Tuesday, November 17, 2015

I don't agree with google or fb or anyone else.  Your advertising is unwanted.  The internet and all its associated elements should be run by the government as a public service, free of charge and without advertising..  As for those who currently mis-manage the web, you should all be put on trial in public--streamlined live. And I would hope that you will all be fired from your jobs because you have shown nothing but contempt for the public.

Friday, November 13, 2015

What kind of place is this? Pure Idiocy in the Czech Republic

"Well you've been washing your clothes a lot."
Jeezus fucking Christ!
That is none of your goddamned business.
What's more:  What kind of cheapskate university is this where they want to make a profit from teachers washing their clothes?

I wash my clothes once a week! That's a lot?  What kind of a country is this?

A lot compared to students who take their clothes home once a week and wash them at home.... I suppose that's what a lot means.

How dare you even notice how often I wash my clothes!  It's none of your business!

That's fascism.  That's impertinent. Who are you to tell what's washing my clothes a lot--or a little?
I am wasting my money because I wash my clothes too much?!
If I think my rent is high, it's because I wash my clothes too frequently?

Really.  I can't find words to describe it.
I guess I'll indulge another local custom--and go piss in the street.
which is common in the whole of the Czech Republic and not only one Neo-Liberal entity.

But I'll tell you one thing:  when you piss in the street, you don't wash your hands
And that's basic sanitation.
The sort of thing that makes the difference between civilization and something else.
So, pissing in the street is uncivilized.  

But pissing in the street by males and young children is common.
And it's not sanitary.
Western Culture?   Make me laugh!

You're paying more for rent because you wash your clothes too much.--Yeah, that's exactly the sort of thing I expect to hear at the University of xxxxxx......It's not an isolated incident.  And it wasn't completely unexpected.   It's characteristic of the local mind-set...... the local mindlessness supporting impossibly idiotic utterances.  You see, it's like this:  when someone complains, it's always THEIR fault!   And the complaint has to be stomped out, dismissed, and if at all possible the complainer must be made to feel as though he or she is lacking in a basic component of intelligence.  Whatever we do around here, and what we think is normal is unmentionable, untouchable,  a sort of religious icon.  And anyone who says or thinks otherwise is not deserving of consideration, and will not be taken seriously.  And must be stomped on immediately.

I actually resisted the move toward billing me electronically for washing my clothes, and held out for cash payment.  But they insisted I pay electronically.  And gave me no choice.  I anticipated the fascism in it, and I was right.  Of course, it needs  a certain mind-set to employ the technology that way, and they have it, and they did not disappoint me......

What's good for the mindless accountants that keep the books ain't good for you or me.  The idea that it's good for everybody is just another of the lies that is propagated mindlessly .....  But the mindless ones I am dealing with here don't raise to the level of even attempting that sort of justification.  It is mindless unquestioning obedience they want.....

Monday, October 5, 2015

Perfect Timing

Here in Pavilon E on the campus of a Central European (formerly "Communist") country,
I live in a dormitory.
It is not the worst dormitory.  My room is relatively large and has a separate kitchen corner.  I do not have a stove, but only a hot plate--which regularly ceases operation.
(But if I ask, they will repair it.)
It can be noisy here, and my windows face onto a nearby high rise with its thirty or so balconies.
On the other side of the flat, I see an ugly intersection where billboards are illuminated all night.  The paper thin curtains do a poor job of keeping out light.

However, I have the luxury of not needing to clean my own toilets.  A cleaning lady does that twice a week.  But I never know when she will come...And she is here now, just when I was about to take a shower.

I've got to teach soon, and I don't know if I will manage to shower.
Ahh, she's just left.

I don't like the thought that one person does all the dirty work.  And I don't like the way the cleaning ladies sit in their room on the ground floor smoking,.....The smoke filters up the stair well, and the place stinks.

Yet, they deserve better.  Their job is not respectful.  

Ah, gotta go take a shower...

So much for a slice of life from a post-Socialist paradise..........

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Wage Slavery

Today I spent a good two hours planning for the courses I'll be teaching, as well as hunting for textbooks.  Then I spent more than two hours on public transit commuting to teach for about two hours.  I shall be paid for two hours of work.

That makes four unpaid hours of work today.

Wage slavery.

Monday, September 28, 2015

Czech Public Transport/Czech Punishment

One of my colleagues jokes, "Oh, you take that bus (the one going to the train station)?  Ha Ha Ha.  It's always full.  How can you do it?"

Well, if she knows it's always full, then so do the transport authorities.

Or, maybe not.  Maybe they are busy pasting paper advertisements to the windows of the buses,
and collecting payment.  (Hard to see out sometimes.  It's actually obnoxious and disrespectful.)

In 1996 I rode buses in Bratislava, in the Slovak Republic, and they were just as crowded and creaky
(swaying from side to side, hitting bumps hard) as are the buses today in the Czech Republic, in the city of Pardubice.  I see no progress.

If every family owns a Skoda and every school age child owns brand name sneakers and a smart phone, no, I don't count that as progress.

But no one complains, and it is (evidently) a laughing matter.

However, it's worse after a holiday or three day weekend--as if people were being punished for not working.

Oh yeah, the Glorious EU gives money to the Czech Republic and--lo and Behold!--they generously allow the government to buy buses.  But they are crappy buses--the sort that bounce up and down and seem ready to break apart on the bumpy roads.  And they are often full.

The buses are, moreover, full at entirely predictable times.  (As are, characteristically, the trains.)
Why not have more buses at those hours?

I repeat.  I saw this in 1996 in Bratislava. It is not a new problem.  (Yes, I know Slovakia is not the Czech Republic. For my purposes, it doesn't matter.  The point is that there has been little real progress.)

Some people call this "austerity"--denial of basic services to the majority of the population, in order to spend the money elsewhere.

Where is the money going?  Well, despite the fact that the army's budget in the Czech Republic is not increasing as much as they would like, there's a question of what they plan to really do with the equipment they've got.  Who are they really going to fight a war with?  Or is it all to be used against potential immigrants?


Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Don't Care Health Care

It is a bit more than a year after my father's death.
He was killed by a system and a facility which didn't care about him.
He was alone, without adequate attention, in a bed he could fall out.
As a frail elderly man, with a touch of senility, he needed constant attention, which he did not receive.  Worst of all, he was separated from all friends and family.  My mother had been married to him for 65 years, and now, at the age of 89 suffering from physical weakness, he was alone in a cold institutional setting where he had no one to really talk to.  (Oh, yes, occasionally a nurse was there---but only occasionally.)
My mother would have gladly stayed with him, but the facility did not allow her to.
Moreover, she was sternly lectured by some sort of accountant and a so-called "social worker" who told her that they would keep my father in their facility until his insurance account was empty.  Oh yes, they used different words, but it came to the same thing.
My father was only allowed to return home because we have a lawyer in the family, and he threatened the facility.
My father died at home, but he never lost that feeling that he had been abandoned and was alone.  An uncaring facility killed him.
This was predictable.  If those who were supposedly caring for him did not take the time to think about it, if their hearts have become so hardened that they accept this sort of mistreatment as "normal", then that is an indictment of the system of medical (don't) care.
In fact, I wish they could hear the following story:  When I was in Slovakia I read the following story.  A man was about to be executed by the Communists.  The executioner turns out to be a friend from childhood:  "What are you doing here?", asks the man about to die.  "Well, it's hard to find a job; I couldn't find anything else."

Thursday, July 9, 2015

damned unpleasant

It's not pleasant to walk along a busy roadway, with cars screaming past.  An occasional motorcycle has ear-splitting sounds.  Some cars, too, seem to behave as if the driver thought he were in a race.  The sound, the speed, the stupidity of it all makes me want to retreat to a place far from what is so misleadingly called 'civilization'.

Then the bicyclists are impatient.  Ridiculous!  Some even have little bells.  What the hell does that mean?  Get out of my way!?  Why?  Why can't you slow down?  Twits!  Impudent jerks!

Sidewalks crowded in the most unpleasant way.  Waiting for a bus, bicycles come speeding. You must step aside or risk collision.  Worst of all, when the bus is about to arrive, and you see a speeding bicyclist coming towards you, you must calculate: can you safely maneuver to the bus door without a collision?  Because you cannot count upon the asshole  bicyclist to slow down or make room for you.

And then there are the rotund pairs, strutting amiably in the middle of the sidewalk, oblivious to the world around them.....unaware that a bicycle is approaching.

Let the two fatties crowd the sidewalk at the same time two bicycles approach, from either distance, and then try to cross the sidewalk to reach your bus!  That's the sort of joy I enjoy in this place which dares to call itself a city.


Saturday, July 4, 2015

THE INTERNET IS CRAP

From time to time, I glance at the blog of a retired philosopher, from whom, I dare to say, I've learned a few things.
But I often find myself bothered by his tendency (occasional, to be sure) to be mesmerized by the possibilities of the internet.
I think there's a simple explanation for why I find his attitude unfathomable.
I've not got as much free time as he does.  So, when something goes wrong with my computer or with the internet--or if I simply fail to read a web page carefully--it's more of a problem for me than it would be for him.  (Not that he doesn't have occasional problems.)
But, on the whole my overall judgment is that the internet is crap, and it is getting worse.
Dealing with my computer is also crap because the damn thing is of low quality, and I am in no position to buy a new, better one.
So, it's the old problem of time and money.
Recently I misread a webpage.  Well, is that even the right verb?  The page had lots of information, and I failed to notice the bit which applied to me.  In my experience, that sort of thing occurs frequently.
Internet pages overwhelm us with colors and their flashing signs, and I don't like it.  It is rather like the familiar phenomenon of learning to ignore omnipresent advertising.
But note the difference between an old-fashioned phone call as a means of acquiring information and the web:  You can ask a specific question to a person at the other end of a telephone.  That is not possible with the Internet, and that's the source of many problems.
When I go online to find out the answer to a question, I am typically about to run from one place to another. If I make a mistake and get the wrong information, it has immediate unpleasant consequences.  I am sure that if I were retired, and not rushing about, I would have a different attitude toward the damn thing.

Monday, May 18, 2015

Police State Pardubice

"I am the Law, and I will interfere with your life as I see fit..."  (Pseudo-Kafka)

At Pardubice's main (and busiest) street, a man crossed the street when the light was red.
Apparently, he got to the other side of the street uninjured, so there were no or few cars.
In the video linked below, we see what happens next.

A policeman (plainclothes but on duty) shouts "Stop", and the man does not.
At that point the policeman throws him on the ground, handcuffs him, and calls for backup.
 (Yes, obviously only a serious criminal would behave like that.  So, it is necessary to get back-up!)

 http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ct24/nejnovejsi-videa/312063-gibs-pri-zasahu-policista-v-pardubicich-nepochybil/

Are Czech policemen taking notes from their American counterparts?

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aALArJP4rw

I can't see what harm the man did.  In any case, I see bicycles and cares driving aggressively and risking harm to pedestrians every day.  But the police apparently don't consider that worthy of notice.


Saturday, May 16, 2015

You cannot cut your way to prosperity.



Politicians with their damn lies,
never tell us straight.
Their victims:
widows, orphans, and children.

Toothy grins,
false hair,
false lies,
false lives.

We live despite them,
and they need us more than we need them.

Friday, May 1, 2015

High Tech--Pardubice Style

Here is an example of how technology has not made my life better:

 I have to ride to bus to work or to the train station. I have to pay to ride the bus. What is the quality
of the buses? They are no better than the buses I rode in Bratislava in 1996. Some are exactly the same quality. Some are a little newer, so less dirty, but they all have seats that you could fall out of because the suspension in the buses is crappy. The buses shake and tilt excessively. What do I mean "excessively"? When I rode buses in North Carolina in 1997, the buses did not do that. So, these are Cheap buses.

So, technology is not being used to make the buses better.

However there is new technology in the buses. It is used to control passengers.

To get a lower priced ticket, you have to buy an electronic card that registers how much you have paid. That's a newer technology.

And you have to press that card against a large box when entering or leaving the bus. Which is, by the way, a real nuisance if the bus is crowded and you are carrying something. The other day a bus jerked from side to side and I dropped my card into the deep stairwell of the bus doors. (That's because the buses are so high off the ground---so high that you fall out of them or jump out of the rather than step out of them.)

And those electronic passenger monitoring boxes take up a lot of space.

Space that could be used for grab bars to hold on. (Because the buses do jerk a lot and shake from side to side, you really need to hold on.)

So, why is it so important that people register electronically? What would happen if we didn't pay at all? The point is that WE have to pay.

