I
See also this.
See also this.
And from the abstract one cannot tell how great Lawrence Wright’s article The Kingdom of Silence is, but it is great.
II
70% of Saudi Arabian students, according to Wright, are depressed. One of the young journalists he worked with went to a psychiatrist to be diagnosed.
Psychiatrist: Do you like your job?
Journalist: Yes, I am very interested in the profession, but it is frustrating to work under such strict censorship.
P: Do you have any hobbies?
J: Yes, I play music and I like to listen to live music, but these activities are for the most part prohibited, so I am very frustrated.
P: You are not married. Would you be interested in that?
J: Yes, but not in an arranged marriage. I would like to be able to talk to women in general. I would like to have friends of both sexes, and to date different women. Then I would like to get married.
P: Hmmm . . . your sentiments are age appropriate. You do not exhibit signs of a mental disorder. Psychiatric treatment is not what you need. I recommend an extended voyage in another country.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
Why is it so hard for people to realise that their cultural logic, which has seemed to have been set in stone by history, is dysfunctional?
You can understand the “logic” of the middle eastern fear of female sexuality…..from the point of view of the stone age savage. It can seem like a MAGIC force, coming from no definable centre (no mosque, no particular book or object) in particular. Oooh, ooh, oooh! It’s so freaaaky!
But then along comes science, and we can start to learn that men and women are both wired with sex drives, and that the force of erotic drive is not one-sided — exerted by women over men — but is actually a chemical process taking place in the mind of the observer. So, we can dispense with notions of magic — and especially with notions that the sexual leverage is all one-sided.
But, No! The stone age magic idea is too difficult to get rid of. It is utterly bizarre — and still, it persists.
P: Hmmm . . . your sentiments are age appropriate. You do not exhibit signs of a mental disorder. Psychiatric treatment is not what you need. I recommend an extended voyage in another country.
Remember the post you wrote a while back (could have been a year ago, shrug), I think it was in the direction of the Americans going to other countries to fulfill this very same thing but coming from a different direction/angle but after the same thing nonetheless. I cannot recall the particulars but either it was written here or it made me think about the racism/sexism of the Americans who venture out, yet that same element would be there if the Saudi Arabians ventured out as well. In such a case, the western archetype is not so villainous (not that I am favoring one over the other) to be considered the more evil of the two.
Once again proving that the world is round.
Its like the dog can freely shit but not in his own yard. “Let the dog run down the street so he will not poop in our yard, but for the love of god, let him shit, because he must and we cannot allow him to do it here but we cannot discuss why he cannot do it here or why he has to do it to begin with, it just is, it is like magic or something.”
Although what I get out of it is, the place that’s whack is S.A.
Weird — I just got a hit from Qatar
Yes but are the people in S.A. who “recommend an extended voyage in another country” feel they (the RSA and ISA supporters) whacked as well or is their silence consent? Just saying.
Or should I not have such an opinion because I am outside of them and do not know what they must endure?
I don’t know that this psychiatrist was a supporter of the regime – somehow I suspect not. I think it is more or less like us: we haven’t left the country yet and I have not yet figured out when or if I will be quiet for reasons having to do with personal safety!
Already there is a video I want to use in class because the Spanish is spoken so clearly, I think they could understand it without subtitles. But it is in favor of Che Guevara, and not in a Motorcycle Diaries type of way … it’s militant. And I haven’t decided because of David Horowitz’ group. So I am a wuss.
Well, in order to accommodate Horowitz’s position, you would need to give both sides of the story. I’m sure that is within your scope. Begin by describing how two political sides have perceived Che Guevara. One has seen him as [ a trouble maker, a no-hoper, a non-entity, etc] and the other has seen him as [the opposite, perhaps?] So, that is so much for the objectivity of the matter. Now teach your film.
Scratchy, that could be done in a class for majors or minors but not a class with a general audience. Think Iraq veterans + right wing talk radio + PTSD. Think having all attention diverted to this issue and not to the material the use of this particular video was intended to support. It could be done as part of a whole unit, etc., etc., but it’s a really poor choice for this group just as a way to review the past tenses! I do not have the time or energy for the fight, to deal with the administration about the complaints, to talk to the V.A., etc., etc. Remember that at this level the use of *any* video, *any* authentic materials, etc. is already highly suspect. It is a Spanish class but listening to people speak Spanish is *not* considered appropriate as an activity in our department so if the content of what I have them listen to is *also* problematic, I will never hear the end of it.
And I haven’t decided because of David Horowitz’ group. So I am a wuss.
You, Y-O-U are not a wuss. You are looking out for your personal well-being. The academic institution (in the collective sense, in other words, all across America) is the wuss, because Horowitz has successfully managed to derail the very thing academic institutions supposedly can do.
Yes – although not Horowitz so much as the students who are often incredibly right wing and whom we are expected to “satisfy.” *They* listen to Coulter, Horowitz, etc.
After they fail English and Algebra several times the more illogical of them drop out and one can teach a broader set of ideas. But with people in basic levels one must teach basic skills.
I am working very, very slowly toward the B.F.A., where I am a beginner. I wish my professor would not talk politics because what he says is so upsetting to me that it is hard to concentrate on the fine detail work I am supposed to be doing with a steady hand. I do not want my students to have that experience, it will not do them any good and it will certainly not surprise them into any revelations.
This is the video I mean: http://youtube.com/watch?v=po09lcDxXIA&feature=related
It has the Che in revolutionary garb and smoking a cigar just like Fidel in the end. You can google the English lyrics, which exist, and you will see that there is some serious and partly Communist oriented adoration going on here. To throw this cold at people who already believe Hillary Clinton has the Devil’s horns is an exercise destined for failure.
