Colonial Burma has a strange hold on the colonial British imagination—it is a remote and exotic place where the British were not very successful in holding sway. And the place it emerges occasionally is in the inability of the west to “understand” the east. Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne’s butler in the film Batman Returns (2008) had some experience in colonial Burma which sheds some light on how the British might have thought about their imperial adventure there.…
Asking How Many Children Your Mother Has is a Complicated Survey Question!
I am teaching a Population class here in Chico, California, this semester. Sometime during the class, I generally ask students about how many children there are in their families, and what their own fertility intentions are. To avoid the complications of the modern family, divorce, remarriage, and so forth, I break it into three questions, which are:
1) How many children does your mother have?
2) How many children does your mother’s mother have?…
The Connection between Crime and Immigration: A Complicated but not Conflicted Issue
This blog was originally posted in 2010. However, the issues raised I think are timeless. “Debates” about crime and immigration reappear it the presses around the world periodically, usually without much context. Rather a person who happens to be an immigrant is caught doing a crime, and then inferences is made to all members of a group. The fact of the matter though is that immigrants tend to be ore law-abiding than native born populations. …
How the Rich Educate Their Children: A Tale of a Swiss Hogwarts Academy
Schools primarily teach vocabulary and inflection, styles of dress, aesthetic tastes, values, and manners only 1 percent of American teenagers attend independent private high schools of an upper class nature. (G. William Domhoff Who Rules America? 1998, 80–81).
The schools for the “1 percent” of teenagers, in America or elsewhere, are isolated from the rest of us, and in these cocoons the ultra-rich cultivate norms and connections. In 2007, I had a peak inside one such institution in St.…
Prison Vignette: Educators Only Whisper in a Custody World
This is an extract from our book Prison Vocational Education in the United States. Palgrave MacMillan 2016, by Andrew J. Dick, William Rich, and Tony Waters.
The passivity of the education administrators was at first striking, but I came to understand it as a normal response to this system where the concept of safety as defined by custody officials always holds sway. Custody was in charge and they held all information confidential.…
“Building Bildung,” and Other Improbabilities among German University Undergrads
German has two words for the English word “education.” Erziehung describes the school system, and the mechanics of what is taught and conveyed from the world of adults to that of children in order to “bring them up.” Focus is on skills adults need like literacy, numeracy, history, and the factual basis citizens need to understand to participate socially, culturally, and economically in society. The German education system is designed to educate all children in such basic skills.…
A Reading of “On the Back of the Greyhound Dog: The Golden Sunshine” By ‘Rong Wongsawan
Translated by Tony Waters, Jiranan Sirikunpahisan (Taew), Airin Horatschek (Airin), Kwanjira Wiwattana (Palm), Mayweya Koryaklang (Fang), Kuansiree Suanek (Meaw), Supon Phonchatchawankun (Su), Thirawit Pung-nagm (Thor), Krittaporn Ruankaew (Yo), Hande Yilmaz (Hande), Sasithorn Katika (Cake), Nattaporn Chantajitpreecha (Nati)
Note: This is a translation by a Thai author, ‘Rong Wongsawan about his trip in California in 1976. It was read at a recent meeting of the Informal Northern Thai Discussion Group in Chiangmai, Thailand. …
Graduation Season, and Graduation Songs, from “Free Bird” to “Onward Christian Soldiers”
Here is a test on graduation songs. I have actually been to many graduations, and each of them has special songs performed. Most of them I have long-since forgotten. But four of them I remember. Here are some of the places I have been to graduations. See if you can match the song with the locale.
Song
“Onward Christian Soldiers”
“Pomp and Circumstance”
“Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd
“Alleluia Chorus” by Handel
“Climb Every Mountain” from The Sound of Music
School
–California State University, Chico, where I have taught for 20 years
–Zeppelin University in Germany, where I was an exchange professor
–Bear River High School in Grass Valley, California, where my kids went to high school
–Payap University International College in Thailand
–Karen Kawthoolei Baptist Bible College in a Karen refugee camp in Thailand.…
Vanity as an Occupational Disease–Of Politicians (and everyone else)!
My wife and I recently completed re-translating Max Weber’s classic essay “Politics as Vocation” which is part of a book Weber’s Rationalism and Modern Society. The essay is about how the nature of politics, which is about the exercise of power, creates the type of human-being who is accustomed to telling other people what to do. Bill Clinton also lists it on his Presidential library site as one of his favorite books of all-time.…
Max Weber was a funny guy!
That’s right, Max Weber, the dour looking social theorist on the cover of your social theory text made jokes. How do I know this? Well, my wife and I just published a new book Weber’s Rationalism: New Translations on Politics, Bureaucracy, and Social Stratification, and this post is an essay about why you should read it!
In particular, Weber’s classic essay “Politics as Vocation” has real zingers in it.
Some examples of the wit and sarcasm of Max:
…Vanity is a very widely spread trait and probably nobody is entirely free of it.
Something Happened At My Son’s School: Guns in a Backpack!
By Chunyan Song
March 30th Thursday was a regular teaching day for me at Chico State. After I finished the last class of the day, I went back to my office and checked my emails. My son Lucas’ 4th grade teacher Mr. Pembroke had just sent a really odd email minutes before. “Folks, I want to assure you that your children were always safe today and that, in fact, we had a good day of learning. …
“That was a Real Nice Truck” Vigilante Justice in Skidmore, Missouri, USA
(Last week I posted about vigilante justice in Tanzania. It happens in the United States, too, which is what this story is about. As with the previous post, this is an extract from my book When Killing is a Crime, 2007 Lynne Rienner Publishers).
Ken McElroy was shot and killed while sitting next to his wife Trena in a Chevy Silverado in downtown Skidmore, Missouri, USA, in August 1981.…