This is just one small example of why we need a international common language.
In 1975, the World Health Organization refused:
- U$S 148,200 for a better public health service in Bangladesh
- U$S 83,000 to fight leprosy in Burma
- U$S 26,000 for basic hygiene in Dominican Republic
- U$S 0.50 per patient to cure trachoma, which has millions of victims and can cause blindness
- and many other requests
Meanwhile, it accepted Chinese and Arabic as working languages increasing the expenses in in translations by U$S 5,000,000, every year.
Let’s add a bit of perspective. The cost of all projects for Africa is U$S 4,200,000, almost a whole million dollars less that translating for these two new languages.
It is clear that a common simple international language is needed.
Source: Everyone’s own language by Maire Mullarney, citing an open letter by Claude Piron.
Update 2008-11-22: corrected some errors and expanded the article.
