The Supreme Court of the Phillippines recently ordered the whole of the faculty of the University of the Phillippines Law School to show cause why they shouldn't be sanctioned. What was this awful thing the facilty did en masse? It criticized a member of that bench -- calling out one of the Justices who had plagiarized from a foreign source in an opinion.
President Benigno Aquino III sensibly has jumped into this debate on the side of the faculty members in a speech at the alumni homecoming of their institution.
"Those in high positions shouldn’t intimidate or threaten persons who only want to freely express their own opinion and come out with the truth. This practice that has already been there from way back should not be used to cover up the sins of those who have wandered into the crooked path,” he said.
Well said.
Since I'm a safe distance away from repurcussions, allow me to say that the plagiarist at issue,. the one hiding behind his friends and official position so no one will call him out on his intellectual laziness, is by name Associate Justice Mariano del Castillo.
Showing posts with label Phillipines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Phillipines. Show all posts
21 November 2010
12 February 2010
Taking "My Way" Too Seriously
According to a story in The New York Times on Thursday, people get killed over Sinatra in the Philippines. Over karaoke renditions of "My Way" in particular.
Why is it "My Way" that sparks fights, and sometimes deaths? The simple explanation is just that it is a song that everybody knows well enough to have an opinion, so it is more likely than many other songs to be the spark to a fight.
But there are lots of other very-well-known songs. So, as you'll see if you read deeply into the story, there's also an "existential" interpretation of these events. Maybe it's just a song associated with losers, and when a loser sings about himself, he is likely to tick off the other losers.
Consider: the lyrics of "My Way" are obviously designed to appeal to someone who wants to think of himself as the center of the world, but who hasn't done anything notably special. So he frames his center-of-the-world self-image in terms that are both vague and defiant. "I DARE you to call me out on my loserhood."
Why is it "My Way" that sparks fights, and sometimes deaths? The simple explanation is just that it is a song that everybody knows well enough to have an opinion, so it is more likely than many other songs to be the spark to a fight.
But there are lots of other very-well-known songs. So, as you'll see if you read deeply into the story, there's also an "existential" interpretation of these events. Maybe it's just a song associated with losers, and when a loser sings about himself, he is likely to tick off the other losers.
Consider: the lyrics of "My Way" are obviously designed to appeal to someone who wants to think of himself as the center of the world, but who hasn't done anything notably special. So he frames his center-of-the-world self-image in terms that are both vague and defiant. "I DARE you to call me out on my loserhood."
29 May 2008
Retribution
My recent reading has included RETRIBUTION: The Battle for Japan 1944-45, by Max Hastings.
As the subtitle indicates, the subject is the Asian/Pacific theatre (or theatres) of the Second World War, in their final year, beginning roughly with a summit meeting in Hawaii in July 1944.
At that meeting, held as the Marines were securing the Marianas islands, FDR asked MacArthur, Nimitz, and Halsey: Where do we go from here? The most direct route to Japan involved continued island-hopping across the center of the Pacific. From the Marianas to Iwo Jimi to Okinawa. And there was a southern-Pacific variant, one that would let MacArthur make good on his vow to return to the Phillipines.
Roosevelt, rather characteristically, made no choice, and both the south and the central Pacific campaigns proceeded.
Insofar as Hastings has a 'big picture' point to make, it is that this was probably a mistake, that the Phillipines campaign was redundant and humanly a disaster. The war could have been brought to a quicker end had all the available resources been channeled through the ocean's center.
But then, Hastings' heart really isn't in making a big picture point at all. His heart is in the idea of history from below, history that deliberately foresakes the task of mapping the forest for the detailed description of lots of otherwise inconspicuous trees. I'll say something about that aspect of the book tomorrow.
As the subtitle indicates, the subject is the Asian/Pacific theatre (or theatres) of the Second World War, in their final year, beginning roughly with a summit meeting in Hawaii in July 1944.
At that meeting, held as the Marines were securing the Marianas islands, FDR asked MacArthur, Nimitz, and Halsey: Where do we go from here? The most direct route to Japan involved continued island-hopping across the center of the Pacific. From the Marianas to Iwo Jimi to Okinawa. And there was a southern-Pacific variant, one that would let MacArthur make good on his vow to return to the Phillipines.
Roosevelt, rather characteristically, made no choice, and both the south and the central Pacific campaigns proceeded.
Insofar as Hastings has a 'big picture' point to make, it is that this was probably a mistake, that the Phillipines campaign was redundant and humanly a disaster. The war could have been brought to a quicker end had all the available resources been channeled through the ocean's center.
But then, Hastings' heart really isn't in making a big picture point at all. His heart is in the idea of history from below, history that deliberately foresakes the task of mapping the forest for the detailed description of lots of otherwise inconspicuous trees. I'll say something about that aspect of the book tomorrow.
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