Students need to be more self-reliant
While the series of student suicides at MIT and other colleges in the Boston area is not the focus of this piece, it has inspired my reflection on how to cope in difficult times at the Institute. These events have prompted me to stretch my search for solutions to perhaps controversial lengths. In any case, I wish to express my condolences to these students’ families and loved ones.
MIT is stressful, but students need to be more self-reliant
While the series of student suicides at MIT and other colleges in the Boston area is not the focus of this piece, it has inspired my reflection on how to cope in difficult times at the Institute. These events have prompted me to stretch my search for solutions to perhaps controversial lengths. In any case, I wish to express my condolences to these students’ families and loved ones.
A chat with Viktor Petrenko, figure skating legend How disciplined practice and community-minded humility got him to the top
After two decades of personal academic labors that included a B.A. degree, two masters, the relative mastery of the Russian language, and lessons for “Adult Beginners” at the MIT Figure Skating Club, and after 25 years of long-distance admiration, last month on Aug. 17 I finally got an in-person interview with my figure skating hero, 1992 World and Olympic Champion Viktor Petrenko at his home ice rink.
On top and in control
Despite the predictions of a diminished Putin and a shaky Russia in the near future, Putin seems to be fine and to be defying those very predictions. He has certainly demonstrated that he can maintain himself at the top of a gigantic country through turbulent times and difficulties, and has proved to be a master engineer of his own destiny. He is now ready to start on the final phase of his craftily concocted comeback — or perhaps not so final should he decide to run again in 2018, which is very possible, even likely.
Famous and fearless
I do not believe that Putin — and even the Kremlin before him, and after him (under Medvedev) — is scared in the least, even by the rarely seen large-scale protests of recent months.
Freedom: alive and well
The objectivity of pro-Western (for lack of a better denominative) reports on the recent street and Internet activism in Russia must be questioned in a number of areas.
An unloved intellectual
Should a majority of the Russian middle class truly venerate such values and the deeply-rooted intellectual ideals that Western observers tend to attribute to them, one may also wonder why there seems to have been so little display of respect and remembrance for the late wife of Mikhail Gorbachev, Raisa Gorbachova, the highly active and first university-educated First Lady of Russia. She revolutionized (if only briefly) her position in the Russian system of governance, with her involvement in children and women’s issues and cancer programs, among others.
The new Russians: emerging and educated?
The United States and its supporters have hardly been able to contain their excitement at the winds of democratic change that they perceive as blowing in the Arab world and other regions following recent anti-government uprisings. But this has often led to misinterpretation and inflation of the actual number and honorable motives of the protesters. The Western media’s assessment of the recent street protests in Russia is no exception. The misjudgment and embellishment of the popular opposition and reactionary forces in Russian society by the West is in fact not confined to their size, but also their quality — or one could say, the “spirit” behind them.
Some math about the Russian protests
While it is true that the 2011-2012 Russian street protests have been unprecedented in recent years in their scale — with a participation unseen since the 1990s — one may well want to take a closer look at the figures being trumpeted by Western and Russian pro-democracy observers and media (which incidentally have almost always been much higher than the official statistics from city authorities).
Putin’s high IQ
One thing is sure about Putin: he is smart, very smart. You have to be, to maintain order over nine time zones, and stay at the top of the inner fightings of competing factions among the siloviki, desperate to protect the millions they have at stake from Russia’s economic boom. Putin has proved himself uniquely able to adroitly balance the various strategic interests of the competing parties. He has so far been a master at managing divisions within the government — and Russians know this.
A question of Putin’s intention
I admit it: I slept through the Russian presidential election of last month, which saw Vladimir Putin win a third term for a newly extended period of six years. This is unforgivable given my lifelong fascination for Russia and eight-year stay in the country as Moscow correspondent prior to MIT. My life and duties at the Institute have indeed kept me very distant from all things “Russia” — 4,482.88 miles away to be precise (Boston-Moscow distance).
Educating ourselves about Lauryn Hill (and her thesis)
In the non-Prince music section of the Purple One’s fan site Prince.Org last week, a contributor asked quite a pertinent question about The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill album and its world-renowned female rapper-author:
Digital freedom, liberty, civility, love
While it is certainly encouraging to see that the current U.S. government is intent on bringing more freedom of expression and opportunities for democratic action to people in repressed regimes around the world, the latest effort at new legislation for improving Internet access to such regions may understandably leave us perplexed.
