postgrad funding, flu and snapped chains

Todays post titel is in the style of james Joyce, that's a nice way of saying its the little things that were dancing around my head when i decided to write something for your perusal.

They all add up to making me angry with the "state" we're in. I was out training on thursday, doing hill sprints when my bike chain snapped (yes i'm a lycra lout cyclist) and sent me flying across the road at 20mph going up a hill, i cut myself a fair bit and was mightly shaken up. There was a car ebhind me, he didn't check if i was OKay, he revved his engine so i'd shift my grovelling non motorised useless backside off the road and by doing so i wouldn't delay his journey any furhter - what an ice chap. WHy on earth do people not realise how vulnerable cyclists are - every time i mention this someone tells me how they "nearly got knocked off by someone cycling on the pavement" or "saw a cyclist with no lights". I propose we make a list on one side all the cyclists killed by motorists, on the other all the pedestrians killed by cyclists. In the last 2 weeks 2 professionals in the Uk have been hit, one is dead one crippled. its making me scared to be on the road And no bike lanes are not the answer, they are part of the problem, they create the idea that was clearly evident in the engine revving audi driver who had the terribel misfortune to get stuck behind me up white horse hill, the idea that nobody except cars has the right to occupy the road.

But they will slow down for horses, maybe if my bike was fluffy this would help?

Maybe it was the same audi driving besuited man who nealry ran me over who will soon be occupying a funded place at univeristy tot ake a career break and do a second BA, which will contribute preciselynothing to the academic pursuit of history (or any other subject). The Arts and Humanities research council has decided that these BAs merit funding,s oi much so that they cut a huge chunk out of phd funding. The Uk postgrad system isn't like the undergraduate one, you can't get a student loan and the governemnt won't help you. I'm now stuck in the ludicrous situation of having a potential place at the best univeristies int he world ( I applied toOxford, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Yale and UCSD) and being too poor to accept it. I hate to say it but that wouldn't happen in Cuba

I'm ill today and i was ill when i was in Cuba, that's where the similarity ends, today i schlepped out to boots and bought all kinds of pills and potions from an anonymous shopkeeper who seemed manifestly uncaring. Compare this to cuba where the doctor came to see me, in bed and treated me like her own son, she put her hand on my forehead and tucked me in, she even gave me a kiss (somewhat embarassing for a 20 year old guy...) It seems that in this country even in caring professions we treat each other as economic entitites not as other people. Whatever claims we make to economic progress its useless if we don't treat people as people. Whether someone's ill in bed, buying a newspaper or sprawled across the road in front of you, remeber they're a person to and treat them like one, as kant said people should be ends and not means

apathy an anger songs and slogans

I did think it was quite odd to write my ideas on the internet for everyone (or noone) to see but then i thought i'd give it a try, it's late i'm tired but i can't sleep. I should introduce myself without giving myself away too cheaply. I go to oxford university but it's not lke you think domethings are better than i expected (not everyone's posh or nerdy) some are worse and this is what really gets me how can people who are so intelligent be so apathetic how can people who STUDY politics not care about its implementation, how can you study history and ignore ideology? How can a biologist fail to recycle, or a theologian pass a homeless person like they would pass a piece of litter?


I was just thinking about pithy little things which sum up how you feel, which hit home in the way long speeches can't. I was reading baout the spanish civil war today (oddly enough, cos that's what i do ) and i came across a picture a boy not very old stood in the street holding a blunderbuss which wouldn't be much use against the fascist hordes, to be honest i wouldn't have backed him in a confrontation with an angry goat or well riled schoolgirl. But this boy was stood there giving the anti-fascist salute to the photographer and on his barricade he'd written "no pasaran por aqui" they won't get past here.
I think that sums it up really, much more than anything else i have seen or read, that really hit home. He took what he had and he faced up to everything that he thought was wrong, and he stood up for his dream, the war might be won or lost but he was making damn sure that there in that street in rural spain anarchsim was alive and well and the fascist weren't coming past.


I think we could all learn form that (and from the response of Britiain which was to turn a blind eye and a cold shoulder...) so next time something pisses you offer pick up your blunderbuss and pile your furniture on the street and don't let them past!