428. НОСИК И КОРОЛЕВА. ПЕРЕВОД ПИСЬМА НА АНГЛИЙСКИЙ - 2
У нас получилось целых три варианта перевода.
Первый вариант (А) сделал юзер vyrviglaz. По ходу обсуждения он внёс ряд исправлений, ниже публикуется исправленный вариант. Это перевод содержательной части письма, сделанный человеком, хорошо знающим американский вариант английского. На мой взгляд, это то, что нам нужно. Нам нужен перевод и мы получили перевод. Содержание там передано. Большое спасибо vyrviglaz’у за работу. Он первый сделал перевод и оперативно учёл замечания и дополнения.
Второй вариант (B) сделал юзер (npopok) Это художественный текст, стремящийся передать «оттенки мысли». Стоит ли это делать в переводе, не знаю. В любом случае письмо будет читать чиновник, чиновничьем глазом отсекать красоты и вникать в суть. Исказилась ли где-то суть - опять не уверен. Язык такая вещь, что одной запятой или частицей можно вывернуть содержание наизнанку пять раз. Даже хорошо знающему иностранный язык трудно понять, что выражение «мы вас просто-таки обожаем», скорее всего, является издевательством, «вы противный» - гомосексуальным заигрыванием, а «что же вы наделали, разбойник этакий» - восторженным комплиментом с оттенком добродушной иронии. Причём все три фразы могут менять своё значение в зависимости от контекста, включая сознательные двусмысленности и «трехсмысленности». То есть даже не иностранец будет благодаря свому уровню культуры и своему интеллекту понимать сказанное по разному.
В любом случае, npopok’a надо поблагодарить за проделанный труд, сложный и интересный. К сожалению, я лично его оценить не могу, т.к. использую иностранные языки в узкоинформационных целях. Мой девиз - всё или ничего.
Третий вариант сделал профессиональный переводчик по заказу юзера (flufnet). Наверное, это самый адекватный перевод, за него было заплачено 200 д. личных средств. В случае принятия этого варианта надо будет как-то компенсировать расходы. Думаю, это можно будет сделать, если «Гардиан» выплатит гонорар за публикацию, если нет - решим вопрос другим способом.
Окончательной выбор варианта перевода за вами.
По уточнённым данным передача письма состоится в четверг в 15.00 в здании на Смоленской набережной. Думаю, лучше туда подойти в составе 2-3 человек. Если прийти гурьбой - это будет несанкционированный митинг, в этом районе всё очень строго контролируется.
Подождём официального ответа. Если такового не будет, или его содержание нас не устроит, соберёмся перед посольством всем ЖЖ легально, с плакатиками и гуделками :)
Прилагаю все три варианта перевода (даже четыре, добавлен юзер shtanov):
Вариант А (vyrviglaz):
Your Royal Majesty:
The current state of social life in the modern-day Russian Federation is such that mainstream people find it all but hopeless for themselves to co-ordinate their efforts in an attempt to achieve at least minor improvements. Corruption and bureaucratic barriers effectively stifle all public initiatives. That is why we are seeking your help and sympathy for our needs.
We fully realize that the Russian Federation is a sovereign state and You have no possibility to directly influence the public life of our country. However the very specifics of the blogosphere, which is the segment of the global ex-territorial netspace, enables the influence to be effectuated above national frontiers. We, the Users of the LiveJournal Resource (hereinafter referred to as the LJ) dare to address You personally because Mr. Benjamin Wegg-Prosser, the citizen of Great Britain occupying certain positions in the British establishment - until recently Director for Strategic Communications in Prime-Minister Tony Blair's Office - is an executive of The SUP-Fabrik, the company controlling the Cyrillic segment of the LJ.
Moreover, not long ago Your Ambassador to the Russian Federation Sir Anthony Brenton had organized a meeting in his residence with popular LJists where he expressed his desire to promote, to the extent of his possibilities, the sustainable internet communications between the users of the UK and the RF. This meeting had had no precedence and was gratefully welcomed by our users with whole-hearted enthusiasm. This gives us valid grounds to first of all associate our hopes for your favourable sympathy with your country.
Your Royal Majesty! In such an uncommon address of our petition there also exists an idea of a more general context. We are well-informed of Your charitable activities lasting for more than half a century. As Head of the People of Great Britain, Head of the Commonwealth and Supreme Governor of the Church of England You bring the radiance of enlightenment and humanism which illuminates all continents on Earth. Your moral authority is absolutely indisputable and all heads of states as well as ordinary citizens of all lands, Russia inclusive, will be forced, perhaps against their own will, to heed Your word.
In accordance with the above we with all deference dare to bring your kindest attention to the following.
Under existing conditions, with restricted political freedoms and explosion-like growth of computer technologies, the network of private internet-blogs is being transformed into a very important means of free democratic media. Her potential far exceedes that of the free radiobroadcasts in the 1950-80s. Unluckily, all this is well-known not only to friends of
freedom but also to her fiercest enemies.
The SUP Company and Mr. Anton Nosik personally who represents this firm within LJ-bloggers' community, are currently being engaged in very agressive commercial activities, for instance, forcible placement of hardcore commercial advertisements into private blogs of users. Meanwhile, our community is non-commercial. Overwhelming majority of users maintain their blogs volunteerily and for free. Their efforts are often equivalent to those of a career reporter's full working day. A greater part of users are people with low incomes, residing in remote Russian provinces. We consider it appropriate that SUP should conduct their commercial activities but our desire is that these should not be insomuch rapacious and that they should contribute to the selfdevelopment of the blogosphere. With a view to this, we suggest that The Board of Trustees be established, whereto apart from businesspersons, some popular and competent LJists should be integrated. Some portion of incomes - supposedly 20% - could be allocated at Board's disposal to be expended for charitable actions, for the arrangements of literary and art contests, exhibitions and also to be rechannelled to needy users who run large resources and reside in remote areas. This would stimulate the selfdevelopment of the blogosphere.
Simultaneously, The Board of Trustees could centralize and co-ordinate charitable fundraising within the LJ. Currently, with the connivance of SUP executives and Mr. Nosik personally, the fundraising is being conducted with grossest violations of all conceivable norms and rules which brings discredit to the very idea of Internet-charity, wherefrom even criminal offences might ensue. There are serious misgivings that undeground communities of swindlers operate this way.
Twenty-four hours a day Mr. Anton Nosik pours forth through his blog torrents of sordid abuse, filthiest obscenities and swearing. He deliberately offends the honour and dignity of hundreds of thousands of users amongst whom there are many teenagers, God-believers and priests. Even the title of Mr. Nosik's journal itself is a dirty unmentionable curse. It should be taken into consideration that the Russian language is based upon the principle of the strictest hierarchy wherein any low word within the context of conventional word-usage indicates direct insult and challenge.
Still more lamentable is the fact that as a result of such hooliganism, new users find themselves clueless being deprived of due landmarks. On the contrary, the person whose name the whole LJ is associated with, by the very title of his blog provokes people to rudeness and insolence. But after decades of lack of freedom of speech people find it
hard enough to bridge a normal dialogue. Flagrant encroachments upon privacy, intrusions into private life are common in the LJ. It is being permanently molested by disgraceful occurences, rows and squabbles on social and national basis.
