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Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Chinese plan to ‘re-educate’ Tibetans (big brother Mao loves you)


China seeks to 'educate' Tibetans
China has launched an "education" campaign in Tibet it says is designed to undermine support for the Dalai Lama and any separatist sentiment. The Tibet Daily newspaper said the campaign was to "unify the thinking... of officials and the masses".

How ugly does this all sound? ‘Patriotic Education Campaigns’ will include Television propaganda campaigns and Party Officials denouncing the Dalai Lama and forcing monks to publicly denounce the Dalai Lama. That’s a lot of denunciation, feels a bit 1984 doesn’t it, Big Brother Mao loves Tibet?

1 Comments:

At 22/4/08 1:56 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

CONVENTIONAL WISDOM ASSUMES THAT PARTICIPATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION IS A NECESSARY COROLLARY OF EXCELLING IN INTERNATIONAL ARENAS IN A GLOBALISING WORLD.BULLSHIT!

A NATION WITH VERY FEW KIWIS AT OUR OWN UNIVERSITIES AND WITH HIGHER EDUCATION PARTICIPATION RATES FOR FOREIGNERS FEELING THE SQUEEZE FROM USER PAYS AND RESTRICTED ENTRY 2009 MUST COME TO AN END SOONER RATHER THAN LATER AS WE ARE ALL SUFFERING NEEDLESSLY UNDER THE CURRENT CORRUPT REGIME AND THEIR "CONGRESSES"?

WE CAN NO LONGER DISREGARD OR EVEN ADEQUATELY COMPETE IN THE NEW KNOWLEDGE OR GLOBAL ECONOMY OF AOTEAROA/NEW ZEALAND WITHOUT ACCESS TO HIGHER INCOMES LIKE THOSE ENJOYED BY OUR OVERSEAS RIVALS.THIS STATE ENFORCED POVERTY STRICKEN LOW INCOMES HIGHER TAXES MONOPOLY WITH NO TAX CUTS IN THIS YEARS BUDGET BY THE WAY IS JUST A SHAM.THIS HAS HAD A GREATER IMPACT ON INTERNATIONAL ARENAS WITH TAX CUTS FOR LOW INCOMES LIKE IN OZ AT $20.00 A WEEK , BIGGER THAN ITS SIZE OR LOCATION WOULD ATTEST.

BUT THOSE WHO EXCEL ARE RARELY PRODUCTS OF HIGHER EDUCATION ALONE, INSTEAD THEY ARE FARM-GATE (OR SELF EDUCATED) INTELLECTUALS; AND THEIR PURPOSE IS NOT MAD BUT IS TO CHALLENGE THE NOTION THAT EXCELLENCE REQUIRES EDUCATION THAT IS SO AVERSE TO PLAGIARISM FOR EXAMPLE THAT STUDENTS ARE BRANDED AS CHEATS AND MADE TO SUBMIT TO ELECTRONIC DATABASES OVERSEAS LIKE TURNITIN.COM IN AMERICA IF THEY KNOW RUDIMENTARY TECH SKILLS LIKE CUT AND PASTE ON A KEYBOARD!

THESE WEBSITES REFER STUDENTS ONTO LINKS WHERE YOU CAN PURCHASE AN ESSAY ONLINE IN YOUR CHOSEN SUBJECT OF CHOICE, BUT WE TUMEKE BLOGGERS PREFER TO LEGITIMISE THE ANARCHIST-UTOPIAN TRADITION IN ADULT EDUCATION POSTING ANONYMOUSLY ON BLOGS INSTEAD WITH NO THOUGHT TO GETTING CAUGHT OUT BY CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY OR UNIVERSITY AUTHORITIES, OR EVEN THE LUGUBRIOUS HELENA CATT AND HER 3 TIRELESS STAFF.

