The Fora: A Higher Education Community

Quote from: spork on April 23, 2024, 04:35:13 PMAs for the U.S. media, I haven't seen a single story that subtracts off an estimated number of dead Hamas soldiers from the total number of Gazans killed (which itself is a figure originating from Hamas).

Everyone has treated the Health Ministry's numbers as credible in the past, including Israel and the US government. That said, it's (1) clearly under-counting (because it's only counting those it can absolutely confirm), and (2) the infrastructure is now so degraded that keeping a reliable total tally is increasingly impossible.

That said, as of last month the estimate was 30k dead (~13k children), 70k injured, and ~10k missing (the death tally is now past 34k). At about the same time, Israel was claiming ~12k Hamas dead, while Hamas claimed and denied 6k. (Israel has provided no evidence for its numbers, however, and given what we know of its targeting practices--viz., 'male = Hamas' and 'bomb them in their homes at night', it's virtually guaranteed to be a vast over-count).

I can't speak to US media, of course (apart from print media, where these figures are definitely mentioned--but I don't haunt the big publications), but this is readily available and often cited (i.e. daily!) information in Canada and on the BBC. Hamas casualties are frequently, but not always, mentioned. I don't know that it really is appropriate not to count them as casualties, however; after all, we (rightly!) count IDF casualties from the October 7th attack, as well as the subsequent war (though it's worth pointing out that Israel has not been forthcoming about its casualty numbers). To subtract them sounds, to me, like an effort to sanitize the indiscriminate killing that is taking place.

And even if you buy the IDF's numbers--which you shouldn't--the ratio of one dead child to one dead Hamas fighter isn't exactly a great look.

Quote from: dismalist on April 23, 2024, 03:45:45 PMAgitprop.

Hey, I resemble that remark!

As for the U.S. media, I haven't seen a single story that subtracts off an estimated number of dead Hamas soldiers from the total number of Gazans killed (which itself is a figure originating from Hamas).

We had something similar happen a few months ago.  A community service group from out of town booked our library community room for a series of Monday afternoons to offer their services.  We saw from their social media that they were promoting the sessions as taking place on Monday mornings.  So we had lots of people coming in during the mornings and having to be told to come back in the afternoon. 

We repeatedly contacted the agency in question to confirm the actual times and get the misleading announcements corrected.  It took a week or two before they finally got things changed.  Not sure how people at that agency are keeping their jobs either.  The whole thing made it very awkward for our staff, not to mention the patrons who showed up at the wrong times because they had been misinformed.

Agitprop.

Quote from: spork on April 23, 2024, 11:57:40 AMThe USA also heavily subsidizes Egypt's military, as part of the Camp David Peace Agreement. In an excellent example of making America great again, ammunition fired at Egyptian pro-democracy demonstrators in January 2011 was manufactured in the USA with U.S. taxpayer money. Didn't see any Ivy League campus protests about that. Although I can list numerous other examples (looking at you, Saudi Arabia, killing Yemenis with your American weapons), but I won't.

I certainly took part in demonstrations related to those conflicts, but not at a US university, let alone an Ivy League institution. I can't, offhand, remember whether there were any. But let's suppose not. The fact that in the past students didn't come together to protest against American aid to Saudi Arabia or Egypt, if it is one, has no bearing on whether the students there here and now are right to protest American involvement in the war on Gaza. There will always be some other event we can point to that did not gather sufficient attention and outrage (though it certainly merited it), but that doesn't mean that the attention and outrage that some conflict does garner is misplaced, especially when it involves a client state of one's own country.

QuoteHamas, or what's left it of it, has managed to persuade, with the connivance/laziness of mainstream U.S. media outlets, a chunk of Ivy League college students that American white vs. brown race politics maps exactly to the Palestinian-Israeli situation. Score one for American ignorance.

This isn't a very plausible analysis. Hamas hasn't convinced anyone; instead, people have been convinced by the atrocities Israel has perpetrated in full public view. (I write this, incidentally, as the UN has uncovered mass graves at hospitals containing the headless, limbless, and handcuffed corpses of men, women, and children alike; but that's not what I mean, because it didn't take place in full public view.)


The most charitable explanation--and this is clearly the explanation Ockham's razor favours--is just that they've seen and heard about what's going on, and found it appalling, and they've seen their own government's response, and judged it wanting.

Nassau Community College isn't on the brink of collapse, but it is going through hard times. Massive consolidation of departments, and they have got rid of all their food services.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/institutions/community-colleges/2024/04/17/nassau-community-college-consolidates-departments
https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/nassau-community-college-cafeteria-cafe-snack-bar-close/

Given the massive taxes residents of Nassau County pay, it's a little ironic. But their property taxes don't go towards the community college.

We watched Chinatown (1974) and Escape from New York (1981) last weekend and This Is the End (2013) and A Million Miles Away (2023) this past weekend.  I don't have a lot to say about any of them, but they were each good in their own way.  Chinatown (Jack Nicholson) was an intriguing noir detective movie about a chief water engineer opposed to a dam project in a California valley.  Nicholson is hired by the engineer's wife to investigate his adultery, but things take a turn (of course). 

