W3C Internationalization Workshop Eric Brunner-Williams Statement of Position wampumpeag, llc January, 11 2002 Universalism Considered Harmful Introduction Since the IAB Character Workshop in 1996, the IETF has attempted to substitute one abstract character repertoire for text-based protocols with another, while maintaining universal scope. Whatever the advantages and failings of ASCII, or UNICODE, this approach is consistently "universalist". Universalism is not without problems, and it is worth sharing something well-known to legally educated American Indians, and lifted in-bulk from its source [Algebra]: The Pope and the Mongols On August 15, 1246, an assembly of the loyal subjects of the greatest empire the world had known -- greater than even that of Rome in its Imperial Age -- gathered on a plain in central Asia called the Golden Horde by its Mongol Lords. One of the few Westerners to witness this grand event, Friar John of Plano Carpini, has provided us with a partial roster of those in attendance; "Duke Jerozlaus of Susdal in Russia and several chiefs of the Kitayans and Solangi, also two sons of the King of Georgia, the ambassador of the Caliph of Baghdad, who was a Sultan, and more than ten other sultans of the Saracens." Besides these notables, Friar John also recorded the presence of four thousand envoys, all carrying tribute and gifts of gold. This throng had gathered under a gigantic tent, "supported by columns covered with gold plates and fastened to other wooden beams with nails of gold," to witness the coronation of the newly-elected Great Khan of the Mongol empire, Guyak, grandson of Ghengis Khan. At the time of Guyak's enthronement the empire of the Mongols stretched from the shores of the Pacific in China, across Asia, to the very borders of Western Christendom. Imagine Friar John's awe and trepidation as he dwelled upon this spectacle, thinking of the gruesome trail to Guyak's camp consisting Brunner-Williams Published January 2002 [Page 1] W3C-I18N-WS UNIVERSALISM CONSIDERED HARMFULL of the "many skulls and bones of dead men lying on the ground like dung." Such sights must have weighed heavily upon John's mind as he contemplated his portfolio as the ambassador of Western Christendom. John had been selected to deliver two "gifts" in the form of letters written by Pope Innocent IV to the Great Khan of the Mongols. These letters, at least in the mind of their author, contained messages of utmost importance to both the Christian and Mongol empires. Christian Europe had grown increasingly alarmed at the rapacious advance of the Mongol armies toward its borders. Moscow, Kiev, in fact virtually all of Christian Russia had fallen under the brutal yoke of Mongol domination. Worse, brief but decimating forays had been staged into the soft underbelly of Western Christendom -- Poland, Moravia, even as far west as Austria and Hungary. Their advance had only been halted by the death of Ugedy Khan and subsequent rivalry between Mongol princes. The succession of Guyak to the position of Great Khan, however, had ended all dissension in the empire for the immediate future. In addition, Christendom was particularly vulnerable at this time due to the divisive feud within the Holy Roman Empire between Innocent and the Emperor, Frederick II. The Pope indeed had justifiable cause to worry about the Great Khan's future intentions towards the West. His letters were intended to discover those intentions, and to inform the Khan about the Pope's own thoughts towards the Khan and his subjects. Innocent's letters informed the Great Khan that before "rising from the dead and ascending into Heaven" the Creator had selected a vicar on earth, to whom the Creator had "committed the care of all souls." As successor to this vicariate, Innocent was bound to assure the salvation of all men, including the Great Khan, and to lead those in error into the way of truth. Therefore, the Pope had made available Friar John, the bearer of this message, to further inform the Khan of the truth of the Christian faith. Innocent further informed Guyak that the Mongol's warring and plunder had violated the divine natural law by which the human race is united with the very elements "which go to make up the world machine." Innocent enjoined the Khan to desist in "breaking the bond of natural ties" by ceasing to persecute Christians, and "to conciliate by a fitting penance the wrath of divine Majesty." Guyak listened politely to the Pope's message, and then gave Friar John a response to return to Innocent. The Great Khan's letter commanded the Pope to "come at once to serve and wait upon us. At that time, I shall recognize your submission." As for Innocent's claim that he was God's representative on earth, Guyak replied that "the eternal God has slain and annihilated these lands and peoples, because they neither adhered to Ghengis Khan, nor to the Khagan (the Supreme Ruler), both of whom have been sent to make known God's Brunner-Williams Published January 2002 [Page 2] W3C-I18N-WS UNIVERSALISM CONSIDERED HARMFULL command." According to the Khan, the Pope could not be certain he was God's agent on earth, given that the Mongol's successes at war could not have occurred if "contrary to the command of God." Innocent's response to Guyak's command is contained in a follow-up letter that warned the Khan that the Pope was now even more upset about the condition of the Mongol's souls. Having heard the truths of Christianity, they could no longer plead ignorance of the true faith when God called them for judgment. And history records that neither's armies were provided the chance to test these opposing visions of truth. MYTHOLOGIES As legally educated American Indians know all too well, for nearly one thousand years, European-derived legal thought has steadfastly adhered to a highly systematized mythological structure in confronting its experience of normatively divergent peoples. The foundational premises of this structure have always assumed first, the immanence of the European's worldview, and second, the rightness and necessity of subjugating and assimilating other peoples to that worldview. Admittedly, the first premise has been shared in varying forms by all great cultures. Only the European, however, has sought to enable himself to actualize the second premise on a world scale. CONSEQUENCES This "feature" isn't restricted to theology, but extends to encoding standards, as any informed observer of national and vendor coding standards, particularly Asian coding standards, is aware. Over the past five years, the IAB has attempted to engage itself, the IETF, and the IRTF in a series of recommendations. Of interest to the participants of this W3C I18N Workshop, are these three (unmet) recommendations from [WR]: C: The IAB should trigger the production of a perspectives document on the character set work that has gone on in the past and relate it to the current framework. D: Full ISO 10646 has a sufficiently broad repertoire, and scope for further extension, that it is sufficient for use in Internet Protocols (without excluding the use of existing alternatives). There is no need for specific development of character set standards for the Internet. E: The IAB should encourage the IRTF to create a research group to explore the open issues of character sets on the Internet. This group should set its sights much higher than this workshop did. Brunner-Williams Published January 2002 [Page 3] W3C-I18N-WS UNIVERSALISM CONSIDERED HARMFULL Participants are noticed that in the past two years, the IDN WG has attempted to apply the Universal (Euro-centric) Truth of Unicode, and its HAN Unification and other warts to the problem of domain names currently being restricted to a subset of ASCII. As this WG has trenched its way into its over-due unmarked grave, it most recently "solved" the problem of Simplified to Traditional Chinese equivalences by ignoring the Chinese. Revisiting Friar John's ass. PROPOSED AREA OF WORK Very simply, we abandon the illusion of Universalism, and attempt to discover, negotiate, and accomodate, normative variation. The work will not be easy, but we will obey national speed limits, and other limits to European ambitions. References [Algebra] Robert Williams, Jr., The Algebra of Federal Indian Law: The Hard Trail of Decolonizing and Americanizing the White Man's Jurisprudence, 1986, WIS. L. REV. [WR] Weider, C., Preston, C., Simonsen, K., Alvestrand, H, Atkinson, R., Crispin, M., and P. Svanberg, "The Report of the IAB Character Set Workshop held 29 February - 1 March, 1996", RFC 2130, April 1997. Author's Address Eric Brunner-Williams wampumpeag, llc 1415 Forest Ave., Portland, ME 04103 Email: brunner@world.std.com Status of this Memo This document is statement of position and is covered by the W3C INVITED EXPERT AND COLLABORATORS AGREEMENT. Brunner-Williams Published January 2002 [Page 4]