Pitch it thusly: Che was an asthmatic doctor from Argentina who became Cuba’s Lafayette. The revolution Che participated in, which overthrew a right-wing dictator’s dominion over a mass of poor people with no land, no affordable health care for the majority and no education for the majority, turned into a left-wing dictatorship where people had land, free education, free medical care and rent control. As with the American revolution which Lafayette participated in, many of the old ruling class left the country. Most of the American exiles fled to Canada. Most of the Cuban exiles have fled to Miami.
Think Iraq veterans + right wing talk radio + PTSD. Think having all attention diverted to this issue and not to the material the use of this particular video was intended to support.
Yeah, I don’t understand the American context as I am not there. I do think it is a shame that teaching cannot take place. There is a kind of global infection of self-indulgence nowadays, based on the philosophy of consumerism (an anti-educative doctrine if ever there was one). Apparently this is even afflicting Japan, according to one teacher I spoke to yesterday. The effect in Japan is still less marked that in the West, since students are not yet so assertive that they are impossible to control — however the parents are getting difficult to manage there.
A philosophy of “education” that permits a philosophy of rampant consumerist self-indulgence is destroying the government schools in Australia. The consumerist herd is now on the move, trying to find fresh pastures. “Private schools” seem to be the immediate answer. Why? Because teachers can still enforce discipline in a a private school which is governed by religious doctrines of authority — coming from the Feudalist/pre-capitalist era. A doctrine of capitalist consumerism (prevalent in the government schools) is unviable as a means to enforcing education as a practice.
But this means a return to religious indoctrination and religious authoritarianism, since it is not considered “enlightened” for a secularist to take an approach which does not cater to the meanest and most self-indulgent tendencies of the populace to get what they feel like the minute that they feel like it.
Mike – yes, it’s the way to do it and it is how it would be done in a slightly more advanced course.
Scratchy, you are of course right but consider the opposite: my ceramics professor said this morning that he felt only the privileged were deserving, and that the people who had trouble after Katrina had trouble because they were “so stupid.”
I really did not want to hear this in my studio art class and I would prefer not to know this professor felt that way, at least not while his is the only course I can take.
It is, of course, not parallel since that comment had nothing to do with art while my Che video does have everything to do with Spanish. Still it is not desirable to alienate people straight off. Contextualization is *everything,* and going slow is important.
P.S. on politics: my professor was department chair for years and years. He has an advanced degree, and everything, and a very good professional reputation and his logic skills are *still* that weak.
P.S. on teaching: I am tenured faculty and I am still seeking permission to teach Spanish in Spanish with authentic materials, not in English with the grammar and translation model our students prefer. I need this permission badly if I am to teach properly and in a way that meets national standards in any way. While I am trying to garner such permission, I do not need to struggle over a music video . . . there are so many.
P.S. on politics: my professor was department chair for years and years. He has an advanced degree, and everything, and a very good professional reputation and his logic skills are *still* that weak.
P.S. on teaching: I am tenured faculty and I am still seeking permission to teach Spanish in Spanish with authentic materials, not in English with the grammar and translation model our students prefer.
I need this permission badly if I am to teach properly and in a way that meets national standards to any degree. While I am trying to garner such permission, I do not need to struggle over a music video . . . there are so many, and I can teach whatever I want from the fourth semester on
so really, it is not worth worrying about.
Ok, so don’t worry about it then.
J – I’m just sayin’!
I only had time to write something short, as I had to skype some Japanese.
Skyping Japanese, it sounds fun! I am just bitching. I have students who believe that if a Democrat is elected, we will have several countries attacking us (on the theory that we are wimps and will surrender). I have neighbors who believe it is a good idea to relinquish all civil liberties because there are terrorists in the U.S. plotting to kill us now, and by relinquishing civil liberties we can become safe from these people (cf. Argentina in the late 70s to early 80s). And I have a professor who believes that anyone who did not come through Hurricane Katrina sitting pretty, was just “stupid.” In sum, I am living in a Fascist atmosphere already.
Of course – it’s not as bad as Saudi Arabia, the original inspiration of this post and our ally still, despite tensions.
You should insist that those who wish to reliquish their civil liberties do so right away. If that’s all they can come up with then there is no way around it — they simply ought to do so. Tell them where the nearest jail is, and to make their ways directly.
Yeah, so I speak to many Japanese. They are very easy to teach and so give me the idea that resistance to being taught is not “human nature”, but an effect of culture, when it happens.
I say this but they say they do not mean themselves. They say they have nothing to hide so they do not mind random searches of their person, vehicle and house. They do not need to go to jail and they trust the government to know this. All is fine because they are “innocent,” they say. They are utterly unaware of how these things work. But they grumble about airport X-ray machines.
Teaching by Skype, then? Resistance to learning isn’t human nature. I don’t think resistance to change is, either, but everyone tells me it is.
Yeah, about your students — but that was why I was suggesting shock treatment. I’m very unkind — but sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.
Yeah, I teach through skype and phone.
Shock treatment, you have to really set it up right, though.
And remember, we’re in the “business model” here which means the “customer” is right! Our new Governor believes in intelligent design theory, as do many. Therefore the schools should teach it. And so on. One can decide not to follow these rules but one must really set it up with a lot of contextualization. A *lot.*
Last semester I taught about Operation Condor and the various dirty wars of Latin America. No matter how much information they had or what they read, half the students *still* got out of it that a Communist mafia had taken over Latin America and stolen its children. That is how thick their resistance is to the idea that a conservative government, or a military one could do anything wrong.
Yeah I know. We are quite retarded in Oz-Ayria, too, just with different “certainties”.