Escape from New York (Kurt Russell) is an action/sci-fi/thriller about a prisoner's quest to free the President of the US from New York, which is at this time a maximum security prison.  It's apparently a cult favorite and definitely has that 80's feel.  I feel like those characters and the characters from The Warriors might buy their clothes from the same shops. 

This Is the End (Seth Rogen) probably surprised us the most.  It looks like an extremely dumb comedy about a bunch of celebs having a party and experiencing the apocalypse, and it was.  But it was so zany and took so many unexpected turns that it was just wildly entertaining and pretty funny at times.  I'm sure it would have been even better if we were as high as the actors probably were.  The main group is Rogen, James Franco, Jay Baruchel, Craig Robinson, and Jonah Hill.  The humor is so juvenile, but there's just something about the movie that kept us in stitches and on the edge of our seats.  Apparently, a fair portion was improvised, and that makes me appreciate it even more. 

Finally, A Million Miles Away (Michael Pena) is based on the true story of the first Hispanic migrant farm worker to become an astronaut.  It's definitely inspiring and sweet, funny, and sad.  I realized after that I didn't love it.  I think that's because it never really fully came together for me.  I mean, this is the kind of movie that I would be going through boxes of tissues on, normally.  It's a great story! But I guess I didn't really come to feel that strongly about the characters, and I really wish that they had gone a bit more into the actual space program training and his hard work there to overcome a lot of obstacles.  It was definitely good, but it could have been even better.

At my institution, faculty are not allowed to schedule meetings in the conference rooms, and in the School of Engineering, all the scheduling goes through one person and I'm not sure how they manage to keep their job. Here's a synopsis of an email exchange.

Dear Glennis (not her real name),
Dr. Smith, Dr. Jones, Dr. Who, and I would like to schedule a meeting on Friday of this week sometime between noon and 4:30 PM. We do not care which conference room we are in as long as it has a projector and screen.
Thanks,
E M

Good afternoon, Dr. Mode,
I have scheduled Room 123 in our building for your meeting on Thursday at 10:30 AM.
Glennis

Glennis,
We cannot meet on Thursday, the only time we all have available this week is on Friday between noon and 4:30.
Thanks,
E M

Dr Mode,
My apologies, I changed it to 1:30 on Thursday.
Glennis

Glennis,
Again, none of us can meet on Thursday, we can only meet on FRIDAY between noon and 4:30. No other days or times will work.
Thank you,
E M

Dr. Mode,
So, does 1:30 on Friday in room 123 in our building work for you all? Let me know and I'll schedule that for you.
Glennis

Glennis,
Yes, that works, thank you for setting it up for us.
E M

And thankfully, the meeting did appear on all of our calendars. Finally.

Eat the Buddha by Barbara Demick. Good history of a Tibetan town suffering from cultural genocide by the PRC.

Quote from: Parasaurolophus on April 22, 2024, 03:23:14 PM

Quote from: spork on April 22, 2024, 11:07:37 AMI was being, as my immigrant Arab Muslim wife would put it, facetious.

There haven't been protests against wars in Ethiopia, Sudan, or Ukraine. Gaza is a cause célèbre.

Quote from: Wahoo Redux on April 22, 2024, 01:24:00 PMThe standard answer is that Israel is an important ally in an oil-rich and unstable part of the world.  It makes the news.  We have many people who have relocated here from Israel and Muslim countries.  They also make the news with their extremism.  Africa? 

Crucially, Israel is a client state which receives enormous subsidies from the United States--along with the very weapons they are using to willfully murder Palestinians and annex their land, and not to mention the extensive diplomatic cover the US has given them at the UN. That's just not true of Ethiopia, Ukraine, or Sudan. It's entirely appropriate to try to exert pressure on one's own government when that government (1) is so heavily (if indirectly) involved, and (2) has the diplomatic power to affect the conditions in question.

[. . .]

The USA also heavily subsidizes Egypt's military, as part of the Camp David Peace Agreement. In an excellent example of making America great again, ammunition fired at Egyptian pro-democracy demonstrators in January 2011 was manufactured in the USA with U.S. taxpayer money. Didn't see any Ivy League campus protests about that. Although I can list numerous other examples (looking at you, Saudi Arabia, killing Yemenis with your American weapons), but I won't.

Hamas, or what's left it of it, has managed to persuade, with the connivance/laziness of mainstream U.S. media outlets, a chunk of Ivy League college students that American white vs. brown race politics maps exactly to the Palestinian-Israeli situation. Score one for American ignorance.

As for tent encampments and whatnot at places like Columbia, last I checked those campuses are private property. Interfere with business operations, suffer the consequences. Back in the Vietnam War era, getting arrested was the whole point of protesting. I guess not anymore. Students spending their time not being students have to be protected from the emotional harm of being held accountable for their actions.