Saturday, September 13, 1997
I want to start by telling you how much I appreciate your magazine each week. But I was shocked to read about the PQ government and the Office de la Langue Francaise (NSD 3.26). I think this text was lacked respect for French speakers, who have the right to be served in their own language. The French Language Charter says a company based in Quebec, with a commercial Web site dedicated to products and customers in Quebec, should have both an English and a French site, and not only English.
It's as simple as that. The Charter doesn't regulate content, nor does it censor. We francophones can understand that a Pepsi site, for instance, is only in English. But a Quebec-based company should offer a site in both languages, to allow everyone access in their own language. That makes a big difference from my point of view!
And remember, the above rule does not apply to non-commercial messages - such as those of a religious, ideological, or humanitarian nature - which may be drafted exclusively in any language. Cultural and educational products may also be advertised exclusively in the language used in the product. English media Web sites could, for instance, use English exclusively, without violating the Charter.
Please, ask your "reporters" to not merely repeat opinions. Invite surfers to go and see by themselves, allowing them to make their own opinion. For the rest, continue your good work.
Andre Campeau
Thanks for the kind words, but I have to disagree with you somewhat. No one has an innate human right to be served in any language, merely the desire. If I walk into a 7-11 in San Jose and the guy at the counter only speaks Chinese, that's too bad for me. But I have the right not to patronize him again. Through commercial "natural selection", shops that do not offer service in English will lose business and may eventually be forced to close unless they adapt.
Of course, that store could be in Chinatown, where it would thrive regardless of my opinion or my economic boycott. And if it does thrive, then it is probably filling a required niche and should not be forced to have English speaking clerks - though they would provide an advantage, no doubt.
In any case, if I want to be served in English, I go to stores who will do that by their own free will in a free market. But it is not my right.
Also, the charter says these sites must by law have French:
"The Office considers that commercial material on Web sites, as well as that sent by fax or electronic mail, also falls under section 52, which amounts to saying that the use of French is compulsory whether the advertising medium is paper or electronic."
I agree it probably should - by choice, not law - have both French and English, but that's not what the charter says.
I don't care about special cases and whatnot. In the US and most Western democracies, the Net is a free medium operating without government intervention (with the exception of felonies and other real crimes) and netsurfers fight to keep it that way. In China, Singapore, Vietnam, and other countries, the government enforces restrictions on Net use. Between these two extremes lies the government in Quebec. The point of the article is that such attempts are doomed to failure in the face of minimally dedicated opposition.
NSD is not and never has claimed to be unbiased. Most of our articles are, after all, reviews. In this case, we wrote: "Another brilliant PQ idea is mandatory French on commercial Web pages. This charter was toned down severely after criticism, but even in its present state, we'll let it speak for itself. May the Net recognize all censorship as damage and route around it."
We say the statement will provide its own commentary. But censorship - government intervention in free communication - is unquestionably occurring. - LN
Bravo on your commentary on the Quebecois Office de la Langue Francaise!
Sam McLauchlan
I would like to point out a mistake that slid into NSD 3.26.
"That Wacky Quebecois Government" contains a mistake: "While the ruling separatist Parti Quebecois (PQ) shuts hospitals and passes tax burdens on to municipalities, it has a spare $5 million to feed their Office de la Langue Francaise (OLF)...."
That is incorrect. The Quebec government is not the one closing hospitals and passing tax burdens to municipalities. That government is in fact Mike Harris's, Ontario's premier.
Quebec hasn't started the massive cutbacks that Ontario is suffering through right now (though one suspects it will sooner or later).
The rest of the article is correct though. Thanks for the exposure, for quite a few of us are irate at these events. Keep up the good work!
Jean-Francois Poirier - Montreal, Quebec
Montreal's Queen Elizabeth hospital was shut, as were a few others. Furthermore, temporary summer cutbacks in Montreal operating rooms have now been made permanent.
I quote from the Montreal Gazette's editorial page: "The (Quebec) government's said in June it would download $500 million in expenses to Quebec's 1,240 municipalities starting January 1." I've lost the date, but that came out in August.
I don't think the info is at heart incorrect, though I agree it could have been made more clearly given a longer article.- LN
I have enjoyed reading NSD for a long time, have recommended it in my columns, and have a link to it on my personal Web page. In the latest edition, however, I was really disappointed to see an item titled "The Wacky Quebecois Government", even more disappointed after reading it.
Equating business regulations and censorship, you are threading a very fine line. The surest assertion is that as average Americans, which no doubt you are yourselves, you "have but dim knowledge of the language debate in Canada's province of Quebec."
Your comments, rather the tone in which they are formulated, reflect a miscomprehension of the situation and a total lack of information on the context.
Last May, a barrage of half truths about Quebec in the American press prompted me to write to our "American Friends".
I don't make a habit of engaging in polemics like the ones some so-called newspersons are trying to foster. I have much better use for my precious time. But I felt then the situation had gone far enough.
