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of the name of the guy who scared the crap out of his parents generation and he was talking about yuri gagarin and here s the thing in the film yuri gagarin looked like this and the real gagarin looked like this he was freaking adorable in the us yuri gagarin would be played by a young tom hanks there were a number of parallels between this film and apollo 13 and while the end of his life is an utter tragedy what he accomplished was without question heroic and what the soviet union did in putting him in space was both a centerpiece of nationalist propaganda and a triumph for humanity that the narrative in the us tended to lean toward framing it as an act of military aggression is an artifact of the zero sum stakes of the cold war and mid century ambivalence about technology s erosion of boundaries that traditionally kept us at least feeling secure a theme which is also subtly explored in this film as commentators increasingly point irresponsibly i would argue toward the beginnings of a new cold war the stakes have once again become zero sum and the conversation is once again tainted by a pervasive sense of paranoia and a tendency to treat as naked calculated aggression acts that are probably in reality far less rational far more motivated by immediate local politics and far more self defeating than they are portrayed to be i need to back up for a second people keep asking me questions about how i ve experienced the ukraine crisis in moscow and some family members have asked why i haven t blogged about it and the reasons why are as follows like pretty much everyone in the states i ve been following the ukraine crisis via television and the internet it s impact on my day to day life has been negligible aside from the daily fluctuations of the ruble and occasional emails from the embassy reminding americans to stay away from public demonstrations my opinions change almost daily the american expat in russia finds herself in a tough spot ideologically speaking because on the one hand you want to defend russia against the more sensationalistic and divisive parts of the american media while at the same time not appearing to be a putin apologist it s that last one naturally that is the thorniest because to have a nuanced opinion on what s going on means having to resist a lot of false equivalencies comparisons to what is going on now and hitler s anschluss are not helpful but neither are comparisons to america s incursion in iraq on the one hand we didn t annex iraq on the other the russian army has yet to fire a shot and while the spin you see in american media is depressing it is not the same thing as what the kremlin backed russia today is doing but if there is one equivalency that can at least be roughly sketched it s that for all the very important ways in which they are different russia and the us love to frame themselves as heroes on the historic stage for a good swath of the population here the annexation of crimea is not an act of aggression it is an act of rescue and yes the words greeted as liberators have crossed my mind but even if i m avowedly skeptical about that rhetoric i m also skeptical about any framing of the issue that positions the us as hero particularly when it involves double standards and overt hypocrisy while i most certainly prefer american style democracy to whatever we ve got going on over here what the zero sum game of the cold wars old and new enables is a narrative of american righteousness that stokes a similarly problematic nationalistic fervor and precludes any kind of honest self reflection about the nature of american or western privilege here s an example back during the sochi olympics this image came across my tumblr dashboard it was framed as an act of unparalleled courage said scott wooledge on twitter tourists attempting what tilda swinton did in russia are subject to 15 days in jail courage on tumblr it was accompanied with the message tilda swinton risked her freedom to stand up for lgbt rights in russia but here is the thing tilda swinton was almost certainly at no risk when she did this why because she is tilda swinton and this was the middle of the sochi olympics and moscow officials are almost certainly not stupid enough to arrest an international movie star who brought her own photographer with her at the precise moment when russia was trying to make a splash on the international stage yes there is a certain kind of bravery to what swinton did here but whatever danger she was in was not the same as what the actual activists here who get little to no notice from western media unless they are two very specific former members of pussy riot face on a daily basis the lgbt rights situation in russia like the ukraine crisis has often been covered by westerners in ways that are disgustingly self serving opportunistic and ignorant the conversation about the swinton photo i would argue isn t really about lgbt rights in russia it s about the heroism of one western scottish actress note also that the above quoted tweet says nothing about what actual russians face for similar acts but what tourists in russia face lgbt russians are nowhere in that image or the conversation around it it s an opportunity rather the celebrate how westerners are both more free and more courageous likewise those demanding that the us intervene militarily in ukraine seem less concerned with actual ukrainians than bolstering an image of american strength that will somehow bring russia to heel as if the past twenty years of foreign policy have been all about breaking the resolve of russia rather than integrating it into a productive international dialogue some would argue that that has in fact been the case for all of the talk about anti american or anti western sentiment in russia i ve experienced none of it so far i don t see americans with cameras about their necks being taken aside in the metro and asked to show their papers i do see that happening to people who look like they are from the north caucasus the western expat particularly the white one enjoys privilege here but is not particularly special which is why i am troubled by any attempt by westerners to make this about them like the attempt to put the first man in space it kind of sort of is but in a much bigger sense it really isn t russians based on what i ve seen don t spend a ton of time really thinking about americans like most people they spend most of the time thinking about themselves leave a comment what i learned on my winter vacation january 5 2014 uncategorized italy navel gazing russia travel vacation ashley squires among the many reasons people cite for travelling internationally broadening your perspective and growing as a human being is probably the most well worn what precisely that means however varies dramatically depending on what type of growth results you are looking for making your facebook friends jealous and being able to trade tips with your yuppy friends on what to order in a paris café are some of the more mercenary goals perhaps but at the bottom of all of it is the belief that encountering more kinds of people and more ways of living makes you a better human being i do actually believe that otherwise i would have chosen the kind of life i m living but often what we think of when we talk about the kinds of experiences that make us broader wiser more tolerant people are the kinds of experiences that teenagers write about in their college essays either the types of