Wonder or Wander

Products vs. Processes

2010-05-01T13:53:00.002-05:00

I talked to Claudia about products vs. processes of participatory video. She talked about a video about Aboriginal kids in the context of HIV/AIDS. Putting one out to awake public awareness is important in this case. Some participatory videos produced by participants may not be understandable for public, although they may have personal values in terms of education, impact on life, etc. She also mentioned a project done with the youth in Vancouver. The professionals did editing the video in the workshop where the youth participated. Although it is questionable their participation in the making process, the youth played a major role in disseminating the polished product and the workshop experience influenced their life. Thus researching the long term impact of participation on the participants is valuable...

Ways of Seeing

2009-12-07T10:35:00.001-06:00

Every exceptional work was the result of a prolonged successful struggle. Innumerable works involved no struggle. There were also prolonged yet unsuccessful struggles. --John Berger (p.110)

4 Divine Abidings

2009-12-01T14:52:00.004-06:00

Breathing is the most common, but only one of 40 kinds of Samatha meditation methods. Among them, four divine abidings were introduced last night in my first meditation class.

First, Metta. It is loving kindness that begins toward myself and extends infinitely to all creatures.
Second, Karuna, compassion. It is recognizing and responding to human sufferings.
Third, Mudita, sympathetic joy. It is happiness for others' joy.
Lastly, Upekkha, equanimity. Detached from all the qualities of emotion mentioned above, one may identify each quality. It is an emotional composure.

My nephew

2009-09-24T11:02:00.005-05:00

Tate Modern Art Museum

2009-09-19T16:28:00.011-05:00

[Seated Figure, Francis Bacon, 1961]

[Summertime: Number 9A, Pollock, 1948]

Under "Summer Time: Number 9A" (Jackson Pollock) quoted was "It wasn't until the 1970s that they detected a subtle form of order within the natural world, called fractal. Fractals consist of patterns that recur at finer and finer magnifications. A small part of the structure looks very much like the whole" (Physicist Richard Taylor)
--perhaps we may presume a systematic structure by looking the finest granularity of the ordinary.

[Women and Bird in the Moonlight, Miró, 1949]

Joan Miró's approach to sculpture: he collected insignificant objects such as pebbles or pieces of wood, then combined them with old tools, such as nails or broken bottles that he found by chance. He called this practice "the unlikely marriage of recognizable forms."
--unexpected yet well-suitable combination of things.

Arte Povera ("Poor Art"):Plistoletto, Boetti and Fabro.
This movement began in the early 1970s, using traditional materials such as greek marble, bronze, embroidery, etc. to address contemporary experience. They often outsourced fabrication. In other words, the artists' own touch was no longer central to their final work. For instance, (I think Fabro) a Venus statue stacked with old clothes.

http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/explore/

2009-08-21T20:41:00.000-05:00

"La vie et la mort se fondent ensemble et il n’y a pas d’évolution ni de destination, il n’y a que ETRE.” -- Albert Einstein

Rachel Barton Pine

2009-05-21T19:03:00.003-05:00

Last night I went to the Opera night at the Montreal Chamber Music Festival. Unexpectedly I heard wonderful violin music there. Although I heard about her story before, I wasn't able to remember her name. She was the violin player who was seriously injured in a train accident. She played so wonderfully Carmen Fantasy, Op.25, by Sarasate as to make me cry. Extremely controlling every single note, she compelled me, if not all in the concert hall. It was beautiful and powerful.

Media Literacy in Cinematic Society

2009-04-06T10:21:00.000-05:00

This is going to be my last blog entry for this course. It seems that we jump over a variety of topics for three months in a congested classroom. The media literacy in this class has been like cultural studies. In this criticism about media-saturated society, Denzin says we inhibit a secondhand world that is mediated by cinema, television and calls it ‘cinematic society’. He continues to say that we have no direct access to the world, thus experiencing only its representations. It sounds very postmodern. Fragmented experiences with media constitute a reality in a sense that we make a sense out of the experiences. These experiences may not be congruent with one another and elicit our reflection in fluidity. If so, it is safe to say that media literacy takes another form of cultural studies.

Along with this course, I also taught two lab sessions of an undergraduate course. Teaching this course based on a Do-It-Yourself ethic was very enjoyable and rewarding. In particular, this is my first experience to teach at a university for a long period of time. Meeting fifty students once a week did not give me enough time to get to know individuals. But these students also had the same assignment of weekly blogging and I tried to incorporate most teaching/learning materials into the blog, so by reading their assignments and blog entries, I was able to build each character in the end of the semester. We did not have much time to discuss media related issues unlike this course, but I hope that these students came to understand our culture tangibly. I am happy to have had these two courses in parallel this semester.

How we learn through collaborative media production

2009-04-06T10:20:00.000-05:00

Recently my head spins around how we learn when members of a community participate and collaborate to produce a collective media project. I attempt to break down into two fundamental different modes of knowledge production.

First a new level of knowledge can be obtained by juxtaposing individual knowledge or experience with one another or putting them altogether. A video made by community members in New Orleans is a good example. A member in the video shows a big list where all the people in the city were murdered are written since January 2007. The list itself is a kind of collaborative media project that brings dispersed experience/knowledge together and the video disseminates the collective knowledge created through the list-making project. This is a powerful process of collective knowledge production.

The second mode I intend to formulate takes the opposite direction in a sense. In this mode, new knowledge can be produced by turning the familiar into the unfamiliar. In other words, by recontextualizing common knowledge, we may see the familiar domain from a different angle and learn a new level of the common knowledge. One example is found in a participatory video made by youth groups in South Africa. In their discussion, they already knew that gender violence was the most problematic at school and decided to make a video on the topic. In this case, they did not learn a new fact by making the video, but instead they saw the fact in a new way and possibly a more action-provocative way.

The two modes, despite the differences between each other, remind me of Brecht’s distancing effect. He defines this effect as a theoretical or cinematic device that keeps audience’s critical consciousness by preventing them from being involved with actors and actions that takes place on the stage or on the screen. I need some deeper thought to articulate this effect in relation to the two ways of learning mumbled above.

Freedom Writers

2009-04-06T10:19:00.000-05:00

Directed by Richard LaGravenese (2007)

It is based on a true story, but why do I feel it is more fiction-like than Entre les murs, which is based on a fiction novel.

I think, first of all, it is because the screenplay follows a Hollywood convention with successive pauses for catharsis effect, which made me so emotional each time. This is a common device utilized in feel-so-good movies. In addition, the teacher in the movie never gives up her belief and succeeds in all her attempts. This factor provides the movie with a strong backbone that extends to the end of the movie. The teacher is a heroine evidently. Yes, it is true that the story itself is extremely compelling and what she did is highly remarkable in the real life. But in comparison to The Class (Entre les murs, 2008), I ask why remarkable stories are predominantly made in this movie industry. I think this is the basic mechanism in which Hollywood movies, in particular, is made. It fabricates reviewers’ dreams of wishing to see the heroes win and resolve the problems. This is a tool for manufacturing fantasy. Probably that’s why I conceive this fabulous movie a fiction film as others produced in Hollywood.

Give Peace a Chance!

2009-04-03T22:21:00.001-05:00

This afternoon I went to the Museum of Fine Arts to see the exhibition, Imagine, that was prepared to celebrate the 40th John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s famous Bed-in in Montreal in 1969. They did this performance during their honeymoon. Expecting intensive media attention, they wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to promote world peace, so they began this Bed-in performance in Amsterdam for a week. Then, they planned to go to New York, but Lennon’s entry was denied because of his drug conviction record, so flew to Bahamas. After spending one night in the heat, they flew again to Montreal. So, it seems that they happened to have the second Bed-in performance in Montreal by chance.

It appeared that they received sufficient media attention. I wonder whether the media was disappointed that they were wearing pajamas all the time in their bed. This performance, in particular, was done after their sensational nude album jacket was released and Ono’s groundbreaking conceptual art had drawn much media attention. Probably the media groups were expecting another shocking performance, but it didn’t happen.

I appreciate their deep thought and sacrificing their private moments for public good. But I feel uneasy with the performance. If I had watched that performance for two weeks when they were talking and playing in a luxurious hotel room, I might have been nauseated. Did it really call for the peace in the world? Obviously this peace was meant against the Vietnam War. I wonder whether this performance impacted any and if so, how. Can peace be obtained that easily? I can’t get away from the idea of media game in thinking of the Bed-in performance.

Björk

2009-03-11T23:44:00.004-05:00

I saw her for the first time in the film Dancer in the Dark in 2000. Although I haven't seen her anywhere except some photos since then, her image imprinted in the movie was strong enough for me to remember her until today. This musical drama, which is gloomy unlike other musical movies, deals with a poor immigrant who is half blind and keeps her love for music until the last second of her life in prison. There is a story--sad one--but it is relatively forgetful in comparison to the emotional tension that she drives even to the last second of her death row. The moment when she cried out in her isolated room is extremely intense. She couldn't bear it not because she was afraid of her doomed death but because it was too quite, so came to finally find some rhythm from water pipes in the building.

After watching her music video of All is Full of Love in class, I looked through some of her photos and am currently listening to her music. She, I think, doesn't have certain qualities that can easily appeal to the main stream. Her appearance is not close to Madonna's. She has a childlike face and figure in fact. Her way of singing is not like Celine Dion's. Her voice might even irritate some folks. She, however, seems to overthrow such stereotypes by producing provocative images and music. If we take it seriously that we become who we are partly through images we see and identify with ourselves in mass media, coming across her images as alternative female/artist representations within the ocean of media cannot be overemphasized.

In blogging now, I am trying to be rational and reasonable enough to analyze her as an artist who breaks conventional banality, but feeling not succeeding. But does it matter as long as she makes us feel something different? My brain storms when I encounter something new.

Edvard Munch (1863-1944)

2009-03-05T00:18:00.004-06:00

Norwegian expressionist painter. I loved his painting, Madonna, which
was depicted in my classmate's B/W film, then paid much attention to his work mainly through art books. On the way to Spain in 2001(?), I had a stop over in Zurich and visited an art museum, which possesses the largest number of Munch's art works outside of Norway. Most of his pieces were big, I think. My visit to Chicago last month was so refreshing and a moment to catch up with things. Among others, visiting Art Institute for the special exhibition of Munch was blissful. He, who lost his sister and mother early on, lived in depression and his emotional condition, influenced by the turbulent period of time in the late 19th century and the early 20th century, was greatly reflected in his work. In his early career, even until the early 1890, he seemed to employ techniques of impressionists and his selection of color was rather bright. But, from the mid-1890, his brush took very strong printing power and the colors continued to be gloomy and monotonic. Within this realm, "Scream" and "Anxiety" chill my spirit. Nevertheless, I am still amazed to see the healthy representation of Madonna (1893-94) in his painting.

"There should be living people who breathe and feel, suffer and love."-- Edvard Munch (1890)

Alternative Media vs PAR

2009-03-04T00:06:00.002-06:00

While preparing the presentation next week, I stopped for a moment, defining a link between alternative media (AM) and participatory action research (PAR). The division erodes as both are based on participation for production. Alternative media, of course, is broader in definition, but AM and PAR seem to share the same paradigm—toward participatory democracy. It sounds very rosy. But in any case, people create something, which is quite exciting, and it is great that researchers begin to be aware of this dazzling experience everyone deserves enjoying.

Skimming through an entry of PAR in Wikipedia, my eyes sojourn over a paragraph about Gramsci’s notion of organic intellectuals. The author mentions the ethos of PAR is connected to Gramsci because of his emphasis on the use of knowledge gained through lived experience. But this doesn’t seem correct, because he meant by “organic” that intellectuals are formed within a social group with possession of political directiveness as well as scientific knowledge. In my understanding, politicization, not lived experience, is the key of Gramsci’s argument about intellectuals. Thus the above explanation is not convincing.

Nevertheless, I do not deny Gramsci’s contribution to intellectual establishment of PAR. Rather, politicization itself can be a linking chain between intellectuals and PAR because participation intrinsically contains a seed of politicization and intellectuals jump right into the pool. Intellectuals, thereby, can approach one step closer to lived experience brought by participants, and integrating into the society. But PAR is a method, not a theory. Taking that action doesn’t give intellectuals a free pass to politicization. Thus, PAR and Gramsci’s notion of organic intellectuals still stay far away from each other. What intellectuals can do about PAR remains their duty.

The Party Last Summer

2009-03-01T20:50:00.001-06:00

Thanks to Tony, who had a fancy telephone, this video was created. See you in summer! --Kay

My First Committee Meetings

2009-02-19T15:04:00.004-06:00

Feb. 16th. Dr. Ghosh and Dr. Hoechsmann
Feb. 19th. Dr. Ghosh and Dr. Mitchell

When I said, "I am again humbled," Dr. Ghosh responded I should be and even later on. Dr. Ghosh is very professional in a gentle way. Dr. Mitchell is always encouraging and full of energy. I do not know well enough to say about Dr. Hoechsmann, but he seems supportive and modest. In particular, today's meeting was more productive and ideas became clearer. I will remain humbled.

Dr. Ghosh urges me to define the advantage of using video other than other methodologies. I should make a connection to feminism methodology and be able to answer this question thoroughly.

Start from demographic overview based on Statistics in 2006.
Then, scan studies about Korean, then women.
Then, look for newspaper or other sources.

Contact two faculty members.
Contact Korean local community.

In April, based on the survey, write up a proposal (questions and rationals, methodology and research questions, 3-5 pages)

Look for courses offered in Spring or Fall, Feminism and Feminism Methodologies. (Sociology or MCRTW--Contact Mala Sakar or Mary Kate)

Entre les murs

2009-02-06T21:53:00.004-06:00

Laurent Cantet (2008).

This claustrophobic classroom is full of tensions between a teacher and his students and among students. But they are only visible tensions. Other teachers come into play and the seemingly fair and prudent principal keeps invisible tension to the end of the film. There are neither evils nor angels. Every teacher tries to keep their feet on an acrobat string suspended several feet above a dangerously dormant war, which stems from a long history of political disfranchisement and colonial-minded purposeful alienation.

A documentary-like taste of this film is not just coming from the fact that multiple cameras were used to shoot the classroom. None of the actors are actually professionals. Students' actions are so spontaneous that I tend to forget it was specially staged. So immersed in the film, I painfully read an uncompromising distance between François (the teacher) and his students. I believe he is rather a good teacher although not ideal. He has to endure anger and frustration while approaching individual students patiently. He knows Souleymane's problem was trivial in the beginning, but he is not a hero after all. He, as a victim of the school system, needs to save himself as well. Students playing major roles also show different aspects at different moments. Each kid lives in complexity their life environment brings to them. Seeing the diverse personalities in each character is another charm of this film.

When Esmeralda talks about Socrates in the end of the film, François smiles at her. Certain tension penetrating throughout the film dissolves at that moment. At the same time, certain authority that François possessed lapses away, I feel.

Niggling Discursively...

2009-02-02T16:21:00.002-06:00

Dear Kay,

In response to your 4th journal ...

Those are good questions and I don't have an answer for you. You will have to decide. I know it's not easy to decide. Why don't you try putting your present topic on the backburner and writing through your self-chosen "exile" (if I can put it that way)? If you were to produce some more journal entries on this, what would you say? Valerie Walkerdine says that it is important to pay attention to niggling things. In her case, it was the tendency in the discourse to talk about social class (a la Raymond Williams) without talking about the lived experience of social class, in this case, lower social class. So, she found herself in situations of being in people's homes that resembled her own upbringing, but she couldn't say that because it wasn't admissible in the academic discourse at the time. It niggled at her and niggled at her until finally, she decided to acknowledge where she came from and who she was and make that the cornerstone of her approach to research. Her situation is not the same as yours but it might be an opportune time, before you commit yourself to a particular topic, that you allow yourself to pause and think about what it is that you can see yourself doing over a long period of time and whether you enjoy those questions.

Having said that, there is also a rich (if sometimes agonizing) literature over just this question of subject position and who can speak for whom or what, and in that literature, the "essentialist" argument is clearly rejected: that just because one "is" a particular culture or had a particular experience, does not confer a sense of entitlement. So, even if you feel this ambiguity, and it doesn't feel comfortable, you can also make that part of your doctoral inquiry: to acknowledge those feelings and to address them "discursively."

Teresa

Informal learning

2009-01-12T16:41:00.004-06:00

Teresa wrote whether the informal learning that I took based on my initiative has been a structured experience. By and large, I question myself whether informal learning in her meaning has been just additional to my formal learning if formal learning meant only learning from the classes that I registered for. Last semester I took only two classes and even one of those was Pro-seminar, which is not directly related to my study. The other class was of a seminar type, not a lecture. In the end, I wrote a final paper, which was supposed to be an application of the methodologies we had talked about in class. Using some of the learned methodologies, I was expected to conduct research on a topic. It was rather exciting in a sense, feeling like a scholar on my own way, and was a synergistic combination between formal and informal learning. But, did it become my structured experience?

Wandering

2009-01-05T22:04:00.018-06:00

Hesse. (1920; 1972 in English). James Wright (Trans). NY: Farrar Straus & Giroux

This book I wish to possess, saturated with lovely loneliness and simple yet sharp meditation, is composed of Hesse's watercolor paintings, proses and poems. (On the left, Gogh's oil painting, The Old Tower in the Field)

He appreciates the joy of life allotted to him.

The dream of death is only the dark smoke
Under which the fires of life are burning.

He looks for motherhood as he seeks God.

Heart, how torn you are,
How blessed to plow down blindly,
To think nothing, to know nothing,
Only to breathe, only to feel.