You contend that "May the Net recognize all censorship as damage and route around it". Since I started publishing my e-zine in 1994, I have always championed freedom of speech on the Internet (and elsewhere). I do, however, have a big problem with inaccurate and biased coverage of events.
I believe that the "Wacky Quebecois Government" title in Netsurfer Digest casts a serious doubt on the reliability of information one can read elsewhere in your publication and discredits your "More Signal, Less Noise" motto.
Jean-Pierre Cloutier - Les Chroniques de Cyberie
Among our staff, one is from Ontario, two live in Quebec, one is in the UK, one is in Australia, and the rest are scattered across the US from Boston to Santa Cruz. A Quebecer wrote the article.
Note that the word "Quebecois" is here used to described which government, and does not pertain to the population of Quebec. - LN
Of course I'm biased (and I myself wrote the article). NSD thrives on bias. We've never pretended to be even-handed, and we are after all, a review publication. But no fact in the article is inaccurate. - LN
The tone you use is what displeases me. The use of the "ruling" attribute for the party forming the present government in Quebec is usually reserved for dictatorial states. Have you often seen it to describe the Democrat or Republican parties in the US, or the Liberal or Conservative parties in Canada?
While the allusion to the funding crisis in the health system, shared by other provinces like Ontario, might puzzle Americans who still debate the virtues of universal health care, and that the same funding crisis affecting municipalities here can trigger images of the city of Washington going bankrupt, your comments reflect an unhealthy bias. The OLF does not fine citizens, as you state, it fines businesses (very seldom, in fact) for contravening a law. You may not like the law, but observe that no elected party in Quebec in the last 30 years (Union Nationale, Liberal, or Parti Quebecois) has ever backed down on language laws.
You say you strive on bias. Good for you and for the readers you may entertain but not necessarily better inform.
Jean-Pierre Cloutier
At least we agree on health care.... I mean no offense by the use of the word "ruling". I use it to describe any political party in office.
Many of the businesses fined by the OLF have been small, run by individuals and families who have to pay fines out of their own pockets. In fact when one such businessman took appealed his fine to the Quebec Court of Appeal and won, the Quebec government appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada and lost. That court ruled the law (Bill 101 at the time) violated constitutional guarantees of free expression.
Setting aside that ruling (to make Canadian constitutional law short), Premier Bourassa established Bill 178, which prohibited all outdoor bilingualism and permitted limited bilingualism indoors. In 1993, when a United Nations' human rights committee ruled that 178 violated the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Quebec government relented somewhat and adopted Bill 86, which allowed bilingual signs outdoors so long as French was predominant.
So the government has inched back on language, even if it took a heck of a lot of pressure. - LN
I could't more agree with Jean-Pierre Cloutier. I also have a big problem with inaccurate and biased coverage of events.
Christian Bernier
Jean-Pierre had posted his open letter on his site, thus the volume of mail we got from non-subscribers. - LN
If you are trying to enlighten our American friends about the political situation in Canada and Quebec your approach is definitely poor. Why don't you stop portraying Quebec as the worst place on earth. It may be for a narrow minded person, but if OLF were really persecuting half the population of Montreal, they would all be gone by now. If Cantonese was to become the predominant language in British Columbia, would you feel you have a right to take measures to limit its use? I am not a fan of OLF, and I do criticize them often but there are limits.
Not only do we have to fight bigotry from the PQ government but from people like you. I would like to point out that your silly, incomplete, ill-advised "editorials" greatly contribute to the cause of the separatists. You are, in a way, their allies. Keep spreading your message of hatred and we will all end up paying up the price of your own fanaticism.
For your info, the OLF has back-tracked on their attempt to force Web sites in Quebec to be bilingual. They eventually realized how silly they looked.
I often say to my separatist friends that they have a tendency to put all Canadians in the same bag as if Canada were only one monolithic block. I think I can tell you the same. Have you ever visited Montreal, the rest of Quebec, or the rest of Canada? If so, it does not show. Each region of Canada has its own culture and contributes to the greatness of this country. What is your contribution as an individual? Hatred, lack of generosity, self-righteousness? Tell us in your next review.
Philippe Rendak - Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Guess what? I'm a Montreal native. One of the things I have watched is a fantastic exodus of thousands of anglophone Montrealers "down the 401", i.e. to Toronto in the last 20 years.- LN
When you don't have the slightest clue of what your writing, don't write anything. I never heard of your writings before this stupid article, and I can see I didn't miss much. Learning about the facts that leads to actions like the PQ Goverment is taking in Quebec could make you understand a little more about why all these things are happening right now. Oh, and by the way, "censorship" is not allowing to freely write or say your thoughts, that's not what the Quebec government is doing. They are merely saying that you have to write it or say it in French too! Where's the censorship? They are encouraging the anglophones of Quebec to put their ideas in French too. Don't put it only in English, put it in French too (are you beginning to get it?). Say what you want but not only in English. Again, where is the censorship? Where did you come up with this?
