tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post8416902869990911547..comments2024-03-27T15:44:43.564-08:00Comments on What Do I Know?: What Happens When Your Parents Aren't Who You Think They Are?Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10498066938213558757noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post-49279055122139743902016-05-09T02:15:18.066-08:002016-05-09T02:15:18.066-08:00Consider this more a letter to you (and spying rea...Consider this more a letter to you (and spying readers) than a fully-developed essay. <br /><br />That said, how do we know what we know about our parents? Arguably, that’s a troubling question any time of one’s life. I really hope you’re still out there teaching. It’s so obvious it’s what you love doing. In my own study of philosophy, it’s become clear to me how the university’s regime of moving graduates into student teaching roles is so vital to their learning, to become the thinker-writers good scholarship demands. <br /><br />I have several books in philosophy, history and economics that are simply bound versions of 'greatest hits' lectures given by exceptional professors. The seminar, (and small tutorials still used at elite unis in the UK) taught by doctoral students is so integral to how we learn. I'm no natural in philosophy, and my university is kind enough to let me join in the discussion.<br /><br />Which brings me to your linked story on the once-and-future Canadian lad in the Guardian. It's good to see this plucky paper pick up the international readership a net-connected world has granted. It’s a great example of e-journalism rewarding excellence with sky-rocketing readership, reasonable growth in subscription (still not enough!), using a fabulous charitable foundation base with paid membership services here in London. It's a paper of record for Britain and the world. I’m proud of that. A bit of what the BBC is known for, but without government licence fees.<br /><br />Reading this story, not as your imagined student, but as someone who moved country, gives insight as to why there is what seems natural resistance to someone who moves one’s country. Call it the ‘Who are you, and why are you here?’ (unspoken) question. There is little doubt the immigrant is doubted, having their past under scrutiny, yet finding that past doesn’t help them as it would back home.<br /><br />In some small way, we have a story that unintentionally lays out an argument against hiring the foreign-born. I’m making no claim to justify xenophobia. I'm thinking of this in the case of anyone, hired by a multinational and placed into its foreign office who CAN and DOES have transferable references to test CV veracity. I’m applying a muted bias that exists toward folks like Gene and me, who move as individuals without any transferable and vetted local references. <br /><br />We are set apart. Often, we have to start over, in order to build locally known and trusted networks. Think about career moves in the states without company portability, only much worse given language and culture differences. It’s why Gene and I now ask folks (who live internationally) if they work through a birth-country company contract. Their experience isn’t that of one who moves country to settle. Their pay packets often come in home-country currency rather than local; their visas secure their treatment in any ‘official’ emergency. <br /><br />In other words, they are international, but they are not nationals. With continuing ties to home country, questions arise about loyalty and identity. This Guardian story helped me see another side of these sentiments. It also reminded me of the family story of a great uncle of mine, who having arrived in the USA as a young man in the early 20th c, went back to fight for Kaiser Wilhelm in WWI. <br /><br />Darkly, I can see my relation's decision grounding a fear we don’t share, that governments must think about: allegiance is not assured, at best; at worst, not at all. It’s Trump-ette blaring of these fears that set us building walls, since in a world of border-hopping insurgency, we should fear the other. Trumping that, racism then hands us with colour-coded ‘reasonable suspicion'.<br /><br />Not unreasonably, if we think we inhabit a global village, we allow that we live where we need to trust each other. That trust takes real relationships forged over time. But as the Guardian story reminds us, one can never be too careful… (smile emoticon here)<br /><br />Going back to my comments last week, Steve, it’s tough building the modern Zion.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Jacob Dugan-Brausehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06287631724339961459noreply@blogger.com