ADULT EDUCATORS CAN BENEFIT FROM UNDERSTANDING HOW AND WHY FARM-GATE INTELLECTUALS GO ABOUT LEARNING, AND NEW ZEALAND EDUCATIONAL "REFORM" OR FORMAL EDUCATION IS REALLY JUST SELF DIRECTED LEARNING AT HOME ONLINE ON A COMPUTER BLOGGING WITH AN ANARCHIST UTOPIAN ETHOS WHICH FIRST SHOWED UP IN ATTEMPTS TO UNDERSTAND WHAT LIFELONG EDUCATION (AND THE LEARNING SOCIETY) WOULD MEAN IN A NEW ZEALAND CONTEXT.AFTER THE 1984 NEW ZEALAND EMBRACE OF NEO-LIBERALISM, SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC NOTIONS IN LIFELONG EDUCATION WERE SHOVED ASIDE BY LIFELONG LEARNING AN INDIVIDUALISTIC AND MARKET DRIVEN OECD RESPONSE TO GLOBALISATION.THESE TWO TERMS ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE AS POINTED OUT ELSEWHERE THE MARKETISATION OF EDUCATION IN NEW ZEALAND WAS DONE IN THE NAME OF LIFELONG LEARNING AND EFFICIENCY AND LED TO A PROLIFERATION OF NON-FORMAL EDUCATION PROVIDERS BUT ALSO MUCH UNHAPPINESS AND DISCONTENT AS A CULT OF FINANCE OVERWHELMED EDUCATION AND OUR OVERALL SOCIETY.EVERYTHING WAS EXECUTED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE 'TINA' PRINCIPLE AND EDUCATION WAS CONDEMNED AS PART OF THE "NEW ZEALAND EXPERIMENT' (JANE KELSEY, AND AT THE CROSSROADS ARE BOTH WORTH A LOOK) PROBLEM AND, LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE WERE PLACED ON THE FREE MARKET.THE POST-1984 RESTRUCTURING OF NEW ZEALAND EDUCATION CONTAINED SOME ELEMENTS CONGRUENT WITH THE EXPANSION OF PLACES TO STUDY OFFERING MORE CHOICE TO CONSUMERS ONLY WHO HAD THE MONEY TO PAY FOR IT.MASSEY AT ALBANY AND FORMER TECHNICAL INSTITUTES LIKE AUT OR ATI OR AIT WERE GIVEN DEGREE-GRANTING STATUS AND THE AUTHORITY OF THE MAIN BIG CITY UNIVERSITIES WAS THEREBY CHALLENGED.THESE CHANGES WERE MADE PARTLY THROUGH A DESIRE TO FOSTER HIGHER LEVELS OF PARTICIPATION BY GROUPS TYPICALLY UNDER-REPRESENTED IN FORMAL EDUCATION LIKE FOREIGN STUDENTS FROM CHINA BUT THIS WAS NEVER THEIR GOOD-WILLED INTENTION, MERELY A SIDE EFFECT OF DECADES OF RADICAL ECONOMIC CHANGES AWAY FROM OFFERING A FREE EDUCATION TO NEW ZEALAND CITIZENS AS A WELFARE RIGHT OR ENTITLEMENT.NOW, THE MOSTLY FOREIGN OR CHINESE USER PAYS "THROUGH THE NOSE".PHIL GOFF WAS EDUCATION MINISTER IN THE LATE EIGHTIES AND BACKED THE NEO-LIBERAL REFORMS AND ALSO STEVE MAHAREY VEHEMENTLY OPPOSED THE GRANTING OF UNIVERSITY STATUS TO AUT BY THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT.It was Sir David Lange who bought in Tomorrows Schools however, with elected parents on boards of trustees or devolution while he was ducking for cover from rogernomics, or does anyone else remember the glory days during the nineties when the foreign students were storming the barricades we were all bathing in the warm sunshine of 'bulk funding' from National and N.Z First downloading up to $3000.00 at a time over the phone and maxing out your daily eftpos limit of around $800.00.No wonder we were so distracted from what was really going on, ah the good old days; hey.IT LOOKS LIKE WE WILL BE GOING BACK THEIR AGAIN WITH RESTRICTED ENTRY 2009.Or significantly fewer foreign graduates with a more manageable limit or QUOTA of say 15% like exists in Christchurch currently.Mike Moore would be opposed to this sensible suggestion rejecting any limits to growing the "FREE" market under the F.T.A with China; that loophole has already been sealed up with the end of Open entry this year.So that is why Private Training Establishments like AUT and UOA should be forced to offer new opportunities to increase participation of foreigners from China under the fta in higher education in a non-formal setting ONLINE LEARNING namely, Farm Gate learning once again.These sorts of places offer learning before and after school because that is where you are supposed to learn the most from experience or distance learning or even lifelong learning for example.In other words they are frauds and anti-intellectual and offer very little by way of a real in school type education.They might even Trespass you once they have siphoned off your fees and prevent you from sitting your exams or attending lectures by physically banning your arse from the campus.Those who excel are rarely products of any kind of formal education setting whatsoever.They are in effect self educated, and opinionated as well.So the conventional wisdom of our fourth biggest export earner the $2Billion a year EXPORT EDUCATION INDUSTRY as Moore and Co like to go on and on