Michele Baron's Review of my book "Wrighteings...In Media Res:

HITCH-HACKER’S GUIDE TO THE LEARNIVERSE: A REVIEW OF THE “WRIGHTEINGS” OF DR A.V.KOSHY

By Michele Baron

Beginning to read Wrighteings – 1. … in media res… by Dr. A. V. Koshy (& his brother, A.V. Varghese, in one paper) is like cross-training for an intellectual decathlon. A self-proclaimed autodidact of multifaceted interests, Dr. Koshy has put together the best samples of his writings from the last 12 years of his “pilgrimage” through life, work, the works of man, doubt, learning, identity, sense of self and nature of the Other.
Raised bilingually in Malayalam and English, Dr. Koshy was, is, a voracious reader, afficionado of the arts, online technologies, teacher by profession, and student by inclination. Wrighteings is a true labor of love. Dr. Koshy essentially formatted the book by hand, compiled the bibliographies and URL links, and edited it himself, and sent it to LAP Lambert Academic Publishing to bring the distillation of his thoughts to us, the readers fortunate enough to find, and peruse, his “writings.”
While you may have pulled up a comfortable chair to begin reading the fascinating compendium of essays, in essence, you should instead prepare for a brisk run on a track peopled with Rimbaud, and Heidegger, T.S. Eliot, Soren Kierkegaard, Arthur Adamov, with Charles Dickens and his “other,” Dostoevsky, author of Crime and Punishment, the title-tome of Dr. Koshy’s first essay.
“I is an other,” wrote Arthur Rimbaud. Viewing man’s situation, Dr. Koshy postulates that “Man knows himself as an Other without having chosen, willed or acted…” in contrast to Lucifer, who, “having alienated himself… became Satan (the adversary), an Other.” Exploring the relationship between Raskolnikov and Sonia in Dostoevsky’s classic, Dr. Koshy brings the incomprehensible universe of the tragic and hopeful into closer focus, interrelating it with Roland Barthes’ concept of “jouissance,” and the Sanskrit “satchitananda.” And then, expanding once again the kaleidoscopic universe of ‘otherness,’ Dr. Koshy explores recent and current events, asking whether minorities, the “ultimate test to man’s unproved claims of humanity” are to be constantly identified as dangerous, hunted, haunted, or allowed to survive… “Will the majority silence their voices, ignorantly mistaking one Other for another?”
In considering the gaps between Design and Art, between technological, theoretical, ideological and aesthetic matrices in East and West, between global scales, cultural melting pots, “clashes of civilization” and individual/community sustainability and needs, A.V. Varghese, Dr. Koshy’s brother and co-writer of this article, begins by quoting Dietrich Bonhoeffer-- “If you board the wrong train, there’s no use running along the corridor in the opposite direction”
Running through a de-cryption of the etymology of the word “Design,” we are treated to a consideration of art, literature, Persian carpets, and the mystery and awe of creation, “aestheticized” to activate understanding, to negate reality, or to set up a transcendent “other” scene in opposition or alternative to the reality facing us today. Dr. Koshy and his brother, A.V. Varghese look to design as more than personal expression, more than an idiosyncratic commentary on the “condition humaine,” to become, perhaps, a discipline enabling conditions of humanity, sustainability, development that is more than a brand, buzzword or a leveraged option for profit.
Design aficionados will recognize Dr. Koshy’s and A.V. Varghese’s consideration of thinkers including Baudrillard, Bruinsma and Steven Heller; laymen can construct a greater appreciation for the words, images and products that have powerful effects on our lives as consumers and informed participants in a shared civil, local/global society. In a discussion of art and artists from the classical to the surreal, concrete to indeterminate, of paintings and sculpture, of the contrasts between poetry, literature, the material and the spiritual (viz Martin Buber’s I-It and I-Thou relationships), the challenge is raised. Can design become natural, universalized to the extent that it ceases to be reactive, prey to and dependent upon the immediate, upon profit and popularity? Hearkening to the writings of Mustafa K. Tolba, A.V. Varghese and Dr. Koshy write of post-modern unity and disintegration in the wake of 9-11, searching for a concept of “healthy interactive design that can at least build fraternity, if not yet equality and liberty.”
Paralleling the understanding of cultures and values in West and East, and divisions of prosperity in “North/South” debates, and setting their homeland of India as an example of a nation at the crossroads of development, Dr. Koshy and A.V. Varghese write that “Design must discover its ideology or ideological bias if it seeks to engage with or enable the process of development, become a discipline and make a meaningful contribution to mankind’s endeavors to end unjust privileging.” Eschewing top-down design, reactive to a “culturally sanctioned elite” while excluding the “dalit/broken” (the Other), Koshy and Varghese envision the collectivity of effort that could open a “door of perception” for Design, and achieve a contiguous, peaceful, sustainable community. Cognizant Design would become effective in development, a shared endeavor that would “benefit recipients at the concrete level of sustainable development. Transformed, universalized to the extent that it “feeds the body/bodies of men all over the world as much as poetry and sculpture feed the spirit.” As ageless as the Golden Rule and admonitions to “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” the design-development equation cannot be sidestepped, to “ensure development by design, and enable design to create concrete objects in space and time to tackle the vast task of innovative, sustained, sustainable development.”
In many ways, Dr. Koshy writes as if he were creating the mythical Emperor’s new clothes, and, in fact, field-testing the outfit himself before bestowing it upon the Emperor, lest he be unaware of some aspect of its affect and effect. His assessment of the prolific writings and translations of Ram Mohun Roy could, in a sense, serve as a decryption for much of Koshy’s own walk through life, writings, and ‘rightings’ of inequalities and inconsistencies. Tackling gender issues, women’s rights, theological matters, concepts of politics and nationalism which crosses borders, blends East and West, North and South into a synthesis of reason and humanism, Dr. Koshy provides what might be a glimpse into his concepts of “the author.”
“Emersonian in a sense, Ram Mohun Roy (1772-1833) reveals to us through his works a multi-faceted chameleon of a personality that thrived on many things at the same time without ever actually feeling the need to define himself as this or that specifically.” Child marriage, gender-based infanticide and exploitation and the two-edged sword of “sati” (translated alternatively as “good woman” and “widow burning”), segregation, caste systems, discrimination based in differences of race, religion and origin were and are at a philosophically explosive center of a “resurgence of interest in the ancient lore of India...” and here are again brought into focus through the lens of present-day issues and events.
In delving into the life and works of Mohun Roy as social and religious reformer, translator and author, Dr. Koshy reviews and reiterates history himself, as concomitant to what might be a current version of the periodic “renaissance, revitalization and revival” that herald a cessation of fear and alienation/eradication of “Others”and the (female) “Advocate” by the (male) “Opponent” of historic and contemporary societies. Roy, Tagore, Pandita Ramabai are included in the review of writings of brave men and women “weighing the pros and cons of justice based on articles of common sense, reason, trust and conscience, applicable to all men and women;” bringing tolerance and expansion of those best qualities of human kind and the humane, here viewed through the many-hued prism of life in India.
Considering the history and future of humanity, and, more specifically, women, in India and beyond, Dr. Koshy assesses the polyphony of Raja Ram Mohun Roy’s works, translations, postulations, and looks forward to a happy, symbiotic future “where liberty and equality flourish because justice has been more than partially implemented regarding women’s issues, rights, studies and initiatives.” Lest we become mired in a zero-sum game of winners and losers, of clothed and unclothed, of the blissful, separate ignorance of extreme privilege and extreme privation, an awareness of history, viewed from our perch on the shoulders of those who preceded us, is a gift incomparable. Otherwise, we might find that we are the blithely unclothed in the presence of a local, and global, community of the needy, the underservered but deserving, the assessing, and the aware.
In “The Politics of Dissent,” his review of On Communalism and Globalization/Offensives of the Far Right by Aijaz Ahmed, Dr. Koshy calls forth again the challenge to “fight for the hearts and minds of our children… that they may grow up as people who will have the freedom to ‘choose’ their ideology and consciousness and not have it thrust on them through violence or ‘cultural’ brainwashing done through misuse of the vast political, economic, technical and technological machinery available to those in power.”
Although Dr. Koshy finds the book “a bit dated,” he enjoys the challenge of meeting philosophers like Hegel, Croce, Kant and Lenin, and setting them up in a test of strength against ‘romantic thinkers’ like Herder, Fichte and Nietzsche, and “early RSS giants” like Savarkar and Moonje… In a race for relevance to our times, when national ID cards carry rights to education, to economic security, to voting for political freedoms, when access to technological assets is almost a sine qua non of informed, participatory living, but large percentages of the world’s peoples still have little/no opportunity to learn of, let alone afford to purchase, power and connect internet or other media/connective devices, reading this distillation of political and philosophical thought is certainly more challenging than a typical ‘read’ of summer fiction, especially considering that “we” have evolved, at least a bit, beyond the political nascence described (decried) in its pages, cloaking contemporary intolerances/exclusions in different guise. Dr. Koshy closes this chapter noting, “however, it reminds us that, even in these troubled times, the right to speak out has not yet been entirely stifled in India…”
The “Roger Waters and Waking Born Tribute to 9/11 victims Music Video on Youtube” next receives consideration in Wrighteings. The Internet and broadband communications have enabled whole new groups of sharers, literate and “illiterate,” into a community of people who have never met, might never meet. This new, connected society works outside previously measured concepts, tout exchange and access rather than profit, and fosters millions of subcultures of those interested in a commonality of values and interest rather than political/economic/heritage-based selectors for affiliation and inclusion.
Our proclivity for exclusion and discrimination, for marginalizing whole groups of people has been cited, at least in part, for the unsustainable social structures which led to the tragedies of 9/11 and beyond. Against this somber background, in the harsh glare of the lyrics and music of Roger Waters, references to the fallible/failed images of Stanley Kubrick’s portrayals of human(un)kind, and postulations that Darwin might have gotten the theory of evolution upside down, Dr. Koshy takes the entertainment/escape view of the music video, and evaluates it instead through a “composite conglomerate of issues.” Life is at a crisis point. Music Videos are for Slackers. Games are for Escapists. Serious problems require Serious Solutions. “Should we spend our time reading technical manuals instead? That is the modern equivalent of Nero fiddling.”
“Are we finally finding a parallel to reality, in the realm of human expression that can somehow subtly say what we actually wanted to say and mean what we hope to mean? Or is this just another mirage, the reality being that we finally have at our disposal only one more means to create an art that is forever freed from its referent… a multiverse that keeps breeding but never contains any trace” of the historical inadequacies and realities which prompted its creation? Is this just a depiction, but not a departure from the inadequacies of a Man-defined-God, poised uneasily on a man-made Babel’s Tower of oil, power, dehumanizing violence, isolating cultural exclusivity? The cover image on the book makes sense here.
Is 9/11 a subject for art? The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, America’s counter-attack, the attack on the World Trade Center and other US sites—appropriate themes for casting with Kubrick’s monkey and a postulation that “man may actually be an inferior rather than an evolved form of life, if he is to be judged by his acts in history”?
We have an uneasy relationship with the technologies of connection, speed, transfer, accessibility and power which we ourselves are developing; those with access do not always exercise restraint in their own wielding of power, but, rather, exclusion of all others seeking equality. We have arrived at a juncture where destruction is again possible, if not imminent. But, with freely-shared information, art, values, we can meet at this crossroads, without conflict, and perhaps change the decisions/actions/future of the social juggernauts which have arrived with us here, from the past. Taking up the flame, voicing onward the clarion call, Dr. Koshy closes this essay on Roger Waters and the (9/11) music video/Youtube by stating that the “race of human beings require chroniclers who will keep alive the memories of past wrongs man has done to other men and to himself so that history intelligently documented as it is done in this video will not be a discipline for fools but will teach all men everywhere to hope for a better tomorrow and dream of a future where all men will live at peace with each other…”
