2011 UPDATED NEWSLETTER
By Ken Schoolland
Nigeria & Tanzania Plays
Adedayo Thomas has a very successful and ambitious program utilizing the very effective play, "A Letter From Jonathan Gullible." Adedayo developed a program to bring 100 students from institutions across Africa to his 2011 Students and Young Professional African Liberty Academy--SYPALA, August 3-7, 2011. Of the performance, Franklin Cudjoe wrote: "Real Theatre at Ahmadu Bello University. You missing guys...Just saw the greatest play on the intrusiveness of governments around the world. Performed by the Theatre Arts Dept. of Ahmadu Bello University. The play is based on the book Adventures of Jonathan Gullible originally written by Ken Schoolland and adapted for the play by Adedayo Thomas. Trully, Nigerian theatre producers are the best! I told the cast (actors) they had done our whole week's work in just one hour. I requested a reenactment on Sunday. I will do anything to support the cast to go global. The audience was largely African, drawn from six countries." Wonderful!
Adedayo has outreach programs and book distribution planned for 20 African institutions in Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and Ethiopia. And he is preparing JG stage productions in 5 West and East African Institutions.
Writes Adedayo, "Dear Ken, I am sure these pictures will interest you. They were taken during the presentation of the play by participants of the 2010 Students and Young Professional African Liberty Academy at the University of Dodoma in Tanzania. We plan to produce at least 5000 copies of the play to be going along with my distribution and seminar in the schools. It is one of the simplest texts to explain the libertarian philosophy to our audience. A school in Tanzania is showing great interest, in fact the students are waiting for me to bring copies to them next year and that was one of the outcomes of the usage of the play during the 2010 Summer School in Tanzania. The publishing of the play will cost $1.50 each. Again, it will be nice if we can get some additional funds for the production on stage. Roughly $500-$700 can be used to support each school production. Any additional funds will increase the number of texts i carry for outreach programs. Thanks again for the support and encouragement. Best regards!"
I sincerely encourage interested sponsors to contact Adedayo and to send contributions through ISIL. He is a man of great accomplishments!
Slovakian Play
Matus Posvanc and Martin Bican have now had their play performed in Bratislava! Says Matus, “Dear Ken, you can find the Slovak radio play on the web – it is translated into English... Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4. We have started to perform the theatrical play in the secondary schools in Bratislava. Until this day more than 2150 students saw the play and we hope that we will perfom it after the summer holidays also in other regions of Slovakia."
Says Mat, "We would like to record the play also on video and prepare from that some kind of „movie“ to present it also on the web... do you know anybody who can donate to us for this activity? To understand correctly, we are going to shoot the video of the play on 2 cameras following Monday. We can make from it some amateur video (I can send it immediately) but my intention is to make from it some promo video and then some video which could be useful also for teaching students at secondary schools and for this purpose we would like to create some special webpage for radio, video, and text materials and try to communicate via this channel with students. For example, we would like to connect this play with some essay contest about the play and the winner will gain some kind of prize. The money therefore could be used for all these of these activities."
Slovenian
Mitja Steinbacher and Matjaz Steinbacher originally arranged to have the Carantania Institute publish JG for the Slovene audience with beautiful new illustrations to be done by Ms. Breda Sturm, whose father is an ex-minister for education and justice and ex-chair of the constitutional court.
Says Breda, “I really enjoyed reading the stories of JG and doing the illustrations for the text. I am so pleased that you like the illustrations. Of course you have my permission to put them in the newsletter. (Illustrations above and in the book by Breda Sturm) I am ready to illustrate and do the design for any kind of publications if such occasion occurs.”
Mitja and Matjaz are below with Breda and the new published Sloven edition.
Expanded 30th Anniversary Edition
A new edition of The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible: A Free Market Odyssey is now available in English from Liberty Publishing Company. This is the Thirtieth Anniversary Edition since Jonathan’s birth on KHVH radio in Honolulu and twenty years after the first publication by Sam Slom and Smart Business Hawaii. This new edition has now been expanded with two additional chapters.
Are warfare and earthquakes good for an economy because of all the spending to replace what has been destroyed? The chapter “Opportunity Lost” revisits Frederic Bastiat’s famous tale of “The Broken Window” to explain opportunity cost, the “seen and unseen” of such spending. Another chapter, “Cash for Codgers,” mocks government “stimulus” programs that pay for the demise of the old in order to make way for the new.
This new 2011 Expanded Edition of The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible is now available from Amazon.
