Wakanda & Black on Black Violence Forever

NOTE - This is an unfinished post from years ago that I want to clear out as I re-orient myself towards scholarship.

I was in New York a few days ago, and had the chance to go see Black Panther in the cinema. I loved its subversive take on racial politics and afro-futurism.

I have also started watching the Black Panther animated series, the first two episodes of which Marvel has generously uploaded to YouTube. The series is replete with discourses, not surprising as it has become a central Marvel property, and one designed specifically with race and American politics as a selling point. I'd like to dive into some of these here.

Born in Violence

S1 E1 of the anime starts with invisible Wakandans massacring warriors from another tribe.

That the Wakandans are invisible and use technology instead of face-to-face battle sets up a curious analogy with modern US drone strikes. Also, Black on Black Violence (BoBV) is depicted graphically here in a way that white violence is not.

Wakanda, the Anti-America

Later, in the White House, presidential aide Everett Ross tells how Wakanda repulsed colonial powers, but this is not shown.

"Wakanda is a small country in Africa for never having been conquered in its entire history. When you consider the history of the region, the fact that the French, the English, the Belgians or any number of Christian or Islamic invaders were never able to defeat them in battle, well, it's unprecedented. The Wakandans have a warrior spirit that makes the Vietnamese look like, well, the French. They've also maintained a technological superiority that defies explanation." (4:09-4:36). 

Like ancient technology, black superiority is hard for Americans to believe. This requires an attempt to compare the Wakandans, but like the realworld colonial exception that is Japan, none of the analogies make sense or are useful. Wakanda, like Japan, is its own civilization, its own empire of supposed inferior people who suprisingly give America a run for its money. Ross goes on to deny Soviet or other influences, and mentions Wakanda's independence from oil and use of environmentally-friendly technology.

Wakanda is, in effect, an anti-America. It uses technological superiority to defeat foes like America, flips the demographics for a black supremacy, and stands freer than the US ever could of both opposing state and corporate interests.

When the 1941 Black Panther says to Captain America "We take our borders very seriously, and you have crossed ours" (8:20-8:25), this is a deliciously ironic reversal of American border policy discourse. White ubermensch Cap is now the illegal alien, and the black, technologically superior Panther the 

Revising Fantasy History

The anime is notable for the absence of blacks fighting white oppressors, a palpable absence in the tory of a character named after realworld fighters for black rights and independence.

First, white oppression cannot be shown, but BoBV is on full display. There is a flashback of Nazi solders (German) being slaughtered which is filmed like history. Wrong side of the history being vanquished in a sanitized fashion compared to the bloodshed of Wakandan self-defence against other Africans.

Next, the independence of Wakanda is stressed.

WWII Cap issues the ultimatum 8:16-8:19 "These are dangerous times. You need to choose a side. "

BP replies "We have. Our own." 

This is the struggle for vibranium for rockets on either side of the UK-German conflict. Paoints Wakanda as an Afro-futurist neutral power uninvolved in white imperialism and its conflicts.


Last, black is a racial identity, not a national one, except for Wakandans.

Lots of statements trying to put Wakanda in the context of 20th century US geopolitics.

"They're a rogue state."

"Before you go adding them to the Axis of Evil, I should point out that they have never invaded anyone. The only time they've taken hostile action is defending their own borders."

"But a regime change could bring about a change in that policy."

This villifies American foreign policy and meddling in sovereign states that leads to further tyranny.

There are also subtle comments on the present day America.

"There is no way that bonehead is taking the throne. They have a literacy requirement." (13:08-13:13). Is this a jab at Trump?

Conclusions

The live action movies have had to 'play it safe' and thus have gotten progressively more conservative / boring. The hint of questioning Wakanda's aloofness and supremacy while letting black people suffer was one of the refreshing highpoints of the first film that seems lost after the untimely death of Chaswick Boseman. The anime seems to have a lot more discursive range.

Sources

Gordon, Max. (2018). "Come Get Your Life, Come Get Your Death." Medium.com.
https://medium.com/s/story/come-get-your-life-come-get-your-death-on-ryan-cooglers-black-panther-616039d97e5d

Marvel Entertainment. (2018). "Marvel Knights Animation - Black Panther - Episode 1." YouTube video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ry8e5ldzLDQ

Saving The Lost Ones in Newfoundland

An unknown soldier from Newfoundland, whose body lay in France for a century, has been returned to St. John's. As I drove home through town yesterday, I was amazed to see Newfoundlanders out in uniform en masse, holding the Union Jack, and waiting for the procession.

I am conflicted about this.

On the one hand, it is only fitting we honour someone who laid their life on the line for their country. The show of sympathy for one poor, lost Newfoundlander coming home after a century in foreign soil was moving.

