tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16420279966135528752024-03-05T15:22:53.573+08:00Finding SohoArjun Rajkhowahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007840696265229453noreply@blogger.comBlogger60125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1642027996613552875.post-11718780430481281542023-12-21T07:21:00.012+08:002023-12-22T12:42:21.520+08:00The Bonesetter's Fee and Other Stories by Rashida Murphy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://shortaustralianstories.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/The-Bonesetters-Fee-cover-v2-e1688602895758.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="524" height="800" src="https://shortaustralianstories.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/The-Bonesetters-Fee-cover-v2-e1688602895758.jpg" width="524" /></a></div><p><i><a href="https://shortaustralianstories.com.au/product/the-bonesetters-fee-and-other-stories/" target="_blank">The Bonesetter’s Fee and Other Stories</a></i> by Australian author Rashida Murphy is a collection of short stories that span a childhood in India and adulthood in Australia. The evocative stories in the first half of the book transport the Indian diaspora reader to a distant but still intensely familiar Indian landscape. They capture the unique cadences and life rhythms of a past era in that country. The interiority of homes and domestic landscapes features pre-eminently in the stories. Memory is a powerful trope in her writing. The domestic landscape that emerges through her writing is suffused with the joyous conviviality and haunting hostility of familial figures. The interior world of family lives takes the foreground in her stories while the outside world of the era looms quietly in the background. The characters’ beliefs, attitudes and behaviours form the prism through which the influences of the outside world on the domestic family universe can be observed and understood. The interface between exterior and interior worlds is a very powerful and productive site of literary creation in the field of Indo-Anglian literature. Murphy’s writing dwells delicately on this terrain. There is both nostalgia and a critical rationality in her treatment of the past, a willingness to both embrace sympathetically and confront critically. </p><p>Superstitions and alternative belief systems relating to health and wellbeing come in for critical scrutiny. The spectre of the foreboding astrologer with dire prognostications and predictions of doom looms over the inner life of the family in one story. A planned consultation with the eponymous bonesetter in the titular story sparks fierce debates within the family about the merits of going to alternative orthopaedic practitioners. The figure of the itinerant but authoritative man – from traditional healer to astrologer to gemstone merchant – features prominently. This is an interesting and familiar figure in Indian literary works, whose influence on the inner sanctum of the family home may be peculiarly impactful, threatening, destabilising or benign. The forces of conservatism argue that these uncanny authority figures with their enthralled local following and traditional imprimatur for practice must be respected and the family must abide by their dicta. Those opposed challenge the sway they have over others and the wisdom of subjecting one’s health and wellbeing to their ministrations, if not surrendering one’s fate to their whims. The tension between traditional and modern belief systems characterises the animosity between characters. Where opposition to tradition is overruled and conformity with traditional belief systems upheld by authority figures within the family, there is limited opportunity for an individual, let alone a child, to assert her right to bodily and spiritual autonomy. Instead, the opposition takes the form of inner defiance, an inner protest against one’s coerced participation in traditional practices. When one doesn’t have the right to refuse and must conform with the prescribed actions, one compels oneself to go through the motions physically but rebels internally against the strictures. Murphy evokes that defiance through humour and bathos in this collection of short stories. Stories ending with a twist of fate, an ironic outcome or a reversal of fortunate serve as a kind of vindication or conduit for closure. </p><p>Murphy’s stories also focalise children’s voices and their ability to make sense of the world through shared meaning-making processes. Siblings become sounding boards for ideas and interpretations of the complex messages that adults seem to unwittingly send them and each other. The complexity and uncertainty of the adult world is broken down into more sensible bits, sometimes revealing the absurdity and pettiness of that world. The children’s world then becomes a site of a sensible reckoning with reality, a circle of clear thinking within the cluttered domestic realm. Unencumbered by the psychological constraints and prejudices of the adults, the youth can sometimes see things as they really are and dare to explore things the adults would not countenance. In one story, a group of itinerant bandits comes to live outside the child protagonist’s home; her father is their lawyer and they have nowhere else to go for the duration of their case. The bandits and their families set up a makeshift camp in the garden of the family home and stay there for an extended period of time. The threatening proximity of the bandits feels intolerable to the mother but the kids are curious about them and on the sly discover among them a world of exotic cooking and self-sufficient living. There is humour in the juxtaposition of the ordered domestic world of the family with the nominally disordered presence of the outlaw outsider on their periphery. The child’s perspective cuts through the ordinary interpretation of this juxtaposition and sees what lies beyond. There is humour too in the ultimate analysis of this situation: “I don’t know if the legal representation was successful, whether Dad made any money or if the bandits continued to be career bandits or changed paths and became respectable homeowners.” </p><p>On the other side of this narrative technique is the perspective of the mother, a mother in a different era and different country, Australia, but nevertheless a parent experiencing all the fears and frustrations one might experience when confronted by a brave but truculent child and the vagaries of a sometimes-unsafe world. The child’s derring-do provokes emotional responses in the mother, which serve as a kind of redemptive counterpoint to the reactions of the mother figure from the stories set in India. There is a discoursal movement back and forth between the characters in these different eras and locales, offering glimpses of reconciliation, resolution and understanding. One of the most powerful stories in the collection, ‘Being Calamity Jane’, captures twin moments of calamity occurring on the same day – the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US and the dissolution of a 20-year marriage in the life of the mother-protagonist in Australia. The global outrage at terror and the images of devastation playing on repeat on the news form the backdrop for the personal calamity in the life of the protagonist. Rather than overwhelming the protagonist, the confluence of calamities, global and personal, strengthens her resolve, reinforcing her belief that she can emerge through the ruins of this moment and honing her protective feelings about her daughter. There is a calm resolve in the authorial voice that gently illuminates the inner strength of the mother in this story, whose tenacity and resolve stem partly from wanting to be the best and freest version of herself for her daughter’s sake. </p><p><i>The Bonesetter’s Fee and Other Stories</i> traverses a great journey across time and space, both geographical and psychological. The Western Australian setting of the concluding stories is a setting of calm reflection, dependable friends and sometimes-foolhardy adventure. There is a kind of settling in of the authorial voice in the latter stories. Murphy brings a wry humour and sense of unflappable resolve to the narrative voices in the book. It is a particularly gratifying read for a diaspora reader. Murphy is calm and measured in her retrospective assessment of the domestic adventures and misadventures of the past. She is also considerate and reflective in her treatment of the matured parent-narrator living in Australia. There is an elegant closing of the loop of migrant experience in the work. </p>Arjun Rajkhowahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007840696265229453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1642027996613552875.post-62402849707044295992022-12-11T13:55:00.024+08:002023-12-22T12:51:30.964+08:00The ethics of administering neighbourhood social media pages<p>Social media platforms, particularly Facebook, facilitate neighbourhood networking through pages and groups created for discussion about local issues. Around Australia, for example, many suburbs, towns and remote communities have Facebook pages and groups dedicated to neighbourhood networking. </p><p>Without exception, all of these have been created by people who've taken the initiative to start these groups where (perhaps) none existed before, and continue to be administered by these people and others who've volunteered to taken on the mantle of triaging requests to join the group and moderating discussions among members. </p><p>Effectively, these volunteers, who are performing a community service without receiving any remuneration for their work, become the de facto regulators of neighbourhood public sphere interaction. </p><p>Because social media can now be the only space where communities exchange information about local needs, issues, events and happenings (from the mundane to the extraordinary), the volunteers who take on the role of running community discussion groups and pages effectively become the self-appointed regulators of communication between people who live in a particular locality. </p><p>In fact, they become the self-appointed gatekeepers of both access to information (as it becomes their prerogative to accept or decline requests to join the group) and the moderators of public conversation. </p><p>Therefore, the individual and collective preferences, beliefs and (inevitably) prejudices of these self-selected gatekeepers come to determine what transpires for public discussion about neighbourhood needs and experiences - their considered choices, collective decisions and whims effectively shape public discussion. </p><p>In this public sphere, first-mover advantage is crucial, as there is no requirement to establish any locus standi to create these groups in the name of the neighbourhood or locality. Once created, people flock to the group when they search for relevant information about their locality and find that there is a community group available. </p><p>Once created, if there is disaffection or disadvantage, disaffected or disadvantaged members of the community will find it hard to go elsewhere - once a group gathers momentum, people will continue to flock to it and it will be nearly impossible (if not unwise) to create splinter groups. </p><p>So, we currently have a laissez-faire system for the creation and regulation of neighbourhood public spheres on the