Yeah, last night was rather interesting... I went to Jorge Cham's talk at the Graduate School.. so he was here about 2 yrs ago, and as he pointed out.. although the talk was very similar to the previous one.. if we were here last time, we should have graduated by now. That hurt. A lot.
Anyways, I got an autographed book, the 3rd one 'Get Scooped'.. and got a couple of points personally cleared up by Jorge. Turns out that Tajel is of Indian origin, she went to Berkeley for her undergrad, and her name is pronounced 'Tejal' from the word 'Tej' meaning 'strength' in Hindi/Sanskrit/Bengali. Hmm... that had me thrown, for a fairly long time, I had Tejal down as either Egyptian, or Turkish or Iranian. I wonder why..? Anyway, I told Jorge that we need less of Cecilia and more of Tajel. Nothing against Cecilia, but I just happen to like Tajel.
Ok, next.. saw Fast Food Nation... this is based on a well received book written some time ago. An excellent film from the director of A Scanner Darkly and School of Rock.. the fast food industry depends on huge meat-packing firms which in turn are labour intensive industries and employ illegal immigrants in sometimes dangerous conditions. All of the different themes in the film: the quality of food, in a strange way mirroring the quality of life (I usually hate that term, it seems that it hides more than it says) and immigration.. all of them get to the same point.. that the price that we have paid for living in an industrialized era is that our comfort comes at the price of someone else's hard work.. really things have perhaps not changed much from the early days of the Industrial Revolution ...
But is there a simple solution to these and other problems.. I believe there isn't. We have all been led to believe, by our media, our government that endless prosperity is just around the corner, nay it is already here, the moment we jump on the bandwagon. It isn't. There are no free lunches. The things which hold true in physics also hold true in human societies.. endless consumption means that someone is starving.
Anyways, I got an autographed book, the 3rd one 'Get Scooped'.. and got a couple of points personally cleared up by Jorge. Turns out that Tajel is of Indian origin, she went to Berkeley for her undergrad, and her name is pronounced 'Tejal' from the word 'Tej' meaning 'strength' in Hindi/Sanskrit/Bengali. Hmm... that had me thrown, for a fairly long time, I had Tejal down as either Egyptian, or Turkish or Iranian. I wonder why..? Anyway, I told Jorge that we need less of Cecilia and more of Tajel. Nothing against Cecilia, but I just happen to like Tajel.
Ok, next.. saw Fast Food Nation... this is based on a well received book written some time ago. An excellent film from the director of A Scanner Darkly and School of Rock.. the fast food industry depends on huge meat-packing firms which in turn are labour intensive industries and employ illegal immigrants in sometimes dangerous conditions. All of the different themes in the film: the quality of food, in a strange way mirroring the quality of life (I usually hate that term, it seems that it hides more than it says) and immigration.. all of them get to the same point.. that the price that we have paid for living in an industrialized era is that our comfort comes at the price of someone else's hard work.. really things have perhaps not changed much from the early days of the Industrial Revolution ...
But is there a simple solution to these and other problems.. I believe there isn't. We have all been led to believe, by our media, our government that endless prosperity is just around the corner, nay it is already here, the moment we jump on the bandwagon. It isn't. There are no free lunches. The things which hold true in physics also hold true in human societies.. endless consumption means that someone is starving.
1 comment:
You were at least in the first year when Cham came to UM. I was in my third year. Imagine how I feel.
I told you that Tejal was from India (not just Indian origin - she is an international student - this was shown in one comic where she is frustrated that she couldn't vote in the US elections although she is passionate about politics). 'Teja' means majestic in Sinhala.
Most places in meat industry are cruel, very cruel. Everytime you eat meat you are contributing to it. Yes, that means even chicken.
-Kitty Khat
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