In “Democratizing Teaching English Language and Literature in India,” Dr. Koshy reads Jane Sahi, who borrows from Gandhi his metaphor for education—something, in turn, which Gandhi took from Nature, of plants nurtured by a loving gardener. The gardener and garden carefully tended represent a metaphor recurrent throughout our history of tribes and cultures of a scattered mankind repeatedly faced with imbalances of expansion, depletion and challenges to establish and sustain food security, peace, and all the variables in between.
For Dr. Koshy, the metaphor concerning teaching and learning lies also in the parable of the Sower and the Seed in the Gospel of Luke. Not all “gardens” provide the nurturing or the resources necessary for students, for the future decision-makers of our interdependent planet, to survive, let alone prosper, and take up, in turn, their responsibilities to teach, lead, nurture.
Moving from the Edenic to the Gandhian and the New Testament gardening images, the essay introduces, among others, Anita Rampal, an advocate presumably standing firmly in the forefront of the battle to make education a matter of quality for the students of the rural poor (and, one assumes, the urban poor) in India in this twenty-first century of our modern “sowing” and “growth,” of education and real life. Jane Sahi, Paulo Freire, Jean Piaget, and lauded icons of the development of education balance at yet another forking in the roads examined by Dr. Koshy. Brought to specificity through consideration of major educators and thinkers in India, the essay raises questions spanning a plethora of issues: Nehru (three language formula), Ambedkar (abolition of caste inequality), Tagore (humanism), and Krisnamurti (choiceless awareness). Honing the vast possibilities of democratization of education and curriculum to a narrower line, Dr. Koshy outlines a syllabus and suggestions for guiding student, teacher, and thinker-participant (both) in the process of education.
“Poetry should delight and instruct,” wrote Horace; Dr. Koshy writes that if ‘poetry’ is replaced by ‘education,’ nothing would be lost. Delight in learning, mastery and expression can give rise to a harmony of the learned, the learner, learning itself, mediator and ‘active receptacle’— and the constant improvement of education as our GPS through the challenges of life.
And, beyond the socio-economic and political considerations, Dr. Koshy explores the challenges facing the “sower” – the teacher or facilitator of learning, and the “seeds” – the students/co-investors/movers in the learning process. English as a Second Language (ESL), the democratization of English, “new” dialects and versions (SMS/texting English, “online chat” boxes, ‘new spell’ and icons and acronyms accepted as words) are all considered in the light of literacy, literature, and life.
The teacher/educator in Dr. Koshy is visible through his next phrases: “The only peaceful war ‘we’ facilitators need to constantly wage, therefore, is one whereby there is a ceaseless effort to keep closing the gap between our notions of perfection and our consistently and constantly evolving ways of professionalizing our teaching and facilitating practices and strategies. This has to be done while continuing to sound each other out in the process of learning from each other. This may temporarily create the meeting point between real and constructivist teaching.” Thence, one assumes, to uncharted territories of possible, more-sustainable futures, dependent upon the active participation of participants and colleagues in learning and life.
The frustrated author, the reaching assayer of arts and film rises in “Why Sergei Paradjanov and his Films MATTER.” Breaking his word to write (and publish) an article on “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors,” “Ashik Kerib,” “The Colour of Pomegranates” and “Legend of Suram Fortress,” Dr. Koshy watched the films (and kept the films sent by the magazine publisher), viewed the paintings, read the images of and influences on Paradjanov’s works and life. He showed sections of the films to audiences young and old, garnered their reactions (appreciative, and negative, respectively). He reveled in the impression that Paradjanov, working in a medium which can appeal only to the eye and ear, fed all five senses, and the heart, mind, and soul of the viewers with his films.
Hearkening back to the “Other,” “I am he whose soul is tortured,” a line from Sayat Nova’s poetry, sounds repeatedly in “The Colour of Pomegranates.” The essay paints the images of the films in the words on his pages, linking them to literature, videos, music icons, the mythologies of our past, the realization of our ever more arduous present. (Except in “Ashik,” where Dr. Koshy states that Paradjanov “enters such a strange realm of excellence that even I don’t have the courage to follow him there by trying to describe in words the curious ‘spectacle’ he serves up…” –although, apparently ever a rebel, Dr. Koshy tries anyway, writing of the scene with “images of driftwood and a desert where tumbleweed flies aimlessly about in the shifting and rollicking sand and wind. I have not yet been able to conjure up a better metaphor for mere meaninglessness.”)
Viewing films of Paradjanov, Tarkovsky, Bergman, Pasolini, Satyajit Ray and others, the author confesses to a “subversive” inclusion of the works of Mandelstam, Akhmatova and Babel, the minimalists poised in contrast to the maximalists in an essay written by a youthful Ampat Koshy. All, especially now Paradjanov, celebrated here again, for the flow of their images, the profusion of symbols and emblems and motifs, in lights and sounds, rather than static words, or music videos… for the stories which allow us to suspend our preoccupations and presuppositions and step into the moments and minutae of lives metamorphosed into celluloid, into digital images/sounds, into 3D and holographic interactives. Folktales brought through the passages of time and culture, now accessible, with internet and other media, to all ages and cultures.
“Revolutionaries know that it is dangerous to begin to understand the past. But artists know that the past is the only material we have at hand to work with. No one has worked with the past, whether of these now-war-torn places and their rich cultures… or the past of film itself, as well as Paradjanov… He tried to raise film to the levels of religion, beauty, love, sex and truth and his failure is one of art’s happiest successes.”
Turning again to education, to interactions between the learning self and the world, Dr. Koshy treats us to his essay “Deconstructing Brunerian Constructivism,” which he calls basically sound, but not humanizing enough. He argues that the system of education has been contaminated by ‘entrepreneurial middlemen’ between learners and learning, teachers and taught, upholding old ideals of power, access and appropriate-leveling/theories of learning, and other social, political and economic constructs.
Drawing on his own experience as an educator and facilitator as well as a rich background of textual and vicarious edification, Dr. Koshy outlines the constructivist learner, the process, the spiraling building blocks of knowledge and experience and the world/environment as life-referent, and the role of the facilitator.
The challenge of establishing and maintaining an accessible, equitable system of education/learning/participation in a vast nation like India is confronted—gaps are located, inadequacies identified. Dr. Koshy asks, “what is the price tag on education for rich kids?” Do the children of privilege receive an elite education, augmented by pleasant multi-media diversions and enhancements not available to their less fortunate (‘other’) counterparts? Is the quality of education, the effective implementation of non-inclusive/non-accomodating theories of learning (like Bruner’s) indirectly fostering a new caste system (in India, and by extension, the world at large) reinforcing the “only lesson valued by the ‘strong’ of the world—how to increase in power and wealth and become rulers (of those excluded from such holistic education)?”
The author contends that the cost, the expense of a gap-fraught system of education can become fatal if the learners, the facilitators, the funders of learning, and the leaders of the societies do not strive to reach and maintain a developed awareness and an equality of the interdependence of the living web of life on this earth. The few cannot consider themselves greater than the sum of the parts. “Any theory of learning which ultimately doesn’t send the learner in the direction of truth, and that includes responsibility to all one’s fellow men, is, by inference, incomplete and needs deconstruction so that one may come up with a practice that creates in the signifier the innate drive to ask the age-old question: What is really significant enough to learn in the brief life each human being has on earth?”
Something that Dr. A.V. Koshy has found significant enough to learn, as a teacher/facilitator of learning, ESL and expression, is investigated in “One more ‘Raid on the Inarticulate’…Future of Creative Writing/ {C(o)urses}. Myths, taboos, plagiarism, the labyrinth, self as teacher, self as writer, the non-self (but not “Other”) as contemporary, predecessor, competitor are all explored, counterpoint atop a continuo of self-assessment and literary comparisons.
“Make a tree.” For Plato, the poet is a maker, both divine and dangerous. Like the Revolutionary in a previous essay, the power to understand the past, to synthesize meaning for the present, and direction for the future holds the power of creation, God-head in the demagoguery of human(un)kind.
For Tolkien, the myth-maker is a sub-creator, made in the image of God. Good, evil, faith, doubt are tested again and again in epic journeys and minute realizations. For Dr. Koshy, the poet, myth-maker, author and facilitator is the epitome of hope, of a lifetime of searching for truth, railing against realities, and reaching for something beyond the branded commodities of convenience and obsolescence—for the memorable, the valuable, for that which reminds us there is vastness which exceeds comprehension, even while striving to comprehend, and expressing the realization of it.
And he exercises his utilization of adjectival links at the same time, sarcasm and catharsis blending in a poetic evaluation of his own drive to facilitate learning and the inspiration to learn; to weave that carpet of meaning, perfect save one purposeful weaver’s “error;” to portray, if not make, that mythic tree.
“What poor unknown ailing aging unfortunate randomness-spouting pointless poet doesn’t like being treated like a rockstar, even if it’s only once in a lifetime, for a brief flash of a second? ... I keep writing. To write something that will survive only if God or others ‘won’t willingly let’ it ‘die,’ that is my goal. I pass this philosophy on to my students unwittingly and as a result I am perhaps destroying them. Perhaps not.”
Ever questioning, Dr. Koshy returns again to learning, asking if it is “Time for Education to Die?” The autodidact and his GPS for erudition and commonsense, wondering if one could “construct his own path of learning or better still design it, or forego learning itself entirely and be found able to navigate life…” Present-day technologies enable a new learning space, populated not only with the directly-identifiable participants, but with the problem-solving interactivity of crowd sourcing and “swarming.”
If it is possible, now, to posit an open, accessible, win-win learning process, interactive and interest-driven, rather than profit-derived and exclusionary, perhaps the ‘gaps’ of presentation, retention and achievement can be eradicated, equity of accommodation, application and accomplishment made ‘multiversal.’
Concepts and styles of literacy, learning and location are, again, expanded, deconstructed, and tested on these pages. “Education is not monolithic. It is protean.” Educators around the world are celebrating online and multi-media connectivity and interactivity, some taking every opportunity to test the boundaries and viability of educational mores, class-room evaluations, national ranking systems. Walking, working, writing among these, Dr. Koshy informs his evaluation of current practices in education with realities in India today.
Praising mentor and key Indian eduationist Geetha Narayanan’s “brilliant idea of enactive design,” and Geetanjali Sachdev’s developing (and recognizable) idea of looking at subjectivities behind systems, Dr. Koshy, arguing for summative assessment to be dismissed entirely from the tier of assessment, ever the instigator, re-introduces an arguable note of gender specificity into his writing… “These women are interesting and intriguing innovators, but like mothers they are only starting with clearing the ground carefully. It is for the sons to raze the prisons to the ground so that no stone is left on stone of the shrine or temple of learning.”
Dr. Koshy grounds his positions in his own experiences and ongoing vita as teacher, facilitator, generalist and specialist, informs the dialog with awareness of the work/works of others, testing himself, others, process, procedure, and results, recognition and “nameless” striving for a better, inclusive future—tasks of bringing equity to education, flavor to learning, understanding to sight, sound, meaning, love and plurality and inclusion to philosophy. “Immersed in living and multiplicity and plurality… [Dr. Koshy sums his journey temporarily with] what was once said long ago by an other: ‘Disenchanted, he become dispassionate. Through dispassion, he is fully released. With full release, there is the knowledge, ‘Fully released.’ He discerns that ‘Birth is depleted, the holy life fulfilled, the task done. There is nothing further for this world.’ (Fire Sermon)”
This is not “light summer reading” by any means. It represents some twelve years, encapsulated from an ongoing lifetime of thinking, and selected writings. While it may be cross-training for the thinking polyglot and student alike, it is not a book one can digest in a day. However, like all good exercise programs, repetition and follow-up improve skill, understanding, mastery and capacity.
Long summer days and lighted winter evenings might be well-companioned by the thoughts and thinkers populating the pages of Wrighteings, however, and even as a sort of ‘hitchhiker’s guide’ to the fires of meaning, learning, expression and life, Dr. Koshy’s collection of essays provides multiple levels for contemplation and reference. And the personal style and generous quotes and references salting the work lend much to savor, and, like any good cross-training program, make reading the collection of writings in Wrighteings good literary fun.

