Marie Colvin, biology, and the dour optimist. [Hooray!]

Marie Colvin

Marie Colvin (1956-2012) with John Le Carré at the presentation of the Martha Gellhorn Prize, May 2010. (Image from the Martha Gellhorn Prize site)

I’m not sure why I regularly worry about issues far beyond my regional geography and connection, but knowing that some people die because they have a burning desire to tell the truth about other peoples’ suffering is thoroughly sobering.

To my knowledge, I’ve not examined any of Marie Colvin’s work, but Colvin was awarded the Martha Gellhorn prize for journalism. The Gellhorn prize “challenges secrecy and mendacity [lies] in public affairs” and “raises ‘forgotten’ issues of public importance, without fear or favour.” (Aside: Gellhorn had a really interesting life too, in some ways I think I live similarly to how she did)

I noticed Colven on the Gellhorn website Saturday (when I started writing this post), and that she had an eyepatch–the result of a rocket propelled grenade intentionally fired at her in Sri Lanka–and that she was killed in Syria this March according to the Guardian UK.

There’s a conflicting account about how she died on wikipedia, but in the spirit of her interests, that shouldn’t matter–Maria’s a strong human in any case and a killing of this kind is still an injustice.  What strikes me about her is that she’s way under the radar, but I think her efforts are as heroic as many noted civil rights activists like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

On Biology and Compassion

Protesting non-profits=funding freeze in higher ed?

This goes into the same category of nuanced and trying policy problems I’d consider as managing freedom of speech and erring on the side of empathy.  I found this: http://chronicle.com/blogs/brainstorm/the-demeaning-of-academic-freedom-in-michigan/45794

Which brings to light an amendment prohibiting higher education from collaborating with non-profits tries to act on just that:

“the legislature that a public university that receives funds in section 236 shall not collaborate in any manner with a nonprofit worker center whose documented activities include coercion through protest, demonstration, or organization against a Michigan business.”

From what I’ve seen thus far [ethical note, I’m might not be in a  great position to advocate about the legislation beyond principle since I haven’t seen the full text], I have two contentions with the proposed amendment:

1. I know there are justifiable circumstances for protest, demonstration, and organization, though I’d favor organization and demonstration over protest almost every time.
2. There’s no specification for the applicable timespan!

Shallow connections: Military and Powerpoint

I’m preparing a presentation for my senior capstone project on meaningful education through sustainability and participatory approaches in higher education.  I came across these gems in pondering alternatives to a powerpoint {I refuse to capitalize the “p”s for proper brand recognition} presentation:

( http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_pp )

Why yes!  Even the U.S. military is guarded about powerpoints:

“A recent reference in the New York Timesindicates the U.S. Army is close to declaring war on PowerPoint. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who heads U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, told the Times, ‘It’s dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control. Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable.’ ”

( http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/instructionaldesign/2010/05/25/nonlinear-presentations-alternatives-to-%E2%80%9Cdeath-by-powerpoint%E2%80%9D/)

Note how this person likens powerpoint presentations to a crime scene–bodies strewn everywhere and an abundance of bullets:
http://prezi.com/nwo0v98wquco/msu-prezi-demo/

Art is a performance of identity.

Art is a performance of identity.

Think about this:  whether you conceive something as art, create art, or receive it as an audience that says something about who you are too.

Ask yourself:  what’s an aesthetic event that was so compelling, it inspired your curiosity when you first encountered it, does it evoke a sense of wonder to this day?

When you’re making  it, it’s almost certainly indicative of your habits and/or interests–in some cases, it’s a culmination of both.

[Edit] While researching for a paper, I found this excellent quote on 27 IV 2012 from Sennet’s excellent book:

“The maker leaves a personal mark on his or her presence on the object. In the history of craftsmanship, these maker’s marks usually have carried no political message, as a graffito scrawled on a wall can, merely the statement anonymous laborers have imposed on inert materials: fecit: “I made this”, “I am here, in this work,” which is to say, “I exist.”
— Richard Sennett | The Craftsman 2008

This is still a fragmented post, perhaps I’ll back it up eventually, I’d like to explore the concept of virtue and the arts here someday…