New English/Arabic Translation Site Hopes To Promote Citizen Diplomacy

Wired has mention of a new site that hopes to encourage a grassroots "citizen diplomacy" movement by combining English/Arabic translation software with a Facebook-style meeting place. "Meedan, which officially launches Monday, lets users post stories and comments in English and have them automatically translated into Arabic, or the opposite. People who don’t share a common language can have an online discussion in near real time. The name, appropriately, means 'gathering place' or 'town hall'; in Arabic. Think of it as a social network filled with people you don't know, but want to understand."

Babelfish?

[Anonymous Coward]

Apparently they haven't read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" [wikipedia.org] on the side effects of the Babelfish.

Good luck, though.

Translate and Die

[ittybad]

Death to those who translate the Quran [conversati...theist.com]

Re:Good, if it's accurate

[basse]

And this prejudiced comment gets modded "Insightful"? I would have understood "funny", even though I don't think it is, but absolutely not insightful.

Re:This won't end well

[PopeRatzo]

Now we can have new opportunities to start flame wars with previously inaccessible opponents...

Maybe if they're busy with flamewars, they won't be so anxious to start the real, shooting kind.

Also, now that you've been registered here at Slashdot for a whole month, has your user name and sig brought a lot of new members to your "third position" political party, or have most slashdotters already realized that "third position" are really just nazis without the cool uniforms?

Re:This won't end well

[EdIII]

Also, now that you've been registered here at Slashdot for a whole month, has your user name and sig brought a lot of new members to your "third position" political party, or have most slashdotters already realized that "third position" are really just nazis without the cool uniforms?

Before anybody gets too trigger happy with the flamebait moderation on the poster I am replying to, you want might want to actually read some of the positions of the American3p.org:

If current demographic trends persist, European-Americans will become a minority in America in only a few decades time. The American Third Position will not allow this to happen.

Parents have a right to choose where and with whom their children are schooled, and neighborhoods have a right to make the decisions that will impact them.

Recognizing our people's right to safety, and respecting the sanctity of the rule of law, we will immediately deport all criminal and illegal aliens. We believe, too, that American citizenship should be exclusive and meaningful. As such, the American Third Position will end the practice of automatic birthright-citizenship for children of illegal aliens. To restore, with civility, the identity and culture of our homeland, we will provide incentives for recent, legal immigrants to return to their respective lands.

On the surface, the ideals and goals of the American3p.org seem quite attractive and reasonable. Read a little bit more and you can see that is just pretty wrapping around a core of Racial Purity and Supremacy.

It was the Nazi comment that made me want to click the link and read it, and it is a well deserved comment.

Keep that in mind when you moderate. I think the Nazi comment should be +5 informative in this case.

Re:Good, if it's accurate

[Anonymous Coward]

You are jocking right?

You do realize that AlQaedah leaders have university degrees and many have studied medicine and or trained in western countries. The anti US drive is so strong and gaining more momentum every year. Fundamentalism was being funded by oil producing countries fr like 50 yrs now and it became self sustaining. I assure you that fundamantalism and anti US movements related to Sunni Islam are still gaining momentum. Significant amounts of the Zakkat money (similar to donations but required by religion) goes to funding fundamentalist organizations that are the breeding ground for terrorist and extremest organizations.

This will work like the recent speach at UC Irvine

[HockeyPuck]

Unless there's a solid moderation system (like /., but then you could have moderators battling it out, which probably happens here, but I don't see it) you could end up with stuff like this.

Recently at UC Irvine the Israeli Ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, had been invited to campus to speak [youtube.com]about Israeli-U.S. relations, but his lecture before about 500 people at the Student Center was interrupted 10 times by students denouncing Israel's treatment of Palestinians. Earlier that day, UCI's Muslim Student Union had issued a statement condemning the decision to invite a "public figure who represents a state that continues to break international and humanitarian law ... ."

After the 10th interruption, the event deteriorated further as a large group of students walked out of the conference room to jeers - and, the protesters allege, threats - by Oren's supporters. Eight UCI students and three UC Riverside students were briefly detained in another room before being released, after Oren had finished his speech. A planned 30-minute question-and-answer session with Oren was scrapped.

(follow up article [ocregister.com] at the UC Register)

Re:I'm not sure the language barrier is the main o

[Chicken_Kickers]

Sure. But how many native English speakers speak Arabic? You are making the assumption that the translation site is for the benefit of the Arabs but have you considered that it is actually more for you Westerners. We non-Westerners (I'm a Malaysian Muslim) have had a lot of exposure to your Western culture, values and language. In Malaysia, English is a compulsory subject at school but we certainly did not learn it for your benefit. After more than 30 years of life, I have not found much to be gained from your Western values, culture and your vapid mindless "entertainment" that my people are so fond of aping. Maybe it is you Westerners who should take the effort to learn about other cultures to avoid being so easily mind controlled by your politician's xenophobic propaganda. P.s. to those of you who are making anti-Iran jokes: the Iranians speak Farsi, not Arabic, you dolt!