On the author of the review: Michele Baron is a Fulbright scholar on local/indigenous arts and Master-class, Teacher, Project Developer/Volunteer (Hajj for Humanity), Concert and Performance Soloist/Artist and an URGENT EVOKE/WB Social Innovator of the Class of 2010. She is a thinker, soprano, writer and artist of extraordinary ability.
http://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/MicheleBaron


Book Details:
Wrighteings
In Media Res
LAP Lambert Academic Publishing ( 2011-05-27 )
ISBN-13: 978-3-8443-9731-4
ISBN-10: 3844397310
EAN: 9783844397314

By (author) : Ampat V. Koshy
Ampat V. Varghese
Number of pages: 116
Published at: 2011-05-27
Category: Pedagogy
https://www.lap-publishing.com/catalog/details/store/gb/book/978-3-8443-9731-4/wrighteings
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+2 by You, Ampat Varghese

Ampat Varghese - A brilliant review of a book that few in India will dare read carefully.
11:06 AM +1

Jesuits and their contribution to education in India - a paper by FELIX RAJ SOCIETY OF JESUS

JESUIT EDUCATION
J. Felix Raj, SJ
Perhaps Jesuits impart the best-known education in India. They conduct not less than 31
university colleges, 5 Institutes of Business Administration and 155 high schools spread
throughout the country, almost all of them among its most reputed (for example: St. Xavier’s,
Calcutta, Mumbai, Ranchi; Loyola, Chennai, Vijayawada; St. Joseph’s, Bangalore, Trichy;
XLRI, Jamshedpur). In them, more than 250,000 students belonging to every religious,
linguistic and socio-economic group, receive their education.
The number of Jesuit colleges and universities in the world has now reached 114,
including 28 in the United States. Many of these universities have traditions dating back
many years. In Europe, the Gregorian University (Rome, Italy; founded 1551) is the most
famous Jesuit University
Ignatius of Loyola, with firm determination to serve God and His people, founded the
Jesuit Order, called the “Society of Jesus”. Pope Paul III approved it as a Religious Order in
1540. Ignatius was an outstanding character of the 16th century. One of his first companions
was the then professor of the Paris University, Francis Xavier, who came to India in 1542.
The Society of Jesus is the largest religious order in the Catholic Church with 20,563 Jesuits
spread all over the world. It has taken up every conceivable form of work, which may, lead to
people’s total welfare. The Jesuits, according to Ignatius, should be ready to undertake in any
part of the world, work which will be for the "Greater Glory of God" (the Jesuit motto: Ad
Majorem Dei Gloriam). The Order remembers on July 31, it’s Founding Father who died 445
years ago.2
Though nowhere in the Order’s Constitution is it stated that education is to be given
special importance, the Jesuits have come to be particularly known in the public mind for
their educational work and have acquired the reputation of being among the world’s best
educators; in every country a Jesuit school or college is synonymous with quality secular
education given in an atmosphere conducive to character formation with emphasis laid on
spiritual and moral values and the development of an integrated human personality.
India and the United States rank among the most important countries in regard to the size
of the Jesuit educational undertakings. In the USA there are no fewer than 45 Jesuit
Universities, and 75 high schools. In other Asian countries such as Japan, Nepal, Philippines,
Taiwan and Vietnam, the Jesuits conduct reputed schools and university establishments,
which make a notable contribution to the education of their youth. The situation is the same
wherever the Society of Jesus has established itself.
St. Francis Xavier opened the first Jesuit school in Goa in 1542. It was named St. Paul’s
College. Nothing exists of this institution today except its memory, but it was the predecessor
of hundreds of other schools and colleges. The first Jesuit school to be opened in Europe was
in Spain during the lifetime of the Order’s founder. As he explained to one of his close
friends, Ignatius saw in the school an opportunity to do good by initiating the young into
secular and human knowledge and simultaneously into spiritual and moral values -- the love
of God and human person. The success experienced here encouraged the Order to go in for
more and more schools and college of every kind, so that soon education came to be
considered the primary work of the Society of Jesus. Hence, the Jesuit dictum “Give us a boy
and we will return you a man, a citizen of his country and a child of God.”
Any worthwhile book on the history of education will mention the contribution made to
European educational thinking and development in the 16
th
and 17
th
centuries. It was at this 3
time that Jesuit schools were opened all over Europe and in them the newly discovered
classics of Greece and Rome were successfully used in the formation of the young. The
“Ratio Studiorum” or “Guide to Education” produced by the Jesuits at the end of the 16
th
century remains an educational classic down to our day.
Jesuit educational methods derive directly from the Order’s own spirit. There is first a
willingness to use any branch of human knowledge, modern languages, philosophy,
theology, medicine, law, media and every branch of science and technology – nothing is
taboo in Jesuit education. Secondly, there is the stress on character formation and discipline
combined with the development of freedom. Next is the continual drive towards selfimprovement, by stretching talents and abilities in every field as far as they can go. Ambition
and individual emulation are stimulated by prizes and awards; simultaneously, teamwork is
encouraged through the “house system” in schools – a Jesuit innovation.
No Jesuit education is complete without attention to the development of the moral and
intellectual qualities of leadership: love for the country, integrity, human relations,
understanding, hard work, organizational ability, cooperation and teamwork, and the power
of expression in speech and writing. A Jesuit school or college aims to form “men and
women for others” who will be agents of needed social change in their country. Jesuits view
their work as “the service of faith in God and the promotion of Justice in the world”. Special
and preferential treatment is given to economically poor students in terms of financial and
academic support.
To quote from Paul Johnson's History of Christianity, What in fact they did was to
provide an educational service on demand. If a Catholic prince or prince-bishop wanted an
orthodox school, college or university established and conducted efficiently, he applied to the
Jesuits; he supplied the funds and buildings, they trained personnel and techniques. They 4
were, in effect, rather like a modern multi-national company selling expert services. And they
brought to the business of international schooling uniformity, discipline, and organization
that was quite new.
Jesuit educational methods have been criticized by some as being too rigid, too
stereotyped, and geared chiefly to the elite, intelligent and the determined, owing to the
excessive stimulation of ambition. Modern Jesuits are probably more aware of their
educational approaches in the context of the national and local socio-economic realities, and
as a result there is a very different atmosphere prevailing in today’s Jesuit institutions, an
atmosphere at once more relaxed, less formal, more pluralistic and more tolerant of
individual idiosyncrasies.
One may wonder what keeps these Jesuits united or keeps them going. The answer lies
in their basic characteristics, which are, first of all the Order’s “humanism” – its refusal to
condemn anything that is human – and its willingness to use all human knowledge and
achievements in the service of God and people. Another Jesuit characteristic is obedience or
flexibility, willingness to adjust and to compromise. The only thing a Jesuit is taught to be
rigid and uncompromising about is moral evil or sin. Another mark of the Jesuit is the way of
combining stern inner discipline with maximum freedom for each individual member in
external life and in the choice of methods. Finally there is a certain typical thoroughness in
all that is undertaken. This is expressed by the frequent use of the word “magis”, “greater”,
“higher” in relation to the goals the Jesuits, as individuals and as a community, strive for.
Their age-old maxim is to aim at the greater good for the greater number of people.
On the dust jacket of his book, The Jesuits, Malachi Martin wrote: ". . . In that world
where faith and power clash, the Society of Jesus has been the most fabled and fabulous, the
most admired and reviled, in the practice of both. From its first beginnings during a 5
revolutionary time almost exactly like our own, and down the four and a half centuries of the
Society's tumultuous existence, Jesuits have been both a puzzle and a model for the rest of
the world. Friends and enemies, Catholics and non-Catholics, have all tried to unravel "the
power and the secret" of these religiously trained and devoted men who stand as giants in
every secular pursuit of mankind as well. In science and art, writing and exploration and
teaching -- and not least in world politics -- Jesuits always aimed to be the best. And they
were. They had a part to play in every major political alliance in Europe and America, in
Asia and Africa. They became shapers not only of religious history, but of world history.
Their power came to rival that of world leaders and the Roman pontiff. Even Nazi generals
dreamed of such a cadre of men; and even Lenin envied them."
"Though few in number, the basic principles that Inigo Loyola had set forth for his
Company were powerful catalysts. Once his men harnessed their energies within his
organization to the worldwide work of the Roman Church, they produced a unique
phenomenon of human history. That is why the eighteenth-century German theorist, Novalis
wrote, "Never, never before in the course of the world's history had such a Society
appeared. The old Roman Senate itself did not lay schemes for world domination with
greater certainty of success. Never had the carrying out of a greater idea been considered
with greater understanding. For all time, this Society will be an example to every society
which feels an organic longing for infinite extension and eternal duration . . ." (Malachi
Martin, The Jesuits p. 27).

