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I talked about evolution with the CNELA English Club. A girl said it was boring! That was a bit of a relief to hear actually. Also, I was offended too because I did most of the talking. That's not actually their style: usually people raise their hands and are addressed in order. I don't like that, and I was the leader today. Still, I wasn't very aware that I was breaking from their tradition, I just sort of talked, asked questions, and talked, as it occurred to me.
I have been helping a colleague with a very interesting translation. The original document is about the election... What else? Oh, I helped give a talk about being a vazaha in Madagascar to new Peace Corps Volunteers. That was really fun. Part of it the fun was seeing Americans. But I also enjoyed meeting the Malagasy staff and the other speakers, Haina and Safa, of Comorros and Yemen, respectively. I am still teaching at CNELA and my students are getting LAZY! I can tell because less than half did the homework last week. What do I do??? The staff room at school is really fun. There are a lot of lively teachers and there are people working hard too. Everyone is so willing to help, too. One thing that is a bit weird is that everyone is part time. Lots of the teachers have other teaching jobs. I know one guy who teaches at four schools!
April 2
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The end of the teaching session went well. Some students complimented me and some found the courage to ask me some personal questions. Testing season now: April 13. Went back to Wushu after a two weekend break. It was fun on Saturday afternoon: Franciska ran the workout and we learned a new form. On Sunday morning we didn't start until practically 10, but Zo was there. He has improved a lot in the last eight months. He used to be flexible, but now he can jump high too. I tried to jump into a roll and hurt my back a bit, but its fine now (5 hrs later). It actually wasn't that bad, but I was scared to try again.
I have something to say about the internet. Really its just for Google. Their motto was "Do no evil" but they must have changed it. They have been rolling out product after product. I assume the aim is to have a secure income source, since business advisors told them ad revenue from search isn't secure, as customers can just change search engines whenever they want. Listening to this advice is evil. That in an of itself is reason enough to use a different search engine, but Google's is still the best. Here's the deal though, instead of investing so much money in new products, why don't they invest in connecting the world. Think of how locked in to Google people will be when Google comes to their remote village in the mountains, installs solar panels, provides computers, and connects them to the rest of the world. That's real loyalty. Google has the kind of money necessary to do LOTS of these hyperspecific projects. That is doing good and its good for business. Creating prodoucts like Chromebooks and the Nexus line and whatnot don't make a big difference in the world except to saturate it with the Google logo. Google was given a big chance when they were given an out of this world revenue stream from search ads. Business advice from other industries is completely inapplicable and it was pure greed that drove them to this failure of imagination. The truth is that they best way to secure customers is to get people like you. How could you do that better than straight giving away access to your product?
The second thing I want to say about the internet is that I want to see more product placement in my free movies. You know what, I prefer if EVERY car driven by a good guy in the next big action movie is a Cadillac than if I have to pay to see that damn movie. Ad companies can pay fractions of a buck for every download. I can watch whatever movie I want for free. Movie companies make money. And I am subconciously motivated to buy Oral toothbrushes because thats what Norton uses in Fight Club: Attack of Commercialism. I hate paying for movies. Can I just relate this to Madagascar for a second? I can walk to any number of stores and have the guy copy a movie onto my usb key for under a dollar. And you know what I am paying for in that situation? I am paying for that guy's storage, because he has a great deal of harddrives filled with awesome media that has nothing to do with any copyright coorporate golden TP royalty big lawyer screw the little guy junk. Now I can't pretend that this situation makes any sense at all, since I should be able to download whatever movie I want for free in a reasonable amount of time. But it is a whole lot more reasonable than waiting for Netflix to buy rights for some group of movies you've been waiting to see. Once you make some piece of media, isn't it an honor that people want to see it? Don't you want your message to reach the greatest number of people? Or do you just want the biggest paycheck-bc I probably don't want to see that movie... Right, assume everyone pays for their movies in the developped world. Well that is dandy, but someone will have to revamp the constitution and establish rule of international law before that happens in the third world. You might say go for it, but that really isn't the right motivation is it? So that some chump in the US/China can make a money taking a cut off a movie purchase by some guy pushing a cart around... /endrant=2x'...'
