JONATHAN GULLIBLE SUMMER NEWS 2006

By Ken Schoolland

schoollak001@hawaii.rr.com

 

The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible: A Free Market Odyssey

Now in more than 40 international editions!

 

Headlines:

-JG THE MOVIE

-ANIMATED PHILOSOPHY OF LIBERTY MORE LANGUAGES

-NEW BOOKS PUBLISHED IN LAST 6 MONTHS

-NEW BOOKS FOR PUBLICATION THIS SUMMER

-GLOBAL SERIALIZATION IN PERIODICALS

-TRANSLATIONS WITH PUBLICATION PENDING OR PROPOSED

-COMICS, GAMES, SHIRTS, RADIO, THEATER, DISTRIBUTION, AND MORE!

 

JG THE MOVIE

 

    JG The Movie has completed shooting the first of six parts for a full length feature film. The movie is being directed by Laine “Sharkbait” Yoshioka, produced by Titus Park, screenplay by Susan Wells, starring Trí Kai Minh Lê as Jonathan along with a great, fun cast and crew. A slide show of selected scenes from the film sets is at: http://www.jonathangullible.com/movie.htm


    This first part, currently in editing, will be used to seek sponsors and investors. Interested parties may contact Titus Park at: ROGUE CITY PRODUCTIONS, LLC, 854 7TH AVE., HONOLULU, HI 96816-2129, 1-808-734-3585, roguecityllc@att.net. Regardless of the funding, filming will proceed. Participants are unpaid…until the day of box office success! Investors will hasten the inevitable.

    Laine updated the crew recently saying, “Currently, the first Episode is in the can. We need to just get a few close ups and pick up shots of Tri (our Jonathan Gullible), and then edit it, fix the sound, and add graphics. Our editor, Jake, said that he can generate a CG storm! So that'll look super cool on screen. As for when we will begin shooting Episode 2, it all depends on when we finish Episode 1. I would like to have a premier party and invite all the cast and crew, of all the future Episodes as well, and especially investors. Then once we have that party, I would like to begin shooting the 2nd Episode. Titus is in LA right now, at a film festival, representing two projects that he worked on in Hawaii. We will meet when he returns and start planning out Episode 2.”

    The cast of actors in Episode 1 are:

    Tri has expressed considerable interest in Jonathan’s message, beyond the enjoyment of film production. Says Tri, “I wanted you to know that this idea profoundly changed my relationship to myself as well my state of be-ing with others.” For more, see his site: http://trikaiminhle.googlepages.com/yoga

    Susan Wells, creator of the original screenplay, has recently undergone a serious health crisis at home in Florida. I ask fans of JG to write to Susan and encourage her speedy recovery so that her creative talents can once again energize us: Swftl@aol.com

 

ANIMATED PHILOSOPHY OF LIBERTY MORE LANGUAGES

 

    One very exciting project associated with JG is the animated Philosophy of Liberty (PoL) which was produced from the epilogue of the book by Kerry Pearson. Kerry produced this in several languages: English, French (with Louise Zizka), Portuguese (with Gustavo Lacerda), and Spanish (with Judy Nagy). These were all produced on DVD by Tim Skousen. With essential sponsorship from Andrew L. Sullivan and assistance from the International Society for Individual Liberty (http://www.isil.org/), Ginger Warbis, and Christian Butterbach, several new languages have been added to the website: Russian, Dutch, Danish, and Esperanto (Steve Cobb, http://rusio.ru/intro_scratch2.html). View them at: http://www.jonathangullible.com/

    Mario Knezovic (mario@bonespark.com) has been doing the primary software engineering to adapt new languages. Since this takes a long time, Mario can provide the source files so that others who are computer savvy can adapt it on their own.

    Says Mario about other languages of the PoL, “The next ones after this will be Lithuanian and German. I have not yet made decisions about the versions thereafter. The following are in queue: Mongolian and Macedonian first, then the other Balkan languages (Serbian, Croatian, Bosniak, Slovenian, Albanic). I've sent the source codes to Matus Posvanc for the Slovak version quite some time ago, but haven’t heard from him yet. I've sent the source codes to Paul Lundberg for Arabic and Urdu recently. The list of translations I already have or translators who are ready to do translations are Hungarian, Persian, Azeri (language from Azerbaijan), Georgian, Turkish. One day we will also get to the other languages which you classified as ‘I'm holding’: Japanese, Chinese, Finnish and Swedish. Probably Chinese will be a good choice of these as Dima is a student of Chinese in Russia. Thus this could be an excellent choice for one of the first non-Latin character versions.”

