Thursday, November 13, 2014

Academic Americans Blogging

What annoys me about the blogs of Americans in academia (mostly, with perhaps one exception)
is the degree to which their most casual remarks remind me of the comforts they enjoy, most especially job security--things I've never had, and never will have......, It gives their wisdom a sort of sour or stale smell......

Eastern European Road Rage

There seems to be a primitive certainty, a surety of one's right to do what one's doing, as citizens speed in their motor cars early in the morning.  A pedestrian is a nuisance, and a mouthy surly pedestrian deserves no mercy.

From this surety that one knows one's rights can spring violence, accompanied by a sort of righteousness (and it is for that reason I would never use that word in translating or discussing Socrates) that permits and endorse one's meting out what one is convinced is a just punishment.

I recall reading that in this very country, after the war,  a pregnant German woman was pushed off a bridge to her death.

I have no doubt that those who murdered her were filled with the same self-righteousness that leads cars and bicycles to be annoyed by pedestrians.  You say it is a trite comparison.  But the potency of global warming means that the mad morning commute is part of a much greater madness and those who engage in it are madder still than other madmen.  Loving the countryside, they destroy it. Loving their children, they leave them a ruined inheritance, and as they speed along the road hurrying to work, their life is not especially pleasant.

And anyone who gets in their way or protests may receive more than words in response.  (So I learned this morning.)

This I have learned in Eastern Europe.




Tuesday, November 4, 2014

a funny notice

I saw a funny notice on a bulletin board the other day. I reproduce it below.  (Incidentally, I find it very disturbing that at bus stops and elsewhere in the Czech Republic, there are official notices banning the posting of non-approved materials.  Approved materials always include garish and disgusting advertising for crap.  One of the marks of a truly free society is its tolerance for pamphleting and posting in public places by every sort of person.)

A CALL FOR ACTION;
A CALL FOR THE PERMANENT EUTHANASIA OF THE V-RAT-NICE CLASS

Now is the time to recognize that the Vratnice has outlived its usefulness.

This class, with its perennial suspicion and contempt for those on the wrong side of the desk, has no role to play in a democratic society.  Nor should anyone imagine they've been somehow updated by giving them computers and defending them with thick glass.

Current members of the class should be given other jobs, real work which does not allow them to behave contemptuously and disdainfully towards others.

The Special Case of the “Nice” Vratnice:

Then there are those who are so misguided as to imagine themselves kind when they negotiate special privileges with you. 'Well, I shouldn't, but I will do it this once....”

Their kind was clearly diagnosed by Kafka in the opening pages of “The Trial”.

Monday, November 3, 2014

CCTV comes home

Recently a notice appeared in my building telling us that there is CCTV.
I wonder how much it cost.  And who is watching?  And how many hours a day?

Do they have me on tape as I enter and leave the building?

I would have preferred if they spent the money on new and larger washing machines;
but no one is asking me.


Saturday, November 1, 2014

Capitalism Gives Us Crap

Bought a "Mexican"style sandwich in the Prague train station the other day.  I've been buying these sandwiches off-and-on for a couple of year.

Suddenly, they are thinner--but the price is unchanged. And there are FEWER BEANS!

Probably there's less meat too, but the beans used to be tasty.

Case number two:

Bought a pair of SANSA ballet slippers yesterday in Prague's Sansha store.  Hmmm.
They used to come with a cloth net bag.  Maybe only in the USA?  But these shoes were
brown, as if they'd been sitting in the dust for ages.  But, at least, they fit---unlike all the other shoes I own.

The moral of the story is that Markets give you crap as often as not.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

affective forecasting

Did I imagine it?  A psychologist recommending African safaris?  Because you can savour the memories for years.....

That's a wise way to spend your money, he said.

But who was his audience?  Surely not the majority of mankind.

Has psychology given up all pretense of being a science?  Is it now the psychology of  the bourgeois, and not a science of human beings in general?

Well, they tell us we are bad at "affective forecasting".  The most terrible things will happen,
but I will return to my normal affective state.

Is that supposed to be good?

Is it a justification for the genuinely bad things?--As if they don't really matter?

Of course, once I've lost my job, I'll adjust; but it's a bad thing to be unemployed.
And suggesting that somehow I return to my steady state is not helpful.

Because despite our flexibility, once a bad thing has happened, that's a genuine loss.
And it's not counter-balanced by my ability to retain my equilibrium.

The psychologists' view trivializes human suffering.

Saturday, October 18, 2014

"Hey!  Accept it!  It's the Czech Republic, after all.....:

Coming from an English speaker, from the UK, that's sort of racist........

University of Pardubice Dorms managed like Communism, Like Kafka

The rules have been changed.

Who changed them?  What's their name?

You cannot know.

Now, another new, and previously un-announced policy:
You can't use the washing machine after 6pm.

Why not?

Someone complained about the noise.

Who?  Some nameless person complained.

Errrrr,  it's a bit like being accused, and not knowing who accused you......

UPCE Housing:   WE make the rules!  You:  PAY and OBEY!

noted in passing----"better than Communism"

Observation:
In Central Europe, the remark "Well, Communism was worse...", or "It's better than Communism."
is not a serious remark.

It is a conversation-stopper.  It is a way to avoid thinking.

Context:
I was riding a crowded train, and I was complaining.  The First Class compartments are usually sparsely populated.  The Second Class compartments are crammed full like a tin of sardines.
And, as I was complaining, suddenly, I imagined the retort:  "Well, it's better than Communism."

Really?  You have newer trains, but they are still crowded.  Now, you pay for them, or pay more than you used to. Where is the progress in that?

But, I noted with horror that my own brain produced those words, "...better than Communism...."
To stop me from complaining.

Let's review:  The ruling class, via the banking system have stolen trillions of dollars.
We are paying for their bail-out.  Schools, public services including trains, salaries,
hospitals, etc., etc.  are all affected.  They are filthy rich and getting rich.  We are getting
poorer.  Public transport in Central Europe continues to be unpleasant.  The illusion
that there is now "competition" because a few rich men are now running their own trains
belongs to a catalogue of idiocy which should produce only embarrassment to the perpetrators.

But we can complain about it?  That's the difference?  So, we don't fear imprisonment, only
starvation, humiliation, and falling into the under-class?  But we can talk about it?

And our no-longer-enslaved audience responds with the knee-jerk reaction:  "Well, it's better than.......

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

pre-literate or just creatures from a Kafka novel?

My latest unpleasant experience with the "ladies" of the University of Pardubice Housing Authority leaves me in astonishment at the depth of the inhumanity so easily propagated by women who have the ability to deny me clean clothes.

They sit, sphinx-like behind a thick plane of glass (is it bullet-proof?) and it isn't so easy to hear them.  Due to the think glass, they seem to communicate silently with one another-- as if I were an intruder.  And they take a smug satisfaction in saying "no".

All I want to do is wash my clothes.  I will even not complain about the perversity of the fact that my employer is renting the washing machines to me.

I found myself wondering whether for this segment of the Czech population literacy is not a completely absorbed cultural artifact because the rules change and are never written down.

The rules for the use of the washing machines have never, to my knowledge, been written down or announced, and I must discover them anew whenever I trudge across the street (sometimes busy with dangerously speedy and impatient cars) and across the lawn to the large dormitory where the ladies sit behind their protective glass cage.  

Today, once again, they have invented a new rule.   No washing after 6pm.  Why?  Someone complained.  Well, I am complaining now, as I have before---but no one listens to me. They smile
in an indulgent sort of way, as if to say, "Here he goes again......"

This is 2014, yet the habits of the old system, prior to Communism, seem to live.  If you are a bureaucrat or any sort of official, associated with the monarchy, you are superior to other people.  And you need not explain yourself to them.  They must follow your rules.  Resentment, Schadenfreude, all the nasty things Nietzsche attributed to Christianity seem fully present in the sub-group within atheistic Czech society.

I would like to suggest, once again, that the University of Pardubice, on its website should embroider the housing branch with the motto:
UPCE Housing,
Where WE make the Rules,
and YOU:  PAY AND OBEY!

Monday, October 13, 2014

just another arrogant American?

Oh, so you think that the Housing Authority of the University of Pardubice is not especially democratic?  Who are you to say that?  What makes you an expert about democracy?
Aren't you just being an ugly and noisy American?  Arrogantly assuming you know?

I can imagine someone saying that after reading my recent posts.
I do have views about the nature of democracy, but not because I am an American,
or not because America is especially a good example of democracy.

On the contrary, America (the United States) suffers from a serious democracy deficit.
(And here I don't have much to say that hasn't been said elsewhere by Noam Chomsky
or Robert Paul Wolff.)

But, to review a few basic facts:  most Americans don't like the constant war-making,
and the government spends a lot of money scaring them, and trying to convince them
that yet another war is needed.  Most Americans would prefer more spending on roads, schools, and hospitals.  Most would prefer to have universal health care.  And so on.  But the government of the USA, in its actions, ignores what most people want.  That's not democracy.

I'm not going to document these claims.  They can be easily documented.

So, no, I do not think I have some special expertise as an American.  Nor does anyone else.

And I do think it is very un-democratic when a nameless individual makes decisions which
directly impact upon my life, and when I am also not allowed to discuss or criticize their decision with them--and, especially when I was not allowed input into the original decision-making process, but was presented the decision as a fait accomplis.    And that is exactly what recently happened to me at the University of Pardubice in the Czech Republic.

just like communism?

IN retrospect, it occurs to me....

Yesterday, when I journeyed to the nearby dormitory where I picked up the keys
to the laundry room and washing machine. ...

The lady behind the thick glass (hard to hear her) lectured me sternly about a new policy.
I would be allowed to use only one washing machine.

After I protested at length, she said that since they were not busy, she would allow
me to use two....

That sort of granting of special favors is, I believe, characteristic of corrupt regimes.
It is, in fact, characteristic of the old regime in Czechoslovakia,the so-called
'Communist" one.

Well, I didn't want any special favors, and I didn't want to get her in trouble; so, I said 'no'.

But notice. If I had accepted, I would be in debt to her.  And someday I might be expected
to do her a special favor.

All in all, this is very unpleasant, and it interferes with simple living.  Nonetheless, it
reminds me of something that has been called the "inner communism".

I don't don't really think it is essentially connected to Marx or egalitarian political ideas.
It has a lot to do with inequality, injustice, and maneuvering within a society to achieve a position.  Where formal mechanisms don't work, people will invent others.  I did not see the offer as a case of anarchistic mutual aid, however.  I saw it as the granting of a favor to a less powerful person by a benign more powerful one, and that is disgusting.  It is not real kindness.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Mundane Totalitarianism at the University of Pardubice

A couple of months ago, they put locks on the washing machines---that's in addition to the fact that they are behind a locked door.  At the time I thought it was a waste of money.  What's needed is more washing machines, and larger washing machines. (And dryers!)  Right now, we have a building with, oh I don't know, maybe twelve stories, and many people living here.  Two little machines aren't enough.

I have to trudge across a busy street to get the keys---after having the money deducted from my salary.

Today I was informed that I am no longer allowed to use two washing machines at once.---And they are small washing machines.  I cannot wash everything I have even with two machines.----I am only allowed to use one machine, but (oh so generously) for four hours.

Well, I would like to use two machines and finish in two hours.  I don't have that option.  So, in effect my time is being robbed.  I am being fined two hours every time I do laundry.  Two hours are stolen from me, and that's going to happen at least four times a month.  Not an insignificant waste of my time.

When I asked who was responsible for that decision, I was not told.  Indeed, when I pursued the matter, the other the UPce employee became increasingly evasive. I am not allowed to know the name of the person who has robbed me of my time.  Since I am not even allowed to make a complaint, my opinion is completely disregarded.  Strange, I thought democracy meant openness. Strange, I thought democracy meant transparency. Well, at any rate in this case, the University of Pardubice Housing Authority is very un-transparent and very un-democratic.

There was no discussion in advance.  There was no explanation in advance or after the fact.  The decision was announced as a fait accomplis.  That's called the arbitrary and non-democratic exercise of power.  In colloquial American, one might even refer to that as "fascism"--although, I know, on the authority of Andy Levine, distinguished author of a dictionary of Political Words, that to do so would not be, strictly speaking, correct.

