Found in translation: WorldMeets.US goes global

Found in translation

WorldMeets.US is a Web site that translates content about the US from
newspapers around the globe, offering Americans a look at how they are
seen by other nations


For New York native William Kern, working as a copy editor, page designer and foreign desk editor at the Taipei Times 15 years ago influenced his decision to launch an international news translation service. Based in Rockaway Queens, it serves to challenge Americans by presenting them with an alternative narrative to the mainstream media.

Kern says his interest in global affairs led to a university internship with the U.N. Environment Program and a keen interest in global environmental affairs. While his time at the International Herald Tribune also impacted his decision to launch the service - the seeds were sown in Taiwan.

READING AMERICA

Kern is now focused on the Worldmeets.US Web site, which was set up as an educational non-profit to better educate the American people.

Since 2005 he and his team have been translating content about the United States from newspapers around the globe -- Le Monde in Paris, Sotal Iraq in Iraq, Corriere della Sera in Rome and La Jornada in Mexico - to give Americans a glimpse of how the world sees America.

"My time at the Taipei Times was critical to my career," he said in an e-mail.

"The Taipei Times was created as a great experiment in Western newspapering in a Chinese-speaking country. Almost the entire editorial staff was drawn from around the world to put out a newspaper that would cover one of [Asia's] great metropolises in the Western style - and it was a very exciting time."

In 2002, Kern was a news editor and page designer for the International Herald Tribune based in Paris. He returned to New York in 2003.

'TRANS-COPYEDITING'

After his experience abroad, Kern felt he wanted to create a Drudge-like Web site with daily coverage of what the rest of the world thinks of the U.S.

"That's how Worldmeets.US was born," he said. "But I quickly realized that in order to do this properly, we had to translate huge amounts of content into English."

It was at this point that Kern came up with the concept of what he calls "trans-copy editing."

"It's a system for checking the accuracy of translated copy into multiple languages," he said.

Kern says his ultimate goal when Worldmeet.US began was to create a wave of citizen diplomacy and a global community that promotes peace, cross-cultural understanding between Americans and people of other nations. Since then things have taken on a slightly darker pallor.

Kern brings to the site over a decade of experience as a journalist and editor in Taiwan, France and the United States.

"If there is one thing my time at the Taipei Times and my life abroad taught me, it is that Americans reading or watching the mainstream media alone can never and will never develop any level of sophistication in terms of understanding the world we live in or how our country fits into it," Kern said. "Our news media are governed by the interests of the conglomerates that own the networks and news outlets and by selling products - often the products and entertainment programming of the companies that own the networks."

"As someone who cut my teeth shredding China's state-run media from my desk at the Taipei Times, I am sorry to say that our media is only marginally better in terms providing information to citizens of a republic," Kern added.

======================================================

A Hebrew-language primer on sunbathing

BY STAFF WRITER

I'm on the email line with Paddy Hernon in Canada, and he's giving me a
brief introductory-level tutorial on the Hebrew language. As a
teenager in the early 1960s, three days a week after regular school
was over, I hopped on a yellow school bus designated
"United Hebrew Schools" on the side and went to classes at the
local temple.

Hebrew School was fun and I loved it. I also fell in love with the
Hebrew alphabet and at
various times with classmates Barbara Weisman, Connie Levin and Laura Mendelson.
Those were the days.

Now I'm an "alter kocker" in Taiwan in his mid-60s, and Paddy Hernon
in Vancouver is telling me a
few things about Hebrew words. He was in Israel in the late 1960s and
early 1970s, he tells me, and had previously been there just at the
end of The Six-Day War in 1967 working as a freelance photographer.

When asked what brought him to Israel again in 1969, the same year I
was there, he replied: "How I ended up in Israel after the war is a
long story, but it had a lot to do with far too much rain in Vancouver
in the month of October of 1969. As to my origins, my father was Irish
and my maternal grandmother was rumored to be Jewish."


"Everything in the Hebrew language is based on three 'otiot shoresh,'
or three root letters," he tells me. "Any Hebrew word will have three
root letters that, depending on the way they are used, will indicate
what is meant within the concept that they relate to."

This I did not know.

"There are seven verb forms," Paddy went on. "One form is the
'hitpael' form. This is used when one does something to oneself, such
as getting dressed."



So far, so good: Three root letters, seven verb forms.

Then Paddy tells me a funny story, and it brings back memories of my
days of lounging on the beach in Tel Aviv in that summer of 1969. I
spent a month in Israel, flying in on an plane from Iran, and leaving
by a car ferry
from Haifa for Greece, and I met my Israeli aunts and uncles that summer, too.

