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Wednesday, 13. September 2006
universities matter
today in "the boston globe" there were two editorial articles and both of them - on universities. one was the famous khatami visit to harvard and later M.I.T., and the other - on harvard's decision to end early admissions which will enable less rich students to be accepted in greater numbers. then there were some more articles... on the refusal by boston college to invite khatami to an islamic art exhibition and on the whole khatami issue in general... how do universities allow themselves to have the fierce femminist movements and critics of the government and at the same time invite to speak someone in whose country women are more persecuted than in the states and which has less democratic politics than the bush administration? some say, it's the manifestation of the freedom of speech, that universities are an example of the open discussion. the others, however, think that this was a purely political act - to welcome a less radical figure than ahmadinejad and demonstrate that this is the course of iran that washington expects to be the right one. in any case, i wanted to point out not the debate on khatami's visit, but the fact that universities matter here. they make the editorials. they make the news. i have never seen a front page article on vilnius university... that it did something, that it didn't do something. yes, sometimes there are news about some shameful things... or even about the need to reform the university system. but never the university plays a significant role in the country's affairs. it has no voice whatsoever. while here every day they matter. the universities and their pluralism.
but universities here do have problems as well. the main one, which is so far from what we are troubled about at home, where the complains on the quality of studies are the most important, is the money. it is too expensive to study here. 40 thousand dollars per year or more... brandeis is more expensive. it is small, it has brilliant professors and visiting lecturers and politicians, it is one of the most conscious on political matters, although it is jewish, having some major palestinians (or at least the one that simon told me about but i forgot... someone who is the brother of someone who is the leader of some most radical islamist movements) and others... the question of the izraeli-lebanon conflict was discussed in a conference here, by the way, but this issue needs more space and time than i can afford now... brandeis also has all the fancy facilities i already mentioned, that is, free buses around town and even to boston downtown, free printing and copying, computer and study center working all night, the four-floor library open till midnight, dozens of clubs - political, sports, cultural etc., you can also find somewhere to eat for free almost every day... and on fridays all graduate students have an event called T.G.I.F. which stands for "thanks god it's friday", where we get free snacks and free wine and beer... and then there are parties at night just in front of the main library or the shapiro - the multifuncional student space. the campus is alive day and night. and at night the green soccer field is usually full. actually, in the main rankings of universities in the united states - the U.S. news and world report - brandeis is the 31. and it is number four in massachusetts after harvard, M.I.T. and Tufts. these are very good indications. although in lithuania and probably europe nobody knows of brandeis as it is really small compared to the others, in the states everybody knows it. and knows it's good. and very expensive. and has a wonderful program of anthropology:) i'll have to get a brandeis pullover next month... i'm becoming patriotic:) but it's worth... i know that there are so many greater ones and maybe i should find one for my phd, but brandeis is like home.
but universities here do have problems as well. the main one, which is so far from what we are troubled about at home, where the complains on the quality of studies are the most important, is the money. it is too expensive to study here. 40 thousand dollars per year or more... brandeis is more expensive. it is small, it has brilliant professors and visiting lecturers and politicians, it is one of the most conscious on political matters, although it is jewish, having some major palestinians (or at least the one that simon told me about but i forgot... someone who is the brother of someone who is the leader of some most radical islamist movements) and others... the question of the izraeli-lebanon conflict was discussed in a conference here, by the way, but this issue needs more space and time than i can afford now... brandeis also has all the fancy facilities i already mentioned, that is, free buses around town and even to boston downtown, free printing and copying, computer and study center working all night, the four-floor library open till midnight, dozens of clubs - political, sports, cultural etc., you can also find somewhere to eat for free almost every day... and on fridays all graduate students have an event called T.G.I.F. which stands for "thanks god it's friday", where we get free snacks and free wine and beer... and then there are parties at night just in front of the main library or the shapiro - the multifuncional student space. the campus is alive day and night. and at night the green soccer field is usually full. actually, in the main rankings of universities in the united states - the U.S. news and world report - brandeis is the 31. and it is number four in massachusetts after harvard, M.I.T. and Tufts. these are very good indications. although in lithuania and probably europe nobody knows of brandeis as it is really small compared to the others, in the states everybody knows it. and knows it's good. and very expensive. and has a wonderful program of anthropology:) i'll have to get a brandeis pullover next month... i'm becoming patriotic:) but it's worth... i know that there are so many greater ones and maybe i should find one for my phd, but brandeis is like home.
jusionyte, 22:03h
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Tuesday, 12. September 2006
rousseau and the paradise lost
last night i only slept two hours because i was reading "a discourse on inequality" by jean-jacques rousseau. the beginning of the major anthropological problems... he is trying to discover how it came to be that people are different and the society - a stratified mass of unhappy individuals. there are NATURAL or ORIGINAL differences between men and there are the ARTIFICIAL or INSTITUTED ones. in the state of nature - the imagined beginning, where people lived free, peaceful and naked - there was no property and no inequality except as for race or strenght or other similar qualities. unlike hobbes, rousseau thinks that those savages as he calls them were friendly and not in the state of war of all against all. but then one man just said "this hut is mine" and nobody objected.
the creation of society led to the creation of the social contract and of the brutal civilization we now (then) have (had). "back to nature", "back to simple"... these are well-known to many marxist or anarchist or libertarian thinkers, although for rousseau it is only the imaginary... remember lacan? rousseau does not tell people to go back to pre-political living together in families... at least that's what he said explicitly... however, the pictures of kolbein and the story of the hottentot makes me doubt this... the paradise lost or the paradise never had? and then there are more fundamental problems which have been haunting anthropology, such as the quest to find the authentic - rousseau wants to find the original man, without all the attachments that progress has made him have... without the contamination. the same with maya in guatemala where the wearing of traditional traje is supposed to be the symbol of the indigenous. but what indigenous? what is authenticity... the beauty queen of guatemala is a ladina... not an indian... rousseau is an anthropologist at work in his armchair. he distances from geneva which he left... to the citizens of geneva a citizen of geneva even if he was not born here, although he was... complex of stepping inside and then outside, the emic and the ethic... to be objective. the imaginary can tell more than personal experiences.
the creation of society led to the creation of the social contract and of the brutal civilization we now (then) have (had). "back to nature", "back to simple"... these are well-known to many marxist or anarchist or libertarian thinkers, although for rousseau it is only the imaginary... remember lacan? rousseau does not tell people to go back to pre-political living together in families... at least that's what he said explicitly... however, the pictures of kolbein and the story of the hottentot makes me doubt this... the paradise lost or the paradise never had? and then there are more fundamental problems which have been haunting anthropology, such as the quest to find the authentic - rousseau wants to find the original man, without all the attachments that progress has made him have... without the contamination. the same with maya in guatemala where the wearing of traditional traje is supposed to be the symbol of the indigenous. but what indigenous? what is authenticity... the beauty queen of guatemala is a ladina... not an indian... rousseau is an anthropologist at work in his armchair. he distances from geneva which he left... to the citizens of geneva a citizen of geneva even if he was not born here, although he was... complex of stepping inside and then outside, the emic and the ethic... to be objective. the imaginary can tell more than personal experiences.
jusionyte, 21:28h
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Tuesday, 12. September 2006
9/11
nine eleven. five years have passed since the day in early september when i got back from school and was doing homework of geopolitics and dad called me... to watch tv and see something too incredible to believe on cnn.
five years is already an anniversary. brandeis marked it rather silently... with many american flags in front of the shapiro campus center where students are writing their papers all night, some lecture by professor linenthal, well-known for his books on the establishment of the holocaust museum in washington and the oklahoma city memorial.
