The good, the bad and the confusing (news roundup)
The Bad:
Over 1000 people killed in oil-related violence in Nigeria last year
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7994152.stm
Cops Kill an elderly black man in Northern Louisiana
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090410/ap_on_re_us/homer_police_shooting
The Good:
the Asian Women Carnival:
http://community.livejournal.com/yennenga/2759.html
The Plain Confusing:
Ward Churchill wins $1 in court:
http://chronicle.com/news/article/6285/u-of-colorado-will-fight-attempts-to-reinstate-ward-churchill
http://indiancountrynews.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6052&Itemid=109
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2009/04/08/jodirave/rave54.txt
http://indiancountrynews.info/fullstory.cfm-ID=173.htm
My thoughts? $94,000 per year is an awful lot of money. I've met Churchill and I can honestly say that he seems like a sincere-enough guy. At the same time there are some awfully big questions hanging over his scholarship and the issue of his ancestry is something that occupies that grey area between "it shouldn't make any difference" and "but it does make a difference".
Tribal membership should not be an issue of genetics purely, but genealogy is of course very important. On the other hand, I do believe that real membership ought to index a kind of personal commitment to a particular group of people (although of course there are lots of people who are genetically connected to one another who seem to forget that connection when it suits them). I think Churchill should be judged on his actions and his scholarship rather than his ancestry, but I don't think he ought to get a free pass if he represented himself as somebody he is not.
Over 1000 people killed in oil-related violence in Nigeria last year
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7994152.stm
Cops Kill an elderly black man in Northern Louisiana
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090410/ap_on_re_us/homer_police_shooting
The Good:
the Asian Women Carnival:
http://community.livejournal.com/yennenga/2759.html
The Plain Confusing:
Ward Churchill wins $1 in court:
http://chronicle.com/news/article/6285/u-of-colorado-will-fight-attempts-to-reinstate-ward-churchill
http://indiancountrynews.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6052&Itemid=109
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2009/04/08/jodirave/rave54.txt
http://indiancountrynews.info/fullstory.cfm-ID=173.htm
My thoughts? $94,000 per year is an awful lot of money. I've met Churchill and I can honestly say that he seems like a sincere-enough guy. At the same time there are some awfully big questions hanging over his scholarship and the issue of his ancestry is something that occupies that grey area between "it shouldn't make any difference" and "but it does make a difference".
Tribal membership should not be an issue of genetics purely, but genealogy is of course very important. On the other hand, I do believe that real membership ought to index a kind of personal commitment to a particular group of people (although of course there are lots of people who are genetically connected to one another who seem to forget that connection when it suits them). I think Churchill should be judged on his actions and his scholarship rather than his ancestry, but I don't think he ought to get a free pass if he represented himself as somebody he is not.