SIR - I understand that your section 'Correspondence' contains general opinions, which do not need to be strict in a scientific sense. However, it would be advisable that a Journal with such prestige should take some precautions before publishing texts as 'Schools in a third of Spain teach only in minority languages' (Nature 454, 575;10.1038/454575d 2008, http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v454/n7204/full/454575d.html ), posted by Dr. J.M. Rojo. Such text contains quite a number of false claims and an offensive language totally inadequate for a scientific environment.
From my simplistic perspective, there are two kinds of the so-called 'intellectuals' from the right wing, neocon economists and those who pave the road to the fascism with their negligent arguments. Those signing the 'Manifiesto por la Lengua Comun' (MLC) are not of the first kind. Other scientist/nations in the world have to suffer their emergence in their various forms, ranging from 'uniform thinking' philosophers to the creationism fundamentalists. Despite the freedom of expression is (or should be) a universal human right, the capacity of judgment and the sense of responsibility should be also the virtue of those having the means to affect global opinions.
The contribution of 'Nature' to the spread of the MLC ideas into labs, research centers and universities all over the world was a disgusting surprise to me (and to many other researchers from Spanish 'minorities' abroad). My only hope is that this letter (or any other in response to the published opinion of Dr. JM Rojo) will pass through the editorial filter, and that the strict referred process applied to its scientific contents will also apply to other more worldly maters in the future (i.e. policies of countries about cultural preservation). Not doing that, would indicate a clear positioning of the journal close to certain ideologies that many scientists, as myself, would like to avoid.
Yours
From my simplistic perspective, there are two kinds of the so-called 'intellectuals' from the right wing, neocon economists and those who pave the road to the fascism with their negligent arguments. Those signing the 'Manifiesto por la Lengua Comun' (MLC) are not of the first kind. Other scientist/nations in the world have to suffer their emergence in their various forms, ranging from 'uniform thinking' philosophers to the creationism fundamentalists. Despite the freedom of expression is (or should be) a universal human right, the capacity of judgment and the sense of responsibility should be also the virtue of those having the means to affect global opinions.
The contribution of 'Nature' to the spread of the MLC ideas into labs, research centers and universities all over the world was a disgusting surprise to me (and to many other researchers from Spanish 'minorities' abroad). My only hope is that this letter (or any other in response to the published opinion of Dr. JM Rojo) will pass through the editorial filter, and that the strict referred process applied to its scientific contents will also apply to other more worldly maters in the future (i.e. policies of countries about cultural preservation). Not doing that, would indicate a clear positioning of the journal close to certain ideologies that many scientists, as myself, would like to avoid.
Yours
2 comments:
A mi el contingut de la carta em sembla perfecte, el que no sé és com va el tema de longitud i això per Nature.
300-400 paraules:
http://www.nature.com/nature/authors/gta/others.html#correspondence
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