All children left behind

May 24th 2007 – The United States Senate, controlled with a majority of Democrat party representatives, has proposed the “Head Start” program as an education reform. This would provide increased federal funding for schools (it is currently at only 9.1% of school budgets) and would create pedagogical programs for preschoolers down to the age of 2 years old. This amendment is widely expected not to pass due to the presidential veto.

The republicans have blocked such attempts to introduce institutional reforms for the strangest of reasons. The current educational infrastructure allows for a racial discrimination policy when hiring teachers and the proposed one would outlaw such prejudice. Their justification for keeping such a policy resides in the bullshit argument of “freedom of choice”, I would love to see an American school deny a job to a teacher on the basis that she is a woman. No? That’s not right you say? A hypocrite you are? Thought so. For those of you that try to find details on this bill or the justification for a discrimination policy will have a very hard time since it was available on cnn.com for only 12 hours. It has somehow disappeared along with its entry on Wikipedia.

Bush’s “No child left behind” law was the perfect façade to hide the policy but it has profoundly perverted the system altogether. Although federal funding only accounts for one tenth of school funding, the schools now have to compete for this by performing well on standardised testing. I am guessing that the noble goal behind this was to increase the overall achievement and intelligence of the nation but has turned into Capitalist Darwinism on a small scale. I explain myself. Schools are promised increased funding and bonuses if their exam average is high and penalties if it is low. Hiring better teachers, buying updates textbooks, decreasing class sizes and personalising education costs money and the students would not necessarily be the best at these “standardised” tests. Instead, classes have been reorganised to teach what will be on the test. Gym classes have been halved to be replaced by specific reading and math classes and school hours extended to cram more subject matter into a day. The bottom line is that the school gets a medal and their super students are the best in America to answer a single test. Whatever happened to being prepared for life? Discovering a prospected career or field of interest? Developing a healthy lifestyle which includes more than 90 minutes of physical activity every two weeks? Governmental involvement in the education system has been the worst idea to come out of the US since Michael Jackson. Furthermore, we now see that discrimination policies that should have been completely eradicated from schools in the sixties along with segregation laws are persisting through the current republican administration through sloppy intervention, not very right-wing of them.

Logically, when the first scholarly institutions opened in ancient Athens, it was supposed to be administered by the State. Unfortunately, the proposed public, obligatory and free school program of third century BC Greece was scrapped by economic realities. For lack of resources and expertise, the State decided to keep its funding to a minimal and exercise great moral authority through the evergetes (rich donators) whom were given responsibility over the institutions. This led to bribery and corruption so the easy solution was taken to privatise all schools except for a few urban ones. These last ones were directly funded and administered by the State and were free for all of those who could not afford the private ones. A complete separation of public and private interests eliminated shady dealings and conflicts of interest (Do I want what is better for the children or that big bag with a dollar sign on it that this guy is holding?).

A profound reform is necessary for the American education system and I unfortunately believe that neither of their major political parties has the foresight to solve it all. A universal antidiscrimination policy on the basis of sex, race, sexual orientation or religion would be a nice first step. If discrimination is what you crave, do it for the right reasons: competence, motivation, experience (before they join a union).

(Pictured: Greek gymnasium in Pompeii - a dunced student of the "no child left behind" act)

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History is written by the winners... all of them.

May 2007 – The supposed peace in Afghan
istan (since the invasion was over after a few weeks 5 years ago) has been the context of many more deaths for the Taliban, Afghanis and coalition soldiers. Wave after wave of terrorist attacks by the Taliban insurgents have randomly caused terror for the troops there. From RPG rocket launches on convoys, aircraft and bases to the harmless looking child concealing an explosive; military powers are rather helpless when faced against unorganised and marginal attacks. These cowardly acts are marginal only since they are not a concentrated effort at killing all “invaders” or at destroying established coalition bases but are rather an attempt at pure and simple terrorism as a means of intimidation. In terms of human loss, each casualty has been the opposite of marginal, devastating and bone-chilling for families and nations alike. Since the entrance of coalition forces, major contributors to the “peace initiative” in Afghanistan, apart from the very busy United States, have been Canada with a reported 54 fatalities, England with a reported 41 fatalities and Spain with 82 reported fatalities (62 of which were from a plane crash of relieved soldiers over Turkey).

