: *NOT* European english
Message-ID: <elnaE0Hqty.8BG@netcom.com>
Organization: Esperanto League for North America, Inc.
References: <3273663A.3C0A@pp.inet.fi> <32768243.4C65@hildesheim.sgh-net.de> <elnaE049q1.3C1@netcom.com> <55l25s$mi0@grootstal.nijmegen.inter.nl.net>
Date: Thu, 7 Nov 1996 08:13:10 GMT
Lines: 37
Sender: elna@netcom18.netcom.com

T.Gerritsen@inter.nl.net writes in a recent posting (reference <55l25s$mi0@grootstal.nijmegen.inter.nl.net>):
>elna@netcom.com (Esperanto League N America) wrote:
>
>>This is a non-issue. At the beginning of *any* mass-scale effort, the
>>numbers are low. This same argument was used aginst the telephone in 
>>1905. "Why buy a 'phone? Nobody else has one!"
>
>This is a weak argument indeed, since virtually every household in the
>industrialized world has a telephone. 

You haven't travelled much, have you?

>           Esperanto, antedating 1905,
>isn't quite as widespread as the telephone. If it served a real need,
>it would have had ample time to establish itself.
>
Since one cannot go to the store and purchase a language, it would require 
a level of cooperation from the education system which has been lacking.
I hope you do not naively believe in a "free market force" of education, by
which the subjects we "really need" are actually offered...

>Besides, with due respect to Zamenhof's ideals and achievements, a
>common language doesn't bring about more tolerance and mutual
>understanding. The recent wars in Bosnia and Rwanda prove quite the
>opposite, I'd say.
>
Nobody would ever claim that a common language *causes* tolerance &
understanding; but it may be a sine qua non, or at least a tool to the 
task.  Negotiation can sometimes defuse violence, but cannot happen to any
meaningful degree without a common language.

>
-- 
Miko SLOPER              elna@netcom.com              USA  (510) 653 0998
Direktoro de la          ftp.netcom.com:/pub/el/elna   fax (510) 653 1468 
Centra Oficejo de la     Learn Esperanto! Free lessons: e-mail/snail-mail
Esperanto-Ligo de N.A.   Write to above address or call 1-888-2-ESPERANTO
