I got depressed as hell after work today…damn near cried, felt myself wasting my days, and realized that self-pity isn’t my style. I need to find a new outlet, that’s all, so i bought this, upon a friend’s recommendation.
didn’t like it the first time, a little more the 2nd, now it’s on it’s 3rd time around, and it’s growing on me.
SMILE 
Jose Antonio Reyes nets in the third minute after a good run
1-0 Arsenal
Thierry Henry, Thierry Henry, Thierry Henry, Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooal……
2-0 Arsenal
Spanish youngster Cesc Fabregas lashes home a half-volley to give Arsenal a seemingly unassailable lead within 30 minutes…3-0 Arsenal
Rosenborg pull a goal back before Robert Pires confidently converts a penalty to restore the Gunners’ three-goal lead…4-1 Arsenal
Final…Arsenal 5, Rosenborg 1
Arsenal moves on to the final 16.
Up next, Chelsea in the Premiership on Sunday.
Topic: Ralph Nader on education
http://www.issues2000.org/2004/Ralph_Nader_Education.htm
Nader wants to abandon not only the standardized testing both Bush and Gore endorse, but to radically refocus schools. Students “should learn, as the core curriculum, developing civic skills, learning how to practice democracy,” he said, “and the arithmetic, reading and writing will be a byproduct.”
Education is clearly a significant factor in enhancing the future of impoverished children. Education levels bear heavily on efforts to bring families out of poverty and in providing livable wages for low and moderate and middle-income families.
We need to invest in the nation’s children. We must assure an adequate safety net, health care, higher quality and more plentiful child care and vastly better educational opportunities, particularly at Kindergarten through the 12th grade.
Our country’s schoolchildren need to be taught democratic principles in their historic context and present relevance, with practical civics experiences to develop their citizen skills and a desire to use them, and so they will be nurtured to serve as a major reservoir of future democracy.
Would you want your children to see propaganda that glorifies reckless driving or that reinforces the poor body image of teenage girls? That’s exactly the kind of thing schoolkids are watching on Channel One, a so-called educational broadcast piped into classrooms. In essence, Channel One is run by a marketing company that uses the schools to deliver advertising to youngsters. Each school day, teachers turn on a TV show made up of two minutes of commercials and 10 minutes of “news.” Channel One’s lobbyists say that it’s “an old-fashioned newscast that often reflects traditional values.” Nice try. The “news” is just filler. What Channel One really conveys is materialism: that buying is good and will solve your problems, and that consumption and self-gratification are the goals of life. For real education reform that protects children, costs nothing, and increases productive class time, tell your school board to kick Channel One out of class.
Q: How would you manage the Department of Education differently?
A: I would put a very high priority on getting schools to teach civic education and connecting the classroom with the community. Getting youngsters, even as young as the fifth and sixth grades, to learn how to practice democracy, to connect knowledge to action. To help people grow up civic instead of growing up corporate is an important function of the Department of Education.
Our education system is becoming very vocational and very occupation-oriented, which is OK if it is not disproportionate and if it doesn’t squeeze out the most important role of education, which is civic.
I also would emphasize consumer education. Children are spending more and more money directly — under 12 years of age they spent $ 12 billion last year, and they caused their parents to spend $ 150 billion. They need a consumer perspective, how to become a smart shopper.
Topic: pictures from austin city limits music festival
you can’t see me, unfortunately, but the 3 guys w/ no shirts in the front row are my aussie friends from camp. This is during Ben Harper’s set.
thtat’s ben harper,
jack johnson, the man epitmozes chill
the Roots…imagine listening to music and thinking you just drank 10 cans of Red Bull energy drink, that’s the roots
here’s a better picture. Guy in front row w/ no shirt on in the middle is Eugene, he’s my rock climbing friend from Cape Town, who i lived with for almost a month there, and we worked together as ropes course instructors this summer. To his right in the light blue top is Hannah, who is gorgeous, and from Northern England. To her right is Warren, another ropes course guy, also from South Africa. Behind Eugene is my good friend Nick, an Aussie, and to his right, with the cowboy hat is James, also an Aussie. There were 10 of us in all, I think when this picture was taken I was filling up water since it was 100 degrees out, and we actually had one of our friends leave w/ head stroke. It was quite a mission pushing back through to get front row for Ben Harper. We had to get there at 11am to get these seats, and were there till 10pm. I think there were about 70,000 people there.
This is Rachel Yamagata. This chick rocks!!! I got to see her again when I was in St. Louis at a popular local bar called Blueberry Hill. Instead of 70,000, there were less than 70. and she’s damn sexy and has an amazing voice.
here’s Trey Anastasio, singer for Phish, although Phish has now broken up.
G Love and Special Sauce
here’s an aerial view of the festival.
this is early in the day…man, what a good festival it was. hope you’re all able to view those pics
It’s this society that makes me sick
and i can’t
it
escape
For escape is trapped in the muck
of life
It’s like beer, the tasty buzz
life is one big hangover
expectations of the party unfulfilled
I want to live on a commune
friends
company
laughter
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
the simple smile
i have found the trap of life again
living in an isolated home
commuting an isolated commute
working an isolated work
eating an isolated eat
My mind is too radical for the world i’m living in
I because i know i will discover this world
because i can no longer be laughed at for hating the dullness of this world
that is so full of dullness that it is laughable
these norms I have fallen into
are not normal
i will not find a woman through the internet
i will not find my exercise running on a machine
i will not enjoy the outdoors through my memory
Life needs to be structured around my needs
human needs
I want to be around people who think it is sick to be healthy in a world that is sick
i want to be around people
philosophers
musicians
painters
poets
lovers
writers
dreamers
activists
how can i have come so far only to feel so far from where i know i need to be
the breaking away
has begun
Yet it is here i must be
my focus must be on finding my culture
for the culture i am in now is like a beer
and i want to feel the buzz of climbing a mountain-top again
i want to be funky and free
and not understand myself
and not be understood by those who know me
because i need to continue to change
f-a-s-t-e-r-a-n-d-f-a-s-t-e-r-a-n-d
before i’m too old
and i can only dream of the culture that was meant for me
i am 23
i wish i were 18
i’m glad i’m not 27
how can i do this?
what will i do?
This poem was inspired as I began reading the latest Adbusters magazine. Sitting inside my friend’s apartment reading this magazine, is akin to sitting inside an apartment reading a magazine on rock climbing. At some point, it hits you that you’re spending too much time dreaming, and not enough time living your dreams. I don’t want to be a spectator to those who are re-defining the ways of our society. Sure…to some extent I’m working to create change, but I know my mind is far more creative and out-of-the box than the organization I’m interning with. and it’s eating me up a bit. Yeah, it’s a good experience, but, i’m not finding the mentor that i want who will push my mind…who will talk crazy talk to me about the real changes that need to be discussed. they’re doing it a little, and it’s good work they’re doing, but there’s still half-of-me that’s lacking stimulation. the side of me that wants to challenge the entire notion of the way we do education, ugh…it makes me want to puke.
On a happier note, i’m going to eat a cream filled cooke
-dan
big game for Arsenal tom.!!!!
Topic: History of higher ed.
I had a good conversation with my internship supervisor, who was a former college pres. in New Mexico, and is now the VP of “Academic Leadership and Change,” here at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. I was trying to find out what the major trends in higher ed. have been…and it seems there are two major factors that have led to the current culture of higher ed.
The first is the GI bill. After WWII, adults needed to return to school to prepare themselves for jobs in a post-war economy. This large influx of students who were more interested in being prepared for a job, than to think about life and the world they inhabited, began the shift of higher ed to what it is today. The second took place in 1958 with the passing of the “National Defense Education Act.” This act of the US gov’t put money into higher ed. for reasons of scientific research.
Here’s where history gets fun (man…what’s happened to me?!?!?!) OK…here’s some trivia, who remembers what happened on Oct. 4th, 1957. Anyone??? Come on, weren’t you paying attention in school, or old enough to actually remember???
OK…I’ll tell you. On Oct. 4th, 1957, the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I. The world’s first artificial satellite was about the size of a basketball, weighed only 183 pounds, and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path. That launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments. While the Sputnik launch was a single event, it marked the start of the space age and the U.S.-U.S.S.R space race.
It also marked the shift of higher education in America to focus more on research than on teaching, in order to keep up with Russia in the Cold War. So…the reason myself and hundreds of thousands of other college students in America are forced to suffer through classes taught in giant lecutre halls by by dull non-engaging professors, and why professors are unable to develop new pedagogical methods of engagement because they’re job is evaluaged on research rather than teaching, was a basketball shot way above the rim. On Nov. 3rd, Sputnik II and a dog named Laika further ensured 4-years of college drudgery when they too, were shot like a Shaq free-throw out of orbit.
Topic: Lucrative career in the future for Dan???
Life coaching. How does that sound. At first, it sounds a bit ridiculous. Who am I to coach someone about how to live life? However, what most don’t realize is that as an Outward Bound instructor, that’s essentially what my job was. I was coaching kids on how to learn lessons from their wilderness experience that they could use to live better lives at home. And I find myself people coaching people all the time, people who are down about friends, family, career, etc. It’s just something I enjoy doing, and think I do pretty well, in part because I’m always coaching myself, trying to figure out what I can work on improving. I don’t think many people think about life as intentionally as I do, and I think that’s what would qualify me as a life coach.
Even better would be if they had life coaches specifically for students who had completed an Outward Bound course, and were struggling to find a way to transfer the experience back into their lives…and how about this link, somebody’s done it already.
http://next-step-coach.com/default.asp
Topic: New book title
Well…College Daze managed to get into the hands of 123 people. I’m looking at the number and trying to figure out how I did that. I’ll admit, I gave a lot of books away. I managed to sell about 65 of those books, which means I actually lost money, and probably should’ve paid more attention in my business classes (damn b-school). Anyways…I’m not actively marketing the book anymore, but, I have recognized that there is a market, and hopefully the new knowledge and contacts I’m acquiring can lead to the ultimate goal of having a publisher pick up my book in the future.
This morning on the train from Baltimore to DC, I started floating a slightly different title, or at least subtitle. “How colleges damage the lives of innocent students.” The word damage I love, the word innocent I’m trying to replace. Here’s what I’m thinking:
When properly guided, students can achieve many great things, live lives full of personal meaning, and act as morally and civically engaged students. When I think of how colleges inadequatlely guide students to live life to their fullest potential, I think of a baby dropped at birth…The blatant mishandling of an innocent life. The prospect of irreversable damage.
The inadequacies of colleges to engage their students intellectually, morally, and civically has been documented and commented on by researchers and educational leaders. The affects of this have remain largely hidden and silent. This is compounded by the fact that most of the literature on this subject is written in a dry-3rd person manner, which strips emotion from the real human lives behind the theories.
Human lives are gentle, and need to be handled with care. Their growth, which takes on many forms, is akin to a plant’s. If kept in the wrong environment, a classroom or a dark closet, they will wilt, wither, and die. Like teaching in a classroom, writing (whether books, articles, or research about higher education, generally lacks emotion). It doesn’t touch the heart, mind, soul, and imagination of its readers.
K-12 education is making large strides in improving their learning environments. New progressive schools, as well as school reform efforts such as The Coalition of Essential Schools and Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound, are using student-centered approaches to teaching, that are showing incredible results. Many barriers ensure that similar reforms in high ed. are slow and minimal.
Topic: Thoughts
1) like many grassroots movements, the movement to reform higher ed. is growing, but so is the movement which it is trying to counteract. While some schools are beginning to shift their focus back to the original intent of higher ed., to provide a liberal education and prepare students to be active members of a democracy, with all the “moral and civic skills” that this requires (which is being done by the creation of classes, programs, and school mission statements being re-structured to focus on that goal), the barriers to this movement are growing as quickly as they are breaking down. These barriers include the focus by students and faculty alike on treating college as job preparation, rather than preparation to be a “good citizen.” These barriers include the “audit culture” in which higher education has become a competitive “indsutry,” that influences the norms of what was traditionally a noneconomic institution. These barriers include the way in which faculty are awarded, which even for liberal arts colleges is becoming more focussed on research than teaching. These barriers include faculty autonomy, by which faculty are responsible for their classes alone, making it is nearly impossible to implement institutional goals that require learning to cross-over between classes. These barriers include faculty specialization, where again, faculty loyalty is more to one department and students within a particular major, than to the institution as a whole.
2) There’s other barriers, but, in light of my new interest in economics, I find the idea of the “audit culture” whereby higher education functions as a competitive market, to be most interesting. This is from the book, “Educating Citizens,” produced by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (I met Tom Ehrlich, one of the authors, the other day!) I’ve often heard that people went to college in the ’60′s to learn, more than they were there to find jobs. I quote, “enrollments, public funding, and research were expanding, and the distinction and value of higher education was largely unquestioned. In more recent decades the climate has shifted. The academy has faced tightening resources, escalated costs, and pressure to justify its utility, show results, and keep costs down…Higher education has become a competitive ‘industry,” and it has adopted the strategies and language of the market to deal with this change.”
Let me comment. In the book I browsed the other day, the author, an economist, stepped beyond his economist role (he focussed his book on the material benefits of our capitalistic economy to show that we should be more optimistic than pessimistic about the economy…and he’s right, we do clearly have more now than ever before in terms of things, and I agree that the technological innovations driven by capitalism are a plus), however, he goes on to praise the system of capitalism above all, to say that we should be wary of anyone who wants to tinker with it, and essentially promotes a repubican platform, which to me i only object to because it oversteps his bounds as an objective economist. Anyways…what got me was that he said we should take a market approach to public schooling as a way to “improve schools,” This is the philosophy of an economist, but despite the innovations that do derive out of this system, we absolutely must think beyond economics, and in this case, think about education. Letting economic values rule our educational institutions, completely disregards the social aims of education.
For example, “one strategy adopted by virtually all institutions in the face of this pressure to control costs has been the employment of ever higher numbers of adjunct faculty. Nearly 40% of undergraduate credit hours are now taught by adjunct faculty. Because they are often hired on a part-time or year-to-year contracty, typically without benefits and frequently with little departmental support or interaction, many adjuncts find it difficult to devote extensive time to the courses they teach…These changes in faculty roles and faculty loyalties make it more difficult to create a sense of cmapus community around moral and civic learning…
Competition for resources, including faculty with distinguised scholarly records, grants and other funding, and high-achieving students, has produced a climate in which resource enhancement and reputation building are treated as ends in themselves. ex) fighting for positioning in the US News and World Report rankings…When strategies for competing successfully are framed in terms of “satisfying the customer,” they too contribute to the commodification of higher education.”
“Institutions built on gain rather than responsiblity are not well aligned with the goals of liberal education, including its moral and civic goals.”
So…while capitalism may work well for our material needs (computers, medicines, transportation) it doesn’t necessarily suit the needs of our schools. I guess this leads me to a position of socially responsible capitalism.
3) I’m visiting a friend at Towson. I bought some alcohol for him and his friends, and we had a quiet little get together in his dorm room. They have a ridiuculous alcohol policy, whereby if an RA sees alcohol, you get written up. So, we were drinking and having a good time, as all freshman in college should be allowed to do…then, as the girls opened the door to go to the bathroom, an RA just happened to walk by the door, as part of their “rounds,” whereby they walk around by everyroom to check for such things as noise and alcohol.
