qui tacet consentire videtur

I attended Ambassador Kim Hyun-Chong’s (ROK perm rep to the UN, previously trade minister) talk today at Weatherhead. Charles Armstrong (director of Korean studies at the institute) was hosting, and his predecessor Samuel Kim made an appearance. It wasn’t very well publicized outside of the grad student circles (I wish I had more grad school friends), so it was held in the institute 9th floor lounge, with about 20-30 people attending, mostly graduate students and external visitors. Amb. Kim is a Columbia alum (law school) and great speaker, although a little less diplomatic than I expected - he’s funny in a sardonic way and doesn’t smile that much, and he had some strong words on the topic.

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I went to the season premiere of the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Madama Butterfly yesterday. It was a lot more elaborate, with a cast of geishas in technicolor kimonos, black-clad ninjas holding the lanterns and sliding panels, and sakura petals falling for the duration of ‘viene la sera’ and ‘vogliatemi bene’. They even had a flock of origami birds flying in formation to illustrate the robins that signal Pinkerton’s return. But I liked the City Opera one better: this one had a WTF moment during the second act, when after the humming chorus there was some kind of interpretive modern dance with a bald guy in a white jacket holding a golden fan and a geisha doll. City Opera’s version was simpler, but more visceral.

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He’s one of the lucky ones. (Washington, DC)

In the aftermath of the Ahmadinejad forum, anti-Arab racist graffiti was found in a SIPA bathroom. Shortly afterwards, a noose was found hanging outside an African-American faculty member’s office. This week, graffiti that included a swastika was found in a different building. The discourse on campus is now even more than it was before on racism and its manifestations. But racism doesn’t have to be blatant like the above examples. There is a subtler form of bias, that doesn’t get much airtime.

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Although my op-ed has finally been published in the Straits Times review section as a joint submission, I can’t help but feel a little upset that they rejected my original piece but took this one when the only differences are that 1) it is less critical of the state, 2) more conversational and most importantly, 3) has a nominated member of parliament’s name in front - same ideas, same structure, his prose. That, and I like my punchy policy-wonk prose better, even though his is probably more accessible.

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I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.
— Mark Twain

It seems to me rather peculiar that I learn more in an evening’s worth of optional seminars than an entire month of required courses. Somehow I found out about the Mearsheimer/Walt talk, which had been completely below the radar, because of the other ‘controversial’ name coming to campus: William Easterly. As usual, student and school priorities were completely off balance.

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