I'm going to fail this quiz

1) Aung San Suu Kyi

2) Cold War

3) ???

3) [There are two 3s] Footwear controversy

4) Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos

5) ????

6) Erh, floating mass?

6) [There are two 6s] Glasnost? Perestroika?

7) Erhhh, Guided Democracy??

8) National unity in Thailand (umbrella), maintained by Buddhism, the military, and the monarchy.
Posted by kungfuzi at 11:00 pm | 2 comments

  The Bollinger Lectures on the Theory and Practice of Despotism

I haven't read the transcript or watched a video of A-jad's performance yet, but all indications seem to be that he made Bollinger look like a fool, and a bad host to boot. As for the full and frank exchange of ideas that Bolly, Coatsworth, and co. hoped would take place, well, it didn't. Ross Douthat nails it: "There are no controversial ideas here; there are, in fact, no ideas at all." Net result: A-jad's reputation remains largely intact and possibly even goes up in the eyes of some leftists. Bolly and Columbia's image, hardly sterling to begin with -- particularly on matters Middle Eastern -- plummets even further. It's notable that the Business and Law School Deans opposed the move. This will do wonders for intra-faculty relations in the future.

Here's a thought. In the name of free speech and "listen[ing] to ideas we deplore" (Bolly's words), Columbia should go the distance and set up a forum for the world's worst dictators to share their views. We could have Kim Jong-il dilate on Keeping Stalinism Kicking: How to Sustain Your Very Own Cult of Personality. Omar al-Bashir of Sudan could drop in to discuss the Logistics of Genocide. Heck, I'm sure Osama's willing to talk about the History of Islam via video link from his cave in Pakistan. Or he and Bashir could share a panel on Persecuting the Faithless. The possibilities are endless!
Posted by kungfuzi at 7:57 pm | 0 comments

  It's coming!

The students, predictably, are not looking forward to History on Friday. Three hours, four essays. Precious little room for faffing -- get in, dissect question in 5 min or less, then write for 40 min for 3-4 pages. Stop, rinse, repeat -- that is, if the finger cramps don't get to you first. From what I recall, the cramps go away after a while. Make sure to warm up before hand.

The good news is that it's nigh impossible to fail History if you've put in the requisite amount of work -- which, to be fair, is quite a lot -- and interpret the question correctly. Simply regurgitating previously learnt material on the essay topic (as opposed to the question), for instance, usually gets you 14-15. Four 15s will get you a 60, which is a B. To fail, you'll need to score 10s and 11s. That's really, really hard.

Friday is also when the marking starts. I have just about two weeks to get through 300 or so essays. Time to get those red pen refills. I reckon five refills ought to last the course.
Posted by kungfuzi at 7:11 pm | 0 comments

  Notes from seven hours spent in Borders today

Spent quality time today in Borders with one of the most brilliant people I know. The following talking points surfaced over the course of seven hours (you should have seen my parking bill afterwards):

• Singapore needs a libertarian, centre-right political party, and not a centre-left one, to effectively challenge the PAP's hegemony. It would take a leaf (several leaves) out of the PAP's book, but champion political liberties instead of "soft authoritarianism" (a concept, dear students, which we'll be looking at shortly). We think it should be called the Singapore Liberal Party, and that neither of us will have anything to do with it (because he's a foreigner and I despise politicking).

• Human beings survive existentially by ordering, limiting, and therefore simplifying experience; and (a proper) education assists us in this regard by supplying the ideas, categories, and facts which help us understand ourselves, the world, and our relationship with the world. Far too many people, however -- especially the so-called educated -- do not and cannot move beyond fixed and narrow ways of perceiving experience, and in doing so miss out on what the poet Louis MacNeice calls "the drunkenness of things being various." (The poem is "Snow," for those of you who may be interested.)

• Martin Luther was not a very nice guy at all (kill the disobedient peasants!) and John Calvin was a religious totalitarian.

• Far too many Christians are ignorant of their religion's long and complicated history.

• Religion can both constrain and amplify immoral behaviour. Atheists and secular humanists are perfectly capable of behaving morally.

• The argument, frequently employed by theists and Christians in particular to defend religion, that 20th century secular tyrants (Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin, Mao) were responsible for murdering more people than religious zealots were, while strictly true, is considerably weakened by the following propositions: 1) secular ideologies like Communism and Fascism had all the trademarks of fundamentalist religions (see Calvin's Geneva); 2) religious leaders and institutions -- the Catholic Church in particular -- were frequently complicit in the crimes of these secular tyrants.

Now, I should really get back to those lecture notes...
Posted by kungfuzi at 10:13 pm | 0 comments

  Thank you again, Tim Burke

For more excellent advice on applying to graduate school. His first post on the topic can be found here.
Posted by kungfuzi at 9:46 pm | 0 comments