Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : FLAME THREAD - Post all obnoxious/derogatory comments here -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mr.Manners who wrote (7684)	11/18/1999 1:09:00 AM
From: Alan Smithee	Respond to of 12754

HUD Employee Disciplined for Housing pamphlets Lost in the translation by Sarah Mudge Night Rider Newspapers MIAMI - Kasha Meltonian, an employee of the Department of Housing and Urban Development had admirable motives when he ordered pamphlets written in Creole to inform Haitian Americans about their rights and responsibilities as residents of federally subsidized housing. Unfortunately, the nearly 5,000 pamphlets approved, published and distributed by Meltonian actually were written in an imitation Jamaican dialect. The document, titled "Rezedents Rights and Rispansabilities," was signed by HUD's top executive, "Sekretary Andrew M. Cuomo fella." "Yuh as a rezedent," the publication said, "ave di rights ahn di rispansabilities to elp mek yuh HUD-asisted owzing ah behta owme fi yuh ahn yuh fambily." "I'm flabbergasted," said Rondal Rucker, a Jamaican who is vice president of the Caribbean Bar Association in Miami. "It's so patronizing. If this is the level of sensitivity and knowledge we can expect from the government, we have a problem." Many in the Haitian community worry about future mistakes. "What hope we have for Creole translation of de census?" asked Caramel Paul, an educational talk-show host on a Haitian radio station in Miami. The pamphlet was intended to inform residents in Section 8 HUD housing of their rights and responsibilities and the resources available from HUD. Translations were printed in nine languages and Braille. Meltonian's role in the fiasco is being investigated. Haitian Creole is based on French and has been a national language of Haiti since adoption of the 1987 constitution. Jamaicans read and write standard English. The spoken Jamaican patois - the supposed language of the HUD document - uses English as its base. The many steps and mistakes before publication of the HUD pamphlet represent a new chapter in government bumbling. HUD wrote the pamphlet for publication by the Government Printing Office, the official printing arm of the U.S. government. The printing office hired a private contractor in Buffalo, N.Y., Thorner Press, to translate and print the pamphlets. Thorner subcontracted for the translations with Cosmos Translations and Interpretations, a Toronto-based translator that asked the question: Haitian or Jamaican? Although it was the wrong question to ask - Jamaican patois is not a written medium - Thorner Press did not know, and did not consult the Government Printing Office. Cosmos' owner, Marianos Georgatos, called Canada's Department of Citizenship and Immigration to ask which language was more popular. The Canadian government's answer: Jamaican. Cosmos hired a translator. Thorner sent proofs to the printing office, which passed them back to HUD. "To the best of my knowledge, this appears to be a Haiti-type Creole. OK to print," HUD employee Silvia Millier wrote on the proofs, according to the printing office. The HUD pamphlet was printed this summer, and by early fall a copy had found its way to alternative press columnist Cecil Adams at the Chicago Reader. HUD subsequently withdrew the pamphlet. Only $1,000 was spent on the pamphlet. HUD concedes that there never was a step in the process in which an external review was sought. No Creole speaker was asked to look the pamphlet over. No party involved admits it would do anything differently, if there is a next time. "We trust the GPO," said Ginny Terzano, public affairs officer at HUD. HUD apologized for any offense but is not calling the episode a mistake. Aside from the obvious errors in the pamphlet, many consider HUD's patois translation a bad one. "It would be just as hard for a Jamaican to read as it is for us," said Tometro Hopkins, a linguist specializing in creole languages at Florida International University. The word "creole" is a technical term used by linguists when pidgin languages - occurring when two groups with no common language try to communicate - are passed on to children. The second generation adds the grammar and syntax to the pidgin, making it a creole. "This is just English with an accent," Hopkins said of the HUD pamphlet.