Last Tuesday (before Christmas), we had the best Christmas present come unexpectedly. We went in for the last ultrasound, and did the routine checkup: spine? check; heart with four ventricules? check; kidneys, femur, feet? check; brain, ombilical cord, placenta? check, check, check.
then... WOW ! With the push of a button my OB switched to 3D to get us a portrait of her face (after much pushing her around since she was hiding her face deep inside). UN-BE-LIE-VA-BLE. I no longer have a little black and white skeleton in me, I have a golden-coloured 3D angel with a pout, a little nose and some chubby cheeks. WOWWW... We've pretty much been on a cloud ever since. And if you want to see the face of an angel (nothing less!), let me know, I'll forward it along.
So that's a major victory for France: this is still uncommon in the US (and I was not in some fancy private clinic).
Where the US score though is on practicality: I have received a Moutain of baby clothes. mountain with a capital M, as in Mount Rainier, or Mont Blanc - a tall mountain! a cute, adorable mountain, of course - but tall nonetheless. You know that in the old days people used to put their babies face down; them SIDS research came along and now babies sleep on their back. Well, in France, they 'forgot' to update clothing: all the buttons are still on the back. Talk about a pain in the back side ;) ... My plan? when it's not obvious, to have her wear clothes front-side back. I don't like laying flat on some half-inch thick bumps, why should she?
So that's about it for now. Had a wonderful Christmas with almost-all of my family (my sister's in Ethiopia with her boyfriend). Am planning on doing a quiet New Year celebration with just P, the little one inside, and one of my very best friends who's just back from the Darfur (Sudan).
Most days, I sleep fine and a little short nap in the day is all I need. Last night, was up from 3 to 5, and am up again at 8. The little one's been both restless and cramping my digestive system. Oh well, it's for a good cause. Although I have to admit, I'm right in the middle of the anxiety phase (I'm also right on schedule, or so I hear, as it seems to hit all pregnant women at this stage): my god, we're going to be our little girl's parents for-ever. not just through pregnancy, and not just through newborn-ness and childhood. but ever. dear...
wishing you a delightful, inspiring, memorable New Year.
Friday, December 30, 2005
Saturday, December 10, 2005
the nine months myth
There is a wild and insane belief out there that pregnancy is a single nine-month stretch. Let me dispel that myth for you.
First of all, it's not nine months. Having gone through three countries' medical systems during this pregnancy, I can testify that its length is not even universally agreed upon.
Some count it as 10 times a 28 day cycle. Others as 40 weeks. Others as 40 plus 3 days. Others as 9 months. some start with the last periods, others with the guestimated date of the baby's beginning.
Isn't it insane that by driving up north in France for 6 hours I would be expected to give birth a whooping 4 days earlier than here in the South? You can always try telling a woman in her third trimester that she's in for 11 days longer than she'd planned on. Ouch. You get denial. I still tell people the baby's due in early February even though according to local calculations the expected date is the 17th - technically, that's mid or end of, not beginning of Feb... But the UK and US systems had me schedule for the 6th.
I now hang my hopes on the notion that more women give birth on the full moon (which is another myth, I know). and the full moon is the 7th of Feb. so there: I'm giving the French calculators one extra day, that counts as a compromise, doesn't it?
Second of all, pregnancy is not a single stretch of time. It's not even three trimesters; it's more like 40 (41? 42?) weeks of experiment-experiences. Believe me, I waited for weeks on end for the supposed burst of energy that comes at the onset of the 14th week (second trimester) - week 15, still exhausted. 16? ditto. 17, 18, 19... I had to wait till just about week 26 and my 'glow' lasted all of two weeks, if that.
Now it is one way to keep things from getting boring, I'll grant you that. there's the week where you can't get out of bed until at least two naps have been taken. the week where the bathroom is your new best friend, especially in the middle of the night. the week(s) where you MUST eat every two hours or else the world falls apart and you scramble for any old breadcrumbs.
Different body parts start having voices of their own - the breasts that feel they'll just about fall off, or explode, or both simultaneously. the calves that cramp up right as you set into deep sleep. the zits that we hadn't seen in such glorious eruption since high school. the week-of-the-salty-protein-cravings (eggs, chicken, ham); the week-of-the-raw-grated-carrots, the week-of-the-mint-syrup-with-sparkling-water; the week-of-the-cheese (actually, never mind that last one is a constant).
It's for a great cause. I'm not complaining. I'm fully aware that so far I've avoided the most terrible of ailments of pregnancy (and if you don't know what they are, I won't be the one to tell). I just want to take a stab at the conspiracy of silence over pregnancy and the so-called radiance that occurs during nine months, without any mention of the squeeshage that occurs with your internal organs (digestive and bladder of course, but you also get a glimpse of what half a lung capacity and no diaphragm can do to you).
Now I rest my peace.
First of all, it's not nine months. Having gone through three countries' medical systems during this pregnancy, I can testify that its length is not even universally agreed upon.
Some count it as 10 times a 28 day cycle. Others as 40 weeks. Others as 40 plus 3 days. Others as 9 months. some start with the last periods, others with the guestimated date of the baby's beginning.
Isn't it insane that by driving up north in France for 6 hours I would be expected to give birth a whooping 4 days earlier than here in the South? You can always try telling a woman in her third trimester that she's in for 11 days longer than she'd planned on. Ouch. You get denial. I still tell people the baby's due in early February even though according to local calculations the expected date is the 17th - technically, that's mid or end of, not beginning of Feb... But the UK and US systems had me schedule for the 6th.
I now hang my hopes on the notion that more women give birth on the full moon (which is another myth, I know). and the full moon is the 7th of Feb. so there: I'm giving the French calculators one extra day, that counts as a compromise, doesn't it?
Second of all, pregnancy is not a single stretch of time. It's not even three trimesters; it's more like 40 (41? 42?) weeks of experiment-experiences. Believe me, I waited for weeks on end for the supposed burst of energy that comes at the onset of the 14th week (second trimester) - week 15, still exhausted. 16? ditto. 17, 18, 19... I had to wait till just about week 26 and my 'glow' lasted all of two weeks, if that.
Now it is one way to keep things from getting boring, I'll grant you that. there's the week where you can't get out of bed until at least two naps have been taken. the week where the bathroom is your new best friend, especially in the middle of the night. the week(s) where you MUST eat every two hours or else the world falls apart and you scramble for any old breadcrumbs.
Different body parts start having voices of their own - the breasts that feel they'll just about fall off, or explode, or both simultaneously. the calves that cramp up right as you set into deep sleep. the zits that we hadn't seen in such glorious eruption since high school. the week-of-the-salty-protein-cravings (eggs, chicken, ham); the week-of-the-raw-grated-carrots, the week-of-the-mint-syrup-with-sparkling-water; the week-of-the-cheese (actually, never mind that last one is a constant).
It's for a great cause. I'm not complaining. I'm fully aware that so far I've avoided the most terrible of ailments of pregnancy (and if you don't know what they are, I won't be the one to tell). I just want to take a stab at the conspiracy of silence over pregnancy and the so-called radiance that occurs during nine months, without any mention of the squeeshage that occurs with your internal organs (digestive and bladder of course, but you also get a glimpse of what half a lung capacity and no diaphragm can do to you).
Now I rest my peace.
anti-laziness
I was brought up to believe that the worst flaw I could possibly have was laziness. An inability to saw, a lack of interest in chess playing, a difficulty with the geography of French rivers - all that was forgiveable as long as I was hard-working. The brainwashing has been so successful that whenever I am in bed, sick, with a fever, and shivering uncontrollably, the first thought that always comes to my mind is - well, what if I'm just being lazy and am trying to find a way out of school/work/some other obligation?
Pregnancy is a stretch in the non-laziness department. I have to stop long before I'm fully exhausted. I have to choose resting over nesting sometimes. I keep saying, 'but I'm not sick, I'm not disabled, I'm just... well, pregnant." The truth remains: my body is going at an entirely different pace than my mind or my will. much slo-o-o-ower. And I am learning to accept that. And I am struggling with letting those around me do more, and do things I could very well do, just not all at once and right this minute.
Pregnancy is a stretch in the non-laziness department. I have to stop long before I'm fully exhausted. I have to choose resting over nesting sometimes. I keep saying, 'but I'm not sick, I'm not disabled, I'm just... well, pregnant." The truth remains: my body is going at an entirely different pace than my mind or my will. much slo-o-o-ower. And I am learning to accept that. And I am struggling with letting those around me do more, and do things I could very well do, just not all at once and right this minute.
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
nesting...
Dear friends,
It's been too long again, I'm sorry.
I'm now sitting in our new office space. We're renting a little home in the South of the country, sort of halfway between the sea and the mountains. We're settling... We're getting domesticated...
It's been so hectic. I think the physical act of moving our stuff from everywhere to here was the least painful. Then comes the setting up of the banks, and the telephone lines, and the DSL, and the medical insurance, and the rental insurance, and buying the lightbulbs, a bed, a microwave, a fridge, a washing machine (we have our own washing machine!), a dishwasher (first time in our lives we have a dishwasher, it's such an incentive to laziness), a few garbage cans, a million lamps, and so on and so forth.
We're finding it difficult. Settling in a completely brand new place, where we know no one (so we have to discover the stores on our own), and having sold every piece of furniture, every piece of electrical and electronic equipment we owned a year and a half ago... it's draining.
Speaking of a year and a half ago: try picturing Christmas day, and you have lots and lots of presents this year. But the funny thing is, every time you open a box, it's something you already own, but haven't seen or thought about for a year and a half. That's pretty much what it feels like to be us at the moment.
So tomorrow's a big shopping day: a big trip to the furniture stores, to find someplace to put away the contents of all those boxes.
At the same time, I'm still working full time, but trying to be on the east coast schedule to match my colleagues. Which allows me the mornings to run around and do paperwork and other stuff, while I work afternoon and evenings, before I collapse into bed and do it again the next day. Gotta say though, it feels like we're starting to see the end of it. And taking out the garbage and doing loads of laundry does start to make it feel like our place (obviously we're not quite at the stage where we're putting up pictures and frames yet).
P's french is improving quickly. he can even manage phone conversations, which impresses me to no end. and he's much better at the twisty windy driving directions in the area than I am.
As for our little one, well she's about 2/3 ready: I'm just entering the final trimester. So she's a bit over two pounds and 15 inches at the moment, or something like that. I had my first preparation class a couple weeks ago, it was pretty wonderful sitting there and having all this time (2 hours) to think only about my belly!
I must be starting to nest: I've shined our metal pieces (never done that before), and did a little embroidery based on some free trial thing they stuffed into my maternity box. unbelievable!
I'm not managing much in the way of intellectual reading these days, except for baby gear books. So if anyone has any cool readings to contribute, please send my way.
Miss everyone lots,
M
It's been too long again, I'm sorry.
I'm now sitting in our new office space. We're renting a little home in the South of the country, sort of halfway between the sea and the mountains. We're settling... We're getting domesticated...
It's been so hectic. I think the physical act of moving our stuff from everywhere to here was the least painful. Then comes the setting up of the banks, and the telephone lines, and the DSL, and the medical insurance, and the rental insurance, and buying the lightbulbs, a bed, a microwave, a fridge, a washing machine (we have our own washing machine!), a dishwasher (first time in our lives we have a dishwasher, it's such an incentive to laziness), a few garbage cans, a million lamps, and so on and so forth.
We're finding it difficult. Settling in a completely brand new place, where we know no one (so we have to discover the stores on our own), and having sold every piece of furniture, every piece of electrical and electronic equipment we owned a year and a half ago... it's draining.
Speaking of a year and a half ago: try picturing Christmas day, and you have lots and lots of presents this year. But the funny thing is, every time you open a box, it's something you already own, but haven't seen or thought about for a year and a half. That's pretty much what it feels like to be us at the moment.
So tomorrow's a big shopping day: a big trip to the furniture stores, to find someplace to put away the contents of all those boxes.
At the same time, I'm still working full time, but trying to be on the east coast schedule to match my colleagues. Which allows me the mornings to run around and do paperwork and other stuff, while I work afternoon and evenings, before I collapse into bed and do it again the next day. Gotta say though, it feels like we're starting to see the end of it. And taking out the garbage and doing loads of laundry does start to make it feel like our place (obviously we're not quite at the stage where we're putting up pictures and frames yet).
P's french is improving quickly. he can even manage phone conversations, which impresses me to no end. and he's much better at the twisty windy driving directions in the area than I am.
As for our little one, well she's about 2/3 ready: I'm just entering the final trimester. So she's a bit over two pounds and 15 inches at the moment, or something like that. I had my first preparation class a couple weeks ago, it was pretty wonderful sitting there and having all this time (2 hours) to think only about my belly!
I must be starting to nest: I've shined our metal pieces (never done that before), and did a little embroidery based on some free trial thing they stuffed into my maternity box. unbelievable!
I'm not managing much in the way of intellectual reading these days, except for baby gear books. So if anyone has any cool readings to contribute, please send my way.
Miss everyone lots,
M
Thursday, September 22, 2005
coconuts of change
Seeds of change sound too tiny; we're in the seas of change but somehow the coconuts of change sounded better.
Since I last wrote on July 1st, we have visited Poland for a conference, packed up and left England; spent two days in France; a week in Seattle for a wedding and to catch up with great friends we'd been missing; back to France for a week; then DC for five weeks, and now here we are in France again.
Still we've managed to open bank accounts in the US and France that are linked, we've stayed under some form of medical insurance the whole time, and are working our way into the French system...
We have no home - we wander from family's to friends' places. We have only our trusted suitcases that have been with us 9 weeks now. And in the mean time I have started a (great) new job, have just starting working remotely (1pm-9pm shift to match east coast business hours pretty closely), we're looking for a region to settle in, a home to buy, and... a little one will be coming to enlarge the size of our family (ETA first week in Feb). Ha, some call us insane, but we know better: we've seen good friends successfully juggle house hunting, a newborn, job changes, building a new office space and doing massive wall-demolishing type house renovations.
so that's it for now. I haven't done much reading recently that itsn' work related, but if you're interested in the gender digital divide or women's rights; let me know.
Since I last wrote on July 1st, we have visited Poland for a conference, packed up and left England; spent two days in France; a week in Seattle for a wedding and to catch up with great friends we'd been missing; back to France for a week; then DC for five weeks, and now here we are in France again.
Still we've managed to open bank accounts in the US and France that are linked, we've stayed under some form of medical insurance the whole time, and are working our way into the French system...
We have no home - we wander from family's to friends' places. We have only our trusted suitcases that have been with us 9 weeks now. And in the mean time I have started a (great) new job, have just starting working remotely (1pm-9pm shift to match east coast business hours pretty closely), we're looking for a region to settle in, a home to buy, and... a little one will be coming to enlarge the size of our family (ETA first week in Feb). Ha, some call us insane, but we know better: we've seen good friends successfully juggle house hunting, a newborn, job changes, building a new office space and doing massive wall-demolishing type house renovations.
so that's it for now. I haven't done much reading recently that itsn' work related, but if you're interested in the gender digital divide or women's rights; let me know.
Friday, July 01, 2005
teaching an old monkey new skills
We've learned a whole set of new skills, and I'm not sure what we'll do with them once we leave (soon).
For instance, here out of necessity you become quite gifted at balancing a week's worth of grocery bags on the handlebars of your bicycle and manoeuvring the sharp corners of the tiny lanes of cambridge without getting your groceries caught in the spikes of your wheels. it's better than the circus - especially on week-ends when tourists invade the town and cross the streets without looking. all good fun.
We've also learned to distinguish the nuances of the dress code, and pick out the differences between a garden party and a may ball in june, or a june event, or a formal dinner, or a black tie or white tie event, or drinks at the president's, or the henley royal regatta (for that last one, think Ascot with the big hats). We've also never put all of our formal wear, gowns, tux and all to such use. I'm sure it'll miss being pulled out of the closet with such frequency. I'm not sure we will miss it as much.
So what next?
Well.... drum roll... the plan is to move to the south of france! Stay tuned.
For instance, here out of necessity you become quite gifted at balancing a week's worth of grocery bags on the handlebars of your bicycle and manoeuvring the sharp corners of the tiny lanes of cambridge without getting your groceries caught in the spikes of your wheels. it's better than the circus - especially on week-ends when tourists invade the town and cross the streets without looking. all good fun.
