"Jonathan Gullible" in 30 Languages

International Society for Individual Liberty > "Jonathan Gullible" in 30 Languages

Jonathan Gullible Now In
30 Languages!

by Ken Schoolland, edited by Jim Elwood

Jonathan Gullible is published in serialized form in Greek newspaper Neos Typos.

The last few months have seen another surge in the worldwide spread of ISIL director Ken Schoolland's award-winning libertarian fable The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible: A Free Market Odyssey. During the early 90's after JG started going international, we averaged about one new language in print per year. We are now running at one new language every couple of months — and have now reached 30 in print, plus some on the Web.

KYRGZ — Jonathan Gullible reached Central Asia this summer with publication in Kyrgyzstan. This project had arisen through the international network of Students in Free Enterprise. Ken is the Sam Walton Fellow for the SIFE chapter at Hawaii-Pacific University and has met a number of overseas contacts through that venue. Zarina Osmonalieva, a member of the SIFE chapter in Bishkek, the Kyrgz capital, learned about JG and arranged translation and printing. Funding was provided through ISIL's Jonathan Gullible Book Fund.

BULGARIAN — The Bulgarian edition of JG was serialized recently in the Sedem Weekly newspaper, accompanied by commentaries from local economists. It drew such a great response from readers that its circulation catapulted from near obscurity to second-highest in the nation. The Bulgarian edition of the book will be published this fall.

KISWAHILI — Jonathan Gullible is now also available in a major region of East Africa. The Kiswahili edition of JG arrived from the printer in September. This project is the work of James Shikwati Shikuku, President of the Inter-Region Economic Network (IREN) in Nairobi and the ISIL Rep for Kenya. Kiswahili is the primary local language in not only Kenya, but also Uganda and Tanzania. This project was another result of financial seed capital from ISIL.
James has also just published a Kiswahili edition of Frederic Bastiat's classic The Law.

GREEK — Through the efforts of Dimitris Malamoulis, a serialization of the Greek JG was begun on October 1st in the daily newspaper Neos Typos in Volos. A book edition will be printed shortly. This makes the 30th language in which The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible has been printed!

NIGERIAN — ISIL representative Agwu Amogu has just submitted the Nigerian Pidgin translation of JG for the Internet. This can be found on the JG web site: jonathangullible.com/languages.htm. With sufficient contributions, the print version can be produced and be made available in this important African nation that is so desperate for free-market reforms.

More Coming Soon!

URDU — Dr. Khalil Ahmad of the Alternate Solutions Institute in Lahore, Pakistan has completed the Urdu translation. Through the encouragement of ISIL member Paul Lundberg, the International Policy Network has agreed to fund the initial press run this fall.

UK COMMENTARY — Janette Eldridge of South Africa has prepared a special annotated edition of JG for the 54 Commonwealth countries. The book will be published in South Africa in December. She is moving on to arranging translations in Afrikaans, Xhosa and Zulu.

BENGALI — ISIL Indian Rep Barun Mitra has completed the Bengali translation and will publish it soon.

FARSI — Showing again how humor and satire can succeed in authoritarian environments, a Farsi translation of Jonathan Gullible has been cleared for publication in Iran by the Mullah's censors!

SWEDISH — A commercial publisher is being sought for this completed translation.

SOMALIAN — Faisal Hassan has completed half of the book in Somali and has made this available on the JG web site.

More in the Pipeline!

Lots more Jonathan Gullible projects are in the works!

The ISIL Vilnius conference, just as on many occasions in the past, is generating new JG projects. Ken met Dr. Atila Yayla, President of Liberal Dusunce Toplulugu, a free-market institute in Ankara, Turkey. He has decided to place the Turkish edition of JG on their publishing agenda. One of the Vilnius scholarship recipients, Olexia Basarab of Kiev, has offered to start work on a Ukrainian edition.

Also, Dr. Barbara Lamprechter of the Friedrich von Hayek Institut in Vienna is interested in publishing a new German edition based on the current third English edition of Jonathan Gullible. (The 1998 German edition published by the Liberal Akademie Berlin had been based on the second English edition).

Development of an updated Russian edition appears to be back on track through the efforts of Jaroslav Romanchuk and Elena Rakova in Belarus.

And in China, an economics consultant in Beijing, Dean Peng, who has a considerable track record in translating works of the free-market Austrian economists, has begun translating the third-edition JG. Jerome Ma of the Century Publishing Group of Shanghai and Horizon Media Co. Ltd. has expressed a strong interest in publishing it. (The second-edition JG was translated and serialized several years ago by the Hong Kong Economic Journal).

We have been anxious for years to develop an Arab edition and have just discovered that Nicholas Dykes of the UK has translation and publishing contacts in Egypt and England who are interested in an Arab edition of the book. We are in need of generous sponsors who are willing to back the project in this very important part of the world.

Other Jonathan Gullible projects are underway in Estonian, Finnish, Cebuan (regional Philippine language), and Piedmontese (regional language in Italy).

One of the most exciting outreach projects has been the development of the "Philosophy of Liberty" flash animation in several languages by Kerry Pearson, based on the JG book. This has generated rave reviews from libertarians and non-libertarians alike. This has appeared weekly on national television in Costa Rica. Andrew Sullivan has offered to support the conversion of this popular presentation into DVD and video for use in classrooms.

Dick Morris also continues with his weekly radio program on KXEM in Phoenix, Arizona, utilizing the JG radio spots developed by the SIFE team of Hawaii Pacific University. All of these media projects are accessible by downloading from the JG web site: jonathangullible.com/media.htm

And a note for those ISIL members who have for years been asking for a comic-book version of The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible — we have made a start there. Kevin Tuma, a libertarian graphics artist who contributes cartoons to Cato Institute's Regulation magazine amongst others, is developing sample artwork that can be shopped among funders or preferably a commercial publisher.

Back a Winner!

A large portion of the Jonathan Gullible overseas projects have been made possible by ISIL members like you. We hope you are pleased at the tremendous progress and accelerating pace of this quintessential ISIL "Johnny Appleseed" international publishing and youth-outreach program!

To keep progress going in spreading the ideas of liberty throughout the former communist bloc and the developing world, we need your renewed support for the Jonathan Gullible Fund. Getting the Kiswahili, Kyrgz, and Mongolian editions published in recent months has emptied the JG Fund.

Please make your most generous contribution (tax-deductible in the USA) to keep The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible reaching more and more people around the world!

PS: If you are curious why Jonathan Gullible has been such a international success, we have autographed copies of the current third English edition available here at ISIL for $15.95 plus $4 North American/or overseas surface shipping/$11 overseas Air Mail. (California residents please add 7.375% state sales tax).

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