He learns from trees,

Be still! Look at me! Life is not easy, life it not difficult. Those are childish thoughts. Let God Speak within you, and your thoughts will grow silent. You are anxious because your path leads away from mother and home. But every step and every day lead you back again to the mother. Home is neither here nor there. Home is within you, or home is nowhere at all.

and accepts bitter days of his as a payment for loved and lovely days that will come or already vanished.

The spirit reigns, healing all sickness,
Green sings out from newborn springs,
The world will share in freshness and meaning,
And hearts grow glad and light.

He still loves life, as if it were an unattainable object.

Say yes to everything, shirk nothing, don't try to lie to yourself. You are not a solid citizen, you are not a Greek, you are not harmonious, or the master of yourself, you are a bird in the storm. Let it storm!

He yearns for defining glorious beauty clouded by sadness.

Will rustle the lovely loneliness of trees.
And, even there, no one will know me.

I am sure he struggles to deal with his depression.

From time to time there rises in my soul, without external cause, the dark wave. A shadow runs over the world, like the shadow of a cloud. Joy sounds false, and music stale. Depression pervades everything, dying is better than living... But anger, impatience, complaints. and hatred have no effect on tings, and are deflected from everything, back to myself. I am the one who deserves hatred. I am the one who brings discord and hatred into the world...There are good remedies against depression: song, piety, the drinking of wine, making music, writing poems. wandering...I have overcome it again. And I will have to overcome it once more, perhaps many times.

Living a hermit life in a mountain, he wanders around and tastes homesickness and his longing for travel, which has the same destiny in his life. Yet, he detests a compromise and prefers suffering from the two idiosyncratic calls.

Like the day between morning and evening, my life falls between my urge to travel and my homesickness...To be satisfied was the very thing I could not bear. Poetry became suspect to me. The house became narrow to me. No goal that I reached was a goal, every path was a detour, every rest gave birth to new longing...There, where contradictions die, is Nirvana. Within me. they still burn brightly, beloved stars of longing.

The Journey To The East

2008-12-30T23:54:00.004-06:00

Herman Hesse (1932)

Hesse's oriental mysticism and his perspicacious insight to human natures--their gifted talent for forgetting and their ever capricious soul--culminate in this novel divided into two parts. Meticulously interwoven plots brings this short piece to a concise unity although it was hard to grasp at the first glance. Probably its narrative style, built on the flow of mystical religious mind and subtle actions, makes the understanding the theme more difficult. I will have another time to read it over.

Steppenwolf

2008-12-29T01:43:00.013-06:00

Hermann Hesse (1877-1962)
1927 in German / 1929 first translated in English

My inexplicable affinity to Hesse reoccurred in a dread time and I grabbed Steppenwolf again--I failed to read some years ago. While reading the first half of the story, a crispy-sharp icy chill penetrated my skin because of its needle-like high precision in describing human nature and striking resemblance to my own. Harry, who describes himself as half a man and half a wolf, a savage animal, suffers from the cacophony of the two kinds in himself. He, helpless bourgeois, longs for the innocent indulgence in bourgeoisie life in his youth, simultaneously detesting its unbearable lightness and vanity. Besides humanities that Hesse wished to preserve, his abomination of war appears to lie beneath the entire story grounded from the author's desperate exhortation to the world for self-reflection beyond politics.

Harry's life makes a sharp turn when he gets to know an mysterious woman and his dark time climaxes when he is invited to a 'magic theatre for mad man only,' where he experiences a series of horrifying fantasy. This magic world is somewhat like the movies, Crash (David Cronenberg) or Eye Wide Shut, and it is very weird to read this kind of fantasy world in Hesse's. Harry's shattered personality is resolved inside the magic theatre: he needed to learn to laugh and realized that all the pieces of life's game were in his pocket. Now he needs to play the game afresh. I hardly get this resolution.

In the author's note in 1961, Hesse explains why this novel was more controversial than his other works: "Partly, but only partly, this may occur so frequently by reason of the fact that this book, written when I was fifty years old and dealing, as it does, with the problems of that age, often fell into the hands of very young readers." Harry is also at his fifty. Should I wait until I reach my fifty to judge this story?

It is somewhat embarrassing to find this phrase in the beginning of the novel, "there is not a single human being, not even the primitive Negro..." I am kind of baffled with how to understand this remark because I am still willing to defend Hesse.

A Taste of Winter

2008-12-20T01:04:00.001-06:00

3700 McTavish. December 15, 2008

L'étranger

2008-12-20T00:26:00.004-06:00

Hamish Hamilton Pub. (1946).

Camus' first novel, L'étranger shares the same breath on absurdity with Reflection on the Guillotine, which appears twofold in this novel: the first is his murder and the second the background of his accusation.

Meursault only murmurs at the court that he murdered the Arab because of the sun, which is not persuasive in every sense. But the mise-en-scene of the story, laid out on a nearly unilateral evolution of the stifling power of the sun, as if all happened in one day, gives much excuse for his unintentional crime. His mothers' mortuary, a bright and spotlessly clean room with whitewashed walls, was flooded with skylight. While the undertakers were working, 'the sky was already a blaze of light and the air stoking up rapidly.' That Sunday morning, when Meursault walks out, 'the glare of the morning sun hit me in the eyes like a clenched fist.' Then, the light became almost vertical and the flare from the water seared one's eyes, and the sand was hot as fire glowing red. Finally, 'the heat was beginning to scorch my cheeks, beads of sweat were gathering in my eye brows,' just like the heat at the funeral... He shot 5 times...His cell resembles the mortuary, flooded with light. After being sentenced to public decapitation at 8 PM, he remains in the darkness.

The second absurdity enters the round when he is blamed for his immorality, in particular his lack of tears at the funeral. Moreover, all he did after the funeral, such as meeting a girl and helping his neighbor, becomes enough reasons to say that he is a menace to the remaining society. His morality is attacked, not much the murder itself at the court.

Waiting for his death, he feels his heart open to the 'benign indifference of the universe' and feels like himself, happily. Cyril Connolly, who introduced this novel, interprets this moment as one's controls over his fate, even in sentenced, whereas suicide is a mere cowardice.

Reflections on the Guillotine

2008-12-08T13:52:00.003-06:00

Camus, A. (1957). In Resistance, Rebellion and Death (1961).

This research essay is worth a special note. As the title suggests, it is based on a historical analysis but nevertheless full of reflections and reasoning. He refuses purely sentimental confusion because it is made up of cowardice and eventually stands on the worst side. Every paragraph is written with his conviction. The supporting documents which described moments at the guillotine are as chilly as excoriating one's own.

He argues that if the capital punishment is a regrettable necessity as its advocates say and an example in the effort of preventing another crime, the execution should be performed publicly and described vividly so that all others know. But the State hides it because such punishments paradoxically would blame the state for letting such crimes happen. Statistically those who faced capital punishment in fact had seen its execution in their life. So, criminals who commit such crimes are less likely to be intimidated than quiet individuals. Camus also finds correlation with alcohol consumption and crimes, in particular, child murders, which is an example that punishments are socially selective. He mentions, "The unpunished crime infected the whole city. But innocence condemned or crime too severely punished, in the long run, soils the city just as much." While emphasizing seeking reasonable solutions to the death penalty, Camus quotes from Jean Graven, Swiss jurist: "Faced with the problem that is once more confronting our conscience and our reason, we think that a solution must be sought, not through the conceptions, problems, and arguments of the past, nor through the hopes and theoretical promises of the future, but through the ideas, recognized facts and necessities of the present" (Revue de Criminologie et de Police Technique (Geneva), special issue, 1952).

Lastly Camus articulates that people killed by the state for the past thirty years for political reasons outnumbered private murders, thus, society should protect itself not from individuals but from the State. After all, capital punishment is an examplary system of absurdity in that no one has the right to call another's extinction and the judgment is ridiculously subjective.

Albert Camus (1913-1960)

2008-12-05T20:38:00.008-06:00

Resistance, Rebellion and Death (1961). NY: Knopf.

My inexplicable affection toward Camus reoccurred while reading Darkness Invisible. Death seems a reoccurring theme throughout his career. Understandably he was born one year before the WW I, lost his father during the war and fought under the German occupation. Thus, as McCarthy (1988) suggests, absurdity becomes a resolution in his view with religious first of all--it is man's capacity to be aware of the divine--and political connotations. Meursault's happiness is after all his domination on his body and fate. Within this context, the dividing line between murder and suicide becomes blurred. Here is some quotes from his essays or speeches.

Man's greatness lies in his decision to be stronger than his condition--The Night of Truth, 8/25/1944, around the time Paris was taken back from Nazis.

When that intelligence is snuffed out, the black night of dictatorship begins--Defense of Intelligence, 3/15/1945, against the new French government's vehement of intelligence and for the intelligence backed by courage under the occupation.

Freedom is the concern of the oppressed and her natural protectors have always come from among the oppressed.
Forceful intellectuals announced to the worker that bread alone interested him rather than freedom, as if the worker didn't know that his bread depends in part on his freedom.
A single value is constantly outraged or prostituted--freedom--and then we notice that everywhere, together with freedom, justice is also profaned--Bread and Freedom, 5/10/1953, speech.

Freedom is refused not because of its privileges but because of its exhausting tasks--speech of homage to President Eduardo Santos, driven out of Columbia by the dictatorship.

The aim of art, the aim of a life can only be to increase the sum of freedom and responsibility to be found in every man and in the world.
For the man of today there is a sort of solitude, which is certainly the harshest thing in our era forces upon us...Moreover, I have always thought that the maximum danger implied the maximum hope. (in response to a question about ambivalent values in his work, such as pessimism and confidence given to spirit rather than man, to nature rather than the universe, etc.)--Wager of Our Generation. An interview in Demain, issue of 24-30 October 1957.

Wisdom has never declined so much as when it involved no risks and belonged exclusively to a few humanists buried in libraries. But today, when at last it has to face real angers, there is a chance that it may again stand up and be respected--Create Dangerously. Lecture in December 1957.

Darkness Visible

2008-12-02T23:32:00.007-06:00

A memoir of Madness. William Styron. (1990).

He said he found the repose, assuagement of the tempest in his brain only after being hospitalized. Anonymity free from occupation in a startling solitude and a feeling of disconnectedness may bring one sanity back. Then, I wonder whether my long-term travels actually kept my sanity on track for the past few years. Didn't I feel so fresh among strangers who were unlikely to come to the edge of my life? And yet, I pay more attention to this episode: the author found the problem with his tranquilizer by accident before being admitted to the hospital. After changing it, his reoccurring suicidal obsession disappeared. It was that simple! He actually warns people of what they take for their mental health and slightly scorns habitual irresponsible tasks given by doctors. He also mentions his childhood with a memory of loss of his mother when he was thirteen. So-called, "incomplete morning" may preoccupy certain people especially a subsequent similar event follows. Surprisingly he entered this delirium at the age of sixty, so he asked himself whether the consciousness of his own mortality depressed him, or his sudden decision of stopping the consumption of alcohol removed a shield that protected his vulnerability. Whatever reasons there could be, he argues that depression is a fatal, like a cancer, but curable disease, but because those who suffer from this disease cannot articulate how they feel, it has not been explored enough. One comparison made in this book is that Columbus's arrival in the Burmuda on the way to his India.

I grabbed this book to read an example of autobiographical writing for academic work. It is well written and touching in its content. It is very intimate and exploratory, which should require certain amount of courage. And it could be written only because he survived after all, I would say. In terms of the method and style he used, it has a personal tone, but the content goes beyond his own experience in the beginning. He certainly situated himself in line with others who suffered and chose their own extinction one way or another to support the seriousness of depression. Also he traces the term, depression, historically although it is very brief. He also suggests possible origins of depression in the end, thus leaving quite a few things to talk about.

My dinner table

2008-12-01T18:14:00.002-06:00

Three months have passed at McGill. The time was not boring. Even though there were certain difficult moments where my spirit got low, one thing I do not regret is to come back to academia. New ideas and new thought have entered my mind and made my life coherent. EV at her graduation said that they had not come to the Odyssey Project with an empty vessel but with desire to reach higher complexity. What a great insight!

Now, I invite five people in my dinner table. Who's going to be there? First my adviser, no question. But important is to be able to delineate what she could do for my dissertation work and what I should take away before I leave this school. Her ethnic background that allowed her to see a different world is strong and she made her career. I should learn her insightful ideas. Next, one from neoliberal globalization and education. I just got a message about REF series. Carlos Alberto Torres. I want to know more about him.

Doctoral Student as Tourist or Traveler

2008-12-01T16:39:00.004-06:00

The term of journey is often encountered while describing the process of doctoral studies. Then, one may reach the point to compare doctoral students with tourists or travelers. First of all my instinct response to this questions is that doctoral students are travelers rather than tourists because travelers, in a general sense, are more independent to the ritual process that sticks around tourists, who hardly go about without a guide to look around or a prearranged planning. On the other hand, travelers are ready to meet new settings and new people on the road and be more flexible to change their routes on occasions. A plan is in their mind, but doesn't dominate the path absolutely. It is rather loose. Definitely looser than that of the tourists. Moreover, tourists usually spend a very short period of time, but travelers do more, although they may not embark on the traveling that often.

Yeah, now I think that I am very morally comparing doctoral students with travelers. I mean, they should resemble each other. But in reality, how far can they move along in parallel?

Meet the Neighbors!- Immigrant Workers Center

2008-11-22T23:42:00.003-06:00

The speaker talked mainly about work conditions for migrant manual workers. Among the topics he mentions, I note about domestic workers. Domestic workers, the majority of whom are Philippines, had been excluded from health/safety access because house was not considered as a work place. Through a campaign, health/safety regulations for the workers became legitimatized.

I asked about skilled workers: Skilled workers may have work conditions as good as Canadians, but they may face similar situations that jeopardize their jobs. Where can these people go for help? Usually there are only a handful migrant skilled workers in an entire company and isolated from each other. When something comes up, it tends to be treated as a special case, relatively not-so-serious, and thus there are hardly collective resources where they can refer.

I remember an online forum that skilled workers who are on the process of immigration share individual information in a pool to accumulate cases. A problem I see in this format is there is rarely collective actions, although they share information based on their own interest. So once things are over to a particular participant, the online forum means almost nothing. So, gathering is only transitory without a historical goal.

Dialogue with Dr. Kincheloe: Historical Cubism

2008-11-20T16:41:00.002-06:00

Dear Dr. Kincheloe,

I have encountered your emphasis on multiperspectivism several times, but I am not quite sure whether I understood the essence. I might include some other perspectives strategically as a vehicle to argue deficits of each perspective and assert my own. But I guess this is not what you meant. In addition, I wonder how I can maneuver this cubism as I limited on my subjectivity and won't give equal, or near equal emphasis to those perspectives. Don't I have my own questions and angles even before conducting research? Would you phrase your insight to this dilemma that I feel?

Also, it seems that I am undertaking historiographical research for my term paper, not history itself, strictly speaking. Is it correct?

Best regards,
Kay
------------------

Bricolage comes across multiple levels from theoretical grounds to methodological strategies. For instance, interpreting a phenomenon without social theories will impoverish research and taking perspectives from critical theory into the interpretation brings multiperspectivism. Also, as seen in research on McDonalds, researchers need to be 'informed' from multiple perspectives of corporations, managers, consumers, and critical thoughts in order to result in more rigorous research. I, as researcher, don't have to represent those perpsectives, but need to be informed to put my own perspectives.

Historiography is 1) historical study and 2) study of schools of thoughts to see how each school interpret history and society.

Men in Dark Times

2008-11-18T10:26:00.007-06:00

Hannah Arendt. (1968). NY: Harcourt, Brace & World.

"People remembered everything, but forgot what mattered," the author wrote somewhere in her essays about Rosa Luxemburg or Bretolt Brecht.

I also like a quote from Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919), "I have a cursed longing for happiness and am ready to haggle for my daily portion of happiness with all the stubbornness of a mule," in a letter designated to Jogiches, her cursed husband, which shows her natural force of a temperament, according to Arendt. Luxemburg, non-orthodox Marxist, was not so dogmatic to see the world based upon the dialectic theory and saw torture of negros in South Africa, the author argues. Arendt differentiates Luxemburg from Bolsheviks in that she preferred an unsuccessful revolution to a deformed one, where the people hold neither power nor voice.

Arendt brings Sartre's shockingly precise description of after-WW II into the context where Bretolt Brecht (1898-1956), "gifted with a penetrating, non-theoretical, non-contemplative intelligence that went to the heart of the matter," fell in love with life after the WW I, where he served as a medical orderly: "When the instruments are broken and unusable, when plans are blasted and effort is meaningless, the world appears with a childlike and terrible freshness, suspended trackless in a void."

Arendt's political perspective is more apparent in her essay about Karl Jaspers' world citizenship (pp.81-94). She holds that political concepts are based on plurality, diversity and mutual limitations, thus refuses a world government with centralized power, that excludes diversified histories among subunits. According to her, it is technology of the Western world that unites the world and mankind, and simultaneously disintegrates the traditions and beliefs, brings grandiose development and replace the nation-state over all the other forms of government. Thus, in our political epoch, "we are held responsible as citizens for everything that our government does in the name of the country," which makes unbearable the solidarity of mankind as global responsibility, she argues. In her interpretation, Jaspers means by world citizenship a 'universal relativity' instead of any absolute doctrine. In fact, in his notion of "limitless communication," Arendt asserts that truth and communication are the same within the existential realm, and it is through this communication that the national pasts will be brought into a new unity of mankind, where diversity reveals in the very sameness. Thus, the unity of mankind is "manifold," not consisting of a universal agreement upon one form of government. Astonishingly perspicacious is her point about federated police forces in the place of traditional armies: "Our experiences with modern police states and totalitarian governments, where the old power of the army is eclipsed b the rising omnipotence of the police, are not apt to make us overoptimistic about this prospect. All this, however, still lies in a far-distanct future." [Her political views strikingly resembles Hardt and Negri, who empasizes buidling multitude based on singularity through a distributed network. As they indicate, omnipresent police in lieu of army already brings about deep concerns in our political concepts. Then, can I think that an authoritarian unity of global world, which was of Arendt's concern, is already creeping into our reality? Did she foresee this phenomenon?]

