Lost in Translation

"Brussels, Belium, the European Union's headquarters, is fast getting a reputation as the new Babel." Article

One of the most interesting tales from the Bible is told in Genesis Chapters 10 and 11. Here's a brief summary from the Catholic Encylopedia:

The descendants of Noe had migrated from the "east" Armenia first southward, along the course of the Tigris, then westward across the Tigris into "a plain in the land of Sennar". As their growing number forced them to live in localities more and more distant from their patriarchal homes, "they said: Come, let us make a city and a tower, the top whereof may reach to heaven; and let us make our name famous before we be scattered abroad into all lands." The work was soon fairly under way; "and they had brick instead of stones, and slime (asphalt) instead of mortar." But God confounded their tongue, so that they did not understand one another's speech, and thus scattered them from that place into all lands, and they ceased to build the city."

It is interesting that a similar problem could be facing the emerging European Union. As more and more countries are added, more languages (currently at 20) become "official" languages of the EU. With yearly translation costs at 1.3 billion dollars and a translation operation twice as big as that of the United Nations, the EU could have serious troubles as it emerges as a major player on the world stage.