One of the occupiers at Newcastle was asked to write a piece for the Guardian on our occupation's response to Aaron Porter's (NUS) newly declared support for direct action.
Rowan's piece is here http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/nov/30/student-protests-aaron-porter-university-occupations?showallcomments=true#comment-fold and she'd especially welcome any comments in support of Sociology! She hadn't realised her being a Sociology undergraduate would get up so many peoples noses...
Rowan,
ReplyDeleteA good piece and well argued. There is no point waiting for the student establishment. Let them walk the walk, not talk the talk.
Sociology is what we need now to analyse the current situation and plan for action, not the so-called STEM subjects.
Jeremy Kearney
University of Sunderland
The following story was conveyed to me many years ago by a grant-funded sociology grad who now makes well over £500k/yr advising large corporations on corporate social responsibility issues.
ReplyDeleteOnce upon a time there was a young man who used to roam from town to town selling hats for a living. One summer afternoon, he felt tired and wanted to take a nap. He found a mango tree with lots of branches and cool shade. Placing his bag of hats beside him, he went to sleep.
When he woke up after a refreshing nap, he found that there were no hats in his bag! "Of all the people, why did the thieves have to rob me?"
Suddenly, he looked up and noticed that the mango tree was full of cute monkeys wearing colorful hats. He yelled at the monkeys and they screamed back. He made faces at them and they returned the same funny faces. He threw a stone at them and they showered him with raw mangoes.
"How do I get my hats back?" he pondered. Frustrated, he took off his own hat and threw it on the ground. To his surprise, the monkeys threw their hats also! The lad hurriedly collected the hats and went on his way to the next town.
Fifty years later, his grandson, who worked hard to maintain the family business, was passing through the same jungle. After a long walk he was very tired and found a nice mango tree with lots of branches and cool shade.
A few hours later, when he woke up, he realized that all the hats from his bag were gone! He started searching for them and to his surprise found some monkeys sitting on the mango tree wearing his hats. He was frustrated and did not know what to do, but then he remembered a story his grandfather used to tell him.
He waved at the monkeys and the monkeys waved back at him. He blew his nose and the monkeys blew their noses. He started dancing and the monkeys also danced. He pulled his ears and the monkeys pulled their ears. He raised his hands and the monkeys raised their hands.
Then, he threw his hat on the ground expecting all the monkeys to do so, but instead, one monkey jumped down from the mango tree, hit him on the shoulder and said, "Do you think you’re the only one who had a grandfather?"
Dont Let The Bastards Get You Down!