ARTS FEATURE For the Comic Book Guy in All of Us
The action at Comic-Con officially started on Preview Night on July 22, with Warner Bros. Television’s sneak previews of “Human Target,” “V,” and “The Vampire Diaries,” all three of which, I have to say, left me with a vague sense of déjà vu, especially in the vampire department. “V,” however, is interesting in terms of high-tech visuals. The mosaicked mirrors of the Mothership beaming Morena Baccarin’s elfin face over Los Angeles are quite a sight.
INTERVIEW Interview With ‘Orphan’ Screenwriter David Johnson
If you haven’t had the curiosity (or stomach) to check Jaume Collet-Serra’s appropriately horrific horror thriller <i>Orphan</i>, this interview with screenwriter David L. Johnson might do the trick in explaining the motives behind the film’s mysterious topic. I caught up with the busy writer–first-time father-to-be at the Comic-Con in San Diego last month. Clearly a part of the Comic-Con community, Johnson has worked with Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee when he adapted one of his original ideas into a two-hour teleplay for TBS Superstation.
Color (or the Lack of It) at Comic-Con…And Beyond
If I had to sum up the idea behind the huge pop culture Comic-Con convention of this past July in one word, it would be “diversity.” At least, this was certainly the undoubtedly noble goal that the comics world and its followers, from fans to experts, claimed to embrace.
The Current State of U.S.-Middle East Relations
Despite frosty United States-France relations during the Bush’s administration, France received Obama in June with open arms and effusive praise from the French public and experts alike. The media gushed over his charismatic “cool,” his youth and the “nonchalant” attitude he brings to his interpersonal contact with world leaders.
CD AND WEBSITE REVIEW Stellar Songs From the Purple One
So first you have to figure out how to get in.
CONCERT REVIEW Wild, Deep, and Danceable
Sharam Tayebi of Iranian-American Grammy award-winning DJ and dance music production duo Deep Dish got Bostonian clubgoers to make some wild moves on the dance floor at his <i>Get Wild</i> tour and CD release party at nightclub Rumor last Thursday.
Alumna Gets Laughs In Ashdown Stand-Up
<b>March 15, 1:00 p.m.</b> This may have been a lazy Sunday afternoon for many of us, but for Dhaya Lakshminarayanan ’96 a tough time lay ahead: she was about to face and entertain a crowd of comedy connoisseurs and hardcore fans of the tricky art of stand-up in the soberly-styled Ashdown House Crafts Lounge — not everyone is up for a post-lunch laugh during digestion time on a Sunday.
The ‘Me’ Culture at MIT (and Beyond)
The “You” of YouTube is beautiful (who is immune to a bit of attention?), and the “We” of wikis and the like are everywhere. But make no mistake, at the end of the day, it’s still the “Me” that matters.
Does Your Vote Count? It Depends On Who’s Counting Your Votes
While the debate over who America will vote into the Oval Office is in full swing, so too is the discussion about how the voting will happen. The November elections will feature unprecedented levels and varieties of electronic voting.
The Need for a Nuanced Russia Policy
“A wolf with a limited point of view” — this is how Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (then president) referred to the United States days after Condoleezza Rice spoke on US-Russian cooperation at Boston College in May 2006.
MIT E-Voting Project To Analyze Experience Of Voters in Election
As the election approaches, a question lingers with increasing urgency on the minds of concerned citizens: to e-vote or not to e-vote?
Critiquing Steinem’s Take on Palin Pick
“She nails it,” was the consensus between IrresistibleBitch, JellyBean and Meow85 regarding Gloria Steinem’s op-ed piece, “Palin: wrong woman, wrong message” published on Sept. 4 in <i>The Los Angeles Times</i>. The first place I spotted the topic under discussion was, oddly enough, in the Politics and Religion forum of the Prince fan site, <i>Prince.org</i>.
The Russian-Georgian Conflict: An Inside View
Right in the middle of an 18-month treatment for a pair of amenorrheic ovaries on strike due to poor diet, I couldn’t help wondering, sitting in the waiting room of the Moscow clinic earlier this year, whether my Georgian-born gynecologist would be at any minute snatched away by the Russian security services, put on a Tbilisi-bound plane and sent back home indefinitely.