On the other hand, where was this mass outpouring of sympathy when other poor, lost Newfoundlanders shivered in tents in Bannerman Park for months? People insist we need to honour this fallen soldier who fought for our safety, but what would he think of us leaving fellow Newfoundlanders to freeze? He might even ask us how we could do such a callous, inhuman thing.

The answer is that it is easier to give premier Furey a free flight to France to bring home a poor, dead lost one, than to stay here and make an actual effort to save all the living lost ones in St. John's. History shows us that as a government gets more corrupt and ineffective, there is an uptick of parades and spectacle. Pane et circum writ large to distract from the shivering masses.

And flying the Union Jack, the flag of the country that ended Newfoundland's 79 years of self-government and essentially stole the country that this young soldier died for, is a bitter irony. 

In Newfoundland, we used to have a Memorial University to elevate the youth our soldiers sacrificed themselves for, so their deaths would not be in vain. Ditto a stadium. Now, all we have is a price-gouging corporate supermarket and a corporate university shilling out to mainland talent. This is the direction we are going in.

Would this young soldier be happy to know what we have become?

Consequences for Consequence Free Youth

Just had 5 kids who made my classes hell last year message me begging me to come back.

I take no joy in their pain at being with teachers they don't like. But in a world where kids have very little consequences anymore, maybe losing the people they learn to value (too late) will be a lesson to them to treat people better all the time in future.

CONSEQUENCES FREE GENERATION

Students today...

They cannot fail. They cannot be allowed to fail.

They cannot take being bored.

They cannot be punished.

That's the problem with this generation, or should I say their environment. Negative consequences have all been nerfed. Can't be bored, don't have to work, constant stimulation, can wheedle their way out of any tough situation they have caused themselves.

This is not a grumpy old man talking, this is a progressive educator who has dealt with these kids daily since returning to Canada.

Because they have no negative consequences for their incidental actions, they naturally push the envelope further and further and only face consequences when their actions become harmful or illegal.

This is a total breach of the social contract. It sets students up to fail, and creates a society of people inching towards a BIG screw up.

THE ONE GOOD POINT

The one thing I find laudable is the lessened importance of grades. Grades demotivate those who can't, and inflate the ego of those who easily can. And they are a misleading metric, with only a tenuous connection to what is really important in life.

TEACHERS

Go back a decade before the government slashed the number of assistants. Teaching was fun and mutual support was the way. Now, everyone is tired, burnt out, ready to chuck in the towel.

We just got a collective agreement where they pumped assistant numbers back up, nudged up our pay, and threw in half a million towards mental health because we're all driven. And they're happy to let us break down and fall into the EAP safety net rather than avoid damage altogether.

Teaching is the only profession that lets damage occur as a natural state of things.

There is a doctor in Confederation Building, but he isn't making the patients any better.

SUBBING

I've been out of fulltime teaching  months. I substitute when I want, how long I want. The money is good - I work a week and bills are paid for the month. Like other work under Neoliberalism, we are moving to a workforce made up of temps and freelancers. Students like my carefree attitude, the respect I give them, and the interesting off-topic things I teach them to pad out the time.

Sometimes they tell me they wish I were their fulltime teacher.

At these moments, I pause for a second, look them straight in the eye, then reply.

"Never again."

When Corporations Decide Who Is Inuit: Time for critical indeginity?

 

Asking for a Seat at an Indigenous Circle

So, the other day I applied to the the Indigenous Storyteller Circle of a major audiobook corporation. (NB: I have decided not to mention the name out of legal protection and ethical concerns)

Their CfA announcement is as follows:

The Writers’ Circle will support the next wave of emerging Indigenous writers, by leveraging (corporation's) resources and creative community connections to provide mentorship and learning opportunities to help program participants tell their stories.

(corporation) has embarked on a mission to elevate the voices of Indigenous peoples in Canada, in an effort to enhance equity and support reconciliation.

Emerging writers in the program will be paired with Indigenous mentors who will coach and guide participants through the creative process. They will help them identify and pursue opportunities aligning with their goals as writers.

Participants will also benefit from immersive workshops where they will learn from some of the industry’s leading creators, publishers, content managers, writers and marketers.

(corporation) will provide additional support to the participants throughout the program, including guidance on how participants can promote their work. At the end of the program, participants may explore opportunities with (corporation) depending on what stage each writer has progressed in their creative work and how they choose to share their writing.

Each selected emerging writer is eligible for a $1,500 CAD bursary to support their participation in the program, and there is no cost to participate in the Writers’ Circle.

Statement of Non Discrimination
The (corporation) Indigenous Writers’ Circle supports equal opportunity for all persons regardless of race, sex, color, religion, creed, national origin or ancestry, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, physical ability or disability

The program year 2024 will begin on June 1st and end on December 20th, with a six-week summer break from July 20th to August 31st.