social media platforms that are most commonly used by people, primarily Facebook. In this system, the rules are determined by these first-movers. Should their decisions and actions be prejudicial to certain people, there is very little accountability that can be expected. </p><p>At the same time, we have councils, cadres of paid officials and elected councillors whose job it is to provide services to their local area. Theirs is a legislated and highly regulated role. They are also responsible for sharing information about local issues, which they do on their own social media pages and websites. Very rarely are these council-run social media pages the prime locus of community discussion. </p><p>Given the sheer scale of community engagement on neighbourhood networking groups on social media and the unquestionable and inescapable dominance of these non-council public spheres, I wonder if responsibility for the administration and regulation of these groups should pass on to local councils? </p><p>This would make social media neighbourhood networking a part of local council bureaucracy, which might not be an appealing prospect to many people. But it would also take the role of regulating public conversation about locality-related issues away from volunteers and self-appointed gatekeepers and vest it in the hands of paid officials in councils with responsibility for providing community services. </p><p>These councils could then be held responsible for their decisions and actions through the normal channels of government, which may or may not work effectively, depending on the place. </p><p>I wonder if this would be a better system. Or worse. </p><p>Because, at the moment, once a social media neighbourhood group or page becomes popular enough, it becomes the definitive neighbourhood public sphere. And the job of keeping the space going is left in the hands of a selected few, with future changes in rules, etiquette and sharing of moderation responsibility entirely dependent on these people and at their discretion. </p><p>Importantly, it is worth recognising that facilitating neighbourhood communication and networking should be considered a public service. Councils charge local residents for the provision of community services. Should this service also be added to the list of other community services for which councils are responsible? </p><p>At the moment, we rely on volunteers to keep community groups and pages running. These volunteers do it out of a desire to perform a public service. In many regional towns and remote communities, there is only one person who runs the local community group on Facebook - just one admin. </p><p>As we are still in the first two decades of social media use, we are yet to see how these administration rights over community groups will be transferred from time to time, generation to generation. </p>Arjun Rajkhowahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007840696265229453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1642027996613552875.post-47570363341020141082021-12-16T11:41:00.003+08:002023-12-22T12:52:34.163+08:00Economic transparencySystems that govern economic transactions can be inherently opaque. While there is an expectation of transparency, the reality can be quite different, and the consequences of a lack of transparency can be significant. There is a cultural tendency to preserve the lack of transparency in economic transactions, and this is something that appears to be an inheritance of the pre-21st century political economy. For example, there is a tendency in the language of contractual laws to allow opportunities for the contravention of transparency obligations. This language is ingrained in the discourse of the professionals who manage these systems. The values attached to secrecy around economic transactions pervade the systems and create a culture where transparency is deemed to be something that needs to be 'managed'. For novices - people who have not properly interacted with these systems before - the sudden realisation that there are so many hitherto unknown nuances to transactions, which may only become apparent after the transaction is over, can be alarming and difficult to come to terms with. One is led to wonder, for the generations of people who have been part of these systems and governed these systems, and who presumably understand these nuances well, was there never a desire to improve the situation for future generations? Arjun Rajkhowahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007840696265229453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1642027996613552875.post-78014203566945103662021-11-26T21:31:00.004+08:002023-12-22T12:53:23.564+08:00Value of timeHow does one understand the value of time for someone whose liberty has been curtailed for many years? In thinking about years of life and liberty lost, there are a number of crucial factors to consider for which we have no reliable measure except perhaps what know from our own experience - lost opportunity to grow into the world with your loved ones, develop an identity, nurture friendships, find love, explore the horizons of your world and beyond, learn complex things, experience ageing and physically, emotionally and intellectually changing over time, and so much more. How does one even estimate the value of lost time? It is almost impossible to do this. No belief or knowledge system can help one appreciate the value of lost time. So, given the impossibility of this task, do we have adequate ways of considering the value of lost time in building safeguards against gross errors in processes designed to impose confinement and confiscation of liberty? If so, how do we acknowledge and redress those errors when they do occur? And in our contemplation of the impost of those errors, how do we even put a value on what has been purposely taken from another human being? Arjun Rajkhowahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007840696265229453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1642027996613552875.post-53684475839867407622021-11-23T17:19:00.009+08:002023-12-22T12:54:37.837+08:00The morality of innocence<p>What does the documentary series The Innocence Files teach us? There is a lot to learn about the challenges and flaws of justice systems and about the humanity and compassion of those who go against the grain to fight for the rights of people whose lives have been wrongly and unfairly destroyed by wrongful prosecution and conviction. There is a lot to learn about the seemingly superhuman capacity for patience and perseverance that some people demonstrate even in the face of the most trying of circumstances, where hope has been completely snatched away from them and even the absolute truth cannot save them. There is a lot to learn about the failings and ill will of people entrusted to protect people's rights and serve justice, and how flawed decision-making or malicious persecution can irreparably destroy innocent people's lives. But there is something that the documentary series cannot teach us at all, because it is impossible to fathom and almost impossible to articulate - that is the value of lost time, lost potential and lost humanity. Even as we watch those who have been unfairly convicted and robbed of their liberty for nearly a lifetime emerge from confinement after vindication and try to reclaim some semblance of a 'normal life', we know that the indescribable pain of lost time, lost potential and lost humanity cannot be erased, cannot be redressed and cannot even be acknowledged. That pain must remain silent and unspoken. Because even to name it and look at it with honesty is too hurtful and soul-destroying. That is something the documentary series cannot deliver to us because it is beyond our capacity to imagine and understand. What is lost cannot be reclaimed, but what remains must be fought for and claimed. It is the morality of innocence - the morality of lost humanity - that remains elusive even as we educate ourselves about people's emergence from the throes of injustice. </p>Arjun Rajkhowahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007840696265229453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1642027996613552875.post-91445598802843641152021-08-21T13:53:00.005+08:002023-12-22T13:11:41.940+08:00Contentious community: the figure of the insider-outsider in The Permanent Resident by Roanna Gonsalves<div>Against a backdrop of increasing migration from Asia to Australia, the experience of Asian visitors and immigrants coming into Australia has changed over time; rather than disorientation, Asian migrants coming to Australia may experience a relatively more comfortable ‘settling in’. Drawing on existing networks and connections with established Australian residents (occasionally facilitated by family networks back home), new visitors and migrants can foster a sense of community fairly quickly and use support networks to gather information, manage the logistics of travel or settlement and participate in social events. The traditional pressures that attend physical relocation may thus feel less urgent and onerous, and the affective impacts of cultural adjustment may be less significant. Communities of settled migrants can provide a potentially helpful safety net or point of reference for newly arrived migrants, making these people feel like a part of an existing community and thus helping to reduce the anxiety associated with migration. </div><div><br />When crises arise, the importance of finding solace in community becomes abundantly clear. The message that community is important is reinforced widely by the media and the sense that one needs to connect with community is pervasive. Community is a concept that assumes greater symbolic meaning, practical significance and power during a crisis. In fact, in many ways, it is during a crisis that people can consciously and meaningfully grapple with the concept of community. Confronted with a complex and difficult situation, people looking for connection and perhaps even material support will contemplate what it is that they mean when they say that they belong to a particular community, and what it is that that community may mean when they say that you are one of them. </div><div><br />It is in the light of this peculiar negotiation of the meaning of community that I revisited <i>Permanent Resident</i> by Indian-Australian writer Roanna Gonsalves. An anthology of short stories published in 2016, Permanent Resident deals with the complexities of migrant subjectivity in Australia. Most of the characters in the short stories are Sydney-based Goan or Mangalorean Christians. The latter are communities of south-western Indians who trace their heritage to the Konkan coast, a part of the western coastline of southern India. Many adopted Christianity (mainly Catholicism) under the influence of the Portuguese, who colonised parts of the Konkan coast from 1505 to 1961. The book presents intricately carved stories of first- and second-generation Konkani migrants in Sydney, sympathetically and insightfully depicting the challenges and complexities of migrating to a new country and settling into a new life. </div><div><br />One critical aspect of the work that I found myself thinking about recently is its negotiation of the concept of cultural community from the perspective of an ‘insider-outsider’, and, related to this, its depiction of tensions within a community during a moment of crisis. How do people who – for various reasons, including their marital status, worldview and more – don’t necessarily ‘fit in’ with the community think about their place within that community? How do migrants (within a cultural community) with different value systems engage, debate, disagree and coexist with one another? What do different members of a community think about their place in the community during a crisis? Gonsalves’ stories offer a glimpse into how some migrants may negotiate this terrain. Most of the stories in Permanent Resident deal with how migration can affect and change people’s relationships, friendships, and career and creative aspirations. These stories can’t be compartmentalised under a single theme. But one aspect of the collection that stood out to me was its exploration of the perspective of the insider-outsider, a person who belongs but doesn’t fully fit in. </div><div><br />This essay focuses on one story in the collection, ‘In the beginning was the word’, in which Angelina (Angie), a Goan Catholic woman in Sydney, decides, after a heated debate with a group of Indian Catholic friends and acquaintances from St. Mary’s Church (the church that she was inducted into when she first arrived in Sydney), to publicly confront their parish priest about recent revelations of historical child abuse in the local parish. </div><div><br />Angie is a divorcee and does not have children. This is what makes her stand out from her mostly conservative Indian Catholic friends. She is both pitied and treated disdainfully by this group of friends, from whom she has gradually become estranged over the years. When Angie first arrived in Sydney, Bibi (a childhood friend from Bombay) and her husband, Martin, let her stay with them for 6 months, helping her settle in. Bibi and Martin are conservative and religious. They are keen to emulate Australian ways but they remain culturally and socially insular. Their social circle comprises Indian Catholics who go to the same church and with whom they share similar values. One such is an expectation that one should definitely marry, ‘settle down’ and have kids in order to be seen as a respectable member of society. They share a suspicion of (and lack of empathy for) people who choose not to do this. This has strained Angie’s friendship with them, and, in addition to her lack of interest in attending church and remaining a part of the church community, has rendered her an insider-outsider, someone who belongs but doesn’t truly fit in. Their former friendship has now become some sort of a nominal association, still held together by an old sense of obligation to at least remain in touch (‘Perhaps they felt obliged [to invite her], as she felt obliged to turn up.’). </div><div><br />The key thing that drives a wedge between them is their ideological and political differences. For example, while Bibi, Martin and their Indian Catholic friends look upon other migrants (particularly Muslim refugees) with some disdain, Angie, through her exposure to progressive ideas at her university, is much more sympathetic towards other migrants. Indeed, she now finds the animosity and lack of empathy of this group of people quite disturbing. </div><div><br />Their most important political and ideological difference relates, inevitably, to religion. Angie is curious about what the church group thinks about recent revelations about child abuse in their local parish. She wonders at their lack of acknowledgement of these revelations and willingness to overlook criticisms of their priest. She challenges them to explain the church’s reluctance to accept responsibility for past misdeeds. Bibi, Martin and their friends vociferously defend the priest and church, obfuscate the issues, and belittle her for her ‘progressive’ views and outrage. Angie’s criticisms provoke them to pour scorn on her and embarrass her about the fact that she has chosen to remain a single woman (and thus forsake respectability), further consolidating her outsider status within this community. </div><div><br /><i>‘Yes, of course,’ said Bibi and turned her back to Angie, who was sitting in the sun. But then she turned around again and faced Angie like the Book of Revelations. ‘Why don’t you come to church next Sunday? Our church. See for yourself what you’re missing.’</i></div><div><i><br />Angie laughed humourlessly. </i></div><div><i><br />‘Come and make your peace. Give your parents something to be happy about after… the divorce.’<br />There it was again, that cat-o’-nine-tails that had long since lost its power. </i></div><div><i><br />‘My parents are happy.’</i></div><div><i><br />‘That’s not what they tell me. Prayer can move mountains, Angie. You’re all alone in this country. Don’t reject the only people who can help you.’</i><br /> <br />The pull of community in a new and initially unfamiliar setting can be strong, and responding to this pull may induce some level of cultural self-regulation. To be welcomed into a cultural community, one usually needs to demonstrate some degree of conformity with a (usually loosely defined) identity. This conformity – whether enacted in terms of dutiful attendance at community events and places of worship, for example, or in other ways – is needed for the creation of a sense of belonging together. It is also sometimes needed for the assertion of identity-based claims in the public domain, and for these claims to be viewed as having legitimacy and support within the given community. The situation of a newly arrived migrant is such that the anxiety associated with migration can induce a need to identify with a culture that previously might not have been so strongly present in that person’s life, and this identification may become consolidated and reinforced over time. The predicament of people who, for whatever reason, don’t ‘fit in’ can thus become quite complex. Such a person may find themselves grappling with reinscribed unfavourable cultural norms and judgements that make it harder for them to feel a sense of belonging with their community. </div><div><br />In this story, during a crisis, the faithful reinforce their fortifications around the church, dismissing concerns about stories of abuse and displacing blame onto others. The church community digs its heels in and ferociously deflects all criticism. The protagonist – an insider-outsider who, after years of forbearance, is frustrated and appalled by the hypocrisies, pettiness and small-mindedness of this community – finds herself adopting the position of the community’s nemesis. Angie persuades herself to confront the priest and force him, and, by extension, the whole community, to acknowledge the church’s sins. But at the critical moment of confrontation during a church service, she is overpowered and rendered pliant by the force of the communal spirit around her. Her protest is deflated. </div><div><br />The deflation begins when Bibi performs a private ritual of welcome when she sees that Angie has returned to St. Mary’s Church: </div><div><br /><i>The first person she sees is… Bibi, smug like cheese in a rat-trap. </i></div><div><i><br />Bibi walks up to Angie. They embrace.</i></div><div><i><br />Bibi says, ‘This is your home, Angie.’</i></div><div><i><br />‘Bibi…’</i></div><div><i><br />‘Family comes first, Angie. This is your faith family. Here. In this country where no one else cares about you.’ </i></div><div><br />There it is – the power of the community to both offer refuge to you and make you conform. </div><div><br />Gonsalves’ stories about migrants are varied and textured, and there are layers of complexity in <i>Permanent Resident</i>. Some of the other standout stories are: ‘The teller in the tale’, in which a woman writing a dissertation reconciles with her fiercely protective but demanding mother – a reconciliation that feels like the crescendo of a lifetime of muted acrimony; ‘Cutting corners’, a story about a woman (a nurse and artist), who, straddling two different organisations representing South Asian Catholics, whose members generally have little or no time for the arts, finally meets someone who recognises and appreciates the artist in her; ‘The dignity of labour’, in which the pressures of migration, exacerbated by a seeming incompatibility with established migrants, destroy an already strained marriage and culminate in horrific violence; and ‘Permanent resident’, a story about a woman who, having lost her child in a swimming pool accident, finally steels herself to learn how to swim. </div><div><br />‘Community’ can be a particularly fraught concept for migrants to grapple with, and there is a peculiar richness and tenderness in Gonsalves’ stories about migrants’ negotiation of the concept of community during a moment of crisis. In Gonsalves’ work, there is a tension between two conceptions of the community – the community as a welcoming and comfortable refuge for newly arrived migrants and the community as the conservative arbiter of values and beliefs. While the newly arrived migrants in Gonsalves’ stories often find themselves appreciating (and needing) the relaxed friendliness and intimacy with which established migrants treat them and bring them into their social circles, they also soon feel constrained by (and displeased about) the mores, prejudices, vanities and expectations of conformity that pervade their insular social world. Community is a double-edged sword to insider-outsiders, who can neither fully embrace nor fully escape the community. Even in the face of serious ideological and moral disagreement, they can’t forsake the community, and the community doesn’t forsake them. They are all migrants here in Australia, and, no matter how divergent their paths in life may be, they are still bound together by a tenuous sense of having something significant in common. The immutable fact of their common origin, and of their arrival in Australia, still binds them together and prevents them from ever fully severing relations. Gonsalves understands and depicts this tension well.</div>Arjun Rajkhowahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007840696265229453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1642027996613552875.post-85889391781926949362021-08-15T09:45:00.000+08:002021-08-15T09:45:11.139+08:00Normalising new experiences<p>It suddenly occurred to me yesterday how normal I find the experience of living among people from so many different cultures and countries. I went to a Greek restaurant and knew exactly what to order and how to pronounce it correctly. I did it almost unconsciously and the transaction was over quite quickly because I was so precise. (I became conscious of this because the customer before me was asking about every item and still trying to figure out what to order.) But later on, I thought to myself, how did I become this person who knows all this information? Because I didn't grow up in this setting. But now the experience is so familiar and so ingrained, I can't imagine life otherwise. The person that I was before would look upon me now and find it odd that I am familiar with the cultures, objects and tastes of so many different ethnicities and nationalities. But to the person that I am now, that is ordinary. There are so many ways in which I and so many others who have experienced these transitions in life have absorbed and processed new knowledge and new experiences, and become utterly and totally familiarised with these - in so many different domains. It's quite remarkable when you think about it but the truly remarkable thing is that you never do - it never strikes you as being noteworthy anyway. This is just the new you - the person that you are now, and you know these things, and you are expected to know these things, because this is the reality of the place you live in. </p>Arjun Rajkhowahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007840696265229453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1642027996613552875.post-16471511030768911292021-02-05T18:55:00.001+08:002021-02-05T18:56:38.613+08:00A tragic story<p>TW: self-harm</p><p><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-05/royal-hobart-hospital-emergency-department-suicide/13125544">This</a> is an incredibly sad report. The tragic circumstances surrounding this man's death are heartbreaking. But it is clear that he was someone who was determined to seek help. He was an ABI survivor who underwent post-acute rehabilitation and expressed his intentions to persevere and live his best life in a succinct and powerful way. He was determined to continue to heal and recover. And, from the brief glimpse into his life that this report offers, it is apparent that he was engaging with mental health professionals in order to persevere with his recovery. It is sad that he experienced the crisis and desolation that led to his death. It sounds like he was courageous, willing and able to seek help when he needed it most. This tragic story indicates that mental health and psychiatric nursing has the potential to contribute in a powerful way to securing and safeguarding lives at critical moments. Rehabilitation care too is such an important field. This is where people have a chance to renew their hope for life after a life-altering crisis. </p>Arjun Rajkhowahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007840696265229453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1642027996613552875.post-91710419281997714182021-01-27T15:05:00.003+08:002021-01-27T15:05:42.269+08:00Norman Doidge on Rene Descartes<p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> “We have seen that imagining an act engages the same motor and sensory programs that are involved in doing it. We have long viewed our imaginative life with a kind of sacred awe: as noble, pure, immaterial, and ethereal, cut off from our material brain. Now we cannot be so sure about where to draw the line between them. Everything your “immaterial” mind imagines leaves material traces. Each thought alters the physical state of your brain synapses at a microscopic level. Each time you imagine moving your fingers across the keys to play the piano, you alter the tendrils in your living brain. These experiments are not only delightful and intriguing, they also overturn the centuries of confusion that have grown out of the work of the French philosopher René Descartes, who argued that mind and brain are made of different substances and are governed by different laws. The brain, he claimed, was a physical, material thing, existing in space and obeying the laws of physics. The mind (or the soul, as Descartes called it) was immaterial, a thinking thing that did not take up space or obey physical laws. Thoughts, he argued, were governed by the rules of reasoning, judgment, and desires, not by the physical laws of cause and effect. Human beings consisted of this duality, this marriage of immaterial mind and material brain. But Descartes—whose mind/body division has dominated science for four hundred years—could never credibly explain how the immaterial mind could influence the material brain. As a result, people began to doubt that an immaterial thought, or mere imagining, might change the structure of the material brain. Descartes’s view seemed to open an unbridgeable gap between mind and brain. His noble attempt to rescue the brain from the mysticism that surrounded it in his time, by making it mechanical, failed. Instead the brain came to be seen as an inert, inanimate machine that could be moved to action only by the immaterial, ghostlike soul Descartes placed within it, which came to be called “the ghost in the machine.” By depicting a mechanistic brain, Descartes drained the life out of it and slowed the acceptance of brain plasticity more than any other thinker. Any plasticity—any ability to change that we had—existed in the mind, with its changing thoughts, not in the brain. But now we can see that our “immaterial” thoughts too have a physical signature, and we cannot be so sure that thought won’t someday be explained in physical terms. While we have yet to understand exactly how thoughts actually change brain structure, it is now clear that they do, and the firm line that Descartes drew between mind and brain is increasingly a dotted line.” </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Norman Doidge, The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science</span></p>Arjun Rajkhowahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007840696265229453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1642027996613552875.post-21788674583441988302020-09-09T18:10:00.003+08:002020-09-12T18:43:04.836+08:00Biographical confusion<p>How does one manage biographical confusion? </p><p>The past is a different country - they do things differently there. LP Hartley was absolutely spot-on. </p><p>It can be difficult to explain biographical transitions and new roles - at what point did one stop working on one thing and then start on another? How did that come about? When did one start to retrain? These are all difficult to encapsulate in a brief profile. </p><p>In the past, people's career choices rarely evolved. Now, changing career or disciplinary pathways appears to be quite common. But one has to manage this well because the confusion that may be generated may be quite detrimental to one's interests. </p><p>I don't think that anyone needs to explain why they shifted gears. Everyone should have the freedom to shift gears when they are able to do so and do it at their own pace. But it can be challenging to rationalise this for others. </p><p>There are so many people today who are retraining later on in life. They may have already finished with one career and are embarking on another. They may be undertaking academic training in a new field in their late 30s and 40s. </p><p>I think a lot of people feel uncomfortable about the transitions that they undergo in life, and feel ashamed to acknowledge these. </p><p>I would recommend that people think about their transitions carefully - because they may need to clarify and explain their experiences. In retrospect, I think I can say that I would have chosen a much more careful approach - and avoided any engagements or projects that would have muddied the process. Clarity is good. But it can be difficult when you are trying to figure things out yourself. </p>Arjun Rajkhowahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007840696265229453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1642027996613552875.post-54400244814629727992020-08-22T10:20:00.006+08:002020-09-10T10:45:15.522+08:00Don't look back in angerThe COVID-19 pandemic has upended life in a lot of ways. Its impact on a lot of people's lives has been enormous. <div><br /></div><div>A lot of people are in distress. A lot of people are angry - angry about the pandemic's effects on their lives, and the restrictions that have been imposed. </div><div><br /></div><div>And some of it is, seemingly, being channeled into aggression against random strangers in public places. <div><br /></div><div>While it's neither particularly important, given all that's happening right now, nor something that can be quantified, there is some palpable aggression in the air and this is sometimes manifesting as racially-charged aggression. </div><div><br /></div><div>There was some media coverage of racist incidents in various places, including Melbourne, early on in the pandemic. Since then, there hasn't been much information about such incidents. </div><div><br /></div><div>However, I have seen some (what I suppose is) racially-charged aggression. </div><div><br /></div><div>I've come across racist graffiti and vandalism. </div><div><br /></div><div>I've come across some road rage that may potentially have been racially-charged. I can't be sure but I think that it was. </div><div><br /></div><div>The fact that there are fewer cars on the road might make it easier for speed demons and old-school racists to target other drivers and pedestrians randomly for harassment - driving into pedestrians crossing at zebra crossings when it's their turn to cross, unwarranted honking, etc. </div><div><br /></div><div>When the harassers look like the kind of people we've experienced racism from before, and the targets of the harassing behaviour are people of colour, it can be easy to assume that there is a racial dimension to the harassment. </div><div><br /></div><div>Of course, none of this behaviour, which can occur in a split second, can be specifically identified as racial harassment. </div><div><br /></div><div>So it disappears into the ether, later pushed to the back of our mind when we've calmed down, never to be discussed again, because nothing can be conclusively proved and there is nothing tangible left from the incident, unless you've been injured or you've had racist graffiti sprayed outside your house. </div><div><br /></div><div>Even then, the perpetrators vanish into thin air, leaving no trace of their aggression and their actions, although the marks of their rage (and, possibly, their racism) remain imprinted on your psyche. </div><div><br /></div><div>I've experienced some seemingly racially-charged aggression on the streets from other pedestrians and people doing their exercise. </div></div><div><br /></div><div>The pandemic has weaponised previously innocuous behaviours; for example, 'carelessly' coughing at others can now be a way of showing aggression. </div><div><br /></div><div>Some people who harbour racial animus might enjoy pulling stupid, 'harmless' stunts to make people of colour uncomfortable in public places. </div><div><br /></div><div>Again, none of this is definitive. Are people who are behaving in this way randomly targeting unsuspecting others, irrespective of race? </div><div><br /></div><div>Who knows? </div><div><br /></div><div>But heuristics exist for a reason. Past experience can be informative. Negative past experiences can continue to determine your perceptions about present and future encounters. </div><div><br /></div><div>All of this is very tame. These are examples of 'micro' aggression - unless of course you've been physically harmed - for example, by a car threatening to drive into you at a pedestrian crossing. </div><div><br /></div><div>Nevertheless, it can be disconcerting. </div><div><br /></div><div>The only thing that you can do, if you're a target of such behaviour, is to walk on and not look back in anger. </div><div><br /></div><div>Yes, there is that momentary anger and discomfort that arises immediately after you've experienced road rage or unexpected harassing behaviour on the streets from random passers-by. But it's better to not let that linger too long in your mind. </div><div><br /></div><div>You have to clear your head and go about your exercise and your day as calmly as possible. </div><div><br /></div><div>There may be aggression and frustration in the air. But there is no reason to add to it. Walk on. Don't look back in anger. </div>Arjun Rajkhowahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007840696265229453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1642027996613552875.post-58729195878661048472019-12-05T12:24:00.001+08:002019-12-05T12:24:31.654+08:00Health services research - developed/developing countries<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Among other factors, one factor that distinguishes health services research in developed countries from health services research in developing countries is that the former uses a strong implementation science framework to drive and measure quality improvement. There is a strong emphasis on measuring and assessing service delivery and the implementation of initiatives. Busy clinicians don’t always have the time to measure and assess service delivery, or to undertake implementation research. Healthcare managers can help to do this work but the discipline of healthcare management does not really exist outside developed countries. It has also been quite enlightening to see how qualitative research methods and approaches are used in healthcare research (for example, to understand patient experiences or clinicians’ perspectives on barriers to and enablers of quality improvement) in developed countries. Sometimes, systems-related quality improvement initiatives can make a huge difference, even in terms of patient outcomes. The level of inter-disciplinary synergy that exists within healthcare research in some places is just inconceivable in others.</div>
Arjun Rajkhowahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007840696265229453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1642027996613552875.post-70222021207280237392019-08-23T13:48:00.002+08:002020-09-12T18:42:39.507+08:00A space for reflection<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Is there space for reflection in this increasingly crowded and fast-paced world? The world seems to be hurtling towards a crowded and busy future, and I feel, increasingly, like I'm falling behind. This is because I am becoming increasingly aware of the importance of reflection and connection with the present. I have experienced a powerful disruption that has forced me to reconsider my disconnection from family and community, from a sense of being embedded in the lives of my loved ones - I have experienced something that has made me very conscious of the fact that time is limited. And, whenever I become engrossed in the minutae of day-to-day living, and planning for the future, I slip back into an unreflective mode, oblivious to the passing of time and the passing of opportunities for connecting with those who matter. This is not enough. </div>
Arjun Rajkhowahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007840696265229453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1642027996613552875.post-89823364714965294342019-06-04T14:44:00.003+08:002019-06-04T14:44:26.559+08:00Cog in the machine<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What turns anyone into a ‘cog in the machine’ of repressive state violence, and how does this happen? The philosopher Hannah Arendt investigated this after the Holocaust. How does a person become a weapon of the state, executing actions and inflicting violence (ostensibly legitimately) on behalf of the state, particularly when they know that the victims are innocent (for want of a better word) fellow citizens who have come together to fight for justice. I know that a lot of people would like to claim that they would be immune to the process if they found themselves in that position; that they would resist the state’s demands and injunctions, and not become a tool of repressive violence. But can one really choose to resist at the crucial moment? Can we suddenly break free from the conceptual, physical and economic bonds that tether us to everything that we know as good, true and worthy of obedience? Sure, maybe there were people - in many different historical contexts - who fully believed in the legitimacy of their actions and had little doubt about the morality of their conduct. But I’m sure there were many who did what they did fully believing that what they were doing was wrong.</span></span></div>
Arjun Rajkhowahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007840696265229453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1642027996613552875.post-51199788081581054912019-04-02T10:33:00.001+08:002019-06-04T14:45:32.694+08:00Academic publishing and the need for a new framework of dynamic authorship<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I would like to write an article aimed at academics, and readers who are interested in education and (particularly) higher education. The academic publishing model is staid and exploitative. Writers and their universities are charged exorbitant fees for the privilege of being published. But there is little, if any, editorial support in the process and, as a result, the quality of the work may not be perfect. Most publishers have outsourced their production work to external operators, often in India and the Philippines, to reduce labour costs. This process has been accompanied by a decimation of the role of the editor, who would otherwise play the role of a guardian of quality. This is egregious, particularly in light of the fact that the academic publishing industry is so profitable. Scholars who have English as a second language may not have the flair of the best writers, and may need time to improve the minor language errors that may mar their work. Everything that goes online now stays online – potentially forever. Therefore, writers should have the right to review and improve their work over time. I want to argue that we need a new model of dynamic authorship, i.e., writers should have ongoing control over improvement of their work. This would need a radical change in the way publishing works.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In an academic publishing environment that does not require publishers to pay contributors for their knowledge and output, and often encourages publishers to charge authors and their institutions exorbitant fees for the privilege of being published, what recourse to corrective action does an author have? If the academic publishing industry, which is highly profitable, wishes to truly work in collaboration with authors (and move away from a model that flagrantly exploits authors), then it should consider developing a more dynamic model of engagement. Authors should be able to amend their content and improve their work in a dynamic fashion, and not be restricted by the strictures of the print publication model that is no longer the functional basis of content production and dissemination. Authors should be able to make corrections and improve the quality of their work over time. They should also be allowed to make substantial changes to their work if such changes qualitatively improve their work, and they perceive making such improvements necessary for the future ramifications of their scholarship. Given the availability of block-chain-related and version-tracking technology, there is no reason why quality improvement should not be standard practice. In fact, what we have currently - a staid model wherein proofs are sent for 'final corrections' in a format that is neither appealing nor particularly user-friendly - belies the affordances of available technology. </span></div>
Arjun Rajkhowahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007840696265229453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1642027996613552875.post-46407982181724747642018-12-28T13:17:00.002+08:002018-12-28T13:17:26.277+08:00Technical failure<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="color: #1d2129; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Using technology that’s nascent and fallible requires an extra level of patience and willingness to relinquish attachments to expectations of perfection and smooth sailing. </span></div>
<div style="color: #1d2129; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Humans are hard-wired to expect routine and tried-and-tested performance. And it’s not easy for us to contend with the uncertainty of system dropouts. </span></div>
<div style="color: #1d2129; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">When the expected routine is interrupted, we confront our ingrained fearful reactions to breakdown and failure. Technology compels us to surrender, howeve<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;">r unwillingly, to failure.</span></span></div>
<div class="text_exposed_show" style="color: #1d2129; display: inline;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In this way, the event of technical or technological failure is a powerful circuit breaker of our neural circuitry.</span></div>
</div>
</div>
Arjun Rajkhowahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007840696265229453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1642027996613552875.post-5755227437390791112018-08-05T05:52:00.000+08:002018-08-05T05:58:03.296+08:00Solidarity<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">How a society treats its weaker and sicker members is a pretty good indicator of its development potential. An underdeveloped country that has a culture of support for social security can potentially quickly and equitably utilise aid and resources to improve quality of life, whereas countries that have a dominant culture of hostility towards weaker citizens and residents are likely to struggle with improvement of quality of life, even with external support. There’s a link between culturally-informed ‘emotional’ attributes (solidarity vs hostility) and socio-economic wellbeing.</span></span></div>
Arjun Rajkhowahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007840696265229453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1642027996613552875.post-52151421663955736252018-05-12T10:06:00.001+08:002018-05-14T18:10:54.802+08:00What Eurovision can teach us about life<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Eurovision
can teach us a fair few things about life. These are things that we already
know but Eurovision helps dramatise the lessons in an inimitably glorious way. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Style over
substance<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It is a truth universally acknowledged, that Eurovision is more about
pomp, glitz, glamour, pyrotechnics and performance than it is about music per
se. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It is about exuberance, mirth, irreverent satire, celebration and
deep emotion. Happy and cheerful songs; saucy songs; lugubrious songs; bellicose
screeches; plaintive cries of longing and loss – Eurovision gives us all genres
and emotions. Some of the songs that are performed are absolutely amazing, and
there can be little doubt that the singers performing them are virtuosos.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">But, at Eurovision, performative virtuosity trumps musical
virtuosity. Exceptions notwithstanding, performance is paramount. Eurovision is
a riotous conflagration of colour and (this year especially) a pyromaniac’s wet
dream. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Eurovision’s performative and aesthetic appeal is absolutely essential.
Audiences and fans love its aesthetic sensibilities, and Eurovision wouldn’t be
what it is without these sensibilities. However, in a competition, the
aesthetics of performance and the music are bound to exist in tension. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In every competition, decision-making is influenced by a number of
factors. In this year’s Eurovision, once again, we have examples of performance
triumphing over music. The performances by Cyprus (‘Fuego’, Eleni Foureira) and
Slovenia (‘Hvala, ne!’, Lea Sirk), both qualifying for the finals, were amazing
performances but arguably did not feature great songs. The Swedish performance (‘Dance
you off’, Benjamin Ingrosso) and Czech performance (‘Lie to me’, Mikolas Josef)
were great and the songs had really catchy tunes but the two singers were definitely not
among this year’s best live singers. (When it comes to Eurovision, every
definitive statement is necessarily accompanied by an implied and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sotto voce</i> ‘in my opinion’.) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">On the other hand, the Swiss (‘Stones’, Zibbz), Croatian (‘Crazy’,
Franka), Montenegrin (‘Inje’, Vanja Radovanović) and Russian (‘I Won't Break’, Julia
Samoylova) contestants were really amazing live singers, but they didn’t make
the finals. This might have been because of generic factors or lack of
mesmerising (enough) showmanship. Either way, you can see how these outcomes
exist in tension with one another.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This year’s winner, the Israeli contestant (‘Toy’, Netta), combined
quirky performance with quirky musicality.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Of course, all assessments are subjective, and perhaps it is the
subjectivity of our collective responses that Eurovision can help us better understand.
I found SBS’ reactions ticker very revealing. It was interesting (and,
admittedly, frustrating) to see how frequently other viewers’ reactions varied
from my own. Some reactions from viewers in Australia (for example, poor
ratings for a song that was sung beautifully but did not have that Eurovision
dance-worthiness or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">je ne sais quoi</i>)
can be baffling. But in that experience of momentary bafflement, you have an
opportunity to reconcile with the seeming irreconcilability of other people’s
subjective reactions. When Australians voted the Albanian (‘Mall’, Eugent
Bushpepa) and Montenegrin songs down, I rolled my eyes and muttered “bloody
ee-jits” at the telly. Then I made my peace with it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Looks matter<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Looks definitely matter. Culturally, we have always valorised
beauty and prioritised appearance. Not that this needs any reinforcement, but Eurovision
teaches us that looks do make an enormous difference. Not just beauty in the
traditional sense (although, obviously, that matters as well) but looks and appearance,
considered more broadly. Visual merchandising matters. Contestants have to
carve an image, visibly identify with a particular iconic mould, and make this
a part of their performance. At Eurovision, being beautiful in the traditional
sense is perhaps less important than having unique visual merchandising. Eurovision
has had many iconoclastic contestants (and winners). They’ve taken an unusual (or
non-mainstream) image or look and made it appealing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Political
ideology matters<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Of course political ideology matters. Music is not only about
technique and rhythm. It is also about the message. The message is actually incredibly
important. Songs can ‘speak to the heart’. This is intrinsic to how we engage
with music. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Eurovision teaches us that messages, beliefs and images matter. If
not, a Chinese broadcaster would not have censored the Irish (‘Together’, Ryan
O'Shaughnessy) and Albanian performances, the first for featuring a gay theme
and the latter because of the singer’s tattoos, and would not, in turn, have
been subsequently banned from broadcasting the rest of Eurovision. Both the
censorship and Eurovision’s response highlight the primacy of the message. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Also, many songs and singers (even if they are less technically
brilliant than others) find themselves winning hearts and votes because of their
message. They tap into a zeitgeist or they highlight something that is topical
and politically significant (Ukraine’s winning 2016 performance, ‘1944’ by
Jamala, comes to mind). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Moreover, the entire social, cultural and political rubric under
which Eurovision operates has important ideological underpinnings. This cannot
be overstated. What is a cultural event without its appeal to belief and
ideology? Eurovision emblematises European respect, freedom, unity in diversity,
etc., and songs that resonate with these themes are likely to do well.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">On winning this year’s contest, Netta’s comment on diversity (thanking
viewers for supporting diversity of performance) spoke to the importance of messaging
for both contestants and the organisation. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Assessments
cannot be fair<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This goes back to my earlier point about the subjectivity of
responses. When I say that assessments cannot be fair, I mean two things: one,
that assessments (particularly of music and performance) simply cannot be objective,
and, two, that extraneous (and hidden) factors (including, occasionally,
political ideology) can affect the way people vote. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The random allocation of contestants to two semi-finals, as in
many other competitions, can also contribute to the arbitrariness of the
outcomes. You can have unbalanced pools, and some good contestants will miss
out on getting into the finals in this way (true of 2018). However, this is
simply about the luck of the draw, and, perhaps, by leaving things to chance,
the process delivers something of a more equitable solution (than the
alternative of devised allocations). All competitions that use this mechanism of
arbitrary allocations teach us that assessments cannot be completely fair but
are fair to the best possible extent. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There will
always be a P5<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">There will always be the big or permanent five (in Eurovision, the
P5 grouping includes France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom). While
it would be easy to get mad at the organisers for replicating (and thus
reinforcing) on the cultural plane broader structures of political and economic
hegemony, perhaps we should give them credit for revealing the immutability of
these structures. Let’s face it, there will always be a P5. Some hegemons will
always have more sway than peripheral or less economically powerful players. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In 2018, I was delighted to see that the P5, who get direct entry
into the finals, put in pretty good performances. This is not always so, and it
can be a little annoying to have one of the P5 appear in the finals in spite of
the fact that many other contestants were much better. However, pending a major
rebellion, all must make their peace with the political status quo, and
Eurovision is right to teach us so. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We must
accept these truisms as immutable<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I don’t meant to sound defeatist but we must accept these truisms
as immutable. Eurovision teaches us that music, performance and, indeed, life
itself can be exuberant, raucous, amazing and fun, but also chaotic, ridden
with subjectivity, coincidence, chance, arbitrariness and hierarchy, and that
we must reconcile ourselves to the immutability of this condition.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Trite as it may sound, Eurovision is a microcosm of life itself.</span></div>
</div>
Arjun Rajkhowahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007840696265229453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1642027996613552875.post-16221941711356838292018-04-13T12:59:00.000+08:002018-12-28T13:15:58.112+08:00Corporate surveillance, Facebook's predicament, and the state's role<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Some thoughts on the FB ‘scandal’. Privacy is such a fraught concept. If millions of people make their political opinions and preferences known on FB, is it really surprising that this data can be (and is) harnessed? If private corporations have created a business model that is based on the harnessing of user preferences, should politics be exempt? Is it OK for FB to use my data to show me ads for a movie, for example, but not for a politician?</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">User agreement is another interesting piece of the puzzle here. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In this instance, they key contention is that Cambridge Analytica didn't even seek the consent of the people involved (friends of users of the relevant app could have had their data harvested). This is a clear example of a breach of privacy. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But many people appear to be angry more broadly about the fact that their data was used for political purposes. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Of course most people think that they have not explicitly consented to their data being used as part of a political PR campaign. But are they right? Have they or haven’t they consented (in some form or another)?</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The fact that FB is having to really think hard about privacy right now is a good thing. Historically, we are at a point where, in terms of surveillance and privacy, great corporations have amassed great power. We need to articulate what their responsibilities are.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Private corporations are being held to account. That’s good.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">But what about the state? If corporate surveillance is offensive, then surely state surveillance is even more offensive. But what are the checks on state surveillance? The state too has great powers, and we are yet to learn what its corresponding responsibilities are. Who is going to hold the state to account?</span></div>
</div>