Someone has decided for me how I shall spend my time.  They have done so without prior discussion.  I was not consulted and my opinion (about how I shall use my time) has been disregarded.  A nameless person is running my life for me. 

In keeping with what seems to me to be a local fondness for advertising/marketing, I suggest that the Housing Authority of the University of Pardubice should adopt the motto: 
UPce Housing Authority:
WE make the Rules;
You PAY and OBEY.

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Heaven forbid that students should make films in the dormitories!

In the past couple of years, I have had my share of frustrating conversations with the custodian of university housing.

Yesterday, I had another such maddening conversation.

I was so insane as to suggest that, for purely formal purposes, I might register my current accommodation as the site of a "business".

Yes, I know what you are thinking.  But this is the post-Communism Czech Republic.  If you teach English, that is a business.  If you are a prostitute, that is a business too--I gather, though I've not
undertaken extensive research.  And heaven forbid that the happy hooker did not pay her taxes.

I must indulge the aside:  We focus upon petty crooks (if that's what they are) and we ignore the historically unprecedented robberies of the financial elite.  How, for example,  can I take seriously the "crime" of riding the local buses without paying, when the bankers have robbed us of billions?--And continue to do so......

( I would have like to say that to the "revizor" who I recently saw disciplining an elderly woman with her shopping bags, a large green vegetable protruding from the top of one bag, of a Saturday morning when the bus was empty.....The confused lady did not punch her ticket.  Maybe she did it deliberately, maybe not.  But why shouldn't she, at her age, be allowed to ride for free?)

But were I to have a License to teach English, the location of my "business" would be a theoretical matter.  Holding the License would allow me to do extra teaching outside the premises of my accommodation.  And I assure you, I am busy enough with my current responsibilities that no enormous amount of extra teaching will ever occur any time soon.

Nonetheless, the extremely thoughtful lady of the housing authority immediately had a head full of worries, apprehensions, and the general bad behavior which she would bring into the world if she signed the paper granting me the location as a business site.  "Why, if I let you do that, the next thing will be...."
Pause to catch your breath....and steel yourself against the truly awful possibilities....
"Students would be making movies in the dormitories!"
Yes, what an awful thought!

Later, I realized that once upon a time, say 15 years ago, I was, as a Professor attending
an NEH Summer Seminar,  resident in an NYU dorm
where students were making films, during the time of my stay, in the actual dorm where
I was living.
And no disaster ensued.
But, then I also recalled that there was an easy to access room for doing laundry (which actually
had dryers---unlike my current accommodation), and this probably indicates the much greater level of physical comfort enjoyed by students living in NYU accommodations......
In my current habitation, I must travel across a busy road, and pay in advance, after explaining my needs through thick glass of the sort found in banks, to the ladies working in a student dorm, at its front desk.  They will supply me with a host of keys---one for each washing machine, and one for the door to the basement room where they are found.  The keys which control the washing machines are a recent innovation.  Heaven forbid that a student or visiting scholar should wash his or her clothes for free!

Sunday, October 5, 2014

If I could vote.....

If I could vote in Prague, I'd vote for the Green Party.  This is one of their billboards...

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

The geniuses at apple

The geniuses at apple gave no thought to the elderly when they designed their oh so wonderful devices.
My mother finds the IPad increasingly difficult to use.
She has had operations for Carpo-Tunnel on both hands.
The recessed, oddly shaped black button for volume is something she finds it very difficult
to use.
Her hands do not work with the touch-screen.

Thank you Apple for being such generous geniuses and thinking about everyone in the society.

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

noted in passing

There are individuals who imagine themselves "powerful" who can send out mass mailing emails, without fully considering the consequences...........

overheard

America's for-profit medical system is an insult to the dignity of human beings,
an assault upon all that is sane and holy.  It is an abomination.  If I needed another
reason to advocate socialism and the elimination of capitalism (Global Warming
alone would be enough) then America's for-profit health DONT-care system would
give it to me.

An eighty-eight year old lady enters the health facility at the assigned time.
Waits for doctor for an hour.

Doctor arrives and begins commanding the staff: Hurry up!  I cannot stay here until midnight.
Ignores eighty-eight year old lady who he's supposed to operating upon. 

When the eighty-eight year old lady arrives--and she's here for her second cataract operation,
and this time it's for her  LEFT eye, she is greeted with the question, "Let's see....It's for your Right eye?"

"NO!" she says.

To which the Nurse or some other creature replies to her, "Sorry we don't handle that side of things
it's the doctor's responsibility..."

Later she is given too much anesthesia and loses the rest of the day.

She complains to the doctor when she sees him the next day, and he responds, "I don't handle that.  I only contract with this company, and they are responsible for who they hire...."

Oh, the poor man.  He probably was thinking about what sort of animal he'll be shooting on his next African Safari.  (No joke; when I met the man, he did tell me about his trip to Africa for a safari.  As if I was interested.  As if I had anything but disgust upon hearing that the man could think of nothing better to do during one of his numerous vacations......)

No one is responsible in this inhumane system, but money does go into someone's pockets.
"Not me" said the nurse.
"not me"  said the weary physical therapist.
"Surely not me!" said the exhausted in-home care-giver.
|Who's left?
|Why, good old Mr. Safari and the investors who own everything........


Sunday, September 21, 2014

what you'll never read in a Czech newspaper

What you'll never hear from Czech "intellectuals", journalists, or the media.....
Global warming is a greater threat than Russia or any Islamic State.
True, but no one will say it................

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

an important insight

"... it's the habit of the American government to kind of say, okay, we made a mistake, it's just a one-time thing, we violated people's rights, it won't happen again, we'll put everything in check, and then they'll go back and a couple of years later new laws will come out, and those laws will justify whatever that behavior was. And then, from then on in, that's no longer a mistake, and the next time it happens it's something different, torture, say, for instance, you know, or enhanced interrogation. And at some point, that becomes--well, okay, that's legal."
--Eddie Conway, interviewed on "The Real News".
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=12383

Sunday, September 14, 2014

The Grouch Reads (once again)...
But this time he's reading The Czech Press (or at least one so-called "left" newspaper)...

and he's listening to the TV...