In her essay about a short lived critique Walter Benjamin, she delineates her view about social and political realm--quite oppositional to each other. "No society can properly function without classification, without an arrangement of things and men in classes and prescribed types. This necessary classification is the basis for all social discrimination, and discrimination present opinion to the contrary notwithstanding, is no less a constituent element of the social realm than equality is a constituent element of the political." Benjamine, who thought of language as an essentially poetic phenomenon, distinguishes a commentator and a critique. While the former, like a chemist, focuses on the materials that makes up a literary work, the latter, an alchemist, transmutes the futile real materials to shining gold of truth and watches its magical transfigurative process. [I am amazed with Arendt's metaphorical and sharp precision.]

The Pearl Diver

Full fathom five thy father lies,
Of his bones are coral made,
Those are pearls that were his eyes.
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.

--Shakespeare, The Tempest, I, 2

Speaking of Benjamin's gift of thinking poetically, Arendt compares him with a pearl diver in the following way--it's strikingly visual as usual: "This thinking, fed by the present, works with the 'thought fragments' it can wrest from the past an gather about itself. Like a pearl diver who descends to the bottom of the sea, not to excavate the bottom and bring it to light but to pry loose the rich and the strange, the pearls and the coral in the depths and to carry then to the surface, this thinking delves into the depths of the past--but not in order to resuscitate the way it was and to contribute to the renewal of extinct ages. What guides this thinking is the conviction that although the living is subject to the ruin of the time, the process of decay is at the same times a process of crystallization, that in the depth of the sea, into which sinks and is dissolved what once was alive, some things 'suffer a sea-change' and survive in new crystallized forms and shapes that remain immune to the elements, as though they waited only for the pearl diver who one day will come down to them and bring them up into the world of the living."

Dining table: who I invite

2008-11-17T16:54:00.002-06:00

There are six chairs in the dining table. Whom I will invite? Make up a list. Stay awakened at night and link about it.

Charge: an experience of tremendous empowerment

2008-11-17T16:41:00.003-06:00

When I know what I do and em expected to do, I am in charge. I think of the Video-Telling workshop, where I gathered all the resources I could possibly reach. Some succeeded and some didn't. When being in charge has a counterpart or anti-thesis that intends to empower others, one get empowered. It is a mutual process that two parts grow symbiotically. The beginning of the workshop was a meager attempt without envisioning its consequences, but once embarked, I simply could not let it happen. As philosophical journey brings about questions that researchers need to ask and leads to methodology to undertake, the outline of the workshop just came to the bottom of my mind and I simply answered without being tired.

To Posterity

2008-11-17T12:03:00.003-06:00

by Bertold Brecht(translated from German by H. R. Hays)
(Retrived from http://www.eecg.toronto.edu/~flouris/docs/brecht1.html)

1.

Indeed I live in the dark ages!
A guileless word is an absurdity. A smooth forehead betokens
A hard heart. He who laughs
Has not yet heard
The terrible tidings.

Ah, what an age it is
When to speak of trees is almost a crime
For it is a kind of silence about injustice!
And he who walks calmly across the street,
Is he not out of reach of his friends
In trouble?

It is true: I earn my living
But, believe me, it is only an accident.
Nothing that I do entitles me to eat my fill.
By chance I was spared. (If my luck leaves me
I am lost.)

They tell me: eat and drink. Be glad you have it!
But how can I eat and drink
When my food is snatched from the hungry
And my glass of water belongs to the thirsty?
And yet I eat and drink.

I would gladly be wise.
The old books tell us what wisdom is:
Avoid the strife of the world
Live out your little time
Fearing no one
Using no violence
Returning good for evil --
Not fulfillment of desire but forgetfulness
Passes for wisdom.
I can do none of this:
Indeed I live in the dark ages!

I came to the cities in a time of disorder
When hunger ruled.
I came among men in a time of uprising
And I revolted with them.
So the time passed away
Which on earth was given me.

I ate my food between massacres.
The shadow of murder lay upon my sleep.
And when I loved, I loved with indifference.
I looked upon nature with impatience.
So the time passed away
Which on earth was given me.

In my time streets led to the quicksand.
Speech betrayed me to the slaughterer.
There was little I could do. But without me
The rulers would have been more secure. This was my hope.
So the time passed away
Which on earth was given me.

You, who shall emerge from the flood
In which we are sinking,
Think --
When you speak of our weaknesses,
Also of the dark time
That brought them forth.

For we went,changing our country more often than our shoes.
In the class war, despairing
When there was only injustice and no resistance.

For we knew only too well:
Even the hatred of squalor
Makes the brow grow stern.
Even anger against injustice
Makes the voice grow harsh. Alas, we
Who wished to lay the foundations of kindness
Could not ourselves be kind.

But you, when at last it comes to pass
That man can help his fellow man,
Do no judge us
Too harshly.

Hannah Arendt

2008-11-17T11:53:00.003-06:00

German Jewish political theorist (1906-1975).

I just read the preface of Men in Dark Times (1968). It is condense and deep. She mentions that persons throughout the history have one common thing: they hardly knew each other. The realities of the dark times, which she calls the first twentieth century, were covered up by 'efficient talk' and 'double-talk' by official representatives who hid certain facts and justified certain actions, she argues. She introduces the realities by borrowing the poem, "To Posteristy," by Brecht. She develops the idea of talk by tapping into Heidegger's notion of 'mere talk.' She paraphrases his description of human existence and existential condition: the power of 'mere talk' annihilates authenticity of every day life and meaningful sense for the future and all this obfuscation is performed in public realm. Finally she propses her idea on this dark times. She believes the power of ordinary people's resistence, weak light that comes from theri works and lives, not from theories, will shed lights on the spirit of the dark times.

[By double-talk or mere talk in public realm, I think she was mentioning public discourses weaved by power, that legitimates certain knowledge while marginalizing others. A question that arises is how to know the ordinary resistance or weak light illuminating the dark times...]

Teresa's Advice

2008-11-17T10:50:00.002-06:00

Hello Kay,

Here is my response to your 3rd journal.

In your time here, you will hear many things about what to do or how to be, especially in the pro-seminar since it is in part devoted to the subject of doctoral being and becoming, but the question of "when" as well as what you feel comfortable with is in your hands. A forced or preempted learning process is a contradiction in terms. Not only will you not enjoy it but it just won't bear the same fruit. I mean, it's possible to look at the doctorate+ as a career--and in a very pragmatic sense, it is, as signaled by the tenure dossier in an academic timeline, mandatory within 5 years of being hired as tenure-track--but it is much more than that; much, much more. Don't worry. Keep a good relationship with your supervisor; talk to her about substantive subjects; write about what you talk about and develop your own thinking (what you agree with/don't agree with); write; read; talk with your colleagues in/out of courses; attend REFs, conferences, etc.; apply for scholarships. If you do all of these kinds of things, you are already doing what doctoral students do, and things will happen in the time they should. The tenure file ought to be the same. As Anthony frequently told all of us when we were new, just do what you're already doing.

So, I suppose that would be advice, Kay. Just keep on going as you are. Enjoy. Yes, keep your eye on making sure that you're doing what you're supposed to. Challenge yourself and seek out opportunities that will enhance your doctoral/academic learning but don't take on too much, or the kinds of things that might detract you from your main goal. And do as you are--pay attention to your learning process as you learn, and write about what you are experiencing and thinking about.

Teresa

Informal skills and knowledge

2008-11-03T16:37:00.002-06:00

I strongly believe that knowledge gained through informal encounters will constitute my perspectives and groundwork for my research. Mr. Choudry's 'Meet the Neighbors' is good because I get to gain not only informal knowledge but also some information about this new country. Last week, the meeting was about national security that works as counter-terrorism and threatens immigrants' right in this nation. Today the meeting was held by a Canadian post office union educator. He talked about different ways of educating the workers. One thing he mentioned was the language use of 'employees', which is directly translated as 'used' in French. In the 70s, even in the parlement, 'workers' were prevalent, but now, 'employees', 'associates' or 'colleagues' are predominent and kindeness disgues underlying conflicts and tensions.

Youth-interactive Panel Discussion

2008-10-28T23:21:00.004-05:00

This is part of what was discussed at the panel discussion.

Alyssa Kuzmarov, founder and director of Productions Oracle (Montreal-based youth media organization)

Giuliana Cucinelli, leader of mProject and incorporating "remix": technical skills of the youth are so natural--"born with the knowledge"--as they are "saturated" by new technology and this adaptability makes mProject, which is run at a high school as an extracurriculum, so fun for the youth. (Expression: shed lights on it)

Janice Dayle, journalist and arts professional: used social constructive method--dialectic discussion without giving instruction--to bring out topics from participants. The youth she had did not know how to email, so these skills were taught throughout the workshop. This was a federal government-funded community-based workshop, so the participants might have been from different socioeconomic background.

Maureen Marovitch, founder and co-owner of Picture This Productions: run video production workshops for the youth from the street. She narrates why video is successfully integrated in youth education, which I agree. Video production involves organizing many different elements such as writing, acting, editing, using music, etc., which all lead the youth to seek information purposefully and learn things differently from formal education setting. Completing a project through combining all the elements gives them accomplishment and move them forward to other opportunity. I also think this process gives them confidence of what they do and allow them to situate themselves in connection with others in society.

Efforts for the youth education seem to be relatively well supported and convinced. But what about marginalized adults? Are they given another chance to learn?

Meet the Neighbors!--Immigration and National Security

2008-10-27T21:16:00.006-05:00

Mary Foster & Rémy Huberdeau. http://www.peoplescommission.org

Foster talked about the enhanced national security measure, which is under review in the supreme court. According to her, permanent residents and even citizens become vulnerable under this measure and face deportation and detention overseas. Many cases, allegedly as a connection to terrorism, are likely to be made up based on 'outsourcing' information uttered during some one's torture or suspicion originating from their race and ethnicity. Hearing individual cases, People's Commission set up 9 commissioners in order to gather collective data in light of individual cases, publicize it and 'break silence'. Through a public conference the People's Commission organized, individual stories were told and the content was recorded in video. The outcome is distributed as comic books, videos and teachers' manual. Huberdeau mentions the quality of video was a factor to select certain stories out of the entire presentation. It appears that there was no adequate equipment such that a camera placed in the back of the room did not have an external audio source, thus recorded audio from the built-in mic. Foster also mentioned cases in which one in political asylum in Canada is not free because of an allegation of military action engagement in the home country and another is detained for a long period of time overseas, which shows clear Canadian government involvement with it.

While discussing media exposure, Foster talked about ignorance from both politicians and media. I think issues related to national security can be hardly raised at a national level because of a strong common sense in favor of security on the basis of nationalism, thus a strategy for 'boomerang effect' (Keck & Sikkink, 1998) should be considered or an collaborative international movement, as Hardt and Negri (2004) suggests in Multitude, will be a more effective way to go.

Panel Discussion-doctoral study journey

2008-10-27T21:04:00.002-05:00

This is something I will remember from the panel discussion in Pro Seminar class today.

Turn every moment to an opportunity for my growing along the way. Things come and go but the only thing that stays with me is my thesis. Take a full charge of it through ownership. Thesis is a foundation of my career and further development and Ph.D is a license for conducting independent research. For academic career, try to publish rather than attend conferences. Be specific about career from the beginning and watch out what's available out there. Read widely and take courses even in other departments to build theoretical groundwork--try reverse citation to see how a theory is used in other work--but more important is writing everyday no matter how small, as writing is a process of shaping my knowledge and ideas.

Globalization--my standpoint

2008-10-26T22:17:00.002-05:00

Written as preface for the conference (globalization and transfer of knowledge), but excluded from the text. But I spelled out my standpoints here.

Globalization is commonly discussed in the context of worldwide economic integration and borderless free markets and free movements. While this discourse is mainly driven by a strong globalization thesis in that globalization is an inevitable worldwide phenomenon, Keck and Sikkink (1998) conversely argue that the current globalization is only the composite of decisions purposefully made and suggest that a different globalization could be possible. Whether favors or not the current trend of globalization, however, it seems generally agreed that technology advance and distributed networks have made the globalization possible and changed the way we live and act upon it. In particular, Hardt and Negri (2004) asserts that a global network power, which consists of dominant nation-states as its primary node along with supranational institutions and major corporations and other smaller local powers, constantly restructures a global order to perpetuate global hierarchy and inequality at all levels. At the same time, the infrastructure of networks allows individuals or organizations to collaborate worldwide on the basis of their commonality while keeping each singularity, thus creating democracy (Ibid.).

Research That Matters

2008-10-26T21:18:00.003-05:00

Chambers, Cynthia. (2004). Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies. Vol.2(1). (pp. 1-19).

"When the researcher/writer's life is the site of the inquiry, not the topic of inquiry, the research makes visible and audible the complicated interconnections between the topic of the writer's gaze and her ideas, values and beliefs."

"Try is as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself, and yourself alone, one question: does this path have a heart?"

"What matters hides in improbable places such as dreams, just beneath the surface of a story or a lie or memory and what matters springs up in the middle of the contradiction between what I say and what I do."

"...as a form of inquiry...write regularly...even for 10 minutes a day."

"Have you said or written everything you want to say about this topic?"

"In turning points, we rise above our every-day world and come to see, hear and understand life and being differently."

"A writer must craft each narrative, seeing the story and its meaning, again and anew, with each revision."

"The language that carries weight in our culture is very often fueled by our search for home."

Globalization and the University

2008-10-25T17:42:00.006-05:00

King, Roger. (2004). In King. (Ed.), The University in the Global Age. pp.45-66. NY: Palgrave MacMillan

Globalization, as a process destined to move toward global age or global society, is being adapted to local cultures and structures rather than bringing standards. While internationalism generally emphasizes cross-border exchange of knowledge and people for public goods, the recent notion of borderless education tints the internationalism with a commercial force. However, university system remains the least globalized sector nowadays. The globalization practically refers to increasing worldwide integration of economies driven by liberal capitalism and is deployed in a complicated way in the higher education system.

Globalization is best considered as a compression of time and space (Harvey, 1989; Scholte, 2000; p.50) and rationalism in knowlede production system facilitates globalization because both intrinsically proclaim to produce universally objective truth. "Rationalist, utilitarian and instrumental epistemology increasingly frustrates the territorial geography and globalization and supranationality. These issues are also central to any consideration of the univesity in the context of globalization"(p.51). From this perspective, regulation for stardardization is surfacing, such as GATS (General Agreements on Trade in Services) as part of the WTO negotiations, which forces intrusion of private sectors on national markets and funding and thus is likely to demand wider global exposure to foreign universities. Besides, UNESCO, the OECD, the EU and others take initiatives to prepare regulations for transnational education, quality, recognition and acccreditation system. Globalization also absorbs universities into a distrubuted knowledge production by collaboration, thus sharing risk and costs while obtaining highly specialized research result. [Look at who controls the obtained knowledge.] Globalization also appears as marketizing, 'academic capitalism' as Slaughter and Leslie (1997) called, such that because of lack of resource, academia resorts to corporate funds and in return, corporations influence shapes research direction and knowledge distrubution, as a consequence, basic science research turns into a entrepreneurial form. Because of focused funding on applied science, universities experience unbalanced knowledge production.

Online learning such as distance and virtual learning, as seen Open University, can be considered as global education in that this form compresses time and space and 'deterritorializing' learning environment. However, English as a dominant language, anti-didactical pedagogy and curriculum designed base on western models may perpetuate the western cultural domination.

[Online learning-Open university, Phoenix, Universitas 21--and corporate universities-Sun Microsystems University, the University of Toyota, Toyota Technological Institute at the U of C (2003)-- should be taken into consideration in seeking transfer of knowledge in an age of globalization.]

Comparative Higher Education: Knowledge, the University, and Development

2008-10-24T13:26:00.010-05:00

Altbach, Philip. (1998). Greenwich, CT: Ablex Publishing.

The university has been always a global institution since the medieval period (all the modern universities stem from the European model in the medieval epoch and the universities in the medieval were more international and taught in Latin students all around Europe until nationalism swept around the continent in the 19th century. p. xviii), and now with the global economy and communication technology advance, increasing internationalism among universities has become a main operating engine of knowledge based society and created an international knowledge system. (However, access to knowledge is limited by the availability of resources, such as books and the Internet.) Market forces--ideas are as important as products--of the institutions of industrialized nations and local demands--academic degrees from the 'center' is useful at the 'periphery'-- of developing nations have pushed greater internationalism in higher education in the 20th century (pp. xvii-xxvi).

An international knowledge network, which includes research institution, dissemination and circulation of personnel, shows great inequality. Most scientific journals are published in English and information is shared in English. Massive circulation of scholars and students worldwide is carried on largely one-way direction and impacts on transfer of knowledge. Under the reforms of higher education, curricular vocationalism and student consumerism are tied to the worldwide trend of the increase of close relationship between universities and industry. (In Sweden, industry representatives are part of university governing councils and in the U.S., corporations and universities make formal contracts in regard to research result. In many countries, corporations provide higher education opportunities to their employees.) With introduction of new technology means, rapid knowledge dissemination is made possible, while questions regarding control, ownership, maintenance, etc. remain to be explored. Even in the new technology era, the major Western knowledge producers still remain as a 'cartel of information' (p.16), dominating both knowledge production and distribution channels (p.3-18). [journals, distribution pattern need to be explored.]