The last case should be noted separately. In many of his publications Mr. Nosik foments ferocious hatred towards nations and religions, for instance towards the dwellers of Middle East and to the adherents of the Mosslem church. Is it necessary to say that among millions of Russian users there are tens of thousands of faithful Mosslems and they are directly offended by such statements. These statements, of course, could be ignored as ordinary blogs are of private character. But the whole LJ is inevitably linked to the name of Nosik, hence his personal opinion - the opinion of a half-educated and mentally deficient person - is associated with the position of the Company and indirectly with such of the LJ-users en masse. This creates an utterly abnormal situation around the LJ.
We also oppose the propagation of artificial hierarchy leading to a thin stratum of the so-called "thousanders" (authors of most popular blogs) being converted into a secluded caste and the mass of the users being deprived of honest competition and being able to force their way into the upper lines of ratings only with the help of technical tricks. It looks like that the reduction of the "live journals" down to featureless robots is a latent aim of SUP.
We are obediently begging Your Royal Majesty to favourably deign to condescend to our plea and not to refuse us to apply Your highest moral authority in order to, under current political circumstances, encourage the transformation of the LJ out of the proving-range of secret police usable for dirty PR-technologies, political provocations and criminal offences, into a cultural information resource which in the nearest future is destined to frame a stronghold of freedom of speech, democracy and tolerance.
We bear a humble hope that our petition can be published in the British media, presumably in The Guardian where Mr. Wegg-Prosser had worked and thus our problems should be subject to free and unprejudiced discussion and become property of international community. Some of us - irreparable optimists - cherish their hopes for Your Personal sympathy for the arrangement of the blogosphere which could be materialized at least in moral support.
Perhaps our problems might seem laughable to You and we look to You like a fairytale people living behind Lewis Carroll's virtual looking-glass. But today we have 1 million users in in our country. Considering the dynamism of the blogosphere we shall soon have 10 million noting that these 10 million will be recruited amongst the most educated and initiative part of 140 million population. Great Britain has always been world-famed for her rational conservatism felicitously wedded to bold social experiments based upon scientific foreknowledge. XXI century will unalternatively create new means of communication, new forms of political power and new types of political life. These are already being observed and we can witness them.
We are subserviently begging Your Royal Majesty to accept our humblest assurances of our most deepest respect and loyalty to Your Royal Majesty.
(Signatures).
Вариант B: (npopok):
Your Royal Majesty,
Those common citizens of Russia who strive to coöperate toward social improvement, encounter a harsh reality of virulent corruption and miring bureaucracy. Thus we plead Your aid and participation.
We recognise, that the Russian Federation is a sovereign state, and even Your Royal Majesty may not influence the political course of our country directly. However, the very nature of the blogosphere, - a part of the global exterritorial space of the Internet, - permits one to exercise their influence across national borders. We, users of the LiveJournal blogging facility, dare to address You, for that SUP, - the establishment which oversees the Russian-language constituency of LiveJournal, - has among its governance Mr. Benjamin Wegg-Prosser, a citizen of the United Kingdom with a certain position in its ruling establishment. Until a recent time he held the director’s seat of the strategical communications unit of the former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s administration.
Besides, it was not long ago that Sir Anthony Brenton, Your Royal Majesty’s ambassador to the Russian Federation, hosted a meeting with several prominent writers of LiveJournal, and expressed his enthusiasm to partake in the development of a communion of blog writers of Russia and Great Britain. The meeting was an unprecedented event cheered by the Internet community. It has made us look to Your country as the foremost hope in our plights.
Your Royal Majesty! Such an unusual addressment of our plea has another circumstance, one of a more general nature. We are cognisant of Your charitable activity, which has lasted for over a half of a century. As the Head of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Head of the Commonwealth of Nations and the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, You bring enlightenment and humanism that shine across all the Earth’s continents. Your moral authority is unquestionable, and Your word is regarded, perhaps unwittingly, by the ruling figures and common men of many nations, including Russia.
And so we beg Your Royal Majesty to spare Your attention to what will be described hereinafter.
Due to the persistent strictening of political freedoms, and due to the swift development of informational and communicational technology, the network of personal internet publications - blogs - is becoming an important constituent of free democratic press. The potential of this network is manifoldly greater than that of free Western radio broadcasts of the 1950s-’80s. Sadly, the opponents of freedom recognise this fact as well as its supporters.
The aforementioned company SUP and Mr. Anton Nossik, who assumed the task of representing this company in the blogging community, leads intensive commercial activity, such as graphical advertising, in the personal blogs of users of LiveJournal. Yet the spirit of our community is non-commercial, with the overwhelming majority of authors releasing their publications free of charge, on a voluntary basis. Often such publications uptake efforts comparable to those of a full working day of a professional journalist. Personal incomes of a significant proportion of authors is rather low, especially of those in the Russian outlands. We deem it acceptable that SUP be leading commercial activities, yet we desire that those activities do not assume such a predatory character, and that they benefit the blogosphere’s development. For this purpose we think it advisable to establish a board of trustees that would comprise, in addition to the businessmen of SUP, some reputed and competent LiveJournalists. It would be practicable to defer a proportion of monetary income - perhaps a fifth - to charitable purposes, like the organisation of literary and artistic contests and of exhibitions, and the awarding of writers most prominent or most needy. This would stimulate blogosphere’s self-development.
Concurrently, such a board of trustees could centralise and coördinate the collection of donations for charitable activities within LiveJournal. Presently, at the sufferance of Mr. Nossik and SUP, such collection is done with neglect of norms and rules, endorsing criminal excesses and dishonouring the very notion of charity on the Internet. There exist serious suspicions that, in this disorder, clandestine groups of swindlers operate.
Mr. Nossik’s blog issues speeches of indecorum and obscenity, offending the grace and dignity of the hundreds of thousands of blog writers, among which are many persons under age, of religious beliefs or of ecclesiastical position. The very name of Nossik’s blog in LiveJournal is a profane word. Noteworthily, the Russian language is built on strictly hierarchical principles, and so the use of profane speech in the context of regular conversation is a provocative insult.
It grieves us even more, that such indecent behaviour results in the lack of appropriate example for the blog network’s newcomers. Rather on the contrary, the man with whose name LiveJournal is firstly associated, incites rudeness, bawdry and misbehaviour, starting at the very title of his blog. After the many decades of unfreedom of speech, our people struggle to revive the culture of public dialogue. Yet through LiveJournal the private lives of innocent writers are regularly disturbed, the blogosphere is often shaken by scandals and squabbles on social and ethnical grounds.
This latter affair needs emphasis. Many postings in the blog of Mr. Nossik are saturated with beastly hatred toward other nations and confessions, for instance, to peoples of the Near East and to the Muslim faith. Among about a million of Russian-speaking LiveJournalists, some tens of thousands are faithful Muslims, and are insulted directly by such sentiments. Insults of this kind could be forgiven in consideration of the private nature of personal blogs; but the name of Nossik is inevitably associated with the entire Russian-speaking LiveJournal. Therefore, his personal opinion, - one of a man not completely civilised and not perfectly responsible, - becomes the company’s opinion, and indirectly - the opinion of the whole blogging community. This drives the blogosphere into a rather unhealthy state.