    These are the people working on current translations:

    Mario informs me that he is in dire need of some software that is essential to the project. For this, we are seeking sponsor contributions.

 

NEW BOOKS PUBLISHED IN PAST 6 MONTHS:

NIGERIAN ENGLISH, SINAHALA, SPANISH, BOSNIAK, SERBIAN, MONTENEGRAN

 

    More new editions have been published in the last six months than in any comparable period since JG was born. The Nigerian English edition of JG was published by Agwu Amogu this past winter. Agwu is the founder of the Individual Liberty Initiative of Nigeria (ILIN}. For the whole story on my visit to Abuja for the release, please see the previous winter JG Newsletter.

    Luxman Siriwardena luxman_siri@yahoo.com of the Pathfinder Foundation in Colombo, Sri Lanka, has just released the Sinahala edition. This 384 page publication is the full 2004 UK English Commentary edition produced under the direction of Janette Eldridge rayjan@iafrica.com. Luxman also writes a weekly column of economic analysis in the largest selling local language newspaper Lankadeepa. Previously, JG was serialized in the English language newspaper, The Business Standard.

    Henry and Roya Weyerhaeuser sponsored the publication of a new, expanded Spanish edition. This edition was organized by Juan Carlos Hidalgo and Hernán Alberro <halberro@gmail.com> in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This new, revised edition, follows the magnificent publication of the original Spanish JG, translated and published by Judy Nagy in Quito, Ecuador. Judy is probably the most spirited and energetic voice of liberty in Latin America!

    Reports Hernán, “The book is ready and it is actually being promoted at the stand of Grito Sagrado (a publishing house that published the Spanish version of Atlas Shrugged and other libertarian and objectivist books) at the International Book Fair of Buenos Aires where over one million people go every year…So the book will have a great distribution in Latin America and Spain. In fact Grito Sagrado has already sent some books to some Latin American countries to start its promotion and to find interested people. I will keep you up to date with the distribution of the book…I have a friend who specializes in sending books, around 300, to Cuba, and the books get to many dissidents and all the independent libraries there. So I think it is going to be a great success, not because of me, but because the book is great and people really like it.”

    The great human rights champion of the Balkans, Tomislav Krsmanovic pokret@EUnet.yu, has just accomplished the impossible. At the lowest imaginable cost to ISIL sponsors, he has arranged a fine quality publication of three new editions of JG: Bosniak, Montenegran, and a new Serbian edition. The Bosniak edition was translated by Shura Dumanic. Says the indefatigable Mr. Krsmanovic, “I’m glad to continue to contribute to the ISIL cause. We can change the cover for the next two editions, to be as the cover of most recent English edition. If you agree, I hope to recuperate my strength, with better conditions of life, in that case, do you consider that is acceptable to do new editions (Greek, Turkish, or other languages) under the same conditions?”

    Drasko Stojanovic, of the VEDES publishing company and a professor of mathematics in Belgrade, wrote an introduction for the Montenegran edition. Tomislav says, “I am convinced that you will like it, he appreciated JG very much.”

 

NEW BOOKS FOR PUBLICATION THIS SUMMER: SLOVAKIAN, ESPERANTO, POLISH, RUSSIAN

 

    MP Branislav Opaterny, Matús Posvanc, and the staff of the F. A. Hayek Foundation of Bratislava matus.posvanc@hayek.sk are hosting Janette Eldridge and our families at a news conference for the release of the Slovakian edition of JG this July. Describing his institute, Mat writes, “The F. A. Hayek Foundation of Bratislava is an independent, non-partisan think-tank, founded by a group of free-market economists almost immediately after the Velvet Revolution, in 1990. The mission of our institute is to promote free-market ideas across Slovakia and the region of Central Europe. Activities of our institute include economic research, conference organization, publishing, education, and – perhaps the most important of all – promotion of economic and social reforms. Representatives and experts of our Foundation were directly involved in the Social Security privatization and introduction of Flat Tax in Slovakia.”

