The driver was mashed
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
Jak się masz?
Hello all from Sunny Poland! It's beautiful here - apart from some of the architecture, and the people are lovely (though Wroclaw is the home of Radio Rodina, pretty much the Catholic Radio Mille Collines.
I'll post some pictures when I take some, probably each evening. The competition's called Challenge Wratislavia, by the way.
The journey here was, well, eventful: seven hours on a late coach to Stansted, almost missing my connection. Sleep was prohibited. Instead, I experienced life in the raw. The coach was packed with the desperate, poor and mentally ill. That includes me. As I boarded, a nasty racial dispute blew up. The three Donegal women (all wearing pyjamas and dressing gowns) objected to an African gent wanting to sit next to the male in their party - he wanted to sleep across both seats. Before long, they were proclaiming that they'd 'catch AIDS' if he had the 'cheer' next to them, and when he responded fairly rudely, they threatened him but told the driver that he'd tried to punch them in the face… this hostility continued for 200 miles.
Meanwhile, I was surrounded by cockneys who a) compared criminal records, b) used a variety of racist terms for every ethnic group while reassuring each other that they weren't racist and c) compared experience with 'brass', which is slang for prostitute (see Helen Walsh's excellent novel, Brass).
As you can probably imagine, I didn't greet the hordes of cheery young fencers with entirely the appropriate degree of joy when I stepped off the coach at Stansted. Still, all uphill from here, eh?
I'll post some pictures when I take some, probably each evening. The competition's called Challenge Wratislavia, by the way.
The journey here was, well, eventful: seven hours on a late coach to Stansted, almost missing my connection. Sleep was prohibited. Instead, I experienced life in the raw. The coach was packed with the desperate, poor and mentally ill. That includes me. As I boarded, a nasty racial dispute blew up. The three Donegal women (all wearing pyjamas and dressing gowns) objected to an African gent wanting to sit next to the male in their party - he wanted to sleep across both seats. Before long, they were proclaiming that they'd 'catch AIDS' if he had the 'cheer' next to them, and when he responded fairly rudely, they threatened him but told the driver that he'd tried to punch them in the face… this hostility continued for 200 miles.
Meanwhile, I was surrounded by cockneys who a) compared criminal records, b) used a variety of racist terms for every ethnic group while reassuring each other that they weren't racist and c) compared experience with 'brass', which is slang for prostitute (see Helen Walsh's excellent novel, Brass).
As you can probably imagine, I didn't greet the hordes of cheery young fencers with entirely the appropriate degree of joy when I stepped off the coach at Stansted. Still, all uphill from here, eh?
Tuesday, 23 March 2010
Mmmm…pop
I've just spent my last two hours here in a union meeting: watch this space. I'll check mail if I get a chance while in Poland, but won't blog much - probably just photos of fencers.
I thought I'd leave you with a music recommendation: Anjali's The World of Lady A. She was in The Voodoo Queens (and even earlier, riot grrls Mambo Taxi): wonderful noisy early 90s jangle-pop-rock. Since then, she makes quirky, fun, loud indie/electronic/sample stuff. It makes me smile. A lot.
I thought I'd leave you with a music recommendation: Anjali's The World of Lady A. She was in The Voodoo Queens (and even earlier, riot grrls Mambo Taxi): wonderful noisy early 90s jangle-pop-rock. Since then, she makes quirky, fun, loud indie/electronic/sample stuff. It makes me smile. A lot.
Admin
A couple of things while I think about them.
I'm away in Poland with the England cadet epeeists for a few days so if you're looking for organ donations, don't wait until I get back. The same goes for office hours and academic advice.
In my absence, my friend Alan Apperley is launching his magnificent novel, Indeterminate Creatures, upstairs at the Old Joint Stock pub, Colmore Row, in Birmingham: Thursday at 7. Everyone's invited. It's a lovely book and there's a reading and q+a session, so you can ask him when he'll finish marking your essays.
I'm away in Poland with the England cadet epeeists for a few days so if you're looking for organ donations, don't wait until I get back. The same goes for office hours and academic advice.
In my absence, my friend Alan Apperley is launching his magnificent novel, Indeterminate Creatures, upstairs at the Old Joint Stock pub, Colmore Row, in Birmingham: Thursday at 7. Everyone's invited. It's a lovely book and there's a reading and q+a session, so you can ask him when he'll finish marking your essays.
