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April 27, 2005
thank the goddess its over
I don't know about the rest of the civilized world, but I am glad that tomorrow is the last day of class! Really, all I want is the time to read for my projects, actually ponder, synthesize, and discuss what I have learned, and then...sleep! Of course, I am not what most folks would classify as a sleeper, but I can definitely clock 8 hours worth of z's right now. I think what is most frustrating is wanting to do all of these different intellectual projects, and just not being able to ignore any one responsibility to do it. on a completely different subject, I can't believe that Samuel Huntington is coming to speak here on friday! are you all hip to his essay called the Hispanic Challenge?
holy manure, batman, you need to treat yourself to that bedtime story! I have it on PDF (B's fav!) if anyone would like to examine it. Be sure to wear your playtex gloves, people, because I am telling you, you do not want any of that s**t to get on your good clothing. In this essay the "scholar" claims that hispanics are taking over the world. that spanish is a threat, and that we (latinos) basically should take a long walk off of a short peer. I think the scariest thing about this man is that he teaches at harvard. To me that translates into a massive audience to whom you can spoon feed any flavor of ca-ca you want. Of course, he's speaking here on friday, but that's not the capper. para el colmo he is speaking at...are you ready? the maxwell school of citizenship. yep. he will be discussing his new book on "national identity". any guesses on whose identity he is concerned with???
HEY, I HAVE AN IDEA!!! maybe we should all show up with our statues of san martin, la virgen de guadalupe, some nail clippings, the blood of a dead chicken and various books on santeria. Now that would be alarming!
Posted by dvaldesd at 11:36 PM | Comments (3)
April 20, 2005
is Dafur another Rwanda?
Tonight at Maxwell the African initiative hosted a discussion about genocide, Rwanda, and the illusion of the phrase "never again". I was dismayed to discover that there is a very real possibility of another ethnic cleansing occurring without the U.S. intervening. I was also saddened by the film that was shown, by the apparent lack of regard for Rwandan citizens, and also by the information that the U.S. is again stalling their intervention by coining phrases like "humanitarian crisis“ instead of genocide. Do we need to see another 800,000 human beings die? While discussing the injustices that have been perpetuated against Africans throughout history, an interesting item was revealed...
THIS university is in possession of all Kenyan cultural artifacts, and further, said artifacts were NOT donated, but stolen. I wonder how the university responds to this indictment? By the way, they have already claimed that it was a gift...there's a big surprise.
Posted by dvaldesd at 11:19 PM | Comments (2)
April 16, 2005
a home created with words is better than a house of cards
In my critical theory I came across a quote that sums up why I am so about language politics..
The fact that I am writing to you in English already falsifies what I
wanted to tell you. My subject: how to explain to you that I don't belong to English though I belong nowhere else, if not here in English.
The author is Gustavo Perez-Firmat, who is also known interestingly enough as the Terminator of cultural certainties.. Vaya!
Posted by dvaldesd at 06:13 PM | Comments (0)
April 14, 2005
capitalism or inclusion?
The strangest thing happened last night. I was on my room reading, when all of sudden I heard the familiar sound of a Goya commercial. At first I thought no big deal, the girls must be channel surfing and happened upon Univision while on the MTV highway. Then I heard another one!
And…it was an (almost) perfect translation of the Spanish commercial that my ears lovingly embraced when I was a child! “If it’s Sazon, it has to be good!” I immediately jumped up, ran to the living room, and demanded to know what channel they were watching. To my surprise they were watching the FAMILY channel!!!! To say that the jubilation I felt was overshadowed by the glorious sense of validation one feels at such a moment would be a gross understatement. I never thought I would experience that kind of cultural inclusiveness, and certainly not in New Hartford. But then, I started thinking about the untapped (commercial) dollars of Latinos in the area that are certainly feeling as displaced as I did when I first moved here. Suddenly, the realization that this inclusiveness could be predicated on capitalistic fiscal gain began to creep in and disrupt my elation. Of course, the acknowledgement makes me happy, and to be honest, I am less concerned with the why and wherefores than I am with the actual evidence that “our” money is just as green as everyone else’s. Now, what would have made the commercial perfect? If they really knew what was up and did it in Spanglish (which, by the way, even my computer now recognizes)! ;)
Posted by dvaldesd at 08:31 PM | Comments (0)
April 07, 2005
April showers?
Okay. So we had beautiful weather the past two days, and then...this!
To be honest, as much as I love the snow, I am ready for spring, flowers, allergy attacks, you know the drill. I am also ready to be done with this semester. I am tired, harried, and have no idea what they hell I can do to elongate the hands of time. Any ideas? Isn't funny how we all feel this way, and then in May (or whenever we're done) we look back with a shrug and think "hey! I did it!!!!" A triumphant moment indeed. But, I am getting ahead of myself. I think I need a maid. That would definitely help. And a surrogate to help the girls with their homework while I read-that might be nice. And can someone PLEASE tell the cook that if he doesn't have my dinner on the table when I walk in at the end of the day that he will be out of a job? I'm sayin'...you just can find good free help these days!
Apart from all my bellyaching, I really am loving the semester. I always feel just one step behind my colleagues, but most of them are kind enough to 1) be patient with my mad rantings, and 2) reassure me that after this initial semester, I will feel much better about myself as a CCR student. As I write this, I am musing about the books that I would like to read before my official indoctrination, preferably in my favorite tropical location. I have even purchased a book on the ethnography of music that I can't wait to read! I think a trashy, scandalous sex novel that epitomizes "low brow" reading might be in order as well. But for now, I have a few books to read, some articles, and a whopper of a works cited list to generate. At least I know I'm not alone!
Posted by dvaldesd at 10:27 PM | Comments (2)
April 01, 2005
Nietzsche on Truth
What then is truth? A mobile army of metaphors, metonyms, and anthropomorphisms -- in short, a sum of human relations, which have been enhanced, transposed, and embellished poetically and rhetorically, and which after long use seem firm, canonical, and obligatory to a people: truths are illusions about which one has forgotten that is what they are; metaphors which are worn out and without sensuous power; coins which have lost their pictures and now matter only as metal, no longer as coins.
We still do not know where the urge for truth comes from; for as yet we have heard only of the obligation imposed by society that it should exist: to be truthful means using the customary metaphors - in moral terms, the obligation to lie according to fixed convention, to lie herd-like in a style obligatory for all...
'On truth and lie in an extra-moral sense,' The Viking Portable Nietzsche
Posted by dvaldesd at 12:05 AM | Comments (0)