The (corporation) Indigenous Writers’ Circle invites emerging writers who self-identify as First Nations, Inuit and/or Métis and meet the following criteria to apply for the six-month program.

You are a great fit for the program if you self-identify as First Nations, Inuit and/or Métis and:Have background knowledge, interest or training in writing. This could include self-study, mentorships, academic study or combinations of these types of training

Are pursuing or considering pursuing a career in literary arts

Can provide an example of your literary workExamples of your work can include: works of fiction, non-fiction, biographies/autobiographies, memoirs, graphic novels, illustrated books, blogs, poetry, children’s literature, audiobooks and narrative podcasts.

Are at least 18 years old as of January 1, 2024

Reside in Canada (At this time, residents of Quebec are not eligible for the program due to provincial contest regulations).

Assessment process and guidelines

Applicants will be assessed by a panel of Indigenous literary artists. The panel will consider the following when reviewing each application:The strength of the artistic intention for the sample of work
Potential benefits of the Writers’ Circle to the development of the applicant’s practice


We sincerely thank all applicants for their interest. Upon submission, you will receive a notification via email that your application has been received. Following review, all applicants will be contacted regarding the status of their application.


I filled out the online form identifying myself and my history. After it was completed, I received the following email:


Hi Theodore,
Thanks so much for applying to the (corporation's) Indigenous Writers' Circle - your application form and writing sample have been received.

We'd love to make a quick clarification on the Indigenous self-identification information you shared.

The Inuit define themselves as having a direct connection to a historic Inuit community and can demonstrate a connection to a Inuit ancestor. Are you able to share these details, or your Inuit citizenship status?

We look forward to hearing from you soon,
Writers’ Circle Team



At this demand for extra information, I figured that the NunatuKavut was outside of their definition of Inuit. I replied as follows:


Hello (corporation),


I trace my Inuit ancestry through my mother, (name redacted for privacy) who is Nunatsiavut (ITK recognized Labrador Inuit), and her grandfather, Gilbert Blake, a renowned Inuit trapper from Labrador in the early part of the 20th century. If you search Them Days, a journal of Labrador history & culture, you can verify his status.

I think the (corporation) Indigenous Writer's Circle needs to realize the complexity of Inuit identity in Labrador, as compared to the rest of Canada, due to the geography, where Inuit were further south and closer to the coast than other regions of Canada. This means there was a comparatively greater historical incidence of intermarriage between Inuit and settlers. Although people of Inuit ancestry who had lived further north were recognized as Nunatsiavut (ITK sanctioned Labrador Inuit), many of their children have been refused, and so have organized themselves into the NunatuKavut, of which I am a member (#04037).

The situation of Labrador was further complicated when Nathan Obed, head of the ITK, branded the NunatuKavut a 'shapeshifter' organization in 2023, which has many derogatory associations in Inuit culture, as you know. When Nunatsiavut leader Johannes Lampe villified the NunatuKavut even more, this came as a shock to many in my family, who identify strongly as Inuit and even practice Kakiniit. Instead of building a longer table, Mr Obed and Lampe have elected to build a higher wall, and ironically re-enact the blood quantum system of Canada's colonial Indian Act, which sought to reduce and eliminate the number of indigenous people by denying the identity of women who married outside of their community.

As for myself, I was raised in Goose Bay, Labrador, where many Labrador Inuit were forcibly re-settled after Confederation in 1949. When my family moved to St. John's when I was 10, I was often branded as a 'skimo' or 'skapi' and other derogatory terms for native people. Nevertheless, I kept my long hair as a proud sign of my identity and elected to study English as a way to continue my family and community's storytelling tradition.

Increasingly disheartened by racism I faced in Canada, I moved to Japan in my mid twenties and lived there for 20 years. I returned to Canada last year and was encouraged to find a celebration of indigenous identity, although I am also disheartened by the statements of the ITK and Nunatsiavut which exclude the full range of Labrador Inuit identity, such as Kablunangajuk (partly white men), which are mentioned in the history of Labrador Inuit, but excluded in Nunatsiavut and ITK policy and politics.

I hope this satisfies your request, and please contact me if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Theodore Bonnah


The next day, I was refused in the following letter.


Hello Ted,

Thank you for taking the time to share personal details about your family with us and for responding to our voluntary self-identification questions. We want you to know that we appreciate your willingness to share with us.

We understand that navigating the complex historical and cultural issues surrounding Indigenous identity can be difficult. Unfortunately, Nunatukavut is not recognized as an Inuit community by the national organization, and as such, we are not able to proceed with your application.

We realize this news may be disappointing, and we assure you it was not an easy decision. Our goal is to create an inclusive and supportive environment, and we are committed to working towards that goal in every way we can.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us. We are here to help in any way we can.