We've also learned to distinguish the nuances of the dress code, and pick out the differences between a garden party and a may ball in june, or a june event, or a formal dinner, or a black tie or white tie event, or drinks at the president's, or the henley royal regatta (for that last one, think Ascot with the big hats). We've also never put all of our formal wear, gowns, tux and all to such use. I'm sure it'll miss being pulled out of the closet with such frequency. I'm not sure we will miss it as much.
So what next?
Well.... drum roll... the plan is to move to the south of france! Stay tuned.
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
ha! ha!
ha! ha! is the name of a eatery/bar here, but I mostly wanted to say "ha! fooled you, I'm still around..."
I'm not sure I'm ready for any kind of philosophical thoughts yet. I've finished my year; that's it: completely done with cambridge (except for the graduating in latin bit). i'm starting to take pics when I go into town on a nice day (a rarety unfortunately) to start snapping some memories for when we go - which is scheduled for end of July. But we'll be travelling in and out until then: poland for a conference, france for some climbing, the US for a wedding, maybe a sunny Portugal/Spain even. a voir.
so all I can muster today is a list of quotes and some reading recommendations. i'm also a bit tired from all the rowing we're doing to get ready for 5 consecutive days of racing next week (http://www.firstandthird.org/tables/rowing/bumpsintro.shtml for details and pics).
But I'd love to hear from everyone now I finally have time to reply :D
The rest is from a book called "Beyond the Limits: global collapse or sustainable development" by Donella Meadows and a few others. Interesting MIT academics analysis of the planet, food, resources, pollution, standard of living, etc. from a systems' dynamics standpoint. They'd done a first book in the 70s called Limits to Growth and this is the follow-up. Worth borrowing at the library and doing a quick read-through even if you're familiar with systems dynamics and sustainability issues (and if you're not, they do a great job of making it accessible). My only criticism of the book would be that they put most of the blame on population growth, which, if we all only consumed as much as the median country in the world, we'd be fine. Anyway, some inspiring stuff I hope you'll agree from the quotes below.
I'm not sure I'm ready for any kind of philosophical thoughts yet. I've finished my year; that's it: completely done with cambridge (except for the graduating in latin bit). i'm starting to take pics when I go into town on a nice day (a rarety unfortunately) to start snapping some memories for when we go - which is scheduled for end of July. But we'll be travelling in and out until then: poland for a conference, france for some climbing, the US for a wedding, maybe a sunny Portugal/Spain even. a voir.
so all I can muster today is a list of quotes and some reading recommendations. i'm also a bit tired from all the rowing we're doing to get ready for 5 consecutive days of racing next week (http://www.firstandthird.org/tables/rowing/bumpsintro.shtml for details and pics).
But I'd love to hear from everyone now I finally have time to reply :D
Laughter is the shortest distance between two people. Victor Borge
The rest is from a book called "Beyond the Limits: global collapse or sustainable development" by Donella Meadows and a few others. Interesting MIT academics analysis of the planet, food, resources, pollution, standard of living, etc. from a systems' dynamics standpoint. They'd done a first book in the 70s called Limits to Growth and this is the follow-up. Worth borrowing at the library and doing a quick read-through even if you're familiar with systems dynamics and sustainability issues (and if you're not, they do a great job of making it accessible). My only criticism of the book would be that they put most of the blame on population growth, which, if we all only consumed as much as the median country in the world, we'd be fine. Anyway, some inspiring stuff I hope you'll agree from the quotes below.
All the evidence suggests that we have consistently exaggerated the contributions of technological genius and underestimated the contributions of natural resources. We need something we lost in our haste to remake the world: a sense of limits, an awareness of the importance of earth's resources. Stewart Udall , US Secretary of the Interior
Unmet material needs: People don't need enormous cars; they need respect. They don't need closetsful of clothes; they need to feel attractive and they need excitement and variety and beauty. People don't need electronic entertainment; they need something worthwhile to do with their lives. And so forth. People need identity, community, challenge, acknowledgement, love, joy. To try and fill these needs with material needs is to set up an unquenchable appetite for false solutions to real and never-satisfied problems. The resulting psychological emptiness is one of the major forces behind the desire for material growth. A society that can admit and articulate its nonmaterial needs and find nonmaterial ways to satisfy them would required much lower material and energy throughputs and would provide much higher levels of human fulfillment.
The capitalists promised that, through the technological domination of the earth, they could deliver a more fair, rational, efficient and productive life for everyone. Their method was simply to free individual entreprise from the bonds of traditional hierarchy and community, whether the bondage derived from other humans of the earth. That meant teaching everyone to treat the earth, as well as each other, with a frank, energetic, self-assertiveness. People must think constantly in terms of making money. They must regard everything around them - the land, its natural resources, their own labour - as potential commodities that might fetch a profit in the market. They must demand the right to produce, buy, and sell those commodities without outside regulation or interference. As wants multiplied, as markets grew more and more far-flung, the bond between humans and the rest of nature was reduced to the barest instrumentalism. historian Donald Worster
How good a human nature does society permit? psychologist Abraham Maslow
The day is not far when the Economic Problem wil take the back seat where it belongs, and the arena of the heart and head will be occupied by our real problems - the problems of life and of human relations, of creation and behaviour and religion. economist John Maynard Keynes
Saturday, April 30, 2005
Whose Information Society?
"We argue that the new communications and information technologies threaten to exacerbate, rather than alleviate, regional disparities." "Our own argument is that when (new) technology and technological innovation are demystified and reinstated within their real social contexts, then the prognosis for the information society is far more problematic." "Within this naive and simplistic association there is a lack of awareness of inequalities and disparities within 'the world's freest societies'. The realities of information access are far more complex than Maisonrouge allows for: inequalities with respect to information resources exist along class, gender, ethnic, regional and national lines."
"This argument that 'gaps' or inequalities are only temporary anomalies during the early stages of exploitation of any given technology draws upon the theory of technological evolution or modernization which, we argue, characterizes the work of technological futurists such as Wilson Dizard or Alvin Toffler. It draws on the same repertoire of progress, growth, productivity. Within this conception, technological growth is a generally benevolent force, creating wealth, freedom, democracies. Inequalities remain subsidiary problems that can be resolved through yet further growth, and through political initiatives to ensure the most just distribution of the ever-greater pie. As such, this perspective stands in a long tradition of liveral Utopain thought which has equated democracy, freedom, equality and self-development with the promise of technology. What is fundamental, in fact, to liberal democratic societies, as Albert Borgmann (1984) has argued, is that technological growth consistently has been the panacea for the endemic social and economic inequalities of capitalist society. Technology offers itself as the force that will create even more wealth for social distribution. And so it is now with information technology, as with a whole stream of earlier technologies. (....) Yet social inequalities persist (...). Our own belief is that information technologies should be seen as manifestations of the prevailing social relations (Robins and Webster 1980) (...). It builds upon, rather than supersedes or dissolves, existing class and regional inequalities - it cannot evaporate the social and economic history out of which it emerges (...). We believe that the new technologies will tend to extend and deepen social and regional inequalities rather than anneal them. The evidence we have gathered suggests that the 'information revolution' is manufacturing itself, not as an unproblematic social evolution, but as a process of uneven and unequal social upheaval." "This is a real problem and a real issue for social policy." "The interrelated issues of class and region which we discuss in this article must be seen in terms of wider and fundamental political issues relating to democracy, economic opportunity, and the quality of social and cultural life. These are the issues we raise when we ask: Whose information society?".
"The questions that must be addressed in the context of new communications and information technologies are difficult and divisive. But they are not new questions: they refer to old and familiar problems of social, economic, regional (and also gender, ethnic and age) inequalities. They will not be solved by ritual invocations of technological progress and inevitability."
from Mark Hepworth and Kevin Robins (1988!): Whose Information Society? A View from the periphery. in Media Culture and Society, 10:323-343
Monday, April 25, 2005
Jordan
We just came back from a week in Jordan (we'll put pictures up on our Cambridge site; if you don't know where that is, email me). We came back recharged: a real evasion, plenty of sunshine and yummy food, and goose-bumping landscapes. Plus I love giving my ears and brain a break in a country where I don't understand a thing. I did learn to say 'excellent', 'may your hands be blessed' (a thank you) and 'no problem'. The basics ;)
DAY 1
Rush over to my faculty to hand in an assignment. Then up town to the bus station. The bus takes its time winding through the countryside (plenty of sheep sightings) before it drops us off at Heathrow. We change a bit of money because we don't expect the ATMs to be open when we get there. It's London to Amsterdam (where we pick up an array of Droste chocolate), and Amsterdam to Amman. We land past 1am, wait patiently in line to get our visas pasted into our passports, are delighted to see a cab driver holding a sign with our names (courtesy of my classmate friend H), and off we go. It's past 2 when we discover H's home/palace and settle into our beds.
DAY 2
No time to catch up on sleep. It's up at 7, breakfast of locals, then off to the Wadi Mujib, a natural reserve an hour and a half south of the capital where we were staying. (If you're wondering where these places are, http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/middle_east/jordan/ ). We enjoyed a gorgeous hike with a guide, a bedouin mint tea (also known as tea with your sugar) then took off in the late afternoon just across the road to the dead sea. well... it's true! You do float insanely, you can be curled up in a ball and still float; and you can't swim on your stomach: your feet stick up in the air. interesting experience. Of course we also had to lather ourselves with the mud and wait for the healing powers to take effect. Back to the capital, traditional dinner with her father and sleep.
DAY 3
Hard to wake up. That's not usually the case for me, but I'm all grumpy. A strong coffee eventually helps, and while H goes off to work, we go tour Madaba to check out the mosaics. The highlight is certainly an ancient mosaic map (in greek) of Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Egypt, etc. Sure, some of the towns were no more than two houses back then, but it's impressive - and a little confusing: east is up. our taxi driver then takes us to Mt Nebo, supposed to be the site where Moses died. It is home to impressive views of the 'biblical lands'. In the afternoon, we're off to Jerash. I honestly wasn't all psyched to go check out Roman ruins: we've got plenty in Europe and I thought we could spend our time better, but they convinced me and I have no regrets. We're not talking about a single theater or a little temple, we're talking about an entire city really. Baths, oval plaza, temples and chapels and two theaters and so on and so forth. huge. massive. and we were part of the attraction: it must have been the national schoolgirls field trip day that day cuz they were everywhere; and they were very excited to take pictures of us. we saw it all including girls screaming at P (was he married? what a lucky guy to have two girlfriends, etc.). it was a bit unsettling the first time (are they pulling my leg, why in the world would they want a picture with me?), but mostly fun if not repetitive in the end.
DAY 4
We split up. P stays in town to visit Amman the capital and be part of a desert rally recon the next day. I go down with H in the 7am bus to Aqaba, the resort city of the South. There clearly was a pattern of early wake-ups during that trip, and the problem with coffee is that you're usually not awake yet when you start sipping it, so I was a bit confused when I first tasted my 'white coffee' (coffee plus rose water and spices). it's actually quite tasty once the brain readjusts. The beach is extraordinarily relaxing. [One word to the tourists: do you really have to bring your G strings to Jordan?!? Speaking of clothing, out of respect and to avoid much harassment especially when it was just us two women traveling, we always wore long pants or long skirt and long sleeves. but to tell you the truth, you should try it: even in the hottest places, I was surprisingly not frying. Plus you save considerably on the sunscreen expenses ;0. Bonus: when we weren't speaking, people assumed we were locals.] Anyway, relaxing beach. sunset from the jacuzzi on the roof with arid deserts to our backs and the red sea in front. not bad, not bad at all.
DAY 5
After another relaxing morning on the beach, we leave Aqaba to go to Wadi Rum - home to the Lawrence of Arabia landscapes. Waiting for P, we play cards in front of the seven pillars of wisdom, hitch-hike a ride from the entry point to the main village (it's another nature reserve so only local bedouins and tourists are allowed in). Drop our stuff in the little white tents that will house us that night. Run into friends of H and their english guests and chit chat, then pet a camel. Finally, off we go. I love the desert. It's incredible, similar sensations but very different landscapes from the desert in Egypt. We climb up a sand dune of red sand (our land rover driver/guide is probably no more than 14, he'll get into mild trouble with his dad later!). See ancient inscriptions in the rock that is an old narrow passageway (those inscription designs can be seen on most of the new pottery patterns). And settle by 'the tower' for good sunset views. We all keep silent and take in the scenery. If you're ever in the desert, do try it: see how long you can be all still and quiet. It was a magical moment; I can close my eyes and remember the shades of red, the quietness, even the camels returning to the camp and the two local kids running around the desert. We are privileged.
DAY 6
We wake up early (you guessed it), to get to Petra, a two hour ride. Petra's unbelievable, it's orders of magnitude more ornate and vast than I expected it to be. I expected the famous 'treasury' facade, but not much else. In fact it's so large you really have to get on a horse/camel/donkey if you want to see more than the absolute bare minimum. It's two periods mixed in, the old Nabateans who left hundreds of tombs , staircases and carvings, and the Romans who later (you can even see that the ground wasn't at the same height) came in and added their own flavouring and a couple of buildings (but those no longer stand). 500 tombs... a narrow passage at the bottom of a narrow canyon, with carved waterways on either side of the passage to distribute water. the treasury of course, but so much more. temples with a pool on the roof and five pyramids to decorate the facade. stucco/plaster coloured. we took a camel ride to the bottom of the 800 stairs to the 'monastery' and everywhere I turned I saw carved entrances. seeing an entire city/complex is so much more than just visiting a cool building. You get a feeling of the life, the people, how it all fit together. Anyway, H easily convinced me to climb up the monastery (i do love rock climbing after all) with her via a no=longer legal but still perfectly maintained path. P kept watch and got yelled at. we made it to the first of the two premontaries, but I guess we were kind of obvious, standing all alone hundreds of feet up the facade. We came down to appease the local cop, and got away without any problem. on the way back it was a donkey ride, plenty of tombs with incredible marbled stone colors carved at a 45 degree angle. and i bought my second tourist souvenir (the first was a set of postcards of a gorgeous baptismal in Mt Nebo, the second a deck of cards where each card is a famous spot in Jordan; there are a few cards devoted to Petra). Fresh fish for dinner back in Aqaba. (oh food, SO much better than england!).
DAY 7
Snorkeling in Aqaba. It is after all the red sea and the snorkeling is impressive. It was a bit eerie though: there's all these beaches, visitor centers, permanent umbrellas and benches set up everywhere, and few visitors. Their tourism industry has of course suffered much since 2001. Their economy also took a 40% cut overnight after the six day war; and the US imposed embargo on Iraq hit them hard: they used to get oil and a few other things from their neighbor. But they don't complain, they offer tea, and P had some incredible conversations when he inadvertently walked in for lunch in an Iraqi restaurant. Unfortunately, it's almost time for us to go. We get on the bus back to Amman. that's 4 hours. we have time for dinner, Knafeh (local pastry of cheese, pastry dough and tons of honey and rose water; addicting), and pick up a box of pastries to take back with us. At 11 o'clock our taxi shows up to take us to the airport. We left earlier than we had to to let them sleep, but in fact our 2am flight is pushed out till 3am, arg. We finally take off for Amsterdam. We land late but still try to get on an earlier flight (we traveled with a small backpack each so nothing's checked in), but no luck. We wait and wait, get on the flight to London but they won't let us take off (Heathrow is backed up). Finally we land. We have 20 minutes to get out of the back of the plane, clear immigration and customs and find our bus to Cambridge. We make it. Sit on the 2 1/2 hour bus ride back to Cam. And even pick up some groceries on the way home from the bus station! If you count the bus from Aqaba, that final journey was well over 20 hours and a bit painful. But hey, that's the price we paid for a glorious vacation. In case you're wondering, I highly recommend Jordan.
DAY 1
Rush over to my faculty to hand in an assignment. Then up town to the bus station. The bus takes its time winding through the countryside (plenty of sheep sightings) before it drops us off at Heathrow. We change a bit of money because we don't expect the ATMs to be open when we get there. It's London to Amsterdam (where we pick up an array of Droste chocolate), and Amsterdam to Amman. We land past 1am, wait patiently in line to get our visas pasted into our passports, are delighted to see a cab driver holding a sign with our names (courtesy of my classmate friend H), and off we go. It's past 2 when we discover H's home/palace and settle into our beds.
