2003 October Newsletter

THE GLOBAL REACH OF ECONOMICS EDUCATION

By Ken Schoolland, October, 2003

ISIL has more global success with its project to promote economics education with The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible: A Free Market Odyssey.

KENYA, UGANDA, TANZANIA
Hot off the press is the new Kiswahili edition. This project is the work of Shikuku James Shikwati, President of the Inter Region Economic Network (IREN) in Nairobi. Kiswahili is the primary local language in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. http://www.jonathangullible.com/languages.htm Wrote James, "The Kenya Institute of Education, a body that engages in curriculum development and recommends texts for primary and high schools wrote requesting Kiswahili copies of JG and The Law. The Executive Director requested a meeting to discuss the possibilities of further usage of the books in Kenya. And the Kenya National Library Headquarters needs two copies of each in her library. FNST Tanzania asked for 100 more copies of JG for Tanzania people. This for IREN is a great outreach opportunity."

GREECE
And from Dimitris Malamoulis, "I joyfully inform you that, since yesterday The Adventures of JG is daily published (chapter by chapter) in Neos Typos of Volos (New Press of Volos). There are plans for publication after the completion of the story." For a look at the newspaper, see: http://www.jonathangullible.com/images/neotypos1.jpg and http://www.jonathangullible.com/images/neotypos2.jpg

NIGERIA
Great news also from Agwu Amogu: "I am happy that the JG Nigerian Pidgin English version is up on the site. The title in Pidgin is: WAKA DEM WEY JONATAN GULLIBLE WAKA. I am already discussing with a local newspaper about serialization of JG, I pray it works out soon." A photo of Agwu and the text can be found at: http://www.jonathangullible.com/languages.htm This project has also been undertaken by Agwu and by Thompson Ayodele of the Institute of Public Policy Analysis. Sponor assistance would be greatly appreciated. For details see: http://jonathangullible.com/donate.htm

ANIMATION
While Kerry Pearson's animated "Philosophy of Liberty" has been up on the web site for a couple years (derived from the Epilogue of JG), there have been recent developments. The music has been changed and Kerry has been joined by Andrew Sullivan and others in planning to place this on video and DVD for educational use in classrooms. New translations are being developed in Dutch, German, Bulgarian, Urdu, and Russian. The animation has already been extremely well received nationally, especially following the glowing reviews by media personality Neal Boortz and author G. Edwin Griffin http://www.freedom-force.org/creed.htm . And Manuel Camb, Chairman of Key Biscayne Community Television has offered to collaborate with us in placing the animation on TV. Download the animation, with all the new music, for free at: http://www.jonathangullible.com/media.htm

BULGARIA
The Bulgarian edition of JG was serialized in Sedem Weekly, accompanied by economist commentaries. It drew such a great response from readers that the newspaper's circulation soared to second highest in the nation. The Bulgarian edition of the book will be published this Fall. This is the work of Bojidar Marinov (translator), Assen Kanev (publisher), and an energetic team of free market economists. Says Assen, "I preferred first to have good news to write and at last I have it. The Bulgarian Society for Individual Liberty is registered in the Bulgarian Court. We start with a dozen members, a few economists from Institute for Market Economy http://www.ime-bg.org/en/index.html and reputable journalists from the media, Radio Free Europe http://www.svobodnaevropa.org/ and the daily newspaper Dnevnik www.dnevnik.bg . I believe by the end of October we could have JG in Bulgarian bookstores."

PAKISTAN
Through the efforts of Paul Lundberg, the International Policy Network (IPN), and Dr. Khalil Ahmad, President of Free Pakistan in Lahore, the Urdu edition of JG will be published in Lahore. Writes Khalil, "We will have our Urdu version by the end of October or the start of November ready to be mailed to you. I have gotten our Alternate Solutions Institute logo designed; this will be the first book to be published by our Institute." The translation will also appear in electronic form on the JG website: http://jonathangullible.com/languages.htm

SOUTH AFRICA
A draft of the UK Commentary edition has been completed for publication by Janette Eldridge of South Africa. This edition, due out in December at twice the size of the current edition, is expected to be distributed among the 54 Commonwealth nations. Says Janette, "As the Latvian translators are about to do another edition, I hope they are aware that they may use the commentaries from this edition if they wish, just as Attila is doing for the Turkish edition."

