Date: Sat, 28 Mar 1998 18:25:42 +1100
From: Rob Schaap <rws-AT-comserver.canberra.edu.au>
Subject: M-TH: A couple of things


Hello Thaxalotls,

A quick jot on my way home ...

1)  Does anybody have any strong feelings about the level of traffic on
this list?

2)  Let's make sure occasional flare-ups don't get fanned into wild-fires,
eh?  For instance, Mark never said anything about contacting employers or
university administrations.  In fact, while I thought Mark's warning to
Justin a bit silly and also agree with Bill's observation that Mark goes
way over the top himself sometimes, I gotta go along with Boddhi - I'd gone
through Mark's post with as close to a co-mod's eye as I could muster at
the time, and was most surprised to see charges of homophobia levelled at
it.  What am I supposed to be missing?

3)  Twenty years ago, I went to uni with a perfectly nice woman who evinced
loads of cultural capital, an intelligence which brought her post-graduate
qualifications with ease and alacrity, and charm to burn - all qualities
she still has in abundance.  Anyway, as soon as she finished her degrees,
she left comfy little Hobart and took her virtues and qualifications to
Sydney - where she has been a sex worker ever since.  Where must I look,
Boddhi, to find her sociopathic and amoral qualities?

4)  It occurred to me, when I saw Justin's little poke at Boddhi ('It's
high school civics'), that we no longer have high-school civics in Oz.  I
teach in a policy area, and simply cannot assume any of my third-year
students know their upper house from their lower house, never mind the
formal roles of the judiciary.  And they should, because our Tory
government spends much of its time attacking our High Court - you can stack
the High Court here (it's by appointment) but you have to be in government
a while to do it (which they've haven't - even if it might seem an eon),
and the court's manifest suspicion that Aboriginees might just have a claim
to dignity and place has convinced Howard he has a bunch of bewigged
pinkoes on his hands.

cheers,
Rob.




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