All the best,

The Writers' Circle Team

The Problem with Corporations

There are four conclusions that can be drawn from this interchange:

1) Corporations lack the nuance to verify indigenous identity.

As I stated in my response, the situation of Inuit peoples of Labrador is different from that in other provinces, and any organization claiming to support indigenous people has to recognize this reality. As Fagan (2022) notes, there is a western bias in Canadian conceptions of native identity, especially Inuit. This is especially true of the NunatuKavut, which has been branded a 'shapeshifter' organization by the ITK, the mostly western Canadian national Inuit organization (Obed 2023). In essence, corporations lack the nuanced understanding and sensibility to determine who is indigenous or not, and in this case have taken the side of the hegemony against a marginalized group.



2) Corporations are interested in profits, not equity.

Of course, the corporation's decision makes sense in the light of the 2023 ITK open letter to Canadians and their government to exclude the NunatuKavut. Basically, their decision is not to anger some 'base', and not to take sides in a conflict that they fear would affect their bottom line. However, by definition, prizing equity requires taking of the side of the disadvantaged in a conflict. It is easy to see that corporate profits via content creation came first in this decision. As Dicks (2022) notes, non-status mixed indigenous individuals are the most vulnerable and needing support, as they are excluded from both settler and indigenous communities.



3) The corporation's response replicates colonial violence

The worst thing about the corporation's decision is that, in many ways, it replicates colonial violence. The blood quantum rule of Canada's Indian Act took indigenous status away from people whose mother was indigenous but father non-indigenous. My mother is Nunatsiavut, or recognized indigenous, but I am not. By following the ITK's directive to exclude the NunatuKavut, the corporation has bought into a settler state power differential for including and excluding individuals from their ancestral identity for the purpose of determining budgetary support.



4) Corporations break their own rules

The corporation published a Statement of Non Discrimination which includes ancestry, but rejected mine, despite its acceptance by the Government of Canada in a 2019 Memorandum of Understanding. This is an example of how corporate rules of conduct are often just boilerplate that can be ignored for corporate profit-driven interests.

Is It Time For A Critical Indigenity?

It seems evident that the welcome movement towards equity and representation for indigenous people in Canada is anti-colonial. However, its western bias and exclusion of the NunatuKavut and Metis groups in Ontario and Quebec also signals that more needs to be done to include all of Canada's indigenous people, both recognized and the equally vulnerable non-recognized indigenous individuals. Is it time for a critical indigenity, one that problematizes the hegemony of representative organizations, the processes for determining indigenous identity, and their control of access to equity initiatives?

If corporations are getting into the game and making exclusionary decisions like this, I would say it is past time.




Sources

Dicks, Heather. (2022). “Beyond binaries: mixed-blood Indigenous inequalities.” AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples. 19:2, 261-270

Fagan, K. (2022). We All Have A Piece of the Puzzle: Indigenous led collaborative storytelling in Newfoundland and Labrador." 2022 George Story Lecture. Memorial HSS.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lovX0I_Qpqc


Obed, Natan. (2023). “An Open Letter from Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami to Alert Canadians to False Claims to Inuit Identity.” November 6, 2023
https://www.itk.ca/open-letter-false-claims-to-inuit-identity
https://www.itk.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/20231103-open-letter-false-claims-to-inuit-identity-EN.pdf

High Context Culture: Canada vs Japan

Funny that we talk about Japan as a high context culture, and it is. But Newfoundland / Canada is equally high context in many ways.

HIGH CONTEXT IS RELATIVE

When I started teaching in CBS, there was no guide for beginners. It was all "Ask Bill, he knows." Japanese schools by contrast give you a big manual with everything you need. I didn't get a manual (basically a confusing snarl of Google doc links) until a few months in.

Similarly,  I have been calling CRA to set up my business account (for hiring careworkers for sonny) and it is a consistent firehose of gobbledygook that I have to stop and ask for clarification. In Japan, they have outsourced this info to specialized office workers who do your taxes.

I am finding the high context, high demand nature of Canadian worklife quite a hassle to get used to. Especially considering I have to work to support us and care for sonny at the same time.

I will prevail, I am sure. But I wonder about how hard this all is for neuro-divergent, and how my son will navigate this in the future when I am gone...

THE CASE OF JAPAN

In the two examples above, context is lowered in Japan to allow workers to seamlessly incorporate into the workplace. The manual, distributed in advance and containing every eventuality, is essential in getting new workers up to speed as quickly as possible, as well as in avoiding mishaps by having clear instructions.

Similarly, most workplaces in Japan offer to do your taxes for you. This reduces the worker's burden and lets them concentrate on what they're paid for - doing the work. In both examples, letting the employee do their best work undistracted is the goal for which the employer happily bears the costs. In Canada, costs are borne by the worker, as are repercussions if they fail in either their taxes or work duties.

