Report Card: The Foundation for Science, Health and Education

Too tired to talk politics, I've decided to prolong January's exam marking drudgery by applying to the English versions of Catalan web sites, in the public or the third sector, the same standards applied to English majors at Catalan universities. In all cases, I want to ask if money has been spent well--and in some cases, if I conclude that no money has been spent, money not spent is not money well spent.

Valentí Fuster runs the Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan.  He's a highly distinguished man of whose accomplishments a proper account would fill the front matter of heavy book. He is also publicly minded. Early in 2010 he leant his name to a third-sector initiative, the Science, Health and Education Foundation, headquartered in Barcelona, whose mandate it is to raise awareness of cardio-vascular health among school-age children.  The foundation's website--http://www.fundacionshe.org--is available in English, Catalan, and Spanish.

The English text is not always comprehensible: "Make enjoy to your ear while helps the foundation" reads a prominent sidebar on the welcome page. Some translations are not complete, with Spanish text left dangling at the end of the English version. The translator is not a native speaker and in all likelihood does not have a university training in translation, for there is no evident regard for register or pragmatics. The literalism of rendering "Contact con nosotros" as "Contact with us" (a mistake Google Translate does not make) makes one think that the translator lacked university training in modern languages; and there has been  That said, the message content is decipherable to those with a great measure of patience.

Mark: 3/10.

Good News

The Generalitat is to drop €3 million from its budget by scrapping a quarterly glossy, InfoCatalunya, delivered to every Catalan home. Without so much as a hiccough, La Vanguardia describes InfoCatalunya as featuring "propaganda de la obra del Govern". It will not be missed.