DAY 2
No time to catch up on sleep. It's up at 7, breakfast of locals, then off to the Wadi Mujib, a natural reserve an hour and a half south of the capital where we were staying. (If you're wondering where these places are, http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/middle_east/jordan/ ). We enjoyed a gorgeous hike with a guide, a bedouin mint tea (also known as tea with your sugar) then took off in the late afternoon just across the road to the dead sea. well... it's true! You do float insanely, you can be curled up in a ball and still float; and you can't swim on your stomach: your feet stick up in the air. interesting experience. Of course we also had to lather ourselves with the mud and wait for the healing powers to take effect. Back to the capital, traditional dinner with her father and sleep.
DAY 3
Hard to wake up. That's not usually the case for me, but I'm all grumpy. A strong coffee eventually helps, and while H goes off to work, we go tour Madaba to check out the mosaics. The highlight is certainly an ancient mosaic map (in greek) of Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Egypt, etc. Sure, some of the towns were no more than two houses back then, but it's impressive - and a little confusing: east is up. our taxi driver then takes us to Mt Nebo, supposed to be the site where Moses died. It is home to impressive views of the 'biblical lands'. In the afternoon, we're off to Jerash. I honestly wasn't all psyched to go check out Roman ruins: we've got plenty in Europe and I thought we could spend our time better, but they convinced me and I have no regrets. We're not talking about a single theater or a little temple, we're talking about an entire city really. Baths, oval plaza, temples and chapels and two theaters and so on and so forth. huge. massive. and we were part of the attraction: it must have been the national schoolgirls field trip day that day cuz they were everywhere; and they were very excited to take pictures of us. we saw it all including girls screaming at P (was he married? what a lucky guy to have two girlfriends, etc.). it was a bit unsettling the first time (are they pulling my leg, why in the world would they want a picture with me?), but mostly fun if not repetitive in the end.
DAY 4
We split up. P stays in town to visit Amman the capital and be part of a desert rally recon the next day. I go down with H in the 7am bus to Aqaba, the resort city of the South. There clearly was a pattern of early wake-ups during that trip, and the problem with coffee is that you're usually not awake yet when you start sipping it, so I was a bit confused when I first tasted my 'white coffee' (coffee plus rose water and spices). it's actually quite tasty once the brain readjusts. The beach is extraordinarily relaxing. [One word to the tourists: do you really have to bring your G strings to Jordan?!? Speaking of clothing, out of respect and to avoid much harassment especially when it was just us two women traveling, we always wore long pants or long skirt and long sleeves. but to tell you the truth, you should try it: even in the hottest places, I was surprisingly not frying. Plus you save considerably on the sunscreen expenses ;0. Bonus: when we weren't speaking, people assumed we were locals.] Anyway, relaxing beach. sunset from the jacuzzi on the roof with arid deserts to our backs and the red sea in front. not bad, not bad at all.
DAY 5
After another relaxing morning on the beach, we leave Aqaba to go to Wadi Rum - home to the Lawrence of Arabia landscapes. Waiting for P, we play cards in front of the seven pillars of wisdom, hitch-hike a ride from the entry point to the main village (it's another nature reserve so only local bedouins and tourists are allowed in). Drop our stuff in the little white tents that will house us that night. Run into friends of H and their english guests and chit chat, then pet a camel. Finally, off we go. I love the desert. It's incredible, similar sensations but very different landscapes from the desert in Egypt. We climb up a sand dune of red sand (our land rover driver/guide is probably no more than 14, he'll get into mild trouble with his dad later!). See ancient inscriptions in the rock that is an old narrow passageway (those inscription designs can be seen on most of the new pottery patterns). And settle by 'the tower' for good sunset views. We all keep silent and take in the scenery. If you're ever in the desert, do try it: see how long you can be all still and quiet. It was a magical moment; I can close my eyes and remember the shades of red, the quietness, even the camels returning to the camp and the two local kids running around the desert. We are privileged.
DAY 6
We wake up early (you guessed it), to get to Petra, a two hour ride. Petra's unbelievable, it's orders of magnitude more ornate and vast than I expected it to be. I expected the famous 'treasury' facade, but not much else. In fact it's so large you really have to get on a horse/camel/donkey if you want to see more than the absolute bare minimum. It's two periods mixed in, the old Nabateans who left hundreds of tombs , staircases and carvings, and the Romans who later (you can even see that the ground wasn't at the same height) came in and added their own flavouring and a couple of buildings (but those no longer stand). 500 tombs... a narrow passage at the bottom of a narrow canyon, with carved waterways on either side of the passage to distribute water. the treasury of course, but so much more. temples with a pool on the roof and five pyramids to decorate the facade. stucco/plaster coloured. we took a camel ride to the bottom of the 800 stairs to the 'monastery' and everywhere I turned I saw carved entrances. seeing an entire city/complex is so much more than just visiting a cool building. You get a feeling of the life, the people, how it all fit together. Anyway, H easily convinced me to climb up the monastery (i do love rock climbing after all) with her via a no=longer legal but still perfectly maintained path. P kept watch and got yelled at. we made it to the first of the two premontaries, but I guess we were kind of obvious, standing all alone hundreds of feet up the facade. We came down to appease the local cop, and got away without any problem. on the way back it was a donkey ride, plenty of tombs with incredible marbled stone colors carved at a 45 degree angle. and i bought my second tourist souvenir (the first was a set of postcards of a gorgeous baptismal in Mt Nebo, the second a deck of cards where each card is a famous spot in Jordan; there are a few cards devoted to Petra). Fresh fish for dinner back in Aqaba. (oh food, SO much better than england!).
DAY 7
Snorkeling in Aqaba. It is after all the red sea and the snorkeling is impressive. It was a bit eerie though: there's all these beaches, visitor centers, permanent umbrellas and benches set up everywhere, and few visitors. Their tourism industry has of course suffered much since 2001. Their economy also took a 40% cut overnight after the six day war; and the US imposed embargo on Iraq hit them hard: they used to get oil and a few other things from their neighbor. But they don't complain, they offer tea, and P had some incredible conversations when he inadvertently walked in for lunch in an Iraqi restaurant. Unfortunately, it's almost time for us to go. We get on the bus back to Amman. that's 4 hours. we have time for dinner, Knafeh (local pastry of cheese, pastry dough and tons of honey and rose water; addicting), and pick up a box of pastries to take back with us. At 11 o'clock our taxi shows up to take us to the airport. We left earlier than we had to to let them sleep, but in fact our 2am flight is pushed out till 3am, arg. We finally take off for Amsterdam. We land late but still try to get on an earlier flight (we traveled with a small backpack each so nothing's checked in), but no luck. We wait and wait, get on the flight to London but they won't let us take off (Heathrow is backed up). Finally we land. We have 20 minutes to get out of the back of the plane, clear immigration and customs and find our bus to Cambridge. We make it. Sit on the 2 1/2 hour bus ride back to Cam. And even pick up some groceries on the way home from the bus station! If you count the bus from Aqaba, that final journey was well over 20 hours and a bit painful. But hey, that's the price we paid for a glorious vacation. In case you're wondering, I highly recommend Jordan.
WHOA
WHOA - it's been over a month of silence on this blog.
As you'll find out, much has happened, most of it somewhat unexcitingly related to the end of the past term. I have survived a single week of 5 assignments due. I have had to produce 5 more during the ironically termed 'break' since the end of term and today here it is at last: MY DAY OFF ! One single day of nothing related to work, one day to catch up on email, to vaccuum and clean my drawers and put away the winter clothes. Today's a happy day! And welcome back to this blog (I'm always amazed when I hear that some of you are still checking in).
Speaking of blogs, I've mentioned some of my housemates in the past. There's one, a woman from mainland China, who's doing development studies. We always have political or economic conversations, conversations about feminism, about international relations. Sometimes she cracks me up with her blend of naivete, militantism and insight; for instance she had me review an application essay she wrote to a program in Germany about the new Europe. Now, she's boycotting all Japanese products on principle (her grandparents barely escaped a massacre) (Note that this occurred about a week before all hell broke loose between the two countries). In her essay she was explaining that she thinks China but mostly Japan ought to learn from Germany about dealing with its past. The way Germany was portrayed in her textbooks apparently was a Germany that pulled itself by its bootstraps and singlehandedly became an economic powerhouse by sheer will and magical dealings with its past. There is no mention in her textbook of the Marshall Plan; and when I mentioned that she ought to think about the other countries, the ones that were mature or cynical enough to say, let's put this behind us and work together now; she didn't understand why. I went on explaining that Germany could've hardly become an economic powerhouse if the rest of the world had boycotted all of its products. She said that was such Western logic! I'm not too sure what she meant.
Most recently she's been (finally?) seriously woken up from her dream. So far she thought China was clearly the center of the world and that it didn't matter at all that there wasn't democracy. Her friends and her all use blogs to keep in touch with home (they blog on a Chinese blog, friends at home can read it, it's a lot cheaper than phoning every day). Recently though all their blogs were put on hold, and yesterday when she tried to submit a blog about 'big country syndrome', it was repeatedly rejected on grounds that it contained sensitive material, i.e. censured. The same thing happened to her friend last month when he included the picture of a past Chinese leader fallen out of favor. The sad story is that if they put the same information up on a blog like this one, it's not accessible from China. So not only will she lose all her articles and links when she goes back, her friends and family also can't read it. I'm really not trying to make fun of her - she is very smart, dedicated, incredibly open and keen on all kinds of new experiences from hard rock to baking cookies; but it's fascinating to watch her pride and disenchantment evolve.
As you'll find out, much has happened, most of it somewhat unexcitingly related to the end of the past term. I have survived a single week of 5 assignments due. I have had to produce 5 more during the ironically termed 'break' since the end of term and today here it is at last: MY DAY OFF ! One single day of nothing related to work, one day to catch up on email, to vaccuum and clean my drawers and put away the winter clothes. Today's a happy day! And welcome back to this blog (I'm always amazed when I hear that some of you are still checking in).
Speaking of blogs, I've mentioned some of my housemates in the past. There's one, a woman from mainland China, who's doing development studies. We always have political or economic conversations, conversations about feminism, about international relations. Sometimes she cracks me up with her blend of naivete, militantism and insight; for instance she had me review an application essay she wrote to a program in Germany about the new Europe. Now, she's boycotting all Japanese products on principle (her grandparents barely escaped a massacre) (Note that this occurred about a week before all hell broke loose between the two countries). In her essay she was explaining that she thinks China but mostly Japan ought to learn from Germany about dealing with its past. The way Germany was portrayed in her textbooks apparently was a Germany that pulled itself by its bootstraps and singlehandedly became an economic powerhouse by sheer will and magical dealings with its past. There is no mention in her textbook of the Marshall Plan; and when I mentioned that she ought to think about the other countries, the ones that were mature or cynical enough to say, let's put this behind us and work together now; she didn't understand why. I went on explaining that Germany could've hardly become an economic powerhouse if the rest of the world had boycotted all of its products. She said that was such Western logic! I'm not too sure what she meant.
Most recently she's been (finally?) seriously woken up from her dream. So far she thought China was clearly the center of the world and that it didn't matter at all that there wasn't democracy. Her friends and her all use blogs to keep in touch with home (they blog on a Chinese blog, friends at home can read it, it's a lot cheaper than phoning every day). Recently though all their blogs were put on hold, and yesterday when she tried to submit a blog about 'big country syndrome', it was repeatedly rejected on grounds that it contained sensitive material, i.e. censured. The same thing happened to her friend last month when he included the picture of a past Chinese leader fallen out of favor. The sad story is that if they put the same information up on a blog like this one, it's not accessible from China. So not only will she lose all her articles and links when she goes back, her friends and family also can't read it. I'm really not trying to make fun of her - she is very smart, dedicated, incredibly open and keen on all kinds of new experiences from hard rock to baking cookies; but it's fascinating to watch her pride and disenchantment evolve.
Saturday, March 12, 2005
"A conservative speaks..."
I found this excerpt particularly though-provoking. It certainly reminded me to look beyond the simplistic political divisions. Hope you enjoy it as well...
Excerpts from G.K. Durnil, "A Conservative Speaks", Rachel's Environment & Health Weekly #424, January 12, 1995.
... excerpts from a previously-unreported speech by Gordon K. Durnil, former U.S. Chairman of the International Joint Commission (IJC)...
... Let's wrap up this discussion with some practical reasons why conservatives should be interested in and leaders for environmental protection; interested in what we are doing to ourselves and to our childre with some of the chemicals we use and the processes we employ. I start with the presumption that all reasonable people prefer clean air and clean water; that such people are opposed to unknowing exposures to various poisons to our children, our families and our friends. So where do we start? The best way, the least expensive way, the conservative way and the least painful way to accomplish the goal of protection from the most onerous pollutants is prevention. Just don't do it in the first place. Governments, jointly and singularly, will never have sufficient funds to continue cleaning up all those onerous substances lying on the bottom of lakes or working their way through the ground. So for economic reasons and for health reasons, prevention is a conservative solution. Let's not continue to put in what we now are paying to clean up.
Conservatives want lower taxes. Conservatives want smaller governments, with less regulations and fewer regulators. Pollution prevention, instead of all the high-cost bureaucratic mandates and regulatory harassment at the tail end of the pollution trail, can achieve those conservative purposes. If you don't make an onerous substance in the first place, you won't later need to regulate it; you won't need regulators or the increased taxes and fees to pay their expenses. If you don't discharge it, you don't need to buy a government permit with all the attendant red tape and bureaucratic nonsense to which businesses are now subjected. Pollution prevention corrects not just the physical health of our society, it promotes economic health.
Conservatives believe in individual rights. We believe in the right to own private property, and to use it as we see fit. Private dry lands should not be deemed to be wet by a remote government. Such actions violate our basic constitutional rights. But is not the insidious invation of our bodies by harmful unsolicited chemicals the most flagrant violation of our individual rights?
We conservatives bemoan the decline in values that has besieged our present day society. We abhor government and media assaults on our constitutional right to freely practice our religion in today's value neutral, politically correct society. Why then should we not abhor the lack of morality involved in discharging untested chemicals into the air, ground and water to alter and harm, to whatever degree, human life and wildlife?
We conservatives preach out against the decline in learning in our schools; the increased incidence of juvenile crime; we worry about abnormal sexual practices and preferences. Should there be evidence (as there is) that some of those things are being caused by chemicals, environment, should we not add them to our litany of concerns?
We preach self-reliance, but can we be that if unbeknown to us mysterious chemicals are affecting our ability to be reliant upon ourselves?
We conservatives believe it unconscionable that government programs such as welfare are tearing at the fabric of the family. We are upset with the growing incidence of birth ouf ot wedlock, of single parent families; with children bearing children. Why then are we not so concerned with the cause, and the increased incidence, of childhood cancers? Why not visit the local children's hospital and visit with those brave youngsters with inffective immune systems trying to fight off the devastating evils of cancer? Observe the parental pain. See how that circumstance tears at the family. Why not add childhood cancer to our concerns about the family; asking why the emphasis is still on how to cure it, instead of on how to prevent it?
... The symmetry of nature is loaned to us for human use over relatively short periods of time; seventy or eighty years, if we are fortunate. Each of us has a moral duty to not disrupt that balance. For centuries humans met that moral duty, but over the past one half century we have become just too urbane to worry about such mundane things. We have unknowingly done with chemicals what we would never have intentionally done had we pursued the moral basis of the conservative philosophy I described earlier.
Daily we are being exposed to more and more informaiton about the need for environmental stewardship; about the need to exercize precaution before putting harmful chemicals into the environment... we are unintentionally putting our children and our grandchildren in harms way. And I have concluded that we need a basic change of direction.
Excerpts from G.K. Durnil, "A Conservative Speaks", Rachel's Environment & Health Weekly #424, January 12, 1995.
... excerpts from a previously-unreported speech by Gordon K. Durnil, former U.S. Chairman of the International Joint Commission (IJC)...
... Let's wrap up this discussion with some practical reasons why conservatives should be interested in and leaders for environmental protection; interested in what we are doing to ourselves and to our childre with some of the chemicals we use and the processes we employ. I start with the presumption that all reasonable people prefer clean air and clean water; that such people are opposed to unknowing exposures to various poisons to our children, our families and our friends. So where do we start? The best way, the least expensive way, the conservative way and the least painful way to accomplish the goal of protection from the most onerous pollutants is prevention. Just don't do it in the first place. Governments, jointly and singularly, will never have sufficient funds to continue cleaning up all those onerous substances lying on the bottom of lakes or working their way through the ground. So for economic reasons and for health reasons, prevention is a conservative solution. Let's not continue to put in what we now are paying to clean up.
