Comments on: The importance of being a dork http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2009/04/30/the-importance-of-being-a-dork/ EthanZ's musings on Africa, media and international development Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:45:31 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Shall We Dance? « iThinkEducation.net! http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2009/04/30/the-importance-of-being-a-dork/comment-page-1/#comment-1709418 Shall We Dance? « iThinkEducation.net! Mon, 24 Aug 2009 04:13:42 +0000 http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/?p=2898#comment-1709418 [...] The importance of being a dork (ethanzuckerman.com) [...] [...] The importance of being a dork (ethanzuckerman.com) [...]

]]> By: Sarah http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2009/04/30/the-importance-of-being-a-dork/comment-page-1/#comment-1551447 Sarah Fri, 08 May 2009 01:24:58 +0000 http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/?p=2898#comment-1551447 Thanks for your response, Ethan. I agree that the underlying point is the existence of common ground: children, music, food etc. That's a lovely story about the Messiah in Accra -- it illustrates your point perfectly. Common ground is not only an opportunity to break down barriers -- its an opportunity to create new, shared, experiences from that common ground (eg by singing in a choir -- new opportunities for interaction etc). Thanks, Sarah. Thanks for your response, Ethan. I agree that the underlying point is the existence of common ground: children, music, food etc. That’s a lovely story about the Messiah in Accra — it illustrates your point perfectly. Common ground is not only an opportunity to break down barriers — its an opportunity to create new, shared, experiences from that common ground (eg by singing in a choir — new opportunities for interaction etc).
Thanks,
Sarah.

]]> By: Ethan http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2009/04/30/the-importance-of-being-a-dork/comment-page-1/#comment-1550150 Ethan Thu, 07 May 2009 02:57:13 +0000 http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/?p=2898#comment-1550150 Sarah, I think those are really challenging questions - thanks for raising them. I think you're right - the examples offered here are very much of more privleged people coming into less privleged settings and making contacts by looking for common ground... and being willing to look silly in the process. I think common ground is a constant - I guess the question is whether silly is the valid strategy when power dynamics are inverted. My guess is that there are a lot of post-colonial authors who've got smart things to say about about ways in which people in colonies have mastered cultures which were imposed on them. I'm remembering singing Handel's Messiah in Accra in 1993 with a Ghanaian chorus. The tenor, who stood next to me, an elderly Ghanaian man, didn't have - and didn't need - a score. After rehearsal, I asked him how he'd come to know the score so well, and he explained that he'd sung it every year when he was a student at Oxford. Not a dorky moment on either side, but an interesting form of common ground in a culture we were both borrowing from. I obviously need to think through some of these questions more before I can write well about this. Thanks for bringing up a very challenging dimension of this idea. Sarah, I think those are really challenging questions – thanks for raising them. I think you’re right – the examples offered here are very much of more privleged people coming into less privleged settings and making contacts by looking for common ground… and being willing to look silly in the process. I think common ground is a constant – I guess the question is whether silly is the valid strategy when power dynamics are inverted. My guess is that there are a lot of post-colonial authors who’ve got smart things to say about about ways in which people in colonies have mastered cultures which were imposed on them.

I’m remembering singing Handel’s Messiah in Accra in 1993 with a Ghanaian chorus. The tenor, who stood next to me, an elderly Ghanaian man, didn’t have – and didn’t need – a score. After rehearsal, I asked him how he’d come to know the score so well, and he explained that he’d sung it every year when he was a student at Oxford. Not a dorky moment on either side, but an interesting form of common ground in a culture we were both borrowing from.

I obviously need to think through some of these questions more before I can write well about this. Thanks for bringing up a very challenging dimension of this idea.

]]> By: Sarah http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2009/04/30/the-importance-of-being-a-dork/comment-page-1/#comment-1547560 Sarah Wed, 06 May 2009 00:27:55 +0000 http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/?p=2898#comment-1547560 I think a fundamental point in the 'dork abroad' question is the power differential at play. Looking like a dork is only really possible for someone who comes from a powerful position (like an white person visiting almost any other country on earth). A dork is a dork by not living up to our expectations of how that person should act -- ie as a powerful, important, white American male. But what about if our expectations of how that person should act are quite low? How are they exceeded? This might not be relevant for people from powerful countries, but what about, for example, how a new immigrant, or someone on a scholarship, from a poor country, might be accepted in the new, richer country which they have immigrated to/are studying in? So another question might be: how does someone coming from a 'not powerful country' to a 'powerful country' create connections? Does being a dork still work on these occasions? I think a fundamental point in the ‘dork abroad’ question is the power differential at play. Looking like a dork is only really possible for someone who comes from a powerful position (like an white person visiting almost any other country on earth). A dork is a dork by not living up to our expectations of how that person should act — ie as a powerful, important, white American male. But what about if our expectations of how that person should act are quite low? How are they exceeded? This might not be relevant for people from powerful countries, but what about, for example, how a new immigrant, or someone on a scholarship, from a poor country, might be accepted in the new, richer country which they have immigrated to/are studying in? So another question might be: how does someone coming from a ‘not powerful country’ to a ‘powerful country’ create connections? Does being a dork still work on these occasions?

