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Final Exams

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“There is a magnificent gap between the poor and the rich in Latin American countries.”

“What Latin America needs to solve its economic problems is more corporations!”

“The IMF works hard to decrease poverty in Latin America and to make Latin people and people throughout the world wealthy.” [To my Latin American readers: please believe that I did not teach this. I’m from Ukraine, which makes my attitude to the IMF violently negative.]

“Galeano says that the US exploits Latin America. That just isn’t true. The US helps them a lot. For example, people in the US adopt babies from orphanages all over the world. And how about all of the help we provided to Iraq and Afghanistan.”

It’s 8:40 am and I kind of feel like having that drink already. Fifty-nine more exams to go.

31 responses to “Final Exams”

  1. Tim Avatar
    Tim

    Aobut the Baby adoption:
    A couple of days ago I saw a discussion on Reddit (I think). It was about some atrocities the U.S. had committed against foreign nationalities/nations. It was about exploitation, political subversion, warcrimes and the like. Anyway, one commenter wrote a giant comment about that all the good the United States does is outweighting everything remotely selfish or evil by a factor of 1000 or so. His/Her reasoning was that not only actual charitable work counted but also all those internet services that American corporations provide so graciously for free.

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    1. Tim Avatar
      Tim

      Services like google, twitter, email adresses and facebook.

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      1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
        bloggerclarissa

        I hope that at least my students will not mention Twitter and Facebok in their responses.

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  2. Helena Suess Avatar
    Helena Suess

    Argh why doesn’t Galeano recognize how we helped all those poor countries by selflessly donating our surpluses of white guilt and bullets and industrial waste???

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    1. N G Avatar
      N G

      Not to mention:

      The syphilis experiments in Guatemala were United States-led human experiments conducted in Guatemala from 1946 to 1948, during the administration of President Truman and President Juan José Arévalo with the cooperation of some Guatemalan health ministries and officials. Doctors infected soldiers, prostitutes, prisoners and mental patients with syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases, without the informed consent of the subjects, and treated most subjects with antibiotics. This resulted in at least 83 deaths. (Wiki)

      The country that keeps on giving!

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      1. Pen Avatar
        Pen

        Just out of curiosity, how do you infect someone with an STD without them knowing? I doubt the doctors had the STD’s and just had sex with everybody.

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        1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
          bloggerclarissa

          Syphilis is transmitted in a variety of ways. Sex is just one of them.

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      2. bloggerclarissa Avatar
        bloggerclarissa

        “The country that keeps on giving!”

        -The sad part is that I have students who’d say this completely seriously.

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  3. Ol. Avatar
    Ol.

    Where I work, professors in Political Sciences and Econ. are, to put it mildly, very conservative or libertarian. They seem to indoctrinate our already conservative students. In my class, I strive to make my students come up with their own conclusions, but the information they receive in other classes is biased against anything left of the centre. This semester, I learned with my students that ‘Evo Morales’ is evil and that immigrants steal jobs in Spain. I asked my students where they found that information. “In our ECON 101 class,” they said.

    The academia filled with left-wing radicals is a disgusting myth.

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      I’m yet to grade the class that got questions about the Indignado movement and Evo Morales on the final exam. Stay tuned because I have more of these curious statements to share.

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  4. Ol. Avatar
    Ol.

    Indigenous women in Spanish America were also sterilized without their consent, with the help of the US Peace Corps. So that is it for adopting babies.

    See Galeano and Jorge Sanjinés’s Yawar Mallku, a disturbing movie really hard to find:
    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065228/

    If I were you I’d have a drink right now.

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      It would be great to show this movie to my students.

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      1. Ol. Avatar
        Ol.

        They would be absolutely traumatized. But it would make them think. As I said, finding a copy of Sanjinés’s movie is complicated.

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      2. Helena Suess Avatar
        Helena Suess

        According to our friend The Trusty Internet you can request a copy from New Yorker Films by writing them at 16 w 61st St, New York, NY 10023 or calling 212-247-6110.

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        1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
          bloggerclarissa

          This is very helpful! Thank you! Where did you find that?

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  5. Helena Suess Avatar
    Helena Suess

    Goooooooooooogle:

    http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/433978.html

    and there’s a cite in the book “The Social documentary in Latin America” which can be found in part at Google Books.

    Also looks like the University of Iowa library has a copy for $35 rental: http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/u?/cicfilms,55

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    1. Helena Suess Avatar
      Helena Suess

      It seems to be all 16mm though so good luck finding a DVD or even VHS copy.

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  6. Ol. Avatar
    Ol.

    16mm, exactly, and it is very expensive.

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      Where did you even see it?

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      1. Ol. Avatar
        Ol.

        I saw it twice: 1) at the Cinémathèque ONF on St.Denis St (I think you may watch it there), and 2) you know where.

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        1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
          bloggerclarissa

          Oh, the Cinémathèque. . . Oh, St. Denis. . .

          I was just administering the final exam in the Culture of Quebec course (as a favor to a colleague) and I could barely administer it because the questions on the exam made me so nostalgic. The very first question was on the significance of Maurice Richard.

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  7. Saia Sikira Avatar
    Saia Sikira

    “The US helps them a lot. For example, people in the US adopt babies from orphanages all over the world. And how about all of the help we provided to Iraq and Afghanistan.”

    Creepy…

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  8. Saia Sikira Avatar
    Saia Sikira

    and, by the way, this people uses exclamative sentences in their exams?

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  9. A. L. Avatar
    A. L.

    > Fifty-nine more exams to go. <
    wow. may i wish you well and please-take-good-care-of-yourself.

    btw/on a sidenote – do you want some inspiration, just distraction or lateral thinking – or none for-the-time-being ?

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      I never say no to inspiration and distraction. 🙂

      16 more exams to go.

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  10. A. L. Avatar
    A. L.

    oh-kay – just my lateral “wild-shots” since i cannot imagine your ‘preferences’ 😉

    one – yes, i also wonder “who was first” –

    two – (this flashed into my mind when i read your “battling plagiarism” post”)
    > You will not succeed in any workplace if you can’t listen and follow simple instructions. <

    vs. this : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4yJGTPUR_0

    three – wtf 'a lamp called afrodisia ?!'
    http://www.hometone.com/entry/afrodisia-the-lighthouse-like-table-lamp/

    greetz & cheers

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      God, I love this lamp!!!

      Thank you, friend!

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  11. A. L. Avatar
    A. L.

    ❤
    (btw, actually i have been trying to find/just want to know "when it was designed". not even 'the designers put it on their webpage'.
    oy, and its no longer/available as a product on the producer's pages (.com, .it etc.)
    i cant believe it. meh 😦
    i know you are busy.)

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      “i know you are busy”

      – Not any more!!! See my latest post.

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      1. A. L. Avatar
        A. L.

        oki-ohgood !
        are you dancing or sleeping or feeling phwet or … 😉

        greetz & cheers

        (tralala, just shining some ‘lighthouse-light’. beddy-byes for me alas)

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        1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
          bloggerclarissa

          I’m reading my favorite blogs that I haven’t had time for in weeks. 🙂

          The blogger in me dies last. I think I will blog as they drive me into the funeral home. Do hearses have WiFi? 🙂

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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