http://www.uia.mx/shapingthefuture/files/3-Topics-Regional/Reg-Challenges-Raj-SA.pdf

I should probably add Ram Mohun Roy.

The six major thinkers on education in India.
by Ampat Koshy on Saturday, 02 July 2011 at 19:27
1. B R Ambedkar
2. Rabindranath Tagore
3. J Krishnamurthy
4. Geetha Narayanan
5. Sree Narayana Guru
6. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi


Ambedkar on Higher Education and OBCs
Posted on April 10, 2006 by readerswords
I ran into a very interesting quote by Dr. Ambedkar, specially in the context of the recent debates (generally opposing it though) on reservations in institutes of higher education IITs and IIMs (besides other institutes under the Central government):
Higher education, in my opinion, means that education, which can enable you to occupy the strategically important places in State administration. Brahmins had to face a lot of opposition and obstacles, but they are overcoming these and progressing ahead.”
“I can not forget, rather I am sad, that many people do not realize that the Caste system is existing in India for centuries because of inequality and a wide gulf of difference in education, and they have forgotten that it is likely to continue for some centuries to come. This gulf between the education of Brahmins and non-Brahmins will not end just by primary and secondary education. The difference in status between these can only be reduced by higher education. Some non-Brahmins must get highly educated and occupy the strategically important places, which has remained the monopoly of Brahmins since long. I think this is the duty of the State. If the Govt. can not do it, institutions like “Maratha Mandir” must undertake this task.”
The statement “I think it is the duty of the State” is very interesting and can be interpreted in different ways, including advocating reservations.
The moot point, however, that Dr. Ambedkar makes, a la Gramsci, is the importance of capturing places of strategic importance. In our times, this need not only be in the State Administration.
In the era of a globalized marketplace, it also means providing a foothold in that marketplace.

http://readerswords.wordpress.com/2006/04/10/ambedkar-on-higher-education-and-obcs/

TAGORE ON EDUCATION:
http://www.infed.org/thinkers/tagore.htm

GANDHI ON DUCATION:
http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-gand.htm

KRISHNAMURTHY ON EDUCATION:

http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-krish.htm

SREE NARAYANA GURU ON EDUCATION:
http://www.sngmandiramvepery.org/devotees-article/modern-education-ideals-sree-narayana-guru.html

GEETHA NARAYANAN ON EDUCATION:
http://www.designingforchildren.net/papers/g-narayanan-designingforchildren.pdf

[Academics] Streams-pathways-themes-disciplines -boundaries-years-departments...

Define educational pathway?
"An Educational Pathway describes the organization and coordination of various individual/departmental/disciplinary/age level/level appropriate/stream-or-theme related learning resources into a coherent plan so that they become a meaningful learning activity for a specific user group (e.g. teachers, students, other users etc.) in a specific context of use. Further, Educational Pathways directly serve the priority assigned by the overall long term project to the integration of resources for now and to its end…" Taken from somewhere and altered for us to understand. So if we have three pathways and under them themes and under them subthemes that departments that also ensure that disciplinary boundaries will remain, albeit being porous and permeable, will run as courses, projects, seminars, conferences, workshops, symposia, discussions, lectures etc…what are the benefits that may accrue to the students?
What are the demerits?
My thoughts on the subject are as follows:
Point number one – we educate for an uncertain future job market Our job is not to provide certainty, rather; the most important things we can provide is confidence and flexibility and adaptability and the fitness to survive and creativity, along with skills, aptitude, theory, knowledge, application, and extended practice… In the sense that when students emerge from any institution of higher education they should
a. Be able to support themselves
b. Do what they like
c. Get a job if they like it and be satisfied and do it well.
d. Have a brand new start up if they want.
e. Freelance if need be
f. Work in a group
g. Do nothing, if possible
h. Change track completely, if so inclined
My two bits for what it’s worth –themes may help…

Koshy

Back to education

I agree with Saumitri Varadarajan that practitioners need to look at pedagogy, methods of teaching and learning etc’, so for all and sundry here are some helpful links to start you off with.

http://www.infed.org/thinkers/gardner.htm

Howard Gardner's work forms a good base to start thinking from.

http://www.caroltomlinson.com/

I love the above stuff on differentiating instruction.

Bloom's taxonomy - http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html

While a bit outdated Bloom may be good for new teachers.

As may this next one on Maslow.

http://www.businessballs.com/maslow.htm

Old hat but may be interesting for new teachers - Bono's six thinking hat exercise

http://www.beefcrc.com.au/Assets/297/1/Step_6_3.pdf

For introducing me to this next guy I have to thank Geetha Narayanan profusely.

http://fno.org/mar09/dozen.html

Some valid politics from Paulo Friere

http://www.laconstituciondelperu.org/FreirePedagogyoftheOppressed.pdf

And more from Ivan Illich.

http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-illic.htm

http://www.funderstanding.com/v2/theory/constructivism/ - is the last one for now.

Two introductory notes to Wrighteings: In Media Res by A.V. Koshy & A.V. Varghese

An intro note to the book by one of Kerala's finest and least known thinkers Anil Kumar Payapilly Vijayan :

" Some German guys published his work. It Is prized at 49.00 € so that we are not obliged to buy or read it. I don't think the author himself will buy it unless he is narcissistic. Anyways, I read the essays long ago and I loved... one in particular: the essay on Lacan and Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. In his essay on the Georgian film maker Sergei Paradjanov, he quotes the Armenian poet Sayat-Nova: "I am he whose soul is tortured," which is an apt description of the author himself (I guess everything except the essay on design has been written by him). A writing which is a blend of Blake and Benjamin! To my mind, one of the finest and least known minds from Kerala."

Second review from Thys van der Veer, my Dutch friend: " There is a nice flow in the things that you write.
The first letter of course in that book of yours is very moving.
But it is a glimpse, a second, in a year.
But it enlightens.

...Further, the hard reading might come later.
A flow of words it is, and the flow is easy.
For a deeper understanding of meanings it might have to be read three times, because some layers might be missed.
Under water life is not visible but when we see the birds that float/fly on that water, we are already happy. "

First requested review received of the book Wrighteings: In Media Res by A.V. Koshy & A.V.Varghese written by Mary Hiers* :)

Wednesday, 22 June 2011 at 19:19

Title: The very roots of being and creativity.

This book is not long, but it is deep. Anyone who has even a passing interest in philosophy, education, or creativity will find this book to be a rich vein to mine. At the same time, it is written for the lay reader, so you do not have to have a degree in philosophy to take away plenty with you for thought. The very first essay hooked me in, and the ones that followed kept me rapt by bringing up similar concepts in different lights and different intellectual settings. I think of this book as a brief, but essential reference for teachers, thinkers, writers, and anyone who wants to make much more of life than what is on the surface. Highly recommended.

(I am also appending relevant parts of two of Mary Hiers' comments to me while reading the book and on finishing it too.)

1. I want to tell you that I am enjoying your book immensely. It is taking me longer than I expected, but only because it is very dense with information and I want to take it all in. Anyway, great work!

2. Hi, Ampat. I wrote an Amazon review and just submitted it. It will show up under Maurice's* name because he and I share an Amazon account... And thank you for sharing your book with me... Excellent work, my friend!

About the reviewer: "I'm a freelance writer and editor, and the mother of two children, one grown, one in high school. I live in a small town in the American south. Literature, poetry, international affairs, economics, and politics are all of great interest to me. I find it hard to keep fields of interest from spilling over into one another sometimes. My "day job" is with a weekly paper whose online home is www.thesaturdayindependent.com . I have also written for magazines. Reading and writing are big parts of my life, as are quilting, photography, and caring for my many dogs and cats."

* Maurice Fitzgerald, artist.

( One more review at least to follow, hopefully.)


Some comments:

#
Mary Jane: True, the first essay "The Other Is, Plural and Immanent" dragged me right into it too, Rimbaud's dualism "I is another" raises all curiosity in the content to follow. Congrats, nice brief, inviting review Mary Hiers.

#
Gerda Casier: Simple review of a not so simple book. At least, that's my idea after reading the first essay, 'The Other is, plural and immanent'. It touches upon so many ideas, one needs to reread and reread again.

#
Ampat Koshy: It is short and to the point befitting the context it is written for.
(Amazon)

#
Angel Bowden Meredith: I myself am in the beginning stages of being pulled straight in by this awesome work. Yes, it will be worthy of rereading over and over, so as not to miss a single detail. Definite read for the thinker, and I will post a note with a more fitting review once I have finished off every morsel!

Some great work a friend of mine called Yashas Shetty is doing in the Art Science interface.

This is on the lines of Edward Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, James Ossian and Castaneda.

It refers to creativity, deconstructs the idea of origin, questions media as a vehicle for factuality, and asks the interesting question of whether genius has to be compulsorily derivative to be really effetcive; privileging altered repetition in Deleuzian and Guattarian terms, over the original.

Yashas Shetty is creative in the Art Science field in the same way those two thinkers are/were and Fitzgerald was too, perhaps.

http://louderwhisper.crisap.org/?/index/yashas/

Yashas's ability to take from anthropology and mythemes and technology and his love of and sensitivity to music in its different forms - and the media's ability to deceive playfully and use it against itself - is thought-provoking and deserves a much greater study in detail. The futuristically mixed product here of the past and the more recent past which works as a banaustic music-scape that he re-creates for us then as a listening space in cybertime and cyberspace is deliciously pranksterish and a fascinating experiment that opens one's mind to many different pathways in it, to say the least!!!

Listen and in "conversations" enjoy his insight into an extremely relevant issue of today that is connected to this and filtered through the works of people like Glenn Gould and Michele Certeau, in the related interview.


http://louderwhisper.crisap.org/?/conversations/yashas/

Most of all though, apart from all the theory and jargon I have just spouted, this strange and haunting work speaks for itself.

Listen and enter its interstices.

Wrighteings

Wrighteings

So my first book is finally out.

Welcome sadness

I used to think it matters
four names are better than none
but now that you can't use it
words don't matter to one

I used to think it matters
speech and numbers
and things
learning and all that bullshit
now I know nothing does

I see you through their eyes
and hear with my ears their lies
read with your mind their minds
and how I hate this life


I used to think it matters
the worst betrayal is mine
I feel you want something from me
But not knowing what or how to give it to you
I stand petrified in ice
Welcome, welcome to tristesse.

Please donate and help my autism for help village project -read details in previous post

Evokation - Autism for Help Village Project

The Autism For Help Village Project Evokation:
THE INTRODUCTION
I believe mankind's future depends on how we treat differently- and specially- abled people, as to whether we will flourish or perish.
"Where there is no vision the people perish - Hosea/OT."
The PLACE I will “evoke” in is India, most probably in the state of Kerala or Karnataka; more specifically in the close vicinity of Trivandrum and/or Bangalore, the capitals of these states. This is because I know the language and my people in Kerala, and have built up a fund of good will in Bangalore. Ideally I would choose a place near Bangalore but sometimes one can’t choose, so somewhere in Kerala would do as well. If both these places do not welcome the idea, or try to combine the notion of an autism village with that of a mental asylum, or express any form of resistance, I may look elsewhere in India. However, I believe that if we start with enough land – at least one hundred acres - but also in a small way, and work with children in the beginning, the locals/natives (including myself) are unlikely to offer any resistance. I want to start my evokation by considering possible challenges, and how I will overcome them, so I want to say that at the outset of the project that I will have meetings with local community leaders, and explain to them what I am doing and also about the resultant benefits for the community, to smooth and pave the way for my venture to succeed. Even after my project is up and running, regular local community participation will be eagerly sought after, through weekly meetings, planning sessions, etc.
A point I need to address right at the beginning is whether my project will do more harm to autistic people than good by supposedly taking them away from main view into a sheltered form of existence. My reasoning is simple on this count: the autism village will not be an isolated place but an open-gates project, with daily and constant interaction with local, state, regional, zonal, national and international people. There will be plenty of activity, and interactions. The only difference is this offers the autistic people an ecologically and environmentally safe space that can be home for them in a larger measure than a family's house would be a home, so that they can not only strive but thrive.
The community will be primarily humanitarian, looking towards the present and future well-being of all autistic peoples, connected mainly to both aestheticism and science in its outlook, but it may also bear the imprint of the work of people like Jean Vanier and Bede Griffiths. It will be called The Autism for Help Village Project. The name means that autistic people not only need help but also help us first just by being who they are.
The institution will probably be my own temporarily, to begin with, but I will collaborate with trusted and qualified individuals, friends and groups—including colleagues from Evoke, and with all the various groups already working in the field of autism, in India first and then abroad. My vision starts from and with South India, spreads through India to Asia and expects to work in equitable partnerships and in tandem with other places from anywhere in the world depending on:
a. if these places have only little or no help since I want to address need
b. the level of research and help they need, or can offer, and vice versa.
I would need at least 100 acres of space, I think, for this mission to make some sense, geographically speaking; if not at the outset, eventually. Maybe in the beginning I could start much smaller with just ten, fifty or seventy-five acres, since in the first phase I only want to set up a few things like a school and a farm. Later I would expand to residential capability, hospital, medical shop and finally definitely to an orphanage, a vocational training centre and/or college and an old age home. If possible, I would like to have the option to expand to 1000 acres, to include all needed facilities and grounds.
Virtually, I will use all the existing or developing popular-use computer platforms that are of any technological account to help my dream place in efficient running. I do not think any means too humble or too great for such a venture, as to be left out of it.
Technologically, the space I envision may finally become global if things like tracking and tagging become a part of the lives of people on a large scale. Initially, it would be more compact, technically and technologically speaking, concentrating on basic essentials like power and water and transportation sufficiency and virtual necessities like good communication facilities of which the internet would be on top of the list.
I would need the help of many experienced collaborators and entrepreneurs because I am basically only a visionary, but since my particular vision is not specifically shared by anyone in EVOKE as far as I know, I’ve decided to present a solo Evokation.
The Cause: It all started with my discovery that my son was autistic. There are decisive moments in one’s life, like meeting the resurrected Jesus at Damascus was one for Paul and being asked to get off a train in the middle of nowhere was one for Gandhi when he was in South Africa. Being treated as an “untouchable” was what helped B.R. Ambedkar to realize what his vision should be.
While trying to help my son, I found that no one in my place – Trivandrum - knew much about autism, including me, and I came across both parents and other children like my son, and found that they needed help as much as I, my wife and our other children did.
Help is not easily available for such kids in a place like India, especially down South. It is either:
a.non –existent or
b. too costly, or
c. found in too few places.
The challenge can be stated thus – more than 1,60,000 people (one lakh, sixty thousand, or one hundred sixty thousand) in the USA alone are now labeled autistic. The exact number across the world is unknown but high, and the number in India is also unknown but rising rapidly.
They need more from society – more in terms of input, and more in every sense of the term. I believe the appearance of autism in such large numbers, which is a recent phenomenon, is directly connected to:
a) the environmental and ecological degradation of our quality of life and nature ( the presence of heavy metals in water, mercury poisoning etc.) brought about by man after the rise of the industrialized economies,
b) our modern lifestyle (including medicines like vaccines, - faulty batches {there is very little screening in places like India where anything can be bought and sold over the counter in the black market}- the use of steroids during the time of pregnancy and the presence of psychological factors like stress) and
c) of course, genetics, the prime cause.
In a sense, obscurely speaking, autistic people are the children of the lesser gods that we are, and yet better than us in the happiness that they give us. The children are better than the parents in this case, doubtless. There seems to be no one cause for the autism spectrum which I refuse to call a disorder, and since it’s a neurological 'disability' or wiring that makes it a complexity whereby a child is ahead, backward and static at the same time in terms of "growth", not to mention that every autistic child is different from the other that gives rise to the autism “spectrum,” there is no one solution and seemingly no complete, perfect cure; although occasional breakthroughs and recoveries or healings are also reported giving us gleams of hope, at least in a trickle of individual cases as of now.
THE IDEA: These peoples need teachers who are specialists, therapists, psychological counsellors, parents who are given special training, support and education, international, governmental, regional, zonal and local help, spiritual help, help from parent groups, autistic support groups, developmental disability groups, humanitarian help, social and educational networks, medical networks, donors, dentists, pediatricians et al…
How does this tie in with environmental and ecological concerns? Isn’t this merely social entrepreneurship, engineering and innovation?
It ties up with everything.
My start may be closely-focused, but it can exponentially expand to help for all autistic children and adults, to the differently- and specially- abled of all sorts if they too catch hold of the vision, to all the caregivers of this community and finally to a big picture question.
If this is a new kind of ‘scourge’, since it’s not exactly an epidemic or a pandemic, how can it be stopped? Can genetic research help? Gene mapping may give us the clue as to how children in the future can be born without autism. So encouraging research for that would be important. I believe it can. So can scanning. Prevention is better than cure. Medicines can help too - so research on finding a medical cure, plus palliatives and other drugs must be encouraged to continue in indigenous and allopathic fields. But what to do with and for those already autistic for a lifetime? This is my big picture question.
Obviously, Hitler’s solution is not the answer.
For such children to grow up healthy, they need healthy food, vitamins, proteins, medicines, exercise and many other things. They need herbal medicines too.
Producers and farms of this kind, producing this kind of food, exist in USA. They produce GFCF food.
Not in India, not many yet.
The worst case scenario: Think of a child born autistic in a poor Indian household living on 2 dollars a day, a worker's or a labourer's child, as we were asked to imagine in an exercise on Evoke. Let us say he, rarely she, is the only child. Autism affects males more than females and comes from the father, if genetic. Let me tell you the ratio of expenditure, ideally speaking. The man would need 1/4th, the woman 1/3rd and the autistic child the rest of the money if s/he is to get any help. 2 dollars is ninety two Indian rupees at present. If you gave the man 23 Rs, the woman 30 Rs and the child 39 Rs what help would the child get? The actual answer is Nothing, in today’s world.
The food and other products, services, side products and crafts, produced in such a farm, has to be green, eco-friendly, environmentally non-hazardous and healthy and the energy/power for such farms sustainable and renewable. Water must be harvested. Costs must be minimal to be effective, which is the main thing as always.
The food and any other products - aesthetic crafts, art shows - , such a commune would make or create is not only for them but everyone, since even if they need this healthy - maybe primarily vegetarian and herbal (ayurvedic)- food, any surplus can go for others, especially the poor. Not only that, the food can also be bought by everyone in society , where it can perhaps be sold at a higher price to some rich customers, as Namdhari’s does, to ensure breaking even or hopefully even make profit, since the first consumers should be the autistic children and their families and they should not be deprived of it due to cost.
My project could not work as a non-profit therefore, I think, unless it has extremely powerful financial backers. I need to take further thought on this aspect.
To start a school, a retreat centre and a farm or a place or space where autistic people can be helped in every way they need help, including enabling them to be mainstreamed as far as possible, is my dream. For this I would need, first of all, arable land-- with water, power or energy, modern communication systems and farmers, cooks, and many other kinds of helpers. The community would be primarily agrarian and self-sustaining, hopefully.
This would also lead to work opportunities for the local population as well as countless possibilities for networking aimed towards employability of different sorts with autism groups, autism specialists, scientists, educationalists, doctors, psychologists, artists, designers, architects, pharmacologists, environmentalists, ecologists, pharmacists, governments at local, state, national and international levels, collaborators, innovators, entrepreneurs, genuinely spiritual people etc…since what I really want to move towards is an AUTISM VILLAGE. I would build the village on the lines of Roger Dean's willow water project, Sabeer Bhatia's nanocity and Vinay Gupta's hexayurt project etc... as an semi- urban, semi-rural resilient city/community.
The village could also be a specialists and helpers holiday or retreat centre to generate further funds, limited to use only for empowering visitors and the families of the autistic peoples. The latter, especially, could come and unwind, relax etc. Over the years an old age home for the parents, if widowed, and a home for autistic children and adults who are orphans or abandoned or those who perhaps cannot be looked after by their parents in case of disability or such other unforeseen eventualities could come into existence. I envisage at least one geodesic building for a school, a vocational training centre and a mini-university, a medical research and a publications- cum-library area, with one section of it to deal with the food produce administration, another with farm administration, another with administration of the retreat centre, another with that of the school and the other organizations like the vocational training centre etc. Each section would be added in as the vision unfolds in actuality. The farm could also have horses and a swimming pool for aqua and equestrian therapy, a playground, a stable, a place for the horses to run around in, a massage and yoga or gym(health fitness centre), a toy-land for social integration, a big restaurant, a different kind of food retail outlet, a different kind of medical store and many other things. A hospital and therapy centre for ABA, VBA, psychological counselling, speech therapy, therapy in communication techniques like PECS and sign language, behavior modification therapy, pharmaceutical research, dental care etc, would be a must because these peoples need a different kind of medical help from others. I will expand on my architectural vision after taking more thought about it, later.
The money: Without despising the day of small beginnings, I would use any and all money raised as efficiently as possible, or, if feasible, invest it with some agency (matching donor funds through Global Giving, for example) that would multiply it for my project; and, then, I would think of working on this self same proposal at a deeper level by approaching appropriate sponsors, philanthropists, groups or organizations like the World Bank who can fund the entire project in a much larger way.
I have an innovative idea which is based on “the power of one” and is about crowd-funding and micro-gifting which could raise a massive amount of money for this entire project if proper planning is done in advance and proper advertising and publicity exposure is managed. The fundraising idea is simple, to get everyone on earth to give just one currency note toward this project of ‘the power of one.’ An Indian would give a rupee, someone from the US a dollar etc. After conversion etc., even after deducting costs for getting this fund raising drive to work I feel I would have enough money to buy some land, and start a small school and a farm. From then on, if I can harness the power of social networking and innovation, engineering and entrepreneurship correctly, much of which I learned here, I can bring in the rest of the funds too.
Fundraising projects like music shows or other benefits would also be considered.
I do not think of this project as one that only takes. In return it gives us the happiness of these people in ensuring their welfare and also as it becomes self sufficient it will generate income in various ways throughout the future, ways including the farm produce and the other products the autistic people will eventually make, so that the end will be change for the world and a better future and some form of earthly salvation for autistic people to whatever extent it lies in my power to bring it about which are aims I hold in common with UEvoke.
My vision is long term and the village will have open doors so these children are not isolated and I am ready to wait for it to blossom and grow into a force to change the cartography of the future, however long it takes to be fully realized. As part of this, I would work into this long term projects issues of expansion - setting up centres elsewhere - and also issues of training future leaders who would carry on the legacy with the freedom to change it to suit change that will happen around us regarding research etc.
The budgetary and legal aspects, aspects of administration regarding forming a 501©3 trust etc., and groups and individuals I may collaborate with need to be worked out in more detail. I would also require legal assistance to work through bureaucratic hurdles and governmental requirements, licensing, etc., which are large challenges in a nation the size of India.
However at present I have decided to approach for help:
1. http://www.autism-india.org/worldorgs.html
2. http://www.urgentevoke.com
3.http://www.communicationdeall.org/
4.http://srishti.ac.in/
5.http://www.autisminternationalfoundation.org/autism-funding-Intl.htm
6.thelandofisrael.com
My resource persons will include all at the facebook group EVOKE Class of 2010.
P.S. My idea/dream/vision belongs to everyone. No copyright, intellectual property rights or patent required to replicate it.
.
This project raises funds for
Phase 1 of project.
1. Buying enough land to contain the facilities and infrastructure needed to run a proper autism village. I would need a hundred acres to start with.
2. Building a school with adequate/cutting edge facilities.
3. Hiring teacher-specialists and autism therapists, autism-care personnel, autism experts and advisors, specialist agricultural helpers, cooks, administrative personnel etc.; and an architect and engineer, plumber etc to design the autism village. Income/fair wages to be paid to staff/employees.
4. Ecologically/environmentally sustainable and special-needs accessible grounds, school(s) and residential and administrative buildings, with grey-water capture/filtration (for gardens/grounds), perhaps renewable (solar/wind/etc) source electricity, available computer/internet capabilities, fans (or aircon if possible), cooking/refrigeration (and freezer for longer food storage), backup generator if possible, laundry and bathing facilities and adequate regular-use and special-needs access toilet and washing facilities as well. Media and recreational room/exercise and therapy facilities would be beneficial as well. Equipment for all offices, classrooms, medical facilities, food preparation, etc, and equipment for each resident, furniture, etc, should be provided.
5. Collateral administrative study exchanges (if possible) to locations in India, as well as Israel, Armenia, and possibly the US to study autism centers.
6. Money needed for setting up internet platform, web site, interactive parent/child site (for posting work, progress, needs, possibly chat or pictures/video/skype chat)
7. Fees to pay for setting up organization with lawyer and chartered accountant, engineering, educational and farming and architectural advisors and technological personnel and government, getting adequate resident-transport vehicle, smaller administrative use (for medical supplies, official visits, etc) vehicle, therapy bikes or horses for residents, etc.
8. Adequate gates, walls, fire/emergency accessible roadways, special-needs accessible pathways, garages for any vehicles, special-needs accessible and advanced playzones/playgrounds, fire hydrant/emergency prevention/management training and equipment, safety glass and/or safety gates on windows (which meet fire safety/exit codes); emergency ladders, emergency shelter provisions.
9. School supplies: white boards, possible blackboards, tables, maps, globes, desks, chairs, markers, pens, pencils, paper, other supplies, computer/tech support/equipment, wiring, toys, athletic and sports equipment, therapy training equipment, shelves, cabinets, counters, lockers, benches, adequate windows, doors, room dividers, wheeled chairs or other necessary support equipment.
10. Shelves, cabinets, counters, pantries for kitchen. Adequate cooking, refrigeration, freezer, other storage/preparation necessities. Food preparation areas (full access, and with safety equipment/special needs access in one area); pots, pans, cutlery, measuring tools, pouring tools, blenders, toasters, microwave, etc. for sustaining food needs of village.
11. Water therapy/swimming safety zone/exercise/training areas, equipment and personnel if possible.
12. Adequate visiting/meeting furniture, facilities and grounds for visiting experts, families, other groups.
13. Establishing a productive teaching/therapeutic/sustainable (organic) GFCF farm, composting pit, grey-water reuse zones, storage area for tools, harvesting equipment, drying or processing equipment, if possible.
14. Linens, uniforms, tee shirts, aprons, pillows, mattresses, bedding, adequate seasonal clothing and/or protection (rain gear, etc).
15. On-grounds delivery/conveyance equipment and adequate paths for wheeling carts, etc. from one location to another.
16. Radio and telephone communications, music room, television/media room.
17. Safety monitors onsite, in rooms, at entrances/exits. Sound, video, and generator backup as possible. Fire alarms, carbon monoxide alarms, smoke alarms, motion sensors, defibrillators, and emergency equipment as necessary/possible.
18. Lighting and lights for all facilities , including emergency generator etc.
19. A medical store/dispensary on the premises with medicines and vitamins etc. for autistic people, specially stocked and pharmaceutical advisor and personnel.
20. A Restaurant for residents, staff, guests, special occasions, etc.; ideally would showcase the produce of the Village gardens and the culinary skills (even if at basic levels) of specially-trained residents, as well as hired chefs/staff.
21. A shop selling local arts and crafts etc, created in the Village, and perhaps in cooperation with local artisans from the surrounding communities…
22. A shop selling all goods needed for inhabitants, workers and visitosr, plus the extra produce, fruits, juices, GFCF foods, and other foods/baked goods from the farm and restaurant.

