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Small survey on ICT, Society and Poverty

15/09/2007 By christina 9 Comments

I am currently conducting a small survey on ICT, Society and Poverty in Mauritius and would appreciate if Mauritian readers could take just a few minutes to fill in the online survey (it won’t take you more than 5 minutes).

The data will be made available here as soon as it is completed. And, if there are enough responses, it will be presented at a conference on poverty in Mauritius, which is to take place beginning of October (I will post details).

Thanks a lot for your help. You can also ask your friends to fill in. The more the better.

Click Here to take survey

News from me

14/09/2007 By christina 2 Comments

It’s been a while since I last wrote a post. My apologies to regular visitors. It has indeed been a busy month, in a weird kind of way in some respects. Just to recap:

– We’ve had the oddest start of academic year ever with a string of decisions taken by management without any consultation whatsoever with us academics. One thing they need to learn up there is that reforms cannot be properly implemented without planning, consultation, explanation and, more importantly, you need to obtain the collaboration of most actors/stakeholders. In fact, change management encompasses internal marketing. Sell the damn thing to your internal audience, seduce them, persuade them it’s the right way to go! And also, obtain their feedback to make adjustments that will enhance the chance of success because at the end of the day, they are the agents who will implement everything. I wonder if they have at least realised that up there…

– As for me, I have been able to submit my paper on newspapers in Mauritius to the conference on the Future of Journalism which was organised on Wednesday and Thursday at the University of Cardiff. I was not able to attend but my paper was nonetheless accepted and presented in absentia. And that’s not all, I have to write up another paper for a conference and my deadline for submission is fast approaching (only 10 days left Oh My God!). So, I might again disappear for the next two weeks…

– As far as lecturing is concerned, I have also been revamping/upgrading a lot of my modules (Introduction to Media and Communication, Aspects of Film Theory and New Forms of Media). So. it has been a frenzy of reading, synthesising and preparation of material for lectures…

– On a personal note, those of you who also read Avi’s blog know that we’ve had a string of things to celebrate and events to organise, starting with my birthday (I’m getting old, snif!), going on with Anya’s and Kyan’s birthdays, then lastly our 13th anniversary as a couple. Next will be Avi’s birthday in 11 days. 25th August to 25th September is a birthdays-packed period for the Meetoos 😉

That’s it for the roundup. Ah no, I also forget that I was affected by a very bad throat infection (‘infection des voies aériennes’, said our doctor who gave us an interesting and lengthy lecture about viruses and pandemics) two weeks ago and still suffer from its after-effects. Which did not prevent me from getting embarked on a mountain-climbing expedition on the Black River Peak with Avi and his colleagues (Picture above was taken on top of the mountain;-))

They put the blame on us

14/08/2007 By christina 3 Comments

The University of Mauritius is going through difficult times. This is not new, you will say…

The blame is being subtly shifted to lecturers who are bearing the consequences of drastic changes in policy. In fact, most people are thinking that lecturers have asked for an extra week of holiday because they are utterly lazy. It has even been said on the radio that lecturers were absent yesterday and that students were sent back home for the first day of lectures. Very convenient, isn’t it?

But let me tell you that this is not true. We were present yesterday and we are present everyday at work. People do not realise how much work goes on behind the scene. Unlike primary and secondary school teachers, we do not get any holidays when there are no classes unless we apply for official leave.

The truth is that we were asked by top management to delay start of semester by one week for most courses. If the information did not get to the students, is it our fault?

And by the way, the reasons cited in the media for the delay are completely ‘à côté de la plaque’. More crucial issues are being omitted. And our Union is quite unsuccessful at getting the message across. But for God’s sake, stop putting the blame on us…

Badland & Julien Clerc concert

22/05/2007 By christina Leave a Comment

The past week-end has been quite ‘cultural’ for me as I watched a movie in Caudan Star and attended a concert at the Swami Vivekananda Centre. We had received complimentary tickets for both (lucky week-end indeed, thanks to Khersley & Lindsay)…

Badland, the movie

This is a quite long film (almost 3 hours) but you don’t really see the time pass by as it is very poignant and gripping. The scenario is well constructed, acting is excellent as well as film direction. There are some glitches (like a wound in the girl’s hand that appears completely healed in a scene then is shown again with a bloody plaster on it in the next one) but they are very minor.