And he's noticed that someone is proud of weapons sales.  It's not just the disgraced ex-leader who was happy about selling high tech weapons to Afghanistan......

It's also the recent article bragging that Czech machine guns are superior to Kalishnikoffs,
but they use the same bullets, so they can be sold to Kurdish freedom fighters.

But, best of all, and proof that the grouch is not wholly insane was the editorial cartoon
in which a man said (to his wife, I presume) that the success of Czech foreign policy
was evident from the fact that parties on both sides of a conflict were using Czech machine
guns.

Now that's what I call progress.  Gee, who would dare say that capitalism just means more wars.....

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Doctors make me sick.

Doctors make me sick.
They are so proud of themselves, so confident, so arrogant,
so blind to the real world, and so focused upon their narrow point of view
with cures which involve technology first and the human world second.

EG  a sleep machine to cure sleep apnea,
which is a damn nuisance,
which has been constructed with a 'one-size fits all' mentality,
--oh, your mother has a small head,
says the wise doctor,
as if it were her mistake,
no, he says,"that's the head god gave her."
And the god damn machine you've given us doesn't
fit her head--Or rather, the attached straps on the nasal torture device don't fit her head.

So, I've got to hear my mother's complaints about the device
every night before bed time.
Every night.
Every night, it is a case of not looking forward to the discomfort caused by
this lovely, beautiful machine.

We've not been able to think of anything better, proudly struts the doctor.
And I say, "Shame on you for not trying!"
Is there really nothing better you can do?
What happen to the lovely dynamic tendency toward innovation in capitalism?
All I see about me is stagnation and exploitation.
Doctors are no exception to the rule,
but rather sorry and unimaginative also-rans.

Yes, let us not forget,
to assert his class superiority,
the doctor blames the technician,
who's actually got to drive all over the city in her car,
and teach patients how to use the god damn thing;
she, he says, must not have spent enough time explaining.
He, however, sits in his air-conditioned office, far away from my mother's home,
where he lets her come to him,
and he doesn't have to waste resources with travelling,
as does the techie,
so it's his privilege to shit on the incompetence and laziness of the underpaid assistant.
Now, that's really impressive.
But, I read that things are catching up with doctors,
they too are about to have their lives ruled by the idiocy of the MBA,
with its diet of repeatable formulas and measurable success.
He deserves it,
That's what I think.

But none of us, really,
deserve to live in this hell;
He's just strutting because he's got less of a hell to live in,
than the rest of us.

Shame on him.

Sigh.

Saturday, July 26, 2014

after a trip to the doctor's office


America's new religion: Denialism



As I sat in a car which winded and wended through the traffic,

just avoiding enormous trucks traveling at high speeds, I noticed the grayish-brown haze that had replaced the sky. So, that is what we are breathing. El Paso continues to seek fulfillment as a mini-L.A.



Please don't tell me it is beautiful or healthy. Please do notice it. But, no, that would be too much to ask. We must deny the existence of all that is ugly and unpleasant.



Please don't tell me the frigid piercing air of the AC is pleasant.

It is merely necessary to avoid the greater unpleasantness of the oppressive heat which overwhelms the skin like a heated blanket, suffocating and

inhibiting all life.



Don't tell me it is pleasant to squeeze yourself into the cramped space of a vehicle.



Don't tell me it is pleasant to sit in a moving vehicle gazing at endless cheaply constructed boxes surrounded by trees of advertising with their banal and uninspiring messages. A landscape of overwhelming uniformity and blankness.



All that I see is ugly and inhuman.



Worst of all, the trip is needed to get a bit of relief for an old person who needs a doctor's help to thrive.



Why should we have to travel so many miles so uncomfortably—and at personal expense (an expensive vehicle and wasteful gasoline)?



We needn't. It is not necessary, and it is not good.



But all of this is invisible thanks to the religion of denialism. The problem doesn't exist. This is the greatest country in the world.



Don't dare mention it. That would be rude, bad manners. You would be threatening the livelihoods of those around you. And we daren't imagine that people could change, that other jobs would be available with a different system. Put that thought out of your mind.



Don't mention the hierarchy within the doctor's office. A pretty, young girl who meets you. Her job is to be a mediator, but she's not studied as he did. His job is to share his knowledge. But don't say and don't notice the role of the society in imparting that knowledge. Taxpayers, teachers, parents, anything social must be invisible. Deny that there is anything social, please, if you want to get along.



Don't stop to wonder why he is doctor and she is a mere receptionist.

It must be because it is right and just. He worked, and she did not.

No other explanation is possible.



Don't notice. Don't think. Don't imagine. Deny. Play with your smart phone when you are bored, and allow your mind to be filled with the images displayed there. Let that fullness be your chief pleasure in life.



With apologies to Philip Mirowski, who has written a marvelous book about how Neo-Liberalism denies the existence of the economic and the ecological crises, and clouds the mind of the ordinary citizen in order to prevent any change—except, of course, changes in a direction of which neo-liberals approve.







Saturday, July 12, 2014

El Paso, Texas

The heat is unpleasant.
The sun is unpleasant.
The cars and mostly trucks crowd one another on the roads.

The neighbor has a dog,
and it barks,
non-stop,
ad infinitum,
barks itself hoarse,
and it is painful to hear,
irritating.

Every weekend,
at the very least,
the dog barks,
and barks
and barks.

The residents of this desultory place are  assholes
 ---Oh, dear! Let's not say that:
Let's try this:
they live in a prison,
a prison of their own making,
full of their trucks,
houses which demand that scarce commodity,
time,
pointlessly many animals,
and I've not got the heart to continue.

And me I'm as confused as them since I know,
nothing is a commodity,
because everything has a value which is not a price.

Sunday, July 6, 2014

El Paso Reloaded

Noted in passing:

Vehicles, even when smaller, seem consistently high off the ground, with the profile
of a tank or a SUV, giving them an aggressive, unfriendly appearance.

The air conditioning is painful. It feels as if tiny needles are piercing the skin.