WE have to be controlled. When everybody knows damn well that there is a whole class of people who will never use public transport, and do not contribute to the well-being of society, namely the bankers who stole TRILLIONS of dollars or Euros. (I am referring to the Economic Crisis, also know as the Great Recession, or the Second Great Depression--which, by the way is really not over yet--no matter what you may happen to hear from corporate media.)

There is a whole class of people who do not pay taxes--or only pay a small amount of taxes, at a lower rate than the rest of us--and only take from us. That class includes politicians and bankers.

So technology is used to keep us down, to control us, to discipline us, to keep us in place. It is not used to make our lives better.

I could make similar complaints about the trains. And often this crap is plastered with signs telling us that the generous EU paid for it. As if they were doing us a favor.

Another example of technology in the buses is the absolutely idiotic and juvenile television on the buses. It is full of advertising and bogus public service announcements. EG idiotic games which allegedly test your intelligence, or bad attempts to teach English.

So you have crappy, low quality buses where the newest technology is used to control the population, to subdue us and fill our heads with garbage.

That's typical of the world I live in. My world has not gotten better because of technology.

Then again, there's the fact that buses and trains are crowded today, just as they were in 1996 in Bratislava.  (So, Czechoslovakia has made lots of progress.)

Yet another obnoxious feature of  the buses in Pardubice is that they tape paper notices and advertising onto the windows of the buses.  Some buses have advertising painted from the outside so that the windows let in less light.  All of these features make riding the buses just goddamn unpleasant.  But when they are collecting advertising money, now that's a real insult!
There's money being collected for advertising, but the buses are still crap.  Now, that's real progress.

So, I really don't understand why the authorities of the bus system in Pardubice think they have a reason to celebrate.  They've been spending money advertising their anniversary.  They should spend that money improving the bus system with better buses.  Or, maybe they could let the bus drivers have an extra day off--or shorter schedules.  Instead, they spend the money on propaganda.  That tells you something.  But the video below is just so cool.  Yeah, right.  That video makes my bus ride so much more enjoyable.

http://www.dpmp.cz/den-otevrenych-dveri-2015/

Talk about delusions of grandeur!

Thursday, April 30, 2015

What Pardubice does not have/know

There seemed an urgent need to create streets and spaces that made people feel they were planned for them, not cars....
The Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/jul/07/in-a-successful-modern-city-the-car-must-no-longer-be-king

Yeah, for people--not cars, not bicycles, not glorified roller skates...

At every step, I must compete with bicycles, roller skaters and cars@!\
Damn it!
A bicycle almost hit me today because the cyclist was too impatient to wait.
And behind me, another bicycle came up quickly, silently, adding to the mess.

Really, this is not a nice place.  And the pedestrian paths are always crowded with unwanted traffic.--That on top of dodging cars......

Monday, April 27, 2015

Three Things

Three things have become perfectly clear to me:

1.  The Internet is increasingly a torture device.

2.  Bourgeois morality is despicable, petty, narrow, smug, and a thousand other things it was proclaimed to be one-hundred and fifty years ago.

3.  A person can have what they call "computer literacy", but be illiterate.  I.e., they are unable to read a text with understanding gotten by analysis and supplying historical/sociological/critical context.  Without real literacy, a mind becomes a repository for other people's thoughts. For that reason, what they call computer literacy is much less important than real literacy.

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

The Desultoriness of Czech Television

After watching the discussion on Czech TV of the American election campaign,
I was reminded of William James's remark that most people believed themselves to
be thinking when they were merely reshuffling prejudices.

However, we would have to modify that.

It was is as if the conversation were built out of building blocks which consisted
of crude categories created by someone else, someone not then present in the conversation,
and there was no analysis of those categories, which were employed with an amazing lack
of grace and subtlety.

So little is understood about the USA; incomprehension in inverse proportion to the frequency with which it is discussed.

Sunday, April 5, 2015

No Democracy Now

The police come onto the train. Maybe six.  I didn't count.  They actually don't speak.  I get out my passport.  I've seen it before.  No words are spoken.
I also make the mistake of getting out my Residence Permit.  What a mistake.
If I had only showed the passport, it would have been quicker.
The guy takes out a scrap of paper--again without speaking a word.
Then he goes to the space between the cars, where there's a toilet.  He and his chums consult. He phones someone up.
After a time, he comes back.
Did he say anything?  I don't recall.
I complained vociferously to my neighbor.  He probably heard me, and didn't like it.
He didn't seem angry, so much as uncomfortable.
Good.
He should think about what he's doing.
Interfering with people for no reason.  Just in case he might find something.
Is it legal?  Then the laws are bad.
Freedom?  No, it's not.  It's interference.
 

Friday, March 27, 2015

the situation in Czechoslovakia 2015

Life here becomes increasingly frustrating.
How can I say that there's been no progress here since 1996?
That's what I think.
Telephones and pads, computers--none of that is progress.
Minds are becoming filled with garbage, and even the dreams that students have seem to be becoming increasingly circumscribed and hollow.
And I am not allowed to comment or mention these facts.
It would be considered rude.
So, please allow me to repeat what I've said before.  There is a basic problem here (and I don't say it isn't in the USA; it is.) which Kafka already described.  It pre-dates Communism.
So, if I say there's been no progress since 1989, I am not making a remark that is especially about Communism.
Unfortunately, since I hail from the cruel empire of the USA, I can't say that without being misunderstood.  So, now, please allow me to cancel the misunderstanding:  I am not claiming that the USA is in any way superior.  The USA is a mess.  Nonetheless, I see no substantial progress in this region since 1996.

The Internet is One Big Tax Form

The Anthropologist David Graeber has written some interesting things.  I'm not completely overwhelmed by everything he's written that I've read, but I do respect him.

On the other hand, recently I read something where he was asking how many hours we waste filling in forms.

He seems to miss the point that the Internet is increasingly a series of small boxes that we've got to fill out following someone else's rules.  And it is a nightmare.  As if every day had become tax day.

It is possible that there are classes among Internet users.  Maybe some individuals (University Professors) spend less of their time having the Internet rammed down their throat.

But as I hunt among too-small boxes with excessive redundant and unwanted information, trying simply to get the information an old fashioned paper map conveys with ease, I would like to curse and smash my laptop to pieces.  (I am trying to find out which bus I should take to go to a nearby company where I am supposed to teach English.) The Internet ain't fun when we use it for work which is forced upon us by the need to survive.  