For a supposed socialist country, this is a very Neoliberal of individual laborer responsibility.

HOUSING WHOAS

Housing in Canada and Japan show a similar difference in how the worker is treated. Here in St. John's, I pay $1700 plus utilities for the top half of a house. There are refugees living in the basement, and my cul de sac had 2 or 3 times the amount of cars in driveways due to most other houses being similarly partitioned by landlords. Contrast this to my last apartment in Japan which is of comparable size for well under $1000.

Japanese policy leaders understand that social harmony and worker efficiency are important, so rents are kept down in big cities and paperwork simplified. By making cities unaffordable to low cost workers and throwing up paper barriers, Canadian policy makers are creating a perfect storm of inefficiency.

SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM

This symbolic interaction is seen in the different reactions to social upheaval in both societies. When 9-11 happened, George Bush exhorted Americans to 'go shopping.' When the twin disasters of tsunami and Fukushima happened in Japan in 2011, commercials for goods were taken off TV and replaced with PSAs of singing cartoon characters exhorting the populace to say Good Morning, Hello, and make fun friends. Where North America puts consumerism first, Japan puts social harmony.

When did we get on this destructive path? And more importantly, how do we get off it?

Who's To Blame and How To Overcome MUN's Woes?

So, the titular question buzzes in the air around the Board of Regents election. Let's have a crack at it.

1) Depends On Who You Ask

I think if you asked anyone connected to MUN, from students & alumni, to faculty & staff, all the way up to the executive, you'd get very polarized answers. These are some that I have heard.

"Timmons and the executive are out of touch with students!" (I would say the executive is VERY aware of the number of students and how much they are paying to the university, based on my experiences as associate prof at a smaller Japanese university. However, frivolous lawsuits and misrepresentation show an entitled lack of understanding of social norms)

"Profs have cushy overpaid jobs and can't be fired because of tenure!" (As a former prof, I KNOW this to be BS)

"Staff are overpaid pencil pushers and many are unnecessary." (Maybe some are, but many saved my life as a student and made my teaching career easier)

"Alumni need to contribute more!" (This should never be a given, especially considering the current housing crisis and continued uncoupling of university degrees with higher salary. As Scott Seiss quips, "What happened to the $60, 000 I just gave you?")

"Students are spoiled, and should be grateful tuition is comparatively low." (Compared to what? MUN is $2650 to $6000, just slightly under McGill's $2797 to $8000, but with higher living costs due to transport of goods and food, but lower pay and a smaller chance of finding good employment to offset tuition while allowing students to balance study and work)

All these responses fall prey to the blame game, and miss the bigger picture.

2) The Blame Game

There are two extreme positions in the Blame Game:

Position 1 - My enemy is to blame

The problem with this viewpoint is that narrows the field of inquiry, obfuscating other factors that have contributed to the crisis, and thus also making solutions partial or inappropriate. Yes, we can justly blame the executive for frivolous lawsuits, but if we aren't looking at redundancies in staff (OCRO I'm looking at you), or professors who are uninspiring (very few in my experience, but there), or students with unrealistic expectations, then we only see part of the problem.

If we take ALL these portions of blame and craft a solution that addresses each of these, we can create a university that has a chance of working. For example, creating a strong and impartial oversight process would curb exec and staff overreach, while investing in job training and work creation initiatives would let students expect more tangible benefits from their studies.

A more insidious side of this position is that those with power will inevitably use it against those who are more vulnerable. When the president of a university allows lawsuits against a single student for voicing criticism, a huge power differential is taking place, one more in keeping to a banana republic than an institution of higher learning.

Position 2 - No one is to blame

The problem with the second position is that it leads to inaction and apathy. If that is just the way it is, people will vote with their feet and go elsewhere, reducing income for the institution. What's worse, the incompetent or unethical will be emboldened to get away with more knowing that perfidy goes unchecked.

You might add that people who have done visible damage to Memorial's reputation or its functioning have already gone unpunished.

I have neither the legal background nor knowledge of particulars to say whether Dr Timmons or any other member of the executive should face legal action. However, I would point out that a worker in a lower status and income job who misrepresented themselves to their employer would be summarily let go, and possibly face fraud charges.

Maybe it is time to cut our losses and (gasp) learn how to prevent them in future.

Finally, execs can't have unfettered control of university finances if incompetent people are getting 6 week paid leaves and golden parachutes for leaving in disgrace.

3) Ideological Problems, Structural Solutions

Memorial University, like many others worldwide, has what activists usually call structural problems. As a Discourse Analyst, I would instead call these problems of ideology. By ideology, I mean 'belief in a perfect world.' Regarding a university, there are basically two opposing ideological positions.

First, students ideally would like to get a university education that does not bankrupt them, and ensures them a job after graduation. This is the progressive ideology of university as a public good. Cuba infamously gives out free medical degrees, and benefits from a system of preventative medicine that is the opposite of American style reactive medicine. Dental tourism is even becoming a source of income as Americans fly south to get their teeth fixed affordably. Finland offers free PhDs, as well as living and research support, and it is still a country noted for investment and innovation, from the first wireless EKG heart monitor to the mobile game Angry Birds. These examples and others show that both rich and poor countries alike can engage in such philanthropy, and benefit from it.

Second, executives would ideally draw more profit out of the university year after year. This is the financial ideology of university as business. We can term this the neoliberal university, which since the 1970's has focused on austerity (for students and faculty, not for the executive) and financialization (putting money in hedge funds rather than back into research, wages, infrastructure or student support). In this context, expensive headhunting (59K for MUN's VP), ballooning exec pay, and the creation of shadowy new departments to protect the system is funded by increasing adjuntification (goodbye tenure), crumbling infrastructure (the tunnels), tuition hikes (nuff said) and disappearance of funding or support.

The problem is that nether of these viewpoints is reality. They oppose their unrealistic ideas of what a university needs to do (support the community selflessly vs. make money selfishly) and ultimately go nowhere. We need to balance these two, to find a consensus that can help the university contribute to Newfoundland society and the economy  while paying fair wages and taking fair tuition fees.

The only way forward I see, then, is to get financial types on board of a long term vision for MUN, one that seeks to create a virtuous cycle of investment and innovation, a circular economy which is more and more accepted by organizations such as the EPA in America and the EU.

This is not easy medicine to swallow, but it is the only escape from the (profitable) endless crisis of neoliberal capitalism and its management style of boom (for some) and bust (for others).

4) Regents Is A Numbers Game

Which brings me to the reality of The Board of Regents - it is a numbers game. There are 31 members, only 10 of which are supposedly progressive due to their provenance from the alumni and current students. However, looking closer at candidate bios, one can see that fully a third of them come from finance or business backgrounds.

More of the same, in other words.

I haven't looked at the other 21 member bios (and am a bit scared to do so), but I would hazard a guess they overwhelmingly have financial or political backgrounds. This means the neoliberal bias of the regents is already baked in, as is their adherence to The Hegemony (sorry, looks better capitalized).

As a progressive academic who has worked at an economics faculty in Japan, I can see how Neoliberal Discourse does not live up to its promises, and is ultimately counter productive. I saw first hand how increased salaries among faculty eroded staff morale, and created a constant leak of talent whose replacement sucked away productivity, much as exec salary raises have plagued Memorial. I also saw how this eroded away ethics, leading to casino involvement schemes and a plagiarism incident due to pressure on a professor to get a student into a certain graduate school.

Neoliberal management is a dead end for Memorial.

Conclusion

Considering how neoliberalism has hollowed out the university through austerity and financialization, it is unsurprising that it has become de rigeur for financial types and disillusioned students to knock what the university has become. 

The controversial financial guru Nicolas Nassim Taleb states, 

“Academia is to knowledge what prostitution is to love; close enough on the surface but, to the nonsucker, not exactly the same thing”

Since Taleb worked in the financial market most of his life, where insider knowledge is the only thing valued, and only pursued an academic path for kicks and clicks later, he exemplifies the neoliberal scorn for the social value of a university and the 'suckers' who believe in it.

This is more evident in his book Antifragile, in which he continues

“Knowledge formation, even when theoretical, takes time, some boredom, and the freedom that comes from having another occupation, therefore allowing one to escape the journalistic-style pressure of modern publish-and-perish academia.... Commerce is fun, thrilling, lively, and natural; academia as currently professionalized is none of these."

Taleb has condensed the neoliberal view of university down to a simple binary equation - knowledge formation is snoring, making money is fun! One can't help but think that many of Memorial's exec share this point of view.

The university as a social institution is outdated and imperfect, but it is all we got, and could be made better if we believed in its value and invested in making this a reality. Doshisha University where I obtained my PhD and taught Media Studies is a top Japanese university precisely because it invests in liberal values, promoting internationalization in Japan as well as peace worldwide.

Some Practical Ideas

Some might say that my thoughts are all well and good, but what are some practical steps that can be taken? How about these?

1) Wage freeze for execs unless they secure external funding AND freeze or decrease tuition, OR increase infrastructure spending and R&D investment. This incites financial types to work harder to prime the pump of free thought and innovation which is the heart of a university.

2) Committee review of legal actions against students or other critical voices. Financial types cannot be expected to be the moral or ethical barometers of the university - this is exactly what career academics are designed to do.

3) Balanced Voting Blocks in Regents. As noted, financial and political types are a disproportionally large presence in the BoR. Although there are occasional symbolic members such as artists, the reduction of financial types to match the number of progressives means that, at the least, we can have more discussion and debate over the direction of the university behind those closed doors.

