The Algebra of Arundhati’s Injudiciousness

Sadna,

FYI:

Corporate Power in the Ivory Tower
McMaster Campus Choice Conference 2006

Dear student, organization, or activist group

A quick glance at any university campus and one can see the
ever-increasing presence of large corporations (for instance the
Coca-Cola Exercise Physiology Lab at the University of Western Ontario).
These companies provide services on campus, fund academic and athletic
programs, and have chairs on the various governors` boards. However,
questions have been raised about our universities` growing dependence
upon corporate dollars and willingness to adopt corporate values. More
and more schools are signing exclusive contracts with multinationals
that are implicated in human, worker and environmental rights violations
around the globe, and limiting their student`s ability to choose on campus.

On Monday February 13th 2006, McMaster Campus Choice is holding the
``Corporate Power in the Ivory Tower`` conference 2006 aimed at addressing
the growing negative corporate climate in universities, most
specifically through an examination of the exclusivity contracts various
multinationals have secured with universities in the Canadian context
and beyond. The conference will address the problems that such a
monopoly on campus creates (in terms of a violation of democratic
principals both locally and globally) and explore various means of
resistance (by, for example, raising awareness of corporate malfeasance
and making stricter labour policies and standards for those companies
wishing to do business with our schools).

From this, we hope to create a sustainable inter-university consortium
by networking with students at other universities, as well as labour
unions, community activists, secondary school boards, and non-profit
organizations. We believe no corporation on campus should be exempt from
rules honouring the preservation of environment, or policies respecting
human and worker rights. We hope this conference will bring this issue
to the fore, as well as cultivate viable and ethical solutions.

Our keynote speaker will be Dr. Kenneth Saltman, a visiting professor to
McMaster from De Paul University in Chicago, Illinois. Dr. Saltman will
be teaching a graduate seminar on ``Global Corporate Schooling.`` Saltman
published a book titled ``Collateral Damage: Corporatizing Public
Schools—A Threat to Democracy,`` and has spoken alongside exiled
Colombian Sinaltrainal union members in the United States. Later in the
afternoon there will be a panel of speakers who will discuss the various
issues surrounding the presence of corporations in the university
environment, using Coca-Cola Ltd. and its exclusive contracts with many
universities as a case study.

Sadna,

Will do. thanks again.

Saminasha
Thanks to you too. btw, you had asked (rhetorically though) about the books Sahitya Akademi has published. A list is available here(click on relevant language to see the list).

http://www.sahitya-akademi.org/sahitya-akademi/bklst00.htm

The Akademi does a lot of translating too so for example if you want to read an Assamese play in Kannada, the Akademi list of publications is your best bet to look for it.

Sadna,

I`m sorry, but we must choose to disagree in this case. Thanks for the illuminating discussion!

#144 please also add one more dimension (I hate this word) to that statement: she should have said ``no`` at the very outset. Generally, they are notified about this before the announcement goes out to the public. At that stage she could have said a no I am not interested. So she must surely said yes I will acept it. I wonder what made her change her mind in the matter of a few days?

BTW #141 (T)

#138 Samina, I am not avading your point. two main points you have made so for are:

1. it is upto AR whatever she does about the award.

- frankly I agree with that in principle.
my only issue is she should be consistent in dealing with other institutions, people and monies in respect to the reason given for this refusal (I am against govt policies so I refuse etc..)
If she had said something like: figure A has ``decided`` this award and I am dead against his policies so I refuse. We won`t be talking about it.

2. You have automatically assumed and accusing Akademi to be a front of repressive Indian Govt. hence her refusal justified.

- this point has been amply refuted by many members on this board.

In fact by bringing the irrelavent examples of Bush and Sharon Olds, you are the one who are evading the central point raised to you by me that, is it really valid or possible for one to dissociate oneself from all public institutions of a country if one disagrees with a Government A or Administration B?

It is clear instead of answering that or acting on that you will come back with another patronizing post.

as for rancor created by Roy`s decision, I earlier searched media for article items against it (not news items about it) and google came up with only a few. so what rancor? other than in this small pocket of chowk.:-)

Correction:She need not have accepted the award, but she should not have tried to paint the Akademi with the same brush she paints the government.

Saminasha #142
Yes, in this case there is only one truth, which is that Arundhati Roy has unnecessarily painted the Sahitya Akademi with the black which she paints government and its policies. She has also painted black her fellow literary figures who are associated with the Akademi and all the work it does on behalf of the nation.

She need not have accepted the reward, but she should not have tried to paint the Akademi with the same brush she paints the government. Her self-righteousness wrt the government doesn`t hurt her credibility as much as her self-righteousness wrt the Akademi which just doesn`t work.

Sadna,

Are you saying that there is just one truth, or only one interpretation of the Sahitya organization or what their award means?

You aren`t, and I understand your position. This understanding, however, does not prevent me from understanding Roy`s position.

While you wait for math wizards, peoples, kindly understand what are metaphors. When you write `anatomy of a riot` you don`t actually talk of heart, intestines and kidneys of a riot.

Similarly if you write algebra of xyz, you don`t necessarily intend it to be pure math published with equations, you want to say xyz is an aggregation of factors a,b,c. In this case `infinite justice` is obviously a satirical reference to the US`s name for their Afghanistan war and what actually were the factors resulting in this war

Saminasha #128
``I am struck by the rancour that has greeted Roy`s decision.``

Again, as posters keep repeating, the rancour is not about her refusal, it is about her mischaracterisation of the Akademi and its award which is a national award given by fellow literary figures, not a government award.

Those who respect the Sahitya Akademi are going to get angry when simply because it is Roy speaking, a national institution gets painted black in a rather mindless manner. Being female and dissident doesn`t confer infallibility on a person, you know.

har har har. All it needed was a small peeble and the interacts roll on.

Have saminasha, farzana kissed and made up. They seem to be having a good old one-two going on here. and #138 is the classic opt out by DOLE. declare herself a winner when cornered and disappear from the scene for a while.

dullah,

you continue to evade my points, so I really don`t see the point in continuing this conversation with you.

samina, if it is upto Roy to accept or refuse the award why you feel compelled to advocate her reasons for refusal here? Laura Bush`s invitation is not same as say invitation from an Art organization that gets federal dollars for promotion of arts in USA under some federal program that may be in place when Bush was still in diapers. It does not make sense for AR to go to a recital invitation offered by RSS chief or Sonia Gandhi...or even Manmohan Singh`s wife.

You fail to acknowledge the difference between:
Government and Country
and further berween country and its institutions.
In democracies public interest institutions come into existence with government money. over time they build credibility and earn respect of their people.

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