Tim is innocent was Re: hi

[Steve Mynott]

On Wed, Dec 06, 2000 at 05:02:17PM -0800, Tim May wrote:
> 
> At 7:48 PM -0500 12/6/00, Trei, Peter wrote:

[ .. ]

> >Anyone else suspect that the original message (from a
> >throw-away yahoo account) is a troll,
> >and wonder if Tim might have been the author?

I have suspected this in the past over some postings but the ip address in the
headers looks legit.

 Received: from [194.170.1.68] by web901.mail.yahoo.com; Wed, 06 Dec 2000

$ whois 194.170.1.68
route:         194.170.0.0/16
descr:         Emirates Telecommunications Corporation
               Sheikh Zayed II Street
               P.O. Box 3838
               Abu Dhabi
               United Arab Emirates

> Rasha sounds like the typical illiterate student who has to take 
> remedial English upon her arrival at Beaver College. I had a roommate 
> in college who was one of these types, having to take the equivalent 
> of "English for Dummies." He couldn't spell, he couldn't construct a 
> sentence, and he couldn't read worth a damn.

Although I dislike, as ever, Tim's tone in these matters he has, as he
often does, a valid point hidden under his bitterness and his
experience at an American university is similar to my own, more recent,
experiences at English universities.

In a basic course that purported to teach "economics" (actually a
dumbed down blend of vague sociology and Keynesianism) the majority of
students were foreign and had a poor grasp of the English language.

The level of debate was poor and the lecturer had an easy job.

I am not racist against foreign students and think poking fun at poor
English isn't constructive (they generally speak English better than I
speak their own language) but there seems to me something basically
broken about a system which doesn't teach basic English _before_ trying
to teach complex ideas in that language.

-- 
1024/D9C69DF9 steve mynott steve at tightrope.demon.co.uk

    gravity cannot be held responsible for people falling in love. --
albert einstein