NB: I think this may be my last post on the BoR and Memorial. I am currently an unemployed single father of a special needs child, and navigating a social services system that, despite being criminally underfunded and understaffed, is still more helpful than what we left behind in Japan. And to me, the issue of putting our money where our mouth is, standing behind our values and making them viable, is what Canada and Newfoundland are all about.

Sources

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms.




Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Antifragile




PhD in Finland

https://roadtoabroad.co.in/phd-in-finland/




Cuban Medical Education

https://www.cubaheal.com/2021/09/01/cuban-medical-education-program-overview/




Iatridis DS. Cuba's health care policy: prevention and active community participation. Soc Work. 1990 Jan;35(1):29-35. PMID: 2315760.




The Neoliberal University

https://www.chronicle.com/article/how-the-university-became-neoliberal/?cid=gen_sign_in




Scott Seiss on alumni donations.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=384037393648995




Tuition By University

https://www.univcan.ca/universities/facts-and-stats/tuition-fees-by-university/

How I See Memorial University

To serve well on the Memorial University Board of Regents, candidates must both have an idea of where MUN came from and where it is going. In other worlds, what makes Memorial University special, and how can we preserve that?

1) Local Social Experiment

Put simply, Memorial University (College) is a uniquely Newfoundland social experiment. In the early days, its primary purpose was to upgrade the credentials of teachers in Newfoundland as the republican government fought illiteracy. After World War One, it became a way to provide locals with a cost effective way to an education, with the additional intent of stemming the brain drain of professionals away to other countries.

Pre-Confederation, few thought Newfoundland could support a full fledged university past the basic Arts and Sciences formations given at that time. Joey Smallwood made the decision to gamble on a full-fledged higher education institution that produced doctorates. This endeavour has progressed in fits and starts, and it wouldn't be until 2022 that a campus would be built off the island in Labrador.

In the past century, Memorial has expanded and taken on a pivotal role in the social, economic, cultural, and political life of Newfoundland. The majority of our social workers, businessmen, artists, and politicians have passed through its doors.

Anyone governing MUN needs to respect this history and purpose, while building for the future.

2) Bottleneck University

Memorial's influence on the fabric of Newfoundland society aside, it is geographically limited. For Newfoundlanders, it has always been the cheaper at home option. For first generation native students like myself, MUN was the only place we knew. Mainland universities attract those with the funds and academic habitus to aim for more reputable or specialized degrees. When my richer white friends would discuss going to university A, B, or C, I would nod my head dumbly. MUN was the only university name I knew.

Despite this, MUN has become known outside of Newfoundland for the quality of its education. When I did my BEd here in 2005-6, there were also many mainlanders who had come to take advantage of the affordable but good quality 1 year teaching degree. Considering that NAFTA later ratified the acceptance of teaching degrees across North America, this means a cheap, one year MUN Teacher's Certificate is a key to a professional career all over North America, and in many cases, the world.

Whereas Memorial's student body was largely locals when I started in 1989-96, when I returned in 2004-6 I was happy to see faces from all over the world, in addition to other parts of Canada. I made friends with engineering students from China and Nepal, ESL students from Korea and Taiwan, and was surprised to notice the ATM in the TSC had replaced the French button with 中文 or Chinese. Newfoundland's renowned isolation and hospitality conspired to make it a welcoming place for foreign students, as it would during 9-11.

MUN is thus both a welcoming place for people from abroad, as well as a leg up for people from here.

3) Inferiority Complex

However, due to Memorial's historical and geographical isolation, MUN has always had an inferiority complex. Just as the College was created to upgrade the credentials of Newfoundlanders, there has always been a feeling that MUN alone cannot create professionals, but needs help from abroad. For many students, a MUN degree is the start of a career that will be continued elsewhere, or a choice imposed by finances. Ironically, Memorial University PR often boasts about MUN alumni who succeed abroad, testifying to the value of an education here. I myself have a BEd and MA in English from Memorial, which allowed me to get my PhD in Global Society Studies at Doshisha University in Japan, then transition to associate professor in Kobe. The teaching methodology, analytical skills, and communication ability imparted by Memorial University faculty over the years has served me well.

This inferiority complex also extends to faculty. Even when I was an undergrad, many of the professors were from the UK, and even some local professors affected an English accent. Although MUN has had wonderful professors from overseas, we have also had mismatches who have done fraudulent research, as well as instructors who refuse to accommodate the special needs of students. (To be fair, I've also had terrible local professors as well, who were inept in teaching or made advances on students around me.)