Influence from colonialism-colonial powers did not or partially built higher education system in colonized nations except that the U.S. promoted higher ed system in Philippines- and continuing neocolonialism--perpetuating dominance over the Third World--has not changed much of the unequal structure of international higher ed system. The author analyzes the structure by borrowing the concept of center-periphery from colonialism such that intellectual centers produce knowledge at the frontier while peripherals 'copy' the development. The peripheral institutions in the TW are mediators between the two worlds and distributors of knowledge. Thus, although they are peripheral in the international system, they play a key role in their nations by providing training, producing applied knowledge dissemination, and promoting social mobility while getting little state support for internationalization. (Compare with German's state support to build strong higher education.) Main factors to resist changes in the inequlity are lack of funds/resources--even in the U.S. 80% federal government funds go to the top one hunders universities (p.21) and as knowledge gets more sophisticated, the gaps increase--and language barrier. Most academic discussions and publications are done in English and some French. In addition, the infrastructure/means of communication of knowledge, such as journals, publishers, libraries, are in the Western countries. There are few outlets of the TW scholars' contribution and for international exposure they prefer those Western publications. Thus, the control of communication means maintain the orientation of the international knowledge system. Some assert independence of the TW on the industrialized nations thanks to technology advance, but because of limited control/access to infrastructure such as Internet and computer networks--most of them are controlled by the industrialized nations--this expectations cannot be met easily.[What about Korea? In spite of fairly solid infrastructure of computer network, the depenence on the U.S. knowledge system is ever increasing. The infrastructure may even enlarge the dependecy.](pp. 19-36) [To measure the transfer of knowledge, two things need to measured to begin with: control of communication/distribution of knowledge--significant journals, comparison of journal distribution rates, publishers' locations--the number of foreign students--scholarship/fellowhship recepients/kinds--inter-institutional financial aids, and branch operations and so forth.]

After the colonial period, currently Asian universities have tried to adopt their indigenous languages in their higher education system and negotiate the values and the structure to localize the education system. However, American academic system is still a de facto world model toward which most Asia nations voluntarily 'gravitate' because most Asian intellectuals and researchers have been trained in the U.S. and the American system is more democratic than the other systems and has regarded as successfully grown toward both a strong research orientation and a mass higher education system. Even though many institutions in Asia has shifted the language from European to indigeneous, English is pervasive and controls the academic culture. More than half of the scholarly journals are published in English and most databases are maintained in English. A majority of foreign students study in English-speaking country. [This language tie contribute to the complexity of independent/localized higher education development in Asia. Especially in the age of globalization, the language shift has become reverse. English is promoted in many curriculum, as seen in global MBA.] (pp.37-54)

*Statistic sources: UNESCO Statistic yearbook, Todd Davis (NY: Institute of International Education)

Knowledge transfer is traced through students/scholars international migration. Doctoral dissertations are tailored by the hosting universities, knowledge gained abroad is retained in research agenda and curriculum in their native nations, and knowledge transfer continues subtly through journal publications and working relationship with the foreign universities. Foreign scholars, whose activities are not yet much explored, also show distinctive patterns in terms of transfer of knowledge. While scholars from the TW are likely influenced by the hosting academic institution, scholars from the industrialized nations are not in general. Also half of forein scholars are in the U.S. [Fullbright fellowship research shows that scholars from industrialized nations spend shorter period time in the TW mainly for teaching and conducting research on their own, scholars from the TW spend longer in the U.S. for heling curriculum development--more likely to be in the form of a direct appointment from the hosting institutions.] Policies of sending nations need to be explored, as seen in China which began to stop support foreign study recently some years after their support, which has been caused by brain drain problem. Statistics also show that one-third of foreign students in the U.S. are from industrialized nations and less than 1% of undergrad students study abroad and fewer than 10% of U.S. overseas students stuied in the TW. [Find more recent statistics! Probably there might be more U.S. overseas students in the context of globalization to obtain local knowledge. But the locations might be still very limited. ]

Dialogue with Dr. Ghosh (2)

2008-10-23T16:35:00.004-05:00

Liberal analyses on education emphasize equal opportunity to every one to help develop full potential such that a working class student can become a millionaire. But critical analysis looks at different unequal background/condition that students bring in and their disadvantages. Contemporary critical analysis looks at white advantage; Canadian education has strong public schooling system throughout the country with exceptions in some provinces, which include QC and private schooling practically does not exist. The strong government interception has brought bureaucracy while private schools always have a strong impetus for profits; contemporary education issues in Canada originate from diversity and technology.

Activists beyond borders

2008-10-22T15:32:00.003-05:00

Keck, M. & Sikkink, K. (1998). Cornell University Press.

The authors focused on networks in order to conceive transformative and mobilizing actions to the international political system and named networks of activists formed on the basis of common values and discourse--notably human rights, women right, and enviromental issues--'transnational advocacy networks'. The core of the relations among actors in the network is information exchange. The quickness and accuracy of generaing information and the effectiveness of the deployment are the most important factor for the network. The network works such that boundaries between domestic social/political struggles and those at the international level are blurred through colletive pressure applied at a domestic level. This mechanism is called boomerang effect, "which curves around local state indifference and repression to put foreign pressure on local policy elites"(p.200). In other words, when state repression is too strong, domestic groups seek international network pressure on their government in order to make a change. One strategy of bringing about this effect is to uncover problems to alert policymakers, which is often described as the 'human righrs methodology' or 'promoting change by reporting facts' (p.19). Effective information exchange plays a crucial role in doing so.

From the prespective of social movement theory, activists within advocacy networks are 'political entrepreneurs' who mobilize resources and suggest a politial opportunity (p.31).

The authors present their perspective on globalization in response to, Sidney Tarrow called, 'strong globalization thesis', where the world is inevitably forced to global process due to its structure: "the globalization process we observe is not an inevitable treamroller but a specific set of interactions among purposeful individuals. Although in the aggregate these interactions may seem earthshaking, they can also be dissected and mapped in a way that reveals great indeterminacy a most points of the process. There is nothing inevitable about the story: it is the composite of thousands of decisions which could have been decided otherwise" (p.213).

* [STAT] Union of International Associations, Yearbook of International Organizations show a historical change of international nongovernmental social change organizations.

Decolonizing Methodologies

2008-10-20T23:49:00.004-05:00

Linda Tuhiwai Smith. (2001). 4th ed. New York: Palgrave.

Historically research about indigenous culture benefited those who "wielded it as an instrument" and the knowledge was not shared with the indigenous peoples. [This reminds me of the privatization of indigenous knowledge through the patent system (Hardt & Negri, 2004)] Under the influence of imperialism, research became institutionalized through scholary networks such as university transplantations, not through academic disciplines. The majority of researchers were rather like travelers who had curiosity toward the indigenous and spread the tales to the Western society, and moreover, knowledge gained through research was constructed around the Western bias. (pp.1-18).

As one of the discourses of imperialism, the author categorizes post-colonialism or globalization as a discursive field of knowledge such that colonialism is not a finished business yet, which brings with new ways of exploration about the subject. Her brief insight of the imperial structure which regulates and legitimates the practices is that it was a process of systematic fragmentation that disconnects the indigenous from their histories, languages, relations to the world, etc. She says, "History is about power," in that through the power the indigenous were marginalized from the history, and states that 'coming to know the past' has been incorporated into the critical theory of decolonization. (pp.19-41).

Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire

2008-10-17T19:43:00.014-05:00

Hardt, M. & Negri, A. (2004). NY: The Penguin Press.

Empire is referred to as a new global sovereignty ruled by a network power, which consists of dominant nation-states as its primary nodes along with supranational institutions, major capital corporations and other smaller powers, just like the Internet, a distributed network. The combination of these elements constitutes a global order, which is characterized with unequal participation at all levels and a global state of war. Multitude, an alternative concept to this, preserves differences while seeking to communicate and act in common. Here the authors suggest two faces to globalization. One is the spread of hierarchy and conflicts spread by Empire and the other is the creation of networks for cooperation that preserves both difference and commonality (Preface). [Thus, globalization is a contemporary Janus, which has two faces looking at two different directions.]

WAR

By the global state of war, the authors mean that war is becoming a 'permanent social relation' and the 'primary organizing principle of society' (p.12). Thus, war is ubiquitous and 'indistinguishable from police activity' (p.14). The U.S. exceptionalism adds complexity to this perpetual status of exception. The current war carries out a new concept of 'just war', as seen in medieval period, and this concept is allied with evil, which implies the constant presence of an unidentifiable enemy. But this 'fleeting' enemy should illustrate 'what power saves us from' rather than 'what power is' and demonstrates the need of security. The notion shift from defense to security of the U.S. has justified U.S. preemptive wars, wars against terrorism, and legitimate the biopower of war on both destructive--built on massive death--and constructive--as seen in the notion of 'nation building'. In this discourse, nations become 'contingent' or 'accidental' such that they can be 'fabricated'. To keep the global order, nation fabrication is mandatory because the order depends on national authorities in the newly invented nations (p.23), thus security is employed in a form of biopower and the power is productive. Thus, the current post-modern wars, unlike premodern wars which sought to replace the old order, aims to reproduce and regulate the exisitng orders. In addition, the tendency that the legitimacy of violence is evaluated on a posteriori based on result (p.30) collapses distinctions between legitimate wars and illegitimate wars and other categories. BUT the only clear distinction lies between violence to preserve the global order and violence to threaten the order (p.32).[pp.3-35]

Post-modern wars, which resembles pre-modern wars, are constant, ubiquitous and small, and are conducted upon biopower, which gears toward production of the enemy through destruction and aims for full-spectrum dominance to gain consent from the dominated while keeping its sovereign power. This dilemma leaves room for insurgencies or resistance, which has a form of guerilla, polycentric network. In order to face this new form of rebellion, the U.S., imperial power, needs network power based on intelligence by connecting other dominant powers to maintain the order even in a national level, thus dominant nation-state's administrations are run on the basis of imperial interest (pp. 36-62). [Thus, disturbing the information at all levels of distributed networks will be a threat to the global order.]

The contemporary labor relations are under the hegemony of "immaterial labor", which produces information, knowledges, images, relationships and affects, and its impact on all aspects of society and network forms give birth to the "multitude," which stimulates resistance to the global state of war (p.65-67). Modern forms of resistance moved from centralized people's army through polycentric guerilla strategies to distributed network structure. In particular, the globalization movements show a democratic aspect of resistance in that different organizations act in common on the basis of what they have in common, as seen in Seattle in 1999. This distributed network structure is democratic and the most powerful tool to fight against the dominant power (p.88)." The legitimation of the global order is based fundamentally on wars"(p.90), thus resisting wars means resisting the order. [What is the global order legitimized through wars?] (pp. 63--95).

MULTITUDE

The authors pay a great attention on the political hegemonic shift from industrial workers to immaterial workers in contemporary capitalist production, because it tends to create an organization of communication and collaboration of labor and the new order of production can be the basis of multitude. The multitude, built on both singularity and commonality as a form of distributed network, is a political concept aiming to struggle against Empire and toward democracy (pp.140-153; pp.219-227). Studies of modern political forms have focused on a unified sovereignty posed on social life, and this trend continues in the study of globalization such that global political bodies, such as WTO, IMF, the World Bank, and UN, sought after a 'global constitutional order' resemble a form of the modern nation-state sovereign structure. But these global bodies have limitations in that by continuing to govern all societal elements in a political body, they necessarily reduce the singularities among subelemenets, which is against democracy (p.162). Moreover, because the fundamental puspose of these organizations is to preserve an order for capital global market, they cannot serve as a counteract against the global order (p.175). In particular the IMF, which runs based on votes propotional to monetary contributions, demonstrates this tendency most coherently by dictating a neolibral formula or Washington Consensus, such as privatization and the reduction of pubic welfare (p.172-173). The supranational economic institutions cooperate local officials and corporate leaders to maintain and reproduce the global economic order (p.176).

The contemporary transition is characterized as "denationalization", which explains the process that states act toward global power structure instead of national interests while maintaining its economical and legal state power (Sassen, Saskia, 2002, The State and Globalization, in The Emergence of Private Authority in Global Governance. Cambridge Univ Press; cited on p.163). The authors call the state of global exploitation and economic hierarchies "global apartheid," where global divisions of labor and power persist (p.166). In this regard, "nation building" or "democratic transition", as in Afghanistan and Iraq, is to build a regime that subordinately functions within the global economic and political system, and the current examples are fundamentally to integrate the former Soviet Union's economies into the global capital market (p.179).

Privatization of immaterial properties, such as knowledge, information, network, natural resources, and so forth, threatens the productivity of the multitude. For instance, patent [-- which seems to be governed by the U.S. court--] serves as a mechanism to brings wealth from the global south, which has wealthy natural resources, to the global north, who drives knowledge from the resource and privatizes it, because nature is considered the common heritage of mankind and thus patent is not granted to the global south who own the nature (p.183). Likewise, knowledge produced in a traditional way generation after generation is considered as the human common heritage, thus not protected, but it is only after turning the knowledge to an individual private commodity through the patent system. Today, although it is commonly agreed that knowledge is produced collectively not individually, increasing private ownership of knowledge and information, which is based on the notion that knowledge is private property produced by individual labor, thwarts, once acclaimed, the openness of the Internet and hinders innovation (p.185-188) [pp.179-188]

Immaterial labor is characterized with linguistic performance and constant adaptation to unstable context. The generic power to speak makes the labor communicative and every linguistic act forms the common (pp. 196-202). "The common does not refer to traditional notions of either the community or the public; it is based on the communication among singularities and emerges through the collaborative social processes of production. Whereas the individual dissolves in the unity of the community, singularities are not diminished but express themselves freely in the common" (p.204).

Whereas components in the economic realm tend to be privatized, in the social, everything are open to public and subject to government surveillance and control (p0.202-203). Against this dominant power, global struggles take a mobilization of the common in the form of a distributed network. The movement in Seattle in 1999 is an example, where otherwise oppositional organizations acted together for the common without any unifying structure. Another example is struggles against the economic crisis in Argentina in 2001 and continuing revolts in various forms from factory workers who decided to run the factories and political debates among citizens to the unemployed. Although the movements were at a national level, the struggles were sprung against the global exploitation system in line with the global struggles (pp.211-218).

[What about thereafter the IMF in Korea in 1997? What movements existed at a corporate/governmental/grass-root level?]

Empowerment

2008-10-14T19:54:00.004-05:00

Those who do not have power over the stories that dominate their lives, power to retell them, rethink them, deconstruct them, joke about them, and change them as times change, truly are powerless because they cannot think new thoughts. --salman rushdie

Against the Terror of Neoliberalism

2008-10-14T00:18:00.002-05:00

Giroux, H. (2008). Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers

Neoliberalism is "an ideology that subordinates the art of democratic politics to the rapacious laws of a market economy"(p.10) and corporates deploy its power freed from political constraints through the educational force of the dominant culture to the extent that democracy is hardly conceived as a public good (p.9). Against the corporate-centered globalization which stemmed from the neolibralism, global public sphere should be acknowledged to extend local resistance to a global scale, as solving global problems need global approaches (p.13).

The Sociology of Education in Canada

2008-10-08T13:49:00.024-05:00

Wotherspoon, Terry. (2004). 2nd Ed. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press.

Sociology, which was first used by the French writer Compte in the nineteenth century to read the rapidly changing society after the Industrial revolution, is foremost a study of society and is divided into diverse fields which are determined by the perspective each study takes. Three major perspectives are structural functionalism--focusing on the orderly social structure, like a living organism, thus fundamentally aiming to stablize the structure by identifying and removing harmful elements in the social structure--interpretative analysis--emphasizing a micro level human interactions and social symbols on the basis that the world is socially constructed and the reality exists only through the member's relationship with other members, language, knowledge, etc--and critical sociology--as seen in Marxism and feminism, analyzes fundamental structural inequality of the society and aims to subvert the underlying power to maintain the structure. Taking on the critical approach, the author identifies four subcategories of the analysis that influence education: critical pedagogy, feminist pedagogy, anti-racism education and political economy (pp.1-17).

Theories of educational studies influenced by structural functionalism (Emile Durkheim) (pp. 20-29)
Parson(1959) states that the function of education is social reproduction by developing individuals' capacities for their future role performance [socialization] and providing means to attain higher occupational/social status [allocation]. The assumption of this approach is that the society is hierarchical and meritocratic social order motivate individual and societal advancements. Some in 1960s argue that the social mobility is not attainable to certain students because of their handicapped (p.26) social background, however, this approach remains in the same position that education functions as a means of social reproduction. On the other hand, educational progressivism calls for authoritative intervention for education reform in order to solve those inequality problems. John Dewey (1966), a leader of the educational progressivism, also takes liberal point of view by emphasizing the autonomy of schools from the industrial system and child-centered education practice. [I need to understand his approach better. What's his contribution and limitation?] While struralural functionalism is not explicitly embraced in the field of educational research, the liberal analyses have been well adopted in general among policy makers and researchers. [The author put structural functionalism and liberal analyses together without pretext (p.24), then the liberal analysis was explained within Dewey's theoretical approach. If the liberal analyses stress individual fulfilment and mobility in society, how does Dewey's perspective fit to this paradigm? What are the perspectives of the liberal analyses according to the author?]

