Here is what I feel is a well-written, balanced report on the cartoons and the furore it sparked.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/02/10/news/cartoons.php
Here is from today
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/02/15/news/union.php
I suppose when one talks about emotional issues, it is hard to maintain a clear mind.
How far can satire go, and should there be an arbitrary decision on what is sacred and profane?
I don't think this question will ever be answered. But many recent riots, sparked off unfortunately in the densely populated immigrant section of Western Europe, have made current administrations pay attention to the conditions of today's polity. And recent events have made me requestion the concept of religion, and why this religion and not the other. I see a new crisis coming up :D
On a lighter note, it is so 'on' to be an applied scientist today :D
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,1709337,00.html
Damn, why did I switch to the fickle world of advertising and branding, where qualifications and formal education are less important (though knowledge IS a big asset, acquired which way) than your ability to maneuvre the world of hard-knocks, put up with corporate jinks (fickle-minded and dense authorities) and to negotiate deals. Even a PhD without the necessary survival skills and EQ (+ creative talent) will drown in this vast ocean.
Academia seems so much more of an ideal in comparison (barring the campus political back-biting and power-play), but should I ever enter it, I hope that I can also share "real-life" with them, from the horse's mouth.
Both words require smarts, and in today's highly commertical world, I doubt that a lack of industrial experience will do a book-centred academic much good, even if you majored in Egyptology or Celtic Studies, or the linguistic cognition of Trobiander Indians. (:
Time to rethink my "higher-education".
