Subj: Re: guest article Date: 1/2/2002 13:06:35 Central Standard Time From: rkhen@sympatico.ca (Robert K Henderson) To: Tkbiogardener@aol.com Hi Traute, I would be happy to have my work on your site. I assume it's a no-pay market; these days, it's harder than ever to get paid to write online. It's unfortunate really, because the Internet's potential for delivering quality original content is so great. I'm afraid I can only think of one article I've written that will probably fit your criteria; that would be the Three Nations column, at http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/38017 . I had several other German topics in my research queue, but that was the only one to upload to date. Alas, one of the pending topics was a "Why should I learn German?" column. People need to hear those arguments. Anyway, you may have anything from my topic that you like. For the link back, my homepage URL appears after my signature. If you could identify me as a professional translator, that would help. I had no idea that things in the Suite's management were that animalistic. I'm especially dismayed to hear that Bill Samuels was harassed. I respect Bill deeply. He's one of the most successful Quakers I know. His conviction and practice shame mine, and I take his example as a signpost in my own Christian journey. However, I can tell you, as a Quaker rather well-informed about his religious heritage, that nothing on earth is as dangerous as insisting on justice, mercy, Chrisitan charity, and human decency. Quakers are rotting in prison right now because of that, as indeed they have since the day the movement began. Yet somehow I'm always disappointed when I hear about such cases. It's truly amazing how much trouble you can get into without ever attacking, verbally or otherwise, a fellow human being. You'd think powerful people would value Bill for his trustworthiness and honesty, but there doesn't seem to be any correlation between fundamental intelligence and power. I'm afraid I myself have had a portion of experience in such matters. The pogrom against CE's makes sense of something that happened to Anayat (Islam CE) a few months ago. She dropped in on her site to find it gone and her topic announced as "available." When she inquired why, she was told that she had committed plagiary. This is a very serious and emotional matter among journalists, of which she is one, and she protested vociferously. It turns out that she had posted some material of her own that she had previously published elsewhere. She stood accused of "plagiarising" herself! I tell you, it's positively Orwellian. Further, the contract I signed only said my work had to be "original," i.e., written by me. As long as I held the rights, I could upload it to the Suite. (I know this because I informed myself on the matter soon after I came aboard.) Long story short, they reinstated Anayat, but the whole story was frightening. I uploaded a heavily-edited version of an article I wrote for a magazine a few months after I started writing World Languages, so I wrote to my ME asking for clarification. I never heard back. In all my time on the Suite, I never heard from management on anything, except when my first ME resigned a year ago and wrote to say good-bye. I had the impressiong that no-one was minding the store. The "little Napoleon" problem you mention ($10 dictators using their tiny alottment of power to get even for life's injustices) is pandemic. I was a school teacher for 12 years, during which I learned that of all temptations, power is by far the most dangerous. So many little school administrators take themselves for Glorious Leaders by Divine Right. At one point (just before I resigned, of course), I had to come out and tell one of them, "There's no way I'm going to accept criticism from you that I wouldn't accept from my mother or my priest." (I was raised an Anglican.) These people get a lousy school administrator certificate and feel comfortable pronouncing on every aspect of their employee's lives. How little it takes to seduce people away from the humility that common logic, if not faith in God, demands. I try to bear those memories in mind whenever I find myself in a position to judge others, itself something I avoid if when decently possible. I must've lucked out on the ME deal; as you know, I'm not shy with my opinions on the Suite, and since the world decided to cleave wholeheartedly to Satan last fall, I've been rather freer with them than is even my custom. Given the fact that the US (and therefore Canada) are in full goose-step mode these days, my public insistence on close scrutiny of any incitement to hurt others could easily be blown into a reason for disciplinary action, if my Suite superiors were of a mind. I have no doubt that had I still been a school teacher on 11 September, I would not be one now, for exactly that reason. Well, it'll be interesting to see what happens next. As my wife said, the Suite never did pay nearly as much as it cost in time and effort, and now I can dedicate those resources to getting more by-lines in print media. I did it mostly for the exposure, and because I truly enjoyed it. Thank God I was sheltered from all that nastiness behind the curtain; that would surely have soured my enjoyment entirely. Let's stay in touch, Traute. There's so much happening these days. I haven't even broached the topic of my adventures as a Canadian nationalist, which is a whole 'nother reason for fear and loathing. Best we decent folk stick together. Gud Jahr! (I hope I wrote that right; I've never studied German, and my experience with same is mostly Swiss, so anything I say is likely to be highly non-standard to say the least.) RK Henderson Writer and Photographer Author of "The Neighborhood Forager," the first complete guide to the wild edibles of residential areas. For information about this and other bylines, see: http://members.tripod.com/rkhen/ ----------------------- Headers -------------------------------- Return-Path: Received: from rly-yh05.mx.aol.com (rly-yh05.mail.aol.com [172.18.147.37]) by air-yh05.mail.aol.com (v82.22) with ESMTP id MAILINYH55-0102140635; Wed, 02 Jan 2002 14:06:35 -0500 Received: from tomts20-srv.bellnexxia.net (tomts20-srv.bellnexxia.net [209.226.175.74]) by rly-yh05.mx.aol.com (v83.18) with ESMTP id MAILRELAYINYH59-0102140606; Wed, 02 Jan 2002 14:06:06 -0500 Received: from [216.209.237.56] by tomts20-srv.bellnexxia.net (InterMail vM.4.01.03.16 201-229-121-116-20010115) with SMTP id <20020102190558.UQHV14593.tomts20-srv.bellnexxia.net@[216.209.237.56]> for ; Wed, 2 Jan 2002 14:05:58 -0500 Subject: Re: guest article Date: Wed, 2 Jan 02 14:05:14 -0500 x-sender: b1rzyd28@pop2.sympatico.ca x-mailer: Claris Emailer 2.0, March 15, 1997 From: Robert K Henderson To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Message-Id: <20020102190558.UQHV14593.tomts20-srv.bellnexxia.net@[216.209.237.56]> Robert Henderson Email: rkhen@softhome.net Home Page: http://members.tripod.com/rkhen/ Interests: My Autobiography: As a linguist, former language teacher and writer, language has always fascinated me. My language-related qualifications include a master’s degree in French from Portland State University, communicative competency in Spanish and Esperanto, formal studies in Russian and Japanese and experience with several other languages as well. In 1988-1989 I taught language and culture in the French public school system on a Fulbright Teaching Assistantship. I have been a writer for three years, and my articles on linguistics and other topics have been published in several national magazines. My full-length book on suburban wild edibles is now availabel from Chelsea Green Publishers. (Please see my home page for further information about this and other aspects of my work.) Over the years I've lived in many countries, and now enjoy a bilingual home in Canada with my Québécois wife. My love of language keeps me surfing the Internet, visiting chat rooms and newsgroups in other languages. I do online research in several languages. Language skills also come in handy in my amateur and shortwave radio hobbies, as well as cooking, history, ethnobotany and rural culture. I am particularly interested in interaction between peoples and languages, etymology and the dynamics of multilingual societies. Some of my favorite Web sites include: http://babel.uoregon.edu/yamada/guides/m... (Yamada language page) http://www.imagine-mms.com/public/recett... (recipes in French) http://www.purplesys.es/users/fitoterapi... (Spanish botany page) http://www.webcom.com/~donh/esperanto.ht... (Esperanto Access). I also frequent Canadian, Louisiana Cajun, Esperanto and other language-related newsgroups, and enjoy surfing Suite 101.