Suddenly, things got crazy. My friends were pleading for the RA to just pretend she saw nothing and walk by, but, she had “seen” a few beer cans laying around, and was now obligated to do her job. I struggle to criticize someone for fulfilling their job duties (although I believe there are situations where one can reasonably assume that the lack of doing their job will neither threaten their job, nor threaten the objective of doing the job, in this case, curbing drinking). My friends had already been “written up” once, leaving them w/ a $50 fine, 3hrs. of community service, and sitting in on some lecture about alcohol. Well…they couldn’t do anything last night to argue their way out of it, they got written up, and when the RA left, we went on drinking. They had told the RA there was no beer in the fridge when asked, and the RA cannot enter the room, they can only look-in.
This pisses me off hard-core. First of all, the objective of curbing drinking is crap, and in fact, it lead to my friends wanting to get even more drunk in order to rebel. Second, the concept that they can get in trouble for the RA accidentally spotting the beer troubles me. Had the door been closed and she knocked, we could have hid the alcohol, and the night would have been the same without my friends getting written up. It’s just not common sense.
The third thing to me is a big one. What does this experience say about our culture? My friend who I’m visiting was someone I worked w/ at my camp this summer. He’s 18, I’m 23. At camp, we had equal responsibility, and I never thought about our age differences. Inside this dorm room, my friend was foced to be a child, not just because he can’t legally drink, but because of the whole nature surrounding dorm life. To live in fear in your own home that a 19-year old RA can come in and bust you for drinking, that is no way to help an 18-year old freshman mature. And, while I’ve had a great time here, I bring here my new perspective as someone concerned w/ higher ed., and the college culture is what bothers me the most. College has a great potential to help students develop. To have 0 real responsibilities (take that w/ a grain of salt), to live in a community of learners, to live in a young and energetic community, to live in a social communal environment far superior to the isolated apartment/house life of the real world, are all major plusses going for college. But, the reality in which freshman generally spend all their time socializing with other college freshman, further stunts their personal development. At camp, travelling, etc. I have befriending people from 18 to 78. In college, that rarely happens. In addition, college students are not able to synthesize learning with the real world in a similar manner in which I am now, in other words, most of college doesn’t matter to students…it is merely an obstacle to overcome to get a degree for career opportunities. But…i think those who are trying to reform college aren’t acknowledging the college culture when they attempt to reform college. The problem is so deep. I don’t know if many people who are working in higher ed. are concerned or thinking about the actual student, beyond a theoretical person who will soak up whatever you provide for them.
And another thing…food. Having become somewhat of a minimalist out of principal and financial reasons, I forgot how much food college students eat. I loaded up 3 plates at dinner, and had dessert because it was free. Why bother learning to cook, learning about health, learning about social issues regarding food, or learning about personal responsibility. Just let students eat-all-they can eat, while their parents foot the bill for the overpriced food ($8 for baked ziti that i could’ve made 10 portions for the same price).
Topic: Questions about the media
If you haven’t read my last post, take a look at the article first. Through the American Enterprise Institute website, I discovered this link to an organization called the Broadcasting Board of Governors
http://www.aei.org/news/filter.,newsID.20529/news_detail.asp
which discusses what seems like the purist form of propaganda. It’s a gov’t agency that promotes the spreading of “truth,” which, as in any media, from Fox News to the New York Times to al Jazeera, means, promoting the spreading of an agenda. In this case…the US is using the airwaves to inform/pursuade the people of the Middle East that we’re in Iraq for their benefit, not simply ours. Just as I’ve realized that the word “mandate,” means nothing legally or politically accept in discussion, does that also apply to the word “propaganda” a word which growing up we were all taught was something that could never be associated with a democracy? Or…is this agency, the Broadcasting Board of Governors) that is doing something unlawful/immoral?
The issue of “which side is right, democrats vs. republicans, socialists vs. capitalists,” has made me reflect that this isn’t necessarily a combative game, or at least, it doesn’t have to be. For instance, the movie Outfoxed, which shows the Republican nature of the Fox news channel, is a movie hailed by liberals, who naturally, praise the movie with their own liberal bias. As the historian Howard Zinn notes, there’s not a single thing in this world that isn’t without bias. Any given headline in a newspaper is bias in that it denotes importance compared to all other articles. While the bias is intentional or not, there is bias. As someone interested in higher education reform, the fact that this topic has rarely, and in some specific topics, never made it into the New York Times or other major media, makes me think, “hey, these guys are biased in favor of maintaining the status quo of education.”