Try this (that's it, take a deep breath, it's good for practicing basic concentration): you know nothing, you write nothing. Or is this to wacky for you?
Either this or you wanted to get the attention of a larger audience: English Canada. That would make sense. Anyways, enough time lost here. Nice piece of crap you posted.
Iric Piloquin
I am highly disappointed by the article titled "That Wacky Quebecois Government". I believe that what you say is caused by pure ignorance, since many Americans don't realize that people in Quebec just try to keep their culture alive.
I'm not against the freedom of speech, but I just don't like to see the media give incorrect information to its readers.
Dominic Duval
Please do not adopt a tabloid attitude toward the internal political problems of another country. Rather, your readers would be better served by a more in-depth analysis of the historical and factual elements involved in the Quebec language dispute. What the majority of Canadians are looking for is the peaceful co-existence of the two main languages: English and French. Not the promotion of one to the detriment of the other.
Etienne Sepulchre
Aren't laws that state that the English on public signs must be half the size of the French promoting one language to the detriment of the other? - LN
Qui etes-vous pour affirmer tout cela?
Quelle connaissance avez-vous du Quebec pour dire de telle annerie? Quel est votre niveau d'analyse politique du Quebec? Quel est votre formation pour en arriver a de tel commentaire? Quel droit vous avez pour propager une telle propagande? Pour qui vous prenez vous?
Richard Vezina - Montreal
That's true, maybe you are like the average American; you don't know nothing about nothing but you have an opinion on everything. You rule everything, being of the most powerful country of the world, but you don't try to understand anything or any other people outside of your own courtyard. You have your own little world and you don't care about nothing else. Under the cover of political correctness you try to tell others to think and behave as you do and as you want.
Americans, and you among all, are pretentious and self-important. When they don't understand something they make fun about it or misrepresent the reality. So it does not surprise me when you have those wacky commentaries on the language debate in Quebec, you don't even try to understand what it is all about. French Quebecers are fighting for their cultural survival in Anglo-Saxon North America. We simply don't want to become the Cajuns of the North, we don't want Quebec to become another Louisiana where the French-speaking people have mostly disappeared a long time ago. So even in the world of the Internet we try to be innovative by creating and using French words to translate the supposedly universal language that is imposing itself in the world of virtual reality and new technologies.
Je suis fier d'etre francophone, d'etre quebecois et nationaliste. Et je me moque perdument de savoir si je fais des erreurs en anglais, au moins je fais l'effort de m'exprimer dans cette langue! Try to read and understand that.... Vive la langue francaise!
Gilbert Martin - Montreal, Quebec
A few weeks ago, a representative of the Partenaires pour la Souverainite said the French Language Charter "has been remarkably successful at making French the language of work in Quebec and at integrating the children of immigrants into the French milieu." (Montreal Gazette, Aug. 25, 1997; p. A1)
Louise Beaudoin, Quebec minister for language and culture, wrote, "The French language has gained its rightful place in the business and financial communities... and on public signs. Today no-one can maintain, as was the case in the past, that French is a secondary language unsuited to serious business. The Charter of the French Language has enabled Quebecers to secure their place at all echelons of business. The discrepancies between the incomes of french- and English-speaking Quebecers, whihc used to favour English speakers, have by and large disappeared." (Montreal Gazette, Aug. 26, 1997; p. B3)
Yet at Complexe Guy Favreau, the OLF tells storekeepers they will be fined because the English directory is the same size as the French. Meanwhile, a unilingual Chinese sign is OK, because, and I paraphrase what a storekeeper said the OLF officer said here, "We're really only after the English."
I have nothing but positive feelings for the French Net translation page at the OLF site, and the review expressed that. If you can set aside your defensive rage for a moment, you'd see that.
There's nothing wrong with pride or francophones. Neither is there anything wrong with promoting your language. However it is not a zero sum game, and promotion of one does not need to and should not come at the expense of others. - LN
Your little article about Quebec is really stupid. I suggest that you come here to see how it really works. If you want to stay serious, start writing some real stuff.
Francois Nadeau
The horrible things you hear about Quebec are all coming from the English community in Quebec or elsewhere in Canada. They don't want Quebec to be an independent country, so they attack nastily the Quebec government and all the separatists (50% of the population). If you want to be fair, you will read information from the French press in Quebec.
Please, stay outside of the Quebec-bashing campaign till you get a more complete picture of the situation.
Daniel Bedard - Montreal
Campaign? We publish one article on Quebec's Net policy and it turns into a Quebec-bashing campaign? Grow a skin.
And who says I don't read the French press. That Lise Bissonette, she's sure impartial and fair.... By the way, a poll reported in l'Actualite this week puts support for Quebec sovereignty at 34%, with 43% against and 23% undecided. - LN
Please remove me from your mailing list.