Next poem shortlisted again on angelic dynamo - here's the documentary evidence.

Alexander Freer This week:

Something is wrong but we may not need an operation by Daphna El-Roy
Occidente Express by Andrea D'Urso

derrida✻ by A.V. Koshy


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Ecocriticism

Christian Eco-theology: A Brief Overview

By Dr. A.V. Koshy

I want to examine the Bible as an ancient, Asian, religious, eco-critical text and make the effort to find an alternative Christianity within the Christian tradition that may still be other-worldly but is not therefore, as is commonly considered, detrimental to the earth. Au contraire, it is instead beneficial to this world’s ecology. This will of necessity mean a deconstruction of some commonly held or perceived notions of Christian theology as well as of the ecological world’s perception of Christianity as a threat to the future well-being of mankind. My reading has been influenced by Derrida but it does not mean that it is Deridean.

I would like to start with the etymology of the name Adam.

“Adam is traditionally the first human male, but that tradition is presently under attack. See Eve or The Chaotic Set Theory for the counter argument.

Adam is one of five words that indicate a man (words like dude, guy etc). This particular word indicates man as a being created from material; a dustling, or earthling. Adam is the masculine derivation of the root ('dm 25 and 26, Hebrew sounds*). The feminine derivation (adamah 25b, Hebrew sounds) indicates the ruddy earth found in the Middle East and means acre, ground, land. The words (adom, adem 26a, b, Hebrew sounds) indicate the typical red color of that earth.

The name Adam means Earthling.

Other names from this same stock are, Edom - the nickname of Esau - which also means red, ruddy, and Admah.

Other names that have to do with words that mean man are Enosh (Mortal), Gabriel (God's Man), Methushael (Man Of God) and perhaps Zechariah (YHWH's Male) and Ishi (My Man).

A name that may be a playful reference to the name Adam is Javan, Mud Man.”

(http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Adam.html)

The binary opposition is between the heavenly and the earthly, throughout the traditional reading of the Bible. However the points of reconciliation are also there in an alternative reading of the Bible, in Jesus as he is represented in the gospels, in some of Blake's and Hopkins’ ideas, in Francis of Assisi’s yearning to preach the gospel to "all" etc.

To start with, a reading of some sections of Genesis may be essential. In the first section Adam is shown as one who can eat all the fruits in the garden including of the tree of eternal life, except one, and name – a divine function - all the living creatures. He is given Eve as a helper and it is more or less clear that their job is not looking after the garden or the living creatures but enjoying fellowship with God and remaining in their rightful place in the scheme of things, as the crown( highpoint) of creation.
When they fall, they are not tempted by the serpent, according to my ecological reading, though this can be combated - but either by Satan entering the serpent or Satan coming to Eve in the ‘form’ of a serpent. Having fallen, they are shown to be no longer in their rightful place. God does not want them to use the vegetation for clothing but animal's skins. This might offend an eco-critic. However, the validity of such a decision would depend on the geography of the area that is unknown. But it is also double edged, in that God seems to love plants and trees more than animals. Adam now has to work and vegetarianism is no longer the order of the day. Delight and Paradise is lost to both of them.
When Cain offers fruits etc., to God, God's displeasure may be at the fact that he tried his hand at farming but is unable to do it well. He is unable to bring him the "best produce." Similarly, the same care for agrarian products that should not be wantonly destroyed is perhaps shown. Contrary to expectation the early revelation of God as creator of the people in the land of Nod and the two in Eden- that is, of a special man and a woman who herald the next step in evolution as not just of the human race, ushering in a new age for the race of mankind - is "agrarian" in outlook. Cain is a 'poor' gardener while Abel tends the flock well, though he continues the tradition of slaughtering animals, maybe in remembrance of the story of his parents as to where their clothes came from.
The things written so far have been addressed more to Christians to remove certain innate biases they have developed over the years in reading the Bible, to see it only as a spiritual text.

Now we turn to a very interesting facet in the King James translation of the Bible. I do not know Hebrew or Greek but even in the Amplified Version an echo - two echoes- of what the translators of the KJV brought out cannot be entirely stifled.
It is about the earth as a living being. Adam is earthling -child of the earth - from dust to dust - but the earth itself is different. Blood is also considered living, interestingly, metaphorically.

8And Cain said to his brother, [b]Let us go out to the field. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.(B)

9And the Lord said to Cain, Where is Abel your brother? And he said, I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?

10And [the Lord] said, What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to Me from the ground.

11And now you are cursed by reason of the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's [shed] blood from your hand.

12When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength; you shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth [in perpetual exile, a degraded outcast].

The earth has a mouth, - personification - does not want to drink blood, again an agrarian trait, - and turns against its murderous child by appealing to a higher power for justice – “by reason of the earth”. It will not yield its strength from then on to Cain.
Now the interesting thing is this: while the Amplified Bible uses "it" for the earth the KJV uses "she." Which translation is correct? I believe both are. Any scripture worth its salt deals with individuality, family and community as the foundation stones and the Bible which may be the archetype of all Scriptures deals, as it should, first with the individuality of the plural Elohim, with an unmentioned feminine aspect to Him that is hinted at in the verse that says "in the image of God created he them, male and female created he them" in the first version of the story of creation in Genesis, then with a brief mention of a community that seems to be not very relevant - the dwellers of Nod etc, then with mothers , Eve and the Earth and also with family, or children, sons , wives and grandchildren, dealing simultaneously also with the ideas of work, reproduction, fertility, sacrifice ( of flora and fauna) and the formation of new communities. The humility of these early men and women is noticeable in that they understand that they have to be allied with the forces of nature - represented by how Adam's disobedience and Cain's murder is punished symbolically, and literally, both figuratively and metaphorically by references to the earth mother or the living "it" or organism that the earth is that is being displeased with their actions. Thus it will bring forth “thorns and thistles” to Adam for choosing mortality over eternal life and withhold its strength from Cain for murder.
The message is clear if we read it this way. The Deity and the earth preferred sheep-herders and genuine farmers to the artificers and metalworkers that then came up from Cain's line - people like Tubal Cain - the first industrialists, in a sense, because the latter would try to preserve the natural balance of the earth , instead of upsetting it. There had come about a lack of connection both with the heavens and earth. The earth's position towards the fallen angel Satan who lives on it is also made clear in its/hers attitude to Adam and Cain. “It” is antithetical.
Thus we can consider, as Christians, the bible as an ur-text that actually exhorts us to repair the breach within ourselves towards God and the earth and to each other so that the earth may once again become a fruitful place. This is eco-criticism coded into the Bible at its very inception, in its nascent phase.
If we read carefully, the opposition is not between the heavenly and earthly but between, on the one hand the heaven and earth conjoined and, on the other hand, the force that was in the serpent that tempted Eve.
This force seems to have as its aim, ultimately, not just the destruction of mankind but also of the earth itself by turning it into thorns and thistles, and not allowing it to feed its own children, by making it use set laws of causality against its children if they go wrong, and thereby, tragically, turn against and destroy itself, in the final analysis.

