A plan...?!

Something that fellow LJer papoose said in a comment to a previous post of mine reinforced something I've been thinking about for the past few days, and prompted me to try to crystallize my thoughts.

It will take me some time for me to fully develop my thesis, but basically, I think that if "we" wanted to convincingly show the world - in a meaningful way - that we harbor no animosity toward the Muslim world, then "we" would mount a massive campaign for our citizens (and particularly students) to study and learn Islamic languages and culture.

Without going into details, here are two reasons why this is an idea worth considering:

1. People fear the unknown, and fear - combined with ignorance - leads easily to suspicion and hate. Deal with the ignorance, deal with the unknown and you take away the basis for fear(or at least you've taken a large first step).

2. Making a commitment to learn about the other guy's language and culture says a heck of a lot more about your intentions and character, frankly, than does donating an insignificant sum of money to support a relief effort. Charity does have a downside: it eventually breeds resentment.

Some folks might object to such an effort, arguing that it would be viewed as a move against the Muslim world. After all, they might point out, a similar effort was born just over 40 years ago after Sputnik was launched. Everyone, it seems, wanted to learn Russian in the early 60s (my mom was part of that era) so that we could better deal with "the enemy."

While it is true that many of the people of that generation who studied Russian devoted their lives to opposing the Soviet government, I have never met one such person who emerged from the experience with a hatred of the Russian people or Russian culture. Yes, it is true that those who make the effort to understand Islamic language and culture might gravitate toward efforts to oppose violent, extremist factions that purport to represent Islam. Such opposition would, it seems to me, be a good thing for all involved, no?

In short, if you study and learn about something that is not, in itself, evil, then you cannot end up hating it.

Returning to the plus side of such a plan, a widespread understanding of Islam can only enrich our world view (this has traditionally been the reason for acquiring any foreign language). Also, if an environment is conducive to individual interactions between peoples, the influence and authority of governments to dictate what people think is reduced (this is exactly what happened in the former Soviet Union, which was not felled by nuclear weapons, but ultimately, by floppy disks, e-mail, and fax machines).

Who would teach? Heck, there are something like 7 million Muslims in the United States. Drawing upon this population for teachers would act as a kind of "check" to assure both ourselves and the world that the effort wasn't some thinly disguised "Hate Islam" campaign designed to brainwash a generation of students.

Also about 40 years ago, John Kennedy made a speech at Rice University here in Houston. Anyone who watches the NASA channel has heard it countless numbers of times. In his remarks, Kennedy said, "We choose to go to the moon. . . Not because it is easy, but because it is hard. . . . Because there is new knowledge to be gained."

What I propose is also hard. It might not appeal to generations brought up on MTV and situation comedies. Frankly, I think it would require a complete reassessment and, likely, reorganization of our educational system, which would have to be done instantly (at least, when measured in educrat time units). But beyond gaining new knowledge, I think the effort might also win the peace.

I'm still working on this concept... I think there's a huge win-win here, for people who share common good faith.

What holes do you see?

Cheers...

P.S. If you break out your touchy-feely-feelgood meter, you'll find that it should read zero when passed over the above text.

Stossel rides again!

ABC's John Stossel hit the nail on the head with last night's segment on 20/20. Excerpts:

Congress and the Bush administration agreed on a plan to help the airline industry: $15 billion in grants and loans. Their success inspired others to ask for your money, too.

* * *

Barry Sternlicht, CEO of a chain of Starwood Hotels, for example, was soon meeting with government officials to discuss federal aid for his business.

Then insurance companies wanted taxpayer help and government guarantees against future terrorist claims. (Excuse me: Aren't insurance companies in the emergency business?)

Now Amtrak is claiming the terrorist attack means it should get more of your money because many who used to fly are taking the train. For years Amtrak complained it didn't have enough passengers. Now that there are more riders, the company says it needs even bigger subsidies.

The list of industries with their hands out keeps getting longer. The skydiving business says it deserves relief. So do the businesses that have concessions at airports and those that cater airline food.

Even farmers, who have been getting your money for years, now say they should get more because of "national security."

* * *

Wait a second — let's get real! The reason America is strong and has airplanes and computers and high-tech weapons is not because of government handouts. It's because of the entrepreneurial spirit. Fortunately, that spirit is still alive — even near Ground Zero in New York.

For example, look what Darrell McCray, a clothing store owner, has done. Customers couldn't get into store after the attack. The whole area around his store was shut down. Now that it's open, customers have been slow to return.

"It's not easy right now with no customers coming in," says McCray, who has had to let two of his seven employees go. But McCray didn't hire the lobbyists who got the airlines $5 billion. He took out a second mortgage on his house to get the money to keep his business going.

* * *

Other businesses are adapting, too, rather than expecting handouts.

"You've really got to hustle. You really get out there and you really got to push it more than an average person," says Anthony Tilelli, a New York City taxi driver who is working an extra three hours a day to get by. "It'll take time, but New York will always come back, one way or another."

It will, thanks to the hard work of people — not because of gifts from Congress.

Cheers...

Wham!

Well, after starting and stopping Webcam32 a couple of times (I had to cut the connection so Mark could go online using his machine), I connected once more and then began interpreting before I could restart the application's FTP upload function.

The machine spontaneously rebooted.

Based on what I'd seen on the MemTurbo screen, there was plenty of memory and swap space when the reboot occurred.

The reboot led to Safe Mode. Restarting from Safe Mode led to... Safe Mode. And yet again.

After ending up in Safe Mode for the fourth time, I shut the machine down.