This inferiority complex has become increasingly visible in the executive, with the expensive headhunting used to find new leadership, and the disastrous result of this practice which has led us to the current crisis. For example, the former president  may have come from Labrador, but her degrees were all obtained from universities in Canada (Mount Allison & Acadia) and the US (Gonzaga University in Washington). A look at previous presidents shows a growing preponderance of foreign educated academics.

Kachanoski (University of Alberta, University of Saskatchewan)

Loomis - pro tempore (Queen's University)

Campbell - interim (Memorial, University of Toronto)

Meisen - (Imperial College, California Institute Technology, McGill University)

May (Memorial, McGill University)

Harris (Memorial, University of London, University of Virginia)

Although the limited offerings at Memorial University necessitates that foreign educated executives are hired, and many bring skills and experience that have added immeasurably to Memorial's standard of education, MUN needs to grow out of the belief that foreign + expensive is inherently better.

(PS: On a lark I applied to be president at MUN through its Borden employment system for executives. I was unsurprisingly turned down.)

4) The Irony of Being The Only Shop In Town

Canada has over 100 universities, with 1/3 of the top ones in Ontario alone. All of Newfoundland and Labrador has only one. MUN's status as the only institution of higher learning in the province comes with a number of benefits and drawbacks.

First, on the good side, it is indelibly linked with Newfoundland society, culture, & economy, as mentioned. The University of Toronto may bear the city name, but could be transplanted just about anywhere on the continent. The same could not be said of Memorial. Memorial still relies on the local populace to provide paying students, and has added international students in the ESL and Engineering programmes to fill the coffers even more. It also added NL government funding to this income, until recently.

On the downside, this means events like the housing crisis also hits MUN students harder. I have heard from sources at MUN that student housing is already booked up for fall. If MUN cannot do more to address situations in the community, it will have to pay the price if people choose to go elsewhere.

To put it bluntly, MUN can no longer depend on a captive student body anymore. Memorial is no longer the only choice for less fortunate Newfoundlanders - trades have (fortunately) lost their stigma, and many Newfoundlanders rightly choose a trade that very quickly pays for itself. When I did my teaching internship at Gonzaga HS in 2005, I was told "Don't tell them university is the be all and end all." I assured them that, compared to my friends and family in trades, I was lagging far behind and would tell students the truth of the situation.

After decades of oil money flowing into the pockets of Newfoundland families, many more are also choosing universities elsewhere in Canada, or even abroad. Moreover, with the advent of cheaper air travel, Newfoundland is no longer 'the Rock' or minimum security prison it used to be jokingly referred to during my salad days in the 90's. Rare is the Newfoundlander who hasn't lounged on a Florida beach these days.

The loss of government funding to offset Memorial's tuition freeze shows that Newfoundland has had enough of a MUN that puts profits before people. Add to this the fact that university enrollment is dropping worldwide, and a course correction seems in order. In Japan where I taught university for 15 years, and where smaller private universities dot the landscape of islands not much larger than our province, falling enrollment was a constant concern of faculty meetings. The total number of universities, which had ballooned in the rapid economic expansion of the 60's and 70's, and became bloated during the 80's, was projected to drop by half in the next decades as some smaller institutions amalgamated, were absorbed by larger ones, or disappeared outright.

Memorial's question should be, "If the only shop in town closes, what then?"

5) The Changing Meaning of Value

When Joey Smallwood inaugurated Memorial University in 1965, he created the only free post secondary education in North America. By the time I enrolled in 1989, then again in 2004, government funding had become spotty and incoherent. Even in the early 2000s, the values of MUN could be seen to change. While foreign students were welcomed, when I worked at The Writing Center (2004-5), some told me of being scouted in China to enroll in engineering at MUN, where they were told their English was sufficient to study at Memorial. Upon arrival, they were re-assessed and told they'd have to take extra ESL classes and exams, incurring more expense and costly re-adjustment of their plans. By 2013, CBC was reporting on the extra 'special' fees levied on foreign grad students.

MUN has seemingly gone from valuing its charges to charging its students to create value for the institution. Although tuition does need to increase to match inflation and expenses, this needs to be tempered with what the market can bare, and what will keep students coming through the doors. As the sole institution of higher learning in Newfoundland, it is in all our interests to put Memorial back on the right path, leading from its storied past to a brighter future.

Conclusion

MUN is both a common good of the people of Newfoundland as well as a shining example of Newfoundland culture. 

Source

Furey Says MUN In Chotic Situation

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/furey-mun-tuition-1.6821928

History of Memorial University College.

https://collections.mun.ca/digital/collection/extension/id/2916/rec/34

HE Enrollement: Decline or lost opportunity?

https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/education/our-insights/higher-education-enrollment-inevitable-decline-or-online-opportunity

Past Presidents of MUN

https://www.mun.ca/president/about/past-presidents/

Staggering Fees For Foreign Grad Students

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/staggering-fee-targets-foreign-grad-students-1.1386566