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From: urban@sol.SPS.TRW.COM (Michael Urban)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: Esperanto (was: UUCP-USSR)
Message-ID: <272@algol.sol.SPS.TRW.COM>
Date: Fri, 23-Oct-87 11:05:44 EST
Article-I.D.: algol.272
Posted: Fri Oct 23 11:05:44 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 25-Oct-87 22:31:48 EST
References: <8710221023.aa19184@note.nsf.gov>
Reply-To: urban@algol.UUCP (Michael Urban)
Organization: TRW Inc., Redondo Beach, CA
Lines: 35

In article <8710221023.aa19184@note.nsf.gov> fbaube@NOTE.NSF.GOV (Fred Baube) writes:
>> I thought I would mention that if any of you read Esperanto, a good source of
>> information on computers in the Warsaw Pact might be the magazine "Internacia
>> Komputado", published in Hungary.  The only issue I have seen is several
>> years old, but I suspect that Neal Mcburnett (neal@druny.UUCP) could provide
>> you with recent subscription info -- he attended an Esperanto computer
>> conference somewhere in Eastern Europe a couple of years ago. 
>

That magazine was replaced, about a year ago, by a broader-scope
technology magazine called "Fokuso" (no prizes for guessing what
"fokuso" means).  

>Someone explained to me that the Soviets are pushing Esperanto as
>a lingua franca for the East European scientific community, on the
>basis that Esperanto is easy to learn, extensible, not associated
>with any particular nationality, etc. etc., and with the added
>"virtue" that it is NOT ENGLISH !

I do recommend Esperanto as a means for establishing contact with
individuals in other countries on an equal and neutral basis.  To
bring this message back to some relevence to this newsgroup, I'll just
mention that in Soviet-bloc countries such as Poland and East Germany,
individual citizens are still forbidden to own computers.  In mainland
China, however, citizens are not only permitted to own them, but are
encouraged to do so (if they can afford them), as this is considered
necessary in the modernization of China.  The Chinese learn Esperanto
in part because they are eager to Learn Everything They Can from the
West.  Maybe we should be investigating putting mainland China on
Usenet instead of the USSR.
-- 
   Mike Urban
	...!trwrb!trwspp!spp2!urban 

"You're in a maze of twisty UUCP connections, all alike"