So…how are we to view the media?
A topic that has come up in my educational internship is the idea of relativistic morals vs. I believe it’s called “normative,” values. Anyways…the former says that since nobody can claim there morals are right, then we can’t push any moral agenda. The latter suggests that we can come to some common ground on what morals we agree on and can bring into the classroom. These would include tolerance of others, having an open-mind, thinking critically, etc. I think this is the approach we need to take to the media. Rather than spending time and energy combatting bias, we should welcome as many form as bias as possible. Zinn’s history of the United States that paints a portrait of a country of shame, should be welcomed as much as another history that paints a more patriotic picture. I think that’s the theoretical open-mindedness that we talk about, but I can’t think of many instances in the real world or in college where I saw this true balancing act take place, where we look at the other side openly, and then draw our own conclusions.
I was just flipping through the first few pages of a book “Myths of Rich and Poor” that my roommate, a business guy, is reading. Before even starting, I could sense the bias I brought in. “This book is written by somebody who only cares about profits, and is going to overlook or try to belittle the facts of the rich and poor.” But, I flipped through, and low and behold, they did acknowledge my argument in the most compassionate way, then went on to say they’re not philosophers or psychologists, rather they are economists, and therefor their concern is to examine the issue of rich and poor from economic data.
I immediately froze at this line, “the fact show that the free-enterprise system continues to deliver prosperity.” But, they acknowledged that it could be better, and that it does not apply that everyone is better off in every way. I think it’s important that I expose myself to these types of views, as well as the political views of the American Enterprise Institute, which isn’t “a biased right-wing organization,” but, is an organization that promotes policies based on conservative philosophies. I believe that allowing myself to get into the minds of the people that I have been taught to hate and to in fact tolerate them, (i am referring to most liberals who share my values but promote intolerance to those who don’t) I will better be able to understand the other side, which will make me better off in many ways. Some of you might feel the same way as I do, when I go to a conservative website and see the picture of someone who wrote an article I disagree with, I just look at them and do think, “they’re evil,” when for the most part, they’re not, they just see the world differently. And, I think a healthy strategy to pursuade others is first to show them respect, and second to be able to show them your side, since the other side is as unlikely to see your point of view as you are theirs. My roommate who is reading this book is not openly political, but his job lends him to be 100% supportive of capitalist practices. As I come to better understand what these practices are, and the viewpoints of those who say the economy needs to keep growing and people need to keep consuming, I will better be able to show people that there are in fact, grave consequences to our use of and emotional attachment to the notion of economic growth is good for this country and good for this world.
-dan
Topic: media snooping
Well…I finally decided to snoop in on al-jazeera news, accessing information that your avg. American will never access. Here’s an article I found interesting, which hopefully opens up a can of worms of new info and stories for me to research:
The Greater Middle East Initiative
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On 19 February 2004, the London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat published a “leaked” US-compiled document that became known as the Greater Middle East Initiative (GMEI).