experiences that put us in touch with the goodness in all humanity including our own by bearing witness to triumph over adversity or the types of dramatic self discovery that occur when our plans and expectations are radically upended i ve been living abroad for six months now and i m not really sure that i ve had either type of experience perhaps that is because i am living the same kind of middle class 9 to 5 well 10 6 because europe does everything an hour later than america existence that i would in the states associating primarily with other expats and intimidatingly well educated cosmopolitan russians the russia i live in is a fairly rarified on the challenges i have experienced have been of the thanksgiving is coming and i can t for the life of me find ground cloves variety ok a few weeks ago an entire work day on the last day of classes was hijacked for a two hour cab ride with five other colleagues to the immigration office in brutal moscow traffic in which one of the cabs got into a wreck and the cab driver had to pay off the other driver so that we could make it in time but maybe that s the point rarely are we given the opportunities for the kinds of apocalyptic self examination that make good memoirs i know people who have had those sorts of experiences and i am not excited to follow in their footsteps for the most part it s in this kind of mundane bullshit that you come face to face with your limitations and the places where you could stand to change and adapt and you know grow and the reason why travel abroad is often associated with that is because for those of us who don t have children going to another country is the best possible opportunity we have for being ruinously inconvenienced at least that is what has happened to me on our winter vacation to southern italy vacationing in a different country is as it turns out a very different beast than living in a different country and in many ways it is a fiercer one there is far more pressure to have the time of your life for example i have spent quite a lot of money to be here you tell yourself on a daily basis i had better not spend it playing another level of plants vs zombies when i could be out there having a good time italian food is amazing you tell yourself as you realize that you are possibly doing permanent damage to yourself with the amount of wine pizza and gelato you are consuming in the name of seizing the moment and it is in the name of making the most of your time in this place that you consider waiting in a queue for the sistine chapel so long that it would give you a rage stroke if you encountered it outside the context of this vacation i do not want to set you up for the expectation that this has been a bad trip or that i am ungrateful for this opportunity far from it please believe that i did jump up and down when i saw the colosseum and that i have been gleefully uploading photos to instagram every night i embarked upon this trip overflowing with optimism and maybe because of that it has also been a particularly acute period of encountering the disappointing limitations of both the trip and of myself as a human being i have learned that i am precisely the type of over ambitious type a vacation planner i always thought i wouldn t be treating the guide book like a check list and becoming livid at my spouse because he broke up the day s itinerary with his suggestion that we go back to our air bnb in the mid afternoon after five hours of walking and have a nap in other words we have become the most disgusting overworn stereotype of travelling couples ever i have also learned that in both psychological and physical terms i am completely inflexible when it comes to my tea intake i am basically a grouchy be tweeded brit or uncle iroh take your pick and italy is coffee country where the best a tea drinker can hope for outside of certain very specific roman establishments where tea is served as a sort of novelty or sop to tourists is a bag of lipton yellow label served in a cappuccino mug and a reliable wi fi connection is pretty much a deal breaker for me the internet connection is really just there for checking tourist information my landlord tells me when i complain that it is too slow and cuts out all the time you are history s worst monster i think mourning the episodes of 30 rock that i planned to watch quasi legally via vpn connection if an italian coffee shop those places where you guzzle espresso while standing at a counter advertises wi fi on their front door take it with several grains of salt this is not a country where you can expect to park for several hours with your laptop i who like to think of myself as a tolerant open minded person have found myself characterizing the inhabitants of an entire country based on the rude pushy behavior of off brand tour guides outside of the vatican a couple of obnoxious waiters and that family in front of me walking very slowly and taking up the entire sidewalk while throwing their trash on the ground i will not as it turns out wait for multiple hours to see a michelangelo masterpiece i will instead buy handbags it occurs to me that i may have sort of lucked out by landing in a country that happens to support most of my addictions and neuroses where it is dark most of the time and the free wi fi is plentiful where i can swill tea around the clock even if it does keep me awake at night and where the locals share my preference for putting on a set of headphones and staring sullenly into the middle distance while using public transportation avoiding eye contact with strangers at all costs if a muscovite complains about the fact that everyone on the metro stares at their mobile devices rather than striking up friendly conversations with the person next to them they probably exile him or her to california where fiends like that belong if someone is standing on the wrong side of the escalator or is blocking the door of the metro car you can shove them out of the way no one will blame you this is russia mofos in other words the ways in which travel forces you to grow are often far more mundane than the ones you think are worth writing home about in truth it s the times when a little kid dumps tacos in your purse that you come face to face with your humanity and are forced to become a better person i hear that having human children gives you this sort of opportunity all of the time i also think i m content to remain precisely this selfish and this limited for now at least until my next vacation leave a comment the student has become the master flipped classrooms for advanced students december 4 2013 pedagogy uncategorized classroom discussion english flipped classroom literature pedagogy teaching ashley squires i realized today as i started preparing materials for my class on urban environments in literature and film that my students are pretty much teaching my class for me yesterday i asked the day s assigned group leaders to send me a list formulated in conjunction with their peers of 3 5 big questions they wanted answered or issues we should track as we proceed through our final novel la confidential today i am compiling some links and background readings based on what they sent me i am doing work in response to an agenda that my students have set this happened by accident the cession of power happened so gradually that i don t think any of us noticed it and the even bigger surprise is that it s working out swimmingly as a literature student...
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