Conservatives want lower taxes. Conservatives want smaller governments, with less regulations and fewer regulators. Pollution prevention, instead of all the high-cost bureaucratic mandates and regulatory harassment at the tail end of the pollution trail, can achieve those conservative purposes. If you don't make an onerous substance in the first place, you won't later need to regulate it; you won't need regulators or the increased taxes and fees to pay their expenses. If you don't discharge it, you don't need to buy a government permit with all the attendant red tape and bureaucratic nonsense to which businesses are now subjected. Pollution prevention corrects not just the physical health of our society, it promotes economic health.
Conservatives believe in individual rights. We believe in the right to own private property, and to use it as we see fit. Private dry lands should not be deemed to be wet by a remote government. Such actions violate our basic constitutional rights. But is not the insidious invation of our bodies by harmful unsolicited chemicals the most flagrant violation of our individual rights?
We conservatives bemoan the decline in values that has besieged our present day society. We abhor government and media assaults on our constitutional right to freely practice our religion in today's value neutral, politically correct society. Why then should we not abhor the lack of morality involved in discharging untested chemicals into the air, ground and water to alter and harm, to whatever degree, human life and wildlife?
We conservatives preach out against the decline in learning in our schools; the increased incidence of juvenile crime; we worry about abnormal sexual practices and preferences. Should there be evidence (as there is) that some of those things are being caused by chemicals, environment, should we not add them to our litany of concerns?
We preach self-reliance, but can we be that if unbeknown to us mysterious chemicals are affecting our ability to be reliant upon ourselves?
We conservatives believe it unconscionable that government programs such as welfare are tearing at the fabric of the family. We are upset with the growing incidence of birth ouf ot wedlock, of single parent families; with children bearing children. Why then are we not so concerned with the cause, and the increased incidence, of childhood cancers? Why not visit the local children's hospital and visit with those brave youngsters with inffective immune systems trying to fight off the devastating evils of cancer? Observe the parental pain. See how that circumstance tears at the family. Why not add childhood cancer to our concerns about the family; asking why the emphasis is still on how to cure it, instead of on how to prevent it?
... The symmetry of nature is loaned to us for human use over relatively short periods of time; seventy or eighty years, if we are fortunate. Each of us has a moral duty to not disrupt that balance. For centuries humans met that moral duty, but over the past one half century we have become just too urbane to worry about such mundane things. We have unknowingly done with chemicals what we would never have intentionally done had we pursued the moral basis of the conservative philosophy I described earlier.
Daily we are being exposed to more and more informaiton about the need for environmental stewardship; about the need to exercize precaution before putting harmful chemicals into the environment... we are unintentionally putting our children and our grandchildren in harms way. And I have concluded that we need a basic change of direction.
an adult again
Hello -
yesterday evening was great fun. We had dinner with our downstairs housemates (a super friendly couple from Chile). The guys cooked the main meal; while she and I cooked the dessert. I realized half way through the dinner (maybe the wine helped) that for the first time in a while I felt like a person again, and an adult at that - the grind and the stress pressures to be a student and just a student - a paper-producing machine. and any time I deal with the administration, well maybe it's because of the large number of undergrads but really, they treat us like kids.
Yesterday I was an adult again; and it was damn good.
I've been meaning to put tons of thoughts up here, but it's the end of the term (three more days of class) and things are backlogged: everything's due right around now. We passed our presentation for our consulting project brilliantly, so that's a huge chunk off our chests, but still plenty more to come, and the variety of topics doesn't make it easy: no overlapping between subjects this term. In any case, I'll try to catch up on here over the next couple of weeks.
yesterday evening was great fun. We had dinner with our downstairs housemates (a super friendly couple from Chile). The guys cooked the main meal; while she and I cooked the dessert. I realized half way through the dinner (maybe the wine helped) that for the first time in a while I felt like a person again, and an adult at that - the grind and the stress pressures to be a student and just a student - a paper-producing machine. and any time I deal with the administration, well maybe it's because of the large number of undergrads but really, they treat us like kids.
Yesterday I was an adult again; and it was damn good.
I've been meaning to put tons of thoughts up here, but it's the end of the term (three more days of class) and things are backlogged: everything's due right around now. We passed our presentation for our consulting project brilliantly, so that's a huge chunk off our chests, but still plenty more to come, and the variety of topics doesn't make it easy: no overlapping between subjects this term. In any case, I'll try to catch up on here over the next couple of weeks.
Sunday, February 27, 2005
No Environmental Comment
Natural Resources Depletion Allowance:
The depletion allowance permits firms to take a tax deduction for their investment in a natural resource, as the resource is used up. The availability of a depletion allowance serves to make the extraction and use of virgin materials more profitable relative to the use of recycled materials. This favorable depletion allowance for these hazardous materials provides a continuing incentive to utilize them in preference to other, safer materials.
In clear speak: your tax dollars are used to encourage relatively more polluting investments; aren't you proud?
Tax deductions that subsidize undesirable activity may also detract the effort to achieve environmental goals. Two particularly poignant examples are (1) deductions for the cost of cleaning up industrial waste and (2) the deduction of punitive damages imposed for egregious environmental misconduct. Tax deductions of this nature amount to a public subsidy for the polluter and hence are arguably socially undesirable.
Doesn't the study of tax laws feel a lot more relevant and urgent all of a sudden?
Finally, the 'nice' effect of setting a cap on court awards:
The capping of awards and/or risk spreading through insurance decreases the risk averseness of the firm and, hence, expenditures for developing or adopting safer product and processes.
There you have it folks: three ways to encourage pollution. You no longer need to wonder why we've made so little progress in getting to environmentally sustainable development in the last 3 decades...
[all from a book by one of my profs. if you want the full details, ask me].
The depletion allowance permits firms to take a tax deduction for their investment in a natural resource, as the resource is used up. The availability of a depletion allowance serves to make the extraction and use of virgin materials more profitable relative to the use of recycled materials. This favorable depletion allowance for these hazardous materials provides a continuing incentive to utilize them in preference to other, safer materials.
In clear speak: your tax dollars are used to encourage relatively more polluting investments; aren't you proud?
Tax deductions that subsidize undesirable activity may also detract the effort to achieve environmental goals. Two particularly poignant examples are (1) deductions for the cost of cleaning up industrial waste and (2) the deduction of punitive damages imposed for egregious environmental misconduct. Tax deductions of this nature amount to a public subsidy for the polluter and hence are arguably socially undesirable.
Doesn't the study of tax laws feel a lot more relevant and urgent all of a sudden?
Finally, the 'nice' effect of setting a cap on court awards:
The capping of awards and/or risk spreading through insurance decreases the risk averseness of the firm and, hence, expenditures for developing or adopting safer product and processes.
There you have it folks: three ways to encourage pollution. You no longer need to wonder why we've made so little progress in getting to environmentally sustainable development in the last 3 decades...
[all from a book by one of my profs. if you want the full details, ask me].
Saturday, February 26, 2005
famous separatists
Good tea-time to y'all,
Washington state is in the national news on this side of the ocean, with the "You take the dry side" story in the Economist.
Wal-Mart is making waves in Canada by closing down the unionized Woolco stores, regardless of their profitability. I tell you, Europeans should really tighten up relationships with Canada; it's doing a great job of fighting some of Europe's favorite battles. Politicians are even calling for a boycott of the store. And the unions are attacking the chain's mandatory morning cheerleading session.
In other news, I'm in the process of applying for jobs - not always fun given that they generally want people to start right away but that now is the recruiting cycle. Mmh... I've got my first rejection letter (which I'm actually grateful for, the others generally don't even bother). If I believe the Economist (a giganormous IF), I could try to market myself as a logistician instead (true, I'm only taking one class, but work with me): chiefs of purchasing departments and "spend-management experts" (what jargon crap) are now increasingly reporting directly to the boards. Oh wait, I forgot: I don't want to work in a for-profit again.
All is not rosy in China: they've realized that the famous little emperor single-child cocooned by 2 parents and 4 grand-parents will one day have to be the one person earning income to pay for 6 pensions. ouch. As a funny side, the picture that adorns the story (Economist of Feb 26-March 4th, p.74) cracks me up: it's a store-front for a swimsuit/lingerie store, and all the mannequins are adorned with a couple of bras strapped around their thighs. Interesting fashion statement !
Finally, we are back on the topic of education.
Washington state is in the national news on this side of the ocean, with the "You take the dry side" story in the Economist.
A handful of state politicians, mostly from the eastern half, don't see colourful diversity; they see a reason to split the state in two.The big city vs. the rural farmers, the centralization of decision-making, Microsoft and Boeing, the rain and the dry side, the Cascades, the Columbia River and the salmon - all the normal soundbites are in there. And in a brilliant lack of comparative analysis, the article goes on to conclude that it's just a matter of the West being more deferential. But do they realize that the American political system is in fact one that forces/incentivizes the most politicians to actually travel to all the more remote areas because votes are weighed more heavily towards rural areas? Anyway, don't be surprised if the BBC starts to interview you next time you drive over the cascades ;) .
Wal-Mart is making waves in Canada by closing down the unionized Woolco stores, regardless of their profitability. I tell you, Europeans should really tighten up relationships with Canada; it's doing a great job of fighting some of Europe's favorite battles. Politicians are even calling for a boycott of the store. And the unions are attacking the chain's mandatory morning cheerleading session.
Reaction was swift. There were bomb threats at other Wal-Marts. Columnists spoke of "capital terrorism" and called the closure "brutal and savage". (...) News of the Jonquière store's closure was widely reported south of the border. Two days later all 17 workers of the car-maintenance department at a Wal-Mart in New Castle, Pennsylvania voted against joining the union.
In other news, I'm in the process of applying for jobs - not always fun given that they generally want people to start right away but that now is the recruiting cycle. Mmh... I've got my first rejection letter (which I'm actually grateful for, the others generally don't even bother). If I believe the Economist (a giganormous IF), I could try to market myself as a logistician instead (true, I'm only taking one class, but work with me): chiefs of purchasing departments and "spend-management experts" (what jargon crap) are now increasingly reporting directly to the boards. Oh wait, I forgot: I don't want to work in a for-profit again.
All is not rosy in China: they've realized that the famous little emperor single-child cocooned by 2 parents and 4 grand-parents will one day have to be the one person earning income to pay for 6 pensions. ouch. As a funny side, the picture that adorns the story (Economist of Feb 26-March 4th, p.74) cracks me up: it's a store-front for a swimsuit/lingerie store, and all the mannequins are adorned with a couple of bras strapped around their thighs. Interesting fashion statement !
Finally, we are back on the topic of education.
As most education was publicly funded, the state had a big say in what was taught, to how mnay and for how long. Insofar as it existed at all, competition was a gentlemanly business; few educators thought much about customers, fewer about profit.I disagree about the battle for educators: even a century ago, the battle to attract top faculty was brutal and savage among the top American schools. But that's not the point of the article. They, you guessed it, go on to extol the virtues of managing education like any other business, profit margins and getting rid of least attractive students.
In short, the system resembled a Soviet-style planned economy. (...) So, just like their counterparts in manufacturing industry 20 years ago, rich-world universities are concentrating on businesses that make money, dumping lines do do not and shifting production to cheaper markets abroard.So, if I get this right, not only is the education sector 20 years behind in realizing that education equals another form of manufacturing (and who cares if majors are dropped because they're insufficiently profitable, I mean, who needs art historians when you can ride on the booming demand for forensic science degrees?), but education in "rich-world universities" so far resembled the worst of communist USSR without us noticing - how dumb we must all be.
Thursday, February 24, 2005
the human spirit
On a trip with my parents through the states of Washington and Oregon, I picked up a small gray stone from a sun-drenched beach. I loved its warmth and its smoothness; and I use it to remind myself of our connection to environment whenever I feel disconnected in a world of concrete.
On Tuesday night, Jane Goodall came and gave a talk. She was launching a Roots and Shoots program - environmental sustainability, making a difference, not giving up despite our anger wrt to the legacy from previous generations. She had an aura - an aura of integrity is the best way I can describe it. Several times she credited her PhD supervisor (she went straight from secretarial school to PhD without BA or MS) for supporting her, and steering her in the right direction. We were lucky enough to have met him earlier this year at a formal dinner at one of the more formal colleges - an adorable old man with a great passion for teaching and for learning. He did sociology and anthropology, biology, zoology, a whole range of things. I believe he taught a class on human sexuality until, as he explained, he didn't think it was a decent thing for him, a 70+ year old man, to teach teenagers how to do it.
The Friday before, I was sitting in a lecture hall in the Department of Chemistry, listening to the UK's Chief Scientific Advisor, David King. His talk was around Science and the government, tracing his advice to the government, some salient programs (the foot and mouth, climate control, UK scientific position wrt other countries, etc.). Although he never addressed it directly, it was the first time I realized with such clarity the tension between providing the UK government with a scientific competitive edge/advantage on the one hand, and being dedicated to worldwide advances in human knowledge and to global advice (e.g. global warming). It was also horrific to learn (I at least didn't know) that top UK seismologists had been to India and Indonesia the past summer to raise the need for a broad tsunami alert system in the area, which the governments said they couldn't afford. Some of the scientists were so alarmed (since a 1979 study they'd known it was the most unstable of plate boundaries), that he/she went back and put posters on beaches warning of tsunami signs in November, a month before the catastrophe. (Now, why should I be more horrified: it doesn't change the impact of the tsunami. )
I guess what I'm getting at is that although this place can be awfully stifling in creativity, suffocatling soaked in traditions and hair-pullingly slow in implementing changes, there is also an outstanding amount of lectures and possibilities in knowledge cross-pollination once one learns where to look.
On Tuesday night, Jane Goodall came and gave a talk. She was launching a Roots and Shoots program - environmental sustainability, making a difference, not giving up despite our anger wrt to the legacy from previous generations. She had an aura - an aura of integrity is the best way I can describe it. Several times she credited her PhD supervisor (she went straight from secretarial school to PhD without BA or MS) for supporting her, and steering her in the right direction. We were lucky enough to have met him earlier this year at a formal dinner at one of the more formal colleges - an adorable old man with a great passion for teaching and for learning. He did sociology and anthropology, biology, zoology, a whole range of things. I believe he taught a class on human sexuality until, as he explained, he didn't think it was a decent thing for him, a 70+ year old man, to teach teenagers how to do it.
The Friday before, I was sitting in a lecture hall in the Department of Chemistry, listening to the UK's Chief Scientific Advisor, David King. His talk was around Science and the government, tracing his advice to the government, some salient programs (the foot and mouth, climate control, UK scientific position wrt other countries, etc.). Although he never addressed it directly, it was the first time I realized with such clarity the tension between providing the UK government with a scientific competitive edge/advantage on the one hand, and being dedicated to worldwide advances in human knowledge and to global advice (e.g. global warming). It was also horrific to learn (I at least didn't know) that top UK seismologists had been to India and Indonesia the past summer to raise the need for a broad tsunami alert system in the area, which the governments said they couldn't afford. Some of the scientists were so alarmed (since a 1979 study they'd known it was the most unstable of plate boundaries), that he/she went back and put posters on beaches warning of tsunami signs in November, a month before the catastrophe. (Now, why should I be more horrified: it doesn't change the impact of the tsunami. )
I guess what I'm getting at is that although this place can be awfully stifling in creativity, suffocatling soaked in traditions and hair-pullingly slow in implementing changes, there is also an outstanding amount of lectures and possibilities in knowledge cross-pollination once one learns where to look.
The Journey
an old poem I stumbled upon this morning in my stupor:
The Journey
One day you finally knew
What you had to do, and began,
Though the voices around you
Kept shouting
Their bad advice –
Though the whole house
Began to tremble
And you felt the old tug
At your ankles
“Mend my life!”
Each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
Though the wind pried
With its stiff fingers
At the very foundations,
Though their melancholy
Was terrible.
It was already late
Enough, and a wild night,
And the road full of fallen
Branches and stones.
But little by little,
As you left their voices behind,
The stars began to burn
Through the sheets of clouds,
And ther was a new voice
Which you slowly
Recognized as your own,
That kept you company
As you strode deeper and deeper
Into the world,
Determined to do
The only thing you could do.
Determined to save
The only life you could save.
- Mary Oliver
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
white chemistry
It's white this morning - it's been snowing on and off for the past couple of days, but it wasn't sticking. This morning though, there's a small layer - the rugby fields outside my window look especially cold and unwelcoming. It's a small enough amount of snow that it doesn't look fluffy, just about to be gray, cold, and muddy.