The original document, intended for internal distribution among designated senior officials of the G8 (group of eight industrialised countries), was meant to signal a new US plan for reform of the Middle East and some other Muslim-majority countries such as Pakistan, Iran and Turkey. Championed by the Bush administration, the draft US policy is intended to address the lack of democracy and growing discontent felt largely in the Arab world, but to include other Muslim majority countries they believe face similar conditions. (The article to the right, “A strategy, but not one for freedom” is a bombshell!!!) The plan was believed to have been assembled with little or no consultation with the governments concerned. The document’s reform agenda received a negative response from the majority of Arab leaders and European governments. Other countries A number of non-Arab countries such as Afghansitan, Pakistan, Iran and Turkey have been mentioned as candidates for the initiative. Israel may also be included. However, speculation is growing that the US plan may also take in other Muslim countries such as Indonesia, Bangladesh and the central Asian countries of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. According to the US State Department’s Bureau for Near East Affairs, which is developing the initiative, the countries to be included are still “a work in progress”. Steven Kisset, a programme director at the bureau, told Aljazeera.net: “A number of proposals are still being looked at and are on the table to be discussed by the G8 countries.” Some commentators have said that the new initiative is designed to intensify strategic US control over many Muslim nations and those that have a significant US military and business presence – furthering US interests – evident in central Asia, where expanding military bases and burgeoning new oil resources combine. These efforts and others have represented the backdrop to the GMEI, which is expected to be officially launched on 1 June 2004 at the next G8 meeting in Sea Island, Georgia. The leaked document produced a flurry of complaints and outright hostility and rejection from many Arab governments already stirred by the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. Arab anger
While US Secretary of State Colin Powell tried to calm Arab leaders’ fury by assuring them that the US did not intend to impose political reforms on them, he insisted that the Bush administration would continue to move forward in its efforts.
Colin Powell says the US will
Meanwhile, Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs Marc Grossman was dispatched to the region to clarify the US position and promote the plan.
continue to push GMEI forward
The GMEI envisages simultaneous reforms in three areas: to promote democracy and good governance, economic opportunities and, finally, knowledge within society.
Some analysts argue that the initiative was formulated on the basis and recommendations of the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) – a US State Department plan launched in December 2002 – and from the UN Arab Human Development Reports of 2002 and 2003.
‘Freedom deficit’
It is also believed that the GMEI was the latest of a Middle East reform campaign revealed during a speech by US President George Bush in November 2003 before the most influential neoconservative organisation in Washington, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).
http://www.aei.org/ This is a link to the American enterprise institute
In his speech, Bush spoke of a “freedom deficit” in the Middle East, a phrase taken from the UN report and which was utilised in the GMEI document.
At the 20th anniversary of the launch of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) which is based at the AEI, Bush said: “Our commitment to democracy is tested in the Middle East, which is my focus today, and must be a focus of American policy for decades to come.
http://www.ned.org/ This is the link to the national endowment for democracy
“Our commitment to democracy is tested in the Middle East” George Bush, |
“In many nations of the Middle East, democracy has not yet taken root. And the questions arise: Are the peoples of the Middle East somehow beyond the reach of liberty? I, for one, do not believe it. I believe every person has the ability and the right to be free.”
Bush went further in his state of the union address on 20 January 2004, when he called for the expansion of NED’s budget for 2005, with added funds of $40 million to be channelled entirely to the Middle East.
Money for democracy
The NED itself has sparked fierce criticism from governments and organisations around the world, who charge it with collecting US taxpayers’ money to promote favoured politicians, political parties and to inject money and influence into the domestic elections of foreign countries.
In the US, such financial influence by outside countries into US domestic politics is considered illegal.
But Bush vowed to send “a proposal to double the budget of the National Endowment for Democracy, and to focus its new work on the development of free elections, free markets, free press and free labour unions in the Middle East”.
Also, in January, the US Office of Management and Budget which assists the president in overseeing the financial spending of federal government programs, announced the allocation of $458 million to be spent on “democracy promotion” in Iraq in the first six months of this year.
Lukewarm response
Arab leaders such as Egypt’s Husni Mubarak insisted that the US should play the role of partner and not enforcer of reforms.
Other Arab leaders, such as Syria’s Bashar al-Asad, also criticised the plan because of the political affiliation of its champions: prominent neoconservative figures in Washington, the same neocons who promoted the war on Iraq.
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Egypt’s Mubarak sees a different |
Some of these figures – the subject of much controversy – are believed to be instrumental in forging present US foreign policy in the Middle East: Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Under-Secretary of Defence Douglas Feith, Richard Perle (Defence Policy Board), David Wurmser (Vice-President Dick Cheney’s adviser) and Danielle Pletka, (a vice-president of AEI) are some of the more visible.