I've generally enjoyed your content in the past, but there's no way I'll let myself and my country be insulted by your gross, ignorant, and racist comments on the Quebec government and people in this issue.
Before I leave, I'd like to mention a few facts.
- The PQ government was democratically elected and has the support of a majority of the population in this. Thus your criticism is racist: it attacks indiscriminately the whole of French Quebec, without making any of the necessary distinctions.
- For decades, all efforts at obtaining voluntary cooperation from English Canada and Quebec's English population to preserve and enhance French culture here have been ignored or reviled. The language law was adopted reluctantly, after bitter debate, most people being forced to admit there was no alternative.
- The rules about English make explicit exceptions for all cultural activities, organizations, and content. Quebec's English population enjoys far greater advantages than the minorities of Canada's other provinces, bar none. Ontario is shutting down its only French-language hospital, serving half a million tax-paying citizens. Funny, you don't talk about this. Because Ontario is English-speaking?
- If your brand of political correctness means that preserving Florida's alligators and California killer whales is much more important than letting threatened human cultures and societies survive, please allow us not to applaud our own funeral. Your laws protecting endangered species are far more stringent, and far more restrictive of liberties (those of hunters, taxidermists, handbag makers, and whalers) than ours.
Apologies to Quebec's people and government are much overdue.
Yves Leclerc - Montreal
Yves CC'd this August 23 letter to Louise Beaudoin, the aforementioned Quebec minister for language and culture. I wonder if she cared. I did, however, mistakenly file his letter away without unsubscribing him, hence the following letter. - LN
I'm still receiving your hate-mongering publication, though I asked you to strike my name from your lists. Please don't spam me again. I've yet to see your apology for the racist slurs against Quebec. We're entitled to at least equal treatment with Basque terrorists.
Yves Leclerc
Sorry, I put your original letter in the Letters to the Editor mailbox, so I didn't see your unsubscribe request. I'll do that now. But if you'd looked at the latest Letters to the Editor, you'd see that I promised to deal with Quebec mail in the next issue (i.e right here).
If you think criticism of a government policy is racist, you have zero idea how democracy works. Not once did our article attack the prevalence of French in Quebec or French Quebecois. We criticized the policies of the government passing of and enforcment of language laws in the face of crippling budget deficits. I guess by your definition Jean Chretien, Pierre Trudeau, Jean Charest, and other francophone critics of PQ policy must all be self-loathing.
Your CC'd Minister Beaudoin has recently written that the "French language has gained its rightful place...." (q.v.) Isn't it time to call off the OLF and let Quebec's minorities coexist in peace?
When you say that "Quebec's English population enjoys far greater advantages than the minorities of Canada's other provinces, bar none," you are bandying about an old rationalization for Quebec's language laws. What advantages do anglophones enjoy that isn't available to other minorities? Of those advantages, which are attributable to the Quebec government? Isn't the best treated minority in Canada the French population of Quebec, which maintains the right to summarily dismiss the judgments of the national Supreme Court?
We didn't mention Ontario because Ontario would allow any French-only Web page to be posted to a server in Toronto. Our focus is not Canadian politics, it is the Web - though when the first intersects the second, we report it.
When you say "your brand of political correctness", who is "you"? Nothing here says French Quebecois culture should not be preserved, but you don't need to limit other cultures to do so. Why not outlaw French translations of Seinfeld on TV? They are allowed, but non-French boxes of Passover goods aren't? That's a curious way to preserve a culture. - LN
Your reaction shows how biased you are against Quebec. There are no crippling budget deficits. A zero-deficit policy is being implemented, and will have succeeded within two years. The money spent on language policy is a drop in the bucket (from memory, about $5 million in a $3 billion budget) and was reduced much more than the average budget cuts in other sectors in past years.
It's unfortunately not "time to call off the OLF and let Quebec's minorities coexist in peace". In fact, they do coexist in peace - much better so than before the laws, since all communities now have a common language to exchange in instead of living in separate ghettos as you deem preferable and which is what Quebec's English-speaking elite is trying to go back to under the thinly disguised excuse of its "right" to ghettoize immigrants.
You didn't deal with the fact that the language law only affects commercial advertising, not personal communications or cultural activities. You may consider ads and catalogues sacred expressions of freedom; we don't. Newspapers, radio and TV stations, libraries, publishers, and theaters operate legally in English only. English-only cultural and personal Web pages abound and are left alone.
Among the rights English Quebecers have that are not current in the rest of the country: all (provincial) government services in their own language; subsidized cultural institutions in English; right to trial in their own language; and their own school districts controlled by their own elected representatives. Of course, that's nothing compared to the sacred right to post computer ads on the Net in English. I'll miss some of your information, but your answer is ridiculously inadequate. It shows a knee-jerk belief in "new liberal" propaganda and a willingness to swallow any "freedom of expression" bullshit without getting to the bottom of the question. Who the hell are your sources? Objective informants or French-hating propagandists? Have you ever looked at the other side? Ask yourself these questions. At first, I thought you were only ill-informed. Your answer showed me you're prejudiced.
