PUTNEY DEBATER
A personal blog
University of Chile attacked with Tear Gas and Water Cannon
It doesn’t only happen in Turkey. Yesterday, while filming in Santiago, I had my first experience of tear gas. I went to film the latest student protest march against the heavily privatised education system which is a heritage of the neoliberal policies of the Pinochet dictatorship. I filmed far more than I needed, because it was huge and very impressive (it took 75 minutes to pass the National Library where I was stationed) with all the expectable banners, drumming, bands, and dancing, and perfectly peaceful, following the pattern established a couple of years ago when the protest movement began. Read more
Q&A on Secret City
Here’s the video of the Q&A after the DocHouse screening of ‘Secret City’ at the Riverside last May
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/68041329#[/vimeo]
Higher Education is not a commodity
The following interview, done by email, originally appeared on EvoLLLution.
1. Would you say higher education is a commodity, or not?
Absolutely not; and not just higher education, but education at any and every level. Education is a process of human interaction, whose efficacy depends on a variety of subjective factors. Why did I choose this subject? Does the teacher stimulate my interest — or imagination? Do I enjoy teaching, or has it become a chore? None of these things can be quantified (except by means of unscientific questionnaires), and if they can’t be quantified, any price that is put on them is quite arbitrary. Read more