Interpretative Analysis of Schooling (Max Weber) (pp. 29-34)
This approach put emphases on schooling processes, such as subtitles in interactions between teachers and students or among students, languages used, and curricula. According to Weber, the schooling process and educational credentials contributes to the rationalization of society, meaning a process that science, knowledge and other elements are systematically used to achieve predetermined objectives. Notably Chicago School of sociology has strong influence in this discipline since 1920 and in 1970s, a new discipline, known as the new sociology of education, emerge to take critical perspectives to find the power relations embedded in school practices and curricula. However, interpretative analyses do not see the power structure beyond school environement where socio-economic status of students impose their school experience.

Critical Analysis (pp.34-48)
Influenced by Marxism and feminism as well as interpretative studies, theories of cultural reproductionism--Pierre Bourdieu, Paul Willis, Basil Bernstien and Michael Apple--stress the ways of specific educational practices contributing to the maintenance of social structure. Bourdieu, whose emphasis was placed on social/cultural assets as well as economic factors, observes that students who have less capital resources are forced to step up their investment once entering academic qualifications (as cited in p. 40). Based upon this approach, Willis and Apple formulated resistance theory, which pays attention to various students' reactions to given oppressive conditions. Emerged from the reconciliation between educational theories and practices, critical pedagogy, represented by Freire, Giroux and McLaran, aims to bring up social and educational transformation by focusing on students' experience in a historical/social context--the discouse of student experience (Giroux & McLaren, 1989, Critical Pedagogy, the State, and Cultural Struggle, as cited on p. 46)--allowing them to produce knowledge through interaction and critical thinking and empower themselves. Nevertheless, the practice integrated in real class environment has seen as problematic. [ Why? It seems to require too much investment of teacher herself.]

Historical/Organizational Dimensions of Canadian Education (pp.53-90)
The initial formal education was led by European missionaries with the intention of replacing the indigenous life style with a new religious or political order. Then the increasing influx of new immigrants and political/economical threats from outside demanded Canada for a public schooling system to establish a new social order by breaking ties with the colonial influence and preserving Canadian identity. Politicians, business people, educated professionals and educators were the leading public school promoters and the school became a center of order and authority of a community and contributed to its operation (pp.59-60). [Why was a private schooling system not promoted then?] The public school which encountered problems with stable financial/moral support and teacher supplies underwent regularization through state intervention, as seen in compulsory attendance, and as a result, both students and teachers were carefully monitored by school authorities (pp.61-64). In the early 20th century, educational progressivism--schools contribute to social progress by allowing students to develop human potentials and personal qualities, and thus subjects in the area of artistic and interpersonal development should be incorporated in the system--challenged the underlying assumption of education as a tool for human capital production and drove a series of reforms afterwards. In spite of the objective of creating democratic learning environment, the education reforms were geared toward forming centralized, bureaucratic, and meritocratic society, as seen in the increasing amalgamation of schools after the WW II. In the process, while community and teachers came to be alienated from their influence on their educational practice, experts, who were specialized in principles of educational management, curriculum planning, pedagogy, etc., took authority in decision-making process (pp.65-66). Influenced by the space war and increasing social welfare of the government, post-secondary education exploded after the WW II. Although more emphasis was given on equitable opportunity in education and post-secondary formal education was widely recognized as a credential mechanism in society in mid 1960s, criticism came from various sources. One is that formal education plays a role of screening mechanism for job entry and social advancement against those who could not reach educational achievement for any reason. Moreover, it was uncommonly noted that credentials from high level of education did not bring expected benefit to all the individuals (67-71). Despite continuing efforts in the recent past decades, education reforms were focused on the system without consideration of social/economical/political factors (p.72). On the ground that schooling is a pubic enterprise and should provide common learning experiences and opportunites, Canadian governments have not widely support private schoolings. However, the growth of private schooling and the involvement of non-governmental organization in education is noted since 1970s. Starting with religious groups, private schoolings are currently expanding under the influence of neo-liberal ideologies and add complexity to the contemporary educational phenomena in Canada. [Why did such strong public education/governmental involvement dominate the education in Canada vs. the U.S.? Because of stronger histories of aboriginal people in Canada?]

The Process of Schooling (pp. 91-124)
The practice of education system characterized with regulation and resistance is examined in four significant types: first, streaming, which refers to constant grouping and categorization for teaching efficiency, contributes to reinforcing inequality in education. While official knowledge determined by a group of people is distributed in class, other forms of knowledge is regarded as unimportant and excluded. Schools are institutions to generate hegemony, domination by consent or ideologies, to the extent that it selected 'official' knowledge is taken for granted and transmitted without questions being posed and that individualism, which emphasizes individual efforts and merits, is promoted as a hidden assumption of education and regarded naturally, thus inhibits other ways of seeing the social structure. Lastly silencing in class becomes prominent at higher grades. Students internalize uncomfortableness they face in class--although the environment is purposefully created with the value of while, male, middle-class orientation--and avoid anticipated difficulties by being in silence. In spite of the hegemonic power permeated in class, some studies focus on students' resistance to the practice of schooling, such as sub-culture, group actions, breaking dress codes, etc. However, this resistance should not be confused with resentment against anti-authority (p. 118; Giroux, 1983; Lynch, 1989; McLaren, 1998) because the resistance becomes meaningful when it is a response to dehumanizing aspects of schooling practice.

The Politics of Teaching (pp.125-156)
Two contradictory trends, professionalization and proletarianization, have noticed in the history of teacher position. While professionalism brought out higher qualification and salaries, proletarianization has also noted in the process of the intensification (Apple, 1986; cited on p.149), increasing workload and deskilling (inability to make decisions and use skills to carry our tasks), resulted from increasing class size and reducing staff. This observation echos the general phenomenon that the increasing credentials from formal education do not necessarily mean workers use the skills at work. Proletarianization and deskilling are characteristic of contemporary labour process (Braverman, 1974; cited on p.148).

Schooling and Work (pp. 157-194)
Since mid-1980s, governments, corporations, think-tanks, and lobby groups have constantly reported education reforms in correspondence to knowledge-based economy and globally competitive economic development (p.159) and this stream has created the ideology--schools do not provide proper training for today's job market--although surveys do not indicate it is a dominant public view (p.161). The importance of formal education in the preparation for job entry has grown only in the 20th century, while the primary purpose of schooling was to keep children off the streets beforehand (p.178). Recent heated debates over failing education reflect the periodic tension between two views--one views schooling should be geared toward more economic considerations and the other oriented to other principles (p.171)--and historically this tension became intense when unemployment increased or job uncertainty originated from occupational restructuring as seen nowadays prevails (pp.173-174). Th volatile job markets press individuals with more educational credentials and this pressure is shown increasing continuing education and notably among those who already have higher education credentials (Livingstone, 1999; cited on p. 181). The author affirms that although schools should improve themselves in the way to approach labor markets, individuals and schools should not be blamed for discrepancies between workers and jobs, thus, a linkage combining factors of individual life experience, education system and job opportunities should be explored (p.193). [It is quite interesting to realize that people who possess higher education tend to attend continuing education more. But is it only because of job security? There should be some other factors, considering the Basics Programs.]

Educational Opportunity and Social Reproduction (pp. 194-241)
Individualistic and structural perspectives are by and large the two trends of viewing social inequality. Social Darwinism -- 'survival of the fittest' introduced by Herbert Spencer -- is an extreme and highly controversial but still influential example of individualist orientation of social inequality. According to this perspective, inequality is necessary to social progress and individual success is determined by their ability and efforts. On the other hand, structuralists approach that inequality is systematically constructed in such a way to create advantage to certain groups of people (pp.197-200), thus look into the ways of inequality being constructed and operated in education systems. Among the various factors that the author explored for patterns of inequalities found in education, regional inequality allows seeing how the state intercepts equality of education in Canada. Traditionally federal-funds contributed to equitable education opportunity in relatively poor provinces and each province and its local districts were freer in their decision-making, however, centralizing fiscal constraints and cuts in federal aids make equal opportunity more difficult in less fortunate regions (p.238). [Interesting to read a neo-liberal influence on education in Canada. How does it affect higher education?]

Contemporary Educational Challenges and Reforms (pp.242-271)
The fundamental of educational debates is explained as contention between property right--individual right governed by market relations and the possession of private property--over personal right--individual right and freedom granted on the basis of citizenship and moral claims (Apple, 2000; Gintis, 1980; cited on p. 244). The ideological aspect of education reforms is emphasized in that an apparent consensus as demonstrated on reports, policy and anecdotes is drawn by business and corporate interests rather than real practice and experience in education (Delhi, 1993; cited on p. 249). Standardized measurements introduced to enhance teaching and learning have been used more to control education process, discipline teachers and appease parents (Smyth & Shacklock, 1998; cited on p. 256). In the process of education reforms, diverse educational choices, such as charter school, voucher system and home schooling, have emerged and spreaded out and generated debates on pros and cons. However, if fundamental issues such as social and economical polarization are ignored, debates over school choice will only confine the discourse of education reforms to marketization and family advantage (p.260).[The author frequently mentions that Canada, compared with its peer countries, shows less evident inequality in using computers and accessing resources at schools. What made this possible? Is it because of stronger state governance over public education? ]

Dialogue with Dr. Ghosh (1)

2008-10-07T14:18:00.004-05:00

The original purpose of mass education was to train people to be able to do their job after the Industrial Revolution and this impetus obtained the public consensus in that the education gave people the equal opportunity, which still holds true in theories of education. However, critical approaches attest that the acclaimed equal opportunity only keeps the existing social structure and perpetuates class divisions because students bring different social/cultural/symbolic capitals to class (Pierre Bourdieu), which makes the starting points different, thus they argue that fairness in education has to be emphasized. In a similar context, critical education/pedagogy comes into play in the fields of education by questioning Euro-centric knowledge and education system and attempts to teach different perspectives in the main education system.

Foucault and Education

2008-10-06T22:14:00.014-05:00

Gail Jardine. (2005). Peter Lang Publishing

My main concern [is] to locate the forms of power, the channels it takes, and the discourses it permeates in order to reach the most tenuous individual modes of behavior (Foucaut, M. The History of Sexuality: An Introduction, Vol. 1. 1976/1990).

Jardine summarizes Foucault's work from pedagogical perspectives with an emphasis on "disciplinary knowledge" acted on individual, that is, knowledge is not outside of power and disciplinary knowledge especially trains individuals in a particulary society to comply to the system of power (p.10). Another emphasis is given on Foucault's contribution to empowerment of individuals, "care of the self", in his own word. [This is quite new to me and triggers my curiosity. The author quotes Foucault from various sources and, in particular, The Archeology of Knowledge (1969), in which, according to Jardine, a framework useful to analyze systems of knowledge is given, and Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other writings (1980) draw my attention and I will look into these books next.]

Jardine elaborates the context where Foucault used subjugated knowledge in a way of analyzing the power structure underneath (p.27) by quoting "through the re-emergence of these low-ranking knowledge [...] criticism performs its work" (Foucault, 1980), and highlights his emphasis on analysing actual effects power exercises on individuals at its "continuous and uninterrupted process" (Foucault, 1980) (pp.31-32). Thus, Jardine explains, Foucault began to analyze techniques and procedures with which power performs for economic/political purposes at the very basic level in order to explain the autonomous power in relation to general power. The author calls this approach "intimate localness" (p.35-37) and pays attention to the way Foucault saw power and objectified body: bodies, controlled by scientific knowledge in the 20th century, becomes domiciled through disciplinary techniques exercised in all institutions where the knowledge is promoted (pp.50-55). While explaining Foucault's notion of the changed regime of power in the 20th century, the author supports the idea with Franklin's insight (The Real World of Technology, 1992), that is capitalists' normalized access to the public space, either government or government-subsidized institutions, to build the foundations for their factories (p.40). However, it is affirmed that Foucault did not focus on facts within certain knowledge produced in a specific era, instead identifying the underlying procedures and conditions (p.88). [Right, because knowledge is constructed. To identify globlization and knowledge produced in higher education, the underlying assumptions and unspoken agreements should be addressed.]

Jardine introduces Foucault's definition of discourse as "the group of statements that belong to a single system of formation" (The Archeology of Knowledge).

RIgour and Complexity in Educational Research

2008-10-01T16:19:00.015-05:00

Kincheloe, J., & Berry, K. (2004). Open University Press.

This book describes the concept of bricolage as research methodology. In the introduction (pp. 1-22), it is understood as interdisciplinary methodology, which combines cross-disciplinary approaches in order to avoid monological reductionism. Kincheloe admits that this method is quite challenging to beginning scholars (p.4). [then, what should I take from this book?] He continues the periscope of bricolage which should understand social construction of knowledge and subjectivity. Importantly, researchers who employ this method understand that different points of view bring out different interpretation because of the complexity of knowledge, "ever shifting boundries between the social world and the narrative representation of it" (p.7).

He continues to emphasize the complexity of knowledge and everyday life in the second chapter (pp. 23-49). Among the notions that indicates this complexity are there intertextuality, discursive construction, cultural assumptions within all research methods, and the relationship between power and knowledge: what he means by intertextuality is the complexity can be only understood by connecting narratives, each of which connects fractional materials. [I don't quite understand what discursive construction (p.28) means. I will ask.] Continuously, he asserts that any knowledge is constructed at a specific spatial and historical dimention, which brands on both the method and the knowledge, thus bricoleurs should be particularly conscious of the context where their own research is conducted. Finally he suggests examining the research domain in higher education to see how power takes control knowledge production by comparing types of research projects rewarded and those not rewarded. Kincheloe quotes Carter (2004)'s notion about the reductionistic methods employed to explain the visual domain. [This may explain how the Video-Telling participants learn. It was not linear as they used to learn, but more complex at the content level and subtle at the presentation level.]

Kincheloe argues the meanings and usefulness of (inter)disciplinarity in research methods (pp.50-81). By understanding methods and practices employed in a certain disciplinary could reveal the hidden ideological dimension embedded in the process of knowledge production, bricoleurs become aware of the disciplinary as a "discursive system of regulatory power" delimited within the boundaries. [ What does he mean by discursive system (p.53)?] In the same context, he also affirms that disciplines should be approached in discursive as well as paradigmatic analysis, which expands the concept of paradigmatic change by Thomas Kuhn (1962). [Again what is discursive analysis (p.54)? What did Kuhn say about the paradigmatic change precisely in his words (p.56)?] According to the author, the rationality, the backbone of the Western history, grounded disciplinary power with exclusion of people from other classification (p.62) [I see this assumption is also the basis of technocracy, exclusive elitic bureaucracy.] and the interconnectedness of bricolage allows seeing global communications from the perspective of postcolonial movements (p.63) [This point gives me a useful tool to approach my research on globalization.]

According to him, knowledge or human knowing is an interpretation, thus it is fugitive (p.90) in that it is not rationally defined and tentative (p.94) in opposition to final. While maintaining bricoleur's task of analyzing how power shapes knowledge, he warns researchers possessing power because the knowledge produced by them would reflect dominant interest (pp.98-100). [This position poses me two questions: first, do power and knowledge have one directionality? Doesn't knowledge also (re)shape power, as seen in the framework of technocracy? Second, as the author emphasizes, critical studies and hermeneutics require researchers to conduct their research from the subjugated in order to empower them. Taking a position and contributing to transformative actions also a process of empowering researchers themselves. But by not distinguishing kinds of power, his statement seem so elusive that it may insinuate a neutral position of researchers, alienated in the social structure where power is embedded.]

Berry introduces how to conduct bricolage research with complexity. Beginning with POET (point of entry text)--anything such as a book, an image, a film, an article--a researcher prepares a bricolage map, a list of related fields of study in multiple disciplines, then repeat visiting those fields and coming back to the POET, called Feedback looping, until she/he can see certain pattenrs appear on the map (pp.103-113). [A problematic point is how one, especially less trained researchers, can lay out a map to begin with. The map should grow and realistically does. Thus, isn't it a more effective appoach to begin with a simple list of disciplinaries and grandize by conneting sub-disciplinaries or related/recovered disciplinaries and finally regrouping them into certain categories? Also, I do not get why a research needs to go back to the POET each time to visit the disciplinaries in the map. The POET can be very symbolic and a point where the research interest burst out, but not necessarily resides in the center of the research topic.]

Corporate Culture and the Attack on Higher Education and Public Schooling

2008-10-01T10:40:00.014-05:00

Henry Giroux. (1999). Fastback series. Phi Delta Kappa International.

Giroux affirms that the commercial power suffocates higher/public education by measuring the knowledge produced in the process of education as a commodity to sell. According to him, corporations, which have the fundamental standpoint that knowledge is capital to invest, instrumentalize knowledge by selecting higher education research projects/models based on the profits they would bring, and this practice reflects the ever-creeping perspective that education is a process of "vocationalization" and "subordination of learning to the dictates of the market" (p.16). He finds further evidence of the corporatization of knowledge in higher education in the way that government and educational institutions build their relationship with corporations: for example, corporate leaders often represent government or educational institutions in the media and persuade the purpose of higher/public education to the public. This corporatization is also found within higher education institution itself as seen in an increasing number of high rank university officers who are hired from or make a strong partnership with the business world. This indicates higher education's self-modeling in favor of corporate standards. [This suggests a microscopic level of corporations' invasion to higher education. This is an invisible hand to control the higher education system. I need to look into this self-adaptation process in order to find out the current position of higher education that is facing strong commercial winds that come from corporations.]

Consultation, Partnership and Responsibility as Strategies of Regulation

2008-09-26T20:56:00.002-05:00

Gary Kinsman

This ethnographic report follows how state regulations subjugate community-based organizations through AIDS organizations by investigating the usage of the terms, "consultation", "partnership" and "responsibility": Kinsman states that the document produced after the Canadian federal government's "consultation" with various interest groups formed a "hegemonic administrative framework" to regulate community-based AIDS groups by using neutral terms, such as "partnership," to draw apparent consensus (p.221). It is also mentioned that the ambiguity of this word led continuing arguments over the "terms" of partnership (p.227). He also observed that the use of the word "responsibility" against patients infected through sexual conducts not only obstructed them from access to proper treatment but also hindered a social/strategic paradigm shift about AIDS, a chronic manageable condition. This article has insightful observation by looking at the usage of language as a way of shaping relations the federal- and community-based organizations, however, is lack of some supportive data.

