morrisseyed

kultural imperialism

2008-11-22T03:14:49Z

sometimes i just can’t help myself. this week, in my favourite class, “interruptions and interactions with the mba’s”, i had brought up the evil words “cultural imperialism.” there was a bit of a discussion on the go about the how great - or how evil - the One Laptop Per Child programme was, and I had to state the case that perhaps Western tech is not the answer and that developed nations may not necessarily be jonesing for disney.com, even if no one else was going to. i really with the mba’s were into this one, but they couldn’t care less for the subject since it had nothing to do with risk management or ROI. oh, those kids..

anyway, I don’t want to go far into the details, but I do want to say I see the merits of a programme such as OLPC, and I won’t dispute them. Also, i’m aware of the elitism inherent in western arguments developed for western thinkers such as, “Giving laptops to children in developing nations is a form of cultural imperialism” (i.e. the very argument reinforces the dichotomy and widens the gap between cultures, not to mention the digital divide), and i’m more than aware that one can’t ever bridge the development gap by holding steadfast to the idea that “our western culture is bad therefore we shouldn’t export its wares”. however, in a lecture preaching all the merits of OLPC and how it will change the world for all these little kids (who might be worried more about basic life necessities like a glass of water than they might be about their facebook wall), some one out there who can see things the other way needs to speak up and broach the subject…

it was really nice, therefore, to watch two other classmates take the microphone after me and begin their comments with, “I agree with Mitch…” After getting past that moment of self-indulgence, when all my thoughts veered to just how awesome i really am, I realized that perhaps i did the right thing after all by stating the case, even if that case is flawed. Because in the end all of the cases are flawed, but I don’t think many people realize it. That’s something I’ve always resented about the classroom. And I’m a little disappointed to see that it hasn’t been alleviated bur rather reinforced at the graduate level. we need more people willing to disagree, and to disagree passionately, to our great ideas. without that disagreement, without that dialogue, our arguments turn to dogma and tautology.

so. yay to criticism.

Santa Shuffle

2008-11-19T04:39:52Z

Hey all,

so I’m going to run the santa shuffle after all. if you feel like donating anything to the cause, then shuffle yourselves over to http://steeleworthy.ca/run to get all the details.

luv,

(nike+ powersong: fire eye’d boy)

Baked

2008-11-18T17:36:04Z

Okay, so this morning, for perhaps the third (fourth) time in my life, I actually baked! I don’t count baking cakes for The Pineapples as baking, because I’ve failed almost every time, but if even if you were to add those numbers into it we’d still be at less than a dozen instances.

I baked because I helped organize a to-do for this evening with a budget so small that us organizers had to get crafty in the kitchen. I lose all capacity to think when it comes to baking, so this experience was a little more… difficult… than is had to be. The Pineapples was both exasperated and laughing her face off at my uselessness with the blender this morning. She actually must be given credit for guiding me through some of the process. At any rate, the snicker doodles are baked, ready to be boxed up, and will tonight be eaten.

I’m writing all this up mostly for Rhia, who I think would be proud of my… ability acumen experience intention willingness to conjure up something in the kitchen that doesn’t call for oregano or basil for once. These photos are for you..

[the thumbnails are clickable, btw.]

christmas is for shopping and the shopping god is everything

2008-11-17T23:13:24Z

I’ve marked it, on 17 Nov 2008. There I was in the grocery store, trying to remember if the flour i needed is all-purpose or white, when I heard the christmas carols over the PA system. now,I know that the christmas music has been noticed by others since at least around hallowe’en, but this was still a little bothersome. I don’t take kindly to hearing christmas music before my birthday. my birthday, i think, is a good benchmark in the run-up toward christmas, in fact, I would say it is even superior to american thanksgiving, but i suppose i’d have to argue that one away with some 350 million people, so I’ll keep mum on that subject and just rant on about our consumerist fetishes instead.

anyway, i immediately grew bitter when i heard the carols. I wanted to shut my eyes, open them, and find myself in a delillo novel since I was basically in one at that moment.

the next best thing to this wish, of course, would be to start humming some matthew good, who used to rock out on the gen-x angst and po-mo for us back in the day. but of course, i couldn’t even do that, because the nature of my predicament - hearing the carols - prevented me from even taking the medicine - humming a tune to drive it all away. It was a downward spiral.

i did eventually break out of the spiral and find my solace when i got home. oh internet, you fix things every time. you are my solace, you giant simulation. anyway, the lyric in question in this song is around the 2:30 mark. I’ve been going on about it for years now, so I won’t say anymore.

(oh, and finally, even though i do like this video for its politics and its massage (cf McLuhan there, of course), I still think it reeks of Adbusters. while i’m politically aligned with a lot of what Adbusters espouses, I think the place is a racket, and that Kalle Lasn is almost as bad as some of the people he criticizes. Kalle wants us to culture jam, yes, but he wants us to culture jam with his message only. he wants us to wipe the slate clean, but we wants us to wipe it clean so we will see things his way. if i were to mindlessly read Adbusters the way he wants me to, I might gain back my street cred for pinning my anti-corporate beliefs on my sleeve, but I’d still be an automaton, only now an automaton who is against corporations without really understanding all the reasons why. even though i do see the world the way Kalle sees it, i think his line of thinking and mode of delivery is awfully presumptuous and a little patronizing.)

Sound Recordings

2008-11-16T14:53:51Z

I often shake my head in disgust when I think about my appreciation for Matthew Arnold. That guy was a conservative nutbar at the end of his life, but some of his lit, and a lot of his criticism really hit the mark for me (case in point: i’ve quoted his definition of culture on another site for well over a year now). In the end, the guy was a wicked critic because he was adept at not letting his own politics rule over his works.

Anyway, I discovered this morning that the SMU Ferguson Library, a small hole-in-the-wall service for some of the school’s patrons, made a sound recording of _Culture and Anarchy_ back in 1990. That’s awesome - I hardly think there are many sound recordings of old Mr. Arnold lying around; he isn’t your run-of-the-mill listen-on-your-way-to-work sort of author