... it is not the task of the philosopher to act as the Big Other who tells us about the world but rather to challenge our own ideological presuppositions. The philosopher, is more someone who criticizes than someone who tries to answer questions.

- Žižek

divided by a common language

over lunch earlier, an interesting topic came about trigerred by a malicious comment of a colleague to a colleague...

question: just when do we draw the line between "misuse of words", joke or abuse? which factors to consider when trying to communicate? seniority? authority? gender? culture? personality?

and then came a brilliant anecdote (dont know the reference though). UK and US are two nations divided by the English language as if to answer the previous question.

and then another question: does communication start with common language or the common need and want to communicate?

what can cinema do???

entertainment, information, mover?

i enjoy movies that make me think and also films that make me get away from "my world of work". last night, I watched The Constant Gardener and i found it as such a moving experience. The plot is actually about drug testing in Africa (Kenya, in this case). I may not be a learned "movie critic" but I can say that this one gave me a balance of information, entertainment as well as somehow encouraged me to think more about this issue. i think that the actors were great as well. though some of the "thriller aspects" of the movie would somehow be predictable...

in fact, the movie moved me to search about Drug testing and I e-mailed my friend who did a paper on Malaria and the MNCs just a few months ago...

reading mixed reviews of the movie, i still think its a good one.

are birds really free?

as we were having lunch at the Arts (a favorite, loads of people there!), heavy rain poured. we were thinking, hhhmmmm... its gonna be free afternoon ;-))) we were thinking to order some coffeee or tea after lunch was finished...

then the bird flew in on one of the tables. and Nao said, huh, they can fly with wet wings or something to this effect (perhaps I misunderstood her). but then I, instead wondered if birds are really free?

we do think of birds as free - as symbols of freedom - spread your wings and fly - is a quote borrowed a thousandth time. and even the rain, they can fly through the rain while we were stock there wonderin, strategizin, how to go back to office.

what could be the limits of a bird's freedom? or is there such? yeah, thinking hard and i dont know why...

an interesting MSN article

Mike Leigh: portraying women as "not just male fantasies"

"I'm a feminist, though that's not where I came from," says British award-winning director Mike Leigh of his latest movie "Happy-Go-Lucky", a comedy featuring Sally Hawkins as the free-spirited heroine.

Hawkins, who plays positive-about-life primary schoolteacher Poppy, took home a Best Actress award for the role at this year's Berlin Film festival, where the movie was shown prior to its release in different parts of the world.

An ode to the homespun wisdom of always looking on the bright side, Leigh with his trademark kitchen-sink realism shows how irrepressibly positive 30-something Poppy takes all sorts of problems in her stride.

But he also shows how disconcerting this can be to people without a naturally happily predisposition.

"I come from a bourgeois, terribly repressive background from Great Britain in the 50s," he added. "My whole life has been about personal freedom, many of my films are about that."

In counter-point to Poppy is her driving instructor Scott -- played by Eddie Marsan recently seen in "21 Grams", "Hancock" and "Gangs of New York" -- who is so alienated he cannot handle his infatuation with her.

"The point about Poppy," Leigh said in an interview, "is she is ultimately serious, she has the capacity to care. But with that she's open-minded, free-spirited."

While Poppy was at one with existence, Scott was completely out of touch, he said. "He understands nothing, he's totally cut off from his emotions, his feelings, his own motivations."

Leigh, now aged 61, has won multiple Oscar nominations for his slice-of-life films, including the 2004 feature on a backroom abortionist "Vera Drake", and his 1996 drama about family secrets "Secrets & Lies".

In many of the films, women play a prime role.

"Though I see the world as a heterosexual male person, my job is to tell a story in a way that makes each character keep its complete integrity, no matter if it's a man or a woman."

"As a film-maker, I feel I have to make good parts for women because there aren't many in the world, parts that are not just male fantasies."

"Happy-Go-Lucky", said Leigh, did not have a single message.

"It's about a multiplicity of things," he said.

"It's about being fulfilled by the richness of life, not about joy or happiness, but it has to do with responsibility and work and caring."

"In all my films, it is not conscious but it comes from my own life, there is a battle, a struggle, a tension between repression and freedom, anarchy and free spirit."