sad story at Princeton

A popular lecturer commits suicide after being non-renewed:

“Princeton student Philip Rothaus, who describes himself as a good friend of Calvo’s, is alleging that the school is covering up the full story of the lecturer’s leave of absence. In an open letter to the university obtained by IvyGate, Rothaus wrote that Calvo’s contract may have been canceled ‘against the wishes of [his] department…'”

My only misgiving here is that throughout the article, the phrase “against the wishes of the department” recurs several times. I don’t see that argument as a show-stopper by any means. Academic departments do all kinds of insane and vicious things, and they are not always in the right in their conflicts with their administrations. In fact, I’ve seen many more crazy department chairs in my time than I’ve seen crazy senior administrators; perhaps others have had different experiences.

But I know nothing about this case beyond the article cited, and of course it’s devastating to read that someone was pushed to that degree of despair.

MA program in arts in Ireland

MA Art in the Contemporary World: Call for applications
An intensive postgraduate programme of seminars, events and projects, interrogating the key conditions, contexts and practices of contemporary art, at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, Ireland

Closing date for applications: 28 April 2011

Current course team
Dr Francis Halsall / Declan Long / Dr Paul O’Brien / James Armstrong / Georgina Jackson / Glenn Loughran / Bea McMahon / Emma Mahony / Isabel Nolan / Prof. Philip Napier / Anthony Hobbs / Dr. Siun Hanrahan / Prof. Kathleen James Chakraborty (UCD Art History) / Kevin Donovan (UCD Architecture)

External Assessor: Vivian Rehberg (Parsons School of Art & Design, Paris; Contributing Editor, Frieze Magazine)

Recent contributors and collaborators
Kenneth Anger / Shumon Basar / Lynda Benglis / AA Bronson / Katrina Brown / Gerard Byrne / Duncan Campbell / Phil Collins / Lynne Cooke/ Elena Filipovic / Dan Fox / Maria Fusco / Liam Gillick / Mark Fisher (k-Punk) / Massimiliano Gioni / Elizabeth Magill / Jeremy Millar / Larry Miller (Fluxus) / Simon O’Sullivan / Susan Philipsz / Andrea Philips / Walid Raad / Kathrin Rhomberg / Irving Sandler / Andrea Schlieker / Norbert Schwontkowski / Paul Seawright / Polly Staple / The Quiet Club/ Mick Wilson / David Toop / Irish Museum of Modern Art / Irish Film Institute / Hugh Lane Gallery / Douglas Hyde Gallery / Kerlin Gallery / Lismore Castle Arts / Ireland at the Venice Biennale / UCD School of Art History & Cultural Policy / UCD School of Architecture

See http://www.acw.ie for more details.
Contact: Dr. Francis Halsall or Declan Long: longd@ncad.ie; halsallf@ncad.ie

what I still don’t understand, however

“Former vice president Omar Soliman was summoned as a witness to testify on the events of the 25 January Revolution, according to a statement released by the prosecutor-general’s office.”

What I don’t understand is why Suleiman himself is still walking the streets. Was the Intelligence Chief and then Vice President of the country an innocent babe, unaware of the maelstrom of crimes swirling around him?

That’s certainly not the view of someone who spoke to the BBC during the Revolution. This man had been rendered to Egypt for interrogation for something or other. He says he was tortured for three days with a blindfold on. At one point the interrogator smacked him so hard that his blindfold came off, and he was able to see his torturer– Omar Suleiman in person!

story on the “Battle of the Camel”

Ahram Online has a story on the incident, stating the widely held belief that former Minister of Information Safwat el-Sherif was the main culprit.

Perhaps the most stunning anecdote in the story is from taxi driver Mahmoud, who was a frontline thug on February 2 but later changed his mind and joined the Tahrir protests:

“Mahmoud, a taxi driver, was one of those who fought protesters out of their personal beliefs. He considered the anti-Mubarak demonstrators to be the ‘enemies of the nation’ thanks to the misleading influence of state-run media at the time. ‘I have to pay the car instalments and I couldn’t work because of the sit-in,’ he stated. ‘Therefore, I went to kick the protesters out, whom I thought of as enemies of the nation. I was even in the frontline! But later I realised what was going on and what those people have been calling for, then I felt sorry about what I did. I even spent some time in Tahrir Square afterwards.'”

Gamal Mubarak also now stands accused of having hired thugs to fire live ammunition at Tahrir on Friday, January 28. If that can be proven, he’ll never see the outside of a jail cell again, assuming he doesn’t face an even worse punishment.

The recent wave of arrests has done much to boost the morale of the country, and I’m glad such attention is being paid to February 2, in many ways the Revolution’s most bloodcurdling day.