The Walking Paradox

by Eduardo Galeano


Every day,
reading newspapers,
I attend a history class.
Newspapers teach me
by what they say
and by what they don’t say.

History is a walking paradox. Contradiction moves its legs. Perhaps for that reason its silences say more than its words and its words reveal the truth frequently through lying.

Soon a book of mine will be published, titled Espejos [Mirrors]. It’s just like a universal history — pardon my audacity. “I can resist everything except the temptation,” Oscar Wilde said, and I confess that I have succumbed to the temptation to recount some episodes of human adventure in the world, from the point of view of those who have not appeared in the picture.

In other words, it’s about little known facts.

Here I sum up some of them, just a few.

- - -

When they were expelled from Paradise, Adam and Eve moved to Africa, not to Paris.

Some time later, after their children had already embarked upon the ways of the world, writing was invented. In Iraq, not in Texas.

Algebra, too, was invented in Iraq. It was founded by Muhammad Al-Khwarizmi, one thousand two hundred years ago, and the words algorithm and guarismo [numeral] derive from his name.

Names usually do not correspond to what they name. In the British Museum, for example, the sculptures of the Parthenon are called “Elgin marbles,” but they are marbles of Phidias. Elgin was the name of the Englishman who sold them to the museum.

The three novelties that made the European Renaissance possible, the compass, gunpowder, and the printing press, had been invented by the Chinese, who also invented just about everything that Europe reinvented.

The Ancient Indians had known before everybody that the Earth was round and the Mayans had created the most exact calendar of all times.

- - -

In 1493, the Vatican gave America to Spain and granted Africa to Portugal, “so that barbarous nations be reduced to the Catholic faith.” At that time, America had fifteen times more inhabitants than Spain, and Black Africa one hundred times more than Portugal.

Just as the Pope had commanded, barbarous nations were reduced. Very much.

- - -

Water made Tenochtitlán, the center of the Aztec Empire. Hernán Cortés demolished the city, stone by stone, and with its rubble he filled the canals where two hundred thousand canoes sailed. This was the first water war in America. Now Tenochtitlán is called Mexico City. Where water once ran, now run cars.

- - -

The highest monument of Argentina has been erected in tribute to General Roca, who in the nineteenth century exterminated the Indians of Patagonia.

The longest avenue of Uruguay takes the name of General Rivera, who in the nineteenth century exterminated the last Charrúa Indians.

- - -

John Locke, the philosopher of freedom, was a shareholder of the Royal African Company, which bought and sold slaves.

When the eighteenth century was born, the first of the Bourbons, Felipe V, abdicated his throne signing a contract with his cousin, the King of France, that the French Guinea Company would sell Blacks in America. Each monarch took 25 percent of the profits.

Names of some slave ships: Voltaire, Rousseau, Jesus, Hope, Equality, Friendship.

Two of the Founding Fathers of the United States vanished in the fog of official history. Nobody remembers Robert Carter or Gouverneur Morris. Amnesia was the reward of their deeds. Carter was the only independence leader who emancipated his slaves. Morris, drafter of the Constitution, objected to the clause that established that a slave was equal to three fifths of a person. …………

photos from Greece

please click them to enlarge.

Report of struggle from Greece

Our Friend Chrissi Perperidou had sent this short note and some photos through mail from Greece.as we requested him to send information and news about the student movement in Greece.we are giving the links to photos in the  new post as we are unable to give them directly due to the problems of browser.we thank comrade Chrissi Perperidou and comrade Christos Mais. and we express our full solidarity to the great struggle of the students of the Greece. — Editor

 

Students’ struggle brought the first victory and goes on for the final ruin of the government’s projects

 

The reform of the Constitution, attempted the recent period in the Greek parliament by the government of New Democracy (centre-rightist) with the collaboration of PASOK (social-democrat), is part of the attack by the capital’s forces against the workers, the youth, the interests of people’s toiling majority and the democrat and social gains.

The constitutional reform concerns certain subjects of decisive significance since they were the result of our people’s struggle and gains for decades.

It concerns:

1. Article 16. It concerns the FREE PUBLIC EDUCATION which is the state’s commitment for all education stages. The abolition-reform of this article opens the way for the abolition of the right to education of the people, the working class and the youth. It is also connected with the abolition to professional and democratic rights of the youth and the people. It opens the way for the complete privatization of Education and the establishment of private Universities.

2. Article 24. It concerns the declassification of forest land which becomes prey to the constructive capital, land-grabbers and temporizers of every kind. Practically it aims at turning large forest land to building ground bearing great danger for the environment.

3. Article 103. It concerns the abolishment of permanence of public service employees (they cannot be fired). It is the overthrow of the labor relations and being a hostage of the workers and the working class in the capital’s hands.

The required process is the follow:

At first we should clarify that a referendum is not required for the reform of the constitution articles.

It requires the majority of Parliament Members, 3/5 of the current parliament – that is 180 PM – in order to reform the articles by the simple majority of the next parliament (government) – only 151 PM. If in this parliament the number of PM who will vote for the reform of the article 16 is less than 180 then in the new parliament that will try to reform the constitution the number of PM that is required should be more than 180. ………

Sachar Committee on Education

1. Introduction

The role of education in facilitating social and economic progress is well accepted today. The ability of a nation’s population to learn and perform in an environment where scientific and technological knowledge is changing rapidly is critical for its growth. While the importance of human capital and its augmentation for a nation’s development cannot be overemphasized, its micro economic consequences also need to be acknowledged. Improvements in the functional and analytical ability of children and youth through education open up opportunities leading to both individual and group entitlements. Improvements in education are not only expected to enhance efficiency (and therefore earnings) but also augment democratic participation, upgrade health and quality of life.

At the time of adopting the Constitution the Indian state had committed itself to provide elementary education under Article 45 of the Directive Principles of State policy. Article 45 stated that “The State shall endeavour to provide within a period of ten years from the commencement of this Constitution, for free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years.” In 1993, in a landmark judgement, the Supreme Court ruled that the right to education is a fundamental right flowing from the Right to Life in Article 21 of the Constitution. Subsequently in 2002 education as a fundamental right was endorsed through the 86th amendment to the Constitution. Article 21-A states that “The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age six to fourteen years in such a way as the State may, by law, determine.” The 86th Amendment also modified Article 45 which now reads as “The state shall endeavour to provide early childhood care and education for all children until they complete the age of 6 years”. However, despite this commitment the number of children in this age group who have remained out of school is alarmingly large. ……………………

A Report on communalisation of education

we are posting a link of very important report on the communalisation of education.and impact of differant pedagogical approaches on education.the report analyses the text books of RSS VHP communal schools.please click on the following link–

REPORT ON COMMUNALISATION OF EDUCATION

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. SUMMARY
Notes/Recommendations

2. PART ONE: The Constitutional Mandate and Education
(a) Impact of Pedagogy Of the Approach, Teaching Textbook and Curriculum.
(b) Ekal Vidyalaya.
(c) Madarssas.
(d) State and Private Funding.

3. PART TWO: Text of the State-run schools Textbooks
(a) Caste system receives generous treatment in Indian textbooks.
(b) Demonising Christianity, Islam.
(c) Sati was a virtue.
(d) Fascism and Nazism in Indian Textbooks.
(e) RSS-run Vidya Bharati schools blatantly use communal ideas.
(f) Hinduisation of ostensibly secular, state–run schools in BJP–ruled U.P.

4. ANNEXURE I – Gujarat: Situating the Saffronisation of education .

5.ANNEXURE II – History – through the prism of constructed identity

Condemn the arresting and foisting false charges on students

Condemn the arresting and foisting false charges on students in Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwvidyalaya !

Near about 40 students of MGA Hindi Viswvidyalaya (Wardha) were arrested on 28th December while they were protesting peacefully against illegal recruitment of teaching staff and worst academic condition of university.as you know this is an unique university for development of Hindi. this was founded in 1997 by a special act passed by parliament.but from its establishment there is no any permanent building and regular teaching staff.

in this university special courses are running like women study, peace and non-violence, translation technology, language technology, mass media and communication and comparative literature.

currently there are only 80 regular students in this university but basics facilities are so away from here. vice chancellor prof. G.gopinathan recruited 11 teaching staffs which are not able to teach higher secondary students also.

excutive cauncil passed no confidence motion against v.c. and there is a strong order issued by visitor [president of India] to all v.c’s of central universities which seized privilege of vice-chancellor.

against all of these policies students decided to protest but university administration ordered district police to arrest near about 40 students and foisted false cases on them.

we appel to all students, intellectuals, progressives to condemn this repression of student movement and demand to discharge false cases foisted on students.

