Where do turkeys come from?

The hapless bird whose least favorite celebration this must be has an identity crisis: is it from North America, Peru, India, Ethiopia, or Turkey?

As for Thanksgiving itself, it has developed an identity crisis of its own, in true American style: is it a religious festival or not?

Nicht löschbares Feuer (inextinguishable fire)

Oh, oh, oh, I found Harun Farocki's entire film "Inextinguishable Fire" online! It was not distributed in the US when it was made (1969), and apparently it's still very hard to borrow or steal a copy (didn't really try to buy one; couldn't afford it). I had a lot of trouble finding a preview copy in the US (I wanted to show it to my class when discussing the Vietnam war). I tracked down a VHS copy, don't remember how, but couldn't use it anyway, because it had no subtitles! I barely understood the commentary myself, and I daresay I have more German than most of my students.

Here's a link to watch it online, if you're curious about who created horrible weapons of mass destruction.

Here's a link to an interview with Farocki, in which he responds to questions about Jill Godmilow's remake of his film.

And here's another interview with Farocki and Godmilow.

What's wrong with American academia

Left: Jennifer Harris, who sued Penn State for racial and sexual discrimination in 2005. Image source and story: USA Today

Like corporations and families, universities can be pretty sick places. Not that everything is wrong, but I often think we're in the twilight of US academia. Perhaps the future will belong to the best universities and institutes of Australia, Canada, Europe, and elsewhere.
I'm just starting off a list here. Will add future posts as more reasons occur to me.

• Quality teaching is a low priority
• Discrimination and intolerance
• Corruption
• Market-driven education (related to the tenure issue, in the first link)
• Fear of foreigners
  

With regard to discrimination and intolerance, liberals need not feel smug. Many of them are equally culpable in the wholesale silencing and bullying of those whose views don't match their own. Others are too busy forwarding outraged emails against this, that, and the other to innumerable listserves to actually take a stand or lobby for anything on their own campus. Too many theoretical feminists, theoretical queers, and theoretical postcolonialists out there. Multiculturalism is greatly appreciated in American academia--but it's not recognized unless it's expressed in the American idiom, accompanied by the right amount of scripted enthusiastic interest in everyone you're introduced to. Obviously, it's harder to recognize what you're saying as multiculturalism if you wear a distracting headscarf or shalwar-kameez while doing it.

Haunted by Bhul Bhulaiya

absolutely no getting away from this damn song in Mumbai. It played at least a million times at Ra the one evening I was there, and it's on every FM station. I don't have a radio, but I hear it in cabs, autorickshaws, and the company cars that drop us home at night. The other day I was on the 1 Ltd. bus late at night, and there was a dude three seats behind me, playing it on his damn FM cellphone. Bet he thought he was doing a good deed by sharing it with the whole damn bus.

So... here it is. I'm no connoisseur, but I think it's a pretty poorly directed video, so don't be disappointed. The sound and image quality isn't so great either -- someone's pirating skills are obviously not up to scratch :) (the film is in the theaters still).

Update from the future: The above video has been removed due to some violation or other (What? Copyright violations on the internet?? Who'da thunk it!!), so here's a link to a fresh one, if you're reeeeeally interested.

Indian Chinesisms

A certain amount of fakery going on in these names:
Oh Ya - soya sauce brand (the manufacturer is Sil / Marico)
Ya Hoo - Chinese takeaway near Khar Subway
Ching Ki Shak - Chinese restaurant or takeaway, can't remember location
All of the above were seen around Mumbai.

For the record, I don't think Indian Chinese food is fakery in the sense of trying to pass off something as what it's not; it's just a creative adaptation to a different cultural context, like, er... like Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet :P