SBH’s Jonathan Gullible:
Global Johnny Appleseed of Liberty
By Ken Schoolland
More than 20 years ago Sam Slom and Small Business Hawaii took up the publication of The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible: A Free Market Odyssey (JG), to promote economics education in Hawaii schools. While it hasn’t yet landed solidly in Hawaii schools, it has reached a hundred thousand readers around the world in 45 languages.
Most recent is the French edition in a nation highly resistant to free market ideas. At last, Akila Bezzouh, Jean Robin, and Editions Tatamis have produced a gem. Writes Akila, "Jonathan Gullible in French is finally between my hands, right now! Yes we have received it yesterday and it will be officially in stores and online stores on October 25.”
The New English Edition for youth is now available from Kris Haladus and Aspekt Publishing Co. It has more than 40 beautiful illustrations and every copy carries an audio CD. Iulian Tanase published the new, revised Romanian edition. Mitja Steinbacher and Matjaz Steinbacher published JG for the Slovene audience with beautiful new, award winning illustrations by Breda Sturm.
Adedayo Thomas has a very successful and ambitious program in Nigeria, Tanzania, and Ghana utilizing a very effective play, A Letter From Jonathan Gullible. Of the performance, Franklin Cudjoe wrote: "Real Theatre at Ahmadu Bello University! You’re missing it guys...Just saw the greatest play on the intrusiveness of governments around the world. Performed by the Theatre Arts Department of Ahmadu Bello University. … Truly, Nigerian theatre producers are the best! I told the cast (actors) they had done our whole week's work in just one hour. I requested a reenactment on Sunday. I will do anything to support the cast to go global. The audience was largely African, drawn from six countries."
The book was produced in 100,000 CD’s, “Ideas for a Free Society,” by the International Policy Network. These were featured by my family in summer economics programs in Romania, Bulgaria, and China. In Morocco, Nouh el Harmouzi, conducted a liberty seminar program for Arabic economics students in Morocco. Nouh prepared the Arabic version of JG and the animated “Philosophy of Liberty” (PoL) of the book’s epilogue, which has been widely used across the Middle East in 2011.
Forthcoming this Spring, new JG publications in Vietnamese, Finnish, Estonian, Armenian, Albanian, and Dutch.
Visit the official Jonathan Gullible website for more information and updates.