However the Bible seems to nose-dive after that in terms of ecological concern. Moses's law expands social responsibility amazingly but seems to care nothing for the surrounding habitat or environment or animal rights. The division of animals into clean and unclean ones is a case in point. Even animal husbandry becomes slowly economic. Here too, it is possible to look at it in another way. A friend of mine points out that not gleaning the edges of the field, giving the earth a year of rest every seventh year, not eating anything except a certain limited number of prescribed species can all be seen as ecologically sound practices. But for me personally, the high points in the Bible, ecologically speaking, after the beautiful book of Job that celebrates animal variety and then Noah's care for all living things, are Isaiah pointing out that God doesn't require animal sacrifice, David speaking of how the heaven and earth are full of God's glory and Solomon conversing or at least communing with plants, trees, spiders, ants, horses etc by close observation somewhat akin to a naturalists but perhaps going deeper because he almost suggests what is considered by most a theological fallacy, that these creatures have a soulful kind of ‘intelligence’.
We have to come to the New Testament to see a new era begin in eco-theology with the advent of Jesus. The first noticeable difference is in the parables of Jesus. He harks back to Ezekiel's nature parables in his style but his are better, as are his examples that are homespun and from close observation of nature around him that work well, whether used as similes or metaphors. For the first time after Job and Solomon we see a God who cares for birds of the air(sparrows) and the flowers and grass of the field (lilies). In the wilderness we see Jesus dwelling with wild animals, if we are to believe the narrative in Mark, peacefully. Noah's dove reappears at his baptism, and he rides meekly upon a colt, the young one of an ass. Most eloquent of all is his ability to control nature; fishes, winds, storms and breezes respond to him. He fights for animals in the temple, setting them free , and talks of God as a gardener and himself as a shepherd dealing with fig trees, vineyards and sheep respectively , harking back to David but also looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth. He also behaves like God destroying pigs and a fig tree with impunity but the measuring rod seems to have been taken out of our hands by this Jesus who seems able to act exactly like a force of Nature and not like man , as if he is not only one with God but also with Mother Nature or earth. Nature not only creates, as Jesus does birds in another apocryphal story, but also destroys, and since he is united with God, man and earth in perfect harmony when Jesus dies people are resurrected, the earth grows totally dark and weeps – an eclipse? - , there is storm and thunder and lightning etc. The earth has been traumatized by the death of the first great Eco-warrior but also galvanized to hope that other such warriors will come up. In Paul's letters we read the hope, “creation” groaning for the revelation of the sons of God. We also read of it metaphorically in John's gospel and Paul's letter, of a seed that dies and comes back as something else harking back to the trend-setting parable of the sower and the seed. The journey of a new ecological awareness continues in Peter's vision too, when he understands that all animals are clean.
I understand that my 'reading' of Jesus and aspects of the Bible are not of the usual kind. I have chosen to read the text literally and not figuratively in many points, to bring out the ecological aspect.
The “unity” of my ecological reading, however, is not imposed. For instance, the earth that appears as a she in Genesis appears again as a she in Revelation.
Revelation 12. 16 "And the Earth helped the woman, and the Earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth."
But this time she is on the side of the “woman clothed with the sun having the stars for a crown, the moon under her feet.” They are perfectly aligned in protecting those who have the same mind of Jesus, against Satan , the old serpent form, the dragon, that wants to destroy all of them. They finally win the battle.
Then comes the millennium, and finally the new earth and new heaven.
Thus the Bible can be seen not only as a spiritual blueprint but also as an ecological one that will restore everything to its rightful place so that in a new earth ruled by Jesus and his disciples who will care for all things well there will be a new dispensation with no ecological problems too.
Unfortunately this side of the Bible seems to have been lost to future generations except for a Blake who wrote of “the marriage of heaven and earth” and also poems like “the tiger” and “the lamb”, and, more relevantly, a Francis of Assisi, a G.M. Hopkins in a poem like “Inversnaid” where he praises “the wild-er-ness and the wet” and perhaps, in India, a Sadhu Sundar Singh (both Francis and Sundar Singh knew how to be at peace with wild animals like their Master), so that it is partly right to speak of the wanton destruction caused by Christians to mother earth and Nature in their zealous evangelizing that concerned only humans. A Ray Bradbury posits telling the gospel to other planets and stars but the idea of a gospel for earth has percolated into the consciousness of Christians too slowly. The Romantics understood the need to connect to the circle of life much, much better. Francis Schaeffer alone glimpsed the need. In one book of his he quotes Jim Morrison, therefore.
"What have they done to the earth? What have they done to our fair sister? Ravaged and plundered and ripped her and bit her. Stuck her with knives in the side of the dawn. And tied her with fences and dragged her down." JIM MORRISON
This is the empathetic voice one wants to hear. It is a voice that connects everything as did St. Francis in his addressing of everything as brother or sister.

The Canticle of the Sun
by Francis of Assisi
Most high, all powerful, all good Lord! All praise is yours, all glory, all honor, and all blessing. To you, alone, Most High, do they belong. No mortal lips are worthy to pronounce your name.

Be praised, my Lord, through all your creatures, especially through my lord Brother Sun, who brings the day; and you give light through him. And he is beautiful and radiant in all his splendor! Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.

Be praised, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars; in the heavens you have made them, precious and beautiful.

Be praised, my Lord, through Brothers Wind and Air, and clouds and storms, and all the weather, through which you give your creatures sustenance.

Be praised, My Lord, through Sister Water; she is very useful, and humble, and precious, and pure.

Be praised, my Lord, through Brother Fire, through whom you brighten the night. He is beautiful and cheerful, and powerful and strong.

Be praised, my Lord, through our sister Mother Earth, who feeds us and rules us, and produces various fruits with colored flowers and herbs.

Be praised, my Lord, through those who forgive for love of you; through those who endure sickness and trial. Happy those who endure in peace, for by you, Most High, they will be crowned.

Be praised, my Lord, through our Sister Bodily Death, from whose embrace no living person can escape. Woe to those who die in mortal sin! Happy those she finds doing your most holy will. The second death can do no harm to them.

Praise and bless my Lord, and give thanks, and serve him with great humility.

(Translated by Bill Barrett from the Umbrian text of the Assisi codex.)

The question is, having traced out the lineage of a Christian eco-theocentricism for my personal satisfaction, primarily addressing the Christian population that consists mainly of evangelicals, fundamentalists etc., in the course of which I’m sure I’ve said nothing new, there being “nothing new under the sun,” how can all this be connected to today’s pressing ecological problems like global warming, the use of coal, carbon footprints, environmental degradation, lack of conservation, the rent in the ozone layer or to a natural disaster like the one that happened to Haiti? Is all this due to the dragon or mother earth in action, to use my own metaphors? And what can ecologically minded people do to bring the earth back on course to avert such natural 'disasters' and bring about a new earth? Or are they not ‘natural’, these new earthquakes etc., but brought upon ourselves by our Cain-like misdeeds, in which is a spiritual remedy the one that should be sought?

My experience in India, Saudi Arabia and presently in Libya has convinced me that India is better off than the so-called Islamic nations in trying to care for the earth. In India the philosophies of monism and ‘advaita’ have no doubt helped and ignorance or lack of awareness is often more the root cause of non-alleviation of environmental problems and concerns than unwillingness. I think the presence of these philosophies act as a healthy balance on other religious philosophies, so that in a place like India the Christians at least are not at all averse to taking suitable measures for sustainable development etc. I do not know much about how other religions in India react to the global crisis regarding environmental issues. In Saudi Arabia and Libya, 2 oil rich nations, the wastage of resources has to be seen to be believed. This is especially so in Saudi Arabia where, for instance, in the university in which I worked lights would be on 24 hours, paper would be used recklessly (in stark contrast to the international school I taught in, in India, where it was compulsory to use two sides and recycle paper) and petrol is never meant to be conserved, to name only three things. Libya is not as bad in its ways, by comparison. However, in Libya too there is a crying lack of awareness. The difference between someone like me who gets regular updates by email from activist political and environmental organizations like Greenpeace, Avaaz etc., in my mail box daily, not to mention emails of local, zonal and national groups and those who are at the other extreme of the information spectrum in that they haven’t even heard of an organization called Greenpeace reflects the uncertainty of post-modernity as a phenomenon in its full measure. Facebook offers ‘green’ internet games but these countries do not encourage games in the public sphere. They are not considered welcome in the spaces of learning as tools and would be labeled a “waste of time.”
In keeping with the concepts of a Red Cross and a Blue Cross, allied to these as a sister institution or asset, what Christians could do is start a Green Cross. The question must arise as to how it would be different in its greenness from other such organizations and how, at the same time, the same or similar, and in or of what its ‘pan-Christianity’ that would still be so that it can be of practical and spiritual use to the entire material worlds of the here and now and the future. Since these issues go beyond this paper, I will not venture there but will end on this abrupt note, constrained as usual by time and space.

*the root can be expanded in different ways using vowels and that changes the meaning, in Hebrew.

Writing Curriculum

Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
University of AL- Margib
College of Education
Department \English
A Model Descriptions of Curriculum
Course Name
1. General Information
B.A., Writing II (4 credits) Course Name
English Section
English Support posts
EL 221 Course code
Academic year 2009-2010 Academic year/ semester
50 x 3 The number of hours
English The language used
Dr A.V.Koshy Course Coordinator / Professor of Article
History and the adoption of the decision

2. Number of weekly hours
Lectures Laboratories Training Total
3, 6 hours , Year II, sections A,B,C. 6 hours

3. Course Objectives
1. Revising Paragraph Writing
2. Planning and writing a whole Composition. (Short essay)
3. Writing a narrative short essay
4. Writing a descriptive short essay
5. Writing an opinion essay
6. Writing cause and effect and comparison and contrast essays


4. Learning outcomes targeted
A. Knowledge and understanding
1. Learn academic writing
2. Explore opinions through written communication
3. Discuss ideas through written communication
4. Share their experiences through written communication
5. Understand different and relevant modes and forms of written communication
6. Tools of writing

B. Mental skills
1. Confidence for college success.
2. Analytical skills.
3. Interpretative skills.
4. Critical thinking skills.

C. Practical skills and professional
1. Understanding structure in writing
2. Exam- taking skills.
3. Consolidating knowledge of mechanics, syntax, etc.
4. Addressing particular rhetorical modes
5. Application in real life situations
6. Mastering forms of writing

D. General skills and transmitted
1. Writing sentences that are connected.
2. Organizing paragraphs.
3. Essay writing.



5. Course Syllabus
Number of lectures The number of hours Course Topics Number
1 2 Introduction of essay 1.
2 4 Body paragraphs 2.
1 2 Conclusion of essay 3.
1 2 Arrangement of sentences, supporting sentences etc. 4.
2 4 Unity & coherence 5.
2 4 Contrast & comparison 6.
2 4 Cause & effect 7.
2 4 Narration 8.
2 4 Description. 9.
2 4 Paragraph outlines 10.
2 4 Expanding . 11.
2 4 Editing & revising 12.
1 2 Planning 13.
3 6 Practice. 14.

6. Learning methods
Analysis of role models Brainstorming & Writing outlines Writing paragraphs Editing & Revising Final drafts.
Analysis of structures of writing Discussing, doing research & writing paragraphs Writing outlines of essays Editing and revising Final drafts

7. Methods of assessment
Number Methods of assessment
Assessment
Date Percentage Notes
1. Mid- term test 1 20%
2. Mid-term test 2 20%
3. Final exam 60%
4.


8. References
Number Reference Authors Publisher Country Publishing
1. Effective Writing 2 The Short Essay Alice Savage/Patricia Mayer Oxford UP USA
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

9. Potential required
Number The potential availability of the required Notes
1. Digital projector in each class.
2. Computer in every classroom
3. Laptop for the teacher
4. Internet connection –wireless in the building.
5. More books and magazines and research journals in library.
6. Staffroom cubicle with desktop, locker etc for teacher.


Instructor…………………………………………………………….
Course Coordinator…A.V.Koshy…………………………………………..
Head of Department…Abdul Salam Bel Hajj……………………………….………
Date………………………………………………………………………