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

obscenities

I know that dictatorships
tyrannies,
do not respect the right to privacy,
our personal space,
where we grow love between persons,
family,
and others.

Most obscene of all
is the fact that
among the lost letters
which my mother has never received
are poems,
very personal poems,
reflecting upon my father's love,
my father,
who died last year,
and whose loss I feel.

I wanted to console my mother,
to tell her that I remember my father,
and think of him,
every day,
that I appreciated him,
that I still love him.

I wanted to tell her that she is,
to that extent,
less alone with her grief.

Someone has stolen this from me,
and her.

Saturday, March 21, 2015

A delicate subject

Today I am writing about a delicate subject, one which I cannot quite get my head around.  I may say something false.  I trust my readers to be charitable.

It seems to me that among Czechs there are two possible polar and opposed attitudes towards Americans, and, I speculate, foreigners in general.

When I need to wash my clothes, I have to deal with a sort of oppressed class, the door-keepers of the University's dormitories.   I know their job is boring, and can't be well paid.  And I suspect that they may have a supervisor who is not always kind.  But to me they often seem cold, indifferent, or even sour.  In the past, some were overtly friendly--so long as one didn't ask too many questions.  In my first three months, I did manage to achieve a sort of friendship with one lady, in a building where I then lived.  She has been the exception.

Of course, it is a pain in the ass to put my name on a waiting list for washing machines.  And it is a nuisance to spend time walking across a busy street with nervous, impatient cars that may or may not slow down to allow you to cross ( an obscenity) to the enormous dormitory which houses students, and request the keys to the (a) washing machines, (b) laundry room.

Not only are the machines behind a locked door.  Each machine requires a key to use.  That seems like excessive paranoia to me.  Who thought up that sort of idiocy?

Is the University so short of funds that it must extract every last crown from every visiting scholar, teacher, and student?

Just as in the city buses--with their proud labels telling us to thank the EU for funding--use the latest technology to monitor passengers and make sure no one rides without paying.  In fact, the large boxes which allow a passenger to prove that he or she has paid take up an inordinate amount of space on the grab bars in the bus---which would otherwise be useful for the passenger to grab hold of and prevent falling over. When I ride those buses, by the way, I don't feel grateful to the EU. On the contrary, the buses are nothing special.  They are high off the ground, and bounce around like an amusement park ride--but there is nothing amusing about a bus ride.  And I won't even mention the fact that the buses  today are routinely over-crowded just as were the buses in Bratislava in 1996 when I rode them then.  So much for the great progress represented by EU membership.

I suggest, hypothesize, dare to suggest that among Czechs there are two contradictory attitudes toward Americans:  either naive admiration or a kind of cold discomfort  That's been my experience.  I wasn't surprised that a dishonest American had managed to go to a local film festival pretending to be a famous actor.  When I heard that story, I am sorry to say that my reaction was to say that this was not surprising.  

Those who admire America (the USA)--often on the basis of dubious and incomplete evidence--are aware of the xenophobes among them, and regard them with disdain.

I am caught in the middle.  My country is not democratic but plutocratic, imperialist, and racist.   Those words cannot be said or heard.  If I say them, my audience typically scoffs at me in a tone suggesting I am an idiot or a fool.  

There is much to say here, but I think the essential problem was described in the well-known book that (I am told) no one reads, in Hašek's adventures of Schwejk.  And that must be the ultimate irony.  Here's a book which pre-dates Communism, and which diagnoses the problem.  It is a book which political leaders bestow upon foreign visitors, while they indulge policies which illustrate the madnesses described by Hašek.  (Why should membership in NATO, to take an example any more serve the interests of the Czech Republic than participation in the army of the Austrian Emperor?)

I hear a voice saying:  You shouldn't complain; it's better than communism.  (This is a locally opular universal retort, a universal conversation (and thought) stopper.)

And another voice says:  Yankee go home!---But, then why am I here?  Well, I have something here I wouldn't have if I did return home:  health insurance.....


Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Bloody Murder USA style

As my father's birthday approaches, I think of him.....and the way he was killed...

Oh yes, they murdered him,
and I know that as surely as I know
that the ladies of the dormitories of the University of Pardubice
mingle resentment and anger and pure nastiness and spite
whenever I speak to them,
them,
with their superior nasty airs....

My father was murdered by a for-profit system,
which does not care, 
and it doesn't even give a damn;
yet some insignificant and ignorant man named John Boehner 
dares to label it the best in the world.

They murdered him when they isolated him 
from everyone who loved him,
and tore him away from the surroundings he knew,
putting a senile eighty-nine year old man in a bed without railings
where he was bound to fall,
putting him in an under-staffed house of torture
which they called a "facility".

They killed him with their imposed isolation,
loneliness,
waking alone at night,
in the dark,
in a cold and unfriendly place,
where there was no wife's hand to hold his,
no friendly voice to acknowledge him.

That was cruel torture.
and I do not forgive his murderers.
They have not earned forgiveness:
they continue their cruel business,
sucking the blood and the dollars out of the sick and the weak. 

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Crimes unpunished, crimes unrecognized?

Is it a crime at all?
Around 13 January I returned to the Czech Republic.
Give-or-take a week-and-a-half after that, I sent a letter to my mother.
Today is the 3rd of March.
I continued to write her once a week.
She has, so far, received not one letter.  And, realizing this, I stopped writing her two weeks ago.

It's been about six weeks since the first letter was mailed.  

What does this mean?

During that time my mother has mailed me one letter.  I received it, and it took about a week to arrive.

Has a nationalist American decided that the Czech Republic is home to crazy Muslims?
Has a Czech person started collecting my letters.

Letters with photos and poems.  Intimate things.

I realize now that when I sit down to write, I approach things differently.  My state of mind is very different than when I communicate with my mother via Skype.

And that more intimate form of communication and expression has now been stolen from me.
And, no, the Internet cannot in any way make up for that......

Monday, March 2, 2015

factories

people who work in factories deserve no less respect than the rest of us.

But I don't think that when I go shopping, I am doing much more than surviving and contributing to the unearned wealth of another person.  In the Czech REpublic, as often as not that person getting rich off my life is a German, or a Brit....but usually not Czech.

So if I complain when I'm shopping at Lidl that I am obviously not experienced enough in assembly line work, that's because it is unpleasant to be constantly disciplined via speed-up.