We also are scorned by an artificial hierarchy that is imposed in LiveJournal, a one that leads a small minority of tysiachniki (writers of most popular blogs) to form an isolated caste, while the bulk of bloggers are deprived of liberal competition, and can win the top positions of ratings only through technical trickery. It seems that the reduction of Live Journals to lifeless, faceless machines might be the secret true goal of SUP.
Most respectfully we beseech Your Royal Majesty to show favour to exercise Your highest moral authority, so to encourage, in the given political circumstances, the changing of LiveJournal from a secret police’s playhouse for undecorous propaganda, political provocation and unlawful offenses, into a highly cultured informational facility that would inevitably become a citadel of freedom of speech, democracy and tolerance.
We would like to express a humblest hope, that this letter of ours will be announced and reproduced in British press; for example, in The Guardian magazine, which has employed Mr. Wegg-Prosser in the past. In this manner our plights will be subjected to the liberal discussion of the global community. Some of us - those who are perhaps overly optimistic - hope for Your personal participation in the bettering of the Russian blogosphere, at least in a way of moral condolence.
To You our predicaments may seem laughable, and from outside we may seem like a dwarfish people from an imaginary realm of Lewis Carroll’s fable. But over a million of persons now have blogs in our country. The nature of the blogosphere will soon make this turn into ten million, which will be drawn from the most educated and enterprising of our people of one hundred and forty million. Great Britain has long succeded to combine reasonable conservatism with scientific foresight and bold social experiment. The twenty-first century is to bring us new media of communication, new orders of government and new forms of political activity. This is happening before our eyes.
May Your Royal Majesty accept our most sincere reassurance of our deepest respect.
Signed
Вариант С (flufnet):
Your Royal Majesty!
The state of civic life in present-day Russia is such as to make it difficult for common people to join effort and make at least some difference for the better. Corruption, red tape, and stifling of public initiative are ubiquitous and rampant. Therefore we are pleading for your help and sympathy.
We are fully aware that Russian Federation’s sovereign status denies you the opportunity to exercise direct influence over public policy and civic life in our country. Nonetheless, the uniqueness of blogging universe that forms part of worldwide exterritorial Internet space, admits of influences transcending nation-state boundaries. One reason why we, the user community of Internet’s LiveJournal (thereafter referred to as LJ), made bold to appeal to you is that the top management of SUP Fabric (thereafter SUP), the company in control of cyrillic segment of LJ, includes Mr. Benjamin Wegg-Prosser, a British citizen of certain standing among Great Britain’s elite. Until recently, he held the position of Director for Strategic Communications on Prime Minister Tony Blair’s staff.
Furthermore, Your Majesty’s ambassador to Russia, Sir Tony Brenton, had recently invited better-known LJ users to a meeting in his residence, where he expressed the willingness to promote to the extent possible an expanded engagement between bloggers in Russian Federation and the United Kingdom. That meeting in the embassy was unprecedented, and inspired our Internet community. For that reason, your country is our first choice in looking for gracious help and understanding of our needs.
Your Royal Majesty, in taking the unorthodox step of addressing this appeal to you we were also driven by another and more general consideration. We are aware of your charitable activities over the last fifty-odd years. As the leader of Britain’s people, and Head of British Commonwealth and Anglican Church, you carry the light of enlightenment and humanism, which shines upon every continent. Your impeccable moral authority ensures that your words carry weight, even if grudgingly recognized, with ruling circles and common people of other nations, Russia included.
Therefore, we would humbly bring to your Royal Majesty’s attention the following:
Taken against the present backdrop of shrinking room for exercising political liberties, rapid development of computer technology turns the network of private Internet blogs into an important outlet for free pro-democracy media. Its capabilities far exceed those of free world’s radio broadcasts in the period from the 1950’s to the 1980’s. Unfortunately, that is clear to both the friends of freedom and its enemies.
SUP company and Mr. Anton Nosik, who has assumed the function of that firm’s representative to blogger community, are engaged in aggressive commercial activity, such as inserting advertising banners into private blogs of LJ users. Yet, our community is of a strictly non-profit nature, since an overwhelming majority of users maintain their blogs voluntarily and free of charge. They frequently put in the time and effort on a par with a professional journalist’s daily workload. A major portion of users, especially in Russia’s provinces, have very limited means. We do believe it acceptable for SUP to engage in commercial activities, yet we would like to see them contribute to enhancement of blogging environment, and not assume a predatory character. Therefore, we think it appropriate to establish a Trustee Board that would include not only business figures from SUP, but also a number of credible and knowledgeable LJ users. The Board could then have discretion to use a share of profits - possibly 20% - for charitable purposes, for funding Fine Arts and Letters competitions or exhibits, as well as for assistance to those bloggers who maintain large sites or live in reduced circumstances (e.g. those in remote areas). That would have provided impetus to self-sustaining development of blogging.
At the same time, a Trustee Board, could coordinate and bring under central control various campaigns of raising charitable donations undertaken within LJ. At present, with Mr. Nosik’s and SUP management’s connivance, such campaigns violate every rule and regulation in the book, which both provides fertile ground for criminal abuse and discredits the very idea of Internet-based charity work. Grave concerns exist that such campaigns serve as a tool for organized fraudsters.
Mr.Nosik’s own blog serves as a portal for daily outpourings of unprintable profanity, that is insulting to the honor and dignity of hundreds of thousands of users, many of whom are underage, devoutly religious, or belong to the clergy. The very name of Mr. Nosik’s LJ blog is derived from a swearword. Considering traditional socially stratified usage patterns of Russian, the use of base language in the context of regular speech sounds as a direct insulting challenge.
Even more regrettable to say, such hooliganism deprives newly joining users of proper moral compass. Indeed, the person whose name is immediately linked in people’s minds to LJ, invites rudeness, boorishness, and profanity through the very name of his blog. That happens in the environment where decades without freedom of speech have made efforts to establish meaningful dialogue between people difficult as it is. LJ keeps trespassing into individuals’ private lives, and blogger community is often shaken by public rows driven by differences in social class or ethnicity.
The latter point bears special elaboration. Many of Mr. Nosik’s postings are suffused with undisguised hatred of other peoples and confessions, such as those of Middle East or Islam in general. Needless to say, millions of Russian LJ users include tens of thousands Muslims, to whom such postings are a direct insult. One could dismiss such statements as expressions of private opinion in a private blog, yet the strong implied link between Mr. Nosik’s name and LJ in general ensures that his private opinions - those of a person of somewhat limited cultural horizons or control of his faculties - are seen as endorsed by the company, and by implication by the user community at large. That makes for a thoroughly unhealthy environment and distorted attitudes to our blogger community.
We also cannot condone the propagation of a contrived hierarchy of users within LJ, the process that turns a slim minority of so-called “thousand men”, i.e. the authors of most popular blogs, into a sealed caste, whereas the vast majority of others are denied free competition, and can only force their way into high ratings through resorting to technical tricks. It would appear that SUP specifically pursues the hidden agenda of reducing “live journals” to the level of faceless robots.
We humbly beg your Royal Majesty the benefit of employing your high moral authority to help transform LJ from the venue where current political circumstances allow the secret police to use it for dirty PR tricks, political provocations and outright crimes into one that will serve as a cultural and information resource, and which the nearest future will see evolve into a bulwark of free speech, democracy, and tolerance.