how is a trategy to be momorialized? does the voice of the survivors mean more than the one of the historians who see the whole picture and all the sides? why do these deaths count more, why are the names of these people read aloud every year to remember and the other deaths in the world just don't matter? like the iranian plain that was shot down by the us some time ago? and what if someone is forgotten? and who are the survivors? those who suffered injuries or also those who were luckily late? or the citizens living in the neighborhood? and who should decide on how to memorialize the tragedy? the government, the united nations or people who live in downtown manhattan? discussions on leaving the wound open and deleting it from memory. and students... telling where they were five years ago and how what looked like the hollywood-style movie on the screen changed their lives... in colombia, in new york, in india. for the "museums and public memory" class we have an asignment... to collect some memories and some reflections... "generation 9/11" i'll call it, although i only have three so far - simon's and tathagata's, his indian roommate's, and bernard's. bernard is from new orleans. katrina took his father and his home. he was just sitting in from with a mug of coffee when i asked him about 9/11. i don't know him. but he looks sad. one of those late night encounters that mean a lot, that make you think. and that never repeat again.
but i did meet one artist from haiti on campus today... nobody was buying his postcards and paintings. but i liked them... and he told me some stories about how to create what is real although never seen.
dances in paradise. on september eleventh.
five years is already an anniversary. brandeis marked it rather silently... with many american flags in front of the shapiro campus center where students are writing their papers all night, some lecture by professor linenthal, well-known for his books on the establishment of the holocaust museum in washington and the oklahoma city memorial.
how is a trategy to be momorialized? does the voice of the survivors mean more than the one of the historians who see the whole picture and all the sides? why do these deaths count more, why are the names of these people read aloud every year to remember and the other deaths in the world just don't matter? like the iranian plain that was shot down by the us some time ago? and what if someone is forgotten? and who are the survivors? those who suffered injuries or also those who were luckily late? or the citizens living in the neighborhood? and who should decide on how to memorialize the tragedy? the government, the united nations or people who live in downtown manhattan? discussions on leaving the wound open and deleting it from memory. and students... telling where they were five years ago and how what looked like the hollywood-style movie on the screen changed their lives... in colombia, in new york, in india. for the "museums and public memory" class we have an asignment... to collect some memories and some reflections... "generation 9/11" i'll call it, although i only have three so far - simon's and tathagata's, his indian roommate's, and bernard's. bernard is from new orleans. katrina took his father and his home. he was just sitting in from with a mug of coffee when i asked him about 9/11. i don't know him. but he looks sad. one of those late night encounters that mean a lot, that make you think. and that never repeat again.
but i did meet one artist from haiti on campus today... nobody was buying his postcards and paintings. but i liked them... and he told me some stories about how to create what is real although never seen.
dances in paradise. on september eleventh.
jusionyte, 01:18h
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Sunday, 10. September 2006
birthday at M.I.T.
saturday was ksenia’s birthday, taking into consideration our permanent failures to organize a meeting, probably the only possibility to gather more than two fulbright students in one place. with two bottles of red wine – one from california, another one naturally from chile – and the pineapple i got at “hannaford’s” diego and i started from the harvard square to look for hampshire street in cambridge. on the way i couldn’t help not taking picture of one of the figures showing that elections are coming…
he knew some polish, which somehow i didn’t trust… and some bosnian… and learned “labas”… and gave us a sheet for signing as the supporters of the republicans. i think that won’t work… but again my camera puts us in somehow interesting situations and interesting conversations, diego observed…
the party was outside, in the sun that unexpectedly returned to new england. in fact it was almost as hot and as humid as in the good old times in miami:) well, maybe less, but at least a reminder of that. something 84 degrees fahrenheit… minus 32 and divided by two that makes 26 degrees celsius.
the other two fulbrighters that were there was karima and ulrike – both from germany. karima is studying fine arts and has a wonderful studio overlooking downtown boston for her paintings. and ulrike is studying american culture, although she graduated from anthropology, so a familiar soul:)
then there was the russian role-playing-loving company that i met a week ago.
after eating some self-boiled meat and mushrooms we headed towards M.I.T. (the massachusetts institute of technology, i think the best university of sciences in the world) where there was a movie arranged for our company – monty python and the holy grail. what i really liked was the infinite or never-ending corridor of M.I.T. and the famous white dome during the blue hour… and not the full bag of diet and normal coke that we had…
after the movie we headed home… in the subway you can find different things to do while waiting… there is the history of cambridge on the walls, there are the musical hammers that you can move with the handle on the wall…
unfortunately, karima left her photo camera at M.I.T. and had to go back. diego was too tired to do anything. and i caught my free brandeis shuttle from harvard square to go home… with several dozens of undergraduate students after their first time in boston downtown… talking about everything, except anything serious… well, let’s face it, it was only loud discussion of how who looks, who is pretty and who is not, who has fashionable clothes and who goes out with whom. really interesting to listen to that for half an hour on my way here and the same on the way back:) but people say that with weeks there will be less freshmen heading downtown or to cambridge… the sooner, the better.
as my cell phone was dead, i couldn’t call simon… but he was writing his paper for school, anyway… and stephan and uli were somewhere climbing the mountains… so i just went home. and had a really deep sleep:)
he knew some polish, which somehow i didn’t trust… and some bosnian… and learned “labas”… and gave us a sheet for signing as the supporters of the republicans. i think that won’t work… but again my camera puts us in somehow interesting situations and interesting conversations, diego observed…
the party was outside, in the sun that unexpectedly returned to new england. in fact it was almost as hot and as humid as in the good old times in miami:) well, maybe less, but at least a reminder of that. something 84 degrees fahrenheit… minus 32 and divided by two that makes 26 degrees celsius.
the other two fulbrighters that were there was karima and ulrike – both from germany. karima is studying fine arts and has a wonderful studio overlooking downtown boston for her paintings. and ulrike is studying american culture, although she graduated from anthropology, so a familiar soul:)
then there was the russian role-playing-loving company that i met a week ago.
after eating some self-boiled meat and mushrooms we headed towards M.I.T. (the massachusetts institute of technology, i think the best university of sciences in the world) where there was a movie arranged for our company – monty python and the holy grail. what i really liked was the infinite or never-ending corridor of M.I.T. and the famous white dome during the blue hour… and not the full bag of diet and normal coke that we had…
after the movie we headed home… in the subway you can find different things to do while waiting… there is the history of cambridge on the walls, there are the musical hammers that you can move with the handle on the wall…
unfortunately, karima left her photo camera at M.I.T. and had to go back. diego was too tired to do anything. and i caught my free brandeis shuttle from harvard square to go home… with several dozens of undergraduate students after their first time in boston downtown… talking about everything, except anything serious… well, let’s face it, it was only loud discussion of how who looks, who is pretty and who is not, who has fashionable clothes and who goes out with whom. really interesting to listen to that for half an hour on my way here and the same on the way back:) but people say that with weeks there will be less freshmen heading downtown or to cambridge… the sooner, the better.
as my cell phone was dead, i couldn’t call simon… but he was writing his paper for school, anyway… and stephan and uli were somewhere climbing the mountains… so i just went home. and had a really deep sleep:)
jusionyte, 18:31h
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Thursday, 7. September 2006
mokslai
kad isivaizduotumet, ka reiskia mokytis gerame amerikos universitete. visu pirma, niekas per paskaita neisvardina comto ar locko ideju, civilizaciju raidos stadiju ar kitu ivairiausiu klasifikaciju, kurias taip megstama itraukti i lietuviskuosius egzaminus. jei paminimas rousseau ar tacitas, tai reiskia, kad butina perskaityti bent viena jo veikala... visa. net antropologijos istorijai skaitom viska, pradedant "germania" ir hobbeso "leviathanu". kiekvienam kursui kiekviena diena taip tenka kazka skaityti... sunkiai pavargusioms akims lakstant senoviskos anglu kalbos sakiniais. toliau - paskaitos. ar seminarai, net nezinau, kaip teisingiau pavadinti. per juos aptariam tai, ka perskaitem. aptariam is esmes ir toli grazu ne turini. be to, destytojai neatsigina studentu klausimu... nespejam ismokti to, ka turim, nes visiems kyla daugybe klausimu ir minciu. arto, gaves darba pradinej mokykloj, siandien pasakojo, kad mokiniai taip pat be galo aktyvus ir nori viska