Yves Leclerc
As noted above, the government of Quebec is downloading $500 million in expenses to Quebec municipalities (which would otherwise be a deficit totalling one seventh of its total budget). In this situation, the $5 million spent on the OLF is $5 million too much - but this is just an opinion, frankly.
I think you're confusing our criticism of the method with criticism of the results. When it comes to rights and freedoms, democracies are based on the principle of equality - all rights and freeedoms apply equally to all citizens. The problem with Quebec's approach is not that it favours French, but that it suppresses other languages at the same time. A law saying English text must be half the size of French text on any sign doesn't strike you as petty and mean-spirited?
In any case, that sort of thing should not be legislated, but should come about as the result of the citizens - sort of a cultural evolution, described above. In that way, everyone gets the sort of service he or she wants or needs. Had this been the only way Quebec culture evolved since 1920, French Quebecois culture would have been marginalized to rural Quebec, but the Quiet Revolution and Bill 101 remedied that. Though I disagree with his politics, I can recognize that Rene Levesque did what was necessary at the time.
Now, though, no-one can seriously say Quebecois culture is threatened, and it's just not necessary to crack down inside Quebec.
By the way, isn't there a regulation that any movie must be available in French before it can be shown in English in Quebec?
When you sarcastically pointed out that NSD is interested primarily in "the sacred right to post computer ads on the Net in English," you're right. NSD's focus is the Net. That in particular is what we care about.
My sources for the article were the Quebec budget and the post at the OLF site, on which we commented. Any additional discussion relates back purely to your own defensiveness which, I might add, seems bottomless. Go back and read everything I've written. It's not quite what you accuse me of having written. - LN
Let's stop it there. You insist on harping upon the straw in our eye rather than the I-beam in yours. Insensitivity to real minorities' plight is a much bigger sin than slight offences to pampered ones.
Yves Leclerc
Excuse me? This is another assertation of yours that you seem to have plucked out of thin air. What proof do you have that I, or NSD, has shown insensitivity to any minority's plight? Does NSD cover massacres in Algeria, or Bosnia? No - not because we're insensitive, but because it has no relevance to our mission to our readers. You keep arguing against your own demons, and not against what I have truly written. - LN
The only meaningful thing you've said is "That Wacky Quebecois Government." It is precisely what I'm arguing against. The gist of my answer was in my first post: after more than a decade of very painful discussion among the whole population, we came to the conclusion that there was no other way, and we gave the government a mandate to do it. So we're all wacky... and you're racist.
You're trying to make me admit that letting foreign corporations dictate what language I'm going to work in and read in my own house is the only way of respecting freedom of expression and anything else is "wacky"? Have it your way, but I'm not playing.
By the same token, you defend a few Cuban dissidents and forget the persecution of their whole people for nearly 40 years by your own government - over which you've lost control. "Because that's not on the Web" is one of the silliest excuses I've ever heard for passing the bucket.
You live in virtual reality and talk about my "demons"? At least they're real, and I' coping with them. Take care of yours before presuming to give others lessons in democracy.
Yves Leclerc
I am against the policies of the current Quebec government, not against any race or creed. And anyone trying to make the Net knuckle under is wacky - it just cannot be done. If I'd written a headline like "Those Backwards French Canadians", you'd have a point - but I didn't. The headline clearly targets the government, as indicated by that word, "government".
Furthermore, I am not trying to make you submit to foreigners. I am saying you should protect your language without repressing your fellow Quebecers. And when did I defend Cubans? Or even mention them? Are you talking in general about the US? I personally am not American, nor do I live in the US (that was the first time I told Yves that).
Saying that we won't cover an issue because it's not on the Web is not silly, it's the nature of targeting your audience. Our readers either don't give a flying - errr, don't care about massacred Algerians, or they do and get their news about it elsewhere.
I'm trying to take care of my demons. You're the best one to pop up this week. (No, that's not a racist comment, either.) - LN
My deepest apologies in assuming you were American. You sounded self-righteous enough.
Just one question: in what way is a single Quebec citizen being "repressed" because business communications have to be written so as to be understood by the majority of the people? Citizens can say what they want in whatever language they choose. Can you give me a single example of a citizen (not a corporation) being sued or harassed, or in any way blocked from saying what she wants because of this?
Yves Leclerc
What about Montreal's Jewish community during Passover last year? Cracking down on kosher for Passover foods was harassment.
I made an error in my last message, though. I didn't mean to write "I am saying you should protect your language without repressing your fellow Quebecers." I meant to write "...your fellow Quebecers' languages." What I meant to refer to was the ruling that English must be only 1/2 the size of French on a sign. It's demeaning. - LN
You're badly informed there. The Jewish community suffered nothing. I live in an 80% Jewish neighborhood, and the food was on the shelves everywhere for the whole of the period. Its vendors were penalized for not respecting the law. Quite different. Once again, you swallow hateful propaganda uncritically. BTW, I thought Hebrew, rather than English, was their religious language? Guess I'm badly informed too.