We are modestly hopeful that our letter will be published by the British mass media, The Guardian for instance, where Mr. Wegg-Prosser once worked, so that our travails may become known to the world public and be discussed freely and without bias. Some of us who belong to incorrigible optimists, are even hopeful for your personal help in bringing beneficial order to the Russian blogging community, even if by simple expression of moral support.
Our troubles may appear almost comical to you, and to an outside observer we may seem as a small fairy-tale folk inhabiting the Lewis Carroll-like world behind the virtual looking-glass. Yet, currently LJ bloggers in our country number over a million. With blogger community’s current rates of growth, we will soon number 10 million, recruited from the best-educated and most enterprising segment of our population of 140 million. Great Britain has always managed to combine sensible conservatism with scientific foresight and daring social experimentation. The 21st century will inavoidably see the emergence of new means of public communication, new forms of exercise of power, and of political life. It is happening even as we speak.
We ask Your Majesty to accept our most profound respects.
Signed by:
P.S. Человека забыли! Есть ещё вариант D юзера shtanov'a:
Your Majesty,
The current state of public life in Russia makes it difficult for common people to coordinate their activity and achieve any improvements. Corruption, bureaucratic obstacles and suffocation of public initiative are everywhere. This is the reason why we seek for your help and sympathy.
We understand that Russian Federation is a sovereign state, and it is not possible for Your Magesty to affect the public life in our country directly. However, the very nature of the blogosphere, which is part of the world's exterritorial Internet space, makes influence across borders possible. We, the users of "LiveJournal" (hereafter referred to as LJ), dare to appeal to you, because the management of the SUP ("SUP Fabrik"), the company that controls the Cyrillic sector of LJ, includes Mr. Benjamin Wegg-Prosser, a British citizen with well-known positions in the English establishment. Until recently, he served as Director of Strategic Communications in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Moreover, your Ambassador to the Russian Federation, Sir Tony Brenton, has recently organized a meeting with popular users of LJ in his residence and expressed his desire to contribute, according to his lights and possibilities, to the development of communication between the bloggers of the Russian Federation and the United Kingdom. The meeting at the British Embassy was unprecedented and was enthusiastically perceived by the Internet community. This gives us reason to associate our hope for benevolent concern in our needs with your country.
Your Majesty, there is another circumstance in this unusual address of our request. We know about your charitable activities that have continued for more than half a century. As head of the people of the Great Britain, head of the Commonwealth and head of the Church of England, you bring the light of education and humanism that enlightens all continents of the Earth. Your moral authority is indisputable, the ruling circles and ordinary citizens of other countries including Russia have to heed your words, perhaps even involuntarily.
In this regard, we would like most respectfully to draw Your Majesty's attention to the following:
Under the conditions of narrowing of political freedoms and owing to the rapid development of computer technology, the network of private Internet blogs turns into an important resource of free democratic press in front of our eyes. Its potential exceeds many times that of free radio of 1950-80s. Unfortunately, not only friends of freedom but also its enemies understand this.
The company SUP and Mr. Anton Nosik, who charged himself with the function of representing this company in the bloggers' community, are engaged in aggressive commercial activities, such as placing banner advertisements in personal diaries of LJ users. Meanwhile, our community has noncommercial character; the majority of users maintain their blogs on non-profit voluntary basis. Often, they spend efforts comparable to a working day of a professional journalist. A substantial part of users consists of poor citizens, especially in the Russian provinces. We find it acceptable for the SUP to conduct commercial activity, but we wish it to be of non-predatory nature and to contribute directly to the development of the blogosphere. To this end, we find it advisory to establish a Board of Guardians, which would include, along with the businessmen from SUP, a number of respectable and competent LJ users. It would be possible to allocate part of the profits, say 20%, to this Board, which would be spent on charitable purposes, on the organization of literary and art contests, exhibitions, and would go to the accounts of bloggers that have big resources or are in need of assistance (for example, living in remote parts of the country). This would stimulate the self-development of the blogosphere.
At the same time, the Board of Guardians could centralize and coordinate the collection of funds for charitable purposes within LJ. At present, with the connivance of Mr. Nosik and management of the SUP, this collection of funds proceeds with violation of all rules and standards, which not only encourages criminal incidents, but directly discredits the very idea of the Internet charity. There are serious concerns that underground associations of criminals may operate under this cover.
Day and night Mr. Nosik pours streams of dirty obscenities through his blog, offending the honour and dignity of hundreds of thousands of users, among which there are many infants, religious people, and clergymen. The very name of Mr. Nosik's blog is derived from a highly offensive word. One should consider that the Russian language has strictly hierarchical structure, and such a foul language sounds as a direct insult and provocation in the context of normal word usage.
Even more unfortunate is that, as a result of this hooliganism, new users of the resource do not receive proper guidance. On the contrary, the person whose name is primarily associated with LJ, provokes people to rudeness, insolence and bawdry by the very name of his blog. And, after many decades without freedom of speech, it is extremely difficult for the people to build up a dialog. As a result, intrusions into personal life constantly happen in LJ, scandals and squabbles over social and national matters often shake the blogosphere.
The last circumstance is worth a few words in particular. Many posts of Mr. Nosik are soaked in savage hatred to people of other nations and faith, such as residents of the Middle East and Muslims. Needless to say that a few dozens of thousands people among the millions of the Russian users are faithful Muslims, and they are directly offended by these statements. This way of expression could be neglected in view of the private nature of an ordinary blog, but the name of Mr. Nosik is inevitably associated with the entire LJ, and therefore his private opinion -- the opinion of not quite civilized and not quite sane person -- is taken for the opinion of the company, and, indirectly, for the opinion of the entire mass of users. This creates absolutely abnormal situation around our blogosphere.
We also disagree with the cultivation of artificial hierarchy in LJ, resulting in the fact that a small number of users, the so-called "tysyachniki" (the authors of the most popular diaries) turn into a closed caste, whereas a great bulk of bloggers are deprived of free competition and can make their way to the top of rating only via technical tricks. It appears that relegation of "Live Journals" to the level of faceless robots is a hidden aim of SUP.
We respectfully ask Your Majesty not to refuse us the favour of using your high moral authority in order to help, under the given political circumstances, to transform LJ from the testing ground of secret police used for dirty PR technologies, political provocations and criminal offences, to a cultural informational resource, which, in the near future, is destined to become the bastion of freedom of speech, democracy and tolerance.
We express a humble hope that our letter will be published in the British media, such as "The Guardian", where Mr. Wegg-Prosser worked in his time, and thereby our problems will become an object of international awareness and free unprejudiced consideration. And some of us, possibly being incorrigible optimists, hope for your personal participation in the improvement of the Russian blogosphere, at least in the form of moral sympathy.
Perhaps, our problems may seem comical to you, and from aside we may appear as a small fictional nation living in Lewis Carroll's virtual world behind the looking-glass. But currently more than a million people are bloggers in our country. Taking into account the dynamics of the blogosphere, we will soon become 10 millions, and these 10 millions will be recruited from the most educated and enterprizing part of the 140-million population. Great Britain has always been able to combine reasonable conservatism with scientific foresight and daring social experiments. The 21st century will inevitably create new means of communication, new forms of power and new types of political life. This is already happening in front of our own eyes.