I'm taking an intensive course which spans just two weeks and starts next Monday. An MIT guy, that's why he can get away with the unusual schedule. And because it's a legal course, the reading is crazy - BUT, bless them, it's all photocopied into one neat little package. No more hunting books around across 5 libraries (which is what I'd started doing after I got the reading list and before I was told about the reading pack). It's utterly depressing (the topic of the class is environmental legal frameworks and economic incentives).
Quoting a study. On Air Quality:
It gets worse. On Chemicals,
And later in the chapter,
Finally on the petrochemical industry,
Well, good morning to you all anyway :S
I'm taking an intensive course which spans just two weeks and starts next Monday. An MIT guy, that's why he can get away with the unusual schedule. And because it's a legal course, the reading is crazy - BUT, bless them, it's all photocopied into one neat little package. No more hunting books around across 5 libraries (which is what I'd started doing after I got the reading list and before I was told about the reading pack). It's utterly depressing (the topic of the class is environmental legal frameworks and economic incentives).
Quoting a study. On Air Quality:
There are roughly 48,000 industrial chemicals in the air in the United States, only a quarter of which are documented with toxicity data.
It gets worse. On Chemicals,
Of the 70,000 chemicals in commercial use in 1995, only 2% had been fully tested for human health effects, and 70% had not been tested for any health effects of any kind. At least 1000 new chemicals are introduced into commercial use each year, largely untested. The chemical industry continues to grow at a rate of 3.5% each year, thus doubling every 20 years.
And later in the chapter,
In the early 1980s, the National Academy of Sciences' National Research Council completed a four-year study and found 78% of the chemicals in highest-volume commercial use had not had even "minimal" toxicity testing. Chemical safety can't be based on faith. It requires fact.
Finally on the petrochemical industry,
produces about 265 million metric tons of hazardous waste annually. About a third of this waste is emitted, uncontrolled, into the environment. Only about one per cent of the industry's toxic waste is actually destroyed. Unlike the steel, auto, and electric-power industries, the petrochemical industry -- on its present scale ast least - is not essential. Nearly all its products are substitutes for perfectly serviceable preexisting ones: plastics for paper, wood, and metals; detergents for soap; nitrogen fertilizer for soil, organic matter, and nitrogen-fixing crops (the natural sources of nitrogen); pesticides for the insects' natural predators...
Well, good morning to you all anyway :S
Sunday, February 20, 2005
book reviews
130 - that's the number of books and articles I've read since October. It's actually a big understatement, it's only the number of books and articles I've taken notes on and compiled into my reading database. All in all, there's probably 50 more I've at least used in some assignments. That feels pretty incredible!
Just recently I finished "Chaos" by James Gleick. It's a very accessible history of the science of chaos and chaos theory, with much in terms of the biographies of the major scientists. Chaos is fascinating, and yet trivially obvious in a way. Why shouldn't simple rules create incredibly complex behavior? Actually if you know nothing about it, I'd start with one that caught my imagination even more, it's called "Ubiquity: the science of history - or why the world is simpler than we think" by Mark Buchanan. Terrific account of the applications of power laws and chaos theory in everyday life.
The other I'm about 15 pages away from finishing is Foucault's "Discipline and punish" (surveiller et punir in the original French title). He's one of those authors who seems to have more of a following in the US and UK than in France. You honestly can't miss him here, everyone from political scientists to economits, sociologists, anthropologists and lawyers quote him and his "panopticon" (more on that in a sec). The book is really an account of the evolution of punishment, while at the same time being a brilliant analysis of power relations in society. Whether you're interested in class structures, education, torture, the evolution of hospitals or prisons, the difference between gender power relations, Foucault is relevant. What he's most famous for, probably, is the explanation of the panoptic society: a society which is constantly monitoring and examining and keeping files on everyone. And even when it's not, the citizens think it might be, which means that citizens internalize a strong sense of being watched, and self impose discipline upon themselves.
Just as a side note, the "Panopticon" is an architectural design introduced by a man named Bentham, originally for prisons, where all prisoners look onto a courtyard with a tower. They cannot see whether someone is in the tower or not, but if someone is, that person can surveil (?) everyone at the same time. The tower acts as the reminder (just like a camera would) that you are or might be under surveillance.
Do you think reality TV is our version of the panopticon, i.e. our way of playing voyeurs onto everyone else's life without being seen?
Just recently I finished "Chaos" by James Gleick. It's a very accessible history of the science of chaos and chaos theory, with much in terms of the biographies of the major scientists. Chaos is fascinating, and yet trivially obvious in a way. Why shouldn't simple rules create incredibly complex behavior? Actually if you know nothing about it, I'd start with one that caught my imagination even more, it's called "Ubiquity: the science of history - or why the world is simpler than we think" by Mark Buchanan. Terrific account of the applications of power laws and chaos theory in everyday life.
The other I'm about 15 pages away from finishing is Foucault's "Discipline and punish" (surveiller et punir in the original French title). He's one of those authors who seems to have more of a following in the US and UK than in France. You honestly can't miss him here, everyone from political scientists to economits, sociologists, anthropologists and lawyers quote him and his "panopticon" (more on that in a sec). The book is really an account of the evolution of punishment, while at the same time being a brilliant analysis of power relations in society. Whether you're interested in class structures, education, torture, the evolution of hospitals or prisons, the difference between gender power relations, Foucault is relevant. What he's most famous for, probably, is the explanation of the panoptic society: a society which is constantly monitoring and examining and keeping files on everyone. And even when it's not, the citizens think it might be, which means that citizens internalize a strong sense of being watched, and self impose discipline upon themselves.
"to induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automicati functioning of power. so to arrange things that the surveillance is permanent in its effects, even if it is discontinuous in its action." "a power that objectifies those on whom it is applied. discipline is the unitary technique by which the body is reduced as a 'political' force of the least cost and maximised as a useful force. the extreme point of penality today would be an infinite discipline: an interrogation without end, a judgment that would at the same time be the constitution of a file that was never closed, a procedure that would be at the same time the permanent measure of a gap in relation to an inaccessible norm.
Servan: A true politician binds them even more strongly by the chain of their own ideas; this link is all the stronger inthat we do not know of what it is made and we believe it to be our own work.
Just as a side note, the "Panopticon" is an architectural design introduced by a man named Bentham, originally for prisons, where all prisoners look onto a courtyard with a tower. They cannot see whether someone is in the tower or not, but if someone is, that person can surveil (?) everyone at the same time. The tower acts as the reminder (just like a camera would) that you are or might be under surveillance.
Do you think reality TV is our version of the panopticon, i.e. our way of playing voyeurs onto everyone else's life without being seen?
UL and blah blah
I have an ongoing love-hate relationship with the biggest of the 123 libraries of the university, the UL. Now, it's convenient (just behind the college) and it's got a ton of stuff and books can be borrowed for 8 weeks, BUT it's the craziest of bureaucracies.
I've gone over some of them before, but most recently, I was happily reading my Foucault when I received a stern letter asking me to return my book (due on April 1st) within the next 5 days. Just like that. the uncaring bastards!
It was truly a beautiful (and freezing) day yesterday, but I've learned to re-arrange my weekends such that on Saturdays at least I do some work (the library being closed on Sundays). So I climbed to the top of 'my' habitual corner, the 6th (7th if you're in the US) floor of the South Front, found a seat that allowed me a good view of the top of King's College Chapel, and read up. After a while, I knew I'd have to work my way to a new corner of the UL, the microfilm/microform room (they use both names, just like they use Cam Uni and Uni of Cam).
I set out on my trek - I guess I should mention that there are no elevators and that the UL is like a small block in and of itself -, scouting for signs to the microform reading room. My girl scout skills must still be tuned in because I made it remarkably effortlessly. A quick glance around and I notice three different 'order forms' for requesting items. Ha, not knowing better I pick one at random, feel it out as best I can, hand it in to the frontdesk for inspection. "Sorry, love, you'll have to bear with us for a while, the lady's on a coffee break". Fine, i sit down and keep reading. 45 minutes later the afore mentioned lady comes over, hands me a CD-ROM (?!?) and asks me if I have access to the digital libraries area. the what? You mean the UL has stepped foot in the 20th century already (I'm not expecting them to realize we're in the 21st yet)?? Of course I don't have access, I didn't even know it existed ! Off I pack my stuff in a hurry to follow her to Ali Baba's cave as far as I'm concerned. Unfortunately neither does she have a password. I wonder why we trekked all the way then. She informs me (finally there's a bit of pity in her eyes) that it's not manned on Saturdays. That to get access to the digital resources I need to ask the front desk but the people who do it aren't here on saturdays either.
so much for rearranging my week around my saturdays at the UL! Oh well, at least there was the nice view of the chapel. I'll do better next time. I actually think (am I becoming masochistic?) that I'll bravely attempt to get my hands on a pre-1975 book, because I know that this requires yet another set of byzantinian rooms and request forms and mapping tables. There's nothing like great adversity to build character !
I've gone over some of them before, but most recently, I was happily reading my Foucault when I received a stern letter asking me to return my book (due on April 1st) within the next 5 days. Just like that. the uncaring bastards!
It was truly a beautiful (and freezing) day yesterday, but I've learned to re-arrange my weekends such that on Saturdays at least I do some work (the library being closed on Sundays). So I climbed to the top of 'my' habitual corner, the 6th (7th if you're in the US) floor of the South Front, found a seat that allowed me a good view of the top of King's College Chapel, and read up. After a while, I knew I'd have to work my way to a new corner of the UL, the microfilm/microform room (they use both names, just like they use Cam Uni and Uni of Cam).
I set out on my trek - I guess I should mention that there are no elevators and that the UL is like a small block in and of itself -, scouting for signs to the microform reading room. My girl scout skills must still be tuned in because I made it remarkably effortlessly. A quick glance around and I notice three different 'order forms' for requesting items. Ha, not knowing better I pick one at random, feel it out as best I can, hand it in to the frontdesk for inspection. "Sorry, love, you'll have to bear with us for a while, the lady's on a coffee break". Fine, i sit down and keep reading. 45 minutes later the afore mentioned lady comes over, hands me a CD-ROM (?!?) and asks me if I have access to the digital libraries area. the what? You mean the UL has stepped foot in the 20th century already (I'm not expecting them to realize we're in the 21st yet)?? Of course I don't have access, I didn't even know it existed ! Off I pack my stuff in a hurry to follow her to Ali Baba's cave as far as I'm concerned. Unfortunately neither does she have a password. I wonder why we trekked all the way then. She informs me (finally there's a bit of pity in her eyes) that it's not manned on Saturdays. That to get access to the digital resources I need to ask the front desk but the people who do it aren't here on saturdays either.
so much for rearranging my week around my saturdays at the UL! Oh well, at least there was the nice view of the chapel. I'll do better next time. I actually think (am I becoming masochistic?) that I'll bravely attempt to get my hands on a pre-1975 book, because I know that this requires yet another set of byzantinian rooms and request forms and mapping tables. There's nothing like great adversity to build character !
Saturday, February 19, 2005
two for one
"For around a decade, a group of campaigners have been arguing that the public shouldn't have to pay to read the results of the scientific research which it has, through its taxes, financed. Feelings are particularly high when it comes to government-funded medical research. Patients' rights groups argue vociferously that it is ethically wrong to charge for access to the latest medical discoveries. (...) On Feb 3rd American's National Institute of Health (NIH), the world's biggest sponsor of medical research, announced that from May it wil expect the research work which it has helped to finance to be made available online, to all comers, and free, within a year of that research having been published in a journal. (...) A victory, then, for the open-access campaigners. But only a partial one. The NIH's announcement is actually a retreat from the proposal originally circulated last year, which was for open access within six months of first publication. The NIH appears to have backed down under pressure from commercial publishers, as well as from professional societies tht fund their activities by publishing journals." (The Eco, Feb 12th-18th 2005:83-84)
"Love me, love my dog
A few years ago, some researchers studying human mating patterns tried the following experiment. They took photographs of individuals in established relationships, mixed them together, and asked their experimentl subjects to pair up likely looking couples from the pictures. More often than chance, the photo-couples thus created were also real couples. This is an example of what biologists call assortive mating - that who chooses whom (and also who is willing to be thus chosen) - is to some extent predictable. But despite the corny observation that owners grow to look like their dogs, and vice versa, no one really expected the same rules to apply to people and their pets.
But it seems they do. (description of basically the same experiment as above. note that clothing is blanked out to not give a clue). As in the case of human couples, correct guesses were made significantly more often than chance. (Note that it only worked with pedigree, not with mongrel.). " (Id.)
Now I feel less bad that a Canadian customs officer once asked us if we were siblings.
"In America, Howard Dean was elected as chairman of the Democratic National Committee". everyone is speaking of the public regaining a hold of a party that was losing its popular base. the republicans seemed especially pleased at this 'unbred' leader. (The Eco, Feb 19th-25th)
"Is the MBA responsible for moral turpitude at the top?
(This one's for you, Sonia!)
In an extraordinary mea culpa, Sumantra Ghoshal, a respected business academic who died last yer, argued in a paper to be published shortly that the way MBA students are taught has freed them "from any sense of moral responsibility" for what they subsequently do in their business lives." (id.) The article then goes on to argue that the recently most corrupt execs often didn't have MBA's, and that business schools now have tons of ethics courses.
Still, there remains, I believe, a serious underlying issue of mistrust wrt MBAs, not least of which among engineers.
"Anti-Americanism
George Bush will encounter a more complex animosity than is often portrayed when he ventures abroad next week.
Most people's feelings about America are complicated. 'America', after all, is shorthand for many other terms: the Bush administration, a Republican-dominated Congress, Hollywood, a source of investment, a place to go to study, a land of economic opportunity, a big regional power, the big world power, a particular policy, the memory of something once done by the United States, a set of political values based on freedom, democracy and economic liberalism, and so on.
The incandescent third-world demonstrator, shrieking "Down With America!" in one breath and "Can you get me a green card?" in the next, has become a commonplace." (id.)
That's the trouble with this magazine. It chooses interesting topics, gets close to interesting remarks, and always sinks before the end into pathetic contempt for the world. arg.
And in the end, an article on education policy in the UK. But their argumentation is faulty. They place excellence and a drive for equality in opposition. But that only works if the old elites are the only ones ever to produce excellent minds, what about the potential of the others?
Oh I forgot a couple, let me append them here, starting with New York:
"The residents of just 20 streets on the east side of Central Park donated more money to the 2004 presidential campaigns than all but five entire American states. " wow.
"... the puzzle that the city seems to be a caring socialist republic of cut-throat capitalists. ... yet it is pretty much the most segregated city in America. ... although the place is famous for business and finance, plenty of New Yorkers work in jobs that come with a built-in social conscience." (we'll come back to that one as it's closely related to my thesis).
Did you know that the new hippies take a year off to go work at a call center in India, payed Indian wages? What a world (p. 70).
And, since I rarely miss an opportunity to complain about the absurd dominance of the US, some figures on the new passport standards mandated by the US. "In a trial conducted in December at Baltimore International Airport, three of the passport readers could manage to read the chips accurately only 58%, 43% and 31% of the time, according to confidential (no more) figures reported in Card Technology magazine (An official at America's Department of Homeland Security confirmed that "there were problems"). ".
that'll be it !
"Love me, love my dog
A few years ago, some researchers studying human mating patterns tried the following experiment. They took photographs of individuals in established relationships, mixed them together, and asked their experimentl subjects to pair up likely looking couples from the pictures. More often than chance, the photo-couples thus created were also real couples. This is an example of what biologists call assortive mating - that who chooses whom (and also who is willing to be thus chosen) - is to some extent predictable. But despite the corny observation that owners grow to look like their dogs, and vice versa, no one really expected the same rules to apply to people and their pets.
But it seems they do. (description of basically the same experiment as above. note that clothing is blanked out to not give a clue). As in the case of human couples, correct guesses were made significantly more often than chance. (Note that it only worked with pedigree, not with mongrel.). " (Id.)
Now I feel less bad that a Canadian customs officer once asked us if we were siblings.
"In America, Howard Dean was elected as chairman of the Democratic National Committee". everyone is speaking of the public regaining a hold of a party that was losing its popular base. the republicans seemed especially pleased at this 'unbred' leader. (The Eco, Feb 19th-25th)
"Is the MBA responsible for moral turpitude at the top?
(This one's for you, Sonia!)
