09 Jul 2010, Posted by admin in Ashley,Headlines,Thoughts, No Comments. Tagged Anthony, Ashley
We Go Mek You Wel Api
Image by Ashley
Words by Anthony
Go forth and spread the good word brothers and sisters to all four corners of God’s green Earth.
A vast increase in our ability to communicate due to the power of access has started many new conversations and taken unexpected paths. This leads to (and this is where it gets funny) versions of the Bible being printed and sold in Jamaican Patois, the archangel saying to Mary…
“Mieri, mi av nyuzz. We a go mek you wel api”.
As Rev Courtney Stewart, general secretary of the Bible Society of the West Indies says, “To suggest that certain languages are not worthy of the word of God is arrogant and ignorant….Patois is the language in which we dream”. Ann Widdecombe was said to have greeted the translation with derision. This derision will come from a sense that she has which makes Patois seem lowly, comical, or bastardised. She wouldn’t have any issue with the Bible being translated into French, or pretty much any language she didn’t understand. Yet its hard to escape the niggling feeling that there are more geo-politics at play here than meets the eyes. When you live in a remote tribe far and away from the people who have given your country the label “The Third World”, there are no doors for you to slam in their faces, and so you listen patiently, politely.
It’s a good thing we can be more ambivalent towards religion now, and not take it so seriously- if there is a God, I’m sure that’s what he’d want, people to be happy, right? But it takes time. And while I think science holds more truthful answers than faith, what it does not do is hold more definitive answers. The changing nature of scientific discovery, its evolution, its transience, its very goal of pushing forward to the next step, is anathema to the human disposition to certainty and stability. It’s the truth, right now.
I believe we should be using mathematicians, scientists and education in general, to push to the far corners of the globe, simply because these things provide room for people to decide on a lot more things, and most importantly, to decide for themselves. Lets use our powerful new communication skills to reach out to people and fill them in on the new, by increasing access to education, which then allows for people to make better choices, and not be slaves to the power clique of the moment. But don’t be happy about our powerful new tools being used to promote religion. Translating the bible is a noble cultural pursuit. Translating anything is. But only when it isn’t trying to coerce.
If you think I am worrying too much, I will leave you with Jon Riding, a NASA technician whose literal mission is to spread the word of God by translating the Bible into as many different languages as possible- and bloody succeeding:
“We’re talking about the language that was first uttered to you as a baby by your mother. There’s something profoundly fundamental about that.”
Fundamental indeed.
