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Current Newsletter
JG NEWS, FALL 2007Now in 41 languages! Soon 10 more! Theater, audio, & animation! HEADLINES
POLISH
Krzysztof Haladus krzysztof@haladus.pl has published a spectacular hardback edition of JG with more than 40 full-color, beautifully drawn illustrations. The appearance of the new Polish edition of the book has already attracted a large following since the premier last March. Four months after publication Kris wrote: "There have been 1300 copies sold!...The book can be bought in every bookstore in Poland, including the biggest. The final book's price is about $14 USD. Now I am working on an adaptation of Janette's and Ken's comments for Polish schools. I am going to publish these comments as a separate guide for teachers and propose using it in Polish schools." This refers to the UK Commentary Edition of the book produced by Janette Eldridge rayjan@iafrica.com that will be adapted to the Polish environment.
The superb illustrations were computer generated so that they can easily be adapted to other language editions of the book. Kris is offering to make these color illustrations available for all new editions at a very low price. One of these adaptations is being produced by Kris---a new English edition of the book, specifically targeting the teen market world wide! http://www.aspektpublishing.com/ MONGOLIAN
Such seminars are superb for inspiring young people to apply free market analysis to local issues. We look forward to more news as these seminars proliferate. NIGERIA PLAY PUBLISHED
Says Thomas, "The play will be serving as the final selection for student attendance. I am targeting 30 participants. And at Kaduna State University we identified the three best students in an assessment examination of the just concluded semester. The question set read, ‘The play, A Letter From Jonathan Gullible, celebrates the essence of freedom and economic liberalism. Discuss.' This was conducted by the course lecturer, Jeremiah Methuselah of the Faculty of Arts. I will soon be presenting these students some books as prizes." Continues Thomas, "At Ahmadu Bello University, in Zaria, the play is being used in the Introduction to Dramatic Text to teach students the techniques what playwrights use to communicate. This includes character, empathy and antipathy, dialogs, etc. At the end of the semester, we hope to see the best students as well as to see it on stage. The course Lecturer is Professor Jenks Okwori of the Drama and Theatre Arts Department." In many parts of the world, theater and skits are more natural to student learning. Thus, I am hoping that his play will be taken up in other parts of the world as well. GEORGIAN My family had the great good fortune of attending the summer economics seminars in Gonio, Republic of Georgia, on the eastern edge of the Black Sea. The Lessons of Liberty camp was hosted by Paata Sheshelidze paatasheshelidze@cdu.ge, President, and Gia Jandieri, Vice President, of the New Economic School of Georgia in Tbilisi. Organizational work for the event was provided by Kevin Bjornson, Louis James, Sunni Maravillosa, Natallia Shpak, Tatiana Martos, Anna Tokar, and many others who pulled off a grand event that was attended by more than 50 students from the region: Ukraine, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Russia, and Georgia.
The camp was a tremendous success and is sure to set the wheels in motion for an annual camp and perhaps major conferences of ISIL and other freedom oriented organizations in the future. Says Louis, who brought most of his dynamic family and supported the attendance of many others with scholarships, "I can tell you that it is one of the most fun ways I've found for learning, teaching and doing something about freedom." UKRAINIAN
As a theater buff, Anna made great efforts during the Georgia camp to turn the Nigerian English play, A Letter From Jonathan Gullible, into a summer production. Alas, the beach at the Black Sea was too inviting to the camp attendees. I'm sure it will come to life again, most likely in the cold months of winter. Last month I received word from Yulia Hlushko, an economics student in the Ukraine who is interested in helping to produce a Ukrainian edition. Wrote Yulia, "Two years ago with help of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) I became acquainted with the ideas of freedom and liberty. I liked these ideas very much, so I would like to spread them among the Ukrainian people, especially students. Your book The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible can really help me with this." I am hoping that Anna and Yulia can cooperate to bring JG to the Ukraine. TURKISH My family also attended the economics summer seminars of the Liberal Dusunce Toplulugu---the Association for Liberal Thinking. We were hosted by the renowned economist Birol Kovancilar, of Celal Bayar University, and his family before attending the summer camp at the coastal resort town of Ҫesme. bkovancilar@yahoo.com What music it was to my ears to hear Birol's presentation about the ideas of the great free market economists Adam Smith, Jean-Baptiste Say, and Murray Rothbard!