Says Terry Easton, founder of Liberty Publishing Company, “The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible is a must read for every lover of economic freedom and personal liberty! As the Publisher of this New 2011 Expanded Fourth Edition, you'd expect me to say this. But it's true. I've used this book in my own college courses in Macro Economics, and my students have often learned more about the fundamental principles of economics - and how the real market works - than from their textbook. And they've had more fun doing it. If you want to understand just what has made America the great country it is, read this book. It will change your life.”
Bahasa Edition
Jonathan was published in the Bahasa language in Jakarta, the 44th language.
From Sugianto Tandra, third from right: “I work for a free market think tank in Jakarta, Indonesia, Freedom Institute. One of our programs is book translation. We translate quality classically liberal books as part of our effort to disseminate liberty ideas in Indonesia. We would like to ask your permission to translate your book into Bahasa in Indonesia. With your permission, we will translate the book and print 1000 copies and distribute them (through a series of book launch discussions) to university students who are our main beneficiaries. We will work in partnership with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF) on this project.
"Actually, we plan to get this book published by early October. We and the FNF are preparing an economic freedom network international conference from 6 to 8 October (2010). The topic will be on ‘Migration and the Wealth of Nations.’ We plan to display the book during the conference, which will be attended by around 40 international free market think tanks. After that, maybe starting in November until some time next year, we will hold a series of workshops to disseminate the liberty ideas in the book to university students. We will surely mine the rich resources you put out in the JG website for our workshops.”
Barun Mitra, fourth from the right, is accompanied in the photo above by his wife, Madu. Barun is arranging the publication of the Hindi edition of JG in New Delhi. More about India projects later.
Romanian 3rd Edition
The book has also just been released in Bucharest, the 3rd Romanian edition of the book, bringing to 64 the international publications of Jonathan Gullible considering multiple editions in various languages.
Iulian Tanase (and his wife in the photo above) wrote: “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 Henry Hazlitt. Thank you very much for granting us your permission. Your book is well-known here, and many students, for many years, have accompanied Jonathan on his journey. The book is out of print for 3 or 4 years, but we have had the Ludwig von Mises Institute of Romania and the online version.”
The new Romanian edition uses the illustrations originally produced by Kris Haladus for the Polish edition.
Philosophy of Liberty
The animated Philosophy of Liberty from the epilogue of JG has continued to progress. Acknowledgement of Kerry Pearson’s (a.k.a. Lux Lucre) successful depiction has culminated in Hugo van Reijen’s beautiful 2011 calendar featuring 12 selections from the animation beginning with “The Philosophy of Liberty is based on the principle of self ownership.” The calendars were hand painted in Nepal on rice paper. Gorgeous!
In further developments, Steve Cobb and Anton Smirnov have been progressing with the difficult work of adapting the very difficult script of Arabic, Urdu, Sindhi, and the translation in Armenian by Artem Sarian, an attorney in California, and Arman S. Mkryan, Esq. Drew Suder, as web master, has continually upgraded the JG site. The latest versions posted are in Icelandic, translated by Saevar Gudmundsson, and Macedonian, through the cooperation of Pavlina Petrova and Bojan Bogevski. And, at long last, we have posted all the animations on our website with the option for the new beautiful musical score by Saher, above right. [As we still have an initial time delay between the beginning of the picture and the start of the music, click to refresh the animation when the music starts...thus all will be in sync. It is worth it!]
Is this animation project worthwhile? Just ask Deanna Newberg who wrote from Texas saying, "Ken, my sixth grade students enjoyed learning about the Philosophy of Liberty again this year. Your video goes so well with my lessons on John Locke's Second Treatise of Government and how Locke's philosophy lies at the heart of our founding documents. It is such an eye opener for students. For six years they have been in school and learned a bit about our government and our founding fathers, but they have NEVER learned the philosophy of our founding fathers. After the lessons, they have a much deeper understanding of what lawful government is and what it isn't. They now understand not only life and liberty, but property as well. Thanks!"
And John Connelly wrote: "Thanks again Sir!"
The Center for Freedom and Prosperity has awarded "The Philosophy of Liberty" honorable mention and a $100 prize for their Free Market Video Contest.