A very boring post which might save the world
Simple: read this article by Tony Judt. It's quite long because complicated ideas require lengthy exploration. It's a slowly dying man's attempt to relegitimise the state as a force for good in the face of decades of individualism and selfishness.
This is how he explains his status:
Still, in an ideal world, Tony Judt for President. Meanwhile, buy his book.
And John Rawls' classic A Theory of Justice.
This is how he explains his status:
"Today I'm regarded outside New York University as a Looney Tunes leftie self-hating Jewish communist; inside the university I'm … a typical old-fashioned white male liberal elitist … I'm on the edge of both, it makes me feel comfortable."If you added a little more hard left authoritarianism, you'd reach my politics. Judt's a classic liberal: he believes in a balance between personal liberty and a state which works for the greater good under the direction of an enlightened electorate. Me? I've met Tories. They can't be rehabilitated. They belong in camps.
Still, in an ideal world, Tony Judt for President. Meanwhile, buy his book.
We have lost touch with the old questions that have defined politics since the Greeks: is it good? Is it fair? Is it just? Is it right? Will it help bring about a better society? A better world? The US and UK today are more unequal – in incomes, wealth, health, education, life chances – than at any time since 1914. Is this desirable? Is it prudent? Those used to be the political questions, even if they invited no easy answers. Until we have learned – or re-learned – how to pose them, we shall go on as before.
And John Rawls' classic A Theory of Justice.
Rawls aims to express an essential part of the common core of the democratic tradition--justice as fairness--and to provide an alternative to utilitarianism, which had dominated the Anglo-Saxon tradition of political thought since the 19th century. Rawls substitutes the ideal of the social contract as a more satisfactory account of the basic rights and liberties of citizens as free and equal persons. "Each person", writes Rawls, "possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override."
Monday, 22 March 2010
Tory web campaign in meltdown
They just don't get it: they associate with despicable scum in their desperate pursuit of power, and can't even get the tech stuff right. Read the whole sorry story here and follow all those links (including this good one).
Album of the Day
Next up: Angie Hart's Eat My Shadow and Grounded Bird.
I only know of Angie Hart because Frente!'s cover of New Order's 'Bizarre Love Triangle' is always on my playlists (as is The Boo Radleys' 'Boo! Faith', their cover of NO's 'True Faith'). Frente! were a lovely, catchy, intelligent Australian pop-folk band who I'll cover later. (Australian pop is cool: see also Paradise Motel, Hydroplane and The Cat's Miaow).
Bored one day, as I so often am, I googled their names and discovered that Angie Hart had released Grounded Bird: only in Australia, so I had to import it because I'm a bit of a completist. It's a sunny LP, packed with witty twists on ordinary language and events. This was repeated on her new one, Eat My Shadow, which is available on iTunes.
Now I discover that there's another album, released as Splendid, and featuring her ex. Must get that one too…
Will these albums change your life? No - but I've got many thousands of albums and I don't expect them all to do that. I like art that isn't Titian and manage to live in unbeautiful buildings. What Angie Hart's music will do is lighten the load for 40 minutes. She has a beautiful voice, good arrangements and an attractively quirky view of life. That's quite an achievement.
I only know of Angie Hart because Frente!'s cover of New Order's 'Bizarre Love Triangle' is always on my playlists (as is The Boo Radleys' 'Boo! Faith', their cover of NO's 'True Faith'). Frente! were a lovely, catchy, intelligent Australian pop-folk band who I'll cover later. (Australian pop is cool: see also Paradise Motel, Hydroplane and The Cat's Miaow).
Bored one day, as I so often am, I googled their names and discovered that Angie Hart had released Grounded Bird: only in Australia, so I had to import it because I'm a bit of a completist. It's a sunny LP, packed with witty twists on ordinary language and events. This was repeated on her new one, Eat My Shadow, which is available on iTunes.
Now I discover that there's another album, released as Splendid, and featuring her ex. Must get that one too…
Will these albums change your life? No - but I've got many thousands of albums and I don't expect them all to do that. I like art that isn't Titian and manage to live in unbeautiful buildings. What Angie Hart's music will do is lighten the load for 40 minutes. She has a beautiful voice, good arrangements and an attractively quirky view of life. That's quite an achievement.
The target is not the point
Litlove is a blog I'm fast coming to adore: the thoughtful and ever interesting insights of a great academic and writer.