The sun and heat in the afternoon is oppressive and tiring.

Around 4pm every day, I get a headache.

I've had enough sun to last a lifetime, and would gladly return to a month of clouds in Central Europe.

Lastly, I have discovered that the Internet is much faster in the Czech Republic than here.

It is not pleasant to be here.  The airline staff who repeatedly used that word (during my flight over) must have been crazy.  They must have forgotten what that word means.  There is nothing pleasant about the food, or the crowded space, or the thousands of tiny screens in an airplane.  All very awful.

Friday, July 4, 2014

Am I too demanding?

My mother has just returned after spending the night at a sleep clinic.  Soon she will be sleeping better with the assistance of a machine.

I would have liked to have a description, in writing, of my mother's condition.  I've not gotten that.  True enough, I did not accompany my mother; instead her care-giver did so.  So, I relied upon what the care-giver told me.

Of course, I can go to the internet and read about sleep apnea.  That's not what I want.  It's too general--like the manufacturer-supplied-book I once had telling me about features of the automobile I owned, which also described features of automobiles I did not own.

Is the sleep doctor so busy or so illiterate that he can't type up a short report of my mother's condition in understandable language?

I don't think I'm too demanding, and I don't think this system of medical care is acceptable.

But I've forgotten the most important thing:  The care-giver did did come home with documents: a sort of form which discharged my mother from the facility, and directions on cleaning the machine she'll be using.

I repeat myself:  Would it really be too much to ask for a paragraph explaining my mother's condition and the functioning of the machine?  Is that so hard? So time-consuming?  I think not.  It is indicative of the impersonal nature of the system.

Saturday, June 14, 2014

A Parable

They sit huddled under the walls which protect the palace.

The winds howl and a storm is brewing.

Their clothes are tattered.

Their faces grimy.

But their conversation is lively.

They discuss the latest news:

War in a distant land,

or rumors of a coming famine.

The farmers have, once again,

failed to produce enough food to feed us all,

and so they argue about who should go hungry.


I am amazed to hear how their reasonableness,

consists in repeating the words of those sleeping comfortably behind the tall walls.

It would be unreasonable to say that the wars are unnecessary,

or that the coming famine is not the fault of the farmers.

It is reasonable to speak vigorously in defense of starvation there,

but not here.

It is reasonable to blame the latest defeat on the incompetence of our allies,

--a sorry lot,

who we, from the purest of motives,

only wanted to help.

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Wisdom (East-West Dialogue)

In Texas, a wise man told me that,
he'd been around guns all of his life,
and he knew what to do with them.
If he felt threatened,
he brought his gun along.

But you wouldn't kill anyone,
would you?,
I asked.

And he said,
If you take out your gun,
you shoot to kill;
aim at the heart.

In a country which once proclaimed itself to be 'socialist',
a wise woman told me,
that money is the goal of life,
and all you need is money.

And I asked,
But what about those unhappy people
who have more money than they know what to do with?
And she said,
Well if people don't know what to do with their money,
then that's not the fault of the money.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Crowded train

Women of a certain age,
when youth is lost,
cloak themselves in a stinking cloud,
With pretty names,
Poison becomes beauty in our troubled world.

What is ugliness? The place where I buy food....

What is ugliness?
Ugliness is a grocery store located in a basement,
with no natural light.

When you enter,
a man in uniform stares at you as if you were a thief.
He inspects you,
regards you coldly, callously,
indifferent to your humanity.

As you enter the store,
your ears are assaulted by false-happy noises,
cheerfully urging you to buy crap,
because it's such a bargain,
and telling you to be grateful.

Inside the fruit and vegetables are not fresh,
but who can really tell in the artificial light?
Everything has an unnatural glow.

Yes, I've purchased this fresh-appearing stuff,
and after a day,
it seems to deteriorate,
and mold grows,
all that phony freshness disappearing,
like a paper-mache toy that's gotten wet.

When you pay,
they will bother you with joining the list
of their loyal customers.
--If that's what loyalty is,
then disloyalty is a virtue.
And they will bother you every time.

The poor slaves who work there are unhappy.
I know it, and you know it too.
How can we even dare to look them in the face?
Maybe because we feel like slaves too?

Then there are the shopping bags,
with their lies,
saying that this crap place suits my taste!
What an arrogant insult!
Or claiming they are "ecological",
when we know they are no such things.

Ugly, ugly, ugly.

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Czechs and human rights

I wanted to make a comment on a Czech government Minister's remarks about human rights.
But my post hasn't shown up at the paper where he was interviewed.
That's odd because I wrote a longer post, and then a short correction.  The correction showed up, but the original did not, which produced a strange sort of incoherence.

So, I'm going to post my (reconstructed) longer post here and now, with a link to the original article.

1.  The Minister speaks as though human rights were a fiction, something invented by privileged or lucky people. That's not true.  Workers in the Czech Republic and China and the USA can agree that they deserve health care, safety in the workplace (which is not provided for many Chinese, including those who make Apple products), and education for their children. 
2.  The Minister obscurely suggests that some unique Chinese culture or values justify what goes on in Tibet.  The truth is that he is simply in the business of bowing toward power.  He doesn't want to offend the rulers in China.  But those same rulers don't care very much about whether a person dies of burns in a factory run by FoxConn.

3.  The USA should cease its sanctions against Cuba--but not for the reasons that the Minister gives.  The USA has no business trying to overthrow governments.  And, in any case, the victims of the sanctions have been ordinary people.  That was perfectly predictable, and is the reason why no such sanctions should have ever been put in place.  

4.  Lastly, the Minister's actual suggestions might well have led the New York Times never to publish the article cited above, out of fear of offending a powerful person.  It is very clear where such obeisance leads--to the death of young soldiers in imperial wars.  Jaroslav HaÅ¡ek could have told you that.

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Recovering from Rehabilitation

My friend has written again, and I post his message without editing:

 
My friend has writenme again:

I am thinking about a conversation I had with my father the other night.
He feels that no one cares about him. He wants help. He asked me for help.

Now, there is a rational and cold approach to his perspective: He is at home.
He is safe. My mother and sister are there, caring for him. And, in addition,
there is a paid care-giver who works very hard.