China Austrian Economics Camp
My wife, Li Zhao, organized the first China Austrian Economics Camp (CAEC) last summer with Northeastern University (NEU) of Shenyang, China. Teaching about the economics and ethics of free markets were: Tom Palmer of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation and the CATO Institute, Fred Foldvary of Santa Clara University, Cris Lingle of Francisco Marroquin University in Guatemala, Kenli Schoolland of the University of Buckingham in England, Zhu Haijiu of Zhejiang GongShang University in China, Dean Peng of Beijing, Jeff Crawford & Ken Schoolland of Hawaii Pacific University, and Li Schoolland. Four of these teachers are members of the Mont Pelerin Society, founded in 1947 by Friedrich Hayek to promote an intellectual resurgence of free market ideas.
Nearly a hundred students signed up for the camp, July 18-25, 2010. "This was a remarkable turnout," said Li, "considering that the students attended 8 hours of classes and discussions daily during the first week of their summer break! Only a few students missed any classes, and that was only because of conflicts with other summer programs." The camp is scheduled again this summer, July 16-24, 2011.
NEU provided facilities and accommodations for all students and faculty, Jeff Crawford generously sponsored the travel expenses of most of the faculty, others were sponsored by the International Society for Individual Liberty (ISIL), Atlas and CATO. More than 300 economics books in English and Chinese were donated to the students from various sources: Jim Walsh of Silver Lake Publishing Co., Jim Peron of Laissez Faire Books, and Dick Rowland of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii (GRIH).
Mark Skousen, author of many books translated into Chinese, donated a boxed collection of his books. Each of the hundred students received signed copies of Fred's book in English and of JG in Chinese. Kris Mauren of the Acton Institute contributed to half the cost of the latter books. And each student also received the CD "Ideas for a Free Society," a collection of a hundred libertarian classics compiled and produced by Linda Whetstone and the International Policy Network.
The daily program was filled with two large group lectures, two follow-up small group discussion sessions, and four small group lectures with discussions. The students were especially thrilled by the open discussion format, highly unusual in China. Evenings were scheduled with group game contests, debates, documentary films, a talent show, and a closing party celebration. Mornings typically began with swimming at the university pool or Tai Chi in the courtyard. Evenings ended with fabulous dining and exhaustion induced sleep.
From beginning to end, these enthusiastic and brilliant students were eager to practice their English and to engage with their teachers in American-style classes. China is experiencing a stunning market transformation and students are very open to the ideas of Hayek, Mises, and Friedman in contrast to the routine classroom fare of Marx and Keynes. Indeed, these Chinese students seemed to be much more intrigued with free market alternatives than many American students who have taken markets for granted and are too willing to accept central planning.
Two day-time excursions were scheduled to the Forbidden City Summer Palace in Shenyang and museums memorializing the life of General Zhang Xueliang, Li's ancestor who was founder and first president of the university. A post camp tour was arranged for faculty to visit the Yalu River bordering on North Korea and the historic regions of Dalian, Weihai, Qingdao, Beijing, and Shanghai. The camp was a spectacular success and every effort is being made to continue it on an annual basis.
My trip to Shanghai with Fred Foldvary culminated in meeting with Jerome Ma (center) and Sylvia Cai (right) in Shanghai regarding plans for a second edition in Chinese. Linda was our marvelous interpreter and guide, courtesy of Li Zhang Fa.
Camps
Lobo Tiggre and Virgis Daukas continued the annual Casey Youth Conference on Leadership and Entrepreneurship, CYCLE 10, in Trakai, Lithuania. The Philosophy of Liberty (PoL) was again part of the program as it has been in most all of the Liberty camps. Jaroslav Romanchuk held a camp in the Ukraine and Glenn Cripe, President of the Language of Liberty Institute has organized camps in Poland, Slovakia, Kyrgyzstan, Ghana, and is preparing new ones in Armenia and Albania.
Commented Glenn, “We always show the English version of the PoL, plus the local version, when available. I tell the students that they should know about this important communication tool, and show it to their family and friends who may not be as interested in philosophy, economics, etc as they are.”
Li Schoolland is also organizing a Romanian Austrian Economics Summer School in Bucharest this June, followed by a seminar in Sofia, Bulgaria. Much of the sponsorship for these camps comes from The International Society for Individual Liberty, hosting the 2011 ISIL World Conference in Sicily this August 29 to September 2.
Armenian Edition
Inessa Shahnazarova is a founder of the Armenian Youth For Liberty initiative group aimed at the encouragement of a liberty-minded generation of Armenians. Inessa coordinated the first Liberty English Camp in Armenia held in January of 2011. Since 2010, Inessa has been working for “We For Civil Equality”, an NGO responsible for coordinating programs aimed at the empowerment of the local community.