Today s/he draws on a book about Zen and archery to posit the key to learning.
If this isn't balm to the soul of a student body raised on certificates, module grades and targets, I don't know what is.
Today s/he draws on a book about Zen and archery to posit the key to learning.
What Zen instructs is that learning is not about the outward manifestation of a skill, but the inward journey through the self. On several occasions the Master leaves Herrigel to struggle hopelessly and heroically with the fiendish difficulties of drawing a bow correctly, only giving him helpful hints when he has reached the point of desperation. Why won’t he tell him these things earlier? Herrigel asks. Because he has to exhaust all the possibilities for himself before he would be ready to take in what the Master has to say. And isn’t this the truth? How many times have I told students what they need to do, only to be met with blank stares or the insincere gestures of over-anxious acceptance. The truth only makes sense when we are ready to hear it, and not a moment before. We have to work things out for ourselves. It takes Herrigel a further two or three years to figure out the ‘right’ moment to loose his arrow, the moment when his hand will fall easily away from the bowstring, without jerking backwards. The long process to reach this point not only teaches him much that is wordless about feeling the task in hand, but it prepares him for the understanding that mastering an art like this is a spiritual activity, not one governed by tricks and predicated on the easy joy of achievement.
I know this is right because I spend all my time now with students who are so obsessed with the target, with what they are supposed to be achieving, and with how their lack of success reflects back on their sense of self, that they are completely crippled for doing anything at all. If this isn’t spiritual poverty, then I don’t know what is. Such students need to get out of their own way, and they find it almost impossible.
If this isn't balm to the soul of a student body raised on certificates, module grades and targets, I don't know what is.
Death to Powerpoint
It's fake education. It implies that everything important can be reduced to graphics. It moves attention from the educational process, which exists in the space between the teacher and the student.
Someone else agrees:
All hail Steven Moffat
He wrote the best Doctor Who episode ever (and Press Gang and Coupling), and has this to say:
"I hope the Tories don't win. Let's not beat around the bush," he says. "[But] I'd hope that anyone who becomes prime minister would look at the organisation and ask themselves if the world would really be better off without it." Moffat is not blind to the corporation's faults, but sees it as "an incredibly responsible and brilliant organisation" that is "never given credit for trying to hold itself to a higher standard, one that no newspaper or other broadcaster is".
"Are we really going to put James Murdoch in place of [the BBC]? Can you imagine how shit everything would be? Never mind the fine and glorious things that the BBC does, imagine how shit everything would be! Stuff would be shit! Let's not have really good restaurants, let's have Kentucky Fried Chicken!"
"all we writers really want to do is write a script, toss it over a wall and go out with strippers"
"This is what change looks like" or "armageddon"
Congratulations to my American readers: you're now going to get a healthcare system which may just help the poor and middle-classes. It's still going to be utterly rubbish compared with the Canadian, UK and European systems (it's not universal or funded through taxation) but in American terms, it's an earthquake because it at leasts hints at the idea that we're collectively responsible for each other (Michael Tomasky has a good piece on the philosophical issues).
Shame on the Democrats who opposed it and those who extorted the exclusion of abortion, on the Republicans generally (every single one voted against making affordable healthcare available), and it's a shame that Democrats who supported it will lose their Congressional seats barring a miracle.
I've never considered vaccination and first-aid as 'armageddon'. What a strange man. Still, welcome to civilisation.
Shame on the Democrats who opposed it and those who extorted the exclusion of abortion, on the Republicans generally (every single one voted against making affordable healthcare available), and it's a shame that Democrats who supported it will lose their Congressional seats barring a miracle.
Thousands of protesters gathered outside Congress at the weekend, shouting "kill the bill". Some directed racist and other derogatory remarks at African-American members of Congress, including John Lewis, one of the veterans of the 1960s civil rights movement. One congressman was spat on.
Another protester shouted "faggot" at Democratic congressman Barney Frank, who later told the Politico website: "It's like the Salem witch trials, and healthcare is the witches. There is mass hysteria."
The Republican leader in the House, John Boehner, described the bill as armageddon
I've never considered vaccination and first-aid as 'armageddon'. What a strange man. Still, welcome to civilisation.
Our turn to eat
I've always hated the Tories and New Labour because they've never pretended to care for the citizens they wish to govern. Instead, they've seen the state as something to capture for their own and their friends' interests. This is the 'our turn to eat' syndrome (as invented in Kenya).
