Cameron's Big Debt Society

Britian has a Conservative government.  It's pointless to talk of a Coalition any longer, as the Liberal Democrats have showed that their true colour is Blue. The Conservatives have always been intent on the privatisation of the public sector and now with convenient Liberal scapegoats, they seem to be getting away with murder. Murder of what we used to call 'our' Education System.

Prime Minister David Cameron likes to talk about a 'Big Society'. The idea is so vacuous that even he doesn't know what it means. One thing is certain though. By tripling tuition fees to £9,000 per year, his government will create a society that is BIG ON DEBT.

The government's own statistics show that up to a third of graduates under the new system will carry their debt to the grave. According to the politicians the system will be 'very fair and progressive'. You only have to start paying back when you earn over £21,000 per year they harp. Is it unusual for graduates to earn more than that? Some companies might see this as an excuse to keep entry level salaries low!

Outrageously, the government has even proposed a fine for graduates who seek to pay off their debt early in one lump some. This defies common sense. The economic crisis that we're still in was caused by too many people investing money that they did not have. Now the government is actually encouraging young people to enter into a lifetime of crippling debt.

Cameron tells us that the quality of universities will improve. How can this be when funding for research and staff pensions have also been cut. The brightest English students are now sure to go to Europe for their education. There are countless prestigious universities in Germany, France, Spain, Scandinavia etc. that do not charge crazy entrance fees.

European citizens from poor as well as rich backgrounds should have equal rights and access to higher education. If the UK government is taken to the European Court of Justice, we may see a landmark case in determining the universal right of EU citizens to higher education, whatever their socioeconomic background.

There are still 2 years to go before this new tuition fees system is supposed to come into force: ample time for it to be replaced with something that is not based on the accumulation of yet more DEBT.

Who owns Franz Kafka?

Israel is laying claim to a stash of unpublished mouldy Kafka works.  Why?

Franz Kafka was born in Prague in 1883 which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  He was a member of the German speaking community and also happened to be Jewish.  He died in 1924, a mere five years after the state of Czechoslovakia was founded.  So, given this multi-cultural history any number of modern day nation states could argue for Kafka's legacy.  Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Germany even Switzerland as a german-speaking country might stake a claim.

So why Israel, a state that did not exist when Kafka died?  Well, Kafka's friend Max Brod was a Zionist and emigrated there.  When Brod died, he left a pile of Kafka's writings with his secretary in a cat-infested Tel Aviv flat.  Some connection!

Now the Israel National Library has gone to court for the papers.  They're outraged that the daughters of the deceased secretary want to sell the papers to Germany's Marbach Archive.  The sisters argue that Germany will be a safer place for the papers.

Germany makes sense.  More people are likely to benefit from having the papers in the middle of Europe, instead of tucked away in Israel in some vault between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

But the real question is, how can a nation-state truly own Kafka?  It is the individual reader of say, Metamorphosis or Amerika who is enthralled by the ingenious tangle of events the author relates.  In many ways Kafka owns his readers as much as they own him. Literature is the most democratic artform of all and it is only the illiterate who are truly unable to own it.

A final thought - those mouldy notes may amount to nothing more than a pile of Kafka's old shopping lists and doodlings.  It's the same as people forever trying to discover some new Jimi Hendrix recordings.  The best stuff was published years ago.  When will we realise that even genii have their off days?

Source:

The Independent, 20 July 2010, The Bitter Legacy of Franz Kafka

Dio - RIP

Legendary metal vocalist Ronnie James Dio died on Sunday night.

As a kid, I remember being blown away by his voice on Sabbath's 1992 album 'Dehumanizer' which I borrowed from the library on tape.

Not only was this the heaviest shit I'd heard until that point with some ultra evil riffage from Tony Iommi, but Dio's powerful operatic voice was unique.  His unmistakable explosive style was the trademark of any music graced with his touch.  And somehow he conveyed his mad lyrics with complete authority.

Dio gave Black Sabbath a whole new lease of life after Ozzy and some might even argue outclassed the original singer for sheer evil intent.

Here's a video of him performing Heaven and Hell.  Enjoy.

Expansion of Facebook A Threat To Diversity

Facebook (FB) has recently announced plans for expansion.  Major news and media websites will now feature buttons from the social networking site. This has nothing to do with making the internet more useful.  It is an insidious attempt to make brainless consumers of us all.

Established and respected sites such as The New York Times and TripAdvisor will now feature FB buttons.  You will be invited to 'Like' content.  This information will be stored on your account and shared with your 'friends'.

Aggregate 'likes' will be stored and used to rank content in search results.

In this way websites with more FB content are likely to dominate the internet.  It is already hard enough to find independent and quality content online.  Intelligent blogs and local news sources are likely to become even more invisible.

Behind this lies massive commercial interest.  By discovering what a majority of FB users 'like' advertisements will become even more targeted.  Few people realise that the pressure to conform on FB is massive.  Everyone wants to update their profile with random sentences about themselves and pictures as often as possible.  Once this fever to copy everyone else spreads to the rest of the internet, big business will be laughing.  Ultimately, this will lead to a homogenous mass of online consumers.

What implications this will have for society at large will be explored here in future posts.

For now SZ recommends sharing as little information on FB as possible.  Exploit the power of online social networking - don't let it exploit you.

Pilgrims or Visitors?

The Turin Shroud is on view to the public for the first time in ten years. Are people who go to see it pilgrims or visitors?

A pilgrim can be defined as a person who travels to a holy place for religious reasons. A visitor is a person who visits a place for any number of reasons.

Christians who believe that the Shroud is the real burial cloth of Jesus Christ would no doubt consider themselves pilgrims if they were to 'visit' the exhibition.

Although carbon dating puts the Shroud back to the Middle Ages, the evidence on the cloth itself of blood stains and the imprint of a bearded man's face remains compelling. So compelling in fact that people have been fascinated by the thing for centuries.

Therefore, would not the main reason to go and have a look at the Shroud be to satisfy one's curiosity? For one true pilgrim there will undoubtedly be ten curious visitors.

The media and the Catholic Church (which has no official position on the Shroud) should stop calling people who go to see the Shroud 'pilgrims'. It is simply misleading and only serves to build up the mythology that surrounds this intriguing historical artefact.

The Archbishop of Turin, Cardinal Severino Poletto, said "The Holy Shroud Exhibition is a spiritual and religious event, it is neither touristic nor commercial."

With 2 million people expected to come and see the Shroud, Turin will undoubtedly enjoy a positive economic impact. At least entrance to the Cathedral where the Shroud is on show is free. All one has to do is register in advance. Check out the official website here.

The Archbishop has also been quoted as saying that we should view the Shroud with our hearts and not our minds. This is certainly a holy aspiration, but it is unlikely to stop even the Faithful asking questions about this blood stain here or that one there.