However, that “rational” perspective is incomplete. He recently experienced three very hard weeks, when he was largely alone in an institutional setting.
My mother and the care-giver often visited him—when they could. However, he was alone at
nights. And, at night time, he was most unhappy, and tried to leave the institution.

So far as I can tell, the institution was, to all intents and purposes, under-staffed.
Moreover, when my mother attempted to complain to the head of nursing, she was
not allowed to do so. Her request was met with an unimaginative excuse that the Big
Nurse was not there, or busy, or whatever. Really, I don't remember what was said,
and it doesn't matter. My mother's request was ignored and she was put off---as if her concerns did not matter. But in a meeting with a Social Worker and an unidentified employee of the Institution, her financial situation was attended to.

So the institution was disrespectful to my mother as well as my father. And, it quite happily took their money—their money, even if through the mechanism of insurance.

It is impossible to know whether my father's dislocation in thought would have been worse
even if he never was imprisoned. However, I believe his isolation for three weeks has damaged him.  The question is whether he will recover.  At the deepest, most primal level:  for three weeks, every night he felt more alone than he's ever felt in his life.  Quite an accomplishment for the medical system which John Boehner says is the "best" in the world.  After eighty-nine years of life, after trying every day to be honest and help his family, and anyone else he met, he was rewarded with lonely nights in a sterile facility......

In all previous hospital stays, my mother had accompanied my father. He was most stressed at night, when he was alone. We know that isolation is harmful. That's why psychologists say that solitary confinement for prisoners is torture. The fact that my father is dependent upon the help of others makes his isolation worse. If he called out at night, no one answered. Oh, sorry, the institution bragged that they visited him every twenty minutes.

Yes, I can imagine what that means. A white-costumed individual pokes his or head in the door to make sure that the patient is still alive, and then rushes down the hall to poke their head into another room. That sort of thing would make me feel like the people involved really cared.

 

Sunday, May 25, 2014

In praise of ordinary Czechs

The wise men, the intellectuals, those who serve power, are appearing on Czech TV analyzing the election results.  I did not throw up, and that's an accomplishment.

Most Czechs, it seems, do not believe they are equal to other countries in the EU.
Hmmm, how odd.  Germans and Italians own their banks.  Skoda belongs to Volkswagen.
The grocery stores are German or Austrian.  So, all those profits leave the country....

Then again, the EU itself is not democratic---by design.  But, then there's the fact that the democratically elected leaders in Greece and Italy were removed by Brussels and the Banksters.

Errr, then there a few referendums where the misguided people voted incorrectly, and like
bad students who flunked the exam, Brussels made them do it all over again.

In general, it seems to me that the average Czech is more in touch with reality than they wise men of Czech TV.

Recommended reading:  Perry Anderson, "The Italian Disaster"
http://zcomm.org/znetarticle/the-italian-disaster/
http://zcomm.org/znetarticle/the-italian-disaster/

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Working in the Czech Republic versus Working in the USA

According to a new report by the International Trade Union Confederation, it's worse to be a worker in the USA than in the Czech Republic.  Interestingly enough, Slovakia got a higher grade than the CR.

The USA got a country grade of 4, which is explained as follows:

Systematic violation of rights
Workers in countries with the rating of 4 have reported system
atic violations. The government and/or companies are engaged
in serious efforts to crush the collective voice of workers putting
fundamental rights under continuous threat.

The Czech Republic got a "2"

Countries with a rating 2 have slightly weaker collective labour
rights than those with the rating 1. Certain rights have come
under the repeated attack by governments and/or companies
and have undermined the struggle for better working conditions
 http://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/survey_ra_2014_eng_v2.pdf

(Thanks to "Occasional Links and Commentary" for making me aware of this report.)



Sunday, May 18, 2014

summing up

My friend has written me again, attempting to sum up his recent experiences:


What I think I've learned in trying to communicate with my father, is the importance of emotion.
Now, this is a dangerous subject because I may fall into the trap of repeating, as a sort of advocate, the claim that we undervalue emotion in our culture.

That would be a true thing to say, but it is too imprecise for my purposes.

So, I shall try to approach the subject a bit differently. What makes a person a person? What makes our human persons be what we are? And, how can a person who is largely helpless still be a person?

A person—that means enough like you and me that s/he deserves what we deserve, respect and help .
What I've seen with my father is that his basic emotional ties are all in place. I think that diagnoses get it all wrong when they fault him for messing with chronological time, not knowing where he is, and so on. That's all merely the book-keeping of the workplace. And the workplace is, mostly, anti-democratic, mind-numbing, and soul-crushing. (The irony is that my father loved his job, but was forced to retire in his mid-forties after a bad car accident.)

If you are at all familiar with Milan Kundera, there is a story where a man imagines the world of his elderly mother—a world where a pear is enormous and a Russian tank is small. I think K wanted to recognize that this elderly mother's world is truthful, and I want to say something similar about my father's world.

My father's emotional connections are rich and lively. That part of him is not dead. However, it takes a sensitive audience to nourish that very real connection with reality. And, a sterile hospital-atmosphere is precisely what kills that. And, insofar as one is focused-- responsibly-- on helping him with his very real needs, one runs the risk of neglecting that other, very real part of him. I have seen him twice on Skype now, since his return from the three-week isolation chamber called Rehabilitation. He has lost skills he used to have. At night, he has difficulty sleeping and experiences, once again, the fear he felt when he was isolated. He had his share of solitary confinement thanks to the ignorance of a system that was never designed to see him as a person.

I recently came across a study in a nursing journal that recommends that care-givers sing along with their patients. I did something like that with my father during the time I was home. (2009-2012) By chance, I found old songs and movies on Youtube that belonged to my parents' generation, and for me to see the real pleasure it brought to them was a rare gift. It showed me what is possible for them, members of the category “frail elderly”. Their lives need not be filled with fear and anxiety.
They can be glad to be alive. That is really not too much to ask. And it has made me unforgiving of anyone who wittingly or not takes away from them such a basic components of human happiness, something which is not expensive and is not by nature scarce---though our system of social organization seems designed to make it so.

