Navigation
News
Rants religion society racial
issues entertainment work & school gender
ethics politics Forum Staff Contact Headlines-Internships
-Cornell Filipino Association
-Poisoning the Well
Network-Youthtopia
Link to us!
| Internships |
|
| Posted on Jul 12th, 2005 at 2:28 pm by Jonathan |
I don't believe in unpaid internships. At best it's an implicit bribe for the good word of your supervisor, and at worst it's key money for a potential - yet not guaranteed - paid position. If you're good enough to be working in an internship, then you're good enough to be paid for it. If the company can afford to, then it's patently unfair for them not to pay you, and if they can't afford to, then what's the use of a good word in a flagging industry? |
| Reply in Forum | Print | Comments (16) |
| Cornell Filipino Association |
|
| Posted on Mar 13th, 2005 at 9:28 pm by Jonathan |
I hate to say it, but the Cornell Filipino Association sucks big time. For all the time and effort they say they worked on their latest theatre production, yesterday, which was to be a showcase of Philippines culture, all they managed was a large honking waste of my time and money. So I pay money to go to a night showcasing Filipino culture, which ought to be interesting considering their being a country directly colonized by someone for some 400 years or so. But no, instead, I get badly choreographed, badly acted, badly lipsynched shit across the board. SHIT. Two and a half hours of bile direct from the spoilt, giddy popularity contest that consumes the filipino association. It looked like they had come up with their show two days before they had to go up, and they had the audacity to be all bubbly about how much work went into the show and also to give us, the audience, an encore we did not ask for. They had the money to rent out what was arguably the best theatre in the whole town and yet couldn't find a guy to do a halfly decent job with the stage lighting. It started with them singing the American national anthem, but then they put on a recording of the Philippine national anthem. What, they couldn't sing that, too? In an organization of over a hundred real live filipinos, you couldn't find two people who could sing your own national anthem? It got worse from there. Riddle me this: What do the Super Mario Bros have to do with the Philippines? How about the Lord of the Ring? If that isn't bad enough, then how do you answer for skits that make fun of filipinos? When I paid my money for a 'showcase of Philippines culture', I expected various songs and dances that bared a representation, or at least a connection with the culture. I did not expect a lampoon of the culture. Kids: You don't make fun of how silly your parents are to people who don't know you or your parents, especially when your parents are in the audience. To put on a showcase of their own country's culture implies that they have something to show that is unique to them, and while it may have been influenced by the Spanish or Japanese or Americans, it was distintly filipino. But no, I get dumb skits about being overly cleanly and improbably diligent (I felt I was a watching a National Lampoon joke against the Chinese) and rambling, new-agey guitar solos by people who publicly admit to having less knowledge of the Philippines than I do. Who needs racism when you have self-deprecation? What's worse is that arguably the best performance came from a troupe direct from Tokyo University, doing Philippines culture that was influenced by the Spanish. Now, if I remember correctly, Japanese influence on the Philippines revolves somewhere around invasion and subsequent enslavement. America's the third in that evil trifecta, so I probably shouldn't complain too much, but damn. But at least they rehearsed their parts. The entire production was akin to what you're forced to sit through in those elementary school auditorium tripe where parents have their kids prance about on stage for a designated amount of time so they can camcorder them and grin stupidly. I want my money back. |
| Reply in Forum | Print | Comments (101) |
| Poisoning the Well |
|
| Posted on Mar 11th, 2005 at 1:39 pm by Jonathan |
So, even with the re-emergence of the Ranters' Network up for a few days, I couldn't bring myself to update thanks for the onset of *quite a few* Awful Terrible Bad Things happening at once. Cornell University's housing department threatened to kick me out, and told me in the meantime that it was my responsibility to 'facilitate communication between the different departments,' because I have *all this free time* to get people from the same administration to talk to each other. I mean, it's not insensible to think they'd do so anyway, right? They only get paid to do so... This lovely news happens at about the same time I'm supposed to take a prelim clear on the far side of this campus (which Jon Stewart, in his visit, observed quite accurately as a 'frozen hellscape'), which *itself* happens at about the same time I get a stomach virus from undercooked pizza. And to think this place has the best food. Oh, and China drew up some legislature that basically auto-declares war if Taiwan makes moves towards independence. It's probably politically uncorrect of me to think this, but I can't help being reminded of the USSR's doomsday device in Dr. Strangelove. |
| Reply in Forum | Print | Comments (37) |
All content copyright © 2001-2005 ranters.net