~[El~ANEWSLETTER News of the Language Problem and Esperanto as 0 Solution Sep-Oct 1988 G'Day, Mates! IMaklng News This Issue Fromthe Central Office 4th Pacific Conference Mark Stephens, Director of ELNA's Central Office, provides alI the answers A long ride from Brisbane Airport through the city, past EXPO 88, brought Peg to the questions most commonly asked of Barkley and me to the College of Advanced Education in the hills of the suburb Mount the CO' s staff. If your own question isn 't Gravatt. answered here, let us know! We'd he We were welcomed at the Round House, a modemistic, architecturally prize- happy to respondo Just knock and it will winning conference center. Mter registering and checking into our comfortable he answered. Read the latest about the private rooms, we were reading to greet old and new friends-the social "get- ELNA Book Catalog, tapes, ete. acquainted" evening got an early start. See Page 6 Next day the fonnal opening was held in the great hall of the College theatre complex. Trevor Steele was the M.C. On stage were Ambassador Ralph Harry, lonel Onet, Romania & the U.S. president of the Australian Esperanto Association, Yoshimi Umeda (Japan), vice- Ionel Onet continues his series on his president of the Universal Esperanto Association, and senator Michael Macklin, experiences as an Esperantist immigrant Deputy Leader, Australian Democrats. Esperanto songs were heautifully sung by to the United States. This special section some 35 6th-graders from a local school which teaches Esperanto. is the first of many bi-lingual (Esperanto, Representatives of various Australian Esperanto districts greeted the convention, English) articles plannedfor theNewslet- as did representatives from various national organizations: New Zealand, China, tero Inner Mongolia, Japan, United States (ELNA by Cathy Schulze), Canada, New See Page 7-8 Guinea, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, West Germany, Great Britain. Yoshimi Umeda spoke for UEA. Senator Macklin's address was translated by Trevor Steele. Among his remarks Bernard Golden Speaks Outl were: Hungarian Esperantist and former U.S. "The theme of this Congress, Esperanto for the Youth of the World, focuses our citizen Bernard Golden discusses the attention on what the world of the late twentieth century has to offer young possibility of a Pan- American Esperanto people and also what may have to be done for them to survive! .. , periodical. Is his proposal just a pipe "We live in a world of unprecedented inequity. Abject poverty, hunger and dream or a necessary step forward for disease co-exist with abundant wealth and luxury ... What is required is a new Esperanto in the New World? Read and world economic arrangement whose goals would be a radical redistribution of decide. wealth and power-we may get to this point willingly or we may be taken there See Page 14 against our weB ... As Gandhi said, 'The world has enough for our need but not for our greed .... ' . ln This Issue "We obviously need to replace national rivalries with global cooperation. This is where Esperanto has an important role to play ... Esperanto provides humanity Thanksto CO Volunteers 3 with a neutral, living, international language; it crosses national borders, it can increase a sense of global solidarity because it helongs to no nation or party ... The advantages of empowering people to communicate with the whole word are The Latestat UEA 5 obvious .... "When people from many different nations spend time together and use a common, neutrallanguage national differences cease to be a source of miscom- Lettersand More Lettersl 11-12 prehension and fear; they are seen as a precious and accessible expression of human variety .... "In faet, Esperanto is a symbol of communication directly between equals whose And Much, Much More to interests have passed from the parochial to the universal. This, of course, makes Delight and Inform Youl an immense contribution to the internationalisation of the world .... Contlnued on page 8 The ELNANewsletter 1 E o I T 0 R IAL When I visited the World Esperanto Wolf, because he once threatened to let money to visit Cuba. This is not to say, of Congress in Beijing in 1986, I stayed in off a load ofbuckshot at the next Ameri- course, that you are absolutely forbidden the Xi Yuan Hotel. The head of the group can B-52 that buzzed his Nova Scotia to visit that island nation; you simply may ofEsperanto-speaking tour guides in that home); but that list, while it discriminates not spend any money to do so. You can't hotel was one Professor Vin. Every day against individuals, does not select par- take a plane-that would involve spend- the Professor had announcements to ticular nationalities for special attention. ing money. You can 'trent ahotel