In an extraordinary mea culpa, Sumantra Ghoshal, a respected business academic who died last yer, argued in a paper to be published shortly that the way MBA students are taught has freed them "from any sense of moral responsibility" for what they subsequently do in their business lives." (id.) The article then goes on to argue that the recently most corrupt execs often didn't have MBA's, and that business schools now have tons of ethics courses.
Still, there remains, I believe, a serious underlying issue of mistrust wrt MBAs, not least of which among engineers.
"Anti-Americanism
George Bush will encounter a more complex animosity than is often portrayed when he ventures abroad next week.
Most people's feelings about America are complicated. 'America', after all, is shorthand for many other terms: the Bush administration, a Republican-dominated Congress, Hollywood, a source of investment, a place to go to study, a land of economic opportunity, a big regional power, the big world power, a particular policy, the memory of something once done by the United States, a set of political values based on freedom, democracy and economic liberalism, and so on.
The incandescent third-world demonstrator, shrieking "Down With America!" in one breath and "Can you get me a green card?" in the next, has become a commonplace." (id.)
That's the trouble with this magazine. It chooses interesting topics, gets close to interesting remarks, and always sinks before the end into pathetic contempt for the world. arg.
And in the end, an article on education policy in the UK. But their argumentation is faulty. They place excellence and a drive for equality in opposition. But that only works if the old elites are the only ones ever to produce excellent minds, what about the potential of the others?
Oh I forgot a couple, let me append them here, starting with New York:
"The residents of just 20 streets on the east side of Central Park donated more money to the 2004 presidential campaigns than all but five entire American states. " wow.
"... the puzzle that the city seems to be a caring socialist republic of cut-throat capitalists. ... yet it is pretty much the most segregated city in America. ... although the place is famous for business and finance, plenty of New Yorkers work in jobs that come with a built-in social conscience." (we'll come back to that one as it's closely related to my thesis).
Did you know that the new hippies take a year off to go work at a call center in India, payed Indian wages? What a world (p. 70).
And, since I rarely miss an opportunity to complain about the absurd dominance of the US, some figures on the new passport standards mandated by the US. "In a trial conducted in December at Baltimore International Airport, three of the passport readers could manage to read the chips accurately only 58%, 43% and 31% of the time, according to confidential (no more) figures reported in Card Technology magazine (An official at America's Department of Homeland Security confirmed that "there were problems"). ".
that'll be it !
Monday, February 14, 2005
Guatemala over Microsoft
Ok, they've officially pissed me off. Microsoft has no business pushing for specific interest-serving international government policies. They probably choose not to know what actually goes on in these countries, and the amount of fighting against CAFTA that's been happening on the ground.
It would warm my heart to see a few good people resign after this.
See below a Microsoft ad on the op-ed page of the NY Times extolling the virtues of CAFTA. (credit to my Guatemalan friend N.. for passing along).
Doesn't 'peace and progress' strangely resemble the language of 'shock and awe'?
http://www.microsoft.com/issues/essays/2005/02-09trade.asp
Peace and Progress
Congress has an opportunity to boost jobs in the United States and
reinforce stability in our hemisphere
Resources
Office of the U.S. Trade Representative
Read background and the full text of DR-CAFTA.
Business Coalition for U.S.-Central America Trade
Learn why hundreds of U.S. companies support free trade with Central
America
The Case For CAFTA
Get a briefing paper from the Center for Trade Policy Studies.
U.S. Department of State
Find out more about Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.
Microsoft Corporate Citizenship
Learn about the company's efforts on behalf of people and communities
worldwide.
Posted February 9, 2005
This year, decisions before Congress on three key trade issues may
determine whether the United States continues to make progress in
opening markets around the world - and whether we continue to nurture
rising democracies at our doorstep.
Congress will be asked to vote on maintaining U.S. membership in the
World Trade Organization, renewing the president's trade-promotion
authority and approving a free trade agreement, DR-CAFTA, signed last
year by the United States, the Dominican Republic and five Central
American nations: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and
Nicaragua.
Map of Central America
Click on map to enlarge
On all three issues, Microsoft urges affirmative votes that will help
create jobs, stimulate economic growth and sustain innovation here in
the United States and around the world. Staying in the WTO and renewing
trade-promotion authority will simply maintain policies that have helped
open global markets for U.S. goods and services. Approval of DR-CAFTA
will accelerate this progress and promote stability in a region vital to
U.S. interests.
In recent years, many of us in the United States have barely noticed as
peace and democracy have spread across Central America. Peace agreements
in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala have ended all guerrilla wars in
the region. All the nations signing DR-CAFTA have now had a string of
free elections of civilian governments.
Yet these countries still face enormous challenges - including
widespread poverty and growing competition from other emerging economies
in the markets for their agricultural and textile exports. To raise
living standards and stem the flow of emigrants headed north, these
countries are looking for help from increased trade with the United
States.
For the United States, approval of DR-CAFTA will immediately reduce
trade barriers that affect 80 percent of our industrial goods and more
than half our agricultural products. It will create the second largest
market for U.S. goods and services in Latin America, after Mexico.
Particularly important to U.S. technology companies, DR-CAFTA mandates
strong protection for U.S. patents, trade secrets and other intellectual
property - continuing the progress made in other recent trade
agreements. It also requires fair treatment for products delivered
online, and requires that government procurement be open, transparent
and based on merit. These policies are needed for the U.S. technology
sector to compete fairly in global markets.
Congress has consistently approved trade agreements negotiated and
signed by the president - a fact that has contributed to U.S.
credibility in trade talks. Approval of DR-CAFTA - along with continuing
membership in the WTO and renewed trade-promotion authority - will help
advance trade principles that the United States is promoting around the
world.
Favorable votes on all three issues will create jobs and economic
opportunities in our country - and help maintain U.S. leadership in the
global economy. As well, DR-CAFTA will aid six of our close neighbors in
their hard-won progress toward a brighter future.
It would warm my heart to see a few good people resign after this.
See below a Microsoft ad on the op-ed page of the NY Times extolling the virtues of CAFTA. (credit to my Guatemalan friend N.. for passing along).
Doesn't 'peace and progress' strangely resemble the language of 'shock and awe'?
http://www.microsoft.com/issues/essays/2005/02-09trade.asp
Peace and Progress
Congress has an opportunity to boost jobs in the United States and
reinforce stability in our hemisphere
Resources
Office of the U.S. Trade Representative
Read background and the full text of DR-CAFTA.
Business Coalition for U.S.-Central America Trade
Learn why hundreds of U.S. companies support free trade with Central
America
The Case For CAFTA
Get a briefing paper from the Center for Trade Policy Studies.
U.S. Department of State
Find out more about Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.
Microsoft Corporate Citizenship
Learn about the company's efforts on behalf of people and communities
worldwide.
Posted February 9, 2005
This year, decisions before Congress on three key trade issues may
determine whether the United States continues to make progress in
opening markets around the world - and whether we continue to nurture
rising democracies at our doorstep.
Congress will be asked to vote on maintaining U.S. membership in the
World Trade Organization, renewing the president's trade-promotion
authority and approving a free trade agreement, DR-CAFTA, signed last
year by the United States, the Dominican Republic and five Central
American nations: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and
Nicaragua.
Map of Central America
Click on map to enlarge
On all three issues, Microsoft urges affirmative votes that will help
create jobs, stimulate economic growth and sustain innovation here in
the United States and around the world. Staying in the WTO and renewing
trade-promotion authority will simply maintain policies that have helped
open global markets for U.S. goods and services. Approval of DR-CAFTA
will accelerate this progress and promote stability in a region vital to
U.S. interests.
In recent years, many of us in the United States have barely noticed as
peace and democracy have spread across Central America. Peace agreements
in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala have ended all guerrilla wars in
the region. All the nations signing DR-CAFTA have now had a string of
free elections of civilian governments.
Yet these countries still face enormous challenges - including
widespread poverty and growing competition from other emerging economies
in the markets for their agricultural and textile exports. To raise
living standards and stem the flow of emigrants headed north, these
countries are looking for help from increased trade with the United
States.
For the United States, approval of DR-CAFTA will immediately reduce
trade barriers that affect 80 percent of our industrial goods and more
than half our agricultural products. It will create the second largest
market for U.S. goods and services in Latin America, after Mexico.
Particularly important to U.S. technology companies, DR-CAFTA mandates
strong protection for U.S. patents, trade secrets and other intellectual
property - continuing the progress made in other recent trade
agreements. It also requires fair treatment for products delivered
online, and requires that government procurement be open, transparent
and based on merit. These policies are needed for the U.S. technology
sector to compete fairly in global markets.
Congress has consistently approved trade agreements negotiated and
signed by the president - a fact that has contributed to U.S.
credibility in trade talks. Approval of DR-CAFTA - along with continuing
membership in the WTO and renewed trade-promotion authority - will help
advance trade principles that the United States is promoting around the
world.
Favorable votes on all three issues will create jobs and economic
opportunities in our country - and help maintain U.S. leadership in the
global economy. As well, DR-CAFTA will aid six of our close neighbors in
their hard-won progress toward a brighter future.
Sunday, February 06, 2005
peace, love, and understanding
If you could give a country one but not the other, would you give peace or would you give democracy?
I'm not sure that the question is in fact as stupid as it seems at first.
I'm not sure that the question is in fact as stupid as it seems at first.
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
suggestions, anyone?
Good morning,
I've had an incredibly frustrating hour and a half simply trying to scan an illustration from a book and get it sized and oriented correctly. So I'm in no mood to be nice to computers.
From the book I most recently finished, "Inventing Women: Science, Technology and Gender" (Kirkup, Gill and Laurie Smith Keller (eds.), 1992. London: The Open University), a paragraph on computers and the military. I'd always noticed it at microsoft (the war teams, the triage, the windows guy who was an israeli tank commander), but I hadn't actually paid attention to the language of computing itself. The author, in this case Gill Kirkup in a short article titled "The social construction of computers: hammers or harpsichords?", points out the importance of military needs in determining developments in computers, then goes on to say,
"Unfortunately the language and imagery of computing retains an association with its military origins even when it is being used outside that context. Terms like 'crash', 'abort', 'terminate', 'kill', 'execute', 'violate', 'penetrate', 'degrade', 'disable' are part of a discourse which is deeply implicated with aggression and militarism."
On a lighter note, all hail rock climbing! I have found 'evidence' that it makes other people happy too. An academic whose name is Csikzentmihalyi did research on what makes people fell good. He talks about a sense of "flow" (people usually call it 'the zone' though), an experience where the person feels no more self-consciousness, no sense of time, is in total concentration. And he uses rock climbing as the perfect example. (This is from a book called "Lean Thinking: banish waste and create wealth in your corporation" by Womack and Johnsen).
Finally, suggestions anyone? I had a talk with my dissertation supervisor who happily noted that I had enough interest to cover 50 PhD dissertations. Given that I need to perform 1 small MPhil dissertation, I need to scope it down but remain interested. please send suggestions !
I've had an incredibly frustrating hour and a half simply trying to scan an illustration from a book and get it sized and oriented correctly. So I'm in no mood to be nice to computers.
From the book I most recently finished, "Inventing Women: Science, Technology and Gender" (Kirkup, Gill and Laurie Smith Keller (eds.), 1992. London: The Open University), a paragraph on computers and the military. I'd always noticed it at microsoft (the war teams, the triage, the windows guy who was an israeli tank commander), but I hadn't actually paid attention to the language of computing itself. The author, in this case Gill Kirkup in a short article titled "The social construction of computers: hammers or harpsichords?", points out the importance of military needs in determining developments in computers, then goes on to say,
"Unfortunately the language and imagery of computing retains an association with its military origins even when it is being used outside that context. Terms like 'crash', 'abort', 'terminate', 'kill', 'execute', 'violate', 'penetrate', 'degrade', 'disable' are part of a discourse which is deeply implicated with aggression and militarism."
On a lighter note, all hail rock climbing! I have found 'evidence' that it makes other people happy too. An academic whose name is Csikzentmihalyi did research on what makes people fell good. He talks about a sense of "flow" (people usually call it 'the zone' though), an experience where the person feels no more self-consciousness, no sense of time, is in total concentration. And he uses rock climbing as the perfect example. (This is from a book called "Lean Thinking: banish waste and create wealth in your corporation" by Womack and Johnsen).
Finally, suggestions anyone? I had a talk with my dissertation supervisor who happily noted that I had enough interest to cover 50 PhD dissertations. Given that I need to perform 1 small MPhil dissertation, I need to scope it down but remain interested. please send suggestions !
Monday, January 31, 2005
ha!
Ha! I'm getting better at this - I am happy to report that I can now get through The Economist in a single one-hour sitting without threatening to shred it to pieces ! (Obviously I haven't lost any of my passion for life ;) ).
Let's do things by topic this time:
PERSONAL
"More than 100 people were arrested in Guinea, after an apparent attempt to kill President Lansana Conté last week. He is ill and has no obvious successor; Guineans worry that his death might spark a civil war"
Word on the street (i.e. my sister who lives there and called two days ago) is that it was staged (by the president) to (1) attract popular pity and (2) give himself the ability to imprison random people he had grudges against - although they had nothing to do with the coup. That and the price of rice, the staple food, has more than tripled in the past 10 months. Nice.
SOCIAL
"The global birth rate fell to a new low. The average woman in the developing world now has 3.9 babies over a lifetime, compared with 5.9 in the 1970s, according to the United Nations." Oh by the way, I'm in the fun process of applying for jobs, including some positions in UN organisations. Wouldn't it be fascinating?
"Brazil. Taming an urban monster." article on the challenges for the mayor of Sao Paolo.
We're doing a very similar assignment on Mexico City, and the challenges of balancing horrible air quality and economic development.
I also got landed the fun assignment of writing 1,000 words on Artificial Life. I may have sounded sarcastic (for a change?), but I actually love the topic of ALife. It was my favourite class at MIT, and the one I got to TA. So if you ever want to know about Braitenberg vehicles, Conway's Game of Life, Ray's Tierra, Karl Sims' evolutionary creatures, or the Red Queen's paradox, give me a shout. I think I'll end the assignment though by talking about the links to spirituality. It's a bit dangerous, but it's so interesting to see the similarities between the kinds of work certain people do in Artificial Intelligence and the religious stories they inherited. One of my professors' theory was basically that researchers were using AI to enact their religious background. Anyway, that's a long, wild tangent from the topic of Brazil.
"Nepal. The education system is a casualty of Nepal's Maoist insurgency."
Let me just put a plug in for a non-profit started by a fellow MIT student houser. It's NCEF for Nepalese Children's Education Fund (http://www.nepalchildren.org) and does just that: put kids through school.
Let me also talk about another wonderful experience. There were 1,600 of us singing together for a Tsunami fundraising event. Beautiful choral works in a great church at the center of town. There wasn't much room left for an audience, so apparently people crowded outside in the town square to listen. It was a truly unforgettable experience.
ECONOMIC
"Japan has released preliminary figures indicating that China (including Hong Kong) had overtaken the United States to become its biggest trading partner in 2004". It's happening, folks... Bubye USA...
"How cheap air fares are bringing Europeans together"
We had a terrible experience with RyanAir ten days ago. We decided to take advantage of my whooping 2 days of break in between an intensive course and the second term to go to Rome. Fabulous time in Rome of course. However, the way back was painful to say the least. I did a little research, given as it was that I had to hand in a paper on airlines' corporate strategies two days later, and found that RyanAir has a horrific customer sat problem. The worst in Europe. You do really get what you pay for. And if you don't pay for the extra insurance, if your luggage is lost, they don't owe you a dime nor an apology. Looks like the too much cost-cutting line was crossed way back. It's really too bad for those of us who wanted to believe in a free lunch - I mean a $1 airfare to another country.
SOFTWARE
"Google launched an online facility that allows people to search for television programme stills. The service will eventually expand to include video clips." Who is not working at Google these days?
compared with...
"Microsoft decided not to continue fighting a European Union antitrust decision..."
OXBRIDGE (=Oxford-Cambridge for the unitiated)
"Oxford wants to be more like Harvard. That will annoy a lot of people."
At the basis for the excellence of the undergraduate teaching at Oxbridge is the concept of supervision. Supervisions are sort of like tutorials, except that they're done an individual or pair basis. So you get very targeted teaching; during supervision you can bet your supervisor will find out how well you're doing, which means pushing you if you can handle it and explaining the tough parts more thoroughly if you're struggling. It works extraordinarily well. That is until the ugly head of capitalism rears its head. Let's see, what is more cost-effective: a tutorial class for 25 students done by a poor grad student, or an individual supervision? mmh... That's basically what the article is talking about. Interestingly, Cambridge hasn't mentioned anything like that yet, but they are also under terrible financial pressure.