Originally scheduled for July, the conference had to be rescheduled to August due to a political showdown between the military and the ruling AKP, Justice and Development Party. Atilla Yayla liberal@ada.net.tr, President of the Liberal Dusunce Toplulugu, was embroiled in controversy earlier in the year when he appeared in a public forum and compared the conditions of life in Turkey today compared to the time of Kemal Atatϋrk, founder of the Republic.
Bugra informs me that the institute is investigating the possibility of using Thomas Ayodele's JG play in Turkey. Such satire may be just the medicine for a country where it is so dangerous to be direct in challenging authority. Also, work is in progress on a Turkish translation of the animated Philosophy of Liberty. Just now Birol wrote about his university students saying, "Most of them visited the JG web page and we ordered 100-120 of the Turkish J. Gullible from Bugra. I'm using JG books in my Public Finance lectures. Very informative, useful, and funny. But my students have some wishes from you. They are planning to send you their photo with your book. And they want to see their photo on the JG web page: Turkish JG Funs!" Indeed, JG and I feel honored! The photo will be posted just as soon as it arrives! NEPALI
Prakash Thapa of the American Library in KathmanduThapaP@state.gov wrote, "We have already published the Nepali version of the book. We are ready to organize book discussion programs in four cities outside Kathmandu Valley i.e. Biratnagar, Birgunj, Bhairahawa, and Pokhara starting September 2007. During the program, local speakers and participants will exchange their views on the relevance of JG in the Nepali context. What did they learn and what do they need to do next, etc. We would also like to organize a Digital Video Conference (DVC) program with you soon to release the book and to share your knowledge with Nepali scholars."
This is also greatly due to the efforts of Robin Sitoula, General Secretary of the Youth Initiative robs@mail.com.np, and those of Editor Charu Chadha Rizal charu@theboss.com.np and Rakesh Wadhwa, who serialized the English edition of JG in The Boss magazine. Robin writes, "I am really happy that the book is finally ready. It has been such a dream come true to me as well." Charu recently wrote that the series has been well received. Says Charu, "The boss is still running the JG series. I think we are coming towards the end, but I do want you to know that it is extremely popular with our readers." Sadly, plans to visit Nepal for the release of the book this past summer had to be postponed due to disruptions described above in Turkey.
The PoL is now available in fifteen languages. In addition to English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Dutch, Esperanto, Russian, Ukrainian, and Romanian, five new languages have been added, Danish, Italian, Polish, Lithuanian, Somali, and Hungarian, and a dozen more are in the queue. Mario Knezovic did much of the re-engineering of the animation following Kerry Pearson's death. And now Steve Cobb scobb@freestateproject.org has been the organizing genius behind the adaptation of more languages with a new Unicode format assisted by Dmitry Shevchenko. More languages are invited. Drew Suder, drewsuder@gmail.com, has greatly expanded the usability of the PoL by offering an easy download of the animation in 6 different media formats: swf, mpg, DivX, WMV, MP4, and DVD. Please have a look at his astounding site: http://philosophyofliberty.blogspot.com/ The response has been very strong in Spanish speaking regions, most significantly in Venezuela where personal liberty seems in jeopardy. Every day we get a great responses from viewers, such as this from Alex: "I wanted to personally acknowledge your brilliance on the flash movie you created. Our mindsets are one and the same man. Congratulations on expressing your pure thoughts in such an elegant way that has practically left me speechless. My only hope is that your message reaches the far ends of society's spectrum." FRENCH Some years ago Louis Zizka translated JG into French. This project was much appreciated and encouraged by colleagues who were eager to have a lively new introduction of free market ideas in Francophone countries. In support of this endeavor, Jacques de Guenin lent his professional touch in editing the latest revision. jdeguenin@gmail.com Michel de Grand Ry, founding Editor of Alice Editions, an esteemed publishing house in Bruxelles, expressed interest in the book this year. Jacques has thus been engaged in negotiating a global contract that we hope to be very near completion. http://www.alice-editions.be/home.php?secteur_id=3 The potential for reaching a broad new audience is enormous. In addition to Belgium and France, the list of countries where French is a national language is long: Benin, Burkina-Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Gabon, Guinea, Haiti, Ivory Coast, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mali, Monaco, Niger, Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Switzerland, Togo, and Vanuatu. French is also spoken in dozens more countries. Many of these are in Africa where a reform of popular economic thinking is so desperately needed. SPANISH
The Nagy's hosted me in luxury while they carried on, among a multitude of business and political activities, a charitable business of secondhand clothing which caters to the hard-pressed, industrious folk of the neighborhood. Quito, in the company of my dear sister Judy, is truly the beautiful, legendary El Dorado, except for the altitude adjustment that Hawaiians must endure.