Please accept, Your Majesty, the assurance of our highest respect. (Signatures)
Первый вариант (А) сделал юзер vyrviglaz. По ходу обсуждения он внёс ряд исправлений, ниже публикуется исправленный вариант. Это перевод содержательной части письма, сделанный человеком, хорошо знающим американский вариант английского. На мой взгляд, это то, что нам нужно. Нам нужен перевод и мы получили перевод. Содержание там передано. Большое спасибо vyrviglaz’у за работу. Он первый сделал перевод и оперативно учёл замечания и дополнения.
Второй вариант (B) сделал юзер (npopok) Это художественный текст, стремящийся передать «оттенки мысли». Стоит ли это делать в переводе, не знаю. В любом случае письмо будет читать чиновник, чиновничьем глазом отсекать красоты и вникать в суть. Исказилась ли где-то суть - опять не уверен. Язык такая вещь, что одной запятой или частицей можно вывернуть содержание наизнанку пять раз. Даже хорошо знающему иностранный язык трудно понять, что выражение «мы вас просто-таки обожаем», скорее всего, является издевательством, «вы противный» - гомосексуальным заигрыванием, а «что же вы наделали, разбойник этакий» - восторженным комплиментом с оттенком добродушной иронии. Причём все три фразы могут менять своё значение в зависимости от контекста, включая сознательные двусмысленности и «трехсмысленности». То есть даже не иностранец будет благодаря свому уровню культуры и своему интеллекту понимать сказанное по разному.
В любом случае, npopok’a надо поблагодарить за проделанный труд, сложный и интересный. К сожалению, я лично его оценить не могу, т.к. использую иностранные языки в узкоинформационных целях. Мой девиз - всё или ничего.
Третий вариант сделал профессиональный переводчик по заказу юзера (flufnet). Наверное, это самый адекватный перевод, за него было заплачено 200 д. личных средств. В случае принятия этого варианта надо будет как-то компенсировать расходы. Думаю, это можно будет сделать, если «Гардиан» выплатит гонорар за публикацию, если нет - решим вопрос другим способом.
Окончательной выбор варианта перевода за вами.
По уточнённым данным передача письма состоится в четверг в 15.00 в здании на Смоленской набережной. Думаю, лучше туда подойти в составе 2-3 человек. Если прийти гурьбой - это будет несанкционированный митинг, в этом районе всё очень строго контролируется.
Подождём официального ответа. Если такового не будет, или его содержание нас не устроит, соберёмся перед посольством всем ЖЖ легально, с плакатиками и гуделками :)
Прилагаю все три варианта перевода (даже четыре, добавлен юзер shtanov):
Вариант А (vyrviglaz):
Your Royal Majesty:
The current state of social life in the modern-day Russian Federation is such that mainstream people find it all but hopeless for themselves to co-ordinate their efforts in an attempt to achieve at least minor improvements. Corruption and bureaucratic barriers effectively stifle all public initiatives. That is why we are seeking your help and sympathy for our needs.
We fully realize that the Russian Federation is a sovereign state and You have no possibility to directly influence the public life of our country. However the very specifics of the blogosphere, which is the segment of the global ex-territorial netspace, enables the influence to be effectuated above national frontiers. We, the Users of the LiveJournal Resource (hereinafter referred to as the LJ) dare to address You personally because Mr. Benjamin Wegg-Prosser, the citizen of Great Britain occupying certain positions in the British establishment - until recently Director for Strategic Communications in Prime-Minister Tony Blair's Office - is an executive of The SUP-Fabrik, the company controlling the Cyrillic segment of the LJ.
Moreover, not long ago Your Ambassador to the Russian Federation Sir Anthony Brenton had organized a meeting in his residence with popular LJists where he expressed his desire to promote, to the extent of his possibilities, the sustainable internet communications between the users of the UK and the RF. This meeting had had no precedence and was gratefully welcomed by our users with whole-hearted enthusiasm. This gives us valid grounds to first of all associate our hopes for your favourable sympathy with your country.
Your Royal Majesty! In such an uncommon address of our petition there also exists an idea of a more general context. We are well-informed of Your charitable activities lasting for more than half a century. As Head of the People of Great Britain, Head of the Commonwealth and Supreme Governor of the Church of England You bring the radiance of enlightenment and humanism which illuminates all continents on Earth. Your moral authority is absolutely indisputable and all heads of states as well as ordinary citizens of all lands, Russia inclusive, will be forced, perhaps against their own will, to heed Your word.
In accordance with the above we with all deference dare to bring your kindest attention to the following.
Under existing conditions, with restricted political freedoms and explosion-like growth of computer technologies, the network of private internet-blogs is being transformed into a very important means of free democratic media. Her potential far exceedes that of the free radiobroadcasts in the 1950-80s. Unluckily, all this is well-known not only to friends of
freedom but also to her fiercest enemies.
The SUP Company and Mr. Anton Nosik personally who represents this firm within LJ-bloggers' community, are currently being engaged in very agressive commercial activities, for instance, forcible placement of hardcore commercial advertisements into private blogs of users. Meanwhile, our community is non-commercial. Overwhelming majority of users maintain their blogs volunteerily and for free. Their efforts are often equivalent to those of a career reporter's full working day. A greater part of users are people with low incomes, residing in remote Russian provinces. We consider it appropriate that SUP should conduct their commercial activities but our desire is that these should not be insomuch rapacious and that they should contribute to the selfdevelopment of the blogosphere. With a view to this, we suggest that The Board of Trustees be established, whereto apart from businesspersons, some popular and competent LJists should be integrated. Some portion of incomes - supposedly 20% - could be allocated at Board's disposal to be expended for charitable actions, for the arrangements of literary and art contests, exhibitions and also to be rechannelled to needy users who run large resources and reside in remote areas. This would stimulate the selfdevelopment of the blogosphere.
Simultaneously, The Board of Trustees could centralize and co-ordinate charitable fundraising within the LJ. Currently, with the connivance of SUP executives and Mr. Nosik personally, the fundraising is being conducted with grossest violations of all conceivable norms and rules which brings discredit to the very idea of Internet-charity, wherefrom even criminal offences might ensue. There are serious misgivings that undeground communities of swindlers operate this way.
Twenty-four hours a day Mr. Anton Nosik pours forth through his blog torrents of sordid abuse, filthiest obscenities and swearing. He deliberately offends the honour and dignity of hundreds of thousands of users amongst whom there are many teenagers, God-believers and priests. Even the title of Mr. Nosik's journal itself is a dirty unmentionable curse. It should be taken into consideration that the Russian language is based upon the principle of the strictest hierarchy wherein any low word within the context of conventional word-usage indicates direct insult and challenge.
Still more lamentable is the fact that as a result of such hooliganism, new users find themselves clueless being deprived of due landmarks. On the contrary, the person whose name the whole LJ is associated with, by the very title of his blog provokes people to rudeness and insolence. But after decades of lack of freedom of speech people find it
hard enough to bridge a normal dialogue. Flagrant encroachments upon privacy, intrusions into private life are common in the LJ. It is being permanently molested by disgraceful occurences, rows and squabbles on social and national basis.