Arjun Rajkhowahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007840696265229453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1642027996613552875.post-2242565353965976662018-03-11T11:28:00.001+08:002018-04-09T14:36:49.836+08:00American/Australian performers<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Cultural differences between Australians and Americans can extend to and visibly play out in performance spaces. Australian audiences can expect performers to be ‘relaxed’, and to engage them in a jokey, jovial or even blasé manner. Australians might appreciate some self-deprecating humour and like artistes to not take themselves too seriously. They might giggle loudly during breaks in the music to provoke the performer on stage, for example - generally in a good natured way. Americans, on the other hand, can be much more earnest, serious, passionate and intense about their work and perhaps life in general. They might find the Aussie vibe slightly disconcerting. I’m not suggesting that Aussies are unserious. They are very focused and dedicated but appreciate good humour and a self-deprecating disposition, especially in performers and public figures. American performers tend to engage with audiences in a more earnest way. In general, for most of my life, I have also been an earnest and serious type (I get along extremely well with Americans and admire many of them greatly) but I am getting used to and can appreciate the Aussie self-deprecating approach.</span></div>
Arjun Rajkhowahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007840696265229453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1642027996613552875.post-3611641311495098372018-01-25T12:50:00.000+08:002018-01-25T13:29:47.005+08:00The needle in the haystack - reporting brain injury<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Media reporting of stories that involve injuries and trauma are always (necessarily) incomplete. Injuries can be incidental to the story or narrative that is being focalised, and, as such, may appear as a vestigial detail in a report. It is well-nigh impossible to capture the magnitude of the impact on each individual casualty. The word 'casualty' signals that disturbing (but unavoidable) semantic quality of being reducible to a statistic - a part of a tally. A report about a terrorist attack or a mass casualty incident will include some details of the trauma inflicted on a few victims or survivors, but these threadbare details are minuscule and inevitably inadequate markers of the 'reality' of the experience and impact. It is impossible to convey the magnitude of the experience of injury and trauma, and it is completely unrealistic to expect to understand what it was like for each individual person. However, that desire to know and sense of needing to know and understand the experience - of wanting the elusive description of trauma to be fully comprehensive and comprehensible - can be quite insistent. </span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To mark the one-year anniversary of the 20 January 2017 Bourke Street attack in Melbourne - in which the attacker drove a speeding car into a busy pedestrian thoroughfare, killing six and wounding thirty people - some media channels have told the stories of some of the victims and survivors, allowing the latter to reflect on their recollections of the day and the aftermath. One of the survivors, a thirty-something year-old man, was hit by the speeding car and thrown some meters, flying, into a taxi. He crashed headlong into the taxi and then collapsed onto the ground, badly hitting his head. He managed to crawl onto the kerb and into a building before blacking out. The report described that, upon regaining consciousness and emerging from his concussion in hospital, he was determined to be in a stable condition. The skeletal fractures that he'd suffered in the attack were attended to. The report summarised that, one year since this incident, this man had resumed normal life. He is now OK. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is hard to explain how inadequate this description is. Knowing full well that all such descriptions must of necessity be incomplete and inadequate, the gaps and fissures that mark the surface of this account render the words hollow. What does it mean to be normal again after this transformative experience of trauma that inflicted brain injury, with potentially long-lasting repercussions and lingering trauma that is imperceptible to others but ever-present for the survivor? The comforting and reassuring claim of a return to normalcy is belied by the original description. However, our desire for resolutions is an overpowering one, and we cannot, in the space of a few sentences, adequately reflect the unresolved and irresolvable nature of trauma. </span></div>
</div>
Arjun Rajkhowahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007840696265229453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1642027996613552875.post-67067972456358929692018-01-16T14:24:00.000+08:002018-01-16T15:10:48.229+08:00The triumph of the symbolic<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>[A blog in progress...]</b></span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A realisation </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In India, the symbolic seems to have greater resonance than the material. By this I mean that the power and potency of symbolic markers, gestures, signage and 'acts', <i>inter alia</i>, is greater than that of material markers, conditions and 'acts'. This is not to suggest that material conditions can be ignored or that they are generally de-prioritised in relation to the symbolic. Certainly not - and it'd be remiss of me to downplay the importance of material conditions as well as the primacy of (what used to be called, with a modicum of dismissive-ness) 'materialism' (essentially commercialism) in contemporary Indian culture. But on a subterranean and more fundamental level, questions of a symbolic nature and significance resonate in a way that questions of a material nature do not. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is definitely not a contemporary phenomenon but a longstanding one. What does it mean exactly? Well, that is difficult to spell out explicitly. Put simply, for the most part, names, images, icons, representations, films, designations, signage, conspicuous demonstration of both symbolic (even abstract and magical) power (e.g., a temple) and material power (e.g., a home), symbolic markers of primordial belonging, symbolic markers of social and economic status, among various other symbolic entities - as well as issues relating to these - have a resonance and inspire a level of emotive investment that material questions and issues simply do not. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The symbolic is certainly not a standalone category; it is undergirded by the material. However, in every visible manifestation of the palpable tension between the symbolic and the material, the symbolic tends to triumph. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is hard to describe this tension but it can be seen, for instance, in this visual: an impressive, utterly glorious temple - with a soaring steeple, and magnificent arches and sculpture, in the midst of a crumbling, dilapidated streetscape; the soaring genius of the sculptor juxtaposed against the failure of the engineer/urban bureaucrat. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Indisputably, the construction of a temple is a patently material process - involving more engineering than iconography. But the temple overall is a symbolic entity (in terms of its conception and the purpose it serves), and, as such, the material investment that goes into it assumes a symbolic valence. This investment can be juxtaposed with investment in less symbolically-charged material processes (such as the construction of a road, for example), and found to be far more significant - on every conceivable level. The manifest disjuncture between the gloriousness of the temple and poor state of the infrastructure surrounding it exemplifies the triumph of the symbolic. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Art is more beautiful than infrastructure. The genius of the symbolic worker (an arguably contentious category that may include all those who produce works that draw on symbolic modes - such as words and images [both religious and secular] - the content creator, essentially; as well as those who invest in symbolic entities) is outstanding and distinguishable, whereas the genius of the material worker is shrouded in a dense fog. I am not sure whether this can be rephrased using a more agentic/agential frame - the genius of the symbolic worker flourishes while the genius of the material worker is stifled and constrained (because of economic and social conditions, etc.). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Somehow, this tension between the symbolic and the material tends to reveal itself to you as a philosophical issue (chasm even) when you step back and deliberately adopt a more distant perspective. Otherwise, it is among those things that you take for granted. How does it affect everyday life? That is the difficult question. </span></div>
Arjun Rajkhowahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007840696265229453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1642027996613552875.post-65182542698888914222017-10-24T18:26:00.002+08:002017-10-24T18:28:47.813+08:00Asian-Australian<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I think the way in which we use the term Asian-Australian is important. The hyphenation is a critical part of that. The term evokes
hybridity and interaction, rather than straightforward identification. It’s
necessarily much more complex than either of its two components considered
individually. An Asian-Australian, to me, is someone who is conscious of their
migrant status, whatever stage of temporality or permanency their journey might be at, as
well as of their continued investment in a new homeland. Asian-Australian is an
intercultural concept rather than a strictly political one. It conveys a sense
of coming-into-being and expansiveness that is quite distinct from the
authoritative, established and assertive sense that underlies both strictly
‘Asian’ or ‘Australian’ identification. It conveys a sense of commitment to an
ongoing project of discovery and negotiation. Is it a tentative concept? Some
might argue that it is. But perhaps that is authentic to the experience of
being a migrant or a descent of migrants.
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Who represents the diaspora? Representation is
always a tricky concept because classifying, categorising or characterising
something as representative entails investing that person, idea, practice or thing
with power, even if the circumstances surrounding this are problematic. This
process of investing something with power is always inherently fraught but spontaneously
occurs, takes place or is deliberately enacted in diaspora contexts in an
almost unreflective manner. This is arguably true irrespective of whether the
participants in this process are members of that diaspora community or others.
Sometimes, the links between the cultural contexts of the ‘home country’ and
the ‘diasporic enactments’ of the ‘host country’ are seamless, demonstrating a
continuity of values, attitudes, thought processes and practices. This may
include hierarchical attitudes to representation, both formal and informal. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Arjun Rajkhowahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007840696265229453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1642027996613552875.post-86746025945915962782017-06-04T07:40:00.003+08:002018-01-16T14:53:41.300+08:00IP and appropriation of crafts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "san francisco" , , "blinkmacsystemfont" , , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;">Link: <a href="https://www.parhlo.com/International+brand+copied+kolla+puri" target="_blank">International Brand Forever 21 Just Copied The Kolla-Puri Chappals And What They Call It Is Hilarious!</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "san francisco" , , "blinkmacsystemfont" , , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.24px;"><br /></span></span>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.24px;">This is the kind of cultural appropriation that gets my back up. The sheer impossibility of enforcing any semblance of an IP claim when traditional crafts - learned, produced, marketed and transmitted within communal frameworks - are appropriated by giant MNCs is far more of a substantial concern than any of the other gimmicks that provoke debates around cultural appropriation. These products are sold by craftsmen as merchandise in their own geographically delimited markets, </span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="color: #1d2129; display: inline; letter-spacing: -0.24px;">so it's really a question of MNCs taking advantage of the artists' lack of market access and capitalising on (or 'stealing') their designs. But the legal or even philosophical dilemma here is, how can one address issues of ownership, proper attribution, etc., when no proper framework exists for the recognition of 'IP' (which is invariably a nebulous concept when one is talking about traditional crafts)? At the very least I think MNCs should be compelled by existing IP laws to use the proper names of the products they're marketing. Correct attribution doesn't compensate for lack of compensation but at least it's something. </span></span></div>
Arjun Rajkhowahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007840696265229453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1642027996613552875.post-21353953837968473532016-10-12T18:43:00.003+08:002016-10-12T19:56:25.352+08:00Europe 2016 - vignettes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The calm and joyful atmosphere at the banks
of the river Main in Frankfurt, where large and small groups of people sat
together, chatted, drank beer, ate their picnics, played music and relaxed. The
large Hauptbanhof with its constantly shifting flow of passengers, and innumerable
small shops selling a large variety of sandwiches and other small eats at very
reasonable prices. The large numbers of foreigners hanging out at
the train station, with the station serving as a site of both recreation
and reception for friends, family and other contacts. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The beautiful river Rhine with its ceaseless
flow of ferries and cruises, carrying both passengers and cargo up and down the
river. The constant rush of trains on the tracks along the river, connecting
all the villages and towns in the Rhine Valley. The large numbers of old
medieval castles dotting the hills flanking the river. The gorgeous villages of
Bacharach and St. Goar in the Rhine Valley, with their old castles and old
houses, each one intricately decorated – colours, wooden pillars and frames,
and flowers in full blossom hanging off windows. The walks up to Burg Stahleck,
the old castle that’s now a youth hostel, and the great buffet meals in its
kitchen. The great views of the river from this castle perched on the top of a
hill and surrounded by steep slopes covered with vineyards. The three enormous
castles in St. Goar. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The historic city of Bonn, once the capital
of Germany. Cute accommodation with a cool and relaxed host – German woman teaching
IT at a training centre; with something of a glamorous past. The large crowds
of people all over the city centre. The old churches and university, with its
parks and large groups of students in various states of animation (outdoor
zumba class) and relaxation. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The city of Cologne, with its post-war
architecture and old Roman sites (Agripinna-Game of Thrones connection). The
gigantic Cologne cathedral, which was once the tallest in Europe, at the very
heart of the city – the only site that was not bombed by the Allies in the war,
as it served as a target to estimate locations in the rest of the city. People,
mostly foreigners, picking up recyclable waste from the recycle-able rubbish
bins around the cathedral, and approaching tourists for their recyclable
rubbish. These can be taken to supermarkets and exchanged for credit. The
young, hip crowd of this city. Nice Welsh guy doing the walking tour. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The pretty Dutch towns of Nijmegen and
Arnhem. Beautiful old buildings. Beautiful old market squares. Large train
stations! Very calm. Cool host – Georgian woman who moved to the Netherlands as a
kid. Nice large fields near the house with some cattle and horses. Giant
sculpture in the park nearby. Friendly park official who chatted with us about
the sculpture, and gave us bubble gum to stick on the sculpture. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Wow, the city of Amsterdam! Oh, my god.
Canals, canals, canals. Bikes, bikes, bikes. Beautiful old houses all along the
canals – centuries-old houses maintained in good condition. Biked all over the
city and nearby North Holland over three days. Just amazing. Great parks.
OK-ish food – a bit expensive. AirBnB accommodation nice and private but a bit
oddly arranged. Average hosts. The sheer jam-packed-ness of the city! Pretty
cafes, shops, houses everywhere. Cool people. Beautiful countryside – flat,
green and expansive; seemingly never-ending. Quaint villages in the country –
so pretty. Bridges that open out at many junctures all along the Amster river.
Country built for boats. The modern parts of the city – astonishing
architecture. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The capital Dan Haag (The Hague). Such an
amazing coming together of the old and the new. Lots of lovely buildings,
including very eclectic modern buildings. The long beach and its 1950s flavour.
Astonishing beauty and accessibility of the palace and parliament. Nice kebab
shops. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ghent and Bruges in Belgium. Astonishing old
medieval architecture. Truly, truly gorgeous – transports you to a different
world. So beautifully maintained. Bruges is just so very pretty. Every stone,
every brick is steeped in history. Probably the most gorgeous place in Europe.
Cool host – very chirpy, and such a lovely old house. Perfect. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">London! Family! The best time; so good to see
everyone. Stayed with Raji Mahi and Dipankar Moha in Richmond. Dinner out in
Richmond one day and at home the next – Raji Mahi cooked an elaborate meal for
all of us, and Urmila Pehi, Neale and Zubin. Hung out with Isar and Tara; Isar
took us around to central London for a day-long roam. Urmila Pehi came to St.
Pancras to meet me before our departure for Paris. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The enormous streets of Paris with their
uniform architecture stretching for several arrondissements – wide streets,
6-storey houses with intricate exteriors. Beautiful Paris, sparkling at night.
The gorgeous Notre Dame de Paris at the very centre, painstakingly constructed
bit by bit over two hundred years or so. The Eifel Tower, always in the
distance. The endless lines of restaurants everywhere, serving all kinds of
cuisines. Esgargots! Savoury crepes! Marche de Bastille. Sacre-coeur on the
hill. The artists of Montmartre. Museums and other must-see sites. So many
people from everywhere in the world. Never expected Paris to be such a melting
pot of different geographies and races. Pretty accommodation and cool host. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The lovely town of Dijon. Pretty old village.
Apartment in a quaint old and dilapidated building. Nice lunch at Flunch!
Wandering the streets and sampling bits of Dijon fare. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Zurich. Clean, neat, crisp, organised and
simple. Straight lines and neat shapes. Simon’s relatives were really kind and
generous, taking us around town, and even on a hike in Stoos along a portion of
the Swiss Alps. The view was astounding. Breathtaking. The vistas were just
stunning. The five or so lakes at the bottom of the mountains – oh, my god.
Amazing. A neat and clean city. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Back to Germany. Lake Konstanz. Pretty
historical town. Lovely little shops and buildings in the Alt Stadt. Absolutely
packed with people. Nice little breweries. Less English spoken than elsewhere
in Germany. People continue to serve beer until you put your coaster on your glass/mug, which definitively indicates that you no longer want to drink anymore.
Funny – the server at the restaurant we went to poured me another glass without
any prompting, and that’s when I figured it out. Nice walk around the lake.
Nice house, and cool hosts. We bumped into the mother of the host in the
kitchen in the morning – her effusive greetings made our day. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Munich. The city of beer, history, innovation
and recreation. Nice house in a busy area, but the arrangement was a bit odd –
the AirBnB apartment served as a psychologist’s office during the day, which
was a little disconcerting. Anyway, lovely apartment. Beautiful city centre and
Alt Stadt – Karlplatz and Marienplatz, with their ornate historical buildings
(especially the gorgeous Rathaus, the palace, and old churches). The famous and
historically significant Hofbrauhaus brewery in the market square. The
expansive English Garden with all its public nudity and general atmosphere of
merriment and relaxation. The enormous beer and food area in the English
Garden, where we drank Ratler and ate some dumplings, pork hock and some side dishes,
and where we had a long and interesting conversation with a German couple.
Extremely busy and popular, and very well organised. The people walking around
in costume. The carefree atmosphere. The Olympic Park and BMW World. The Pegida
rally we came across in Karlpltaz (where large numbers of young foreign men
normally hang out), which elicited a huge police presence. Commotion. Walking
around in Munich’s cool neighbourhoods. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Leipzig. East Germany. Large train station.
Historical buildings in the centre of town. Many small cafes and restaurants in
different corners of the centre. Nice accommodation and cool host – nice and
reserved artist. Faust and Goethe. The restaurant and bar where Goethe wrote
Faust: nice gourmet meal and intricate interiors; lots of murals and artefacts.
Walking around in the city in the cool evening. Mostly empty at night. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Nuremberg. Gorgeous city centre. Beautiful
medieval architecture reconstructed after the devastation of the war. Beautiful
castle on the top of the bill. Numerous imposing cathedrals and chapels. Lovely
market square – numerous shops, restaurants, cafes and bars. Winding,
meandering paths. University dormitory in an old historical building. A few
canals. Slopes and inclines. The Documentation Centre in the outskirts – the
Nazi Party Parade Ground repurposed as a museum. Perhaps one of the most
insightful and astute exhibitions I have seen. Very analytical, unflinching. As
visually impactful as thought-provoking. A city burdened by the pain of the
past but one that exudes such resilience. Wonderful time there.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Berlin. Complex. Hard to describe. Large.
Grand and monumental Soviet apartment blocks in the east. Pockets of old
architecture that survived the war. The grand new Hauptbahnhof. The centre of
the city, and surrounds, has a 1950s dero chic aesthetic. The distinctive
blocks of the Holocaust memorial. The modern parliament. The extensive train
network. The hip neighbourhoods. The eccentric, chic and kinky underbelly of
the city. The numerous bars, cafes and clubs. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Back to Frankfurt. Back to Melbourne. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Europe: calm, collected, organised, neat, and
resilient. Monumental. Thriving and bursting with activity. Also utterly
relaxed. Pleasure-loving. Utterly libertarian. Civil. Quiet. Also, sometimes, quite evidently strained. Great experiences overall. </span></div>
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Arjun Rajkhowahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05007840696265229453noreply@blogger.com0