From: Edward H. Trager (ehtrager@umich.edu)
Date: Thu Dec 04 2003 - 11:43:20 EST
On Thursday 2003.12.04 05:17:19 -0800, Peter Kirk wrote:
> On 03/12/2003 18:51, Christopher John Fynn wrote:
>
> >...
> >
> >If I was wrong about the motivation of SIL, their patrons or their patrons'
> >wealth,
> >I'm happy to stand corrected. Not that there is necessarily anything wrong
> >with
> >the motivation I attributed to them - though there is apparently sometimes
> >some controversy about it's effects (e.g.
> >http://136.142.158.105/Lasa2000/Hartch.PDF ).
> >But I guess this is all part of "Globalisation"
> >
> >
> I only questioned the patrons' wealth. I'm sure there are some wealthy
> patrons (not enough of them!) but no evidence that there are individual
> patrons who exercise control behind the scenes. Although of course there
> is a generally American evangelical mentality.
>
> Thanks for the link to this paper, which is generally fair. I see that
> SIL has been blamed for offering medical care and that people gave up
> alcohol, cigarettes and womanising and started building better houses.
> Judge for yourselves whether this is a change for the worse. The
> following is important:
>
> >So the issue is not whether the SIL divides. Of course it divides. It
> >is one of a host of outside entities, such as the Coca-Cola
> >corporation, the Instituto Nacional Indigenista, the SEP, the Partido
> >de la Revolución Democrática (PRD) and even the Catholic Church, that
> >enter indigenous communities and divide them along any number of axes.
>
>
> Some people may wish that this people group had been left in isolation
> and poverty, as some kind of living museum of cultures. But such
> isolation was no longer possible in the late 20th century. Also the
> community is made up of individuals who have needs and rights, and who,
> in part because of the work of SIL, have been enabled to take their
> proper place in the life of their country and the world.
>
The work of SIL in our time, and consequences of that work as illustrated in Hartch's
article, remind me very much of parallels that one can see in the impact that the Jesuits
have had in various places in the world at various times in history, especially for example
in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in China. Here's one URL:
http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/vatican.exhibit/exhibit/i-rome_to_china/Jesuits_in_China.html
>
> Peter Kirk
> peter@qaya.org (personal)
> peterkirk@qaya.org (work)
> http://www.qaya.org/
>
>
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