In fact, I don't think hospitals are or should be factories, and I don't think factories should be factories.
That's to say that I think a more humane way of producing the goods we all need is possible.
And that's not a criticism of those who work in factories.
They deserve better than they have.
And I don't think I belong to a special class of people who have escaped factory work because I deserve it.  I was just lucky.

This is by way of apology to a man who overheard me complaining in Lidl.

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

I suppose that there are principles of psychology which are universal.
Say, certain principles discovered by Gestalt psychologists lead us to see
unity where there are only potential pieces of a thing visible.
Or, alternatively put, on the basis of less than perfect and complete information,
we can attempt to draw a picture, or formulate a theory about something not observed.

This applies very much to what I've heard from Czechs and Slovaks over the years.
"Oh, in America it must be different...."
Or, "In the United States, it couldn't be like that....."

"Not in America....."

And I hear these protests precisely in cases where I happen to know that in the USA or the USA's part of North America, it precisely is like that.....

Now, I shouldn't take this personally, but in a way I do.
I do read the English-language press, including independent sources.  And I do even occasionally manage to read a book that's relevant.

So, I am actually in a position to know that the USA precisely is what I am being told it could not possibly be.....

There are days when this leads me to say:  most of what Czechs and Slovaks believe about the USA, my home country, is pure fantasy.

That's not quite right.  Some part of what they believe is a sort of projection of how things should be.  Sometimes, one assumes that things over there are like things here--unless one has been, somehow, informed otherwise. But I don't see that there is, what there could be, a sincere effort to arrive at an accurate picture of the place.  

Which shouldn't matter, except the place still has more nuclear weapons than anyone else.


Tuesday, February 24, 2015

clever too late...again

OH dear.  blogger will no longer allow explicit sexual content.  What have I been missing?

The other day, the policeman (private security) at the nearby German-owned grocery store
complained to me that in Greece people retire at the age of fifty!

I don't see a problem here.  We should all have that option.

In fact, there are many professions which shouldn't exist at all--advertising, e.g.

But, I do believe that there are only certain professions which are allowed (or have been allowed previously) to retire at 50 even in Greece.

After all, the problem is work.  What is it?  Who really does it?  Most work is not productive in any real sense.  Most work perpetuates things that need changing. 

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Robbed of intimacy (again)

My mother is now a widow.  In the past five weeks, I have written her four or five, maybe six, times.
She has, thus far, not received a single of those letters.
This is very upsetting.
I take for granted that governments are able to read mail, but to confiscate letters?
Do they do that, too?

I wonder how many people understand the intimacy of a genuine letter.  Not something with the speed of an email.  Something which is a private conversation, performed at a slower pace.

Every day, I ask my mother:  have you gotten one of my letters?  And every day, she answers that there was no letter from me.

Is someone stealing my letters?  For what purpose?

Has someone destroyed them?  Why?

I've also sent my mother pictures and poems.  Perhaps someone is laughing at them.

Is this merely an accidental tyranny?  
I don't know if that would be better or worse than if someone had specifically targeted me.

I sit down, and in my imagination, I am having a private conversation with my elderly mother.
I hope thereby to bring her some comfort, to make her feel less alone, to feel that life has possibilities, that things can be funny, interesting, whatever.

And that has been taken from me.  Why?

Saturday, February 21, 2015

update

Thursday some of the students, and their instructor (that's me) were fooled by the inaccurate information posted on the university's webpage.  The page had the wrong textbook.  This is very confusing.  But, I am not surprised.  A colleague came to the rescue, but that's another story.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Today I'll be teaching Nurses.  On the whole, they are a good group.  They have other more demanding subjects, and so maybe my subject is not their first priority, but they seem serious enough about their education.  (My "Economics" students, by contrast, have not got any clear ideas about their lives--and, those who do tend to be frightening.  They are, in the deepest sense, victims of capitalism.)

I'll be teaching four classes in a row.  This is an interesting development.  Last term I made a little fuss within my department when they suggested I teach three classes in a row.  To their credit, they listened to me, and they gave me a break between the first and second class.  That was not exactly what I had in mind, as the Nursing School is in a terrible location, distant from everything except a factory and an airport which serves military planes. (I have seen and heard large transport planes.  Just the sound of them is unpleasant.)  And there is no privacy at the school.  But the students and staff are generally friendly, so it was bearable.

I don't know how I'll do today with four classes.  (There are short gaps between them.)  But it represents a significant climb-down from my side.  Due to my new status as a teacher paid per-hour, aka, an Adjunct, I am in no position to refuse work.  (On the other hand, it is clear that educational values are taking a backseat here.  Everyone must recognize that teaching four classes in a row is not an ideal situation for teacher or students.)

But what I mostly wanted to say today is this:  Yesterday I mentioned to my mother that there is a brutal contrast between the young nurses (also Radiologists, Midwives, and Social Workers) and the workers at the nearby factory.  One group is tired, wears less fashionable clothes, and may possibly smoke more. (Unfortunately smoking is altogether too common among the young in the Czech Republic.  Another case where Czechs have been victims of capitalism.)  yet, they are so obviously two different classes, dwelling in two different worlds.  It is so sad to see.

In fact, I feel as though I am an oddball when I ride the bus to school.  The adults on the bus are not especially lively or excited.  Some are older adults on the way to the hospital.  Generally, the adults who take the bus do not look healthy. In addition to the factory near the school, the bus stops in a so-called business zone, where the notorious Foxconn is located. (About Foxconn, see http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/business/ieconomy-apples-ipad-and-the-human-costs-for-workers-in-china.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
 In the morning I can be animated, talking about news or complaining about politics or the poor quality of public transportation.  And I feel as though I stand out.

Even if I don't actually stand out, I feel as though everyone must know that I am going to the Nursing School, as I often enough talk to one of my students.  And I can't help but feel that this is all so unfair.

The only good thing is that education is still free in the Czech Republic--though, of course, there are those who would like to change that.

I want to put a link to David Ruccio's thoughtful remarks about how poverty and inequality affects us all.  It is very nice for me to see a Marxist who cares about the psychology of inequality.  I generally find that reading his blog is one of the best parts of my day.
https://anticap.wordpress.com/

now an adjunct in the Czech Republic.........or maybe not (19.2)

Update:  (19.2)  I'm not sure if "adjunct" is totally correct.  My contract is short term, but I do have Health Insurance through my job.  An Adjunct in the States wouldn't get that; and that's a big difference.  On the other hand, I am not working 40 hours a week, and my pay has diminished.
Otherwise, what I say below about the Internet, the University's computer system, and the bureaucracy still applies....