Anil
( anamil.anu@gmail.com )

Why So Many Exams?

By Bertell Ollman

I.
The psychologist, Bill Livant, has remarked, “When a liberal sees a beggar, he says the system isn’t working. When a Marxist does, he says it is”. The same insight could be applied today to the entire area of education. The learned journals as well as the popular media are full of studies documenting how little most students know and how fragile are their basic skills. The cry heard almost everywhere is “The system isn’t working”. What if, as Livant points out in the case of beggars, the system is working?

The l7th century French philosopher, Pascal, noted that if you make children get on their knees every day to pray, whatever their initial beliefs, they will end up believing in God. It seems that a practice repeated often enough, especially if it includes particular movements and emotions, can exercise an extraordinary effect on how and what we think. Didn’t Marshall McLuhan warn us in the early years of T.V. that “The medium is the message”? What applies to praying and to watching T.V. applies as well to taking exams. If you make students at any rung of the educational ladder take lots of exams, this will have at least as much influence on what they become as the kind of questions that are asked. In short, exams, especially so many exams, teach us even more than they test us. To grasp what it is they teach us is to understand why our system of education already “works” and in what ways conservative proposals for reform would make it “work” still better.

II.

Before detailing what young people learn from their forced participation in this educational ritual, it may be useful to dispose of a number of myths that surround exams and exam taking in our society. The most important of these myths are -

l) that exams are a necessary part of education. Education, of one kind or another, however, has existed in all human societies, but exams have not; and the practise of requiring frequent exams is a very recent innovation, and still relatively rare in the world;

2) that exams are unbiased. In 1912, Henry Goddard, a distinguished psychologist, administered what he claimed were “culture free” I.Q. tests to new immigrants on Ellis Island, and found that 83% of Jews, 80% of Hungarians, 79% of Italians and 87% of Russians were “feebleminded”, adding that “all feebleminded are at least potential criminals”. I.Q. tests have gotten a little better since then, but given the character of the testing process, the attitudes of those who make up any test and the variety of people—coming from so many different backgrounds—who take it, it is impossible to produce a test that does not have serious biases; ………………..

We Condemn arrresting of Abhishek

Release student leader Abhishek Mukerjee and stop repression on the people struggling against the acquisition of land in Singur !

We strongly condemn the arrest of Abhishek Mukerjee, General Secretary of Revolutionary Students Front (RSF), a constituent of All India Revolutionary Students Federation (AIRSF), on December 8th. Abhishek was returning after attending a public meeting at Jadavpur University.The public meeting was organized by RSF to protest against the repression being let loose by the West Bengal state and its police on the people and organizations struggling against the forced acquisition of the farmers land at Singur in District Hoogly. The West Bengal ‘Left’ Front Govt. lead by CPM is bent upon leaving all the doors open for the foreign capital. For the last many years ithad been ambiguously opposing the imperialist penetration into West
Bengal but actually trying to woo it by saying that it is preparing ground for industrial peace so that the foreign capital may find a conducive ground for huge investments. Now they have started nakedly inviting FDI. As it has been impossible for it to create this “
peaceful” social and industrial environment, it is resorting to massive repression against the people who are opposing such projects and the acquisition of land. Now CM, Budhadeb
Bhatacharjee, has openly asked the people to stop their resistance.RSF has been actively involved in opposing this acquisition. As it is well known, this land which is about one thousand acres is being handed over to the Tatas for their small car project.

This meeting was attended and addressed by Medha Patkar convener of National Alliance of Peoples Movement (NAPM), Sujato Bhadra, General Secretary of Association for Protection of Democratic Rights, W.B.,Shebendu Das Gupta, Professor Kolkota University and Nabarun Bhatacharji, a well known poet and many others.

Abhishek was picked up along with five other members of RSF and they were taken to Beniapukur police station. While others were let off,Abhishek was arrested and has been charged under sections 120-B, 147,148, 149, 452 and 427 Cr.P.C.

It is learnt that he has since been taken to Police Headquarters at Lal Bazar and it is feared that he will be tortured in police custody.We express our full solidarity to RSFcomrades.We unequivocally demands the unconditional and immediate release of Abhishek and upholds the democratic right of people to protest against the anti-people policies of the State.

a song on ‘education’

What Did You Learn In School Today?

Song by Tom Paxton

What did you learn in school today
dear little boy of mine?
What did you learn in school today
dear little boy of mine?

