Category: Power & Positionality

Good Morning, Jurors

We handed in our jury selection paperwork and were explained as to our functions and the particulars about serving jury duty for the New York State Supreme Court. We were told how we will be expected to sit in on a number of trials until either we get selected for one or get dismissed tomorrow afternoon.

At least they allow computers and have freely available wifi. Nice to see my taxes at work. I just hope I get either dismissed or otherwise able to get to my new Business Communication class I am teaching on time tonight.

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Reporting for Jury Duty

I arrived to 111 Centre street for jury duty. After going through security and having my bag x-rayed, I arrived on the 11th floor and was greeted with a documentary film on justice. Ed Bradley narrated this film and spoke about trial by ordeal, the Code of Hammarabi, and justice during Medieval France and England.

The film is surprisingly good. There are video and movie clips, an engaging explanation of trial by ordeal (including a movie clip of being bound and thrown into the water to see if the person sinks and is therefore innocent). I learned about the important role of a jury, and how jurors are the only ones in the system who are entrusted with the ability and responsibility to determine truth and falsehood according to the laws and how people do and do not act in accordance with them.

This will be an interesting experience, and I will attempt to liveblog it as much as possible. I am using Windows Live Writer for this.

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Countdown to Infinity

I received an email from my colleague, Robin, who stated that he got this odd email. Trusting he would not send me anything like a virus or other problematic surprise, I clicked it. Ouch. Living in New York City these days prepares me for a lot, but nothing like this. I decided to reproduce it here for the full effect.

How to handle an irritating seat-mate on a plane
If you are sitting next to someone who refuses to let you travel quietly, follow these instructions:
1. Quietly and calmly open up your laptop case. 
2. Remove your laptop.
3. Start up.
4. Make sure the guy who is annoying you can see the screen.
5. Close your eyes, tilt your head up to the sky and move your lips like you are praying
6. Then hit this link

I showed it to a few friends, and they were all equally disturbed. I am sharing it here as I think it warrants discussion. Is this real? Alarmist? Funny? Racist? Stereotypical? Appropriate? Inappropriate? Callous? Fill in the blank ______.

It comes from the website of a talk show host, Neal Boortz. I am not familiar with him, but thought some people out there may be. What do you make of this?How do we make sense of a world like this? Can we? Is there sense to be made, or is this subject still too close and intimate? How do others outside the US feel? Perhaps my musing on this is just overreacting?

Self-Definition

Aidan Henry recently wrote about how he wanted to learn more about his readers, and I have been thinking about how interesting this idea is. Now, I am not going to pretend I have a lot of readers, and while I do not really track my blogging stats, I do want to use this to partially share something about me right now, especially as I just celebrated my first anniversary of this blog.

Back then, I wrote:

I think silence and voice are elusive concepts that are so intertwined they cannot be seen independently. Silence means others can have a voice, and to have one’s voice means another is silenced.

Is it this simple? Who decides?

So, where am I today?

Well, I am still an instructional designer (though a senior one at this point) and an adjunct instructor (yes, a professor) at NYU Stern. I consult on organizational learning and communication issues more these days. I still conduct research in the fields of human resource development and adult education. I like philosophy, though appreciate it most when it is in an applied context, namely in the areas of political and social postmodern thinking (especially with issues of power and positionality and self-identity). I also really like love technology, primarily in its application to the above-mentioned things I do.

I expect this to further develop over the next year, as even dictionary definitions change over time as new experiences occur. I have certainly had no end of new experiences recently, and expect the same for the foreseeable future. I like to remain active and alive!

Oil, Hugo Chavez, and Who Owns What?

hugo_oil.jpgThe New York Times had an interesting article in their Sunday Magazine about Hugo Chavez and how he is using profits from oil to support his vision of a socialistic Venezuela. While the Western concept of oil as belonging to whomever controls the land on which the equipment to get it out of the ground operates, one of the learnings I took from this article looks at it from another perspective. Can any person or company own these ancient reserves, or does it belong to the society itself under whose land the oil is drilled? Does Big Oil control oil since it could afford to lobby or bribe politicians to allow it to drill within state-controlled preserves or wildlife lands? Does oil belong to governments, to use as any other source of revenue? Does the oil belong to the people  (in Venezuela, the slogan states: El Petroleo es Nuestro!, loosely translated as The Oil Is Ours!), and thus nationalizing the oil reserves is a form of patriotism and duty of the govenerment to care for its citizens? Perhaps oil is more like a drug, where anybody who controls it and the potential wealth it brings wants to decide it is whatever is convenient, insofar as it maintains and supports the status quo for those in power? Perhaps oil is itself a necessary evil? 

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