Flying over the spectacular Andes to Argentina I met Hernán Alberro and Álvaro Feuerman and their very elegant and brilliant ladies. In Buenos Aires I was invited to speak to Centro Para La Apertura y el Desarrollo de America Latina (CADAL), of Buenos Aires. As translator and publisher of a new Spanish edition sponsored by Henry and Roya Weyerhaeuser, Hernán also introduced me to the owner and Director of Grito Sagrado, Rosa Pelz de Kofman, the vibrant and fascinating publisher of Ayn Rand's works in Latin America. How is it that Latin America produces so many grand women like Judy Nagy and Rosa Pelz, both of whom remind me of the magnificent women of Ayn Rand's novels! PORTUGUESE My final stop was in Brazil as the guest of Margaret Tse, Executive Vice President of Instituto Liberdade, and Paulo Uebel, President of the Instituto de Estudos Empresariais (IEE) of Porto Alegre. I first met Margaret at the ISIL conference in Whistler, Canada many years ago. Since then I have been impressed with the productivity of the free market institutes that she has administered. http://www.il-rs.com.br/
It was my first time to ride in a fully bullet-proof SUV---and for good reason. During my time in Brazil, it seems there are endless stories of car-jackings and assaults in the region. But then, my friends reminded me, freelance robbery pales in comparison to the official robbery that sets the example. SINAHALESE Raja Senanayake and Luxman Siriwardena luxman_siri@yahoo.com brought about the Sinahala edition of JG in Sri Lanka, another publication sponsored by the generous support of Henry and Roya Weyerhaeuser. The book seems to be gaining traction. Raja wrote from Colombo, "I told Mr. Wijewardene, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank, about your book and he agreed to include it in his recommended reading to the university students of one of the universities where he is a visiting lecturer." TAGALOG Mark Skousen's annual Freedom Fest in Las Vegas this summer was, again, the libertarian highlight of the year, with over 1000 attendees and a multitude of great speakers. Recordings of the entire 4-days of events, including my debate, can be purchased at: http://www.freedomfest.com/index1.html Better yet, plan to attend the event next year! One of the great values of this event is in meeting great libertarian minds. Last July I met Mark Tier, who has begun exploring the possibilities for JG in the Philippines. marktier@marktier.com Mark wrote to say, "Most promising so far -- a professor at a prominent university in the Philippines has read Jonathan Gullible, thinks it's great, is talking to colleagues and will (hopefully) recommend it be published by the university's press! THAT would be something!" Indeed! That will be a great accomplishment! I must take this opportunity to recognize Ivo Cerckel, of Cebu, whose Visayan translation of JG can be found at: http://www.jonathangullible.com/languages.htm For those who might know of a publisher who would be interested in a Visayan edition, please contact Ivo at: philmigrator@yahoo.com . SLOVAKIAN The Slovakian edition is making great strides. Brano Opaterny, a former MP of Slovakia, published the first Slovakian edition last year and plans to publish Janette Eldridge's full commentary edition soon. Wrote Brano, "The text for commentary edition is already translated. I have to check it and put things in order. I believe I will do it before X-mas so I suppose the book would be published in the Spring of 2008." Matus Posvanc has been working on a multimedia theatrical production of JG in Bratislava. "According to JG," wrote Mat, "we have finished a second version of the play after a meeting with the professional director who made some comments...I am planning to translate what we produce into English during the following months." I look forward to this translation as it will make Mat's script available to many more countries. For more information about the The F. A. Hayek Foundation Bratislava (FAHF), visit: http://www.nira.go.jp/ice/nwdtt/2005/DAT/1282.html SLOVENIAN