That kind of emotional connection takes time, and is not suited to the time-management approach of institutions.

What I think now, as I write you, is the problem we face is that we don't understand the human mind, and we view it through lenses tinted by our oppressive institutional structures. We don't see the world through the lenses offered by art, poetry, dance--those emotional worlds which nourish a part of us that is flexible and open, sad and hopeful at the same time. Instead we insist on framing ourselves through the closeted darkness of profit and social hierarchy.

Friday, May 16, 2014

a partial victory

My friend has written me:


After a battle of sorts, my father is now home.
I am not going to try to present all sides of the story.
I will say, however, that hospitals and institutional facilities
are cold and unfriendly.  They cannot compare to  one's home.
And that's how I feel, and I haven't got dementia and do
not have health problems.


Nor have I got a wife and companion of many decades.
My father was kept apart from his wife while he was in a so-called
rehabilitation center.  And, it was when he was alone that he tried
to find the exit.  Is that surprising?


Do you need a degree in medicine to understand that?


He was in an under-staffed facility which made it possible for him
to fall, to wander....


And, to top things off, his belt was stolen.  What sort of belt?
A white cloth belt that I purchased for a significant sum when I was
home a  couple of years ago.  It's a special belt used to help the frail
elderly.


Can I be sure it was stolen?  Maybe my father lost it?  Maybe.


But let's recall one thing.  My father was especially lonely in this
so-called rehabilitation center during the weekends.  And during weekends
 he did not receive therapy, unlike usual weekdays.


Now, you may say that I'm basing this on conversations with my mother.......
Indeed I am, and I trust her judgment.


But let's look at something that's not my mother's opinion.  Courtesy of Naked
Capitalism, I came across this fact:  that you're more likely to die in a hospital
over the weekend.  No matter when you are admitted, if you die in a hospital,
it's likely to be over a weekend.




"Risk of dying in hospital increases on weekend regardless of admission day, study finds"
Susan Perry, 5/15/2014, Minnesota Post
http://www.minnpost.com/second-opinion/2014/05/risk-dying-hospital-increases-weekend-regardless-admission-day-study-finds


Thank god he got home before the weekend!

Thursday, May 15, 2014

A curious and unbelievable tale

(rough draft)

A friend recently told me the following strange story; I don't even know if I believe it!

I would like to call it "Social Worker and The Hedge Fund", or "the Social Worker and the Wealthy Investor"---but that would be going too far..... although I do believe that Wall Street has invested into health providers, and WS does demand a profit......So, let's just start with some questions:

Are Social Workers Working to Bankrupt the Elderly?  
Have Social Workers Today Become Servants of Wall Street? 

Those questions occurred to me after hearing this story....

My friend's 89 year old father was hospitalized about a month-and-a-half ago because he was sleeping too much. The man did not complain about pain, however he was getting weaker every day because he didn't want to walk or even get out of his chair.

Finally, his care-giver said sleeping so much was just not normal. She consulted with a doctor and the man was transported to the hospital.

The man's wife worried that the hospital authorities might not let the man return to their home.  In the past, she has been told he needs 24-hour care; but neither she nor her children have the funds to pay for that.  And no one has yet suggested where the funds would come from. However, he was taken to the hospital, and she stayed with him in the hospital and helped him.

At first they could find nothing wrong with the man. Then, they thought that maybe some of his medicines had affected his kidney (he has anemia caused by a doctor's error during a “routine” operation). So, they took him off those medicines.
(Later, it seems, he was put back on the medicines; but nothing in this story is clear.)

For a time, the man seemed more alert. However, it seemed unwise to all
concerned for the man to go home since he was still physically weak. He is a rather large man and prior to his hospitalization the care-giver had found it difficult to transport him to the doctor.

He was, therefore, sent to a sort of rehabilitation facility.  It was said that he needed about two weeks of rehabilitation. His wife was not allowed to stay with him. Consequently, he began (and this is three weeks ago now) to wake up at night asking for his wife. Moreover, he attempts to leave the facility, to go home.

He was supposedly given an "anti-anxiety" medicine to prevent him waking at night.  Later it was said that the dosage was too small.  After two weeks, someone noticed that on account of his size, a larger dosage would be needed.  My friend thought that was amazing.  Only a glance at the man would tell you that he is larger than average.  Probably, my friend thought, the health care workers are over-loaded and cannot keep up with everything they are supposed to do.  (See a recent article in the NYT about hand-washing...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/29/nyregion/hospitals-struggle-to-get-workers-to-wash-their-hands.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0)

The elderly man, my friend's father, even says that he is in “prison”. Apparently, he feels he is being held against his will.

The man is senile; however, it seems clear that the immediate problem is that he has been separated from his wife. (They have been married 63 years.) When she was with him in the hospital, there were no such problems.  In the hospital, he did not attempt to leave, and he did not wake up asking for his wife.

When my friend's father first entered the rehabilitation facility, they were told that his wife would not be allowed to stay overnight, although she would be allowed to visit.  (This created transport problems.  The wife is too elderly to drive, and so must rely upon a friend or care-giver.  It is not always easy for her to visit her husband.)  There seems not to have been any explanation of the facility's policy;  why shouldn't the wife be allowed to stay with her husband?  My friend finds this problematic.  Someone was heard to say, as if it were a sort of explanation, “They have their rules.”  My friend was pretty sarcastic about that, saying, “Hitler had his rules too."  And, "What is this?--A dictatorship?”. And, “What ever happen to the idea that the Customer is King?”
Now, my friend says that the Social Worker recently told the wife that it would be better for the man to return to his home. However, the Social Worker is not going to pay for around-the-clock care for the man.

I think my friend had something funny to say about the Social Worker, too. Social Workers are supposed to represent the interests of the poor and the weak, but apparently (my friend told me) this Social Worker represents the financial interest of the For-Profit “Health Provider”---or, at least, did so when there was a meeting discussing how the man's wife would pay for his care. The SW actually said words amounting to this: you'll have to exhaust your insurances, and then pay out of your own pocket.  Which is tantamount to warning the lady that she can look forward to being bankrupt.