    At the forthcoming ISIL World Conference in Prague, organized in conjunction with Josef Sima and the Liberalni Institute, I expect to meet several others who have accomplished JG publications. One of these friends of JG is Steve Cobb simplulo@yahoo.com, of Moscow. He has arranged for the translation by Evgenia (Zhenya) Amis into Esperanto, with an introduction by Fred Foldvary. Evgenia is the editor of Kontakto, a popular Esperanto magazine for young people that will be running some chapters from JG. And Fred is a long time supporter of JG, having assigned it to his economics classes at Santa Clara University.

    In his introduction to the Esperanto series that begins with JG this July, Steve writes: “This series ‘La Filozofio de Libereco’ will present in Esperanto translation some of the best books supporting the libertarian philosophy. Since this philosophy is largely a product of the European Enlightenment, whose century began in the late 1600s, selecting and sequencing a manageably few titles from the long list of good books is painfully difficult. With what should we begin: an amusing fable, a straightforward non-fiction explanation, dry theory, or comparisons of historical experience? They all have their place, and we hope to succeed eventually in presenting them all, but let us begin with a fable, one already half-familiar to many.”


    Another internet friend whom I am very eager to meet at the ISIL conference is Krzysztof Haladus, <krzysztof@haladus.pl>, founder of the Aspekt publishing company in Poland that has already published Milton Friedman’s Free to Choose. Says Krzysztof, “I know of your simple but great book - The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible. When I read it, I was fascinated!...I think that this book is able to make a very big change in the consciousness of Polish society, if it will be with a successful promotion. I would like to try to do that. It would be a very big challenge for me…I intend to first publish it in 5000 copies in hard cover. I would also like to seek the interest of some broadcasting stations or even TV stations in Poland.”

    The first international edition of JG in Russian was published 13 years ago by Dmitry Costygin in St. Petersburg. There are strong indications that a new, greatly revised and expanded Russian edition may be available this summer from William Milonov in St. Petersburg (v_milonov@yahoo.com) and Alex Kouryaev in Moscow (ppcd372@ints.ru). More news on this in the next newsletter.

    There is surely an interest in free market ideas in Russia. JG was already well received in the Far East Province, where I gave a series of lectures last March at the Khabarovsk Academy of Economics and Law. This program and the distribution of JG in English was arranged by the brilliant and beautiful Anna Pivovarova (pani84@mail.ru) and hosted by members of her fabulous Debate Club.

 

 

GLOBAL SERIALIZATION IN PERIODICALS:

CANADA, NEPAL, MACEDONIA, NORWAY, MASSACHUSETTS, HAWAII

 

    In addition to the JG books being published, probably even greater circulation and exposure is gained through numerous periodicals that are serializing JG chapters on a regular basis. The Somali edition has been translated and managed by Faisal Hassan. In addition to running JG in The Somali Voice, Faisal has posted the translation on the JG website and arranged for radio broadcast. Says Faisal, “The Somali edition of JG (Halgankii Yoonis Maskiin: Taxanihii Suuqa Madax Bannaan) is serialized on Radio Ogaal 1320 AM based in Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area (potential listeners are more than 140,000 Somali speakers).” Faisal has found a publisher in Toronto that offers a good price for 500 copies of the book. With additional sponsors we are ready to print.

    Rakesh Wadhwa, Robin Sitoula robs@mail.com.np, and Charu Chadha Rizal have all been instrumental in introducing JG to Nepal. The Boss magazine, a high quality business publication in Kathmandu, has been running episodes of the book every month since last fall. http://www.readtheboss.com/portal/ The episodes are featured side-by-side with commentaries. It is pure pleasure to read this magazine, if for no other reason than for the hardcore free market analysis of economist Rakesh Wadhwa.

 


    Robin Sitoula, General Secretary of Youth Initiative, is spearheading the drive for economic education in Nepal and arranging for the Nepali translation and publication of the book. Charu, Corporate Associate Editor of The Boss, is arranging a grand event for presentation of free market economic and philosophical ideas, hopefully to coincide with the release of the book next winter.

    Pavlina Petrova just reported, “As you know we use it chapter-by-chapter in our Monthly Monitoring of the Business Environment in Macedonia and the interest and responses were great.” JG also continues to be featured in regularly in Norwegian through Bent Johan Mosfjell’s scholarly philosophical journal, Nytt Paradigme. And from coast (Massachusetts) to coast (Hawaii), American readers can find a serialization of the book monthly in The Otis Gazette (Angelina Dubourg, Editor & Founder editor@otisgazette.com) and on line in The Hawaii Reporter (Malia Zimmerman, Founder, http://www.hawaiireporter.com/).