IRAN
Henry Weyerhauser has informed me that his relatives in Iran completed the Farsi translation of JG and presented this to the censors of the ruling Mullahs. Henry tells me that the censors have just approved the translation and publishers are now being approached, but without any success as yet. Once the edition is published in Farsi, it holds potential for reaching Afghanistan as well. I just received this letter from a woman who came to America from Afghanistan, Mary Osman. "I enjoyed reading this book and specially liked Jonathan's character--how innocently he explores the tyrannies of this new world in which he is traveling. Indeed, this book is helpful to unveil our society from the mockeries that people are facing at all times. I can see a great deal of resemblance between your Lords and the warlords in Afghanistan. I am also glad that soon you will have a translation in Farsi by the Iranians, who speak the same language as we do."

TURKEY
The Free Market Institute of Lithuania hosted the world ISIL conference this summer in Vilnius. Through these organizations I conferred with Atilla Yayla, President of Liberal Dusunce Toplulugu, a free market institute in Ankara, Turkey. He has decided to place the Turkish edition of JG on their publishing agenda. Says Atilla, "I hope the Turkish edition will be of great impact over Turkish readers."

AUSTRIA
Previous editions of JG have also seen a revival. Dr. Barbara Lambrechter, President of the v. Hayek Institut in Vienna is proposing to her Board of Directors to produce a new German edition. A decision is expected soon.

CHINA
Others have begun the process toward publishing new, revised editions of the Chinese and Russian editions. Dean Peng, an economics consultant in Beijing, and Jerome Ma of the Century Publishing Group of Shanghai and Horizon Media Co. Ltd., have considerable track records in translating works of the free market Austrian economists. Dean has begun translating JG and Jerome reports that it will likely be published by February.

LITHUANIA AND INDIA CAMPS
This summer I attended the fifth annual Liberty English Camp, in which 50 students learned English and free market economics at summer camp in Lithuania. Following this example, the first of such language programs was begun at a camp in the Himalayan foothills of India. Barun Mitra, President of the Liberal Institute in New Delhi, said they expected 60 students and got 120! Both programs utilize JG in classes of the more advanced students.

COMIC BOOK
Kevin Tuma has begun work on preliminary illustrations for a graphic novel. We'll keep you informed as this materializes.

ARABIC
Long-time libertarian Nicholas Dykes, who lives in England, has found an English-educated writer in Egypt who is ready and willing to undertake an Arabic translation of JG. Nicholas has also found someone who can introduce us to the famous Al Ahram publishing empire, which produces newspapers, magazines and books throughout the Arab world.

"Trouble is," says Nick, "we need about $2000 to get the Arabic translation up and running. Can any of you generous folk out there help us? Reflect for a minute. There are some 600,000,000 Arabic speakers from Morocco to the Philippines, the majority of them educated and literate, but many of them having false conceptions about the West and about free markets. Reading JG might easily help some of them to realise that America is not 'the Great Satan.' Further, it might help others among them to realize that freeing up their own markets and meeting Westerners as equals in trade could advance the cause of peace and goodwill. An Arabic translation of JG has a genuine chance of making a lot of people THINK, instead of reaching for the nearest Kalashnikov."
http://jonathangullible.com/donate.htm

RADIO
Dick Morris continues his weekly KXEM radio program in Phoenix, Arizona. Every week he broadcasts JG episodes that were recorded by Ryan Corpuz, Ron Segawa, and Geo Olsson.

LATVIA
Arlo & Gundega Pignotti discovered that there had been a Latvian edition of the 1989 JG and tried to find Valdis Bluzma in Riga to get a copy. Not able to locate him, they contacted me and discussed the possibility of a new Latvian edition based in the 2001 edition of book. This project is now in progress.

SOMALIA
Faisal Hassan has already translated and placed on line half of the Somali translation. He is currently completing the project and preparing it for publication. Says Faisal, "JG's translation is going very well and I have commenced a dialogue with the Editor of Somali Voice (a major paper, widely read) to serialize JG in their paper. He has agreed to do it and we are meeting next week." "With regard to translations, it is going well, and I am targeting to complete it on December, 2003. After completing my translations, we need to discuss a way to raise funds to publish the Somali translation. I will write to you soon."

FREEDOM FEST
I'll be reporting on the latest JG events at Mark Skousen's Freedom Fest 2004, May 13-15, at Bally's/Paris Resort in Las Vegas. Says Mark, "This gala conference is three glorious days (Thursday through Saturday) of great ideas, great Books, and Great Thinkers. FreedomFest is the intellectual feast of 2004, where the world's best & brightest authors, students, business people, and libertarian/conservative think tanks will meet, learn, create, and network." I hope to see many of you champions of JG at this stupendous event! For more information, see: http://www.freedomfest.com/