From notes@igc.apc.org Fri Apr 19 21:31:03 1996
Received: from igc5.igc.apc.org (192.82.108.36) by MediaFilter.org
 with SMTP (Apple Internet Mail Server 1.0); Fri, 19 Apr 1996 21:31:07 -0500
Received: from cdp.igc.apc.org (cdp.igc.apc.org [192.82.108.1]) by igc5.igc.apc.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id RAA11806; Fri, 19 Apr 1996 17:50:16 -0700 (PDT)
Date: Fri, 19 Apr 1996 17:38:25 -0700 (PDT)
Reply-To: Conference "zamir.chat" 
From: PeaceNet Balkans Desk 
Subject: Re: Jezik
To: Recipients of zamir-chat-l 
Message-ID: 
In-Reply-To: <670W8FK2DWB@pz-kate.zamir-zg.ztn.apc.org>
X-Gateway: conf2mail@igc.apc.org
Errors-To: owner-zamir-chat-l@igc.apc.org
Precedence: bulk
Lines: 63

From: PeaceNet Balkans Desk 

Katherine says,
 
     ... I see that this system works out that those who already
     have advantages are mostly talking to themselves, thereby
     closing out other less-advantaged individuals/groups.
 
     The people I'm working with in Camp Bistrica (Sutivan) would
     like to have access to information and all of these rich
     resources that Zamir provides. We have a computer and the
     equipment we need to access these resources. But most of my
     partners in Bistrica can't read a huge portion of the  
     information that comes across Zamir because they can't read
     English! ...
 
Hi Katherine - I'm not clear if you're speaking of ZTN in general
or only /ZAMIR/CHAT, but anyway, the best way to get serbocroat
speakers online is to offer them the use of your camp computer,
as Tanya Urquieta has done at Camp Sela.
 
ZTN was set up with two purposes in mind: (1) To make it possible
for South-Slavs to talk to one another across ethnic & other
lines, and (2) to connect South-Slavs working for
peace/reconstruction/justice to their compatriots outside the
Balkans. The group (1) speaks in serbocroatian, while the lingua
franca of (2) is english. There's no inclination to dictate the
language of new users, and those of us whose serbocroatian isn't
so hot are glad to struggle with the language in exchange for
seeing new local people come on and use the network. On the other
hand, South-Slavs who want to communicate with those of us
outside of the Balkans have to use english to a great degree. 
 
The real problem is not that too much of the material is in
english, but that not enough South-Slavs have seen the virtues of
using ZTN to do peacework (and other things). ZAMIR/CHAT was set
up specifically to allow South-Slavs to talk to one another and
to the rest of the world, and it's been promoted equally within
the Balkans and amongst the diaspora. Those of us working on
promotion have noted the disparity of voices from within the
Balkans, and continue to work on getting more indigines online. 
But really, all one can do is provide the forum & make it known; 
one can't force people to use it, nor can one dictate the 
language of use.
 
Now that there's an opening for peace in the Balkans, I'm hoping
that ZTN will reach out to more of the "not privileged" you speak
of, and that they will get online and take over more of the
online work of discussion & reconciliation. So it's great to hear
from you, and to know that Bistrica and Sela are online. It seems
to me that the job of those out here should be to help improve
your comms facilities (mostly by providing funding for
equipment), while you continue to make the network available to 
new users.  --  ed
 
Ed Agro (Boston)
Peacenet Balkans Desk - SPE/PISMA mail - People Finder Service 

ps - Regarding the UNHCR & ICVA reports being in English - I
agree it's stupid that they're not bilingual. If the bureaucrats
won't provide translations, why doesn't the grassroots peace
movement use ZTN to raise money & pay one of our South-Slav 
peace workers to prepare the translations?