If you have followed the news as I have, you have not seen headlines such as “Afghanistan on the verge of peace”, “Taliban drop arms and begin talks”, “Canadian soldier brings a 24 case of Molson beer to Taliban headquarters – hostilities over”. We rather see headlines about a friendly fire incident, increasing political and economic anarchy for Afghanis and the unwavering resolution of the “evildoers”. Despite the grim state of headlines that you might expect, these always announce crushing victories of the coalition against the terrorists or the hope of a better tomorrow. The thing is, the same thing can be seen an Al Jazeera TV about the Taliban. They declare great victories when a child has killed two Spaniards or with a grenade or hit Camp Kandahar with a rocket, injuring several British soldiers. They also parade slogans of hope for their cause.

Yes, CNN, FoxNews, The BBC, Reuters and the Associated Press dwarf the media conglomerate of Al Jazeera but the state of the matter is that both media forces reach hundreds of millions of peoples and Al Jazeera reaches the ones that are really impacted and influenced in the Middle-East. If history is written by the winners, it is here being written by two different victors of the same conflict.

Not to cheapen the proposed topic but a historical parallel is inescapable. The very first written peace treaty that we know of is referred to as the Treaty of Qadesh. In 1214BC, The 19^th Egyptian Dynasty (The famous pharaoh Ramses the 2^nd) ended a dynastic war with the Hittite peoples of Anatolia (modern day Turkey). Wars between the two had been fought long and hard over a common border holding many natural resources, Coele-Syria (modern day Lebanon and Israel). You can see how this region has had it rough for much longer than anyone can remember. The obvious parallel with the current media dichotomy is that we have two copies of this treaty. The Egyptians, especially under Ramses II, were great scribes and raging histrionics so we have many surviving inscriptions, carvings and papyri of their gracious and merciful offer of peace towards the defeated Hittites. On the other hand, The Hittites of Anatolia were eradicated by a demographic shift in the 1100s BC so little is preserved. Nonetheless, a single copy of the Treaty of Qadesh has been found and deciphered to say that their merciful Hittite leader demanded and obtained an advantageous peace offering to the defeated pharaoh. Everyone wins!

Jokes aside, our soldiers are still dying for a peace that the Taliban fight, the Afghanis don’t want and the Middle East is very skeptical about. Furthermore, civilians are used as peons for the intimidation game and the Taliban are convinced that they are fighting for the most virtuous and righteous reasons.

No end in sight…unfortunately. Although this commentary in no way states that the efforts of the coalition are futile, they are also in the conflict for the most virtuous and righteous of reasons. It is a worthy cause that should, from this point of stalemate, emphasis the dialogue with the terrorists. We do not negotiate with terrorists, usually, but these people will most likely take power by fear and force as soon as the coalition leaves so they must be part of the reconstruction process.

This blog is dedicated to my father who has served and could serve again for the coalition, to the parents of my friends that serve in Afghanistan and to the soldiers that died for peace.

(Pictured: Temple Abou Simbel of Ramses II, Army insignias of the UK and Canada)

End.

Liberty! Equality! Division?

May 6th 2007 – Elections in France, right-wing conserv- ative Nicolas Sarkozy has won elections over his leftist opposition. With a 53% majority of the vote, Sarkozy eliminated his opponent, Segolene Royal, by a very thin margin. Incredibly, the participation rate soared over 85%. The new government will replace the current leftist government of Jacques Chirac. This ideological shift was possibly caused by dissatisfaction with the last government and its policies or by a change in beliefs by the French population.

Historically, France has suffered and thrived through a bevy of republics and empires with a wide range of goals and ideologies. Perhaps their most notable shift in government and political spectrum occurred in the 1789-1812/14 period. It was here that a divine-right monarchy turned into anarchy, then into a republican dictatorship and an empire.

Firstly, the beginning of the French revolution in 1789 was caused by a multitude of antagonisms but can be mostly placed on the shoulders of an oppressive feudal system, a decrepit economy, a corrupt nobility and an abusive Church. This last cause explains why much more clergymen than nobles were executed in the first years (1789-1792). Three years of relative anarchy then provided a context of confusion, witch hunts and bureaucratic oblivion.

Secondly, the period 1792-1798/99 brought about the establishment of relatively stable governments. Three “directories” composed of a rich bourgeoisie succeeded one another by authoritative dictates that called for equality and liberty whilst ordering the slaughter of more clergymen and counter-revolutionaries. Notably, the 1793-1794 year dubbed “la terreur” was one of incredible repression, censure and inquisition by the people that wanted change but re-established the very abuses they wished to get rid of. It seemed to not be so bad if they were the oppressors and no longer the opressees.