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One thing I forgot to mention is another suggestion for Google. Another way they could spend their money constructively is to buy up all the publishing companies of academic journals, buy their archives, and all of the copyrights. Then post all the information from all scholarly publications for all time, onto Google Scholar for free access by the public. Then we could get a really good idea of the relationships between the sciences.
From some Mahaleo song, and then translated from French by me, "God gave the Swiss the watch and he gave the Malagasy time".
April 14, 2014
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Well the testing is complete now. 18 of 26 of my students who took the test passed. 21 passed the written but 3 failed the oral. It really surprised me that they did because I found that they were all capable. Particulary one young guy was calm and natural and spoke with ease. I asked why he failed and I was told that he made mistakes. To be honest, there is a lot that I don't like that I don't have enough energy to comment on, but its the type of thing that I have to do in person before elabroating on my blog. Anyway, I am not signed up to teach anymore because I want to be a student. Still waitin on a response (April 23) to my application to the math department at the Univ. of Ankatso. Kind of anxious now, because if accepted, I will need to ask for a refund from a language institude in Japan.
So anyway, I was in Tsarasoatra this weekend. I learned how to crack a whip. It only cost a few blisters on my hands, red marks on my arms, some embarassment, and a healthy dose of soreness. The trick is not speed, but its to whip in both directions. Like the windup needs to be just as fast as the swing. I had to watch a bunch of tiny boys wield a karabasy (whip) before figuring this out.
So with my new skill, I helped take the webu from the field and get them in their resting spot for the night. Also, we plowed a field. You just really have to lean some handlebars to the left to get the plow to move to the right and lean it right to go left. The hardest part is remembering that. Once I figured it out I still had trouble to see the path I was supposed to take. The good thing is that while steering you can use the plow to support you if you slip because walking in a flooded field is...not easy.
The 70watt panel and the 65amp/hr battery that we installed at the hosue earlier is alright for light and charging phones, but it only gives like 30 minutes of TV per night. That really is OK. But I want people to embrace solar, so I am going to figure something out.
Oh right, I finished reading Kafka's The Trial. Really some strokes of genius in the book, especially at the end, but on a whole it is a very rough and unfinished book. I wasn't really interested for a lot of it. The guy doesn't go about the trial in the same way as I wanted him too, particularly he never consults the police. What I mean is that he never appeals to an authority to verify that of the court which is holding his trail. I really liked the cathedral scene because the priest was so understanding and well informed.
Today, I went to the invocation for 37 new Peace Corps Volunteers. There actually is not American Ambassador to Madagascar. There hasn't been one since 2010. The 'Chargee d'Affairs', a guy named Eric Wong spoke for the embassy. He said that he is confident a new ambassador will be appointed. He also said that the democratic election is a good start to getting some trade benefits under AGOA. Before he spoke the Peace Corps Country directer, and American named Dee, gave a passionate speech. But after Wong spoke, the Prime Minister of Madagascar spoke. He thanked Wong in a sort of up front way: he took the microphone from his translater (he was speaking in French) and turned to look at Wong, then he said thank you for the 70 million USD in aid that the US forked over each year of the crisis. The World Bank is said to have stopped giving aid for the duration of the crisis.
Anyway, I talked to one or two Peace Corp Volunteers but it was a bit surreal and while it was somewhat necessary, I really didn't get into it. I also talked to an intern at the Embassy. He is a religious type guy from Washington who did some work in Indonesia along the same lines as Peace Corps. He talked to me and Haina about Sex Education. He introduced an idea to me: some education can be something like encouragement, so they had to walk a fine line in a conservative Muslim country (according to him, most of Indonesia is Muslim-this also surprised me). Anyway he was a young American and I had a less not normal talk with him than with the volunteers. Another event took place at this meeting. By the way, it was at the Villa Philadelphia, which is supposed to be the Ambassador's house. So I started a conversation with a Malagasy guy. It was a long conversation for this cocktail and appetizer type event. And I asked if he was sure he didn't know me because I suspected I had seen him before. Turns out he leads the Bible Study Fellowship here in Antananarivo. I went there for a while, but stopped for one reason or another. Anyway, he works for the Peace Corps too: he is a health and safety advisor.
So those are some of the goings on and on goings. Rado's family is crashing here so it is a full house.
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