 

TRANSLATIONS WITH PUBLICATION PENDING AND TRANSLATIONS PROPOSED

 

    Numerous translations of JG have been made or are in progress, though publication is yet to be realized. Among these projects:

-Mongolian translation, Purevjav Tsenguun, Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia

-Ukrainian translation, Anna Tokar, Kiev, Urkraine

-Arabic translation, Nick Dykes, Paul Lundberg, Cairo, Egypt

-Hebrew translation, David Marhoffer, Phoenix, Arizona

-Afrikaans translation, Ria Crafford, Cape Town, South Africa

-Visayan translation, Ivo Cerckel, Cebu, The Philippines

-Greek translation, Dimitris Malamoulis, Volos, Greece

-French translation, Louise Zizka, Vancouver, Canada

-Swedish translation, Mats Hinze, Krakow, Poland

-Macedonian translation, Pavlina Petrova, Macedonia

-Hindi translation, Barun Mitra, New Delhi, India

-Tamil translation, K. Satyanarayan, Chennai, India

 

    In addition, serious proposals have been made for translations into:

-Haitian Creole, Parnell Duverger, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

-Azerbi, Tural Veliyev, Azerbaijan

-Georgian, Paata Sheshelidze, Tbilisi, Georgia

-Gujarati and Malayalam, Barun Mitra, India

-Nepali, Robin Sitoula, Kathmandu, Nepal

-Turkish, Atilla Yayla, Ankara, Turkey

 

COMICS, GAMES, SHIRTS, RADIO, THEATER, DISTRIBUTION, AND MORE!

 

    Kevin Tuma kevintuma@sbcglobal.net is preparing more model illustrations for the graphic novel of JG. Our plan is to have Kevin develop the themes and then outsource the production under his supervision. Please let us know of contacts or suggestions in this arena. For a glimpse of Kevin’s work, see:

http://www.jonathangullible.com/GraphicNovel/002A.jpg

    Janette and Ray Eldridge have also developed JG The Game, which is still under construction. It is a marvelous application of the JG story and lessons to a fun and lively board game for any group to play. We are still testing and refining the game, so anyone interested in helping out on this project, please contact Janette at: rayjan@iafrica.com. Janette has also designed JG Shirts for production and sale: “Who is JG?” on the back and the JG book cover discreetly placed front/side. It is a fun promotional item for those sponsoring JG book editions at public events.

 

 

And of course, The Philosophy of Liberty DVD works well on such occasions. Others in India and Africa, notably Adedayo Thomas, have discussed plans for a comic strip, radio, television, theater, etc.

    JG is being offered in the US through several sources: Laissez Faire Books http://www.lfb.com/, The Reality Zone http://www.realityzone.com/, Advocates for Self Government http://www.self-gov.org/, Amazon.com, State University of New York, Santa Clara University, and Hawaii Pacific University. In the Classroom Media has made JG available to its network of 80,145 teachers in 40,771  schools, reaching 14 million students!

http://www.intheclassroom.org/links/index.php

    As always, we are grateful to our many supporters. Chief among these is Sam Slom at Small Business Hawaii, who has continued publication of so many editions of the English edition http://www.smallbusinesshawaii.com/ and to ISIL for continued sponsorship of a multitude of free market projects worldwide. For more information, or to contribute to the JG Fund, please contact ISIL President, Vince Miller, at: http://www.isil.org/

    Ralph Smeed, a long time sponsor and friend of Jonathan Gullible, has offered his pamphlet for consideration to those who have worked to translate and distribute JG around the world. His pamphlet is a sterling selection of useful (if light-hearted) essays: A Modest Man Named Adam Smith (by Leo Rosten), An Infuriating Man (a tribute to Milton Friedman by Leo Rosten), Santa Claus vs. God (by P.J. O’Rourke), A Tribute to the Foundation for Economic Education (by Ralph Smeed). If anyone in the JG network is intrigued by this proposal for translation projects, please contact me schoollak001@hawaii.rr.com for a copy or contact Ralph Smeed at: 1617 Idaho Ave., Caldwell, ID, 83605, USA.