From: Edmund.Grimley-Evans@cl.cam.ac.uk

Date: Mon, 7 Nov 1994 19:08:38 GMT

Message-Id: <9411071908.AA07618@nene.cl.cam.ac.uk>

To: rebato-l@netcom.com

Cc: Edmund.Grimley-Evans@cl.cam.ac.uk, ad695@freenet.carleton.ca

Subject: The Sunday Telegraph, 1994-11-06

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THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

6 NOVEMBER 1994

pa^go 14

Super la artikolo estas du bildoj kun grando de po 85 x 94 mm: unu de

Zamenhof, kaj unu ^sajne prenita el la reklamofilmo, ^car ^gi montras

mar^santan Michael Jackson.

Teksto sub la bildoj estas: "Redeemer: Michael Jackson (right) in his

video featuring Esperanto, invented by Ludovic Zamenhof (left)"

>>

Pop star's words of comfort for Esperanto

by Joe Saumarez Smith

SUPPORTERS of Esperanto, the international language which claims to

have more than eight million speakers worldwide, have turned to the pop

star Michael Jackson to rescue it from obscurity in Britain.

Jackson uses Esperanto in a #4 million promotional video for his

forthcoming album _History_, a collection of his greatest hits and new

material planned for release early next year. The video, which will be

released next month, is provisionally titled _Redeeming Eastern Europe_

and shows Jackson saving that part of the world from the Red Army.

"We are hoping that it will produce some sort of upsurge of interest in

Esperanto," says Brian Barker, of the Esperanto Association of Britain.

"Anything like this can only be good for getting people involved."

Given that the Esperanto Association claims that there are between

4,000 and 10,000 speakers of the language in the country, of whom only

1,000 are members, it will be a welcome boost. The pop singer's

involvement will be particularly welcomed at the beginners' level where

its popularity can be assessed by the number of entrants in this

summer's Northern Examining Board Esperanto GCSE examinations -- 25.

For those with a deeper knowledge of Esperanto, it may seem strange

that they are happy to support a representation of the crushing of

Soviet might as Esperanto has long been associated with Marxism and

anti-clericalism.

It was not until 1991 that the Vatican allowed the celebration of Mass

in Esperanto an only "on the occasion of international, multinational

and national congresses". It is still forbidden for the language to be

used in the confessional.

The unlikely alliance is not to everybody's liking. Jonathan Morrish,

director of European public affairs for Sony Music, is concerned that

Esperanto speakers were seeking to have their product endorsed by the

world's richest pop star.

"The video has not yet been released and very few people here have seen

it," he said. "For all they know, it may only be a fractional use of

Esperanto in the background. As far as I know, Michael Jackson is not

particularly keen on Esperanto."

Bernice Garrett, of the Esperanto League for North America, said she

had been involved in extensive translation services for Jackson. "I can

confirm that Esperanto is widely used in the video," she said. "Kids

are already chanting `_Mi amas vin Michael Jackson, mi amas vin_ -- I

love you Michael Jackson, I love you'."

Esperanto was invented in 1887 by Ludovic Lazarus Zamenhof, a Pole, who

believed it would lead to world peace.

It enjoyed peak popularity in the 1920s and 1930s but in recent years

has lost many devotees to Interglosa, a rival language with an easier

grammatical structure and a smaller vocabulary.

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