Serenity Prayer

2008-09-26T20:48:00.005-05:00

From Mike's message:

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

...at the moment friendship deeply touches my heart.

The 1st Odyssey Video-Telling Workshop

2008-08-03T17:56:00.007-05:00

We had a party yesterday. Eleven students who had struggled to make a documentary presented their own. To me, instructing was fun but organizing the event was quite overwhelming and demanding. But things seemed to move smoothly. Thanks God. Quite a few mentioned that the jazz concert was also a very nice touch. I appreciated every single note we played.

I believe that media consumer's access right can only be accomplished when the consumers become producers or at least possess the potential to be producers. Otherwise, criticizing could be a just pathetic and frustrating process. Even if tools to create their own were given, they might not be able to make their own. Then, we lose games all the time. Through this workshop, I feel that presenting a concept in a visual format requires lots of critical reflection upon the production process and intellectual training. Just like writing. The workshop students had good ideas but those ideas were not clearly conveyed until they verbally explained the behind story. Next time we will do better.

It was a nice thing for me to do in Chicago. I hope this continues every year.

Media Literacy(5)

2008-07-27T16:31:00.007-05:00

Chapter 46: The Need for Critical Media Literacy in Teacher Education Core Curricula (Myriam Torrese & Maria Mercado)
Critical media literacy program for teacher education is urgent in that corporatized media influence students more than teacher do and both students and teachers are the most volnerable under the influence. As Chomsky mentioned, critical media literacy is a course of "Intellectual self-defence" from manipulation and control threatening a meaningful democracy.

Regarding the Odyssey Video-Telling workshop as a critical media literacy course, I ask myself the following questions: did the participants become intellectually more powerful against manipulation, control and humiliation cultivated through the mass media? Are they now more critical media consumers than before?

Chapter 50: Punk Rock, Hip Hop and the Politics of Human Resistance (Curry Malott & Brad Porfilio)
Critical literacy means to be fully literate and equipped with intellectual tools so that one can change the world. Punk rock and hip hop, a response of marginalized youth from the economic elites in 1970's and 80's, are introduced for teachers to engage the youth and utilize as alternative social studies curriculum such that students bring the lyrics and discuss the political activism of the musicians in class and foster active engagement for social justice.

Chapter 51: Social Education and Critical Media Literacy (Ozlem Sensoy)
Reductionism, characteristic of media- and school-based representations, prohibits complexity of group memberships. In order to resist the violence of representation, Sensoy calls for attention to the heterogeniety. Reading media critically, one should find out what other representations are missing from the simplified and flat images of a certain group. By making invisible visible, one can identity the complexity of the group.

Virginia Woolf: A Room of One's Own

2008-07-20T18:32:00.007-05:00

After almost three hours of walk to downtown of New Port, Vermont on July 7th, Mary Louise and I went to a bookstore and I bought this book.

Woolf insists that women should have a consistent income and their privacy to be a good writer. She mentions that her life has changed ever since she became an heir and historically few genius came from a low class. However, she doesn't mention how one who is not lucky enough to be an heir can be a great writer. Instead, I interpert her point as women's econimical independence. Women writers should write a lot, whatever it is, to have an income out of it.

According to Woolf, Jane Austin is a great genuis because she created her own style, untarnished from male writers' influence, without impediments, much as seen in Shakespear's, while Charlotte Bronte, another genius writer, who wrote Jane Ayre, shows impediments--distortion and anger as I understand--from the reality the author faced, so she cannot be comparable with Austin. Woolf emphsizes that a writer should depict their characters calmly, but not their own personality. Women should write what and how they feel freely and at the same time they should forget their sex when they write.

There are somewhat contradictiry statements in the book, but her essay is very persuasive and converys a clear idea about the fundamentals of being a writer as a woman. She suggests an androgenetic quality in the depth.

Media Literacy (4)

2008-07-14T15:46:00.005-05:00

Chapter 14: Socialization in the Changing Information Environment (Veronica Kalmus)
Because of increasing digital media in information society, instrumentalization and commodification of knowledge become dominant. The Net generation is technically savvier than their parents and teachers and get information easier than ever through the net, however, it is shown that they cannot easily evaluate the information and the majority still think that schooling should be important. This situation suggests "two-way socialization", cooperative learning process between students and teachers. Warshauer(1999, p37) stated that the beliefs of individual teachers are influential to the way of how students use computers. It could mean the importance of teacher's role for computer education, but the word of "beliefs" seems too abstract.

Chapter 15: The Hyper-Reality That Never Happened (Marcus Breen)
Development theories have in common that technology is essentially linked with national development and nation states. In this light, Velden comments on the U.S. capitalism that business defines technology, which determines social and economic life. On the other hand, McNair argues that because of fast information flow, the control of state and government becomes lessened and creates "cultural chaos". Breen rebuts to this argument in that because still a small number of people have access to the Internet, the existence of various views cannot be a generalized characteristic of the Internet, and thus this view only reflects a binary perspective of human behaviors. Furthermore, he asserts that the Internet generates ubiquity of desire though the representation of materialism. This author seems to have too narrowed a point of view of the Internet.

Chapter 16: Media Mindfulness (Gina Serafin)
Media mindfulness is an ongoing process of actively engaged media consumption, which requires motivation and ability to do so, is a necessary tool for media literacy.

Chapter 17: Alternative Media (Zack Furness)
Alternative media creation, DIY (Do-it-yourself), is a form of empowering audience by letting them express their own ideas and creating a shared sense of community and responsibility.

Chapter 19: Puttling Reality Together (Joao Pasakeva)
Scrutinizing Channel One, a program that furnishes American public schools with a satellite system and VCRs in exchange with a contract that requires students to watch their news and commercials in classromms, Pasakeva affirms that the mainstream media not only constructs classified audience for marketin purpose but also convert the audience to a commodity object to sell to other media producers, such as advertisers. To me, Channel One appears as commercial invasion to the public education system by regulating knowledge base.

Chapter 20: The Semantics of Connections and Alianation in Hyper-Reality (Anthony Rosselli)
Technology-mediated knowledge acquisition imposes a new set of variables. In spite of collaboration opportunities, online education is often distracted by more "seductive" tools available to students and they tend to be numbed by overwhelming information. Especially with the growing "mediatization of information"(Peter McLauren), commodified knowledge results in an increased knowledge gap among groups of different socio-economic status. In order to attain equal opportunity to access knowledge and power, education on media literacyis essential. This chapter is rather short, but very much related to my research area.

Media Literacy (3)

2008-06-29T22:19:00.006-05:00

Chapter 11: Media Knowledges, Warrior Citizenry and Postmodern Literacies (Peter McLaren and Rhonda Hammer)
Media knowledges are accumulated through collective cognitive engagement in various cultural forms such as film, television and radio, and the complexity of media forms calls for postmodern literacies. To that extent, media knowledge is refered as "perpetual pedagogy" delivered by the postmodern flaneur, who carries a camera and bombard audience with assembled images in which geohistorical context of an event is annihilated. The power of media subjugates our subjectivities and cognition of social structure and struggles, and thus controls political life; therefore education on critical media literacy is necessary and the aim of the education is to create "communities of resistance, counter-hegemonic sphere and oppositioned pedagogy." (P.137, dilemmas on the credibility of the critical pedagogy of media literacy are explained, but I don't get it.)

Chapter 12: Media Power (Per-)Formed (Rich Dolphijn)
An interesting cultural observation about formations of cities in correlation to historical media invention. He starts his argument with a comparision between dualist and monist way of thinking. McLuhan, as monist, acknowldges that new media add new dimensions to the existing world--instead of creating a new space, such as "cyberspace"--and make it a more complexed unity. From this standpoint, he examines the recent formations of Chinese cities. Chinese urban structure doesn't have a center and there seems no such structure of urban and suburban or countryside as seen in the western society. Here is a resemblance between pre-industrial period and post-digital revolution. But, so what? Does this help understand current socio-economic-political climates in China?

Media Literacy (2)

2008-06-23T22:11:00.001-05:00

Chapter 6: Chomsky, the Empire, and Media Literacy (Joe Kincheloe)
Introducing the next chapter written by Chomsky in 1991. Kincheloe calls the 21st century, where free-market policies and neo-conservatists prevail and justify neo-imperial invasions, the recovery movement as a continued passion from the "Vietnam syndrome" and points out media responsibility for failing to investigate the claim made by the U.S. to justify the pre-emptive war against Iraq.

Chapter 7: The New World Order (Noam Chomsky)
According to Chomsky, the New World Order is being created by the political leadershop in Washington and London, where corporate interests dominate their governmental decisions, and it turns their countries into "mercenary states" and the global Mafia with their exploitative military power; Furthermore, while German-led Europe and Japan "Latin-Americanize" the old Soviet tyranny, the rest of the Third World is controlled by "economic pressure if possible, by force if necessary." He mentions that "a truism about the New World Order is that it is econimically tripolar and military unipolar." Perhaps he characterized the Order as global corporate-driven imperialism unisonly backed by military power. But I am not quite sure what he exactly meant by the terms, tripolar and unipolar.

Chapter 9: Language and Institutional Perversions in a Time of Painful Birth Pangs (Edward Herman)
Herman means by birth pangs the propaganda of "root causes" spread by the U.S. powerful to establish a new world order in the Middle East in coalition with Israel. Through media, this alliance accompanied by brutal violence is seen as a retaliation against provocation caused by terrorists. Therefore, any type of atrocities performed by the U.S. military is only necessary as a self-defense. Under this systematic rule, brutality against civilians, the "sea", who support the resistance and feed the terrorists, the "fish", is justified. This rule is also observed in international organizations, such as UN. While an international force resides in Lebanon to prevent "hostile" actions, there is no equivalent in Israel. While UN orders termination of supplying goods to Palestine, they don't try to stop the U.S. to cut off supplying bombs to Israel. The propaganda system allows violence taken by the powerful to be used to shape world response and establish a new order.

Chapter 10: Television Violence at a Time of Turmoil and Terror (George Gerbner)
Gerbner analyzes how the violence on the television as a new cultural environment--I would call it a meta-media cultivating our taste and culture--is systematically integrated in global marketing. Violence is an international selling point and cheaply distributed all over the world, and advertisers pay for it. But the author is lack of clear explanation of cheap distribution of violence. Is it really cheap after all?

Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion

2008-06-23T17:08:00.002-05:00

Directed and Photographed by Tom Peosay (2002)

Beautiful and powerful images were taken for over 10 years. Very patiently and engagingly observed through a camera lens. It is about the history of Tibet and the people's struggles for freedom. It also shows how intellectuals can join to be part of the movement. "For Tibetans, religion is a source of fun" (one of the interviewees), and monks and nuns stood up non-violently to protect their freedom for their religion as well as the life of their people. When Chinese military troops arrived in Tibet, where prosperity and peace had been kept for over 700 years, justified their violent occupation by saying saving the people from Anglo-American imperialism. But ironically the Tibetans didn't seem to even be widely exposed to it yet, although they had been invaded by the British before Chinese came. This documentary doesn't mention this part. Overall, it is a very touching and compelling documentary.

Notes from Media Literacy (I)

2008-06-07T22:34:00.006-05:00

Chapter 2: Preface to the Myth of the Liberal Media (Noam Chomsky)
Historically political/economical elites have tried to grant limited rights to the public. In the U.S., this tendency is well reflected in the market control of media. According to Edward Herman, the audiences are the "product" sold to markets all linked to state power.

Chapter 3: Word Tricks and Propaganda (Edward Herman)
Frame works of the usage of words to serve state propaganda. (1) Purring: reform, responsible, flexible, national security, moderate, etc. (2) Snarling: extremist, terrorist, dictator, welfare(--why is this a snarling word?). Provokes public anger. (3) Putdowns: less aggressive words, such as noisy leftist vs. quiet neoliberalist. (4) Playing down violence: violence executed by the state or client state is described only "tough" action in the pursuit of security, thus justified. (5) Obscuring appeasement of client state terror: commercial diplomacy, quiet diplomacy, constructive engagement. Terror in client state is not harmful. (6) Facilitating innuendo: linked, is reported, official claims, etc. Without providing supporting evidences, it aggravates existing biases. (7) Personification and use of collective words: commonly employed to get across preferred positions by insinuating they are the opinion of the majority. (8) Falsely imputing benevolent motives: "risk" or "gamble", which describes the government's good economic drive for the poor, while the government never takes a risk. (9) Removing agency: media doesn't reveal the responsible for death toll in civil wars or national terrors if it is performed by client states.

Chapter 4: Toward a democratic media (Edward Herman)
In order to achieve media sovereignty of the public against freedom of choice, Herman proposes democratic media both in structural and functional aspects. But since the structure determines the functions in the long run, he suggests empowering civic sectors above all, restructuring public sectors, which is run via government subsidy, and decreasing commercial sectors. Among alternative media, it is important to note that the internet, in spite of its great potential to reach wide audience, is geared toward elites and requires affordability of the population. So, to reach mass audience, mass movement, social forces and policy enforcement are required. (I agree!) Also when it comes to technology, the problem of catch-up, which means those with money and power get precedence to new technology, poses perpetual handicap to the public. Therefore media democrats should be keenly aware of the technology advance to cope with the main stream media, which usually are well equipped with more advanced technology.

This chapter reminds me of my long-forgotten dream, media activist. What a time lapse!

Chapter 5: Ciritical media literacy (Pepi Leistyna and Loretta Alper)
A critical media literacy is to develop an understanding culture propagated through media as a symbolic system that consists of ideology, power, meaning and identity. On this basis, the authors examines TV entertainment programs from the perspective of working class people. The importance of critical media literacy is in that culture along with a structural reality shapes people's political consciousness.

The Girl with the Golden Parasol

2008-05-21T00:46:00.015-05:00

Written by Uday Prakash in Hindi / translated by Jason Grunebaum

This book, with a cover image which reminds me of van Gogh, came to my hand after the bilingual reading presented by the author and the translator at the University of Chicago yesterday. The author defines this novel as a love story. He is quite modest.

Rahul, in the middle of storms of corruptions and the casteism, falls in love with a girl with a golden yellow parasol and changes his major to Hindi literature to get closer to her. The moment when he feels the love so intensely is described like this: the golden yellow parasol turns into a butterfly and a butterfly sitting on the tip of the parasol the parasol itself. Then, 'now the butterfly, casting a spell over the whole world, had brought Rahul's sense of his own existence under its wing.'--How beautiful graphically!

While reading this novel, my mind wandered around three countries: India, the U.S. and Korea. In the spell of globalization and the casteism, India seems at the brink of helpless torrential ruins. Hemant, who studies IT, only gets out of the torment and heads for the U.S. It explains why there are so many Indians in IT industry in this country. During my college years, we used to read Marx and Hegel, and go on to the street or visit labor unions on strike. The confrontation was usually violent. There was a period of time when a group of people committed a suicide consecutively against the corrupted government in favor of labor liberation and social justice. Around the time when we started reading philosophical texts written by French, our mood also changed. We became sophists. But this novel definitely made me think of those confrontational days in the context of India, where I so loved wandering about but didn't have good chances to see the society perspicaciously.

This novel presents current India very vividly; however, I have to do some mental process to read the casteism as a contemporary issue. It must be a deeply ingrained social illness. Is this reason why I feel the end of the novel is rather abrupt? I, as a reader, was not much exposed to the mind of Anjali, the girl with the golden parasol. What's going on in her mind? Why does the author end the story with a grotesque image of hers, holding Rahul's head and laughing? Just a moment ago, she was covered with a blanket and abducted. Does the author insinuate all was planned by Anjali, who has hedonism within her nature out of her caste, Bramin. I wish to read a bit more sophisticated plot around her before the story reaches the end.

Thanks to Jason, who translated the novel as smoothly as in the texture of silk, I grasped the story very easily. It is quite surprising and inspiring to get to know his talent unknown to me. I wish him, who is slowly becoming a friend of mine--if I deserve saying so, for the best fulfillment in his intellectual creativity.

Shock Therapy

2008-05-14T18:02:00.014-05:00

For my dear friend,

Last night I talked to a friend, who used to be a mother, a doctoral student, a part-time lecturer and a full-time employee all at the same time. Now she is only a mother of two daughters. She said, “For the last couple of years, I have lived quite different a life from the past. Too many things happened beyond my control. Now, even registering for a yoga class is too difficult for me. Nothing is easy.” Her second daughter, who just passed her second birthday, was seriously ill right after she was born. Her mother-in-law died suddenly. Her father has been ill for ten years and fell unconscious a couple of times in the past few months. She has been so busy caring others that until recently she couldn’t even think about how busy she was. Now looking at herself, she feels helpless.

To everyone, there is a period of time with flood of misfortunes. It happened to me in the end of last year. I felt extremely vulnerable. Security was so alarming that even walking on the street was challenging. I was afraid that I might be mugged at any moment and added a latch in my apartment door. In the middle of October 2007, my office at the University of Chicago was robbed in the middle of a day while I was out. There was a fierce fight in my residence building, which ended with a gun shot. A sharp contrast in opinions about gun control, which was dormant in peaceful days, surfaced up so vividly. An argument about the incident with my neighbor left me injured like a unexpected bloody paper cut. A graduate student at the University of Chicago was murdered for a few dollars. When I found a note, “Remove the bike now,” on my bike, I felt physically threatened and hated. I had kept my bike in the same spot in the building for a couple of years. Let’s not argue. My safety comes first, I thought. I moved the bike to my neighbor’s building. A couple of weeks later, my coworker suddenly got fired... I felt choked by one overwhelming wave of shock after another. I thought I was in need of a therapy.

