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m a i so n n eu v e fall 2009

uprising > the people v. berlusconi

[ Italy in turmoil ] > vegetarians revolt

[ The case for eating meat ] > iranian protests are not just an excuse to talk about twitter [ Journalism in the age of search engine optimization ] > the boy & the boarding school [ Objections to private school considered ]

display until feb ’10

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a quarterly of arts, opinion, & ideas

uprising

[ fa l l 2 0 0 9 ]

2

[ c o n ten ts ]

front letter from the editor masthead contributors letters

open house

12

citizen uprising The newspaper is dead, but can an upstart citizen media really replace it? The definitive Canadian account of journalism’s changing face.

: an act or instance of rising up; especially: a usually localized act of popular violence in defiance usually of an established government

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iraq’s walking dead Christopher Watt journeys to Amna Suraka Prison – Ground Zero for Kurdish Iraqis – and finds both victory and defeat standing still.

17

zero gravity grimness For the past 14 years, photographer and filmmaker Jill Heinerth has been exploring underwater caves around the world, from lava tubes off the coast of North Africa to icebergs in the Antarctic.

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[ featu r es ]

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my vegetarian affair After 17 years of tofu and TVP, Diana Wilson will eat what she damn well wants. tibet’s stateside revolt China, Tibet, Olympics: Tension and bad timing. The world is paying attention to a 50-year-old non-violent movement. the boy and the boarding school Objections to the private school considered – what it does for the city boy: how it promotes health and manliness and inculcates morality.

p h o t o e s s ay houseboat days The bliss and perils of life in Canada’s funkiest floating homes.

Like bungalows mated to barges then air-dropped into meters-thick ice, the thirty houseboats on Great Slave Lake are a metaphor for the town itself.

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f e at u r es the people vs. berlusconi In Italy one of the strongest student movements of recent past keeps growing, as protests started in September when the Berlusconi government and its Education Minister Mariastella Gelmini announced their public school and universities reform plan.

A student revolution begins as more than a million students and education workers marched against plans to cut financing to public schools and universities.

72 80

iranian protests are not just an excuse to talk about twitter Twitter is great for a lot of things. But you know what else Twitter is great for?

Providing journalists covering an uprising with an angle that also happens to include an ultra-popular, search-engine-friendly keyword.

back comic The Original and True History of Fine Art

by Chris Ware.

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25

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a quarterly of arts, opinion, & ideas 34

[003]

f eatu re

the People v.

Berlusconi by chris de wolfe

“TUTTA LA VITA DAVANTI” (“Your Whole Life Ahead”), a recent Italian movie, opens with the voice of a young woman defending her thesis. The camera dwells on one wrinkled visage after another, until it becomes clear that the entire examining board is made up of octogenarians – and a chuckle of cynical recognition runs through the cinema audience. maisonneuve.org [057]

f eatu re

A student rejects Berlusconi’s reform

In a Rome, left-wing activists marched to the Circus Maximus under a sea of red and green opposition flags proclaiming that “another Italy is possible.” the retirement age for Italian university teachers is 72.

Mariastella Gelmini, education minister in Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing government, plans to reduce it, though only to 70. And this is just one of a host of reforms she is seeking to make to one of the worst managed, worst performing and most corrupt sectors in Italy.

Italian universities are not overfunded. According to the oecd richcountry think-tank, each student in 2005 cost some $8,026, well below the

average of $11,512. But the figure for Italy does not include private universities. And few critics believe that a shortage of cash is the biggest problem for state-run higher education.

Most Italians point instead to the overweening power of the baroni (barons), or tenured professors with the power of academic life and death. Many treat their faculties as personal fiefs.

Nepotism and favouritism are rife: only this week news emerged of a university rector who, the day before he retired on

October 31st, signed a decree to make his son a lecturer. Research by students at Federico II University in Naples found that 15% of teachers had a relative on the university staff. At Palermo University, as many as 230 teachers are reported to be related to other teachers.

The creation of jobs for relatives and friends has helped to inflate the number of Italian academics. According to Ms Gelmini, 13,000 junior posts have been advertised in the past seven years, yet 26,000 have been filled. Cronyism has

also led to a proliferation of courses and departments. Italy has 37 courses with but a single student; 327 faculties have fewer than 15.

Some valuable research and inspirational teaching are done in Italian universities. But the more common pattern is of a uniform mediocrity. Not one Italian institution is in the top 100 of the 2008 Times Higher Education world university rankings. The baroni wield considerable influence over governments, particularly of the centreleft, and have used it to bury most attempts at reform.

The need for change is now pressing.

Five universities are, in effect, bankrupt.

The system as a whole is manifestly failing the economy. Only 17% of Italians between 25 and 34 have a tertiary qualification, compared with an oecd average of 33%. The main reason is a shocking dropout rate of 55%, the highest in the rich world.

Judging that students were being asked to stay at university for too long, Mr Berlusconi’s previous government introduced optional, three-year degree courses. But employers say that graduates of these shorter courses are not good enough. Universities are not imparting enough learning within a reasonable time.

Most of Ms. Gelmini’s reforms will be included in two bills that have yet to be formally published. But earlier this month she won cabinet support for an initial measure to alter the selection process for university teachers and researchers in order to prevent abuses; to set aside more cash for student grants and accommodation; and to mitigate the effects of earlier cost-cutting legislation by raising the number of lecturers and researchers who can be hired for every one that retires.

All this might seem good news for students and teachers. Yet students have staged protests around the country. This week the main trade union federations planned a national strike, though one of them pulled out at the last minute. The opposition argues that

[ photographs by Brandon Gaukel ]

no good will come of reforms inspired by cost reduction. But the government retorts that Italy’s ultra-low birth rate has created economy. Only 17% of Italians between 25 and 34 have a tertiary qualification, compared with an oecd average of 33%. The main reason is a shocking dropout rate of 55%, the highest in the rich world.

Judging that students were being asked to stay at university for too long, Mr Berlusconi’s previous government introduced optional, three-year degree courses. But employers say that graduates of these shorter courses are not good enough. Universities are not imparting enough learning within a reasonable time.

Most of Ms Gelmini’s reforms will

be included in two bills that have yet to be formally published. But earlier this month she won cabinet support for an initial measure to alter the selection process for university teachers and researchers in order to prevent abuses; to set aside more cash for student grants and accommodation; and to mitigate the effects of earlier cost-cutting legislation by raising the number of lecturers and researchers who can be hired for every one that retires.

All this might seem good news for students and teachers. Yet students have staged protests around the country. This week the main trade union federations planned a national strike, though one of them pulled out at the last minute. The opposition argues that

Protest in PIsa

“Even if we are one million people protesting today, Berlusconi will say there was only one hundred of us. And he will be able to do that because he controls so much of the media.” maisonneuve.org [059]

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m a i so n n eu v e fall 2009

a quarterly of arts, opinion, & ideas

Maisonneuve is a magazine that celebrates and champions eclectic curiosity in numerous endeavours and aspects of life. It is published quarterly in the beautiful city of Montreal.

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uprising > the people v. berlusconi [ Italy in turmoil ] > vegetarians revolt [ The case for eating meat ] > iranian protests are not just an excuse to talk about twitter [ Journalism in the age of search engine optimization ] > the boy & the boarding school [ Objections to private school considered ]

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Italy in Turmoil

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fall 2009

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