DESPITE the firestorm of criticism, the organisation responsible for the translation of the Bible into the Jamaican dialect, patois, is forging ahead with the $60-million project, saying a pilot of the New Testament book of Luke in audio form should be ready by year-end.

Reverend Courtney Stewart, general manager of the Bible Society of the West Indies (BSWI), Wednesday stressed that the controversial translation venture was mainly an audio project, meaning that it is the spoken word that will be distributed on compact discs (CDs) and made available for download from the Internet.

"The project is in audio, so persons will be able to put the CD into their player and listen to the scriptures. We will also publish a script for those who want to see what it looks like," Rev Stewart told the Observer Wednesday.

The clergyman is surprised about the level of debate the project has generated, but is disappointed that many critics have not sought the facts before commenting.
"We were expecting there would be some measure of debate, but the enormity of it and the period for which it has been raging has taken us by surprise," Rev Stewart said. "However, many persons who have commented have not made an effort to contact us for clarification."

Rev Stewart also defended the budget earmarked for the 12-year project.

"There are no shortages of opportunities that are crying out for funding - housing, schools, roads, you name it. However, what we are to realise is that the primary donor of this project gave this money for translation. If we did not accept it, the money would have gone somewhere else in the world because the Bible Society is involved in over 500 translation projects worldwide," he said.

Rev Stewart said that 200 years of Bible society history showed that the scriptures make their greatest impact on people when they have it in their mother tongue or heart language.

"We are not saying it's not either patois or English. While we are teaching our children the basics of English we are also saying there is nothing wrong with the language that we speak," he said.

The pastor, however, admitted that the project probably would not be economically feasible. "The Bible Society's mission is not profit making; it's about making scriptures affordable to the people of our country," he explained.

Yesterday, the BSWI handed over to the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) building materials and scriptures valued at $875,000 for 18 persons badly affected by Hurricane Dean last year. The supplies were symbolically presented at New Budget Supplies Hardware on Hagley Park Road in Kingston.

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