The law about the size of characters on the signs is demeaning, as you say. No argument there from anyone in Quebec. Just wish it was possible to do otherwise without penalizing the majority, about half of whom cannot read English. Everyone must do things they don't like occasionally, but they don't appreciate strangers butting in to remind them of it in the grossest fashion without even understanding why.
The point is, for at least 15 years prior to that, education campaigns and discussions about voluntary compromise went on with the English community to try to avoid this, to no avail. Their rule (and their vision of freedom which you seem to share) was simple: if the boss is English, everything is, and too bad for you. I lived through this... at CBC Montreal.
Our way, at least, you get half a loaf (or half a character-size?). More seriously, I think once a whole generation has passed through the process and begun educating its own children in a different mentality, the law will be unnecessary. Or when Quebec becomes independent, whichever comes first. In the meanwhile, kids whose families used to stay hostilely apart in linguistic/ethnic blocs now play together (mostly in French, but occasionally in English, Russian, Polish, Spanish, Yiddish, Vietnamese, and Arabic, too) in the park across from my window.
You'd rather some formal freedom were outwardly preserved, even if underneath the old hatreds survived, rather than the opposite. I tend to disagree... and am much happier with the current situation than the one that prevailed in Montreal when I got here 37 years ago.
Yves Leclerc
Passover vendors had one choice: keep the shelves stocked and be penalized or remove the goods and force the Jewish community to do without. I think they chose wisely. And Hebrew is the Jewish religious language, but the major Jewish goods manufacturing plants in North America are in New York. Their packaging is bilingual - English and Hebrew. The Canadian government - which as you know also requires bilingual packaging - allows a no-compliance window of 90 days for Passover products. Recently, the Quebec government agreed to a similar measure alsting for 60 days.
Want to know how it's possible to maintain a French presence without demeaning minorities? The law should state that French be present in characters at least as large as any other language. That's it. Done. French is everywhere, and each linguistic/ethnic group can do whatever else they want as well.
Whatever the case 15, 20, or 100 years ago, that is not the case now. Change needed to come, and it did. But now, the laws infringe on the rights of citizens, and hatreds are alive and well and occasionally, at least, in power, as shown by Premier Jacques Parizeau's speech following the separatist loss in the latest referendum. Further exclusion of non-francophones arose recently when world-famous Quebecois authors like Leonard Cohen and Mordechai Richler were not found to be among the 101 Quebec authors most worthy of having an island named after them.
Nor do I think Quebec will become independent, but that's a different topic entirely. - LN
I have to write about "Basque Site Back Online" (NSD 3.28). Please try to be accurate when you write about murder. I could suggest corrections for just about every phrase.
Taking just the first: "After Basque separatist terrorists killed a popular Spanish politician in July, hackers subjected the Web site of pro-Basque newspaper Euskal Herria Journal (EHJ) to a denial of service attack."
The "popular Spanish politician" was a completely unknown young town councillor in a small Basque town, he was murdered tied to a tree with three shots in the head.
"Hackers" - I (as many others) sent a single e-mail pointing out the contradiction of a site dedicated to peace with open support of murder. This has nothing to do with hacking or censorship.
"...Pro-Basque newspaper Euskal Herria Journal" - EHJ is not pro Basque, EHJ is pro-ETA terrorism. I am afraid to say this subject has more to do with the right to live (in peace) than freedom of speech, I am afraid that it is your ignorance that is giving publicity to EHJ. Does any of this make any sense to you?
Peter Hodgson
I agree that describing the politician as "popular" may have aggrandized his original national reknown, but your other complaints are inaccurate. Beyond regular citizens such as yourself, organized hackers did in fact attempt to shut down the EHJ site. "Apart from legitimate protest messages, attacks were carried out on IGC Web and electronic mail servers with the goal of shutting them down. This is a well known (and in many countries, prosecutable) type of disruption that falls in the category of "denial-of-service" attacks.... Many people sending huge numbers of mail messages ("electronic mail-bombs") disguised the messages so that they could not be traced back to the perpetrators." (GLIC page linked at the end the article we published)
The difference between being a terrorist and freedom to support them is illustrated with another quote from the GLIC page: "We understand that a large segment of the Spanish public feel outrage toward the recent assassination of Miguel Angel Blanco by the Basque separatist organization Euskadi Ta Askatasuna. However, the presentation of political viewpoints is a matter of free speech, independent of the physical actions of an organization. Governments can and do prosecute for acts of violence without suppressing the defendant's right to discuss political viewpoints." - LN
Don't get me wrong. I support independence for the Basque country. I just cannot agree that it should come about "by any means".
IF is certainly responsible for providing a public forum to people who support killers. Freedom of speech is not a right when it conflicts with the right to life in freedom. Look what people now seem to think about paparazzi. What do you think Spanish internauts think of IF?
