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Resource #4 for IYoL Quest - What the pros have done to address language-related issues
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Here is a link to the UNESCO compilation of information on research that is being done concerning the International Year of Languages:
http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=35835&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

A link to the brochure made by UNESCO on the International Year of Languages addressing the importance of languages and the role of UNESCO in the resolution of the related problems:
http://www.unesco.org/culture/files-languges/broch2008_en.pdf

A link to a resolution on multilingualism (50/11) passed by the General Assembly in 1995:
http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/50/ares50-10.htm

Related to the resolution above, a link to a report on the implementation of multilingualism in the United Nations system:
http://www.unjiu.org/data/reports/2002/en2002_11.pdf

A highly academic article on a text about linguistic policies:
http://edlinked.soe.waikato.ac.nz/users/stephenm/profile_docs/May_Language_and_Mino_6B9DA.pdf


That should be enough for the time being. :p

September 20, 2008 | 11:56 PM Comments  0 comments

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My take on linguistic dilemma #2
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

(This blog post was written to complete a step of the International Year of Languages Quest on YMEX.org, and it addresses linguistic dilemma #2 from http://www.slideshare.net/FaerieDevilish/why-languages-do-matter-presentation/ )

I chose this dilemma in specific because I consider that it goes beyond the borders of linguistic problems and is an analogous form to most dilemmas involved in the making of cultural policies.

On one side, by investing in the preservation of languages we are keeping linguistic and cultural diversity in general alive. By doing this, we are at the same time keeping the heritage of all past generations alive so that we and the future generations are able to have access to it, and are leaving doors open for exchange, innovation and creativity -- which, at the same time, leads to development. So far, so good.

However, it is argued many times that cultural issues are not as immediate as issues like starvation or political crisis. "Nobody dies due to his or her lack of knowledge of x language". If we didn't invest money in this cultural development, we could spend it finding ways to feed people or help communities stand up from the big trouble they're in.

If I could make the decision, I would make sure that hunger and crisis relief were part of the yearly budget, but at the same time I would look for a space for culture in it as well. UNESCO operates on the premise that 'as wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed", and I agree with it.

Conclusion: presence of linguistic policies and policies for hunger/crisis relief in the budget, even if that means there will be limited resources for both.

September 20, 2008 | 11:36 PM Comments  0 comments



My Sick Fanatism


Also called ANNA FOR DAMN OLYMPIC GOLD!!!!!!!

As you all know, I’m a big fan of gymnastics and of the Olympics. Tomorrow, the competition for rhythmic gymnastics will begin.

I have spammed the internet with my childish cheering, but I need to compensate for all the times it has been said that it just will not happen.

If I give up, it will happen only when I have been proven wrong. Meanwhile…

ANYA DAVAIIIIIIIIIIII!!
UKRAINA DAVAI!!
Anya for Olympic gold!!
ANYA, OLYMPIC CHAMPION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


August 20, 2008 | 10:08 AM Comments  0 comments

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Resource #1 for YMEX.org IYoL Quest - CC image sites
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

First of all, a BIG TIP for the completion of the IYoL Quest:
You will be requested in many steps to go to the IYoL page and check a resource there to complete each of them. Make sure to ALWAYS visit the IYoL page and check the resource there so that the webpage gets the message and you go up one level :D
(This means that, after you do it for the first time, you will find another step that asks you to do the same. You should again click on 'Issues - IYoL' and then on the next resource, and not directly on the next resource without going through the IYoL page on issues)

It is in the following websites that you can find images protected by Creative Commons licenses:

1) Open Photo
http://openphoto.net/

2) Creative Commons pool at Flickr.com
http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/

3) Wikimedia Commons
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Free_licenses

4) Creative Commons Images
http://www.ccpics.com/

5) Open Clip Art
http://www.openclipart.org/

Happy image hunting!

August 5, 2008 | 2:42 AM Comments  0 comments



About what I did on Saturday, 19th of July 2008


Also called “Emo day”.

So I dusted off the blog with a post about a day. Here’s another one.

I spent the whole of Saturday, 19th of July sitting at my computer.

2:40 - 8:50 PM: Refresh the NBC page over 60 times? That and actually reading the quickhit updates on the US Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Olympic selection camp. And read forum posts. And chat with wonderful Gymworlders about it.
9:00 - 01:00? AM: Walk my avatars for the sake of it at Relay for Life. ON SECOND LIFE. And take snapshots.

No much room for social interaction, huh?

So it’s been one of the most emotional days for me this summer.

Leaving any gymnastics fanatism aside, the experience of actually knowing what was going on in the selection camp every minute was quite ground-shattering for me. The whole gymnastics community found out perhaps 30 seconds after the routine of a girl was over that that was it - her Olympic dream was over. We found out the first morning even before the competition that another girl was done, too… breaking her leg a couple of hours before the second most important competition of her life. I hate NBC for its yellow broadcasting and its lack of respect towards the grief of others, but I have to admit I give kudos to them for the quickhits. http://www.nbcolympics.com/gymnastics/news/newsid=152642.html

The US WAG team is great. They will be a real threat for the Chinese dreams of Team gold. Still, it is impossible (or at least it is for me) to feel bad for these girls, you know? These are girls who are my age or younger and who have spent the last ten years of their lives going everyday to a gym. They go through injuries, lack of a normal social life, sometimes though lack of a proper formal education, to be the world’s best - and it was stopped by a fracture, and by two falls in uneven bars routines. Two falls out of other great seventeen routines at least in this year.

These children don’t go to war, go through starvation (at least out of lack of food in their country) or have no access to clean water. But, honestly, I can only imagine what is going on in their minds.

The second part of the day - Relay for Life. I didn’t attend the event earlier because I was, as you now know, tuned to see who’d make it in. Also, I didn’t consider it a priority because the RFL events I had attended before didn’t really make it for me, you know? I didn’t find myself there. It was very hard to visualise how buying a T-shirt would really liberate me from the guilt of not going beyond a purchase to do actually do something about cancer.

I am not even sure if my effort counted as I crashed throughout the about four hours I was at it, but it was something impressive to attend. I don’t think there is a point in writing more about it. I’ll just say that seeing the products of the work of months (not mine, by the way), the attendance and the personal side was very moving. It was moving to pass by donation boxes devoted to someone lost to cancer, or to builds made to make the walk nicer for people, or avatars of all kinds carrying flags and tags with names of people they lost.

It is pretty sad. It really is. I don’t think the essence of it is cheerful, despite what the RFL page says. What I do think, though, is that it is heart-warming to see how something so painful is able to unite masses.

Especially when those in the mass will never meet offline.

I will upload some of the snapshots I took to www.flickr.com/photos/faeriedevilish .
Here’s the story of the woman to whom I dedicated the donations.


July 20, 2008 | 3:07 AM Comments  0 comments

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