Matej introduced me to his organization with this photo. "I'm attaching for you a picture with most of the FSI members who are working on The Tribunal. From left to right: Matej Steinbacher (FSI president), Matjaz Steinbacher (Editor-in-Chief of The Tribunal), Mitja Steinbacher, and Anze Burger. Missing: Tanja Stumberger." ROMANIAN And great news from Romania. Last January I received this message: "My name is Iulian Tanase and I am the general manager of Libertas Publishing, a Romanian publishing house. We are interested in translating and publishing libertarian economists and writers. Our first two translations are Denationalisation of Money, by F.A. Hayek, and Economics in One Lesson, by H. Hazlitt. Next month, these two books will be followed by Professor Walter Block's book, Building Blocks for Liberty. Therefore, we would very much like to publish the Romanian translation of your book, The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible. I mention that the book has already been translated into Romanian by a member of the Ludwig von Mises Institute Romania, and we have agreed with Mr. Cristian Comanescu, the president of the LvMI, to use this translation." And in August we see the progress in this endeavor with this news, "The book will be in print by the end of the year, together with a book by Professor Walter Block, so you can include the Romanian edition in your newsletter." I am very delighted to do so! ESTONIAN Paul Vahur, a free market activist in Tallinn and founder of the Estonian Liberal Club "Nahtamatu Kasi" (invisible hand in Estonian) has taken up numerous free market literary projects. Says Paul, "We are in the early stages of creating a non-profit organization with the aim to translate 'easier' books about capitalism." Paul has indicated that JG will likely be translated this year. Writes Paul, "We yet haven't had time to discuss which books we will be translating first but JG is certainly high on the list if not the first." paul.vahur@icegold.com Estonia is always the example I give to my students of the successful application of free market ideas. Surely, the work of the Estonian Liberal Club is partially responsible for establishing the intellectual climate.
Mirsulzhan is one of the most energetic, intellectual, and bold of libertarian activists I have met anywhere in the world. He was in the midst of the demonstrations that recently brought a change in the government and he will surely be the instrument in future reforms throughout Central Asia. RUSSIAN
Alex Kouryaev in Moscow has completed translating a new Russian edition of JG and has been planning to use the illustrations that were produced by Krzysztof Haladus for the Polish edition. ppcd372@ints.ru The magnificent characters are easily suitable for any European edition and might be modified for elsewhere as well. Vitaly "William" Milonov in St. Petersburg is also preparing a new Russian edition and is working on completely new illustrations, some of the most artistic and ethereal I have ever seen. Says William, "The book is completely ready, but...I've decided to order a new set of pictures. Actually, they should be ready in a week." v_milonov@yahoo.com A week can be very long in Russia, but it will be well worth the wait once it is published. Many people of the former Soviet Republics eagerly await the arrival of these books! GERMAN
Dr. Barbara Kolm-Lamprechter, Secretary General of the F.A. v. HAYEK INSTITUT in Wien, Austria, has also been very supportive. She says her institute will help to promote the book. http://www.hayek-institut.at/ Michael Kastner wrote, "It's great news to read that the German version JG is available again. I have been offering the English commentary version of your book for a few years already in my online bookstore. I wish you and André good luck with the German version." http://www.buchausgabe.de/shoproot/444item.html I am also grateful to Susanne Galler, Holger Haupt, Christian Butterbach, and to all who helped in preparing the German edition of the animated Philosophy of Liberty. It seems that half the world speaks German, and there are as many ways to interpret it as there are people who speak it! Susanne, a former student of mine from Austria who is now settling in New York City, is among the finest of researchers and analysts I have known in my years of teaching. KASHUBIAN When Michal Ostrowski michol@linuxcsb.org asked for permission to publish a Kashubian edition of JG I had no idea where this language was spoken. I learned that it is a small community in Poland. Explained Michal, "We are a small (two person right now) group of people who enjoy (really!) making translations, because for us it is the only way to show to other Kashubians their own language. Currently we are translating KDE (one of Linux desktops), Firefox, book for learning Interlingua and some world-known literature, mostly short stories for schools where children can learn their native language. You can see our project (unfortunately in Kashubian only) at: www.linuxcsb.org, www.kaszubia.com, www.together.pl." "Our target," continued Michal, "is slightly different than that for the Polish translation. Mainly, we would like to introduce the book to schoolchildren learning Kashubian and who will have also contact with libertarian thought, which is great for me. On the opposite side are people who want to learn Kashubian and/or read some literature in this language. Kashubian society is rather hermetic and not open for new ideas, so I don't want to say that this book will become official for learning economy/politics thoughts." Michal is already progressing. Recently he wrote, "I have 2 chapters published in the Internet, and 4 or 5 ready for publication, and one that I'm now working on." Have a look at: http://www.czetnica.org/przigode-jonatana-gullible/ ARABIC
Ali has classes of thousands of students each semester and utilizes JG in his courses of economics instruction. He has edited an Arabic translation and this project should bear fruit in the near future. The translation project is being sponsored by Nicholas Dykes and assisted by Paul Lundberg. We have also been offered assistance by Sajid Anani, Program Manager, Atlas Economic Research Foundation, whom I hope to enlist is this crucial stage of translation editing and, eventually, publication. HAITIAN CREOLE Though we haven't had much recent communication, this came from Parnell Duverger awhile ago: "You will be happy to know that I am blessed to have a good friend, a professor of linguistics at a Canadian University in Moncton, who is reviewing my translation. He has published over 40 books in French and Creole." TAMIL And from K. Satyanarayan, "We've been working on the Tamil translation of JG, but its taking us longer than we had envisaged. My colleague, Badri (who is also cc'd on this mail) looks after editorial activities. Badri will be in touch with you on the translation of JG." HEBREW Likewise, the correspondence has been disrupted with David Marhoffer. I'm worried that many distant connections have been foiled by the internet. Some time ago David wrote: "I am still working on the Hebrew translation of JG. Unfortunately, I do not have a Hebrew word processor and, thus, I am forced to handwrite the translation. It's a labor of love, but labor nonetheless. I have 100 handwritten pages, thus far. I believe that some of your mail may have been spamblocked or just unfortunately overlooked. I receive approximately 250 new e-mails per day which promise me every drug and every vice known to man at affordable prices. On Mondays, I check my e-mail to find close to 1,000 new messages that arrived over the weekend." Next it will be back to the phones. Yuval Cohen and Matt Tad have also offered assistance. Tad has provided a Hebrew translation of the PoL. Hopefully we will soon have all Hebrew translations distributed around the world. RADIO PODCASTS, MAGAZINES, CD'S, WEBSITE JG was born on radio in Honolulu almost thirty years ago and now he is about to return. J.P. Muntal invited me to narrate the book saying, "We'll need to record a female voice at the beginning saying ‘Written and narrated by Ken Schoolland, with music by ......., produced by JP Muntal." My daughter, Kenli, has agreed to be the female voice, but I think JP is still open to music suggestions. Explains J.P., "I've secured a Podcast spot for JG www.jonathangullible.podcastpeople.com It will be activated as soon as we start uploading episodes. This is where the show will be available via i-tunes on Ipod. We will be able to email this link to anyone around the world where they'll be able to listen and save to cd, etc....In addition, episodes will be accessible on my website. It will be cross-referenced on my blog and visible all over the internet. To give you an idea of what shows sound like on podcast, my latest interview on Memorandum 46 is now available http://www.hawaiiradioproject.podcastpeople.com I'll be in touch next week for our first sessions." So check it out and stay tuned for another exciting episode of... Surely this will be an opportunity to generate new episodes as well! Ah, the good ole' days! What a perfect moment to show my appreciation to the Angelina Doubourg and the Otis Gazette for serializing the entire book in Massachusetts. editor@otisgazette.com
Kathleen Nelson, Manager of Laissez-Faire Books www.LFB.com is now offering Janette Eldridge's UK Commentary Edition of JG. She hosted a book signing event at Mark Skousen's Freedom Fest 2007.
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