Little did I know that shortly after I had posted my little recollection of times past with former African heads of State that a new scandal was about to break loose.
Had I lived a little later and gone to the LSE instead of Warwick I might have rubbed shoulders with the scion of the Gadaffi family instead of General Gowon.
Well whatever I don't know what is more scandalous, that unlike the likes of me, he did not have to work hard for his doctorate, or the fact that there are academics up to their necks in it, caught with their pants down who just don't know how to do the decent thing and admit they were corrupted by the money and scared of the Gadaffi regimes propensity to employ roving assassins armed by courtesy of the diplomatic bag.
No the real shame is not that there are academics who are quite prepared to justify this current scandal but that there remain those who justify the even more bizarre convention of the honorary doctorate awarded to wannabe's and celebs who don't even have to employ a second rate ghost writing hack to earn their honorific.
Well Mr Vice Chancellor of Birmingham, you know I do not approve of your proposal to raise undergraduate fees to the max. (because I replied to your general email on the Browne report to say so) I'll bet you didn't know this, I was on the point of applying for your current job when it fell vacant, went so far as acquiring the forms and all.
I regret I did not go through with it now as I had not enough confidence to realise that it's not all foreign travel and dinner parties with the rich and influential, it is integrity that counts. Straight forward academic integrity, and that cannot be bought, for a £9000 annual fee, a VC's salary or some wealthy foreign potentates endowment.
When (if) I graduate with the coveted 666 mark of the shiny aspie, I will have earned it. Never mind the extent to which it will have been devalued by all the base currency of honorary doctorates and the degree mill antics of Universities who ought to have known better.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
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10 comments:
A Fud's a Fud, dude. And it trumps an O level.
An honour degree would be cool if you had actually attained all knowledge and skills by other means - presumably in the public library or at work...
Otherwise it's Pants.
Should you ever actually become an 'aspie', we'll send-in operatives to have you de-programmed.
When you graduate it will be because of hard-work (and purring when Mitzy strokes the back of your neck)and not teh Autism.
Just read Gareth Pierce's piece on Al Megrahi for the LRB -- it's all smoke and mirrors, you see. And did you notice Obama's panicked hand-break turn on Libya?
It's about what's going down on Capitol Hill (not Downing Street) and I'm afraid all bends to that.
I'm not sure where us little people fit-in. In a public debate in the Guardian, even with a Fud, your going to be out-paced by someone like Rolf Harris and his 'professorship' from that god-awful place/university in Brisbane where young people go to take drugs in away from the prying eyes of their parents.
Also Professor Double Barrelled continues to be both extremely intelligent, knowledgeable and absolutely f'ing clueless. (cf his new book)
Please sort him out. Put that you're a PhD student and adopt a suitably humble tone and your letter might get read before shredding.
(tip - shhh - don't tell anyone but he told me he likes real letters.)
Also his wife is really, really nice & excellent at finding homes for displaced Africans.
Seems, I've now have fully 'critical' status with the Learning Disability Partnership -- which given the current economic climate probably says more about just how screwed-up/autistic/Autistic I am than any of my online activities.
Please remember this when Mr Plonker WooHawHaw interviews you for his history of Neurodiversity.
There are some authentic voices of autism/Autism that are still getting drowned out for not toeing the party-line.
I'm working on my own version, based on XKCD. Although it will have some colour - mainly red and there's going to be quite alot of non-heavy metal head banging. Also a Glock.
I'm hoping that the "Madman across the Water", Col. Gadaffy gets captured by the regular folk and becomes "Mussolinified", i.e., strung upside-down and beaten with sticks and bricks. It's only fitting.
I won't begrudge you your Doctorate if/when you achieve it. I know it's been a long haul, and none of it easy.
Here's something somewhat tangentially related:
See: http://www.neptunuslex.com/,
his post
entitled "A Democratic and Moderate Muslim Country", posted on March 30th. I would post the complete URL for the post, but I don't think Blogger would allow that.
Please also have a look at my comment lower down, there, at 12:22 am on March 31st, in which I deprecate the silliness of so many autistic folk's thinking that democracy is a good thing.
Democracy is the rule by which two wolves and a sheep decide what to eat for lunch.
It's not all plain sailing here in the Ivory Tower though, (and that's a mixed metaphor if ever there was one) I guess I need to be careful what I say about his VC'ness if I don't want to be put down on the modern equivalent of Jack Butterworths infamous blacklist (google "Jack Butterworth" together with "reject this man") and you will find a history of student protest back in 1970, just before my time at Warwick.
Well I didn't have the likes of Student Finance England to deal with then either, they have just managed to lose my files in the transfer of responsibility for Disabled Students Allowance from the local authority and it is holding up my ability to attend a valuable post graduate course right now :(
I don't think I have to be so polite to SBC though, different Uni.
Oh wait a minute I'd like to present another poster at that outfit's conference, better mind my P's and Q's after all.
Don't worry though I have told him what I think about his article, and you can be sure there are a lot of people on to it as well as me, as it has managed to be extraordinarily offensive to a number of communities.
As for dear old Rolf, you did know that Warwick Uni named a bar after him. They did used to name bars after anti apartheid campaigners in my day and then students "grew up"
Apologies for the spelling, grammar and logical errors of my previous comment... Self medication being what it is.
After all these years, Larry, it's time to admit your involvement in the Profumo Affair. ;-)
Good one, Clay! That made me cackle like the old geezer I now am! (having just entered my seventh decade on the planet)
WV: looxi. How the Paki guy running a convenience shop in Biloxi pronounces the name of the town.
Tch! Nobody gets my jokes. Was just being facetious.
Clay, I got yer joke. I am auld, too!
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