Paddy is telling me about a new word in English that I had recently learned
via an online language newsletter -- "apricate" -- which means
something like, from its roots in Latin, to "bask" in the sun, to sit
in the sun, to grow bigger in the sun, as plants do.

It turns out that in Israel there is a species of lizard called the
Agama lizard. In Hebrew, the learned Paddy tells me it's called
"chardon" and he notes that it has those three root letters, in this
case: "ch" and "r" and ''d.''

"Can you guess what the Hebrew slang expression, 'Ani mitcharden'
means?" Paddy asks me. I reply that my Hebrew is very rusty and that I
have no idea.

"It means 'I am suntanning myself," sitting in the sun, perhaps on a
beach or in a backyard patio, and a literal translation would be "I
lizard myself'."

That's very interesting, I think to myself: "ani" (I) "mit-charden"
(like a lizard).

"Another very common action using the 'hitpael' form in Hebrew is 'ani
mit-labesh' ('I dress myself') and relating to clothing," Paddy adds.
"However, in this case the action is simply done to oneself and not
back and forth with another person," he explained.

Then I learn something else about all this.

It turns out that the French have a very interesting verb for basking
in the sun -- ''lézarder'' -- and
as you guess from the similarlity to English, it means, literally, "to
lizard."

So maybe the Hebrew slang term "ani mit-charden" comes from French
immigrants to Tel Aviv? Could be.

I love language. Living in Asia since 1991, I have been picking up
my fair share of Japanese and Chinese and Cantonese and Hoklo Taiwanese.

Language makes
the world go round. It also livens things up.

"Do you lizard?"

Taiwanese TV animation series "WEATHER BOY!" wins ''best animated cli fi award for kids in 2014

Taiwanese TV animation series "WEATHER BOY!" wins ''best animated cli
fi movie award for children" from U.S. movie awards project

TRANSLATED FROM MANDARIN TEXT BY MISS GOOGLE!

REPORTED from RTI - Taiwan Central Radio / by Miss Jiang Zhaolun

A Hollywood movie awards program called THE CLI FI MOVIE AWARDS and
dubbed THE CLIFFIES -- and curated from Taiwan by American climate
activist Dan Bloom -- awarded a BEST CHILDREN'S CLI FI TV SERIES AWARD
to Tainan animation director Mr Chiu. Taiwanese director Chiu Li-wei
produced the animated TV series "WEATHER BOY!" and got the award for
"the best climate for children animated series in 2014."

Chiu Li-wei said that global warming is a big problem facing all of
humankind, and he hoped that his TV series for kids with convey not
only educational values, but also to Taiwan's efforts in this regard
to be seen.

To imagine the theme of CLi Fi movies in Hollywood movies is already
quite common type. At the end of 2014 the American independent media
person Dan Bloom set up the "Cli-Fi "independent film awards,
highlighting the importance of climate change issues. BLoom is from
Boston in the USA and lives in Taiwan. He curated the movie awards
program from his office in Taiwan via Internet and email and Twitter
and FB, he said.

Chiu Li-wei and his Studio2 team in Tainan made the DVD and TV series
for kids as Taiwan's first cli-fi cartoon, children describe
protagonist Jamie Taiwan from Taiwan to Switzerland with his father
observatory to study observatory is developing a flat through time and
space, virtual reality Habitat climate simulator and see a simulation
process like apocalyptic scene. They found that the reasons for the
destruction by humans, they commence immediate action in an effort to
deliver the message out, hoping to save the planet.

Chiu Liwei said that the tragic destruction caused by global warming
on Earth is imminent, have a relationship with everyone, he hopes to
tell a story through animation, which allows parents and children to
see the movie in the process learn more. He also revealed that he
deliberately highlighted in the film in Taiwan so that Taiwan plays an
important role in the international fight against climate change.
"I feel more a sense of participation. Chiu Li-wei said: "Taiwan needs
to have and show to the world a Taiwanese perspective up to
international issues. "

''It took 18 months before planning to produce, will be converted into
abstruse scientific terms everyone can accept the story, the process
is very hard, so Cli-Fi access to the United States' best animated
children's series Climate," Chiu said. About receiving a CLIFFIE from
the curators of the CLI FI MOVIE AWARDS in Hollywood, he was happy. Of
course he was very happy.

Chiu Liwei, said most of his creative issues with animals, ecology,
environment related topics, he is currently being prepared, "Barkley
the Cat," the film version of the animation, narrative story of a
child into the animal of the city, is expected to be released
simultaneously in summer 2016. March will be conducted in Mandarin
Daily News comic strip.

When reporters editors make LIGHT of climate concerns, something is ''sick'' with our culture

When reporters editors make LIGHT of climate concerns, something is ''sick'' with our culture...http://pcillu101.blogspot.tw/2014/12/paige-sutherland-of-associated-press-in.html

台動畫「觀測站少年」 獲美氣候科幻片最佳動畫

http://n.yam.com/rti/life/20150119/20150119820339.html

台動畫「觀測站少年」 獲美氣候科幻片最佳動畫

中央廣播電台／ 江昭倫- 2015年01月19日 RTI News,

Radio

 RADIO Taiwan International]

 

 

美國好萊塢在去年底首度設立氣候科幻影片獎項Cli-Fi(Climate Fiction) ，台灣導演邱立偉團隊製作的電視動畫影集「觀測少年」一舉摘下Cli-Fi「最佳氣候兒童系列動畫片」。邱立偉表示，全球暖化是人類正面臨的難題，他希望透過「觀測站少年」傳達更多教育意義，也讓台灣在這方面的努力被看見。

 

以氣候環境為題材的想像電影Climate fiction在好萊塢已經是相當普遍的電影類型，2014年底由美國資深媒體人 丹布隆 ( Dan Bloom )首度從科幻電影中獨立出來，正式設立「Cli-Fi」電影獨立獎項，凸顯氣候變遷議題的重要性。

 

邱立偉與Studio2團隊製作的「觀測站少年」電視動畫影集是台灣首部科幻動畫片，描述主角台灣小朋友傑米跟著爸爸從台灣到瑞士觀測站進行研究，觀測站正在研發一台可穿越時空、虛擬實境的氣候模擬機，並在一次模擬過程中看見宛如世界末日的景像。

 

他們發現原因出自人類破壞，便立刻展開行動，努力將消息傳遞出去，希望能拯救地球。(片段預告)

邱立偉表示，全球暖化對地球造成的破壞已迫在眉睫，與每個人都有關係，他希望透過動畫說故事的方式，讓親子在看動畫的過程中學到更多。邱立偉也透露，他在片中刻意凸顯台灣，讓台灣在國際對抗氣候變遷中扮演重要角色，感覺更有參與感。

 

邱立偉說：『(原音)是有點私心啦，就是說好像台灣要參與國際的計畫，就是不要好像始終覺得很邊緣這樣子，所以是用這樣的方式，也就是像是帶著台灣人的視野到國際的議題上去。』

 

邱立偉透露，「觀測站少年」前後花了18個月籌劃製作，將艱澀的科學術語轉化成大家都能夠接受的故事，過程很辛苦，如此能夠獲得美國Cli-Fi「最佳氣候兒童系列動畫片」，他當然很開心。

 

邱立偉表示，他創作的議題大多與動物、生態、環境主題有關，目前他正在籌備「小貓巴克里」電影版動畫，敘述一個小朋友走入動物城市的故事，預計2016年暑假在兩岸同步上映，3月份則會先在國語日報進行漫畫連載。

 

http://n.yam.com/rti/life/20150119/20150119820339.html

Cli-fi: the view from an 23 year old Australiam blogger

Sherryn Ghosh writes at SOOT:

"Cli-fi'' is the latest literary genre to hit bookshelves and cinemas. Feel free to brace yourself against the nearest climate change skeptic.

From biosphere collapse to punishing weather events and finally to mitigation unchained, this new genre is big, bold and scarily accurate. (And now featuring Matthew McConaughey.)

Now, no matter what your thoughts on Christopher Nolan’s recent [semi cli fi] space epic, Interstellar (it was awesome, how dare you!), here at the beginning of 2015, the tale of a dying world hits just a little too close to home.

While cli-fi been hailed as the younger, somewhat “naggier” [cousin] of sci-fi, often the events it describes are not only scientifically plausible. they're actual scientific predictions. Which makes the sight of an underwater New York, fun-sized human population (minus 1 billion Twitter followers) and Dennis Quaid all the more confronting.

Here’s my take on cli-fi’s greatest hits to date.

The Good
In a genre dominated by breaking ice shelves and raging storms, good climate fiction is still a human story at heart.
It’s often said that it began with NPR's applause for Nathan Rich’s novel, Odds Against Tomorrow, the tale of a man who predicts natural disasters for a living. But, for a nice little snapshot of the genre, pick up a copy of ''I’m with the Bears''. It’s a brilliant and intimate collection of short stories by all your favorite authors (from Margaret Atwood to Kim Stanley Robinson) and the proceeds of the book go directly into funding 350.org, a climate change initiative founded by author, Bill McKibben.