Inessa has just agreed to arrange for the publication of Jonathan Gullible in Armenian. Said Inessa, "I’m so glad to get acquainted with you! I’m really fond of your book and it is a great pleasure for us to work on this project. Yes, I’m familiar with Artem Sarian’s work, which is of paramount importance for the Armenian community. I am now working on the establishment of an initiative group the main goal of which is the encouragement of a liberty-minded generation of Armenians. I am pleased to work with very talented and dedicated young professionals. One of them will be responsible for the translation. I’m sure it will be a great project having a sustainable impact on our community."
Vietnamese Edition
We also have an arrangement for a Vietnamese edition of JG by Cong Minh Nguyen. Mr. Nguyen received his MA in Economics and Finance from the Vietnam Banking Academy. He is now editor of Doimoi.org, the Vietnamese language portal to promote, through research, publishing and educational activities, free market philosophy and the foundations of the market economy in Vietnam. He has been actively involved in the translation of free market books, including The Adventures of Jonathan Gullibleinto Vietnamese.
Italian Edition
Exciting news has emerged from Liberilibri, the free market institute that published the Italian edition under the direction of Aldo Canovari. Maria Stefania Gelsomini, wrote, “We visited your website and we'd like first to congratulate you on the fantastic success the book gains all over the world. You know that we published the italian version (Le avventure di Jonathan Gullible) in 1999... a book that continues today to have success and reviews. So now we send you the picture of the Italian translator Luigi Scarfiotti that you can add, if you like, to the other translator's pictures on the website, and the cover of the book.
“Luigi Scarfiotti is the son of an Italian legend: Ludovico Scarfiotti (1933-1968), a Formula One and sports car driver, who won the 1963 ‘24 Hours of Le Mans’ for Ferrari, participated in twelve World Championship Formula One Grand Prix, won the European mountain driving title in 1962, was proclaimed Italy's best driver in 1962 and 1965 and was the last Italian to win the Gran Premio d'Italia in 1966.
“Another curious piece of news for you: the introduction to the Italian translation Le avventure di Jonathan Gullible was written by Giulio Tremonti, the italian Minister of Economics at the present.
“I'm delighted to send you a review of the book just published in the bimonthly liberal magazine: Liber@mente. And I think I'll write a long article on Le avventure di Jonathan Gullible for the monthly cultural magazine L'Aperitivo illustrato, maybe in the August or September issue.... I'll keep you informed.
“Moreover, the book will be presented in August at Soverato (in the Calabria region, south of Italy) during the event ‘Libera Estate’, organized by the same liberal ‘Fondazione Vincenzo Scoppa’ that published the review. We don't know the date yet, but we'll know it soon. Yes, we also saw the italian version of "La Filosofia della Libertà"... many compliments!!!” Liberilibri, corso Cavour 33/a, 62100 Macerata, Italia.
India
At the EFN Conference in Jakarta, I met up with many from India who are so inspiring for JG projects. Barun Mitra, President of the Liberty Institute pictured with his wife in the earlier story above, is in the final stages of publishing a Hindi edition of the book and others have offered to help out as well.
B.Chandrasekaran, a consultant with the Planning Commission in New Delhi, pictured at right above, wrote: “It was really great and amazing to see you there in Jakarta during the EFN conference…I always dreamed a big way after reading your bookThe Adventures of Jonathan Gullible for seeing you. For me this book is a amazing stories and its just not a stories but transformed many ways in my thinking the free market ideas in real life situations. From the below link you will find the review of your book (Jonathan Gullible) in Tamil language in a famous blog in South India…I am still looking for translating the JG in Tamil. My friend agreed to translate the book but the funding is still needs to worked out.” If you know of someone who would be interested in sponsoring such a publication, please contact Chandrasekaran Balakrishnan who writes a blog called http://hayekorder.blogspot.com/ .
Gideon Mathson (second from left) has an excellent blog in India on libertarian issues. Gideon wrote, “It was incredible meeting you at the conference. The conference in itself was a very moving experience for me. Knowing that I can contribute to the cause of liberty in some way, (despite the fact that I'm not a student of economics), really motivates me. I remember reading your book 'Jonathan Gullible', immediately after reading your article on immigration, published by the Centre for Civil Society. At that point I was quite confused by all the economic theory around (being a student of history brought up in a frustratingly Marxist environment).
“Your book in a lot of ways was the first time I really connected with basic libertarian concepts. I went from there to Bastiat. And through the conference I see the need to read a lot more, and in a more structured manner, I also see quite clearly that fiction and theater are the best ways in which I can contribute to the libertarian cause. I read through the 'Jonathan Gullible' script and I would love to perform it in Delhi. I also really want to use the play to encourage liberty here, in Delhi. I cannot explain how motivated I feel about this. Do let me know if there is anyway in which I can contribute to the cause of liberty.”
