***  Haus der Kulturen der Welt: Forum1 Archive  ***
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
   [Date]: Thu, 14 Oct 1999 18:10:27 +0200
   [From]: Gerhard Haupt <haupt@uinic.de>
     [To]: "forum1@hkw.kbx.de" <forum1@hkw.kbx.de>
[Subject]: answering Raul - Exchange/Intercambio

Dear friends, queridos amigos, chers amis, liebe Freunde, cari amici,
caros amigos, dorogije drusja, etc. etc.
[sorry, in other languages I don't know how to express this, and I
didn't find it on the Alta Vista Translator ;-) ]


I published the message of Raul Ferrera-Balanquet in the list, even
though it is in Spanish, because it touches an issue that has already
played a role in our forum. For all of you who don't speak Spanish, it
is necessary to resume briefly what Raul wrote. Since he has checked
that many Spanish speaking members don't participate actively in the
debate, because they feel uneasy expressing themselves in English, he
has made a call to them, to send in their postings in Spanish, arguing
that this forum is "multicultural and multilingual".

Well, Raul, the first one is true, this is really a multicultural space.
The members of the list are coming - so far as I can check this - from
more than 54 countries. But please imagine, if we make it multilingual
in the way that everybody can send in her/his postings in their mother
tongue, it would be really babylonic (by the way, for me it would be
much more easy if I could write this in German).

So it has been necessary to select ONE language to be able to
communicate, and - you are right, Raul - English is the language that
dominates the net, but I think, all members of our forum can at least
understand it, because they subscribed to a list where from the very
beginning it is said, that the conference language is English.

Guillermo G—mez-Pe–a said it clearly in his text "The Virtual Barrio @
the Other Frontier" (or the Chicano interneta):
"Why then,- several colleagues ... asked me, did I choose to write this
text in English? First, because I only know two languages, and Spanish
speaking users in the net are still a micro-minority. How else could a
Mexican communicate with say an African, a Hindu and a German? How else
would you, whoever you are, be reading this text right now? And second,
because in order to fight a hegemonic model I strongly believe we need
to know and speak the language of hegemonic control and hegemonic
exchange of information."
(The complete text is published on the website of our forum
http://www.hkw.de/forum/forum1/doc/text/e-gompen.html)


All the best to all of you in all imaginable languages,
Gerhard Haupt