a businessman between a scholar and the public

 It is crucial that scholars make their work available to the largest possible audience.

Today there is a sort of battle over the flow of information, and I am happy every time

I visit the website of a scholar who has made all of his or her research available.

But, I want to draw an analogy with a particular bit of self-serving rhetoric used

by the established exploiters of human infirmity, otherwise known as the for-profit

health care industry.

Why is it wrong to steal candy from a baby?  That's why it's wrong for people to profit

from health care.

It's always wrong to make a profit from human weakness.

In the case of information, it is disturbing to me that many articles I've read over

the past year are controlled by organizations which have contributed nothing,

but simply scanned articles to make them available on the web.

(And in some cases they haven't even done that right. They've scanned, e.g., 

the wrong article.....or left a page out....)

But the motto of the databases might be:  Let's put a bureaucrat between you

and the scholar who has information that you need.

thus does capitalism allow middle-men to profit from the work of those who

genuinely contribute

objection:  am I relying upon a facile and false distinction between true producers

and middle-men?  No, if you publish my book, you have contributed something.

But the bottom line is this, to what extent do your publishing activities impede

rather than foster the flow of information?  To what extent do less people 

have access to information because the middlemen have to get what they see

as their rightful share?  Who says whether the share they get is fair?

I am inclined to think that they get more than their fair share, that they impede

more than they facilitate.

The Wien Ghetto

The noise here is really intolerable.

This morning a neighbor has been playing loud music.

Sometimes it is impossible to tell where the sounds are coming from.

They echo from the facing buildings and are, it seems, amplified.

This is really a kind of hell.

Intolerable.

And it is not civilization.

Life in a working class ghetto.....

in a city where the German-speaking natives can think of no better way to 

improve the world than adding more police...

And what would Loic Wacquant say about that.....

The Stupidity of Acceptance

The modern world is in so many ways ugly

houses without proper ventilation

constant noise from machines

crowded spaces

life is not pleasant

But this ugliness seems to be invisible to most people

i don't accept that to enjoy the company of friends I must spend two

hours traveling to and from a house in the suburbs

two hours witnessing ugly urban sprawl

two hours with my knees crammed up to my chest because someone designed

a car that won't really allow four people inside, but has created the illusion that

there might be four people there by providing seats

this is all bullshit

I have wasted countless hours of my life riding in the backseat of

someone's car, being uncomfortable, witnessing the urban

wasteland.

But this ugliness is invisible, and unspoken.

It is not just the price we have to pay.  This ugliness is the result of decisions by other individuals—that we will build cars that can’t really seat four, but we will put tiny seats in the back….that we will allow buildings and roads to spring up with no thoughts about how they will result in congestion.

No the world is not beautiful.  But it doesn’t have to be so ugly.

And yes, I live in the richer half of the world--richer, but still uglier than it need be!

Wien's Lack of Culture

I have decided that all of the things I hate about Wien..

noise 

stupid noise

cars

people shouting in the streets

the noise of bottles breaking --something I hear for hours where I currently live

(I don't know why. )

The crowding.

the way our living spaces do not provide proper ventilation

the fact that you open your window and see another window and someone else looking at you

all of this ugliness

(and I've hardly listed all of it)

is 

not

inevitable

how are our cities designed?

according to what principles?

one principle is:  maximize profit for the ruling class

a better world is possible

Austria Worse than Slovakia

Im sick of people saying "Oh Wien must be better than Bratislava"

people who have never lived here.

goddamned people on the other side of the street are playing "their" music loud again

tonight

egotistic bastards

I have to listen it

There's no way to know which of 24 windows it is coming from

And, by the way, in the famous Petrzalka suburb in Bratislava, the one built

by the communists and consisting of tall concrete tower blocks, the buildings

are NOT as close together as mine and my noisy neighbor's.....

Wien not a place I like....

why don't you leave?  well, my friend, that takes money, and a job!

nicht angenehm

how many ways can a city be annoying and unpleasant?

Tonight it would seem that my neighbor downstairs is having a party.

my neighbor on the ground floor has been playing music for about three hours.

it is now 11;28...

NICHT ANGENEHM

why the hell should I have to listen to this shit?

Wien.... a cultural capital!  indeed

Are your sprach trainers cranky?

Are your teachers cranky?  Moody?  Were they that way when you hired them?

Probably, they weren’t born that way.  You should consider the possibility that their working conditions contribute to their mood.

 

You can start by performing the following self-diagnostic test:

1. Do your sprach trainers have paid vacations?
2. If a trainer is sick, is he or she paid?
3. Do trainers have to pay for their own medical insurance?
4. Do trainers receive two salaries in December and June?

 

If you answered “no” to any or all of the above question then your trainers have a good reason to complain—You are asking them to work in conditions below the Austrian norm.

 

Other factors which can influence a trainer’s mood:

 

1.  Do you ask your trainers to work 8 in the morning,

and then again 8 at night on the same day? --And, in that case, would you expect a trainer to teach until 10pm, and then teach again at 8am the next morning/

 

2. Do you ever tell trainers what they should teach?

 

3.  Do you expect your trainers to travel one hour each way to lessons?

Are they paid for travel time?

 

Notice that if trainers are paid hourly, every unpaid hour of travel represents

lost money.  It also puts a cap on how much a trainer can earn in a given week.

And time spent in travel can also be very tiring.

 

4.  Are your trainers paid for preparation time?

 

5.  How democratic is your workplace?  Are trainers allowed to contribute to the decision making process?  Or, do you expect them to keep quiet and follow rules?

 

6.  Do you expect trainers to agree to teach at any time and any place and any sort of person?  Or do you accept “no” for an answer when a trainer is offered work.

 

7.  Are trainers always paid in a timely fashion?  Or do they have to wait to be paid for their work?  (One school I know of pays their trainers for the previous month on the third week of the next month.)

 

These are some of the factors that contribute to a trainer’s mood. They are factors which the management and owners of a given school or “institute” can change…

Note: this was in response to an ad which appeared in Vienna Online

http://www.virtualvienna.net/career/ads/june_16_1_2009.html

The ad ended with the words:

"If you are grumpy, bored and tired of training English, then please walk across the street and get on the next bus heading nowhere. "

so much for the idea that workers have more rights in Europe!!!