The last case should be noted separately. In many of his publications Mr. Nosik foments ferocious hatred towards nations and religions, for instance towards the dwellers of Middle East and to the adherents of the Mosslem church. Is it necessary to say that among millions of Russian users there are tens of thousands of faithful Mosslems and they are directly offended by such statements. These statements, of course, could be ignored as ordinary blogs are of private character. But the whole LJ is inevitably linked to the name of Nosik, hence his personal opinion - the opinion of a half-educated and mentally deficient person - is associated with the position of the Company and indirectly with such of the LJ-users en masse. This creates an utterly abnormal situation around the LJ.
We also oppose the propagation of artificial hierarchy leading to a thin stratum of the so-called "thousanders" (authors of most popular blogs) being converted into a secluded caste and the mass of the users being deprived of honest competition and being able to force their way into the upper lines of ratings only with the help of technical tricks. It looks like that the reduction of the "live journals" down to featureless robots is a latent aim of SUP.
We are obediently begging Your Royal Majesty to favourably deign to condescend to our plea and not to refuse us to apply Your highest moral authority in order to, under current political circumstances, encourage the transformation of the LJ out of the proving-range of secret police usable for dirty PR-technologies, political provocations and criminal offences, into a cultural information resource which in the nearest future is destined to frame a stronghold of freedom of speech, democracy and tolerance.
We bear a humble hope that our petition can be published in the British media, presumably in The Guardian where Mr. Wegg-Prosser had worked and thus our problems should be subject to free and unprejudiced discussion and become property of international community. Some of us - irreparable optimists - cherish their hopes for Your Personal sympathy for the arrangement of the blogosphere which could be materialized at least in moral support.
Perhaps our problems might seem laughable to You and we look to You like a fairytale people living behind Lewis Carroll's virtual looking-glass. But today we have 1 million users in in our country. Considering the dynamism of the blogosphere we shall soon have 10 million noting that these 10 million will be recruited amongst the most educated and initiative part of 140 million population. Great Britain has always been world-famed for her rational conservatism felicitously wedded to bold social experiments based upon scientific foreknowledge. XXI century will unalternatively create new means of communication, new forms of political power and new types of political life. These are already being observed and we can witness them.
We are subserviently begging Your Royal Majesty to accept our humblest assurances of our most deepest respect and loyalty to Your Royal Majesty.
(Signatures).
Вариант B: (npopok):
Your Royal Majesty,
Those common citizens of Russia who strive to coöperate toward social improvement, encounter a harsh reality of virulent corruption and miring bureaucracy. Thus we plead Your aid and participation.
We recognise, that the Russian Federation is a sovereign state, and even Your Royal Majesty may not influence the political course of our country directly. However, the very nature of the blogosphere, - a part of the global exterritorial space of the Internet, - permits one to exercise their influence across national borders. We, users of the LiveJournal blogging facility, dare to address You, for that SUP, - the establishment which oversees the Russian-language constituency of LiveJournal, - has among its governance Mr. Benjamin Wegg-Prosser, a citizen of the United Kingdom with a certain position in its ruling establishment. Until a recent time he held the director’s seat of the strategical communications unit of the former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s administration.
Besides, it was not long ago that Sir Anthony Brenton, Your Royal Majesty’s ambassador to the Russian Federation, hosted a meeting with several prominent writers of LiveJournal, and expressed his enthusiasm to partake in the development of a communion of blog writers of Russia and Great Britain. The meeting was an unprecedented event cheered by the Internet community. It has made us look to Your country as the foremost hope in our plights.
Your Royal Majesty! Such an unusual addressment of our plea has another circumstance, one of a more general nature. We are cognisant of Your charitable activity, which has lasted for over a half of a century. As the Head of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Head of the Commonwealth of Nations and the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, You bring enlightenment and humanism that shine across all the Earth’s continents. Your moral authority is unquestionable, and Your word is regarded, perhaps unwittingly, by the ruling figures and common men of many nations, including Russia.
And so we beg Your Royal Majesty to spare Your attention to what will be described hereinafter.
Due to the persistent strictening of political freedoms, and due to the swift development of informational and communicational technology, the network of personal internet publications - blogs - is becoming an important constituent of free democratic press. The potential of this network is manifoldly greater than that of free Western radio broadcasts of the 1950s-’80s. Sadly, the opponents of freedom recognise this fact as well as its supporters.
The aforementioned company SUP and Mr. Anton Nossik, who assumed the task of representing this company in the blogging community, leads intensive commercial activity, such as graphical advertising, in the personal blogs of users of LiveJournal. Yet the spirit of our community is non-commercial, with the overwhelming majority of authors releasing their publications free of charge, on a voluntary basis. Often such publications uptake efforts comparable to those of a full working day of a professional journalist. Personal incomes of a significant proportion of authors is rather low, especially of those in the Russian outlands. We deem it acceptable that SUP be leading commercial activities, yet we desire that those activities do not assume such a predatory character, and that they benefit the blogosphere’s development. For this purpose we think it advisable to establish a board of trustees that would comprise, in addition to the businessmen of SUP, some reputed and competent LiveJournalists. It would be practicable to defer a proportion of monetary income - perhaps a fifth - to charitable purposes, like the organisation of literary and artistic contests and of exhibitions, and the awarding of writers most prominent or most needy. This would stimulate blogosphere’s self-development.
Concurrently, such a board of trustees could centralise and coördinate the collection of donations for charitable activities within LiveJournal. Presently, at the sufferance of Mr. Nossik and SUP, such collection is done with neglect of norms and rules, endorsing criminal excesses and dishonouring the very notion of charity on the Internet. There exist serious suspicions that, in this disorder, clandestine groups of swindlers operate.
Mr. Nossik’s blog issues speeches of indecorum and obscenity, offending the grace and dignity of the hundreds of thousands of blog writers, among which are many persons under age, of religious beliefs or of ecclesiastical position. The very name of Nossik’s blog in LiveJournal is a profane word. Noteworthily, the Russian language is built on strictly hierarchical principles, and so the use of profane speech in the context of regular conversation is a provocative insult.
It grieves us even more, that such indecent behaviour results in the lack of appropriate example for the blog network’s newcomers. Rather on the contrary, the man with whose name LiveJournal is firstly associated, incites rudeness, bawdry and misbehaviour, starting at the very title of his blog. After the many decades of unfreedom of speech, our people struggle to revive the culture of public dialogue. Yet through LiveJournal the private lives of innocent writers are regularly disturbed, the blogosphere is often shaken by scandals and squabbles on social and ethnical grounds.
This latter affair needs emphasis. Many postings in the blog of Mr. Nossik are saturated with beastly hatred toward other nations and confessions, for instance, to peoples of the Near East and to the Muslim faith. Among about a million of Russian-speaking LiveJournalists, some tens of thousands are faithful Muslims, and are insulted directly by such sentiments. Insults of this kind could be forgiven in consideration of the private nature of personal blogs; but the name of Nossik is inevitably associated with the entire Russian-speaking LiveJournal. Therefore, his personal opinion, - one of a man not completely civilised and not perfectly responsible, - becomes the company’s opinion, and indirectly - the opinion of the whole blogging community. This drives the blogosphere into a rather unhealthy state.