room- make at breakfast, but he often found it The willingness of individual nations that would involve spendingmoney. You difficult to gain the attention of the rather to let their citizens attend World Espe- can't buy food-that would involve mixed bag of Esperantists resident in the ranto Congresses in other countries is a spending money. hotel different matter. While most nations Nor can you go to Mexico or Canada Eventually one of the Esperantists create no problems, a few like to demon- and arrange your trip from there; this sort staying there decided to helpo When strate control over their citizens by keep- of money-laundering is also verboten Professor Vin would appear, this gentle- ing them at home. Of course, it is often under the law. Some variances are au- man would stand up and, in a stentorian hard to distinguish between political and thorized, but these are mainly for journal- voice, cal1 everybody to attention; after economic reasons for non-participation. ists, teachers' groups, and, from what I which Professor Vin could make his I used to think that the official Chinese understand, the occasional business- announcements. delegations to World Congresses were man-the latter case in spite of the fact The interesting point here is that Pro- instruments ofjustsuch control; butmore that the govemment uses the "Trading fessor Vin was in effect a functionary of recently it has become apparent that the With the Enemy Act" as a justification the government of the People 's Republic delegations were the means of getting for maintaining its ban on travel. of China; and the gentleman who helped Esperantists to World Congresses under Why Cuba is an "Enemy" I have never him do his job was a citizen of the Repub- difficult economic conditions, not the been sure. So far as I know it has never lic of (South) Korea, a nation which nei- means of excluding undesirables (one attacked the United States. We did get the ther recognizes, nor is recognized by, Chinese student, resident in the United spit kicked out of us at the Bay of Pigs China. In fact, the several Korean Esper- States, participated in the 1984 Congress some twenty-five years ago, but that was antists present at the Congress in Beijing in Vancouver outside the official Chi- our own fault; and in any event wegot must have been among the first private nese delegation; and at least two Chinese even at Grenada, where we rounded up citizens of that country to visit China Esperantists visited Warsaw in 1987 at several hundred crack Cuban soldiers since before the Korean War. Such coop- their own expense). cleverly disguised as construction work- eration between Esperantists of disparate The worst offender in this regard has ers armed with shovels. In at least one political entities is hardly uncommon, been the Soviet Union, which allowed nation, Cuban troops help protect Ameri- nor is the relaxation of travel rules with Soviet Esperantists to participate in can investments-Angola, where they respect to citizens of non-recognized World Congresses only as part of an stand guard over Standard Oil installa- states by the host country of a World official delegation under the stewardship tions to shield them from (US-funded) Esperanto Congress; but both factors of a police official-and then onlyrarely. UNIT A rebels. Cuba is, of course, and should give food for thought to those of But even the Soviet Union appears to be has been for some decades a client state of us who are accustomed to the day-to-day relaxing this policy-possibly a reflec- our chief global adversary, the Soviet slights and indignities that govemments tion of glasnost. The United States, of Union; but no such travel ban has been visit upon their rivals in order to show course, as a free country, would never instituted for the USSR, so why should a their own power and superiority. think of trying to restrict the peregrina- mere client be so discriminated against? I think it unlikely that, were a World tions of American Esperantists. Cuba is not the only country that is Esperanto Congress to be held again in It comes as something of a shock to "off-limits" to the average American. If a the United States, our govemment would leam, then, that U.S. govemment policy World Congress were to be held in Tri- discriminate against other govemments may well prevent any American citizens poli, Phnom Penh, Hanoi, Pyongyang or in this way; even Iranian and Vietnamese from participating in the 1990 World Tehran (the latter is hardIy an impossibil- Esperantists might well find themselves Esperanto Congress. ity), we might also be forced to stay welcome. There is, of course, the Chance The 1990 Congress, you see, will be home. But Havana or Hanoi, this restric- that some individual visitors would be held in Havana, Cuba.