Monthly Archives: June 2014
Attention Please!
Written on June 30, 2014 at 12:05 am, by Ian Holliday
At dusk on Saturday I went to TS1 Gallery by Yangon River’s Lanthit Jetty to attend an evening of performance art. Attention Please! was dedicated to ten female Myanmar artists. Largely unfamiliar with such work, I found it all fairly bemusing, and at the same time energizing and inspiring. The venue was also terrific –…
Citizenship verification
Written on June 27, 2014 at 12:05 am, by Ian Holliday
I missed a story in last week’s Irrawaddy about the resumption of citizenship verification in Rakhine State. The process was triggered towards the end of 2012 by the outburst of sectarian violence, and stalled in 2013 by disagreement about Rohingya/Bengali terminology. In a limited and tentative way, it’s now back on track. “As a pilot…
MOOC reality check
Written on June 26, 2014 at 12:05 am, by Ian Holliday
I’ve written before about MOOCs’ great potential to boost higher education in Myanmar, and figured I should find out how they’re faring in places where they’ve been given a fair trial. The most recent MOOC Research Conference, held at the University of Texas, Arlington in December 2013, brought together key figures in the field. It…
NanoDegree
Written on June 25, 2014 at 12:05 am, by Ian Holliday
In a very different sphere of education from full university programmes is the NanoDegree. This is an initiative recently launched by AT&T and Udacity, an online education company founded by Stanford professor and former top Google engineer Sebastian Thrun. Enrolment requires competence in high-school mathematics, and costs $200 per month. In return, students can access…
Starbucks University
Written on June 24, 2014 at 12:05 am, by Ian Holliday
I’m intrigued by an announcement made at the start of last week that Starbucks is teaming up with Arizona State University to provide free online education to its 135,000 US employees. The opportunity is open to any individual who works at least 20 hours a week, and has the grades and test scores necessary to…
Ethnic conflict and social services
Written on June 23, 2014 at 12:05 am, by Ian Holliday
Last Tuesday the Asia Foundation released an important report – Kim Jolliffe’s Ethnic Conflict and Social Services in Myanmar’s Contested Regions. Noting that international aid agencies typically with work and through host state institutions, Jolliffe examines ways forward for Myanmar, where in many areas social services have long been provided by ethnic armed organizations and…
Cry, the Beloved Country
Written on June 20, 2014 at 12:05 am, by Ian Holliday
Alan Paton’s acclaimed novel Cry, the Beloved Country depicts South Africa on the brink of its descent into full-blown apartheid – the Afrikaans term, as Wikipedia notes, for “apart-hood” or the state of being apart. In 1948, the year of the book’s publication, the National Party began to introduce a stream of legislation that codified…
The Lady
Written on June 19, 2014 at 12:05 am, by Ian Holliday
Myanmar is portrayed all too rarely in films with genuine global reach – so rarely, in fact, that it scarcely ever happens at all. When a major movie does come along, then, it’s worth paying attention. On these grounds alone, Luc Besson’s The Lady, from 2011, very nearly demands examination. I saw it for the…
Code.org
Written on June 18, 2014 at 12:05 am, by Ian Holliday
It’ll take a while for the internet to become a mainstream educational resource in Myanmar. Already, though, millions of children and young adults are active online, and throughout the country the number is increasing daily. As I’ve argued before, it’s thus high time for reformers in government departments, UN agencies and INGOs to embrace the…
Dialogues on Historical Justice and Memory
Written on June 17, 2014 at 12:05 am, by Ian Holliday
On the topic of transitional justice, my friend Ania Zongollowicz recently brought to my attention the Dialogues on Historical Justice and Memory website. Hosted by Columbia University’s Alliance for Historical Dialogue and Accountability at the Institute for the Study of Human Rights in New York, the site is jointly managed by the Historical Justice and…