Jordi Espunya
While we do often take a non-biased attitude in our articles, this one - up to the last sentence - just reports the facts.
We're certainly not supporting terrorism, or even the speech of terrorists. It is not our ignorance that publicizes the EHJ, it was the Net attacks upon their site. We would not have covered the site had there been no relevant Net aspect. Like the Quebec policies, these Net attacks are ultimately futile and senseless and that is the point behind our coverage.
Spaniards no doubt think very little of IF, but the Net is so loosely constructed that attempts to shut down persisitent sites are doomed to failure. It's much better to let them sit in oblivion than to root them out. NSD never covers white supremacy or neo-Nazi sites, for example, because although their presence is worthy of an investigative report, the publicity they gain makes it a losing proposition in the end. - LN
The last two sentences are where no facts are reported: "Will these people never learn?"
I've been a subscriber of yours long enough to know that you don't support terrorism. I'm just sick of statements from IF and the strange coverage the US media have done to what happened at that Web site.
I see your point. I even agree. But after a few people let rage dominate them and made denial-of-service attacks on IF's server, what did I see reported in the Internet media? The terrorists are those attacking IF. Maybe. They haven't murdered anyone, though.
We cannot help but suspect that if the ETA had kidnapped and killed an American citizen, international media coverage would has been dramatically different.
One irony: IF is proud to display a blue ribbon as a sign of support for freedom of speech. Do you know what this same blue ribbon means in Spain? "ETA, stop killings now." People get hurt in Basque Country for wearing them on their clothes....
What disgusted me was that NSD did not give links to Spanish Web sites that explain what happened. I just did not like how NDS treated this topic. I just wanted to let you know.
Jordi Espunya
I think your publication is an excellent resource for anyone on the Net. You all do a great job sending out very useful information. NSD is well written and you deserve alot of credit. Great job!
Chris Hixon
I have been enjoying the digest for some time without ever sending a note of thanks for the subscription. I enjoy information very much. Thank you.
Richard Kellerhouse - Carrollton, Texas
This is just to thank you for checking out my Web site and reviewing it in your electronic magazine. I am very, very happy.... Wait till I brag to my friends!
Ezekiel J. Krahlin
Grogg here. Grogg thank Netsurfer for shameless plug for Grogg. Grogg just want set record straight in regard to Neanderthals. Neanderthals still here, not leave. Grogg suspect DNA turn bad after many years and not provide good sample for test, just like chicken left out on table.
Grogg wish Netsurfer good luck in quest for truth and once again, Grogg thank Netsurfer for shameless plug.
Grogg
Are past issues available on line somewhere? I wish I'd have saved my first issues. I have been a subscriber for a while.
Also, is there a way to tell if the ads I get in my mailbox are just run of the mill spam or from one of your advertisers? I wouldn't object to them because, as your FAQ says, you've got to pay your bills somehow. I have been forwarding all ads I receive to my ISP's spam department. I hope that the ads for mass e-mail software used by spammers is not one of your advertisers. If it is from your advertisers, I hope you would consider the ethics of carrying the advertising for such despicable products. Thanks.
Joe Milon
Back issues are available at our Web site (Back Issues button) or via FTP. Unless it says Netsurfer on it somewhere, it's not from us (and we don't give out our mailing lists). In fact, we haven't even sent a NS Marketplace for a while. Banner ads seem to be the rage now. - LN
I wanted to compliment you on using more coherent wording in your table of contents. Even though I appreciate and often indulge creativity with words, the effect your previous approach had was for me to bypass the whole issue. I didn't have the patience to sift through the whole mailing and so I just deleted. Now, I'l happily jump to the paragraph and can still enjoy the linguistic creativity. Good move.
Mark Alan Zilberman
Editing in action.
I was moving cross country during the assembly of NSD 3.25 and subsequent issues, and I couldn't always foist my fascist editing principles upon them. My replacement wasn't quite as severe as I am, but I'm back and ready to wield the whip and butcher knife again. - LN
I find the flashing adverts in your latest issue the last straw and have sent in my unsubscribe notice. You have the vehicle to send surfers to all the crassly commercial sites you want. Why spoil it with your own flashing distractions? It's been fun.
Bob Van Horn
There is this minor issue of money to pay all the writers who do it more for love then any commercial gain. Sounds like you thought you were getting it for free.... Adios! - AB
I really appreciate your service, but the fact that there are now ads on your HTML pages is not really useful.
In order to download the ads, a network connection is established, so I have to pay for going online even though NSD is an offline service when received via e-mail.
Bernhard Jodeleit
The ads are useful to us. They pay some of the bills around here. To keep from connecting automatically, turn off image downloading in your browser and you won't have to connect. Or disconnect the auto-connect feature (which I'd imagine to be very annoying anyway). - AB
It used to be, I would just save my HTML NSD and open the file with Netscape and it would work fine.
