Esperanto-USA

There were two pieces of information regarding the use of Esperanto floating about the blogosphere that caught my eye in the last couple of days.

One is email from Brian Barker of Esperanto Lobby. He is spreading the news that the Universala Esperanto-Asocio has been nominated by eight British Members of Parliament for the Nobel Peace Prize for 2008. And evidently, according to someone only known to me as Amikema, by two members of the Swiss Parliament. If I read it correctly, the UEA is being credited with running a grass-roots peace movement.

When people are talking to each other, they are less likely to shoot at each other. Sounds like a great plan to me!

The other item is an article in the NewStatesmen, publised May 22, 2008, Observations on Esperanto, by Clare Provost. You can find the article here. The Libera Esperanto-Asocio en Hokkajdo seeks to use Esperanto as an information vehicle between anti-globalization activists in Japan and the rest of the world. These are people that the Japanese security forces consider to be dangerous.

Esperanto, like any other language, can be used by anybody who wants to learn it. It makes sense that people whose motivations are not entirely peaceful would eventually want to communicate with other like-minded activists in other cultures.

But it also makes sense that Esperanto would become a tool for people who oppose efforts to make everybody in the world look the same.