Maybe my friend is mis-informed.  It seems odd that a Social Worker should be representing Wall Street.

It was at that point that my friend made a very cutting remark about bankruptcy and expropriation by dispossesion. Apparently my friend meant that this was a sort of legal theft, and that the Social Worker was nothing more than the velvet glove on top of the Iron Fist.  The Social Worker has to obey the wishes of the For-Profit Medical Provider, even if the SW has sympathies elsewhere.  

The Health Authorities told the wife that her husband needs “twenty-four hour” care. My friend quipped, “What a joke. He is not getting that currently, at this facility he is paying for.   They only look into his room every twenty minutes to see if he's still alive. That means he is getting---let's see, three times an hour, times 24, that's 72 minutes of care per day currently......That's not 24-hour, not non-stop care.  He gets punctuated care---a little care, with lots of gaps!"

I pointed out that the man was also visited by nurses and therapists throughout the day --though rarely or never on weekends--- but I guess I see his point. After all, during the times they don't look in on the man, he has fallen down several times.  And he has been found wandering around the facility, looking for an exit.

This is all very surprising to me. It doesn't sound right. It sounds to me like this elderly couple is being shaken down for the sake of sending profits to people who are so rich that they literally cannot spend all of the money they earn. That's the way things are going today.  It's all legal.  Another friend told me that it reminds him of something called "Primitive Accumulation".....but he didn't explain.














Sunday, May 4, 2014

the crappy USA Internet could get worse

The Internet in the USA is slower than the internet in Romania or the Czech Republic.
But, it could get worse...........

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/05/bill-moyers-obamas-latest-assault-democracy-undermining-net-neutrality.html

Sunday, April 20, 2014

the "best" in the world

I keep thinking of the Repuglican J. Boehner (however he spells it) saying that  the citizens of the USA have the "best" medical care in the world.

Yesterday, my mother told me that she and my father (who is 89 years old) routinely wait
three or more hours to see a doctor.

She said my father gets so tired, that after waiting so long, he just wants to go home.

So, she will have to talk to someone, and complain.

Well, does it really take years of medical school training to figure out that an elderly,
frail patient shouldn't be made to wait for three or more hours?

What about simple decency, courtesy, respect?

Those things are in short supply in the world's so-called only remaining "super" power.

Sigh.

Patients are people?  They seem to be treated as inanimate inputs to production.

Sunday, April 13, 2014

doggerel returns

On Cars

Riding in the back, 
I feel kidnapped;
In front,
uncomfortable and cramped.
Driving wrecks my nerves,
and deadens my senses.

Glass and steel,
Ice AC:
An adolescent fantasy of manhood.

I hate cars.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

explanatory note

This post is by way of comment on the most recent post.

No, I do not think the EU is great or good.  For example, what the EU is planning
to do in the Ukraine demonstrates how countries who joined the EU imagining
it would lead to increased economic prosperity have been duped.

And countries who imagine membership in NATO increases their safety are equally
foolish.  On the contrary, membership in NATO means that countries become
involved in wars which do nothing but serve the imperialist aims of the USA.

Three economists comment on the EU in the links below:

 http://www.rdwolff.com/content/eu-1-big-scam-ukraine-its-next-victim

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=11614

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Praise to the European Union

It means so much to belong to the EU...
It means work and safety regulations, laws....
It means the chance of prosperity for all, not merely for a privileged few....

And, yet, with the appearance of spring,
my neighbor stands on his balcony puffing a cigarette,
enjoying the fresh air,
Although,
the air is not really fresh,
thanks to two chemical factories and one oil refinery,

But at least,
people are enjoying their right to consume,
purchase motorcycles,
and ride them around,
creating noises that penetrate into my apartment,
and prevents me from enjoying the quiet of spring.

No, actually, now that I think about,
Spring is noisy, and always has been.
And fresh air?
You can dream of it.

Monday, February 17, 2014

I protest

I call foul play!


In the bookstore in Prague's Main Train Station, somebody has put a book by Thomas Friedman in the "Philosophy" section.  This is an insult to Philosophy and philosophers.


Friedman is nothing but a shill for the ruling class.


As the article linked below puts it,  Friedman has escaped and is writing about economics again.......
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/thomas-friedman-escaped-and-is-writing-about-economics-again

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

America's estebaci

|There's a consequence of Snowden's revelations that I haven't heard anyone remark upon.


Obama would like us to think the people who spy on us are a bunch of patriotic hard-working
folk, just like us. They do their job, like....whoops!  we?....Sorry, forgot about unemployment.


Anyway, the people who spy on us, and collect our mail, copy our envelopes, etc., etc.
They are very well-paid, even privileged.  How much did Snowden say he was making?


And, well, thing is that they don't deserve it.


Well, then again, under capitalism, prices make no sense. Nobody gets what they deserve.


But, still I'm supposed to be embracing these jokers as somehow like me.  Not on your life.  The phrase 'careerism' comes to mind................IE don't think too hard about what you are doing; just enjoy the benefits...............

a poem


Dream and Reality Mix in Unwanted Ways



If what we want is that which extinguishes wanting,

then is it death that we want?


Waiting for the new beds

Or waiting for something I-know-not-what,

A neighbor waiting,

the truck in our driveway confuses me:

what could it be?

And it's a holiday,

They should have the day off!

I speak to my mother and she says,

“It's like the time when you moved the stereo higher”,

And I seem to half-agree,

collecting from somewhere a dim memory that seems to match,

But there was no such stereo,

So, it's just a dream.

And I remember those moments of hope and expectation,

shared hopes and shared expectations,

Rich with the thought that maybe now things will be better,

Thoughts unknown since then,

But, they were no dream.


The workmen are carrying furniture across the street,

My mother studies it,

Comments,

Approves,

And I have mixed emotions,

Half thinking that I'm in no financial position to purchase furniture.



The truck has disappeared from our driveway,

but the men are carrying the furniture across the street.



Like the day they brought my mother's new stove,

Which also, in its own way,

Signaled my helplessness,

and my fading life.



I am rushing away from the present,

but I always return to the past,

The future gets my hopes pasted onto it,

but there is no one to share my hopes;

I hope alone.