Finally, first consul of the republic, Napoleon Bonaparte, inaugurated the French Empire (1804-1812/14). At first glance, it seems as though there was a lot of uselessly shed blood for a return to a monarchy (empire). Actually, Napoleon conquered land, brought victory to his people and brought the republican ideas to the rest of Europe, ideas that the French had fought to obtain.

Through some very messy steps, the French brought about change because they did not agree with the times (and possibly because they realised that they outnumbered the nobles and clergymen 100 to 1).

These present elections do not denote a dramatic change (47% Vs. 53%) but certainly indicate a sign of the times. Other nations, such as Canada, have also recently adopted a rightist government after over a decade of liberal and semi-socialist gouvernance. I leave it up to you to poll your surroundings to see if this is a sign of discontent with our liberal ways or a search for a more firm, conservative gouvernement, in the western world.

(Pictured: The fall of the Bastille in 1789 - Sarkozy indicating he will hit a home-run in right-field)

End.

Aren't dead people so freakin' great?!

April 23^rd, 2007 – Boris Yeltsin, first and former president of the Russian republic (1991- 1999) has passed away at the age of 76. In our current age of media frenzies and competitions to see who can blow something out of proportion the fastest, the death of a well-known person spells out a party for all media. If all media is aimed at the distribution and sharing of knowledge, then overexposure is not necessarily a bad thing. What is definitely strange is the rehabilitation of a character after his death, no matter how controversial or despotic he or she may have been.

Without rehabilitating extremes such as Hitler in Germany or Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos in the Philippines, certain despots are still venerated such as Mussolini in cities in southern Italy or Mao Zedong in China.

To a lesser extent but just as strange is the rehabilitation of public figures that acted like irresponsible children. For example, Anna Nicole Smith was known for substance abuse, rollercoaster weight and plastic surgery and, of course, professional gold digging. Am I the only one that sees a problem with dedicating half of every news service to her life and her accomplishments for the two weeks after her death? I certainly hope not. Otherwise, I have grossly misplaced my faith in humanity.

I am not insinuating that Yeltsin’s life is not worth analysing but the media inevitably spins it to show a kind and competent administrator that really wasn’t. Boris was a drunk and a rather sloppy administrator that did participate in the downfall of the USSR…but 5 years after Gorbatchev had started the capitalist and independence processes in the union (perestroika). Furthermore, he presided over the endemic spread of gouvernmental corruption, the exponential increase in mafia involvement and the economic collapse of the country. In history, it is not good to generalise, but this is my blog and I will gladly do so. In the 1990s, Russia effectively passed from a former superpower that was feared, to a nation in need of charity and pity. Apart from this unfortunate realisation, Yeltsin’s greatest accomplishment was to die of natural causes rather than from a suspicious assassination by external, or more probably, internal rivals. He is said to have left office with an approval rating under 5%.

I am all for ‘respecting the dead’ but a bad man dies as he has lived; lying and wishful thinking does not change Yeltsin’s track record as a recorded figure of history during a crucial turning point in the XX^th century. Former first chairman of the USSR communist party Mikhail Gorbatchev said it best this week by saying "I offer my deepest condolences to the family of a man on whose shoulders rested many great deeds for the good of the country and serious mistakes—a tragic fate" (BBC news service).

(Pictured: Boris getting on down - Boris telling Gorbatchev what's what)

End.

The blog calms down.

I have not found any way of making the recent Virginia tech massacre an interesting link to a historical optic. Out of respect and because I think all media are milking this story until it will be an empty carcass, I am leaving my blog relatively empty this week. Have fun with the interminable analyses of ''Do video-games cause school violence? Could this have been prevented? Were middle-easterners involved in any way? Should we arm all students for their own protection? Should we ban negative thoughts?''. These questions and more are all part of a very fruitful media spinning that misses the simple point: it happened and the victims and families must deal with it, preferably without cameras being thrust into their faces.

To provide a very small historical tangent, the first recorded example of ''school violence'' is widely documented to have occurred on July 26th 1764 in Pennsylvania. The ''Enoch Brown school massacre'' involved the tomahawking and scalping of a schoolmaster and his twelve students by some Delaware Indians. Without condoning the action, they were retaliating for the genocide of their people and the invasion of their land. Nothing to do with our recent tragedy that was retaliation for causing teenage angst.

The most fitting end for our troubled shooter would be in good old Roman fashion, a Damnatio Memoriae. This process would remove this person from common memory and therefore from human existence. We will need to tell the media that this is preferrable to flooding his image and story on every possible medium known to man.

With respect.

(Pictured: Stalin's excercize of Damnatio Memoriae with a collegue that fell out of favour: Before and after)

End.