Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2006 3:33 pm
Hi Art and Chris:
Thanks again for your feedback on the public advocacy idea for Asturian-Americans. I’ve been thinking of the optimal way to showcase our concerns without undermining the ‘inclusive’ character of the AsturianUS online community.
In a hypothetical “Asturias Watch”, our inputs would have to be non-partisan. That is the assumption whenever I read (most) of the threads posted here. We want to improve the model that already exists and pool our insights. As you mention, this is an all-inclusive group of people with interests in everything from evolutionary biology to ethnographic history to programming, cookery and energy economics. That means we need to reach a consensus on issues as they arise.
The NIAC (National Iranian American Council) tries to show different angles to political questions by giving members the choice of drafting two different letters to their Congress representatives. In other cases, where a consensus is ‘assumed’, this is a moot point. The recent case of physical abuse against an Iranian-American student at UCLA is not something any one would ‘sympathize’ with. Therefore, there was only 1 letter form.
Likewise, our hypothetical “Asturias Watch” would have a clear ex ante position on, say, the ransacking of archaeological sites, the non-transparency of a large-scale public tender, municipal corruption or the continued refusal to grant language rights to speakers of Asturian/Galician-Asturian.
We have an asset as Asturian-Americans that is almost intrinsic: our unique perspective. All we need to do is agree on a series of principles like non-discrimination, transparency, environmental protection, etc and channel it. Our initiative could be a lesson for people in Asturias to shrug off their passivity and become more pro-active. Otherwise, we are stuck with more of the same each time we return to Asturias. I, for one, am tired of the abuses that take place unchecked.
Is
Check out this story for a case from back in May where a supposedly avantgarde museum blighted the landscape of Castro, a beautiful hamlet with an Iron Age hillfort in Grandas de Salime, Western Asturias:
http://www.wild-spain.com/article.php?sid=64
Thanks again for your feedback on the public advocacy idea for Asturian-Americans. I’ve been thinking of the optimal way to showcase our concerns without undermining the ‘inclusive’ character of the AsturianUS online community.
In a hypothetical “Asturias Watch”, our inputs would have to be non-partisan. That is the assumption whenever I read (most) of the threads posted here. We want to improve the model that already exists and pool our insights. As you mention, this is an all-inclusive group of people with interests in everything from evolutionary biology to ethnographic history to programming, cookery and energy economics. That means we need to reach a consensus on issues as they arise.
The NIAC (National Iranian American Council) tries to show different angles to political questions by giving members the choice of drafting two different letters to their Congress representatives. In other cases, where a consensus is ‘assumed’, this is a moot point. The recent case of physical abuse against an Iranian-American student at UCLA is not something any one would ‘sympathize’ with. Therefore, there was only 1 letter form.
Likewise, our hypothetical “Asturias Watch” would have a clear ex ante position on, say, the ransacking of archaeological sites, the non-transparency of a large-scale public tender, municipal corruption or the continued refusal to grant language rights to speakers of Asturian/Galician-Asturian.
We have an asset as Asturian-Americans that is almost intrinsic: our unique perspective. All we need to do is agree on a series of principles like non-discrimination, transparency, environmental protection, etc and channel it. Our initiative could be a lesson for people in Asturias to shrug off their passivity and become more pro-active. Otherwise, we are stuck with more of the same each time we return to Asturias. I, for one, am tired of the abuses that take place unchecked.
Is
Check out this story for a case from back in May where a supposedly avantgarde museum blighted the landscape of Castro, a beautiful hamlet with an Iron Age hillfort in Grandas de Salime, Western Asturias:
http://www.wild-spain.com/article.php?sid=64
Sin embargo, cuando le dije quién era, enseguida se prestó a "posar". Tuve que retocar un poco la imagen, creo que ahora se podrá leer bien el cartel en inglés:
