think I may have pissed a lot of people off today.
I am not a theorist and I am not a philosopher, but I am here to learn. I am not sure where my problem lies at the moment, but I am increasingly disullioned with anthroplogy at the moment. i can't read the pieces, it often is a load of drivel that is pompous and makes me wonder what the point of academia is if it can't be applied.
IS there a need for an ivory tower, if someone has no relevance or interest in their surroundings and others around them, no interaction, how can they provide relevance or do any greater good rather than write books that only a few will ever read and if its an obsure enough title become the one with the greatest knowledge. the more I learn about some anthropology, the more I think that it is dated and colonial. the analogy that I can think of is going on a holiday to a destination that is slightly different , "exotic" maybe, and maybe talking to the locals, but only those of interest to them and then going home with the souvenirs and forgetting about it. What about the impact of tourism? what about the impression that foreigners leave with the locals
My feeling is that often anthroplogy is selfish drivel in the land of academia. If it cannot be applied to the life of mere mortals then what is the point. I have a problem with this kind of thinking, there is no grasp of reality, I feel that it is bullshit, but as ian said where there is bullshit, ideas will grow - what is the point of ideas unless they can be nurtured.
I think it is laziness and a distance of reality that most people want in this type of academia.
I don't like it and am struggling. I wish I had done something different. I guess I went into this inspired by Paul Farmer and thought it would be dynamic and forward thinking.
my letter of ideas and complaints would be that the adninistation department are the most ineffectual and unfriendliest that I have come across.
they are disorganised , greedy, and old fashioned with most articles deriving from the 1990 s and described modern.. it is not grasping new ideas and taking them forward.
I should stop moaning, I have had the opprtunity to learn and discuss and think and have access to material that I would have not thought of even existed..
Wednesday 24 February 2010
Sunday 24 January 2010
more films
Coco before chanel - a wonderfully shot cinematic profile of Coco - her life and love - I am seeing a few films that have depressing love endings and those that don't commit get hurt the most ... the acting was wonderful and the cinematagrophy was beautiful. they really must have had fun shooting in the french chateau ...
UP in the air - again a depresing love story, not sure whether I like it or not but cleverly done as was expecting a happy cheesy ending.. maybe more surprsing as its the woman who was playing around - grey similar landscapes of the airports, the anonomnity of it all , the drabness of the cities , the crapness of their jobs, the blankness and lack of social awareness that the jobs ended up having , taking away the human touch was going to cause more harm than good .. but is flying around the best way to do it, thus depriving someone of their life and home .. and stablity .
looking forwardto seeing more movies ..
am reading adorno at the moment - he seems to be insinuating that culture really is lost, were the old time masters the only style , do you have to suffer to be an artist ? or to be creative
UP in the air - again a depresing love story, not sure whether I like it or not but cleverly done as was expecting a happy cheesy ending.. maybe more surprsing as its the woman who was playing around - grey similar landscapes of the airports, the anonomnity of it all , the drabness of the cities , the crapness of their jobs, the blankness and lack of social awareness that the jobs ended up having , taking away the human touch was going to cause more harm than good .. but is flying around the best way to do it, thus depriving someone of their life and home .. and stablity .
looking forwardto seeing more movies ..
am reading adorno at the moment - he seems to be insinuating that culture really is lost, were the old time masters the only style , do you have to suffer to be an artist ? or to be creative
Thursday 21 January 2010
analogous thought
I love this lecture - classification and the idea of analagous thought - no script, just social ideolisation - I may ahve to come back to this a bit later .
Durkheim
Levticus - the idea that why certain animals can't be eaten -was this partly due to do with cultural ecology..
Durkheim
Levticus - the idea that why certain animals can't be eaten -was this partly due to do with cultural ecology..
rupa and the april fishes
so yet again inspired by a wonderful band last night - thanks to Manjot ... I like the the idea that books and films and music comes to you as you need it .. am so glad that lots of people came and were suitably inspired .. she's got a wonderful backrgound and maybe thats why I can relate to her, well minus the incredible musical talent, but that she's performing and living her passion.. she rasied the idea that why do people need to earn money and leave their families so far from home , because they care and love them , yet have to leave those they love and care about because of their need for money as the developed world is now prescribing, the old stance that "primitive" values are still primitive .. or thought to be non modern . what is modern - more and more - its keeping up with the Jones- the fact that we need homes built out of bricks and mortar and need stabilty.. that people are scared of moving around and adapting .. loosing the sjills to adpat and change - is that what modernity is about and also the need to be dependant upone others for a state. for things to work. for things to develop - the control is gradually taken out of life and our beings. In the UK - its nto considered the societal norm if you don't have a home, a mortgage or life long debt , we have truly bought into this. I feel at ease with my work, job and home now that I have realised this. doing the course has helped me define the need that I enjoy my job but am not a slave to it. and that I am not a slave to society but can contribute in my own way. if there is a lack of job or opportunity then its follwoing the flow and not going against it.