The weekend's story about Stephen Byers MP ('I'm a cab for hire), Geoff Hoon (wanted 'something that frankly makes money'), Patricia Hewitt ( for a fee of £3,000 a day, she could help "a client who needs a particular regulation removed, then we can often package that up") and others is utterly symptomatic of this attitude. For people like him, a period as government minister isn't the pinnacle of a life devoted to serving the public: it's a period of political glory which leads on to wealth and comfort obtained by using the contacts made in the service of whichever corporation buys his time. Ex-soldiers and defence ministers work for arms manufacturers, ministers for health work for private health companies, treasury officials go to the City, all betraying their beliefs (if they're Labour).
There's no sense that Byers has any political principles which might restrain him - it's all about the money (£3000-£5000 per day, he says).
What really shocked me, and which summed up the ideological vacuity of New Labour, was Byers' use of pronouns. He told the undercover reporter that he'd lobbied ministers to save millions of pounds for National Express railways and helped Tesco weaken food labelling laws. All the way through, he used 'we'. Not referring to the government of which he was a minister, nor to the party he represents as a member of parliament, nor to the people he claims to represent. No. To this man, elected by the citizens and paid by us, 'we' referred to these corporations.
That is a resigning matter.
This is the kind of thing that makes me a socialist. And keeps me away from elected office.
The weekend's story about Stephen Byers MP ('I'm a cab for hire), Geoff Hoon (wanted 'something that frankly makes money'), Patricia Hewitt ( for a fee of £3,000 a day, she could help "a client who needs a particular regulation removed, then we can often package that up") and others is utterly symptomatic of this attitude. For people like him, a period as government minister isn't the pinnacle of a life devoted to serving the public: it's a period of political glory which leads on to wealth and comfort obtained by using the contacts made in the service of whichever corporation buys his time. Ex-soldiers and defence ministers work for arms manufacturers, ministers for health work for private health companies, treasury officials go to the City, all betraying their beliefs (if they're Labour).
There's no sense that Byers has any political principles which might restrain him - it's all about the money (£3000-£5000 per day, he says).
What really shocked me, and which summed up the ideological vacuity of New Labour, was Byers' use of pronouns. He told the undercover reporter that he'd lobbied ministers to save millions of pounds for National Express railways and helped Tesco weaken food labelling laws. All the way through, he used 'we'. Not referring to the government of which he was a minister, nor to the party he represents as a member of parliament, nor to the people he claims to represent. No. To this man, elected by the citizens and paid by us, 'we' referred to these corporations.
That is a resigning matter.
This is the kind of thing that makes me a socialist. And keeps me away from elected office.
Friday, 19 March 2010
This is a robbery. Get your cheque books out
Bob Diamond, president of Barclays, declined his bonus this year, to deflect criticism of banks which have been saved by the taxpayer, directly or indirectly.
What a gent.
As a result, selfless, poor old Bob has had to scrape by on a mere £60 million this year. If you'd like to send donations, I'll put together a food parcel.
What a gent.
As a result, selfless, poor old Bob has had to scrape by on a mere £60 million this year. If you'd like to send donations, I'll put together a food parcel.
Gays kill 8000 Muslims
Thought that would get your attention.
Not my attitude, obviously, but that of General John Sheehan, former head of NATO. This American idiot blames the Serb massacre at Srebrenica on the weakening effect of homosexuals who were permitted to join the army openly, unlike the US and trades unionists.
Well done, Mr. Sheehan. After all, the Athenians and Spartans were deeply opposed to homosexuals in the military weren't they? (Er…no. They encouraged soldiers to take teenage male lovers as a bonding and training strategy).
Srebrenica was a disgrace and a lasting stain on the Dutch military, who did indeed remain passive while Serbs murdered thousands of people - but it wasn't because they were doing each other's makeup, dancing to Erasure or passing composite motions on solidarity with Cuba.
Gates thinks Europeans have gone soft and lost the will to fight. Seems unlikely. Perhaps Europeans have lost the will to start illegal wars and (though I see little evidence so far) to do whatever Uncle Sam wants. The natives are restless!
Not my attitude, obviously, but that of General John Sheehan, former head of NATO. This American idiot blames the Serb massacre at Srebrenica on the weakening effect of homosexuals who were permitted to join the army openly, unlike the US and trades unionists.