I was talking to a friend in Prague, complaining really about the bad organization at the university where I currently work.

Once again, they managed to change my schedule at the last minute.  It seems to be a regular phenomenon.  I only learned I am teaching tomorrow today, at 2pm.  The beauty of email, you say.

I told my friend that I have worked at several other universities (in the USA and Slovakia) and this university is the most poorly organized place I've ever worked at.  

My friend quickly agreed.  She had heard that Slovak universities were better organized.

Part of the problem, I think, is not unique to the Czech Republic.  Someone in administration can make an announcement in an unobvious place and then be surprised that no one knows about it.

Or, someone can send a not obviously relevant email, only to find no one has read it.

As I am now paid per-teaching hour, I no longer feel obligated to read any emails.  I regard reading emails from my employer as unpaid work.

The internet has now reached such a level of visual complexity that it is less and less useful.
this applies especially to everything to do with my employer's homepage.

Obviously, (or not), the opinions expressed here are exclusively those of the author, and need not represent the opinion of his employer or other employees of that institution.

Internet Hell

I just want to note in passing that it is my experience that lazy and unimaginative types overworked individuals who are employed at universities are increasingly prone to throw up any information anywhere on the internet (or the University's web site) and then leave it to the audience to somehow find it, and find it in a timely manner.

Of course, since that is impossible, the result is that emails have to be sent to communicate what was obscurely indicated.

This is very much a "Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy" sort of scenario:  where the plans for a by-pass leading to the destruction of Arthur Dent's home had been "made public" in a file cabinet in the basement of an office somewhere.

The Internet is Hell.

Footnote/supplement:
One should combine this observation with the wise recommendation that I lie on a job application form---because the electronic form had been badly designed, and to prevent my being classed as unqualified it was necessary to do so. So much of my experience with my university's computer system has just that character.  One must constantly work to get around to the format provided by some unknown person who actually doesn't have a clue about what people at the other end are actually doing. 

Monday, February 16, 2015

University of Pardubice Housing

This morning the friendly repairman took away a non-functioning hotplate.
He was going to replace it with a newer one, when (thanks to the cleaning lady) he found out that
the newer one had a short, and all the lights had gone out.
He took away both hotplates and never returned.
Tonight I can't cook a proper meal.
Tomorrow morning I won't be able to have coffee before leaving my apartment.
I am not surprised, but I am not happy either.

After-thought:  Isn't this just another version of Capitalist austerity?  After all, the reigning ideology is capitalism.  The university's mission is unclear, and profit motives dominate.  (Grotesque advertising--billboards--to earn money.)  After all Czechoslovakia never had a chance in competition
with other countries, and still doesn't.  Czechs (in general) are not getting richer.  Capitalism promises wealth for all, but does not deliver.  Why should so mundane a thing as a hotplate be any different than anything else?

My students tell me how great the Hapsburg empire was because they put "their" industry in Czechoslovakia.  Well, what does that mean?  Czechs and Slovaks got jobs, and the profits went to Austria.  Is that great?  I think not.

POST-SCRIPT/UPDATE
After I wrote a complaining email, the next day when I was out, the hotplate reappeared.
It had been scrubbed clean too.  And I thought:  here was a man who took pride in his work.
I felt bad about complaining, and wrote another email thanking the man.
He probably intended to come back the day before, but was too busy.  At any rate,
I was embarrassed by the cleanliness of the returned hotplate.  I'd never gotten it to such
a shiny state.  On the other hand, when I moved into this small flat, it was obvious that the previous residents had done nothing by way of cleaning before I moved in.  and the local management was not about to clean in here since they'd made an issue of the idea that I alone was responsible for the inner sanctum---but not the bathroom.  And I did scrub that hotplate, and it was cleaner when the repairman took it than it had been when I first moved in.
 I enjoy the privilege of having someone else clean my bathroom.  But I do not think anyone should have that job.  I can clean my own toilet.  However, I wouldn't want the lady to be unemployed either.  Or the repairman who fixed my hotplate.  Or me.  

Thursday, February 12, 2015

know-nothings winning in the publicity game

According to today's Guardian, the Pope says it's selfish not to have children.

This is a man who's never had a real job. 

I don't regard being a Pope or being Priest as jobs.  They have unbelievable job
security and comfort, privilege.  It's hard to get these people fired even if they
are child abusers.

 He doesn't seem to know that there are things as unemployment and economic crises.   Not just the current crisis. Capitalism is unstable, and the post-war boomed ended in the 1970's.

In the article, he faults a culture of "well-being"--Oh dear!  Would that it were so!  Someone should explain to him that there's a difference between propaganda about the economy and reality....

I put his remark in the same league as the Dalai Lama's puzzlement at why people are so stressed out.

Another no-brainer from someone who's never had a job.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

The latest in the series..............







A Poem for The Parasites To Whom I am not Grateful

From the series: Poems for My Mother


They drain the life out of us,
and they want us to be grateful.

Look! We made computers just for you!
And the Ipad and the Iphone!
Wow!
I'm sure they're even working on  a Me-Toilet!
I can hardly wait.

We want something to eat,
a decent place to live,
friendship, family,
a little amusement,
but work too,
--something that lets us say,
at the end of the day,
that the day was not wasted.

Their conveniences just get in the way,
and ride on our backs for free,
--Or,
no, that's not right,
We pay for Them,
and They get all the loot,
and all their conveniences are only a higher form of inconvenience.

Holy Moley!
How dare I complain!
Aren't I ungrateful!
--If you play the game right,
you may even get,
a free trip to Jersey City.

10 February 2015

Something is rotten in.....

Something is rotten in the Czech Republic, or...
Or, maybe the USA.

I've been back from the States for more than a month, and I've sent home letters at regular intervals.  Thus far, not one has arrived.

Now, I know that around the holiday time letters slowed down, and it might have taken a month for a letter to get from CR to USA, but it is no longer holiday time.

Has someone stolen my letters?  Maybe they are reading the poetry I have written for my mother.
Are they foolish enough to be looking for money?  Or are the thought police collecting my private mail for use in a future trial?

Maybe I should start posting my poems here, beginning a new series of "Poems for My Mother"....
maybe...