I learned that Washington never told a lie
I learned that soldiers seldom die
I learned that everybody’s free
That’s what the teacher said to me
And that’s what I learned in school today
That’s what I learned in school.

What did you learn in school today…

I learned that policemen are my friends
I learned that justice never ends
I learned that murderers die for their crimes
even if we make a mistake sometimes
And that’s what I learned in school today
That’s what I learned in school…

I learned our government must be strong
It’s always right and never wrong
Our leaders are the finest men
and we elect them again and again
And that’s what I learned in school today
That’s what I learned in school…

I learned that wars are not so bad
I learned about the great ones that we have had
We fought in Germany and in France
And someday I might get my chance
And that’s what I learned in school today
That’s what I learned in school…

Full Statement of Columbia Students Who Occupied the Stage

(this is the statement of studentsof columbia university who protested against the racist ‘Minutemen’ and its ‘founder’ Jim Gilchrist at university auditorium.students unfurled a banner on stage reading “No To Racism” . we support the students and appeal to sign the petition to demand that no reprisals are taken against them. -Editor)

by Columbia Students

In the aftermath of the protest on the night of October 4 against Jim Gilchrist and the racist Minutemen at Roone Arledge auditorium, we want to state clearly: We are proud to send the message to the country that racist and fascist groups are not welcome at Columbia or in New York City.

As Chicanos and Latinos, alongside African Americans and progressive people of other nationalities, we took it as our responsibility to give voice to the undocumented immigrant families who live in fear at terrorist vigilante groups like the Minutemen. Armed patrols by these groups force more and more people desperate for work to find even more hazardous ways into the United States. Over 3,000 people-including hundreds of children-have died in the desert. Their blood is on the hands of Gilchrist and his thugs.

Fascist scapegoating is not up for academic discussion. Like Hitler in pre-Nazi Germany, Gilchrist and the Minutemen attempt to demonize foreign-born poor people, blaming “illegals” for society’s problems. His group doesn’t present reasoned debate. It spouts racism and hatred, aiming to divide people against one another.

Regardless of how Gilchrist tries to sanitize his message for national audiences, more candid moments tell the real story. Gilchrist is a member of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, which is now notorious for referring to Mexicans as “savages.” Speaking about Mexicans and Central American immigrants, Minuteman co-founder Chris Simcox once said, “They have no problem slitting your throat and taking your money or selling drugs to your kids or raping your daughter and they are evil people.”

This vile racism translates directly into violence on the ground. “It should be legal to kill illegals,” said one Minutemen volunteer. “Just shoot ‘em on sight. That’s my immigration policy recommendation.” It is no wonder that neo-Nazi organizations like the National Alliance praise the Minuteman Project in their publications, and have members signing up for Minutemen militias.

We are sure that if the Nazi party held a public meeting on campus, Jewish groups would be there to challenge them-so would we. We are sure that if the Ku Klux Klan held a public meeting on campus, African American groups would be there to challenge them-so would we. The Minutemen are no different.

We are pleased that an overwhelming number of people answered our call to demonstrate against the racist, fascist Minutemen the night of October 4.

The hundreds of people outside Roone Arledge chanting, “Minutemen, Nazis, KKK, racists, fascists, go away!” represented students and community people from all walks of life. Inside the auditorium, perhaps as much as 80 percent of the crowd was repelled by the Minutemen’s message of hate.

When we walked on stage last night with anti-racist banners for immigrant rights, we were met with violent attack by Gilchrist’s goons. We were the ones who were punched and kicked. We are proud that despite these attacks, we held our ground. When Gilchrist walked off stage, it was because he and his Minutemen outfit were isolated.

This is not an issue of free speech. The Minutemen were able to reserve a hall at our university and had the protection of campus security and the NYPD-all to espouse their hate speech. We along with hundreds of others expressed our right to speak and protest.

Over the last 50 years, throughout the Civil Rights movement and the women’s rights movement, ultra-right wing groups have routinely used violence, lynchings, armed assaults and bombings against oppressed people. Yet when we organize to oppose them to express our contempt for their violence, we are criticized for inhibiting the free speech of the ones who perpetrate violence.

We thank everyone who joined our protest last night, inside and outside of the auditorium.

Shame on the Columbia University administration for launching an investigation of peaceful protesters, and failing to condemn the perpetrators of violence. Shame on the College Republicans for inviting this fascist thug and provoking such outrage on our campus.