Unpopular Dissent

This post is my response to this article:

CBC: Ontario to legislate end to York University strike

If the Ontario legislature decides to send the contract academics and graduate students back to work, it directly contradicts the interests the interests of those individuals while simultaneously siding with the oppressive university institution.

Here is the response I posted to the article on the CBC website:

As an undergraduate student at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, where the faculty has bargained away its ability to strike, I implore the contract academics and graduate students of York University to continue their strike, illegally if need be.

This is not just a matter of rational self interest, but a principal of respect for those important members of the academic community who are so often taken advantage of. Contract academics lack job security, research grants, and the prestige associated with tenured professors. Graduate students rely on the University institution for research time and space, and as such their expertise is exploited and viewed as less valuable. Their wages often barely provide them with enough money to make it through the month.

If it is decided by the Ontario legislature to force the contract academics and graduate students back to work, this action is in direct opposition to the respect and attention these valuable members of the academic community deserve. This strike is about more than just material desires; it is about the social principals that treat these individuals as unimportant to the functioning of the institution. The legal status of the strike is important to the extent that those on strike continue to be viewed with respect by the external citizens of Ontario. If the strike is pronounced illegal, this is a further sign of disrespect to the contract academics and graduate students of York University.

Futher, it is already evident that this strike is only being portrayed as harmful to the students. Aside from their monetary investments, if the students actually gave a flying fuck about the quality of their education, they would join the graduate students and contract academics in striking. At the University of Alberta, greater than 50% of all teaching is done by contract academics and graduate students who designate much their time to educating rather than research. Who in university hasn’t had a tenure-tracked professor who didn’t give a shit about teaching, and only cared about their research interests?

If undergraduate education is important at all to York University (which I’m willing to bet it isn’t: undergraduate education is only valuable to corporate universities for the tuition fees it gains), the strike would have been settled long ago. Contract academics and graduate students alike would have come out of the fray with their dignity and respect intact, as well as a coinciding increase in salary as a symbol of that respect.

CNN Political Ticker: Palin takes digs at Fey, Couric

In regards to the SNL skit where Tina Fey’s caricature of Palin said “I believe marriage is meant to be a sacred institution between two unwilling teenagers,” Palin expressed her “mama grizzly” rage at the attack on her daughter. Palin said:

Here again, cool, fine come attack me. But when you make a suggestion like that that attacks a kid, it kills me.

So which is it, Sarah? Is your daughter an autonomous adult, capable of dealing with her own problems, pregnancy, and family? Or was she merely an instrument of ideological reassertion: a means to a political end? Let’s not forget that it was Palin’s campaign publicity that blew-up the news of the teenage pregnancy and provided the context for Bristol Palin and self-proclaimed redneck Levi Johnston’s subsequent engagement.

In other news, world-renowned pornographer and distributer of smut throughout America, Larry Flynt of Hustler fame, requested a $5 Billion bailout from congress for the adult entertainment industry. I guess we’ll see if the political elites have just been bailing out their friends, or are actually protecting the interests of American citizens, who have consistently shown their support of the pornography industry. I think you know where I’m going with this.

It’s been quite some time since I’ve updated, partially because I wasn’t motivated by any particular news item, but particularly because I tend to write the most when I’m procrastinating on something else. Nothing has changed: the Canadian government avoids governing; the incoming American government only Change™s faces, and; Israel invades the Gaza Strip. Nothing out of the ordinary. I figure it’s about time I write something about the world arbitrarily entering 2009 (as if the ‘New Year’ brings something ‘new’ to the table).

The ‘States continues to throw money at its problems, and Barack Obama has announced that his approach won’t be any different. Apparently, his Clintonite cabinet didn’t get Alan Greenspan’s memo that trickle-down economics is seriously flawed. So the privileged middle-class will maintain its status-quo mediocracy while the millions of working poor, unemployed, and homeless people continue to suffer the full extent of the oncoming depression, and as predominantly white, male, boardroom executives take their bailout packages and proceed to go on expensive vacations with the funds.

In Canada, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s prorogation of parliament set a stronger precedent for the complete avoidance of substantive politicking, further evidenced by his grossly self-interested financial update bill and the equally selfish response of the opposition parties to coalesce when their monetary interests were threatened (rather than all the other times where Harper had done something politically questionable). Temporarily alienating many of my politico friends, I took up a stance against both the coalition government and Harper’s continued rule. I fear that the emergence of a two-party system in Canada will further polarise the Canadian political discourse into a dichotomy. This possibility runs the risk of turning every issue into a binary rather than a multiplicity, in much the same sense as the American political discourse (eg. ‘liberals’ vs ‘conservatives’; ‘terrorists’ vs ‘freedom fighters’; ‘for us or against us’; ‘capitalism’ vs ‘communism’; ‘freedom’ vs ‘oppression’; ‘democracy’ vs ‘tyranny’; etc. ad infinitum).

Halfway around the world, Israel continues the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in Gaza by killing civilians and blaming terrorists. I recommend you read the article linked above and pay close attention to the rhetoric and hypocrisy employed by the Israeli politicians. By simultaneously treating Israeli citizens as in some way deserving a peaceful life while civilian Palestinians “will probably continue to get killed, unfortunately, because Hamas put them in the first lines of fire”, Israeli politicians subtly display their sentiments of superiority and self-importance that, to them, legitimise continued military action. Israel continues to treat Palestine like a petulant and dependent child, unable to maintain its own peace, autonomy, and chances at sovereignty.

To end on a slightly more positive note (depending on how you look at it), the new James Bond movie Quantum of Solace deals with quite an avant-garde and topical subject: looming potable water scarcity. Despite the poor reviews, I actually quite enjoyed the continuation of the plot from Casino Royale, though a refresher viewing of the latter is recommended to enhance the the experience of the sequel. Although the Bond franchise is a major corporate undertaking, the writers of the past two movies have been able to very subtly work in criticisms of the neoliberal mentality and the unquenchable capitalist desire for accumulation without ends, amongst the nonstop product placement Hollywood producers are so famous for. Kudos to Daniel Craig for having the integrity to insist that the character he plays have some continuity.