zinoti... per ispanu kursus, destytoja is haicio turi aiskinti kiekviena smulkmena, nes studentai nori zinoti, kodel ir kaip. ir klausia po kelis kartus to paties. dar idomiau tai, kad kiekviena diena vienas destytojas atsinesa i auditorija visokiu idomiu sokiu kaukiu is burkina faso, keistu formu mediniu skulpturu bei kitu eksponatu, kuriuos interpretuojam ir su kuriais zaidziam. kita destytoja vakar rode "krikstatevi", o siandien - charlie chaplin "modern times". galiausiai, mokslai nesibaigia niekad. konferencijos, seminarai, muzieju lankymas, filmu ziurejimas - visa tai mokymosi dalis. tokio intensyvaus mokymosi, kad uz jo nieko nebelieka. tik tu ir gyvos knygos. mokytis, mokytis ir dar karta mokytis. visu kailiu:)
dar siek tiek apie mokslus. siandien "boston globe" raso apie nauja valstijose populiaria mada - mokytoju blogus. kur mokytojai apraso juokinga istorijas apie tai, kaip vaikai kazko nesupranta... arba apie tai, kad uzdraude klaseje vartoti zodi "stuff". tevai skaito mokytoju blogus, kiti mokytojai skaito, ir mokiniai taip pat. taciau "new york times" pastebi, kad vis daugiau studentu jav nebaigia universitetu... ir kad mokslas per brangus, tiesiog neikandamas skurdesniems gyventojams. bet massachusettse turbut daugiausia universitetu visose valstijose... kazkur skaiciau, kad ju cia yra simtas dvidesimt du. ir, kaip jau rasiau, mokslas yra madingas. o mados reikalauja auku:))) jau eisiu... dar daug puslapiu si vakara laukia...
dar siek tiek apie mokslus. siandien "boston globe" raso apie nauja valstijose populiaria mada - mokytoju blogus. kur mokytojai apraso juokinga istorijas apie tai, kaip vaikai kazko nesupranta... arba apie tai, kad uzdraude klaseje vartoti zodi "stuff". tevai skaito mokytoju blogus, kiti mokytojai skaito, ir mokiniai taip pat. taciau "new york times" pastebi, kad vis daugiau studentu jav nebaigia universitetu... ir kad mokslas per brangus, tiesiog neikandamas skurdesniems gyventojams. bet massachusettse turbut daugiausia universitetu visose valstijose... kazkur skaiciau, kad ju cia yra simtas dvidesimt du. ir, kaip jau rasiau, mokslas yra madingas. o mados reikalauja auku:))) jau eisiu... dar daug puslapiu si vakara laukia...
jusionyte, 23:42h
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Wednesday, 6. September 2006
kiekviena diena
mmm... rytas... turbut pirma karta per tiek savaiciu issimiegojau... puodelis arbatos ir sumustiniai su lasisa ryte... kelias i universiteta... nemokamas "the new york times" numeris... siandien apie imigracija... apie tai, kaip socialine gerove teikiama nelegaliems atvykeliams, kuriu kelionems per meksikos siena skiriami istisi romanai ir politologines studijos... ir dar apie meksika, calderona, artejancius kongreso rinkimus ir dar apie tai, kad irake vis daugiau zmoniu stovi eilese, noredami pasikeisti savo vardus... niekam nebemalonu buti sadamu... o jei dar sadamu husseinu al-majidu... "kad likciau gyvas", sako vienas laukiantysis gimimo sertifikatu kontoroje. kaip visada, pora straipsniu apie irana, keletas apie pietu afrika... beje, ka ten veikia putinas? palestina... zoroastrizmas cikagoje... tropines audros... verslas, kultura... ir atskiras priedas maistui. jau knygyne pastebejau, kad didele dalis antropologijos ir net sociologijos veikalu pastaraisiais metais skiriama valgymo iprociams. yra viena iseitis - "eat organic". bet jau turiu fetos, tad manieji vargai baigesi. o kas namie? saugumo departamento paslaptys... pasitrauke pociunas... bet nieko naujo apie uspaskicha, nei apie mazeikiu nafta... svarbios mazo krasto problemos. skotu sirgaliu siautejimas... ir rudenisku oru dvelksmas, lietui ir perkunijai vejant lauk vasara. metas eiti... spaudos puslapiai uzverciami. mokytis ispanu.
jusionyte, 11:26h
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