Re: [ossig] WHY DO SOME SOCIETIES MAKE DISASTROUS DECISIONS?

[Uwe Dippel <udippel@uniten.edu.my>]

Yes, off-topic. We should have a list; what do I say !!; many lists on
this topic.
It simply comes up at this very moment in the history of this country.
Maybe unexpected to the average 'local' ?? Maybe not so unexpected to
someone who has studied the history and the history of civilization
...(that is *not* me, here). Since the fact is recurring throughout the
history of mankind. You gave the course to UCLA-students (would I expect
UCLA stand for what I think here) ? This is kind of courses to be taught
in .my, for sure ! But it will come. Sooner or later, because we are at
the breakpoint. Future is decided on all fields, not only party
politics: schools, school-drop-outs, rôle of universities, confucian
approaches versus Western ones (“In the learning process, the student
was not trained for any creative thinking and he was not given any
opportunities to express his own opinions inconsistent with the
orthodox”, Ze 1995,).

Did you by chance read that book (I didn't) with the title like 'Why the
west has always won' or '...always wins' ? It was reviewed a few weeks
ago in - I think - The Star.

Finally, and here we're not off-topic any longer, this reflects the
attitude toward software. No need to point out essential differences
between consumption-oriented, product-focused and idea-oriented,
creative approaches.

Finally another anecdotal story of two weeks ago during my Hands-On
course: A student who has registered for this voluntary course - that is
'no marks no credits' - was very unhappy with disassembling a PC. It did
happen to have W9X installed and - despite being considered scrap -
booted to this system. My intention was to encourage to hands-on,
disassemble, understand the parts, BIOS and stuff, but this group
considered this 'wastage of time', because 'it works, so why don't we
simply work with Windows 95 and learn there'. Surely, a part of the
blame's on me. Bad chairmanship. But another part cannot be unloaded
from the shoulders of society, *not* these students (who preferred to
drop after this 'incident'). Going back to the question: what tasks are
those of the society w.r.t. education once the whole mess of poverty,
hunger, health and analphabetism is as good as settled ?!

Hope for a continuation and you to teach this course locally !

Uwe


On Tue, 2003-04-29 at 11:49, Mukhsein Johari wrote:
> Somewhat off-topic but has some relevence to our cause of changing societies (whoah!) to new paradigms (FOSS)...heh.
> 
> ---------------------
> http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge114.html
> 
> Education is supposed to be about teachers imparting knowledge to students. As every teacher knows, though, if you have a good group of students, education is also about students imparting knowledge to their supposed teachers and challenging their assumptions. That's an experience that I've been through in the last couple of months, when for the first time in my academic career I gave a course to undergraduates, highly motivated UCLA undergraduates, on collapses of societies. 
> 
> Why is it that some societies in the past have collapsed while others have not? I was discussing famous collapses such as those of the Anasazi in the U.S. Southwest, Classic Maya civilization in the Yucatan, Easter Island society in the Pacific, Angkor Wat in southeast Asia, Great Zimbabwe in Africa, Fertile Crescent societies, and Harappan Indus Valley societies. These are all societies that we've realized, from archaeological discoveries in the last 20 years, hammered away at their own environments and destroyed themselves in part by undermining the environmental resources on which they depended.
> ---------------------
> 
> 
> Regards,
> Mukhsein Johari
> 
> -- 
> _______________________________________________
> Sign-up for your own FREE Personalized E-mail at Mail.com
> http://www.mail.com/?sr=signup
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe: send mail to ossig-request@mncc.com.my
> with "unsubscribe ossig" in the body of the message




------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe: send mail to ossig-request@mncc.com.my
with "unsubscribe ossig" in the body of the message