The Bad
The Day After Tomorrow. (Dammit, Dennis Quaid!)
Cli-fi tends to fall down (in spectacular surround sound) when its science is faulty. It’s probably little wonder. Climate scientists are treated with the same disbelief out in the real world. As Bill McKibben writes in his foreword to I’m with the Bears, the real problem with cli-fi might just be that “the truth is larger than what usually makes for good fiction. It’s pure pulp.” Take the poles melting almost in half within just 40 years for instance. Ridiculous, right? No science fiction writer worth his or her salt would expect an audience to believe that!

The Ugly
Let’s be honest, some cli-fi can be freaking scary. And, not ghouls and zombies scary, either. You’re-actually-doing-to-die scary. But, that’s precisely why it’s so important as an emerging genre. How do we tell the stories of our time? Through art – literature, film, internet memes. The awkward thing about cli-fi is that it’s telling the story of our time that no one wants to hear – climate change. The common narrative of denial is now so deeply rooted in society that meaningful action is still deadlocked. Cli-fi is that kick in the ass we all need. It’s not comfortable, but it sure as hell gets you out of bed.

As Bill McKibben says “science can only take us so far.” The facts are out there. Coping with the greatest challenge in our history will take something more than reason and understanding. It will take heart.

And if literature and movies can’t help us there, I’m not sure what can.

Cities of the Future – Through the Prism of 'Cli-Fi'

INTRODUCTION:

Fancy some climate change with your popcorn or bedtime read? Cli-fi is a new genre of fiction that was first identified as a distinct concept by Dan Bloom, an American freelance writer who has been based in Tokyo and Taipei since 1991. It is, basically, fiction -- movies or novels or short stories -- which touch in some way on the topic of climate change.

Bloom recently sat down with SCC chief consultant and cli-fi novelist David Thorpe, who picked his brains about the cream of the genre and particularly what the writers of these works think will happen to cities in the future. The exchange follows:

David: First, Dan, tell me, what is ''cli-fi''?

Dan: ''Cli-fi'' is a new genre term for movies, novels, and short stories that stands for works of art and storytelling that deal with climate change and global warming concerns: "cli" stands for the first three letters of ''climate,'' and "fi" stands for the first two letters of ''fiction.'' Just as sci-fi stands for science fiction, cli-fi stands for what might be called "clience fiction," or novels and movies where climate change is a major theme, although not always the main theme.

Many sci-fi novels and movies also delve into climate themes, so in many ways cli-fi is a sister genre to sci-fi, but with a specific focus on climate change concerns. You could say that sci-fi and cli-fi are cousins.

But in the world we are living in today, where both scientists and the general public is well aware of what the future might look like if we do nothing to stop CO2 emissions and runaway climate change, cli-fi serves a very important function for writers, literary critics, book reviewers, film directors, scriptwriters and movie critics.

Rabbi Jeffrey Newman in London has told me that in his view of things, ''cli-fi'' is a "reframing" of the national and international discussions we are having on climate issues.

Scott Hill in Los Angeles has referred to cli-fi as "a cultural prism" in which to view global warming and its possible fallout, if we do nothing to stop it. I also like to think of cli-fi as a critical prism: a way to focus on what the future might hold.

In the end, what is cli-fi? It is a literary and cinematic ''platform'' for artists and writers to use to say what's on their minds.

David: Can you give examples of how cities are portrayed in cli-fi novels and films?

Dan: Cli-fi novels or movies can deal with large cities, or with smaller cities and towns as well. In "The Odds Against Tomorrow" by New Orleans writer Nathaniel Rich, the setting is Manhattan in the near future, where rising sea levels put the entire area under water, and people are seen canoeing down major streets and avenues. In "Flight Behavior" by Barbara Kingsolver, the setting is the rural countryside where a massive butterfly die-off brings in scientists from the big cities to study the problem. In "Polar City Red" by Jim Laughter, the setting is Fairbanks, Alaska in 2075 after heat waves in the Lower 48 states of the USA have made that part of the world uninhabitable and climate refugees take refuge in so-called "polar cities" – domed or underground cities – in the Arctic regions to serve as "breeding pairs" for future generations, an idea that was originally put forth by British chemist James Lovelock.

David: Do you regard the way LA is portrayed (constant rain) in Blade Runner as a clifi feature?

Dan: Yes. That's a very cli fi feature of that movie. And I lived in Tokyo City for five years in the 1990s.....thirty million population....it was Blade Runner to me for five years especially at night and especially in the spring rainy season.

But it doesn't have to be all dark and depressing in cli fi novels or movies. I also hope to read and see cli fi works that portray positive, hopeful ways of coping with what is arguably the most pressing existential threat humankind has ever faced. I am an optimist, myself. I hope cli fi can help readers and movie-goers break through to the side of optimism and hope. But there is a lot of ground to cover, and not all of it is going to be a pretty picture.

In "Finitude" by Scottish novelist Hamish MacDonald, the setting is a city much like London in some un-named country much like Britain in the near future, where all hell breaks loose and a group of people search for a safe haven, against all odds. It's all one of the first cli-fi novels written by a gay author and with a major gay romance in the story. So cli-fi is an open genre that serves as a platform for writers and film people to explore the future, not in a sci-fi but in a cli-fi way.

David: In some cli fi novels or movies, cities are abandoned. Do you think this is likely?

Dan: Yes, I do. I can't see the future, and I don't have a time frame for when all these things are going to happen, it's anybody's guess and my instinct tells me it's still 300 to 500 years away before the shit hits the fan, so to speak, but if we cannot curb the problems that are causing man-made global warming and runaway climate change, then cities will have to be abandoned and climate refugees will have to seek food, shelter and fuel in northern areas of the Arctic. Goodbye Manhattan, goodbye London, goodbye Paris, goodbye Beijing, goodbye Sydney.

Possible refuges might be New Zealand, the island of Tasmania, and all of the Arctic from Alaska to Canada to Greenland to Scandinavia to Russia and northern China. This is all fertile ground for storytellers to explore with the cli-fi platform.

David: Are all cli-fi films and novels dystopias? Or are there examples of how we might cope positively with climate change in the future?

Dan: "Cli-fi" movies and novels are emerging as a niche genre, taking the pomp of doomsday science-fiction films and novels and mixing it with an underlying message of environmental awareness. Cli fi works do not have to be dystopian, and I hope to see utopian cli fi as well. Margaret Atwood has coined a term she calls "ustopian" for novels and movies that are both ''u''-topian and dys-''topian'' in theme. Most of what I have read and seen so far in literature and cinema has been what I call dystopiana. But I really hope to see cli-fi take on more optimistic approaches to what ails the Earth these days.

Fabien Cousteau, the grandson of famed oceanographer Jacques Cousteau and a filmmaker himself, believes that cli-fi movies allow people to view a changing part of the world through what he calls ''the prism of an anecdote.'

By relating the scientific part of a cli-fi story in a way that people can be entranced by it, cli fi storytellers can win their audiences over, he believes. I like the way he frames it.

What I hope to see in the future are cli fi movies and novels with the power of Neville Shute's 1957 novel "On the Beach," which painted a wake up call picture about the dangers of nuclear war and nuclear winter. We need an "On the Beach" about the dangers of climate change and with, hopefully, a hopeful, positive ending, to raise awareness and also to goad people to take action in ways they see fit.

We need to go beyond abstract, scientific predictions and government statistics and try to show the cinematic or literary reality of a painful, possible future of the world climate changed. I do believe that cli-fi is a veritable cultural prism, a powerful critical prism, that we need to cherish and nurture among our artists and visionary storytellers. Time will tell.

David: What are your favorites?

Dan: For me, "Finitude" and "Polar City Red" resonated deeply. Neither novel is well known, and neither novel was reviewed by the mainstream media critics in London or New York or Los Angeles and both were released by small presses. But I read them both three years ago, and the stories they tell still remain with me. I'd love to see either of them turned into a movie. Hollywood, are you listening?

David: Do we have an idea of how popular they are and who reads them?

Dan:  ''Cli-fi'' is still such a new term that only 10 percent of the population has ever heard of it, and such novels and movies – classified as cli-fi – are not on the radar of mainstream book reviewers or movie critics. So for the time being, the publishing industry and the Hollywood establishment has largely ignored the rise of cli-fi (even with major news stories about the genre in Time magazine, the Guardian, The Financial Times and the New York Times). I believe the public is hungry for cli-fi – both movies and novels. But how to get such storytelling distributed to the public is a question I cannot answer. I'm looking for the answer now but it still eludes me.

LINK to CLI FI MOVIE AWARDS
korgw101.blogspot.com