Incidentally, I would like to, once again, complain that the Internet and Computers in general are offering less and less freedom.  Everything has had its acceptable format determined in advance.

We have to squeeze our words into small boxes, amidst a cacophony of ugliness.  And this is progress?  Freedom?  Just as much as every conversation seems to have been written in advance..... Every conversation scripted in advance (you call it "polite") and we speak through a thick bullet-and-sound-proof glass--if we're lucky---OR, you speak to someone through electronic means, and they are situated at the opposite end of the globe, where they must follow the script or else..........

Monday, February 9, 2015

When?

When will democracy come to the USA?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/08/greece-prime-minister-alexis-tsipras-unveil-anti-austerity-plan-parliament

That is my way of saying that I admire the courage of the new Greek government.
For an astute analysis of what's really going on, I recommend

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/02/michael-pettis-syriza-french-indemnity-1871-73.html

I'm not being original here; but I agree with those that there is no conflict between "the Greeks" and "the Germans".  Working people everywhere are getting screwed because the super-rich want us to pay their gambling debts.

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Saturday, February 7, 2015

miscellaneous notes

WAtched the first two episodes of the BBC's "The Rich and the Rest of Us"--courtesy of Occasional Links and Commentary.

Well, I supposed I didn't want to do anything serious anyway.

It was interesting in bits, mostly when non-experts were talking.  And an anthropologist was identified as an economist--an anthropologist who, I gather, knows less about Marx than economists who read the bearded one....

What can I say that is positive?  They talked about inequality. (That's a positive, I guess.) But they did not talk about justice.  (That is not a positive comment.)

The sound-bites from famous people were not especially informative.

It was depressing to think about the precarious nature of my own existence, though I hasten to add I've not yet reached the heights (depths) of precariousness.

On a different note....

I recall having an odd exchange at Robert Paul Wolff''s blog a while back....
about what possibly is in the minds of the super-rich.....

In the BBC show, a few of the rich were interviewed.  They have nothing interesting to say by  way of justifying their wealth.  ("You don't realize how hard I work", e.g., won't do it.)  It was, in fact,
irritating to hear the trite justifications they trotted out.  I am always amazed that reporters do not know how to attack a comment, to break it into parts and go at the thing bit by bit.  This seems to be a feature of casual conversation that is widespread.  Someone says ":A, B, C,D and that shows F. " And the audience/interviewer offers ignores A or C or D, or even B too, and then explains why F is not true.  Why?  Is it supposed to be boring to go slow and actually go through the details of what the person just said?  Is the interviewer unable to see that the conversation has parts?

But I wanted (a while back) to say that there's a real question of what the super-rich are thinking.
Do they know or care about the consequences of their wealth?  Something by way of an answer here is provided (or at least attempted) by Paul Paff and Dacher Keltner.  I've not read everything they've written on the subject,  However I recall that one tool they use is the fact that we all tend to over-estimate our own ability to control the world. And the wealthiest do this as well, thereby reaching the conclusion that they really deserve all of their wealth. (It was all produced by their work and luck was no part of it.) But, when they say that, they are simply indulging themselves.  

So, I conclude that the question I wanted to ask was a real one, capable of serious consideration.  At any rate, Paff and Keltner seem to think so.

Link to Paul K. Piff's homepage:  http://paulpiff.wix.com/paulpiff

Footnote:  I have the feeling that I wanted to say this before.  Maybe Í've already blogged it, or maybe I only intended to.  At any rate, in the context of the BBC show, it may have new meaning.

 


Friday, February 6, 2015

Superstition among a nation of proud atheists

I find myself frequently perturbed by the nuisance of meeting students to write in their little books--their "indexes".  They are a passport sized book recording their coursework.  And, I confess that recently I failed to show up at a pre-arranged meeting.  (Originally I was to give a test at that time, but as no one signed up for the test, I erroneously concluded that there was no reason for me to show up.  I forgot about the student I'd agreed to meet, operating on the assumption that other students would show up to take a test.)

It's a nuisance to arrange a time to meet (see note), and it is a waste of time to write in one.  The grade has already been recorded in the University computer system, and it is, in fact, also a nuisance to be sure that the date of examination recorded in the little book matches what's been entered into the university computer.  (Note:  Yes, office hours/ or a scheduled hour should avoid the need to arrange a time.)

Pointless.  The persistence of a nineteenth century bit of technology when a perfectly acceptable 21st century replacement exists.

I have, in less charitable moments, imagined there might be a sad room filled with people who have no other job in life than to monitor these little books.  And I have even gone so far as to contemplate the mean thought that they have been so affected by this redundant expenditure of energy that they are no longer able to do anything useful.  But, I think that is unrealistically cynical.

However, it is a mystery why Czechs persist in this particular waste of time, energy, ink, and paper.

Especially as I've know Czechs who imagined that their mere atheism somehow guaranteed them access to higher standards of human reasoning than religiously minded individuals. As if mere denial of the existence of god or gods sufficed to guarantee clarity of thought. 

If nothing else, the continuing existence of these annoying little books proves that atheism alone does not guarantee clarity of thought, or the choice of reasonable institutional policies.  (I do not find it convincing to suggest, as someone once did, that in the event of a nuclear war or other disaster, these little books would survive.  Any disaster that wiped out the university's computers would equally deprive us of these lovely little books.)

Nor, for that matter, need atheism automatically free anyone from a variety of erroneous thoughts and prejudices.  Contemporary psychology catalogues various forms of irrationality from an exaggerated tendency to believe one is in control (the illusion of control) to various errors involving statistics such as failing to consider the sample size.  Mere atheism does not guarantee anything except, I suppose, freedom from some of the errors made by some theists.  The persistence of this particular institutional peculiarity --the "index"--strikes me as little more than an absurd piece of irrationality or superstition, as silly as the silliest of religious rituals, and wholly unworthy of existence, and something which should make any self-proclaimed fan of rationality blush with embarrassment.

The unhappiness of others

For those who are more-or-less satisfied with their lot, the unhappiness of others seems to be an offense.

I haven't got in mind the excesses of the wealthy.

I am thinking about relatively ordinary people who notice that the system isn't working for everyone, and rush to find a quick explanation to move the problem out of sight.

In the USA, I often noted a related trend--the conviction that others were getting hand-outs that they didn't deserve.  In those cases, I always wanted to ask about the hand-outs that were invisible, such as taxbreaks and other benefits for the wealthiest.  

