[UK-TUG] 6:30pm Thu 30 Dec: TeX Hour: Community + James Webb Space Telescope + Desmond Tutu

[Jonathan Fine]

Hi

Tomorrow is the final TeX Hour of the year 2021. If you're sympathetic to
the views expressed below you're warmly invited and most welcome to attend.

Time: Thursday 6:30 to 7:30pm UK time.
URL:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/78551255396?pwd=cHdJN0pTTXRlRCtSd1lCTHpuWmNIUT09

Two international events last week have increased my optimism regarding the
support and promotion of TeX. They also shine some light on the way
forward. The first is the successful launch into orbit of the James Webb
Space Telescope,. The second is the widespread recognition and appreciation
of the public service made by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

The Webb Telescope shows that what Newton set into motion over 300 years
ago with his Principia Mathematica still has internal vigor, and public
recognition and funding. It is also a triumph for international cooperation
for a common human purpose and need, to understand what there is and what
is possible. About 50 years ago similar forces created the environment in
which Don Knuth's creation of TeX was possible.

Desmond Tutu used his position and skills to help bring down racist,
undemocratic and inhuman apartheid in South Africa. His route was
non-violent opposition, as pioneered by Mahatma Gandhi in the struggle for
Indian Independence and Martin Luther King in the Civil Rights Movement in
the USA. His relation to TeX requires some explanation.

In the 1990s Tutu was chair of the post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation
Commission, which did much to bring about peaceful reconciliation and
restorative (instead of punitive) justice to South Africa. The Commission
helped transform South Africa into a "rainbow nation". Tutu's work relied
on an African world view that there is a universal bond of sharing that
connects all humanity, or more concisely that "I am because we are". It is
humanity to others.

In many of the Bantu languages, this world view is called "ubuntu". It has
a close match to the ideals of sharing, community and collaboration that
are central to open source software. Also in the 1990s Mark Shuttleworth in
South Africa developed both open source and proprietary software. In the
2000s he used proceeds from the latter to fund development of a Linux
distribution that was, at his request, called Ubuntu. Nelson Mandela
defined "ubuntu" on video as part of the launch of Ubuntu Linux.

Conditions exist for science and humanity to develop and grow in 2022. And
this includes the continuation of Don Knuth's work in Digital Typography.

Happy TeXing and wishing you a safe and happy 2022.

Jonathan

URLs:

https://www.quantamagazine.org/why-nasas-james-webb-space-telescope-matters-so-much-20211203/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desmond_Tutu
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_and_Reconciliation_Commission_(South_Africa)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_philosophy

Brief History of the Ubuntu Project:
https://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=2118681&seqNum=3
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://tug.org/pipermail/uktug-announce/attachments/20211229/9992d491/attachment.html>