About half a century ago, Donald Ewen Cameron (1901-1967), a Scottish-American psychiatrist, experimented human mind control with paralytic drugs, electroshocks, controlled isolation, and message inculcation. According to him, the insane would regress into an infant stage after the experiment, and then become so tamed that they would be receptive to any messages. Cameron thought that in this regressed stage, the insane would finally become sane and good citizens if they were given only good messages. He tried to manipulate one's mind with external forces. It is a shock therapy. A French movie, “La femme fatale Nikita” (directed by Luc Besson, 1990), shows the triumph and the failure of a shock therapy. Nikita, who committed a violent crime, is saved from death penalty and trained to become a killing machine in an entirely closed environment with absolutely no option for her to choose. In spite of her impeccable mission accomplishment, she chooses to escape herself from the chain of command and obeisance. she was not perfectly reborn as intended after all and looked for the freedom to control her own life.

Let alone bringing the patients sanity, Cameron’s experiment left them both physically and mentally damaged. What it tells me, though, is that one becomes helpless and scared when a series of shocks deluges one’s life. Problems, which could be solved rather easily in a normal situation, may no longer be easy to cope with. In my case, I lost axes and balance in my everyday life. My life seemed to be totally dependent on random external forces.

I sought professional counseling, which I had never done before. Sitting in front of a stranger and talking about the inner most feeling was not easy. Not surprisingly, I didn't feel being helped from the session. So I didn't see her again. But at the same session, I talked to the counselor about another problem which had troubled me in my work for a while, and she incited me to take an action immediately and gave me some suggestions. So, I made an appointment with another counselor who specialized in labor relations. After meeting with the counselor, I rationalized the situation and had enough courage to talk to my supervisor. Soon, I solved the problem. Looking back, it was the beginning of my healing process. I started to take care of myself and faced the problem actively. Nevertheless, I was still helpless with regard to the security problem. I canceled my flight to Mexico that I had planned for my vacation in the following month. I usually take a long backpacking trip overseas during my vacation, but last year I simply wasn't strong enough to carry my backpack in a foreign country. So I booked a flight to Korea. While counting down for the leaving date, I sermoned myself that I would be fine once I arrived in Korea. In December, I stayed with my family in Korea without stepping out for a week or so. My anxiety slowly calmed down. Then, my resolution about what to do once I would come back to Chicago became clearer. I was healing myself... What could Cameron have done to me if I had been his patient? I would have become entirely dependent on him. It would mean a total loss of control of my own life. What a threatening thought!

I feel sympathy toward my friend, but have no solution for her. I think she should begin with something she can control over entirely no matter how trivial it is. She can perhaps volunteer or have a couple of guilt-free hours only for herself every week. I don't know. It might take a while for her to become confident again in her life, but she should walk on her own. Socrates said that real education comes through dramatic and painful experience, like coming out of a cave and turning your eyes toward the sun. But the pains themselves don't necessarily bring maturity to those have gone through. What to get from the painful experience depends on one’s own reflection, decision and action taken upon the agony. I trust that my dear friend will continue to struggle against flooding adversity and gradually regain her strength. Cheers!

Writing personal essays-final project

Things Vital to One’s Life

2008-04-30T21:45:00.021-05:00

Writing personal essays drill 4: a list of ... things

WATER: Obviously water is vital to one’s life. But it can be also dangerous. So, in a developing country, you are extremely careful because germs grow in the water. You don't forget a treatment. After the treatment, the water smells disgusting and it looks dirty, but it is now good to drink. You drop a tablet to add a flavor.

FOOD: One should eat. It is pleasure for most people to savor exotic dishes, but my judgment for a taste is very subjective. The mood at a dinner table dominates my taste of the dishes. Who prepared, who is sitting next to me, and what we talk about are more important than the food itself. What if you agree to me but are not so social? Fill your refrigerator with fresh vegetables and fruits. Those will keep you from unhealthy food at least. Lastly, be more careful if you are not rich, because we live in a country where the poorer the bigger.

Next, you got me: EXERCISE. Gym membership, yoga, marathon. All sounds good. I have registered for five half-marathons for the last four years. In return for ever-increasing entrance fees, I received blanket-sized T-shirts and a medal from each entry. Running is a good exercise but a medal is a whim. Think about it.

FRIENDSHIP: van Gogh wrote to his brother just before deciding to become an artist, “where friendship blooms, life is reborn.” Deducing his statement, one could say life perishes where friendship withers. Human connection beyond biological relationships is vital to one’s life. Friendship should continue to grow. But what if one you care about always hastens to leave you? What if the one doesn't give you anything back? Look in a different direction. Your care will be more worth to someone else.

DESIRE WITHOUT FEAR: The depressed are lethargic and have no life goal. But, they desire. They desire with fear from anticipated frustration. Your friend’s life might look rosier and all luck seems to avoid you. But you should have something special inside you. Look for it. Be confident. Then, desire without fear. That will bring your life unique.

ACCEPT THE MORTALITY: If you know when you leave your dream vacation, you want to do everything you like, not wasting a single minute of your time. You become more organized with full of energy. It’s because you know the beginning and the end of your vacation. On the contrary, we neither selected the beginning of our life, presumably nor its end. We don’t know where we are! How unfair! But, if we accept our own mortality, we don't need to hurry for the end. Every moment is a wondrous destination where we travel through. Accept your mortality. Then, you will feel the life. I am alive. Now.

On Incompleteness

2008-04-19T10:38:00.008-05:00

Writing personal essays drill 3: On … (meditative: move from concrete experience to philosophical thoughts)

In fall 2001, I audited a class in the computer science department while working full-time at the University of Chicago. I was curious about how lines of code would make a machine work. The course was interesting enough for me to audit the next one in the following quarter. Then, I don’t remember what got into my mind. I registered for the last sequel in spring 2002 as a graduate-student-at-large. Oh well, within the first couple of weeks, I painfully realized that I was torturing myself. My brain had little usefulness for the programming.

I needed help, so I emailed my supervisor, Karen, to ask for permission to meet one of the teaching assistants during my office hours. She replied that she would leave the decision to my discreet judgment. So, I went to the TA office and got some help. But, I needed more help! So, I visited the professor. She spent time explaining how I should approach programming--from top to bottom and from abstract concept to concrete coding. In the end of the conversation, I talked about another concern, which was my grade. (I didn't care at all even when I got only half of the GPA that my sister received in her college.) I must have been ridiculously serious about the course that I was taking. The professor offered a hopeful contract to the poor student: “Do as much as you can. If your performance is not good, I will give you ‘incomplete’ and you will try again next year.”

One day Karen asked me how I was doing in my class. I repeated what the professor had told me. She typed on her text-to-speech device, “It’s very generous. At some points, every one’s life is incomplete”, then hit a button so that I could hear it. She wasn’t able to speak. I first met her in April 2000 right after she had a major surgery on her tongue. She had developed a strange illness. She couldn’t talk, and was choked sometimes. She described herself as disabled. In fall 2002, after three years of administrative leave, she was ready to teach again with timely promotion to full professor. But she never got back to campus after summer 2002, and died at home in the following year. She was 51 years old.

I completed the course with grade A. But Karen couldn’t complete her life. Life might be incomplete by nature. Some tasks may be complete along the path of life, but haven’t we felt emptiness right at the moment when a long-waited goal was accomplished? That could be because it was done and we would never go back to the task again. On the other hand, incompleteness leaves room for challenge, retrial, and improvement in the future. Nevertheless, incompleteness is meaningful only when one strives for completeness. Or, it would be a falsely articulated laziness. It is fine to feel incomplete. Gladly accept it. But don’t forget to return to your goal, be persistent and struggle again. Even in that case, at a certain point, we might have to leave it as is whether complete or not. Then, the incompleteness will turn into completeness and our mind will be at peace again.

Vincent

2008-04-17T21:11:00.003-05:00

Written by Don McLean (1988)
Starry starry night, paint your palette blue and grey
Look out on a summer's day
with eyes that know the darkness in my soul.
Shadows on the hills, sketch the trees and the daffodils
Catch the breeze and the winter chills,
in colors on the snowy linen land

Now I understand what you tried to say to me
How you suffered for your sanity
How you tried to set them free
They would not listen
They did not know how,
Perhaps they'll listen now.

Starry starry night, flaming flowers that brightly blaze
Swirling clouds in violet haze reflect
in Vincent's eyes of chine blue
Colors changing hue, morning fields of amber grain
Weathered faces lined in pain are soothed
beneath the artist's loving hand.

"That's Good For Life" Run

2008-04-14T08:33:00.015-05:00

Do you guys want to create an account at MySpace? I think it will be cool.

We are in America

2008-04-12T22:00:00.005-05:00

Writing personal essays drill 2: an anecdote (dialogs, gestures, and characters)

It was yesterday. The elevator stopped on the 6^th floor. I had a disturbing feeling, because the person whom I least wished to encounter, particularly in a small place like this elevator, lived on the 6^th floor. The door was open. My instinct was unfortunately correct. It was him! I kept silent and so did he. The door was closed. What an uncomfortable silence! I tried to be cool, so asked with slight hesitation, “How are you, Sir?” He answered in a low tone, “I’m fine… and you?” while looking at the elevator door. I answered back, “I’m fine, thank you.” There was still a moment of silence until the elevator door was finally open on the 7^th floor, my destination. I walked out of the elevator. The conversation was very dry, but rather hopeful.

On a beautiful day in October last year, there was a fierce fight in this building while I was out. When I came home, there was a police car in front of the building and a number of residents were in the lobby, forming a strange and heavy air. This is what happened: a drunken young man threatened an older man and chased him with a vodka bottle. The old man ran into his apartment. The young man kicked the door and shouted. The old man pulled out his gun, opened the door, and shot the young man in the chest. The young man was moved to a hospital and the old man was arrested. My anxiety level soared. Two days later, I read an article copied from the Chicago Tribune in the building mail room. It said that the old man was released because the gun shot was for self-defense and the young man was in a critical condition but would survive. I got furious. The young man didn’t behave, but the old man's life was not threatened when he fired his gun. Am I too stupid not to have a gun to protect my property? Why do the police exist? How horrible to imagine all the residents keep a gun in their apartment in the name of protection! I sought consolation from my friend. She said that it is a law that anyone can shoot whoever treads into their property, and suggested that I talk to the residents of the building about my concerns and be pro-active. I calmed down.

Early in the morning the next day, it was good to meet Mr Franklin, a janitor of the building and my closest neighbor, who had used to call me his princess. I said, “Good morning, Mr. Franklin. I read the article about the fight. What’s going to happen? Will the guy who has a gun be back here?” He said, “Two people fought with each other, so one should move out.” I said, “I can’t believe it was self-defense. He was in his apartment. He could have called the police.” He answered, “He called 911 or police. It seems that he did what he should do… If someone says I am fat and kicks my apartment door, I will do the same thing if I have a gun. I will kill him. I don’t care what others say. I will protect my property.” My blood stopped circulating for a moment. I burst out crying, “You scare me. I won’t talk to you. I will move out.” I walked backward, and he shouted, “We are in America!”

It’s April. I am still in America and live in the same place. But since that morning, I have never talked to any resident in this building about the incident. I was afraid that it would only jeopardiz myself while I looked for consensus and support. I have secluded myself in my little cocoon for the last several months. Yesterday, for the first time after the dispute I talked to Mr. Franklin. Will he call me his princess again sometime soon?

My Ideal Man

2008-04-07T23:47:00.005-05:00

Writing personal essays drill 1: a character sketch

To my eyes, there was no man as handsome as him. To my best knowledge, he was the only one in town who wore black sun glasses. There was not a single gray hair on his head. He had a big belly that no one would attempt to attack. He looked awesome in his dark blue suit and shiny black shoes. He was my ideal man.

Coming back from his office, he almost always had a package of yogurt. Did he love yogurt so much? I am not sure. During holiday seasons he used to buy pills for stomach ache in advance and placed them on a shelf. One of us always ran into them. In the evening of one of those days, he grabbed my hand and walked to a watch shop. Even when he finally put a watch around my wrist and paid for it, I hardly believed that he was buying one for me. At the age of eight I became a watch owner. Don’t imagine a Mickey Mouse or Snow White type of kid’s watch. It was a real one with twelve numbers and three needles. Worrying about jealousy which might arise from my siblings or cousins, I did my best to control my exuberance and concealed the brand new watch under long sleeves. But, I still wonder why he did that all of sudden. Was I his favorite? I doubt it because my mother told me that he refused to see me when I was born. Why? Because I was the second girl that my mother brought to the family. Imagine how she must have felt after the painful delivery. I was born with a sin--an unwelcome baby girl. But, guess. I had a healthy little brother then.

On my lucky evenings, I heard him playing his accordion, a shiny blue one, or his mandolin. It might have been old pop songs. I don't remember. But how exotic was the sound coming from the mandolin attached to his big belly! He was a lady’s man, and my ideal man. Then he stopped working. His hair was still black, but I rarely saw him in his fine dress. He spent most of time at home. No more package of yogurt in his arm. I only stared at the accordion and the mandolin on the shelves. But did it matter? We jogged early in the morning. Well, in fact, he only walked. But did it matter? We breathed in cold and fresh air together then.

He became more withered like a weak tree. His hair was still black. Where did his big belly go? He moved very slowly, and one day, stopped moving altogether... Where is his mandolin now?

Megalos

2008-04-01T10:12:00.000-05:00

Dear Friends,

Wishing you a year of peace, health and personal fulfillment. I continue to be astounded at the blessings (people) in my life.

This fall I started to work on a film with Muhammad Yunus, the 2006 Nobel Peace prize laureate, an amazing man. Dr. Yunus is the Bangladeshi economist who started using and developing microcredit in the 1970s and has transformed Bangladesh through his work. Perhaps the most powerful thing I’ve learned from being with this inspiring and humble man is this:

One individual CAN indeed change the world.

I now know this in every cell of my being. What an empowering and frightening concept! It puts all the responsibility into OUR own hands. It’s something that should be taught, but everything in our culture conspires to keep us from recognizing and believing this.

If you’re looking for a way to nudge our world to a better place, you could do worse than starting here:
http://storyofstuff.com

Much love,

Bill

Gustavo Dudamel for Stravinsky's Firebird

2008-03-24T21:31:00.009-05:00

A very young Venezuelan conductor. I went to a concert at San Francisco Symphony orchestra on Friday, March 21. "The Firebird(1910)" composed by Stravinsky was marvelous in that the conductor's powerfully expressive interpretation was seamlessly echoed throughout the stage. I happened to be at the center terrace--it was the cheapest, but the best seat in fact. Kirill Gerstein played Piano concerto No. 1 by Rachmaninov. His fingers seemed to have no weight. I feel like listening to Rachmaninov again.

Symphony Orchestra reflecting the SF city hall

Orchestra hall--why are orchestra halls always reddish?

Paulo Freire

2008-03-17T11:21:00.000-05:00

Self-sufficiency is incompatible with dialogue.

Asperation

2006-03-05T19:09:00.000-06:00

Yi Je-ha, 1987

This work is quite strong in that it describes the very life of Korean painters, who are very much disintegrated from everyday life and the subject matters of novels. The writer keeps the tension between a painter and a story teller and finally goes beyond the trend, unbearable lightness of writing, in Korean contemporary novels.

Blindness

2006-03-05T18:54:00.000-06:00

José Saramago, 1995

It begins with a striking sequence--people becomes blind one by one. We do not know where and when it happens and what they are called. People lose their sight because of extraordinary brightness coming through their eyes. When a couple of hundreds people detained in a ward move out due to the hungry, they realize everyone has become blind. Everyone loses dignity and humanity. They all exist as an anonymous who only has basic desire to survive. In the end, they regain their sight the way they lost their sight.

This novel reminds me of "The Invasion of Body snatchers", where everyone loses their emotion. I am looking forward to reading his another novel,"Baltazar and Blimunda", which brought the nobel prize for literature.

Iberia

2006-02-19T00:00:00.002-06:00

Carlos Saura, Spain, 2005

The magician of visual composition. "Carmen" was a very interesting movie and the one that I came to know the director, but despite the stunning plot and a few striking shots, it remains in somewhat a traditional storytelling movie, where modern technique is hardly seen. But "Iberia", which is composed of a sequence of flamenco dancing in the name of various places in Spain, doesn't have a plot. Only each section delivers emotion and insinuates a bit of story via music and dance. Such vivid lighting, strong contrast in the color and brightness and an extraorinary use of mirrors and video projections in the stage make each scene stand out as a still image. When it comes to flamenco, it doesn't seem to be made for young ballerinas who have a perfect structure of bones and muscles. This dance goes well with some fat and even better with aging. It also seems very adequate with blue jeans. Saura says that he wanted to become a dancer and used to be a photographer. Considering his careers, the result seen in "Iberia" is not unusual, but the sense of graphical use of technology must be something he trains himself with.

John Zorn

2006-02-16T23:15:00.000-06:00

...thrilled experiment on the edge.
John Zorn: alto saxophone
Dave Douglas: trumpet
Greg Cohen: bass
Kenny Wollesen: drums

It's a very different kind of jazz. The only way of listening to his music is being engaged up to the tips of my fingers. I strongly felt that music players should enjoy themselves while performing in order to impress their audience. Tyring to play the best is not the best idea. Self-indulgence with zeal may bring chemistry with the audience. Am I ready for my recital in March?