Now, the browser just opens it like a text file and does not interpret it as HTML. I use Eudora (on a Mac), and upgraded recently, so I suspect that has to do with the problem.
What do I do now? Is there something set up wrong in Eudora? Or are you sending out Netsurfer in some new configuration? Please help.
Dennis Sustare
This is easy, but not at all intuitive. The latest greatest Eudoras (on Mac anyway) come with a retarded HTML implementation. When you save normally, Eudora for some reason saves an interpreted version of the file rather than everything as is.
The remedy is simple. Before you save, open the incoming NSD and click the "blah blah blah" button in the message's task bar. This uninterprets the HTML and you can then save it so it again looks nice in a browser. - LN
It seems as though the link to the news.com story regarding PGP 5.0 bug ("Serious Pgp 5.0 Bug Found, Workaround Available", NSD 3.28) should be: http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,13853,00.html
Ed Ewing
You know, CNet apparently never read the URL spec which clearly states that commas are not allowed in URLs. This also breaks our formatting software. We have to go in and fix this manually whenever we feature a CNet link. Sometimes we forget. It's all very annoying. - AB
In NSD 3.26, you described Bose as "one of the big names in speakers" and called its site "slick, corporate, and for audiophiles."
Slick and corporate, maybe. Not for audiophiles but for the Circuit City crowd. Bose, the most advertised name in audio, appears to be a marketing company that makes speakers. Occasionally an audiophile magazine will review a Bose product, just for laughs.
Chris Leck
This evening I read NSD 3.27. I was not to happy with the Ambit site. Although it looked promising, my disappointment arose when I left the pages and its music followed me. The tinny piano was not to my liking. Also it took forever to load and even some of the listings had moved or were not available. I think it behooves designers to double check to make sure that everything is up and running before it is turned loose.
Linda Darwent
Having just read the NSD column in the Sept. 2 issue of "Bay Area Computer Currents", I thought I'd pass along my experience with Study Web.
As the editor of a site focusing on computer-assisted language learning, I was recently thrilled to find a link to my site from Study Web. However, upon closer inspection, I realized that they were bringing my content into their frameset.
I find this objectionable for many reasons: primarily I see it as copyright infringement, especially since they are a commercial site - and one which produces nothing but links to content for which they pay nothing while earning advertising revenue from their sponsors.
Since the sponsor of my site, the UC-Berkeley's College Writing Programs, has a strict policy which forbids any hint of commerciality on pages within their domain, I was forced to write to the administrators of Study Web and ask that they remove my site from their frameset. Since they were not willing to add a link outside of their frames (which they could easily have done - I even provided them with the one line of HTML to do the trick), I had no other choice but to ask that they remove any mention of my site from their listing, which they did.
It's now been 3 months since then and I am disappointed to see that they still haven't changed this policy of adding the work of other authors and educators within their frameset.
I would encourage all responsible netsurfers to write to the creators of Study Web, at webmaster@studyweb.com, and demand that they stop this practice and to avoid the site entirely until they do so.
Jim Duber
I really enjoy receiving your news each week. Have you considered adding a segment on useful or interesting research sites? It would be very helpful to those of us that use the Web to gather statistics and information on various industries, products, companies, etc.
Alan Lobock
We're thinking of spinning off another Netsurfer e-zine or two, and there might be a place for such a section if we do a science/education vehicle. NSD right now tries to strike a balance and there isn't much clamor for such sites, though we will occasionally throw one in the mix. - LN
THE UNIVERSE
E=MC^2
The equation for the atom bomb. It says that matter and energy are the same thing. So then what is that?
Matter - look at a brick. It's in a three-dimensional form. It's made of electrons, protons, and neutrons (atoms) and they are moving, so the brick is moving.
Energy - sunlight. It's in a three-dimensional form. It comes to us from the sun, therefore it is moving. Three-dimensional and moving.
Both matter and energy are three-dimensional and moving. I outproduce Einstein. We already know all matter is affected by gravity. The bending of light shows that energy is affected by gravity also. So matter and energy are three-dimensional and moving within gravity. The universe is made of matter, energy, time, and space. That just stated is the matter and energy part.
Time and space. Take everything in the universe and stop it. Does time progress? No. Therefore time is the motion, and the understanding of all the motion is the understanding of all of time. Space, it ends. Space does not go on forever. Space is in a three-dimensional form. It moves, but does not have gravity. Space moves like this: O /\ + \/ O
And that is the understanding of all of time.
O This is what was first in the beginning.
/\ This is the old kings and queens.
+ This is democracy.
\/ This is socialism.
O This is when the Lord Jesus Christ returns.
And that is the understanding of the universe. Glory be to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Revelations chapters 10 and 11, 15 - 19. It is very important the people receive this information. You may tell someone about this.
Robert Lavelle
Address your letters to
editor@netsurf.com.
Letters and signatures edited for clarity and brevity.