I also met Yavnika Khanna at the conference and was much impressed by the accomplishments of her Liberal Youth Forum in alliance with Parth Shah’s Centre for Civil Society.
Wrote Yavnika, “I spoke to you how we at Liberal Youth Forum would love to adapt your book into a theater format for youth and you had assured me that you can share some scripts that have already been worked out. We would love to have your guidance on it! Do let us know of any further opportunities where we can be of any assistance!”
New Endorsements
“I think you're doing fabulous work in the struggle for liberty…Jonathan Gullible is a great read and makes the principles of liberty accessible, even possibly to those with alien and hostile minds.”-Walter E. Williams, Economist
“If policymakers read--and absorbed the lessons of--this book, how much better the U.S. and the world would be. Free markets, with sensible rules of the
road, are moral because they unleash the productive, creative powers of people in ways that benefit everybody. This book is particularly timely.”-Steve Forbes, Publisher
"It's the best introduction young people can get to free-market economics. In fact, it's a great way for everyone, old or young, to be introduced to the freedom philosophy." -Mark (Franklin) Skousen, with Steve (Washington) Forbes at Freedom Fest 2010
“In 44 languages and wonderfully accessible, Jonathan Gullible provides valuable lessons for us all.” -John Stossel, Broadcast journalist
"I do have Jonathan Gullible and have read it. Jonathan, well, wasn't all that gullible, I thought. But I think Prof. Schoolland has done a great service with this book, and I'm sure it's reaching many people." –William Thomas, Director of Programs, Atlas Society
Best of all endorsements is this from one of Jonathan’s readers, 13-year-old Natalie Iannuzo:
In a basic and intelligent way Prof. Schoolland presents examples of the economy in an exciting adventure sequence. The book shows what happens when government gets involved with the economy, and all the short, but captivating stories in the book cover freedom, rights, self-ownership, economics, government and taxes.
The main character in the book is a young man by the name of Jonathan Gullible. Jonathan in the beginning of the book sets out to sea but the waves get too big and crash Jonathan's boat onto a strange exotic island. On this island Jonathan meets some interesting people with very different opinions about the economy and how to deal with situations. Jonathan proves to the reader that his ways emphasizing free choice and competition are better alternatives than what other people on this island think.
Throughout Jonathan's adventure on this strange island he experiences opinions that don't make sense to him. For example, in chapter 3 Jonathan meets a well accomplished fisherman near a lake. The fisherman tells Jonathan that in this lake there used to be many big fish but they were all caught so now there are only little fish left. There is scum on the side of the lake, from people throwing trash in it and it is also the cause of some of the deaths of the fish. Jonathan asks why the fisherman doesn't take care of it and he says that it isn't his responsibility because it belongs to the Council of Lords and not to him. It is the Council of Lord’s responsibility to clean the lake not anyone else's. The moral of this story is that when you own something you are more likely to take care of it rather than if you borrowed it. Ownership implies responsibility.
In chapter 17, Jonathan hears about Uncle Samta an old man who is the complete opposite of Santa Claus. Uncle Samta steals from houses on Christmas Eve but also gives back very little of the objects he stole the years before. Uncle Samta is like the government in this story. The government steals from us through taxes but gives very little back to us through programs like the library, and community colleges. We would be better off spending our own money.
I thought that this book was a great action packed book that helped me understand how the economy works. The strange thing is that the economy in the book is like our economy today, because taxes are high and the people's earnings are low. Also in the book there are newcomers who come to the island but don't have to pay taxes so they basically live there for free. This book showed me that our economy is managed by those who want to control consumption more than production.
I really enjoyed reading this book and I highly recommend it to others.
Next?
The French edition will be published by October 2011, a culmination of the work by Louise Zizka and Jacques de Guenin. Other editions are always in search of publishers, translators, or sponsors. Translations completed or in progress: Albanian, Danish, Finnish, Hindi, Telegu, Vietnamese, Haitian Creole, Estonian, Slovenian, Armenian, Catalan, Basque, Malaysian, Gujarati, Tamil, Swedish, and more theatrical productions in Nigeria. The ultimate dream is to have the book made into film. Please let me know if you have ideas to offer. Ken.schoolland@gmail.com Tax deductible contributions can be made through the JG Fund at the International Society for Individual Liberty.