its been a difficult time for people and discussing life options and the choices that we are given - is it to much choice and how do we know that it is the right decision . for example - undergoing chemo - is it a god given right that we need to have childern, or again that society is pushing the ideals for ir - you have an "ego unit" the family , the need of procreating and developing your own controlled world within another controlled world. The decisions are a difficult one - and there is no right nor wrong, when discussing pregnancy, it seems that everyone ahs an opinion or is that opinion a media driven , western middle class ideal. and any deviation from the script questions the reasons why we do things - you can't take a child back but you can screw them up. I wonder.. Do you want embryps lying ina freezer waiting in the hope that one day you decide to go for it and then they don;t grow or align to the womb.. is that more of a disappointment as hope was created , or is it right that science gives us a choice and we are lucky enough to ahve the chance to do this.
its been a difficult time for people and discussing life options and the choices that we are given - is it to much choice and how do we know that it is the right decision . for example - undergoing chemo - is it a god given right that we need to have childern, or again that society is pushing the ideals for ir - you have an "ego unit" the family , the need of procreating and developing your own controlled world within another controlled world. The decisions are a difficult one - and there is no right nor wrong, when discussing pregnancy, it seems that everyone ahs an opinion or is that opinion a media driven , western middle class ideal. and any deviation from the script questions the reasons why we do things - you can't take a child back but you can screw them up. I wonder.. Do you want embryps lying ina freezer waiting in the hope that one day you decide to go for it and then they don;t grow or align to the womb.. is that more of a disappointment as hope was created , or is it right that science gives us a choice and we are lucky enough to ahve the chance to do this.
Monday 18 January 2010
new year, new hopes
this year has deifinately started with some life changing events - some a bit too personal to mention on this, but time to think and reflect and not take things for granted at all.
saying that its been difficult for me to concentrate and focus on events and the anthropology... the main problem is the NHS ethics form that has been preying on my mind... so many stupid questions - so many hoops to jump and barriers to do this form of qualitative research... thats one thing I have learnt - not to do any more research in the NHS - or do it in a team with someone else doing this form.
- so - you have to phone up for a date for monthly meeting - which is now stretching into APril (its January now)- as soon as you call you have 4 days to prepare all your paperwork, now I have had one rejection with I must say detailed feedback, I wonder whether calling again will give me a different research number and then I have to get everything resigned - which is as near as impossible within 4 days. I mean who decided 4 days - Now headed paper is needed - the interpreting service can't do and I can't get the bloody logo on to the papers. if thats the only problem I seriously give up.. this is seriously hindering any small study when the process is the same for a 10 person qualitative study to a 10000 multi centred study using a new medical device. its ridiculous.. am so not bothered anymore, theres alawyas another way, but I feel disappointed by the lack of support the NHS can give me.
interestingly enough - reading the piece about egalitarain societes where the women are the gatherers and the men the hunters - although the men hunt a piece of meat that can be worth ten times more calories, the women are more consisitent in gathering plants and foraging. The dynamism of movement - to have little material possessions, the ability to trade skills and sharing fully with members of the local camp when they move around... a matter of bargaining - sharing skills and resources. not to be stingy and arrogant. Arrogance is dangerous in the Kung San ( southern Africa) clan . communal life is also about sharing space I also love the idea that those people who are depressed or have hurt feelings, express it be compsoing songs which they play for themselves on the thumb piano.. Richard Lees book on politics, sexual and non sexual, in egalitarian society...
saying that its been difficult for me to concentrate and focus on events and the anthropology... the main problem is the NHS ethics form that has been preying on my mind... so many stupid questions - so many hoops to jump and barriers to do this form of qualitative research... thats one thing I have learnt - not to do any more research in the NHS - or do it in a team with someone else doing this form.
- so - you have to phone up for a date for monthly meeting - which is now stretching into APril (its January now)- as soon as you call you have 4 days to prepare all your paperwork, now I have had one rejection with I must say detailed feedback, I wonder whether calling again will give me a different research number and then I have to get everything resigned - which is as near as impossible within 4 days. I mean who decided 4 days - Now headed paper is needed - the interpreting service can't do and I can't get the bloody logo on to the papers. if thats the only problem I seriously give up.. this is seriously hindering any small study when the process is the same for a 10 person qualitative study to a 10000 multi centred study using a new medical device. its ridiculous.. am so not bothered anymore, theres alawyas another way, but I feel disappointed by the lack of support the NHS can give me.
interestingly enough - reading the piece about egalitarain societes where the women are the gatherers and the men the hunters - although the men hunt a piece of meat that can be worth ten times more calories, the women are more consisitent in gathering plants and foraging. The dynamism of movement - to have little material possessions, the ability to trade skills and sharing fully with members of the local camp when they move around... a matter of bargaining - sharing skills and resources. not to be stingy and arrogant. Arrogance is dangerous in the Kung San ( southern Africa) clan . communal life is also about sharing space I also love the idea that those people who are depressed or have hurt feelings, express it be compsoing songs which they play for themselves on the thumb piano.. Richard Lees book on politics, sexual and non sexual, in egalitarian society...
Wednesday 13 January 2010
slumdog millionaire
everytime I watch this film its amazing how much of it is a satire of what we really are - yes its a love story with an incredible happy ending , the chance and luck. whats so effectively shown and more subtle is the richness of the cinemtography and the life of the slums brought onto the screen and into the mainstream. so beautifully shot - the slums slowly zoomed out, victoria station the people, the masses and the fact that opportunity and luck are everything in this world. everyone has their story and their narrative, why do people discard this and use generalisations and stereotyping. Latika s case of being a woman and suppressed until the end where she was freed by love alone. She was continually abused because of her feminity and her worth - as a virgin, as a dancer then as a token. Slums are the manifestations of greed, people can never understand what it is to live like this in such a small space, in such cramped quarters and yet they are human, with personalities, hope and dreams.
Perhaps even more dreams than some of my patients - what is ambition - does it lead to fulfillment, most of us want settlement and security.. Even I , who like the idea of freedom also want the stabilty of life - its a luxury, many things are beyond our control, but its human nature to be in control and yet not let our control ruin the natural path of progression and to allow life to have its natural course.
lots of musings, lots of ideas , one day I'll be able to draw upon this and write succintctly about my thoughts!!
Perhaps even more dreams than some of my patients - what is ambition - does it lead to fulfillment, most of us want settlement and security.. Even I , who like the idea of freedom also want the stabilty of life - its a luxury, many things are beyond our control, but its human nature to be in control and yet not let our control ruin the natural path of progression and to allow life to have its natural course.
lots of musings, lots of ideas , one day I'll be able to draw upon this and write succintctly about my thoughts!!
Friday 18 December 2009
changeling/ina
maybe everything is related and has a reason.. after a week of writing and finishing my essays and then going onto the the next step which is what ??? I gave in my mew project - teaching its the way forward and something I'd lovr to be involved in - if it hadn't been for a friend coming in and telling me, I wouldn'y ahve found the next thing that feels right .. so we'll see. so al little trip into town .. trains stopping , a bus from kentish town , getting chucked off at warren street - ic ould have sworn it was going to totenham court road, handing the form in.. these things get filled quickly and would have time to do it the follwing year and I like the idea of projects to keep me in London ... going to borders and finding it all boarded up.. gutted and also about the people who will never get paid for their distribution rights, like the independant magazines and a friends one at that, where they will never have a leg to stand on and see the light of their money, its a shame , borders was a refreshing big bookshop that felt that it was independant and sadly it has gone.. whats left on the high street , not much anymore .. the independants are going , our own local bookshop became the estate agent and it was a sad loss , I tried to shop their as much as I could, and still try and keep the local high street going.. its great though as you walk through the high street,, only in a suburb in london would you get a high street with indian thali places that it feels like real india, with real indians and not just those that are second generation Indians, italian delis, polish delis and shops alongside the iranian shops , plus the Irish boozer and the slavic drinking holes, a pub with bijoux and faux leather sofas thats almost a gastropub and a local church with a dance hall.. ot really is all embracing and what Londons about.
digression alert . finally came back from town and put on changeling .. with brangelina... its apparantly true.. what happened in those days .. does it still reflect what people think about psychiatry and the power of institutions .. did this reakky happen . is this why people are so sceptical about the medical field and the placement of power, is people power only just beginning to have a voice, what is psychiatry doing about this ? when films like this are shown , does it reflect peoples thoughts on modern day pyschiatry and police and institutions in general.. how can we learn from this ... where do we go from here, throughout the men were frightened by the power the women in the film held and then used the power against them in the form of institutions, in the end the power relationship was changed using the court of law.. does this reflect how change must be made even now ... this was in the 20s in america .. in the 40s the stasi were around - the lives of others ... the way people tuen against each other , the play- the class .. whats going on now, why can't we learn from miscarriages of justice and take them forward.. why does power lead to blindness ................
digression alert . finally came back from town and put on changeling .. with brangelina... its apparantly true.. what happened in those days .. does it still reflect what people think about psychiatry and the power of institutions .. did this reakky happen . is this why people are so sceptical about the medical field and the placement of power, is people power only just beginning to have a voice, what is psychiatry doing about this ? when films like this are shown , does it reflect peoples thoughts on modern day pyschiatry and police and institutions in general.. how can we learn from this ... where do we go from here, throughout the men were frightened by the power the women in the film held and then used the power against them in the form of institutions, in the end the power relationship was changed using the court of law.. does this reflect how change must be made even now ... this was in the 20s in america .. in the 40s the stasi were around - the lives of others ... the way people tuen against each other , the play- the class .. whats going on now, why can't we learn from miscarriages of justice and take them forward.. why does power lead to blindness ................
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