Dear Barry, You got 2 things wrong: 1. My name, which you've condescendingly mangled, despite the fact that we've met several times and even had lunch together (I recollect that I paid!), and 2. The fact that I wrote, "The executive who decided that English was to be the association's working language in all matters was almost all-American". I know exactly who was on the executive at that time. Be that as it may, my goal is not to malign AIR, which I hope to re-join one day, but to put the record straight from the perspective of those who worked hard on the Toronto conference but weren't thanked. Some were even told not to attend the banquet! It was Mr. Hunsinger who brought the matter up and I had to respond to it. I hope that AIR will reconsider its monolingual English language policy, which is increasingly out of synch with a multilingual world and Internet. Pax!............Alex Kuskis ----- Original Message ----- From: "Barry Wellman" <wellman@chass.utoronto.ca> To: "aoir list" <air-l@aoir.org> Sent: Monday, March 20, 2006 1:52 PM Subject: [Air-l] AOIR in Toronto
Re Alexis Kusis' comments about AoIR in Toronto.
a) There were more than one American on the Executive Committee. b) The change in conference organizer had very little to do with the question of language. It had a lot to do with leadership. c) Other facts are not as I, or people working with me, remember them.
I don't think it is appropriate to say more about an unhappy past experience.
Barry _____________________________________________________________________
Barry Wellman Professor of Sociology NetLab Director wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman
Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 To network is to live; to live is to network _____________________________________________________________________