In the case of the discomfort at the unhappiness of others, I am thinking of a young woman who recently told me that Czechs have enough money, but spend it foolishly--on alcohol or cigarettes or fashion.

Plainly, alcohol can be an addiction, but I'm more inclined to suggest an analysis along the lines of what I once read in a book about poverty by an American sociologist.  The question is why people turn to drugs, of whatever sort.  And, the answer is that there's something their society doesn't provide them.  As for fashion, I'd want to remind the complainer that huge sums of money are spent promoting fashion. 

But, most of all I'd like to challenge the individualist perspective on social problems which unrealistically insists that people have more power than they really do.  There are powerful forces (including the mainstream of economics) which encourages people to ignore the very fact of social classes.

I have to say, however, that the breathtaking swiftness with which the relatively well-off attack the character of the relatively less well-off bothers me.  It's too fast and too easy, and it always leaves me a little sad and disappointed whenever I see this  thought disease.

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

toward a broader perspective

Having difficulties with my accommodation and those who provide it,
it is helpful to recall that:
I started the academic year signing a rent contract contract which specified that rent was due on the same day as (according to my employment contract) my pay was issued.  But, then, in the course of the year, the authorities decided to change the date when pay was issued. (Which I suppose means they violated the contract.) It was moved to be a couple days later than originally specified.  So, rent and pay were no longer in harmony.

Yet, the lady who receives my pay did one day remark, as if it were a strange and bizarre curiosity, that I typically don't pay her on the day that the rent is due.  That is, I don't pay on the due day since the time when I am paid later.

All the more bizarre is the fact that I actually rent an accommodation from my employer.......

Of course the change in pay date was unnegotiated and not discussed.  So, that tells you something....

fighting for survival

I had gotten myself settled down to read some philosophy.
But I've just learned that the Authorities at University Housing
will not allow me to register my accommodation as the mailing
address for a Business License.
To teach English (and thereby to make extra money to supplement my
now diminished University pay) I have to have a Business License.
The denial was off putting as it came with no explanation,
and the suggestion that some higher power prevented the
person from granting my request.
I have tried to explain that my ability to eat depends upon this.
I am afraid I am upset.
There was no explanation or reason offered, only the rather hollow
suggestion that they couldn't do anything about this......as if they deserved
my sympathy....

Germany's debt

Germany's debt after World War Two was forgiven......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SJhDl1z7RY

To be accurate, one has to recall that American firms have been accused of benefiting from slave labor.  One American company helped the Nazis set up a primitive computer system to keep track of prisoners.  Prior to the war, Churchill was enthusiastic about Hitler and Mussolini....

Here a link to Tariq Ali discussing the subject:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SJhDl1z7RY

In the Czech Republic recently, the President has created a certain amount of controversy by pointing out that a celebrated journalist had written a story about Hitler, calling him a "gentleman".  If this is true, it would seem that the famous Czech journalist was following Churchill's lead....

Sunday, February 1, 2015

rude and stupid

As a sort of follow-up to yesterday's post....

Below a link:  A  journalist at the BBC interviews Yanis Varoufakis, the new Greek Minister of Finance.

She interrupts him, and insists on reducing everything to stupid dichotomies. I also detested the very pictorial and imagistic lead-in.  It reminds me of the crap that The Guardian has chosen as a format.  --As if we need to constantly be bombarded with pictures without which headlines would not make sense.

This is also something of a counterbalance to Varoufakis' absence on a recent Czech TV spot during which the European representative's remarks at a news conference were fully featured--and Varoufakis' words were not heard. (Here I indulge the fantasy that someone is reading this blog.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-cl=85114404&x-yt-ts=1422579428&v=BiIO4YciewU#t=860

Saturday, January 31, 2015

just another day

In Prague, as I entered a passage lined by shops and stinky fast food, I heard a woman's voice pleading, "help me!".  At the other end, I saw a person in a coat, on the floor, surrounded by three or more large policemen.

I shook my head and saw a sad faced response from the vratnice.

Upstairs, I asked a young friend what had happened.  She said, in a disapproving voice, it was a homeless person who had become "hysterical".

There is another shop beside the one which rents the two-wheeled menaces that terrorize the pedestrians, and I imagined it was its employees or proprietors who had complained.  Later, I saw them leaving, large in their generous coats--or perhaps obese people made even larger in their warm coats.

I am sure the homeless woman enjoys no such luxuries, and I felt it was obscene that she had been thrown out, especially if by that crowd of people living with smug comforts.

As I left, I spoke to the vratnice, saying that she had probably only wanted to stay inside outside of the cold.  He agreed, saying that inside, in this little mall or shop-lined passage, it would be more pleasant than out in the cold.

My young friend felt no such sympathy.

I think of that homeless woman together with the garish sign that flashes news around the corner at the British super-store.....Yesterday it told us that the Greeks had "refused help" from the EU.
Help?  No. The Greek government has refused to continue with a lie.  And, it is a case of democracy versus the bankers.

What pure propaganda to describe it as a refusal to take "help"!

Just like the Czech economist writing in today's paper that the American economy had recovered.  He was responsible enough to cite the relevant statistics, but he did not consider statistics or arguments pointing in the other direction.

These are the things I think of when I think of Prague.  I don't think about its "beauty".

The Guardian Dumbed Down

The Guardian of London has a new tabloid-like format--more and larger pictures.
This is not helpful or attractive.  There are so many pictures, and some of them are so large
that I find myself thinking that they think I am stupid--as if I couldn't figure out what the story
is about from the headline alone.

Sunday, January 11, 2015

USP = unfreedom and clutter

There are those, it would seem, who endorse an amazing belief, a superstitious belief,
in their ability to create a difference where none exists in reality.

I have heard tell that they go to school to acquire this amazing magical ability.

A historically minded voice mumbles something about Protagoras and making the weak argument seem to be stronger....But let's not listen.

For several weeks, now, I have been present in this land of USP's where citizens seem to proudly exhibit their ability to discern differences where I see none.  It must be this brand, this label, yet to me they are all the same.  

In a feverish attempt to create a USP people will mix things up in the most unholy ways in order to produce a curious blend of things for no other reason than because they imagine it to be new or unique.

Strenuous exertion worthy of an alchemist.

And which country is this?  Despite globalization, the madness seems to be stronger here than other places I have visited.