Today's "BUCKS FOR THE WORLD"

Editorial by Kent Jones

in Chicago Tribune, October 2, 1998

How would you like an article that started,"Remember the Tribune? There was this newspaper..." ? Well, that would be as misleading as your editorial with the Esperanto lead-in, because both the Tribune and Esperanto are alive and well today. A recent example was the August 1998 Esperanto Congress in Montpellier, France, to which more than 3000 persons from 60 countries came. Another was the CNN report of 15 Dec. 1997 advocating Esperanto to solve the language chaos of 11 languages of the European Union.
English is indeed the language most used in international affairs today, just as Greek, Latin, and French have been in their times. But its linguistic and political defects limit its use to the power elites. In a world of 5,900 milion, about 5000 million don't speak English. Its linguistic defects make it very difficult for foreign pilots to learn, so airplanes crash because of language blunders. After all, English is not compulsory for international aviation, only recommended.
The United Nations spends more than $100 million annually for translations between its 6 official languages. This when, according to UNICEF, $35 million could prevent 5000 deaths each day in children through vaccinations! Yet it refuses to standardize on English, so great is the political rejection of English. The Province of Quebec has outlawed English on storefronts. English is not beloved by the people of the world.
By contrast, Esperanto is the language that makes friends across national borders. For that reason dictators have always hated it. Esperanto tourists, e-mail and paper mail are commonplace. Esperanto is the only language never bloodied by war. But I believe that its absolute grammatical regularity is its outstanding feature. It helps school children get a better grasp of the basic principles underlying all languages, including that ugly duckling, English.

Kent Jones
Commissioner for Education, Esperanto League for North America
e - mail: KentJones1@compuserve.com

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