We also are scorned by an artificial hierarchy that is imposed in LiveJournal, a one that leads a small minority of tysiachniki (writers of most popular blogs) to form an isolated caste, while the bulk of bloggers are deprived of liberal competition, and can win the top positions of ratings only through technical trickery. It seems that the reduction of Live Journals to lifeless, faceless machines might be the secret true goal of SUP.
Most respectfully we beseech Your Royal Majesty to show favour to exercise Your highest moral authority, so to encourage, in the given political circumstances, the changing of LiveJournal from a secret police’s playhouse for undecorous propaganda, political provocation and unlawful offenses, into a highly cultured informational facility that would inevitably become a citadel of freedom of speech, democracy and tolerance.
We would like to express a humblest hope, that this letter of ours will be announced and reproduced in British press; for example, in The Guardian magazine, which has employed Mr. Wegg-Prosser in the past. In this manner our plights will be subjected to the liberal discussion of the global community. Some of us - those who are perhaps overly optimistic - hope for Your personal participation in the bettering of the Russian blogosphere, at least in a way of moral condolence.
To You our predicaments may seem laughable, and from outside we may seem like a dwarfish people from an imaginary realm of Lewis Carroll’s fable. But over a million of persons now have blogs in our country. The nature of the blogosphere will soon make this turn into ten million, which will be drawn from the most educated and enterprising of our people of one hundred and forty million. Great Britain has long succeded to combine reasonable conservatism with scientific foresight and bold social experiment. The twenty-first century is to bring us new media of communication, new orders of government and new forms of political activity. This is happening before our eyes.
May Your Royal Majesty accept our most sincere reassurance of our deepest respect.
Signed
Вариант С (flufnet):
Your Royal Majesty!
The state of civic life in present-day Russia is such as to make it difficult for common people to join effort and make at least some difference for the better. Corruption, red tape, and stifling of public initiative are ubiquitous and rampant. Therefore we are pleading for your help and sympathy.
We are fully aware that Russian Federation’s sovereign status denies you the opportunity to exercise direct influence over public policy and civic life in our country. Nonetheless, the uniqueness of blogging universe that forms part of worldwide exterritorial Internet space, admits of influences transcending nation-state boundaries. One reason why we, the user community of Internet’s LiveJournal (thereafter referred to as LJ), made bold to appeal to you is that the top management of SUP Fabric (thereafter SUP), the company in control of cyrillic segment of LJ, includes Mr. Benjamin Wegg-Prosser, a British citizen of certain standing among Great Britain’s elite. Until recently, he held the position of Director for Strategic Communications on Prime Minister Tony Blair’s staff.
Furthermore, Your Majesty’s ambassador to Russia, Sir Tony Brenton, had recently invited better-known LJ users to a meeting in his residence, where he expressed the willingness to promote to the extent possible an expanded engagement between bloggers in Russian Federation and the United Kingdom. That meeting in the embassy was unprecedented, and inspired our Internet community. For that reason, your country is our first choice in looking for gracious help and understanding of our needs.
Your Royal Majesty, in taking the unorthodox step of addressing this appeal to you we were also driven by another and more general consideration. We are aware of your charitable activities over the last fifty-odd years. As the leader of Britain’s people, and Head of British Commonwealth and Anglican Church, you carry the light of enlightenment and humanism, which shines upon every continent. Your impeccable moral authority ensures that your words carry weight, even if grudgingly recognized, with ruling circles and common people of other nations, Russia included.
Therefore, we would humbly bring to your Royal Majesty’s attention the following:
Taken against the present backdrop of shrinking room for exercising political liberties, rapid development of computer technology turns the network of private Internet blogs into an important outlet for free pro-democracy media. Its capabilities far exceed those of free world’s radio broadcasts in the period from the 1950’s to the 1980’s. Unfortunately, that is clear to both the friends of freedom and its enemies.
SUP company and Mr. Anton Nosik, who has assumed the function of that firm’s representative to blogger community, are engaged in aggressive commercial activity, such as inserting advertising banners into private blogs of LJ users. Yet, our community is of a strictly non-profit nature, since an overwhelming majority of users maintain their blogs voluntarily and free of charge. They frequently put in the time and effort on a par with a professional journalist’s daily workload. A major portion of users, especially in Russia’s provinces, have very limited means. We do believe it acceptable for SUP to engage in commercial activities, yet we would like to see them contribute to enhancement of blogging environment, and not assume a predatory character. Therefore, we think it appropriate to establish a Trustee Board that would include not only business figures from SUP, but also a number of credible and knowledgeable LJ users. The Board could then have discretion to use a share of profits - possibly 20% - for charitable purposes, for funding Fine Arts and Letters competitions or exhibits, as well as for assistance to those bloggers who maintain large sites or live in reduced circumstances (e.g. those in remote areas). That would have provided impetus to self-sustaining development of blogging.
At the same time, a Trustee Board, could coordinate and bring under central control various campaigns of raising charitable donations undertaken within LJ. At present, with Mr. Nosik’s and SUP management’s connivance, such campaigns violate every rule and regulation in the book, which both provides fertile ground for criminal abuse and discredits the very idea of Internet-based charity work. Grave concerns exist that such campaigns serve as a tool for organized fraudsters.
Mr.Nosik’s own blog serves as a portal for daily outpourings of unprintable profanity, that is insulting to the honor and dignity of hundreds of thousands of users, many of whom are underage, devoutly religious, or belong to the clergy. The very name of Mr. Nosik’s LJ blog is derived from a swearword. Considering traditional socially stratified usage patterns of Russian, the use of base language in the context of regular speech sounds as a direct insulting challenge.
Even more regrettable to say, such hooliganism deprives newly joining users of proper moral compass. Indeed, the person whose name is immediately linked in people’s minds to LJ, invites rudeness, boorishness, and profanity through the very name of his blog. That happens in the environment where decades without freedom of speech have made efforts to establish meaningful dialogue between people difficult as it is. LJ keeps trespassing into individuals’ private lives, and blogger community is often shaken by public rows driven by differences in social class or ethnicity.
The latter point bears special elaboration. Many of Mr. Nosik’s postings are suffused with undisguised hatred of other peoples and confessions, such as those of Middle East or Islam in general. Needless to say, millions of Russian LJ users include tens of thousands Muslims, to whom such postings are a direct insult. One could dismiss such statements as expressions of private opinion in a private blog, yet the strong implied link between Mr. Nosik’s name and LJ in general ensures that his private opinions - those of a person of somewhat limited cultural horizons or control of his faculties - are seen as endorsed by the company, and by implication by the user community at large. That makes for a thoroughly unhealthy environment and distorted attitudes to our blogger community.
We also cannot condone the propagation of a contrived hierarchy of users within LJ, the process that turns a slim minority of so-called “thousand men”, i.e. the authors of most popular blogs, into a sealed caste, whereas the vast majority of others are denied free competition, and can only force their way into high ratings through resorting to technical tricks. It would appear that SUP specifically pursues the hidden agenda of reducing “live journals” to the level of faceless robots.
We humbly beg your Royal Majesty the benefit of employing your high moral authority to help transform LJ from the venue where current political circumstances allow the secret police to use it for dirty PR tricks, political provocations and outright crimes into one that will serve as a cultural and information resource, and which the nearest future will see evolve into a bulwark of free speech, democracy, and tolerance.
