For example, I am so amazed at Australia. Where do you find a country which encourages you to take higher degrees? Where do you find a country which not only will give to you an education, but will also pay you for doing it? That is right. Your first degree (like a Bachelor's) is covered by a type of study now and pay later plan. When you graduate and get work, that is the time you pay them back through the taxation system. There is also financial assistance like Austudy for those mature students taking their first degree. Of course if you go for a Master's degree you will have to pay but not when you go for a Doctorate. The laws may have changed but in my case as a citizen, I got a university scholarship (this is how they paid me) for 3.5 years, tax free, then on top of that, I paid no cent on my tuition fees. I do not even recall paying amenities fees unlike when I was back home. So what else did my uni do for me? They gave me a computer, an office, paid for my stationaries, gave me travel allowance for conferences, paid for my books, gave me of course free library access, free printing and internet access. Then to help me get additional income, they gave me paid tutorial work. I met a friend the other day, he does not have a scholarship since he wanted to do it part time, yet he is not charged any tuition fees for his Doctorate program (in another uni). Tell me, is this a good country or not? So I am humbled by these and I thankful to the Lord for these blessings.
By the way, just for information, mathematicians around the world are involved in what is called the "maths genealogy project". It is a type of database that tracks the educational pedigree of the mathematician, i.e. who was his/her teacher, which university graduated the person, the person's dissertation etc.
Sometimes I wonder what my new journey might look like. I am sometimes afraid that as I journey on, I might fall into the ditch of weasel talk as I have seen others fall into the hole unable to climb back up. If you do not know what I mean, let me explain it by example, consider this statement:
The set theoretical and logical definition of procedures for
assembling algebraic constructions in mathematics, and the
constructions themselves, are normally considered to reside in a
universe of discourse, which is neutral and abstract from any
computational implementation. Recent work suggests such discourse
exhibits implicit notions of computation, which are rooted in tree
based formalisms divorced from abstract denotational environments. In
particular, it is argued such discourse has a sequential nature, and
is asynchronous and recursion oriented.
Hehehehe, you got that? Right. That is clear isn't it? There you go, that is weasel talk or weasel words. What apparently sounds so sophisticated and deep is nothing but bull dust.
Moving forward (now that is a weasel term), now that I am ready to be a change agent (another weasel word), I shall now engage new challenges using emergent and transformative technologies that deliver high impact to the betterment of communities (more weasel words).
My prayer in short, may the Lord deliver me from the sin of obfuscation.
credits: Pr. Greg for post title.
4 comments:
Notre Dame gave me free tuition and later a small stipend that really helped make ends meet. Your country is very generous indeed. We joked that no one could read anything deeper than TV Guide after three days of written comps. It was true. Written comps followed coursework but preceded the dissertation. The dissertation meant starting all over again. Chemnitz was required to earn a doctorate to be a bishop. The custom in America is to elect the dumbest go-along, get-along guy for the same position.
LPC, where did this paragraph come from? Moving forward (now that is a weasel term), now that I am ready to be a change agent (another weasel word), I shall now engage new challenges using emergent and transformative technologies that deliver high impact to the betterment of communities (more weasel words).
I ask because "change agent", "transformative" and "betterment of communities" are all terms and functions spoken of and used by the emerging New World Order. The price of some things are much more costly than some imagine. Has the Australian government ever explained their objectives in setting up the process the way they did?
Curious. Thank you.
Pr Greg,
Some 25 years ago, a book entitle, the Games Man came along and I read it. It compared 4 types of corporate people.
Heheheh, looks like in Sinods, what you describe is what the book called - the YES man. That is right, if you are a Yes man, you will go high up in heavenly places. That works in the Sinods no?
To move ahead, the Yes man licks you know where, so he climbs up the ladder of politics, but in the end, the Yes is not your friend because when the crunch happens he will first save his you know what, and do you in. The most important person to the Yes man is himself.
LPC
Hi Brett,
That is interesting. As you know my paragraph was a parody, I am actually mocking the use of these words.
I got these words from the current corporate talk.
However, this is the way the corporate world and the government in Australia speak. I picked up those words from a web site that criticizes these mombo jombo hogwash buzz words to make it appear one is hip or in the know.
http://www.weaselwords.com.au/.
Brett, I have suffered not getting a job/contracts because I refused to use these words in my communication. I never have them in my resume. When I am interviewed my interviewer detects right away I do not use these words though I have heard of them. In the first place they are just vapor talk that muddles up what is communicated. They are weasel words that one can bend, deform, reshape to whatever one wants to mean. It appears to have high ideals but they really communicate nothing substantial, just lingo to tell the listener one is IN the KNOW. It has semblance with the way cults operate if you ask me.
Since I do not use these words, my interviewers detect that I am not one of their crowds. So I get rejected.
They are words that suck in the unsuspecting.
LPC
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