On Mon March 15 2004 23:19, Jeff Williams wrote: > Dave Aronson wrote: > > Jeff Williams wrote (though I get the impression he's summarizing > > other people's objections, not raising them himself, as he then > > answers them): > > I sure did, and for what should have been an obvious reason. It > seems in your case Dave, what is plainly obvious escapes you. That > is indeed a sad commentary on the IETF... Well excuuuuuuuuuse... meeeeee!!! B-P Your diatribe that I responded to, was the first appearance of this thread on the IETF list, at least according to my trash-folder. Looks like you crossposted it. If you don't want our input, then don't bother us. > > 1) The people at the UN are, generally speaking, career > > diplomats. Knowing foreign languages and cultures is part of their > > way of life. > > This is true in some UN agencies, and certainly not in others as > several are almost entirely volunteers... Fair enough. I was speaking mainly of the General Assembly delegates, though they are a minority of the entirety of UN employees, observers, etc. Even regarding the others, the UN's entire point is international cooperation for basically its own sake (even if specific agencies have more specific missions). It seems obvious to me that they will be more often people who have an interest in foreign languages, than will most other groups, even those that operate internationally. > > Even if they do not know the particular language someone else is > > speaking in, they should at least be basically familiar with the > > most popular languages of the world. > > Agreed as should most IETF'ers or ICANN'ers as they espouse to > be an international organization. I suspect that many, if not most, of us would still be here even if the network were only available in our own respective nations. (Though admittedly, it would then be less useful, especially to the smaller nations.) That it lets me also communicate with the other side of the world is great, but frankly, the vast majority of the people I communicate with via the Internet, live here in the US. So, the international aspect of it is not as important *to me* (I won't presume to speak for anyone else), as (I ass-u-me) the UN's is to its people. Again, recall that the international aspect is basically the entire point of the UN.... > So Erick in this instance should > have been easily to be able to provide an english translation as > would be in keeping with good manners. However he did not... Whatever. Remember, the IETF list did not get the background messages to which you refer. > Jeffrey A. Williams > Spokesman for INEGroup LLA. - (Over 134k members/stakeholders > strong!) "Be precise in the use of words and expect precision from > others" - Pierre Abelard "Be conservative in what you send, and liberal in what you accept." -Popular paraphrasing of Jon Postel from RFC 791 (Internet Protocol) -- Dave Aronson, Senior Software Engineer, Secure Software Inc. Email me at: work (D0T) 2004 (@T) dja (D0T) mailme (D0T) org (Opinions above NOT those of securesw.com unless so stated!) WE'RE HIRING developers, auditors, and VP of Prof. Services.