about is really just educating foreign students here and overseas and is also to increase their participation in higher education worldwide to excel in a rapidly expanding, changing faces and a globalising world.Yes we split the atom, made LOTR, and climbed Everest but what else do the home spun achievers want us to believe.Hillary hated his elitist Grammar school and spent 2 years without success at Uni.Others brag about dropping out or working when some of us have very little choice about attending school.The alleged benefits of higher education are expressed in theory like Mike Moore's about human capital, and building with an apt surf beach metaphor a knowledge wave economy.Despite the depth of the 1984 restructuring, and the pervasiveness of market forces and dominance of a cult of finance in education circles; exemplary learning was occurring in farm sheds and garages far from the gaze of officials.This commitment to figuring things out for yourself was the theme of books like Blokes in Sheds followed by Blokes and Boats and another fascinating analysis No.8 wire:the best of kiwi ingenuity.Farm gate intellectuals are an anarchist utopia in adult education and it seemed as if the authorities couldn't be trusted anymore.Official education was dismissed as irrelevant and largely a tool to perpetuate the privilege of foreign elites.Formal education was deadening oriented towards failure rather than open critical minds for democracy or the ability to flourish in a globalised world.These changes were not made partly by a desire to foster higher levels of participation particularly by Maori, Pacific Island and other groups typically under represented in formal education.Everything was executed in accordance with TINA there is no alternative or TINAA as Chris Trotter put it; there is no acceptable alternative.Free Education was condemned as part of the Aotearoa/New Zealand problem and like everything else was placed on the market.This gave birth to the government wasting millions on research top ups for salaried staff like the multi-million dollar Marsden fund headed up by a retired prof with a limp.In a similar vein the university has sold us locals down the river mate and to the highest bidders with open chequebooks or credit cards.Do they even accept cash anymore at the tellers in the clocktower or did they have too much loot on the premises from foreign hands to feel secure.So they should.The Ministry of Social Development Social Well Being Indicators Report online for 2007 has a few glaring inadequacies.First of all under Knowledge and Skills it says that this should cover everyones 'Basic Needs'.Also they mention that Lifelong Learning and Education are one in the same thing when quite clearly they are not.As pointed out above, that is no longer the case within the OECD.Our tertiary participation rates are much higher than the rate of our students educational qualifications.With the introduction of more than a basic level of computer literacy at tertiary level for Other groups with very low incomes and the further enhancement and development of students "distance education" like 'Cecil' or online lecture notes downloaded at home, this new aspect of continuing with adult education, and not lifelong learning for vocational training alone should be encouraged more often.SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC NOTIONS OF COMMUNITY WERE SHOVED ASIDE BY AN INDIVIDUALISED AND MARKET DRIVEN OECD RESPONSE TO THE GLOBALISATION OF FREE EDUCATION.WORKING INSTEAD ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE AND THE MARKETISATION OF EDUCATION IN NEW ZEALAND DONE IN THE NAME OF LIFELONG LEARNING AND EFFICIENCY FOR JOBS IS REALLY JUST A CON BY THIS LABOUR GOVERNMENT.This marketisation of education was started under the last labour government as well in the name of lifelong learning and efficiency or work and has produced much unhappiness at the University and was an overwhelming source of discontent as a cult of finance overwhelmed our education system.These sorts of places should now offer only distance learning for example.Free Education proponent in Nepal Sir Edmund Hillary hated his elitist Grammar school and spent 2 years without support at Uni.Others brag about dropping out or working when some of us have very little choice about attending school.So much for supporting Education?

 

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