We are modestly hopeful that our letter will be published by the British mass media, The Guardian for instance, where Mr. Wegg-Prosser once worked, so that our travails may become known to the world public and be discussed freely and without bias. Some of us who belong to incorrigible optimists, are even hopeful for your personal help in bringing beneficial order to the Russian blogging community, even if by simple expression of moral support.
Our troubles may appear almost comical to you, and to an outside observer we may seem as a small fairy-tale folk inhabiting the Lewis Carroll-like world behind the virtual looking-glass. Yet, currently LJ bloggers in our country number over a million. With blogger community’s current rates of growth, we will soon number 10 million, recruited from the best-educated and most enterprising segment of our population of 140 million. Great Britain has always managed to combine sensible conservatism with scientific foresight and daring social experimentation. The 21st century will inavoidably see the emergence of new means of public communication, new forms of exercise of power, and of political life. It is happening even as we speak.
We ask Your Majesty to accept our most profound respects.
Signed by:
P.S. Человека забыли! Есть ещё вариант D юзера shtanov'a:
Your Majesty,
The current state of public life in Russia makes it difficult for common people to coordinate their activity and achieve any improvements. Corruption, bureaucratic obstacles and suffocation of public initiative are everywhere. This is the reason why we seek for your help and sympathy.
We understand that Russian Federation is a sovereign state, and it is not possible for Your Magesty to affect the public life in our country directly. However, the very nature of the blogosphere, which is part of the world's exterritorial Internet space, makes influence across borders possible. We, the users of "LiveJournal" (hereafter referred to as LJ), dare to appeal to you, because the management of the SUP ("SUP Fabrik"), the company that controls the Cyrillic sector of LJ, includes Mr. Benjamin Wegg-Prosser, a British citizen with well-known positions in the English establishment. Until recently, he served as Director of Strategic Communications in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Moreover, your Ambassador to the Russian Federation, Sir Tony Brenton, has recently organized a meeting with popular users of LJ in his residence and expressed his desire to contribute, according to his lights and possibilities, to the development of communication between the bloggers of the Russian Federation and the United Kingdom. The meeting at the British Embassy was unprecedented and was enthusiastically perceived by the Internet community. This gives us reason to associate our hope for benevolent concern in our needs with your country.
Your Majesty, there is another circumstance in this unusual address of our request. We know about your charitable activities that have continued for more than half a century. As head of the people of the Great Britain, head of the Commonwealth and head of the Church of England, you bring the light of education and humanism that enlightens all continents of the Earth. Your moral authority is indisputable, the ruling circles and ordinary citizens of other countries including Russia have to heed your words, perhaps even involuntarily.
In this regard, we would like most respectfully to draw Your Majesty's attention to the following:
Under the conditions of narrowing of political freedoms and owing to the rapid development of computer technology, the network of private Internet blogs turns into an important resource of free democratic press in front of our eyes. Its potential exceeds many times that of free radio of 1950-80s. Unfortunately, not only friends of freedom but also its enemies understand this.
The company SUP and Mr. Anton Nosik, who charged himself with the function of representing this company in the bloggers' community, are engaged in aggressive commercial activities, such as placing banner advertisements in personal diaries of LJ users. Meanwhile, our community has noncommercial character; the majority of users maintain their blogs on non-profit voluntary basis. Often, they spend efforts comparable to a working day of a professional journalist. A substantial part of users consists of poor citizens, especially in the Russian provinces. We find it acceptable for the SUP to conduct commercial activity, but we wish it to be of non-predatory nature and to contribute directly to the development of the blogosphere. To this end, we find it advisory to establish a Board of Guardians, which would include, along with the businessmen from SUP, a number of respectable and competent LJ users. It would be possible to allocate part of the profits, say 20%, to this Board, which would be spent on charitable purposes, on the organization of literary and art contests, exhibitions, and would go to the accounts of bloggers that have big resources or are in need of assistance (for example, living in remote parts of the country). This would stimulate the self-development of the blogosphere.
At the same time, the Board of Guardians could centralize and coordinate the collection of funds for charitable purposes within LJ. At present, with the connivance of Mr. Nosik and management of the SUP, this collection of funds proceeds with violation of all rules and standards, which not only encourages criminal incidents, but directly discredits the very idea of the Internet charity. There are serious concerns that underground associations of criminals may operate under this cover.
Day and night Mr. Nosik pours streams of dirty obscenities through his blog, offending the honour and dignity of hundreds of thousands of users, among which there are many infants, religious people, and clergymen. The very name of Mr. Nosik's blog is derived from a highly offensive word. One should consider that the Russian language has strictly hierarchical structure, and such a foul language sounds as a direct insult and provocation in the context of normal word usage.
Even more unfortunate is that, as a result of this hooliganism, new users of the resource do not receive proper guidance. On the contrary, the person whose name is primarily associated with LJ, provokes people to rudeness, insolence and bawdry by the very name of his blog. And, after many decades without freedom of speech, it is extremely difficult for the people to build up a dialog. As a result, intrusions into personal life constantly happen in LJ, scandals and squabbles over social and national matters often shake the blogosphere.
The last circumstance is worth a few words in particular. Many posts of Mr. Nosik are soaked in savage hatred to people of other nations and faith, such as residents of the Middle East and Muslims. Needless to say that a few dozens of thousands people among the millions of the Russian users are faithful Muslims, and they are directly offended by these statements. This way of expression could be neglected in view of the private nature of an ordinary blog, but the name of Mr. Nosik is inevitably associated with the entire LJ, and therefore his private opinion -- the opinion of not quite civilized and not quite sane person -- is taken for the opinion of the company, and, indirectly, for the opinion of the entire mass of users. This creates absolutely abnormal situation around our blogosphere.
We also disagree with the cultivation of artificial hierarchy in LJ, resulting in the fact that a small number of users, the so-called "tysyachniki" (the authors of the most popular diaries) turn into a closed caste, whereas a great bulk of bloggers are deprived of free competition and can make their way to the top of rating only via technical tricks. It appears that relegation of "Live Journals" to the level of faceless robots is a hidden aim of SUP.
We respectfully ask Your Majesty not to refuse us the favour of using your high moral authority in order to help, under the given political circumstances, to transform LJ from the testing ground of secret police used for dirty PR technologies, political provocations and criminal offences, to a cultural informational resource, which, in the near future, is destined to become the bastion of freedom of speech, democracy and tolerance.
We express a humble hope that our letter will be published in the British media, such as "The Guardian", where Mr. Wegg-Prosser worked in his time, and thereby our problems will become an object of international awareness and free unprejudiced consideration. And some of us, possibly being incorrigible optimists, hope for your personal participation in the improvement of the Russian blogosphere, at least in the form of moral sympathy.
Perhaps, our problems may seem comical to you, and from aside we may appear as a small fictional nation living in Lewis Carroll's virtual world behind the looking-glass. But currently more than a million people are bloggers in our country. Taking into account the dynamics of the blogosphere, we will soon become 10 millions, and these 10 millions will be recruited from the most educated and enterprizing part of the 140-million population. Great Britain has always been able to combine reasonable conservatism with scientific foresight and daring social experiments. The 21st century will inevitably create new means of communication, new forms of power and new types of political life. This is already happening in front of our own eyes.
Please accept, Your Majesty, the assurance of our highest respect. (Signatures)