Unfortunately, not all is rosy in Cambridge. Some of you might have heard my frustration when once we were discussing water resources in class in the context of sustainable development and some undergrads majoring in engineering were simply proposing that countries without proper water resource be entirely wiped off the map. (That didn't go over too well with my friend from Jordan). Another friend of mine was telling me a similar story - she's in political science and they were discussing democracy and why it was now a prevalent concept/model/framework. The undergrads had all kinds of deep thoughts, but none of them thought about the fact that it could simply be a case of "the winner writes history". Now, I don't have anything against democracy, I'm just cautious about ivory tower grads shaping the world without any experience of reality. It's like the numerous courses we had to attend about corporate strategy and corporate culture, etc. from academics who not one day in their lives have worked for a private corporation.
While we're at it, another note on Cambridge: did you know that Trinity (College) is the 3rd largest fortune in England?? They could afford to not charge any room and board fee to their students, but since they're already the most attractive Cambridge college (half the Nobel prizes went here), the other colleges made Trinity sign a contract stating they would still charge the same kind of rates as the other colleges.
I think that'll be it for this post. Next time maybe I'll do a bit more on books I'm reading - unless you have a request, in which case send it alone. Ciao!
Let's do things by topic this time:
PERSONAL
"More than 100 people were arrested in Guinea, after an apparent attempt to kill President Lansana Conté last week. He is ill and has no obvious successor; Guineans worry that his death might spark a civil war"
Word on the street (i.e. my sister who lives there and called two days ago) is that it was staged (by the president) to (1) attract popular pity and (2) give himself the ability to imprison random people he had grudges against - although they had nothing to do with the coup. That and the price of rice, the staple food, has more than tripled in the past 10 months. Nice.
SOCIAL
"The global birth rate fell to a new low. The average woman in the developing world now has 3.9 babies over a lifetime, compared with 5.9 in the 1970s, according to the United Nations." Oh by the way, I'm in the fun process of applying for jobs, including some positions in UN organisations. Wouldn't it be fascinating?
"Brazil. Taming an urban monster." article on the challenges for the mayor of Sao Paolo.
We're doing a very similar assignment on Mexico City, and the challenges of balancing horrible air quality and economic development.
I also got landed the fun assignment of writing 1,000 words on Artificial Life. I may have sounded sarcastic (for a change?), but I actually love the topic of ALife. It was my favourite class at MIT, and the one I got to TA. So if you ever want to know about Braitenberg vehicles, Conway's Game of Life, Ray's Tierra, Karl Sims' evolutionary creatures, or the Red Queen's paradox, give me a shout. I think I'll end the assignment though by talking about the links to spirituality. It's a bit dangerous, but it's so interesting to see the similarities between the kinds of work certain people do in Artificial Intelligence and the religious stories they inherited. One of my professors' theory was basically that researchers were using AI to enact their religious background. Anyway, that's a long, wild tangent from the topic of Brazil.
"Nepal. The education system is a casualty of Nepal's Maoist insurgency."
Let me just put a plug in for a non-profit started by a fellow MIT student houser. It's NCEF for Nepalese Children's Education Fund (http://www.nepalchildren.org) and does just that: put kids through school.
Let me also talk about another wonderful experience. There were 1,600 of us singing together for a Tsunami fundraising event. Beautiful choral works in a great church at the center of town. There wasn't much room left for an audience, so apparently people crowded outside in the town square to listen. It was a truly unforgettable experience.
ECONOMIC
"Japan has released preliminary figures indicating that China (including Hong Kong) had overtaken the United States to become its biggest trading partner in 2004". It's happening, folks... Bubye USA...
"How cheap air fares are bringing Europeans together"
We had a terrible experience with RyanAir ten days ago. We decided to take advantage of my whooping 2 days of break in between an intensive course and the second term to go to Rome. Fabulous time in Rome of course. However, the way back was painful to say the least. I did a little research, given as it was that I had to hand in a paper on airlines' corporate strategies two days later, and found that RyanAir has a horrific customer sat problem. The worst in Europe. You do really get what you pay for. And if you don't pay for the extra insurance, if your luggage is lost, they don't owe you a dime nor an apology. Looks like the too much cost-cutting line was crossed way back. It's really too bad for those of us who wanted to believe in a free lunch - I mean a $1 airfare to another country.
SOFTWARE
"Google launched an online facility that allows people to search for television programme stills. The service will eventually expand to include video clips." Who is not working at Google these days?
compared with...
"Microsoft decided not to continue fighting a European Union antitrust decision..."
OXBRIDGE (=Oxford-Cambridge for the unitiated)
"Oxford wants to be more like Harvard. That will annoy a lot of people."
At the basis for the excellence of the undergraduate teaching at Oxbridge is the concept of supervision. Supervisions are sort of like tutorials, except that they're done an individual or pair basis. So you get very targeted teaching; during supervision you can bet your supervisor will find out how well you're doing, which means pushing you if you can handle it and explaining the tough parts more thoroughly if you're struggling. It works extraordinarily well. That is until the ugly head of capitalism rears its head. Let's see, what is more cost-effective: a tutorial class for 25 students done by a poor grad student, or an individual supervision? mmh... That's basically what the article is talking about. Interestingly, Cambridge hasn't mentioned anything like that yet, but they are also under terrible financial pressure.
Unfortunately, not all is rosy in Cambridge. Some of you might have heard my frustration when once we were discussing water resources in class in the context of sustainable development and some undergrads majoring in engineering were simply proposing that countries without proper water resource be entirely wiped off the map. (That didn't go over too well with my friend from Jordan). Another friend of mine was telling me a similar story - she's in political science and they were discussing democracy and why it was now a prevalent concept/model/framework. The undergrads had all kinds of deep thoughts, but none of them thought about the fact that it could simply be a case of "the winner writes history". Now, I don't have anything against democracy, I'm just cautious about ivory tower grads shaping the world without any experience of reality. It's like the numerous courses we had to attend about corporate strategy and corporate culture, etc. from academics who not one day in their lives have worked for a private corporation.
While we're at it, another note on Cambridge: did you know that Trinity (College) is the 3rd largest fortune in England?? They could afford to not charge any room and board fee to their students, but since they're already the most attractive Cambridge college (half the Nobel prizes went here), the other colleges made Trinity sign a contract stating they would still charge the same kind of rates as the other colleges.
I think that'll be it for this post. Next time maybe I'll do a bit more on books I'm reading - unless you have a request, in which case send it alone. Ciao!
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
CSR
CSR = Corporate Social Responsibility.
It makes the front page of this week's economist, yet the magasine's purpose is to shoot it down. It even goes so far as to claim that it's bad for everyone. It's quite a feat of journalism. I'll let you judge from extracts...
"Simply put, advocates of CSR work from the premise that unadorned capitalims fails to serve the public interest" (Yes, and? Doesn't everyone agree with that?)
"Thus, the selfish pursuit of profit serves a social purpose. And this is putting it mildly." (Actually, that's generally not the cause. There are at least 6 well-known categories of market failure, which encompass just about every situation you can think of, not least of which the "tragedy of the commons" whereby public goods, such as the environment, is always damaged beyond reasonable when selfish pursuit of personal profit is permitted.)
"The standard of living people in the West enjoy today is due to little else but the selfish pursuit of profit." (Really? then surely we don't need our impressive defense spendings, do we? It sounds like good economics and free market capitalism is the answer and shield to any problem.)
"There is another danger too: namely, that CSR will distract attention from genuine problems of business ethics that do need to be addressed." (oh the last resort argument! and what might those be since you failed to identify them?)
A note to a dear friend: the picture that accompanies the test is of nail polish being applied to a beast's claws ;)
It makes the front page of this week's economist, yet the magasine's purpose is to shoot it down. It even goes so far as to claim that it's bad for everyone. It's quite a feat of journalism. I'll let you judge from extracts...
"Simply put, advocates of CSR work from the premise that unadorned capitalims fails to serve the public interest" (Yes, and? Doesn't everyone agree with that?)
"Thus, the selfish pursuit of profit serves a social purpose. And this is putting it mildly." (Actually, that's generally not the cause. There are at least 6 well-known categories of market failure, which encompass just about every situation you can think of, not least of which the "tragedy of the commons" whereby public goods, such as the environment, is always damaged beyond reasonable when selfish pursuit of personal profit is permitted.)
"The standard of living people in the West enjoy today is due to little else but the selfish pursuit of profit." (Really? then surely we don't need our impressive defense spendings, do we? It sounds like good economics and free market capitalism is the answer and shield to any problem.)
"There is another danger too: namely, that CSR will distract attention from genuine problems of business ethics that do need to be addressed." (oh the last resort argument! and what might those be since you failed to identify them?)
A note to a dear friend: the picture that accompanies the test is of nail polish being applied to a beast's claws ;)
the flaw of average drunks
That was one of the lessons of an intensive December course. Basically, the expected value of the average isn't the same as the average of the expected values. A much nicer way to put it follows...
It's the story of a drunk who staggers back and forth between two traffic lanes. The state of the drunk at his average position is alive. But the average state of the drunk is still dead.(Savage & Van Allen, 2002)
It's the story of a drunk who staggers back and forth between two traffic lanes. The state of the drunk at his average position is alive. But the average state of the drunk is still dead.(Savage & Van Allen, 2002)
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
mini-MBA
Whether we like it or not, we're forced to attend the damn course I'm currently sitting on. The finance day was the most surprisingly interesting - not because of the topic, really, but because of the excellent lecturer.
I've actually been thinking about Microsoft quite a bit. It all started with one of the readings, the introduction chapter to "The Innovator's Dilemna: when new technologies cause great firms to fail" by C. Christensen. I guess this is nothing new for those of you who've been in business school recently, but it struck about how relevant it really was, especially wrt the international group. The basic ideas are, "there is something about the way decisions get made in successful organizations that sows the seeds of eventual failure". "good management" practices are eventually terrible. the problem is that successful companies don't invest in 'disruptive technologies' because 1) of lower margins, lower profits are typical of disruptive technologies (at least at first) 2) they're first commercialized in emerging or insignificant markets and 3) they're usually initially embraced by the least profitable customres in a market. "the larger and more successful an organization becomes, the weaker the argument that emergingin markets can remain useful engines for growth.
Doesn't that sound like the prepay hotmail model? Think about it - think Atlantis, think Avatars, think 3 degrees, think Google, think Netscape, think just about anything that didn't come out of top-down Redmond strategy meetings.
The other funny reading is a paper on how Microsoft teams operate! you'd be surprised how every single course seems to pick on the company - whether it be from a corporate strategy point of view, monopoly and bundling pov, large margins, corporate culture... this one details the product life cycle and all the things that have become second nature. it's quite fun to see it dissected by someone else actually. unfortunately it's a bit outdated and doesn't cover at all the challenges of web product development. it also makes it look like things are running much less chaotically than they actually are !
finally, i've had some requests re: what I'm reading these days. I finished the Sally Hacker sociology of women and technology (very good, strong recommendation). I skimmed through one on women and citizenship in europe (boring), read through one on Africa's science and technology policies (ok, very specialized), and i'm currently in the middle of Max Weber's "The protestant ethic & the spirit of capitalism". very famous book on how protestant (specifically lutheran & 'sects') influences created the environment that made harsh capitalism ok and acceptable. comparing with catholicism where interests and banking were pretty much banned by the church as evil, comparing with workers that worked only as hard as they needed to make a living, with the new ideas of doing god's work by working extremely hard (work as a vocation) and accumulating wealth, and the new capitalist speeches on productivity. I thought it'd be dreadfully dry, but not at all, i'm actually enjoying it greatly. it's much more relevant to today's world even than I thought. And it's fascinating to see how quickly norms change.
It's interesting too to see such an official literature cover something I've always noticed, which is the relationship of different cultures with money - whereas in France it's vulgar, impolite to talk about money (and arrogant if you talk about it to flaunt it), in the US it's more along the lines of "why have money if you can't flaunt it", and it's definitely ok to ask people how much they paid for something or brag that you got such a great deal on such and such plane ticket, etc. interesting to experience and read about in someone else's words.
that's it for now. ciao ciao.
I've actually been thinking about Microsoft quite a bit. It all started with one of the readings, the introduction chapter to "The Innovator's Dilemna: when new technologies cause great firms to fail" by C. Christensen. I guess this is nothing new for those of you who've been in business school recently, but it struck about how relevant it really was, especially wrt the international group. The basic ideas are, "there is something about the way decisions get made in successful organizations that sows the seeds of eventual failure". "good management" practices are eventually terrible. the problem is that successful companies don't invest in 'disruptive technologies' because 1) of lower margins, lower profits are typical of disruptive technologies (at least at first) 2) they're first commercialized in emerging or insignificant markets and 3) they're usually initially embraced by the least profitable customres in a market. "the larger and more successful an organization becomes, the weaker the argument that emergingin markets can remain useful engines for growth.
Doesn't that sound like the prepay hotmail model? Think about it - think Atlantis, think Avatars, think 3 degrees, think Google, think Netscape, think just about anything that didn't come out of top-down Redmond strategy meetings.
The other funny reading is a paper on how Microsoft teams operate! you'd be surprised how every single course seems to pick on the company - whether it be from a corporate strategy point of view, monopoly and bundling pov, large margins, corporate culture... this one details the product life cycle and all the things that have become second nature. it's quite fun to see it dissected by someone else actually. unfortunately it's a bit outdated and doesn't cover at all the challenges of web product development. it also makes it look like things are running much less chaotically than they actually are !
finally, i've had some requests re: what I'm reading these days. I finished the Sally Hacker sociology of women and technology (very good, strong recommendation). I skimmed through one on women and citizenship in europe (boring), read through one on Africa's science and technology policies (ok, very specialized), and i'm currently in the middle of Max Weber's "The protestant ethic & the spirit of capitalism". very famous book on how protestant (specifically lutheran & 'sects') influences created the environment that made harsh capitalism ok and acceptable. comparing with catholicism where interests and banking were pretty much banned by the church as evil, comparing with workers that worked only as hard as they needed to make a living, with the new ideas of doing god's work by working extremely hard (work as a vocation) and accumulating wealth, and the new capitalist speeches on productivity. I thought it'd be dreadfully dry, but not at all, i'm actually enjoying it greatly. it's much more relevant to today's world even than I thought. And it's fascinating to see how quickly norms change.
It's interesting too to see such an official literature cover something I've always noticed, which is the relationship of different cultures with money - whereas in France it's vulgar, impolite to talk about money (and arrogant if you talk about it to flaunt it), in the US it's more along the lines of "why have money if you can't flaunt it", and it's definitely ok to ask people how much they paid for something or brag that you got such a great deal on such and such plane ticket, etc. interesting to experience and read about in someone else's words.
that's it for now. ciao ciao.
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
the world's top currency
Good morning again,
Another quick session re: the usual suspect (magazine) ... They've got a great cynical tone this new year.
Currencies:
The dollar has been dethroned even sooner than we expected. Not by the euro, nor by the yen or the yuan, but by another increasingly popular global currency: frequent-flyer miles. Calculations by The Economist suggest that the total stock of unredeemed frequent-flyer miles is now worth more than all the dollar bills in circulation around the globe.
Central banks and finance ministries have a far greater interest in defending the value of frequent-flyer miles than in propping up the dollar. After all, their officials are continually criss-crossing the globe to attend meetings, racking up miles in their personal acounts. If their free first-class flight to the Caribbean is at risk, they are likely to fight to the death to stop a devaluation. Against such a competition, the dollar does not stand a chance.
The disaster:
If the tsunami weren't bad enough news in Sri Lanka, it's also been suggested that it moved around landmines, thereby confusing everyone as to the new location of the mines. It might be good for both sides to think twice before going on the offensive.
"Disaster aid is generally thought to be different: everyone is for it. Development aid, by contrast, is often overtly political (it tends to go to friends) and always controversial (is it squandered? does it breed dependency?). (...) (Among the pet schemes the aid issue was being attached to: ) American aid in the tsunami region is meant to dry up "pools of dissatisfaction" that led to terrorism, said Mr Powell. That's "langue de bois" as we call in French, and a dark motive.
On a more light-headed note: drinking in Britain.