Overall, it is an excellent film about the traumatic and dramatic results of war on the psyche and life of American soldiers when they come back to the States. Jamie Draven plays the role of Jerry, an American soldier who has tremendous difficulties to adjust to normal life again. To make matters worse, his wife thinks he is an a**hole, they live in a sordid home and environment with three children and a fourth one is in the womb. Jerry commits something tragic (can’t say what… would be a spoiler) and as a consequence, engages in a drama-laden trip in his homeland with a constant refusal to accept full redemption leading to a tragic end for the only thing that could have saved him from himself (can’t say what again;-)
The penultimate flash scene could have been removed as it unrealistically questions the whole story’s existence. Whereas the whole film could shock audiences, that scene tries to come back on that jolt like they were not so sure about going the full length. Anyway, fortunately it was a very short scene which you could choose to ignore…
A word on the audience that night. Apart from me and my sister Liliane, I counted only 20 people in the movie theatre. All those stories about the decline of cinema-going ain’t unfounded!!! Badland is a harsh film though…

Julien Clerc, the concert

Yeah, me and Avi we attended Julien Clerc’s concert! Not really our style of music but it was quite cool actually. The guy definitely has a good voice and knows how to use it and to get the audience to sing too (on ‘Quel Jeu Elle joue’). His lyrics are quite interesting as well, very poetic and the engaged type. Though I can’t stand ‘Femmes Je vous aime’ the other songs like ‘Utile’, ‘Melissa’, ‘Double Enfance’ were enjoyable.
A special word about the two musicians who were incredibly versatile (each one plays at least four different instruments – guitar, bass guitar, flute, synth, piano, melodica, etc.). Julien also played the piano very well (even made a mistake and humbly said ‘pardon, pardon’ before starting again the song…).
The Centre was actually quite packed though there were a number of places left. The technical setup was well done (some glitches in the filming though).

Exhausted

20/04/2007 By christina 5 Comments

Originally uploaded by Avinash Meetoo.

I have been doing so many things at work at the same time these days on top of fighting against a bad cold….

And I still have a lot on my plate:

– Carrying on with normal lectures
– Submission of exam papers
– Marking of assignments
– Marking of project reports
– Marking of placement reports
– Reading/Revision of dissertation drafts
– Appointments with dissertation students
– Finalising a short consultancy
– Doing the administrative work
– Dealing with requests / queries (including some silly ones)
etc.

I hate end of semesters….

Lack of reading culture

05/04/2007 By christina 31 Comments

I am occasionally disappointed by students’ lack of reading culture. It would seem that most students in Mauritius do not like reading, I mean interesting reading (not the silly Mills & Boon/Harlequin/Danielle Steele type, nor reading of sensational news about celebrities or crimes).

Which to my mind is the same as saying that they don’t like to learn… You can’t learn things if you don’t like reading, can you?

One little anecdote:
I recently reminded a class of University students about a book I had cited very often to know if any had felt the need to purchase it (not an expensive buy: only Rs 525). Noone had of course. Worse, one student even asked whether it would be used for other modules, presumably to know if the purchase of the ‘commodity’ would be worth it!

Another one:
I’ve been advising all my students to take a subscription to a library such as The British Council or the Centre Culturel Charles Baudelaire since ages. Noone has yet…

Most tend to claim that books are expensive in Mauritius (I agree), that they don’t have much time to read as they work, have a family life, etc. (I won’t take that!)

Of course, one cannot blame them entirely. The system we operate in has never really allowed people (young and old) to discover the beauty of reading quality books and magazines. When they reach uni, it’s even more difficult to inculcate that culture.

Yet, sometimes it makes me feel like saying that we should not allow students in University if they do not like/love reading. I suspect that if that criterion were to be, we would have only a handful of students, if any!