Responding to the initiative, Jordan’s foreign minister, Marwan Muasher, wished that the American initiative would “never see the light of day”.
Lacking logic
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Musa accused the GMEI of lacking “a lot of logic in its premises”.
“I do not think there is any logic in piling up Morocco and Bangladesh in a vision of that sort,” he said in an exclusive interview.
“It is illogical to speak of an initiative which requires the cooperation of the Arab states without consulting those very states on the nature and details of such ideas.
“It is unacceptable to attempt to dictate to peoples the developmental paths they should take. So, in short, I think this sort of initiative won’t fly the way it was launched and promoted.”
Statements made by top US officials in reference to the GMEI continued to flow after the leak of the original plan.
US position
On 24 February, in an interview with the US-based Arabic Al Hurra television, Powell said: “What we are trying to do is help each of them [countries], in the way that they choose, to move forward down a path that I think is in their interests to move down.”
The GMEI was not forged, he added “for the purpose of the United States imposing anything on anyone.
“In fact, it won’t work unless the nations in the region find it in their interests to move in this direction, and we hope that they will.”
Then, on 1 March, Powell, following a meeting with top EU officials at the State Department said that the US and the European Union “see great opportunity and scope for cooperation on a Greater Middle East Initiative in the run-up to the G8, US-EU and NATO summits” to be held in June.
US officials are comparing the initiative to the Helsinki agreements of 1975 which allowed for the reformation of much of Eastern Europe, then under the shadow of stifling communist rule.
Other American themes highlighted in the plan include restarting world trade talks, and action to stop the spread of nuclear weapons.
Topic: Internship
Well…it’s put up or shut-up time. I can talk all I want, but these 3-months are my chance to do something. So far, I can see the potential for something positive to come out of this, but so far, it seems this might be more of an educational and networking experience that may only lead to something big further down the road…which I know, is ok.
So, what are my jobs here?
1) I’m supposed to read and do a book review of Robert Putnam’s book, “Better Together.” No cliff notes for this one, but, not only will reading this book better align me with a lot of educators who cite Putnam often, but, my review will be sent out to all 192 institutions associated with the American Democracy Project, so that’s a good experience.
2) I’m also doing research on what’s called “civic skills.” The way I see it, research is only good if it aids something practical, but hopefully it will. Civic skills, as I understand it now, are the skills necessary to be effective in civic activities. Civic activities can be divided into community activities (volunteer, community groups) and political (boycotting, voting, etc.) Now, if you ask me, is there really any reason that we need to do research to establish things like, “communication, teamwork, and critical thinking, are necessary civic skills in order to be effective in civic activities?” I’ll naturally say, “NO!” But, after doing this little task, we move onto a second category that is necessary to be effective in civic activities, “knowledge.” You can tell already, I’m not loving this abstract stuff, but, this could be used to promote one project I had in mind. The project is to create fun experiential activities, such as doing an Outward Bound course, that provide students with both the skills and the knowledge to be civically and politicall engaged. So…the way I look at it, I go along with the abstract stuff, maybe even learn a thing or two in this research, as well as get to learn and meet some of the key players in the field who are doing this research. Then, I hopefully put myself in a better position of credibility for promoting some of my own educational ideas.
Oh…and yesturday, I applied for a job at WholeFoods supermarkets, and had not one, but two employees (one was a manager) come up to me and rave about how they loved working there. The manager even said to put her name down as a reference. Strange, but, made me realize that there’s something to be gained from all experiences, and that I shouldn’t universally write off any experiences as, “a waste of time.” For example, say I enjoyed the supermarket business so much that I decided to stick with it and move my way up. Could meet great people, make a comfortable amount of money, learn new things. But…while there is something to be gained from all experiences, I believe a person, (or at least, myself) needs to evaluate personal drives and desires, and to determine whether they are putting themselves in experiences that are moving them towards those goals.
Cheers,
-dan