Following recent remarks from Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, that Europeans have gone soft and lost the will to fight, Sheehan argued that after the end of the cold war the Europeans embarked on military changes reducing the appetite for combat.
"They declared a peace dividend and made a conscious effort to socialise their military – that includes the unionisation of their militaries, it includes open homosexuality. That led to a force that was ill-equipped to go to war," he said.
"The case in point that I'm referring to is when the Dutch were required to defend Srebrenica against the Serbs. The battalion was under-strength, poorly led, and the Serbs came into town, handcuffed the soldiers to the telephone poles, marched the Muslims off, and executed them. That was the largest massacre in Europe since world war two."
He added that the Dutch chief of staff had told him that having gay soldiers at Srebrenica had sapped morale and contributed to the disaster.
"Total nonsense," said General Henk van den Breemen, the Dutch chief of staff at the time.
Well done, Mr. Sheehan. After all, the Athenians and Spartans were deeply opposed to homosexuals in the military weren't they? (Er…no. They encouraged soldiers to take teenage male lovers as a bonding and training strategy).
Srebrenica was a disgrace and a lasting stain on the Dutch military, who did indeed remain passive while Serbs murdered thousands of people - but it wasn't because they were doing each other's makeup, dancing to Erasure or passing composite motions on solidarity with Cuba.
Gates thinks Europeans have gone soft and lost the will to fight. Seems unlikely. Perhaps Europeans have lost the will to start illegal wars and (though I see little evidence so far) to do whatever Uncle Sam wants. The natives are restless!
Support the flying pickets
There's a British Airways staff strike starting tomorrow, after weeks of legal shenanigans on behalf of the airline, which is determined to turn their workforce into a bitter, resentful bunch of underpaid minions - like Ryanair etc.
Shamefully, BA's Irish chairman, Walsh, is a former union official.
The workers aren't being greedy: they've offered to take a substantial pay cut and reduced terms of service while BA have resorted to underhand legal action, but BA's plan is actually to replace the workforce with a new, cut-price airline.
When I'm in charge, there won't be airlines. There may be some aircraft for emergencies, but everyone else can use highspeed rail on their own continents, and the space elevator and orbital link for long distance travel.
Shamefully, BA's Irish chairman, Walsh, is a former union official.
The workers aren't being greedy: they've offered to take a substantial pay cut and reduced terms of service while BA have resorted to underhand legal action, but BA's plan is actually to replace the workforce with a new, cut-price airline.
When I'm in charge, there won't be airlines. There may be some aircraft for emergencies, but everyone else can use highspeed rail on their own continents, and the space elevator and orbital link for long distance travel.
Playing the Złottery
If any of my Polish friends and students wish to swap £ for Zloty they have lying around, I'd be very grateful. I'm also happy to import Polish delicacies on request, except for alcohol (the trip I'm going on is completely dry).
Shuas mun Chnoc-fhaire
Intelliwench found this: Derek MacLennan's version of All Along The Watchtower - in Scots Gaelic (a dialect of Irish). I like it a lot.
How corporations work
I'm no defender of Youtube - it's another big media company - but they're involved in a stunning spat with Viacom at the moment. That company sued Youtube for hosting Viacom's material - while also employing up to 18 companies to post Viacom property disguised as fans to make their shows look cooler! It really is time for copyright law reform.
This is what Youtube had to say (via Boing Boing):
This is what Youtube had to say (via Boing Boing):
For years, Viacom continuously and secretly uploaded its content to YouTube, even while publicly complaining about its presence there. It hired no fewer than 18 different marketing agencies to upload its content to the site. It deliberately "roughed up" the videos to make them look stolen or leaked. It opened YouTube accounts using phony email addresses. It even sent employees to Kinko's to upload clips from computers that couldn't be traced to Viacom. And in an effort to promote its own shows, as a matter of company policy Viacom routinely left up clips from shows that had been uploaded to YouTube by ordinary users. Executives as high up as the president of Comedy Central and the head of MTV Networks felt "very strongly" that clips from shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report should remain on YouTube.
Viacom's efforts to disguise its promotional use of YouTube worked so well that even its own employees could not keep track of everything it was posting or leaving up on the site. As a result, on countless occasions Viacom demanded the removal of clips that it had uploaded to YouTube, only to return later to sheepishly ask for their reinstatement. In fact, some of the very clips that Viacom is suing us over were actually uploaded by Viacom itself.
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