Slog - Comments on English and Arabic http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/12/east_and_west I. Abu Dhabi. According to a 2003 United Nations report into human development in the Arab world, more books are translated into Spanish each year - 10,000 - than have been translated into Arabic in the previous 10 centuries. Now this situation is being rectified by the sheikhdom of Abu Dhabi, one of the seven Muslim United Arab Emirates, which last month officially revealed its plans to translate 100 epochal foreign-language texts into Arabic by the end of next year. Among the first to be translated: Stephen Hawking, Jurgan Habermas, Umberto Eco, and Murakami. Right now, translators are hunched over... Copyright 2008 Tue, 11 Dec 2007 12:55:55 -0800 Tue, 11 Dec 2007 23:33:57 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by Gitai That whole translation thing used to be something the State Department did. It allowed people to get to know us on a more than superficial level.

]]> Gitai http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/12/east_and_west#c871331 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/12/east_and_west#c871331 Arts Tue, 11 Dec 2007 13:06:52 -0800 Comment by torrentprime The Cato Institute, I believe, does the same thing. At the Reason.com convention last year, one of the presentations was from a group that a) quoted the same "translated into Spanish" factoid and b) is working on exposing as much Western thought to the Arabic world as possible through translation.

It's a great way to start to penetrate the intellectual wall around some parts of the world, diversity of opinion, etc.

]]> torrentprime http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/12/east_and_west#c871351 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/12/east_and_west#c871351 Arts Tue, 11 Dec 2007 13:19:19 -0800 Comment by PA Native Is the same thing being done with arabic works into English? Seems that a two way street is necessary to make this worthwhile.

]]> PA Native http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/12/east_and_west#c871362 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/12/east_and_west#c871362 Arts Tue, 11 Dec 2007 13:23:36 -0800 Comment by mattymatt Why not just teach more Arabs to read foreign languages?

]]> mattymatt http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/12/east_and_west#c871364 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/12/east_and_west#c871364 Arts Tue, 11 Dec 2007 13:24:11 -0800 Comment by Greg Good job, England. Glad to know that fascism isn't just our problem.

]]> Greg http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/12/east_and_west#c871388 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/12/east_and_west#c871388 Arts Tue, 11 Dec 2007 13:49:26 -0800 Comment by backwoods stupid imagine the shock when arabs discover that the enlightenment passed them by & their religion is medieval.

why, they might overthrow their corrupt monarchs & establish democracies based on liberty, egality, and fraternity!

yep.

]]> backwoods stupid http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/12/east_and_west#c871392 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/12/east_and_west#c871392 Arts Tue, 11 Dec 2007 13:52:41 -0800 Comment by Fnarf So 100 books is going to make up for a thousand years? Right.

There already ARE Arabic books being translated into English -- far more every year than the other way around. There's much less of it, of course; the Arabic intellectual atmosphere is nearly dead.

]]> Fnarf http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/12/east_and_west#c871404 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/12/east_and_west#c871404 Arts Tue, 11 Dec 2007 14:02:05 -0800 Comment by Jubilation T. Cornball That's not Abu Dhabi. That's Dubai, complete with the wonderful Burj Al Dubai Hotel.

]]> Jubilation T. Cornball http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/12/east_and_west#c871476 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/12/east_and_west#c871476 Arts Tue, 11 Dec 2007 14:41:34 -0800 Comment by Jubilation T. Cornball Oooop -- I mean Burj Al Arab Hotel. The Burj Dubai is the new "world's tallest" skyscraper going up there...

]]> Jubilation T. Cornball http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/12/east_and_west#c871483 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/12/east_and_west#c871483 Arts Tue, 11 Dec 2007 14:42:56 -0800 Comment by kk It's not exactly our job to translate English literature into the Arabic language at taxpayer expense. Really, it's not our fault that hundreds of millions of Arabs with untold billions in petroprofits have zero interest in us or the rest of the world. (Maybe a new reality show would go over better, say, instead of "The Bachelor," "The Honor Killer"?) And yet, for some reason, people here in the U.S. beat themselves up over the fact that Arabs don't give a shit about us. WTF??

]]> kk http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/12/east_and_west#c871833 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/12/east_and_west#c871833 Arts Tue, 11 Dec 2007 21:54:25 -0800 Comment by kk Forgot to say that I wonder whether Salman Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses" was one of the 100? Well, whether it was or wasn't, maybe translation into Arabic is less a panacea than the source of the next fatwa.

]]> kk http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/12/east_and_west#c871836 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/12/east_and_west#c871836 Arts Tue, 11 Dec 2007 21:59:40 -0800 Comment by herbert browne @5 right on... I guess you don't have to carry a gun to be a bully- not that British coppers haven't shot the
"wrong guy" on occasion, too... probably thought they had Banksy, and were gonna get a medal.

@10 I only wish that "hundreds of millions of Arabs with untold billions in petroprofits have zero interest in us or the rest of the world..."- but that's crap. The oil $$ is in very few hands... & the ones that it IS in have a fair grasp of the West... especially since they invest a lot of that money on Wall Street (& bonds here & there). The ones who don't know don't have the money, either- nor the media- but al Jazeera helps some in that regard. Really, if "taxpayer expense" is a major parameter, I'm sure that a week's worth of Iraqi war outlays will cover plenty of translations- AND distribution expenses- and do an even better job of "winning hearts & minds" (like 'we' wanted hearts & minds?.. or just the oil?).
Re@10 sure- "The Honor Killer" might do well... in India & Pakistan... if you can get a distribution deal... ^..^

]]> herbert browne http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/12/east_and_west#c871873 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/12/east_and_west#c871873 Arts Tue, 11 Dec 2007 23:33:57 -0800