[EAS](Dis)connectedness

[pjk]

Subject:   (Dis)connectedness

An anecdote follows further below.  --PJk
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(from NewsScan Daily, 7 November 2003)

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: TERRA INCOGNITA
      Travel writer Paul Theroux thinks there's too much
"connectedness"  these days:
      "'Connected' is the triumphant cry these days. Connection has
made  people arrogant, impatient, hasty, and presumptuous. I am old
enough to  have witnessed the rise of the telephone, the apotheosis of
TV and the  videocassette, the cellular phone, the pager, the fax
machine, and e-mail.  I don't doubt that instant communication has
been good for business, even  for the publishing business, but it has
done nothing for literature, and  might even have harmed it. In many
ways connection has been disastrous. We  have confused information (of
which there is too much) with ideas (of which  there are too few). I
found out much more about the world and myself by  being unconnected.
      "And what does connection really mean? What can the archivist --
 relishing detail, boasting of the information age -- possibly do
about all  those private phone calls, e-mails, and electronic
messages. Lost! A  president is impeached, and in spite of all the
phone calls and all the  investigations, almost the only evidence that
exists of his assignations  are a few cheap gifts, a signed
photograph, and obscure stains. So much for  the age of information.
My detractors may say, 'You can print e-mails,' but  who commits that
yackety-yak to paper?
      "The most aberrant aspect of the delusional concept of
globalization  is the smug belief that the world is connected and that
everyone and every  place is instantly accessible. This is merely a
harmful conceit. The  colorful advertisement for cellular phones or
computers showing Chinese  speaking to Zulus, and Italians speaking to
Tongans, is inaccurate, not to  say mendacious. There are still places
on earth that are inaccessible,  because of their geography or their
politics or their religion. Parts of  China are off the map, and for
that matter parts of Italy are too -- there  are villages in the
hinterland of Basilicata, in southern Italy, that are  as isolated as
they have ever been.
      "For the past ten years, since the disputed and disallowed
election  of 1991, the entire Republic of Algeria has been a no-go
area where between  eighty and one hundred thousand people have been
massacred. Algeria -- a  sunny Mediterranean country, the most
dangerous place in the world, with  the worst human rights record on
earth -- is right next to jolly Morocco  and colorful Tunisia, the
haunts of package tourists and rug collectors.  This bizarre proximity
highlights the paradox, which is an old one, that  close by there are
areas of the world that are still forbidden, or terra  incognita,
where no outsider dares to venture. In spite of all our  connectedness
we have little idea of what passes for daily life in Algeria."
                                          ***
See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0618126937/newsscancom/ref=nosim
for Theroux's "Fresh Air Fiend: Travel Writings" -- or look for it in
your  favorite library. (We donate all revenue from our book
recommendations to  adult literacy programs.)

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My favorite story in this regard is by Lowell Monke, from a 1997 issue
of NETFUTURE, titled "Multiculturalism without People"
<http://www.praxagora.com/stevet/netfuture/1997/Jun1897_51.html#4>. I
append it below.  Just read the first four paragraphs if you're in a
hurry. --PJK


*** Multiculturalism without People 

from Lowell Monke (lm7846s at acad.drake.edu) 
                                                 Letter from Des Moines
                                                          June 15, 1997

There is a flip side to the use of the 'Net for multicultural
education, which I discussed in NF #49. It has to do with the the way
the 'Net affects students' and teachers' attitudes toward other
cultures that exist in their own communities. 

For a variety of reasons, Des Moines has become a popular destination
for refugees and immigrants from all over the world. The ESL (English
as a Second Language) program has exploded in the district, and
Central Campus is the first stop for most high schoolers trying to
learn English. (Central Campus isn't a school in itself; we provide
special services to all of the five district high schools.) Even
though our program is a revolving door moving students to their high
schools full-time as quickly as possible, there are constantly around
200 ESL students attending Central Campus. 

One day a couple of years ago, I happened to be standing outside my
room just down the hall from the doors opening into a Gifted and
Talented Language Arts room and an adjacent ESL room, when the bell
rang to end classes. I watched the two groups of students emerge from
their rooms, walk side-by-side the twenty feet out the narrow corridor
which spills into the hallway, turn the same direction and walk to
their lockers, which were directly opposite each other in the hall.