The average British adult drinks 12% more than when Labour came to power, and more than twice as much as in the middle of the 20th century.
(I actually found that surprising. Whenever I look at a movie from the 50's, they're always drinking (elegantly, mind you); I was convinced there was rampant alcoholism back then. Ah, movies and reality...)
us poor engineers and scientists:
There's general moaning about a supposed lack of techies. But... According to a report from UK GRAD, a government funded group, science and engineering graduates have the highest rate of unemployment, at every level from first degree to PhD. And although, when they do find work, their salaries are slightly higher than average, they are rising more slowly than most. So what's the answer? It's the technicians, not the highly-trained engineers and scientists that are in big demand.
finally, some good news from the US congress: after all, they did not pass the law to protect DeLay and loosen ethics rule.
our friends in the South:
Mexico's president, Vicente Fox, has called these economic migrants "heroes". They send back some $14 billion a year in remittances - more than Mexico's booming tourist industry brings in. As Mexicans see it, they also keep the American economy afloat on cheap and reliable labour. That is the premise of a recent film, "A Day without Mexicans". It is a satire that imagines California's Mexican maids, nannies and hedge-trimmers downing tools for a day to watch their employers suffer a collective nervous breakdown as they try to fix their breakfast orange juice.
sounds fun. anyone seen it?
Susan Sontag: Her obituary appears in that issue. Unfortunately it's a huge disappointment as they manage to subtly make her appear less credible and much less influential than she really was.
Another quick session re: the usual suspect (magazine) ... They've got a great cynical tone this new year.
Currencies:
The dollar has been dethroned even sooner than we expected. Not by the euro, nor by the yen or the yuan, but by another increasingly popular global currency: frequent-flyer miles. Calculations by The Economist suggest that the total stock of unredeemed frequent-flyer miles is now worth more than all the dollar bills in circulation around the globe.
Central banks and finance ministries have a far greater interest in defending the value of frequent-flyer miles than in propping up the dollar. After all, their officials are continually criss-crossing the globe to attend meetings, racking up miles in their personal acounts. If their free first-class flight to the Caribbean is at risk, they are likely to fight to the death to stop a devaluation. Against such a competition, the dollar does not stand a chance.
The disaster:
If the tsunami weren't bad enough news in Sri Lanka, it's also been suggested that it moved around landmines, thereby confusing everyone as to the new location of the mines. It might be good for both sides to think twice before going on the offensive.
"Disaster aid is generally thought to be different: everyone is for it. Development aid, by contrast, is often overtly political (it tends to go to friends) and always controversial (is it squandered? does it breed dependency?). (...) (Among the pet schemes the aid issue was being attached to: ) American aid in the tsunami region is meant to dry up "pools of dissatisfaction" that led to terrorism, said Mr Powell. That's "langue de bois" as we call in French, and a dark motive.
On a more light-headed note: drinking in Britain.
The average British adult drinks 12% more than when Labour came to power, and more than twice as much as in the middle of the 20th century.
(I actually found that surprising. Whenever I look at a movie from the 50's, they're always drinking (elegantly, mind you); I was convinced there was rampant alcoholism back then. Ah, movies and reality...)
us poor engineers and scientists:
There's general moaning about a supposed lack of techies. But... According to a report from UK GRAD, a government funded group, science and engineering graduates have the highest rate of unemployment, at every level from first degree to PhD. And although, when they do find work, their salaries are slightly higher than average, they are rising more slowly than most. So what's the answer? It's the technicians, not the highly-trained engineers and scientists that are in big demand.
finally, some good news from the US congress: after all, they did not pass the law to protect DeLay and loosen ethics rule.
our friends in the South:
Mexico's president, Vicente Fox, has called these economic migrants "heroes". They send back some $14 billion a year in remittances - more than Mexico's booming tourist industry brings in. As Mexicans see it, they also keep the American economy afloat on cheap and reliable labour. That is the premise of a recent film, "A Day without Mexicans". It is a satire that imagines California's Mexican maids, nannies and hedge-trimmers downing tools for a day to watch their employers suffer a collective nervous breakdown as they try to fix their breakfast orange juice.
sounds fun. anyone seen it?
Susan Sontag: Her obituary appears in that issue. Unfortunately it's a huge disappointment as they manage to subtly make her appear less credible and much less influential than she really was.
Monday, January 10, 2005
back in the groove....
hello everyone,
I'm back in Cambridge, and (unfortunately) classes started again today. That means 9 hours a day for six days of corporate strategy, finance, and a whole lotta other stuff I'm not particularly interested in sitting through. It also means it's time to hand in all the assignments we've all been slaving over during 'the break'. But, worry not, nothing could keep me from reading (and commenting on) the Economist.
A quick mention on the January 1st edition: the article "Ever higher society, ever harder to ascend" (With a cool rock-climbing picture if I may add).
subtitle: "Whatever happened to the belief that any American could get to the top?" It's a long article, so i'm cutting a lot out, but you'll get the picture.
"The United States likes to think of itself as the very embodiment of meritocracy: a country where people are judged on their individual abilites rather than their family connections. (...) Americans believed that equality of opportunity gave them an edge over the Old World, freeing them from debilitatin snobberies and at the same time enabling everyone to benefit form the abilites of the entire population. They still do. (...)
A growing body of evidence suggests that the meritocratic ideal is in trouble in America. Income inequality is growing to levels not seen since the Gilded Age, around the 1880s. But social mobility is not increasing at anything like the same pace: would-be Horatio Algers are finding it no easier to climb from rags to riches, while the children of the privileged have a greater chance of staying at the top of the socal heap.
Between 1979 and 2000 the real income of households in the lowest fifth grew by 6.4%, while that of households in the top fifth grew by 70%. The family inocme of the top 1% grew by 184% - and that of the top 0.1% and 0.01% grew even faster.
Thirty years ago the average real annual compensation of the top 100 chief executives was 39 times the pay of the average worker. Today it is over 1,000 times the pay of the average worker. In 2001 the top 1% of households earned 20% of all income and held 33.4% of all net worth. Not since pre-Depression days has the top 1% taken such a big whack.
Most Americans see nothing wrong with inequality of income so long as it comes with plent of social mobility: it is simply the price paid for a dynamic economy. But the new rise in inequality does not seem to have come with a commensurate rise in mobility. There may even have been a fall. The most vivid evidence of social sclerosis comes from politics. A country where every child is supposed to be able to dream of becoming president is beginning to produce a self-perpetuating political elite. George Bush is the son of a president, the grandson of a senator, and the sprig of America's business aristocracy. John Kerry, thanks to a rich wife, is the richest man in a Senate full of plutocrats. (...) Al Gore was the son of a senator. Howard Brush Dean was also the product of the same blue-blooded world of private schools [as Kerry and Gore and the Bushes].
"legacy preferences", a programme for the children of alumni. In most Ivy League institutions, the eight supposedly most select universities of the north-east, "legacies" make up between 10% and 15% of every class. At Harvard they are three times more likely to be admitted than others. The students in America's places of higher education are increasingly becoming an oligarchy tempered by racial preferences. This is sad in itself, but even sadder when you consider the extraordinary role that the same universities played in promoting meritocracy in the first half of the 20th century (cf. James Conant's reforms, Harvard president 1933-53, to prevent American from producing an aristocracy).
The most remarkable feature of the continuing power of America's elite - and its growing grip on the political system - is how little comment it arouses. Britain would be in high dudgeon if its party leaders all came from Eton and Harrow. Perhaps one reason why the rise of caste politics raises so little comment is that something similar is happening throughout American society (...): in the Hollywood Hills or the canyons of Wall Street, in the Nashville recording studios or the clapboard houses of Cambridge, MA - you see elites mastering the art of perpetuating themselves. America is increasingly looking like imperial Britain, with dynastic ties proliferating, social circles interlocking, mechanisms of social exclusion strengthening and a gap widening between the people who make the decisions and shape the culture and the vast majority of ordinary working stiffs.
I'm back in Cambridge, and (unfortunately) classes started again today. That means 9 hours a day for six days of corporate strategy, finance, and a whole lotta other stuff I'm not particularly interested in sitting through. It also means it's time to hand in all the assignments we've all been slaving over during 'the break'. But, worry not, nothing could keep me from reading (and commenting on) the Economist.
A quick mention on the January 1st edition: the article "Ever higher society, ever harder to ascend" (With a cool rock-climbing picture if I may add).
subtitle: "Whatever happened to the belief that any American could get to the top?" It's a long article, so i'm cutting a lot out, but you'll get the picture.
"The United States likes to think of itself as the very embodiment of meritocracy: a country where people are judged on their individual abilites rather than their family connections. (...) Americans believed that equality of opportunity gave them an edge over the Old World, freeing them from debilitatin snobberies and at the same time enabling everyone to benefit form the abilites of the entire population. They still do. (...)
A growing body of evidence suggests that the meritocratic ideal is in trouble in America. Income inequality is growing to levels not seen since the Gilded Age, around the 1880s. But social mobility is not increasing at anything like the same pace: would-be Horatio Algers are finding it no easier to climb from rags to riches, while the children of the privileged have a greater chance of staying at the top of the socal heap.
Between 1979 and 2000 the real income of households in the lowest fifth grew by 6.4%, while that of households in the top fifth grew by 70%. The family inocme of the top 1% grew by 184% - and that of the top 0.1% and 0.01% grew even faster.
Thirty years ago the average real annual compensation of the top 100 chief executives was 39 times the pay of the average worker. Today it is over 1,000 times the pay of the average worker. In 2001 the top 1% of households earned 20% of all income and held 33.4% of all net worth. Not since pre-Depression days has the top 1% taken such a big whack.
Most Americans see nothing wrong with inequality of income so long as it comes with plent of social mobility: it is simply the price paid for a dynamic economy. But the new rise in inequality does not seem to have come with a commensurate rise in mobility. There may even have been a fall. The most vivid evidence of social sclerosis comes from politics. A country where every child is supposed to be able to dream of becoming president is beginning to produce a self-perpetuating political elite. George Bush is the son of a president, the grandson of a senator, and the sprig of America's business aristocracy. John Kerry, thanks to a rich wife, is the richest man in a Senate full of plutocrats. (...) Al Gore was the son of a senator. Howard Brush Dean was also the product of the same blue-blooded world of private schools [as Kerry and Gore and the Bushes].
"legacy preferences", a programme for the children of alumni. In most Ivy League institutions, the eight supposedly most select universities of the north-east, "legacies" make up between 10% and 15% of every class. At Harvard they are three times more likely to be admitted than others. The students in America's places of higher education are increasingly becoming an oligarchy tempered by racial preferences. This is sad in itself, but even sadder when you consider the extraordinary role that the same universities played in promoting meritocracy in the first half of the 20th century (cf. James Conant's reforms, Harvard president 1933-53, to prevent American from producing an aristocracy).
The most remarkable feature of the continuing power of America's elite - and its growing grip on the political system - is how little comment it arouses. Britain would be in high dudgeon if its party leaders all came from Eton and Harrow. Perhaps one reason why the rise of caste politics raises so little comment is that something similar is happening throughout American society (...): in the Hollywood Hills or the canyons of Wall Street, in the Nashville recording studios or the clapboard houses of Cambridge, MA - you see elites mastering the art of perpetuating themselves. America is increasingly looking like imperial Britain, with dynastic ties proliferating, social circles interlocking, mechanisms of social exclusion strengthening and a gap widening between the people who make the decisions and shape the culture and the vast majority of ordinary working stiffs.
Friday, January 07, 2005
finally!
Finally a pleasing article from The Economist (Christmas special edition), titled nothing less than 'Capitalist, Sexist pigs'!
I quote... "But The Economist, apparently had more frontal nudity in its photographs than all the other magazines combined [in a study of the photographs of five news magazines from 1982 to 2000]. (...) Particularly curious to the authors was our use of sexual content to illustrate stories on topics such as finance and technology. A photograph of three bikini-clad beauty contestants, used to illustrate a story on financial regulation, with the caption "Pick your regulator", was both emblematic and problematic."
The whole article is worth reading actually, pages 151-152...
I quote... "But The Economist, apparently had more frontal nudity in its photographs than all the other magazines combined [in a study of the photographs of five news magazines from 1982 to 2000]. (...) Particularly curious to the authors was our use of sexual content to illustrate stories on topics such as finance and technology. A photograph of three bikini-clad beauty contestants, used to illustrate a story on financial regulation, with the caption "Pick your regulator", was both emblematic and problematic."
The whole article is worth reading actually, pages 151-152...
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
gender and technology from a sociologist's point of view
I'm back from delicious French food and finally the curse of the failed New Years in Paris has been broken -this year's was great. Except for the news of the catastrophe.
Been reading a book called "Doing it the hard way: Investigations of Gender and Technology", a compilation of sorts of the work of Sally Hacker, a sociologist who studied gender and technology, from AT&T's affirmative action mandate to agribusiness to MIT's classrooms to math as a selection criteria for engineering. Very interesting. A few passages...
Data to counter backlash myths around affirmative action: at AT&T 16,300 men gained formerly women's work, only 9,400 gained formerly men's work during these three years of affirmative action. Parallels Carol Jusenius's (1976) work showing that where decreasing sex segregation in employment occurs, it is primarily due to men performing traditionally women's work and not to women performing traditionally men's work.
"women and minorities functioned as a reserve labor army, particularly useful when a company moves rapidly to capture a new market or to change its technological base"
"With such stress on the rational and technical and on competition for grades rather than on comprehensive understanding, the most creative and sensitive students opt out; those who recognize and accept the game continue (Snyder, 1971).".
Engineers often hold the most conservative beliefs about social and cultural change (Ferguson, 1981).
Explicitly place women in work to be automated because 'women resist displacement less than men'.
Contrary to popular misconceptions, the data suggest that women are just as competent as men in mathematics. The 1911 US. Bureau of Education report noted that women were outperforming men for instance. "Women can surmount the barriers to male-dominated professions, in this case, perhaps, by "overcoming math anxiety", as Sheila Tobias titled her excellent work on the subject. But if a primary functon of mathematics courses is limiting the number and kind of applicants to a field, then large numbers of women (and men disadvantaged by race or class) mastering mathematical test taking would simply cause the criteria to shift. So, at the same time as we learn "how-to" -- today's fashin in literature, courses and programs -- we also need to understand how and why the professions selecte the standards of excellence they do. Otherwise, most women will remain at least a step behind".
"women need a larger view of how the world of work is changing so as not to fight merely for a place in things "as they are"".
3/4 of women workers in the US either have no husbands or their husbands earn less than $10,000/year (1980ish).
Been reading a book called "Doing it the hard way: Investigations of Gender and Technology", a compilation of sorts of the work of Sally Hacker, a sociologist who studied gender and technology, from AT&T's affirmative action mandate to agribusiness to MIT's classrooms to math as a selection criteria for engineering. Very interesting. A few passages...
Data to counter backlash myths around affirmative action: at AT&T 16,300 men gained formerly women's work, only 9,400 gained formerly men's work during these three years of affirmative action. Parallels Carol Jusenius's (1976) work showing that where decreasing sex segregation in employment occurs, it is primarily due to men performing traditionally women's work and not to women performing traditionally men's work.
"women and minorities functioned as a reserve labor army, particularly useful when a company moves rapidly to capture a new market or to change its technological base"
"With such stress on the rational and technical and on competition for grades rather than on comprehensive understanding, the most creative and sensitive students opt out; those who recognize and accept the game continue (Snyder, 1971).".
Engineers often hold the most conservative beliefs about social and cultural change (Ferguson, 1981).
Explicitly place women in work to be automated because 'women resist displacement less than men'.
Contrary to popular misconceptions, the data suggest that women are just as competent as men in mathematics. The 1911 US. Bureau of Education report noted that women were outperforming men for instance. "Women can surmount the barriers to male-dominated professions, in this case, perhaps, by "overcoming math anxiety", as Sheila Tobias titled her excellent work on the subject. But if a primary functon of mathematics courses is limiting the number and kind of applicants to a field, then large numbers of women (and men disadvantaged by race or class) mastering mathematical test taking would simply cause the criteria to shift. So, at the same time as we learn "how-to" -- today's fashin in literature, courses and programs -- we also need to understand how and why the professions selecte the standards of excellence they do. Otherwise, most women will remain at least a step behind".
"women need a larger view of how the world of work is changing so as not to fight merely for a place in things "as they are"".
3/4 of women workers in the US either have no husbands or their husbands earn less than $10,000/year (1980ish).
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