I would thus venture to say that if Webcam32 is the culprit (highly likely, as it was the only application running, besides MemTurbo and dial-up networking), it's likely not a memory leak that's causing the reboot.

Doing a cold start on the laptop brought up my desktop (whew!). No more experimenting tonight.

Cheers...

Tempest in a tabloid...

Well, not really a tabloid... it's Linux magazine. I got the October issue and apparently, the magazine's choice to accept advertising from - of all outfits - Microsoft has rubbed a number of people the wrong way.

The magazine published a number of letters on the subject, ranging from snotty ("...please spare your few remaining subscribers a pathetic editorial reply in your next issue. Everyone can see that you have obviously sold out. Former Customer.") to good natured ("Isn't that Microsoft ad in your magazine a little like putting a tampon ad in Esquire?") to supportive.

One letter contained a

( Error: Irreparable invalid markup in entry. Raw contents behind the cut. )

Slogging along...

As I write this (9:20 am), there are just under two hours left in this 12-hour shift. Then what?

Figuring it takes 45 minutes to go from door to desk (or back), and seeing as I have to be back here at 6:15 pm (times keep getting refined), that gives me 7 hours minus 90 minutes before the next shift starts. That's good enough for a 5-hour snooze and 15 minutes on each end for pre- and post-sleep.

No time to spare for anything, this day.

And while I'm on the subject... my schedule has changed (worthy of either plus ça change... or surprise!, depending on your mood). Once back at 6:15, I stay until 4:45 am tomorrow. Then, I have nearly a full day off, as I am to come in at 2:00 am on Saturday morning, going home at 9:30 am.

Sunday? Well, Sunday is still a mystery.

* * *My VAIO just almost went south again, except this time, the apps running were Word, Mozilla, and AIM. I am suspicious of the latter, as it started to flake out on me (telling me I was out of memory when MemTurbo indicated plenty left, not going to "split screen" mode when responding to an incoming message, ceasing to respond to keyboard and mouse). I recall I had been running AIM earlier with Webcam32 (but had exited it prior to the machine rebooting), so it didn't occur to me to include AIM in among the list of suspects. Perhaps I should?

* * *Mark's and my supervisor came by early yesterday to tell us that some folks had complained about the interpretation during the EVA debrief. One comment, we were told, was along the lines of "there didn't seem to be enough English to go along with the Russian." Ye gods. And the person who said that is supposedly educated (and eminently qualified to critique interpretation, probably having taken upwards of maybe two years of Russian).

This particular group of complainers has a history of making such complaints. Some feel they complain simply to justify their existence; others feel they have unrealistic expectations. My recollection is that all the parties to this arrangement were aware of what the expectations should be going in (heck, I established those expectations back when I worked for the company, and spent considerable time drilling them into all of the parties concerned). Some people, apparently, either never got the message, or chose to ignore it.

Anyway, both Mark and I are trying to not let this bother us. We have not been entirely successful. Grumble.

* * *An hour and thirteen minutes to go...

Cheers...

A plan (part 2)...

When I woke up after 5 hours of sleep, it was with several jumbled thoughts about my harebrained plan, set forth earlier today. Let's see if I can unjumble some of them.

Speaking cynically, I believe the idea of a systematic campaign to teach Islamic languages and culture would find tremendous resistance. For example:

Entrenched educrats would likely shrink in horror at the idea of emphasizing a course of study (i.e., of language) that requires rigor and discipline. It would go against contemporary notions of shoring up student self-esteem that pursues the relaxation (and at times the redefinition, downward) of standards in education. Further, the time frame that would be required for the implementation to make any sense would not leave time for years of research, assessment, and deliberation.

In other quarters, folks who bridle at what they perceive as the suppression of free religious expression anytime a decision is made to curtail the mention of God in a school setting would likely have a conniption fit at the idea of schools teaching Middle Eastern culture, which is very heavily influenced by the Islamic religion. Objections of similar intensity may, in theory, be expected from those who oppose the mention of God in school settings, too.

There are also many who believe that the study of something either implies its advocacy (I remember some idiot challenging my reading of The Communist Manifesto on this basis), places the student at risk of being influenced by the subject ("Why are you reading that? It's poison!"), or something along those lines. In their view, it is better to believe what one is told than to find out for oneself. (This, unfortunately, is becoming an ever more prevalent trend in our schools, which - as I have said before, I believe - are now in the business of teaching students to have opinions rather than to think on their own.)

Next (and certainly not last) such a program would not provide any kind of "instant fix" that we, as a nation, have come to expect for everything. (There is, after all, no problem in the world that takes more than two, maybe three hours to solve. You don't believe me? Check out the length of the typical movie or television show.)

Assuming that these and other objections can be overcome, it may come to pass that, having implemented such a program, we find there are certain aspects of Islam with which we profoundly disagree. So what? Knowledge is, I think, still preferable to ignorance.

I still cannot shake the feeling that September 11, 2001 was as significant to us as finding ourselves looking up at Sputnik back on October 4, 1957 and realizing the world had changed. In fact, I am certain that recent events will, in the end, turn out to be vastly more significant.

We cannot sit idly by.

Cheers...

P.S. As an aside, thinking of the concept of "international understanding," I am reminded of something someone told to me with tongue in cheek a long time ago, when I roomed at the so-called "International College" at Stony Brook. The remark went something along the lines of: "This college allows students from different countries to live together, exchange ideas, and share common experiences, so that their misconceptions about other cultures may be transformed into a clear understanding of precisely why they hate each other's guts." The remark was intended to be funny, but while I lived there, I noticed that it occasionally was right on the mark as far as certain individuals were concerned.