Писмо Билу Гејтсу

од: Удружења инжењера и пријатеља
Електротехничког факултета у Београду

Писмо истоветне садржине послато нашим званичницима, ректоратима, ЕТФ-овима, САНУ и СПЦ - ПДФ

ETF BELGRADE ALUMNI AND FRIENDS ASSOCIATION
A CALIFORNIA NONPROFIT PUBLIC BENEFIT CORPORATION
5280 Canyon Crest Drive, San Ramon, CA 94583
November 19, 2002
Mr William Gates III, Chairman
Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052

Dear Mr. Gates,

We are writing this letter to you, since we need your help in resolving a problem in our old country.

We are U.S. based, nonprofit organization of alumni of the School of Electrical Engineering in Belgrade (ETF Belgrade), Yugoslavia - Serbia. Our organization has about 150 members, many of them are in management positions in American largest Information Technology companies and more are professors at prestigious universities in this country.

Your Microsoft Corporation has generously offered to help with computer education in Serbia by translating the Windows operating system and Office programs into the Serbian language. However, this project is led by the Microsoft regional office in another country, Slovenia. Because of the different ethnic background and lack of sensitivity, the regional office is trying to do the translation using the Roman alphabet instead of the Serbian Cyrillic script. This may create resentment in many of your future Microsoft Serbian customers and will diminish the effect of Microsoft goodwill intentions.

Like many other small European nations, the Serbian people are proud to continue their culture and traditions. The Serbian language and Cyrillic script are the most important of their cultural characteristics.

The Serbian Cyrillic script has an advantage that many other languages do not have. It is a fully phonetic script. For about two hundred years the Serbs had the luxury of a phonetic script, which the late George Bernard Shaw unsuccessfully tried to promote in English. In a phonetic alphabet, every sound in the language has its equivalent letter in the script. Imagine a language without need for spelling. Imagine how much easier it is for schoolchildren to learn to read and write.

According to the latest information available to us, the Serbian government has offered to provide its resources and help for translation into the Cyrillic script. Thus, a good part of cost incurred by Microsoft will be compensated.

We urge you to appeal to the Microsoft Regional Office in Ljubljana, Slovenia to change its initial decision and translate Microsoft programs to the Serbian Cyrillic script.

Thank you very much for your help. We look forward to your decision.

Sincerely yours,

Prof. Dr. Jasmina Vujic, President

Dr. Sveta Djurich, Secretary

D. Mita Postich, Treasurer