Caché

2006-01-14T20:36:00.000-06:00

Michael Haneke, 2005

Kids are not free from wickedness. They struggle to keep their castle safe one way or another, which may result in irrevokable pains to their peers, but they tend to easily forget, be happy with secure freedom and move on to their gifted life path. Then, what would you do later if you found out a small leakage in the solid castle you have built and realized the leakage was related to a mischief you had committed when you were in age 6? What could be the most disturbing to you? The intolerable outer force penetrating the wall, sinful bitterness, or your conscientiousness? Sure, the “hidden” memory won’t just pertain to someone’s childhood memory.

The director, who also wrote the script, doesn’t waste time for creating mood or giving pretext. The film goes to the point immediately. Tensions are built among present and past relationships and some are abruptly resolved, but soon the resolution turns out only to be transformed. There is no end in this film. In the thematic concerns or plot-wise, this film resembles his earlier work, “Code Unknown”. But personally the impression that I got from “La Pianiste (The Piano Teacher)” made me anxious to see this film. “La Pianist”, in which the narrative is developed with full of visual subtlties and artistic metaphors, is an unusually intensive film.

Hermann Hesse strictly made no one make a movie out of his novels in order to keep the essential quality of literature, but I think Haneke wouldn’t make a terrible mistake if he made a film based on one of his novels.

Travel to Panama

2006-01-02T20:06:00.000-06:00

Part 1: Hiking
After watching the Miraflores canal locks, I left Panama City for Santa Fe. It is a small mountain valley town. I took a horseback riding tour to Alto de Piedras with my guide Cesamo. On this tiny and slow horse, I looked around so green mountains and thanks to him, I had a chance to visit “The house of Orchids”, which has lots of orchids in the garden. Then I headed off to Boquete.

In Boquete, I visited a bakery. Surprisingly, they were playing Korean music! Guess what. The owner is Korean. I planed to hike in Senderos Los Quetzales with one of the girls who worked at the bakery in the following day. But she didn’t show up, instead I was tied with a hiking tour group. They were waiting for their guide, Pete. Our mission was making a hiking path in “Bajo Mono” with our bodies and a machete. We had to climb a long slide by hangning our body in a rope. Small rocks kept rolling down and luckily enough I was able to evade a critical danger from one of the rocks thanks to Frank. We took the same path on our return under rains. Now the slide turned into an unforgiving mudslide. After the adventure, we went to Caldera hot springs. Don’t mention how beautiful the sky was that night!

Mission Impossible 1

Mission Impossible 2

I hiked another day to Senderos Los Quetzales again with Pete, his assistant Beto, Cindy and Denise, who are from Colorado. This well maintained path led a very beautiful cloud forest. How can I describe the crystal-clean green color of leaves after raindrops and the green fresh air? After a short visit to Finca La Suiza, I joined Cindy and Denise in Las Lajas.

Part 2: Las Lajas Beach
One day I ran along the beach for quite long time, but couldn’t see the end. This wide and long beach was usually very quite except right around Christmas days. I learned boogie board surfing from Denise. Here whenever we ask, “when?” the answer is always the same, “later.” Although my back was badly burned within the first hour on the beach, I miss the layback place so much.

Castle

Sunset

View from my room

Kim Kwang-Suk

2005-12-30T11:51:00.000-06:00

<잊어야 한다는 마음으로>

잊어야 한다는 마음으로
내 텅 빈 방문을 닫은 채로
아직도 남아 있는 너의 향기
내 텅 빈 방 안에 가득한데
이렇게 홀로 누워 천장을 보니
눈앞에 글썽이는 너의 모습
잊으려 돌아누운 내 눈가에
말 없이 흐르는 이슬 방울들
지나간 시간은 추억 속에 묻히면 그만인 것을
나는 왜 이렇게 긴긴 밤을 또 잊지 못해 새울까
창틈에 기다리던 새벽이 오면
어제보다 커진 내 방 안에
하얗게 밝아온 유리창에
썼다 지운다 널 사랑해

Van Gogh

2005-12-10T23:51:00.000-06:00

Just before determining to become an artist, he wrote the following letter to his brother from a mining town.

"You know what will cause the prison to collapse? A deep, genuine love, being friends and brothers, loving one another; that will break down the gates of the prison with irresitable force. Those who possess none of this, stay dead. But where friendship blooms, life is reborn."

The Midsummer Marriage

2005-12-07T00:01:00.000-06:00

Michael Tippett
premiere in 1955, England

While the lyrics are dismantled in my sight due to the discontinuity of the lines--odd, it seems like adding some melodies to a normal speech,--the symbolic and surrealistic stage under the psychedelic neon-color lighting intrigues me throughout the opera. Props and performers move not only horizontally but also vertically so that the stage engages the audience in its full scale. When the singers don't sing, the opera becomes more adorable. Dramatic movements that dancers make in Act II express wildness of beasts very well and the accompanying music sounds more beautiful than any other parts. Perhaps the composer knew the weakness and the strength of his opera. He strived to initiate an "English" opera in the mid-20th century.

Pak Wan-Suh

2005-12-04T02:09:00.000-06:00

"Whisper"

Hesse questioned a dictum made by Wilhelm Schäfer about the poet's task: "It is not the poet's business to express what is simple significantly but what is significant simply." Reading the passage with slight uneasiness, he turned it upside down as painters do when they judge a picture: "It is not the poet's business to express what is significant simply but rather what is simple significantly." He thought that the poet's duty was not to select important things and present them to readers, but to find eternity in every trivia and revive the life from it.

While reading "Whisper", which consists of several short stories, I found Hesse's dictum resounding in this book. Pak Wan-Suh might be one of the most unpretentious storytellers who replicate the spontaneity of oral tradition. Sentences flow just like small streams in a mountain. Here is a brief of the story, 'The Last King'.

Long long time ago, there was a generous King who thought that everyone should be happy equally. So everyone was happy and King was respected. But there was one restriction, which was no one should be happier than King. One day, King encountered a young father who was a small village reader and seemed to be happier than himself. Every one in the village liked him because he was just and helpful. So, King thought his occupation made him happy, so robbed him of the position. Later King found the young man still happier than him, so took his wealth, his family and his freedom away from him one by one. But the young man sang beautiful songs even in prison and seemed to be happier than King. King who couldn't stand this brought him a drink with poison in it. The young man keeping a beautiful face, neither happy nor despairing, was willing to take the poison, saying that owing to King now he could stay with his wife. King thought the man was still happier even at this final moment. Out of jealousy, he took the poison the man was about to drink and swallowed it himself.

Best wishes

2005-12-04T01:46:00.000-06:00

May you enjoy your days, each one of them.

March of the Penguins

2005-12-03T00:34:00.000-06:00

Luc Jacquet, France (2005)

They "walk" just like I do and "slip" on the snow just like I do. Amazingly precise their instincts call themselves to the place where they were born four years ago and they all march together to get there. Finally when they find their mate, they stand side by side peacefully. Once they have an egg, mother leaves to eat and father keeps the egg against severe weather for four months without any food. The severity bonds them to make a habitat with their own bodies in the open air. When mother comes back, she sees her baby and takes a turn to keep it warm under her body while father leaves for food. Finally, summer comes. All march back to the ocean and even the little chicks now should be independent. They no longer have their parents who have protected so hard. And their history continues.

I think of a documentary film about insects' life that I saw about a decade ago. I haven't seen insects with such intimacy before. Although I don't remember their life in detail any longer, beautiful vibrant colors full of screen still remain in me. I believe it was also made by Frenches, who even invented a special lens to show the tiny creatures. Do they have special eyes looking through lens?

Emmanuel Coindre

2005-11-29T21:50:00.000-06:00

L'Express du 24/11/2005

"Je savais que le Pacifique nord était la route des dépressions et de la démesure. Et j'ai eu des conditions dantesques, avec 49 jours de vents contraires sur 129 de traversée. Je ramais parfois 18 heures par jour pour avancer d'un mille nautique [1 852 mètres]. Moralement, il fallait que j'avance, même de si peu. Quand on est seul en mer pendant 4 mois, on s'accroche à certains actes de la vie quotidienne. Je me rasais une fois par semaine. Je priais, je pleurais, je chantais. Comme à terre. Deux goélands m'ont suivi du début à la fin. Je les avais baptisés Jonathan et Seven. Ils me rendaient visite tous les jours. A la fin, je ne savais plus qui suivait qui."

Stevie Wonder

2005-11-27T21:23:00.000-06:00

L'Express du 17/11/2005

j'espère réveiller quelques consciences. La décharge électrique et funk de la guitare de Prince sur ce morceau était essentielle pour faire passer le courant. D'emblée, je me suis mis à jouer des percussions. Certes, nous ne sommes qu'un grain de sable, mais, si chaque être faisait chaque jour un geste pour la paix, pour l'égalité et le respect de la vie, tout pourrait changer. ( Grâce à lui, le jour de l'anniversaire de la naissance de Martin Luther King devienne une fête nationale aux Etats-Unis, proposition qui fut entérinée en 1984.)

Pak Kyung-Lee

2005-11-25T01:15:00.000-06:00

"생명의 아픔" 중

그러나 사방에 충만한 생명의 소리를 듣는 것이 반갑지 않고 몹시 괴롭다. 10여 년 전, 기르던 꿩들이 도망하여 울타리 밖 숲 속에서 살았는데 꿩이 우는 소리를 들으며 아직 살아 있었구나 싶어 반갑게 안도의 숨을 내쉬었다. 이제는 꿩 우는 소리에 가슴이 아프다. 어디 가서 저 새들은 새로운 보금자리를 만들 것인가 싶어서...

당시의 원주는 추운 곳이었습니다. 삭막한 군사도시에는 감나무는 물론 백일홍도 없었습니다. 어떤 분은 내가 글 쓰기 위해 원주로 왔다고 생각하는 모양이지만 그건 내게 사치스런 것이었습니다. 나는 인생만큼 문학이 거룩하고 절실하다고 생각하지 않습니다. 단구동의 뜨락은 꽤 넓었고 그것이 내 세계의 전부였습니다. 삶은 준열하고 나날의 노동 없이는 내 자신이 분열되고 말 것만 같았고 긴장을 푸는 순간 눈은 감은 채 영원히 깨어나지 못할 것만 같았습니다. 모든 것을 거부하고 포기했으며 오로지 목숨을 부지한 것은 가엾은 내 딸, 손자의 눈빛 때문입니다. 그 때 머리가 다 빠지고 철색으로 변한 딸아이의 얼굴은 아직도 지워지지 않는 내 마음속의 짙은 피멍입니다. 그리고 언어가 지닌 피상적인 속성은 지금 이 순간에도 절감하고 있습니다. 진실에 도달할 수 없는 언어에 대한 몸부림, 그럼에도 우리는 그 언어에서 떠나질 못합니다. 그게 문학이 아니겠습니까. 그리고 그 시절, 거부하고 포기한, 극한적 고독의 산물이 "토지"였을 겁니다.

She is a great writer and conscientious intellectual.

Ichiro's passion

2005-11-21T17:15:00.000-06:00

Passing by me at the library, Ichiro wanted to show off his digital camera. Here is his work of art.

by Ichiro Yuhara

Old Boy

2005-11-19T23:56:00.000-06:00

Chan-wook Pak, Korea (2003)
Incest, vengeance, violence, self-destruction, fantasy, materialism... A colored-Japanese street cartoon could be more efficient to tell the same story. Would it be just out of my habit to constantly seek the subtitles? It has brilliant c0lor, but poor sound quality.

Spanish Harlem Orchestra

2005-11-18T23:52:00.000-06:00

Everyone dances. Delicacy, which is usually sought in many arts, is not immidiately visible. Instead, amusement of instances of being alive is eminent. This group reminds me of the days where I was traveling in Puerto Rico. In the middle of December, music and dances are all around the city San Juan. I buy their animated spirits, but they failed to put me in the mood for dancing tonight.

Billie & Me

2005-11-12T17:01:00.000-06:00

Terri Lyne Carrington, Director, Drum
Rita Coolidge/Niki Haris/Joan Osbourne/Dianne Reeves/Rotia Traoré, Vocals

It is a spectacular show which celebrates Billie Holiday's spirit and her music. The story follows Holiday's passion about her music and her struggle to go through amid white male dominant music industry. Another time, I wish to take a close look into the lyrics of her music.

Osbourne has a pristine vocal style in comparison with Coolidge and Haris and "I'm a fool to want you" she presented still hangs around my ears. Reeves has a charisma and responds to her expected fame. Her duet song--I think it is "Endangered species", or it doesn't matter anyway--with Traoré is the zenith tonight. Traoré has a very unusual style in that her voice sounds fragile but not vulnerable, rather even spiritual. Her voice seems to come from a temple in a deep mountain. Metal instruments don't go well with her voice and only a few percussions and a bass might be the best match for her. I wish to see Reeves and Traoré together another time.

I cannot help thinking of the show that I saw last summer in Paris, which was about Edite Piaf. Several musicians (or performers) sang Piaf's songs on a small stage with some dance. What makes me feel more sympathy toward Holiday is the hardship she went through and a role model she left to others--at least as far as I can tell after seeing the two shows. Bitterness in life gives one a unique opportunity to mature. But how can one turn the bitterness into the ripe?

A History of Violence

2005-11-05T21:03:00.000-06:00

Directed by David Cronenberg (2005)

Cronenberg had left me a sensation of nauseating horror from "Videodrome" and "Crash". (I am just amazed that he also directed "M. Butterfly", which is quite different from his other works.) Just out of curiosity about how he described violence, I went to a theatre on a rainly Saturday afternoon.

The film begins with such a weary dialog between two murderers. The car slowly moves and so does the camera, then it reveals three murdered bodies uniquely. First is from the murderer's eyes when he entered the room, second is after his pushing an object in front of the camera, then the third is by taking a shot of a gun. This prelude, which could be an independent short movie, sets fire on this film.

Tom Stall(by Viggo Mortensen), who is a business owner of a small restaurant in a small town, has those two murderes in his restaurant and comes to kill them to protect others. This somewhat secretly reserved guy becomes a national hero and receives unwanted guests from an organized criminal group. According to them, Tom used be Joey Cusack and their brother. In spite of his apparent denial, it seems to be true and their conflicts are well expected, but how will they be resolved?

He says that it took three years to forget Joey and become Tom and he thought Joey had been dead. His wife avoids him, calling him Joey. Is it impossible to change one's identity? Can only one identity exist per person? How much do we owe to our past life to live as the one we like to be?

It might be very difficult to find any better title than "A History of Violence" for this film. I think of "The Passenger", where Jack Nicholson takes a chance to live as someone else and is destined to be killed. I feel exhausted.

Manon Lescaut

2005-11-01T00:29:00.000-06:00

Giacomo Puccini
Vladimir Galouzine (Des Grieux)
Katrina Mattila (Manon Lescaut)

ACT I
Beautiful Manon, who is on the way to a convent, flees with Des Grieux, who falls in love with her at the first glance. Manon, beautiful but sad, is irresolute, but to escape from an abduct planned by an old rich man, she has no other choice than leaving with Des Grieux. The orchestra overwhelms arias and I am thinking how much I paied for this.

ACT II
Manon enjoys the luxury in the palace of the old rich man in Paris. This advent was only insinuated by her brother in the end of Act I. He told the old rich man that Manon who envies the wealth would come back to him. What would be more interesting to me is why Manon, who was seemingly distressed--remember that she was on the way to a convent--and also loved Des Grieux so much, left him. Amid the jewelry, she now misses the kisses from Des Grieux. Stupidity and vanity! By her brother's help, Manon meets Des Grieux in secret. From this moment, the opera goes on basically by those two. Galouzine has an amazingly expressive voice. Mattila has rather a weak voice, but bursts out in high tones. Des Grieux asks Manon to leave with him again, but Manon's reluctance to leaving behind the jewelry finally makes her be arrested. Manon's own word describing her vacillation between love and luxury: "How bittersweet, this pain."

ACT III and IV
Deserted in a plain in Lousiana, America, Manon slowly dies. Des Grieux, who followed her destiny, cries out.

The music is rather gloomy sometimes, but beautiful. But a more beautiful thing is Galouzine's confident, expressive, and compelling voice. On the other hand, I don't care for the narrative. That's why the literature has its own merit to explore the humanities among other art forms.

Rodin

2005-10-26T18:29:00.000-05:00

The egony of being, at the Museum of Rodin, Paris, 2005.

Bassist Stanley Clarke

2005-10-23T23:50:00.000-05:00

Trio!
Stanley Clarke, Bass
Béla Fleck, Banjo
Jean-Luc Ponty, Violin
...at Chicago Symphony Center

A week ago, I told my friend that it was not easy for me to appreciate the bass itself because the tone tends to be very low and never predominant. But today, I need to change what I said. Most of all I haven't seen a more wonderful picture of a man with a bass than tonight. The big instrument always seemed to suspend the player in an awkward position. But Mr. Clarke dominates the instrument and plays with it. The gigantic instrument sometimes becomes a drum with trembling strings or sometimes becomes a guitar which seems to be passed onto a Spanish flamenco music player. All the time he looks much more passionate than any flamenco dancer. I am deeply impressed that one can explode such dynamic sound and rhythm from the bass.

Mr. Ponty also presents violin sound which I never heard before. It seems that he doesn't care making beatiful melody and he likes to go beyond the tone within which any one may like to stay. Who cares occasional weird peaks when a magnificent violinst doesn't mind. It is powerful.

Only one who is not afraid of failing can go beyond. I was thinking whether I could play jazz when I would be comfortable with my flute. Perhaps...