7178:CreoleTrans Looking for Translators / and a reply to Simidor and some comments on Creole translations

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2001 19:51:59 -0800 (PST)
From: Faidherbe Boyer <fedob@yahoo.com>
To: Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>
Subject: CreoleTrans Looking for Translators

All those interested in earning some EXTRA CASH from
home
translating documents from English to Haitian Creole,
please send
email to jobs@creoletrans.com.

Attach a copy of your resume to your message.

If you have already done some translations, please
include a one
paragraph sample of your previous work. 

If you have not yet done some translations but can
read and
write in Creole, and are interested in doing some
translation, you
can sign up for our saturday training sessions, send
email to
training@creoletrans.com.

Should you have any questions, please call CREOLETRANS
at
305-770-9252 or e-mail us at info@creoletrans.com.

Thank you for your interest.  I've been out of town,
but feel an urge to reply to
> Simidor's open letter to
> the Progressive  - please pardon the delay.  As
> accused, I do see Haiti
> through my American "imagination".  Just as Simidor
> sees it through his
> Haitian imagination. Have we any other choice?  Our
> own experience
> inevitably colors how we see the world. But it
> doesnt follow, as Simidor
> suggests, that I travel to Haiti only during the
> tourist season, that I see
> Haitians as naive and simple - or that my
> understanding of Haiti's current
> political juncture is the product of guided tours
> and naive or wistful faith
> in Aristide.  On the contrary, my article gave voice
> to what I consider the
> intelligent and often complicated sentiments i've
> been hearing both in and
> far from Port-au-Prince, both in and out of the
> tourist season, from
> Haitians of all classes but especially the poor.  I
> am surprised by
> Simidor's assertion that a guided tour would "most
> certainly" be necessary
> to find the likes of Francilus Saint Leger - the
> Aristide enthusiast whom I
> quoted in my article - for I found the streets to be
> full of people like
> him.  On this trip, as in the past, I heard over and
> over again from poor
> people that yes, they still support Aristide.    
> Where, I wonder, is
> Simidor conducting his polls?
> 
> This is not to say Aristide is not a controversial
> figure, with a host of
> critics on both the right and the left (wherever
> these directions may
> actually be).  It's also true, as I wrote, that the
> international community
> has given Aristide the cold shoulder - only a very
> few foreigners supported
> the electoral process this time around.  And of
> course Simidor is hardly
> alone in his belief that Aristide is a ruthless,
> scheming politician  - I
> made reference to some of these opinions in my
> article.   Aristide may turn
> out to be worse than his critics say - who knows? 
> Nonetheless my reporting
> indicates (and i cant believe that anyone seriously
> doubts) that Aristide is
> still by far the most popular figure in Haiti today.
>   The incongruity
> between these critics' vision of Aristide (well
> represented in the northern
> press), and the hopeful support for him I
> consistently hear from the poor,
> was the crux of my article.  This incongruity does
> not suggest to me that
> Haiti's poor are naive hero-worshipers "who carry
> small images of the czar
> Aristide next to their heart," as Simidor puts it. 
> On the contrary, it
> suggests to me that Aristide's critics and their
> criticisms ought to be read
> in broader context.  After all, as Simidor says,
> Haiti's people are well
> informed, they listen avidly to the radio, they make
> rational choices - and
> they make up the vast majority of the population.
> 
> On another note, regarding the phrase "lape nan tet,
> lape nan vant" -  i
> regret not being more accurate, and would appreciate
> any enlightenment from
> the linguists on this list.  the phrase was
> explained to me as a pun on the
> words bread and peace (by those wearing clothing
> that bore the slogan, as
> well as by an aide to aristide).   I presumed - mea
> culpa - that it played
> on a spelling variation as well as the fact that the
> words sound alike.  Are
> there some words with spelling variations? Or is
> this just the product of my
> American imagination?
> 
> respectfully
> catherine orenstein
> 
> 


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