]]> By:   links for 2009-05-05 — contentious.com http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2009/04/30/the-importance-of-being-a-dork/comment-page-1/#comment-1546835   links for 2009-05-05 — contentious.com Tue, 05 May 2009 14:02:34 +0000 http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/?p=2898#comment-1546835 [...] …My heart’s in Accra » The importance of being a dork "So why go back to Namibia, Gavin? “You know, when I dance in Namibia, people laugh - I’m a source of entertainment. The white guy who dances badly. When I dance badly in Boston, I’m just a dork.” (tags: travel culture entertainment africa relationship+building) [...] [...] …My heart’s in Accra » The importance of being a dork "So why go back to Namibia, Gavin? “You know, when I dance in Namibia, people laugh – I’m a source of entertainment. The white guy who dances badly. When I dance badly in Boston, I’m just a dork.” (tags: travel culture entertainment africa relationship+building) [...]

]]> By: Bev Clark http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2009/04/30/the-importance-of-being-a-dork/comment-page-1/#comment-1546758 Bev Clark Tue, 05 May 2009 12:27:01 +0000 http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/?p=2898#comment-1546758 Hey, if Gavin ends up going back to Namibia and he wants to come check out Zimbabwe, please get in touch and we'll show him a good time which will include dancing and playing . . . Bev Hey, if Gavin ends up going back to Namibia and he wants to come check out Zimbabwe, please get in touch and we’ll show him a good time which will include dancing and playing . . .

Bev

]]> By: Charles Edward http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2009/04/30/the-importance-of-being-a-dork/comment-page-1/#comment-1544604 Charles Edward Mon, 04 May 2009 02:00:52 +0000 http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/?p=2898#comment-1544604 Your Pittsfield "ethnic fair" reminded me of the "Festival of Nations" that is held every August in Red Lodge MT (here is their website, but it is pretty under-developed: http://www.festivalofnations.us/). When I was growing up there the F of N was a week-long celebration of the various nationalities (or ethnic groups) that had settled in that remote mining town. Italian Night. Yugoslav Night (there's a historical artefact--it sems to be called "Balkan Night" now). Scots Nights (or Scoth Night -- can't recallwhich now --but the difference is important). Norwegian Night. Finn Night. In the afternoons the local ladies served up "ethnic foods" to the throngs of tourists (Red Lodge is on one of the major routes into Yellowstone Park). “Ethnic displays” were set up in the local grade school – old-country family pieces, a fair number of which got pilfered from the badly under-supervised rooms. All impossibly dorky, in retrospect, and enormous fun for a little kid. This was the brainchild of the local librarian (and also my high school French teacher, whom I tortured, poor soul--never try to teach French to American adolescent males!), one of those kind of stranded intellectuals about whom Willa Cather wrote and who I doubt exist anymore. And yes, I am aware now, but was not then, that one of the nationalities NOT in evidence were the previous owners -- the Crow Indians -- who had only recently been displaced. One of the teams that our high school competed against in sports, however, was Lodge Grass, on the Crow reservation -- a 3 or 4 hour bus ride away, where phenomenal athletes with names like Pretty on Top and White Man Runs Him routinely kicked our butts. Larry Colton has written a fantastic book about Lodge Grass and their girls' basketball team, Counting Coup: A True Story of Basketball and Honor on the Little Big Horn. Sorry--I may have had a point here, but I lost it in reminiscing. Your Pittsfield “ethnic fair” reminded me of the “Festival of Nations” that is held every August in Red Lodge MT (here is their website, but it is pretty under-developed: http://www.festivalofnations.us/). When I was growing up there the F of N was a week-long celebration of the various nationalities (or ethnic groups) that had settled in that remote mining town. Italian Night. Yugoslav Night (there’s a historical artefact–it sems to be called “Balkan Night” now). Scots Nights (or Scoth Night — can’t recallwhich now –but the difference is important). Norwegian Night. Finn Night. In the afternoons the local ladies served up “ethnic foods” to the throngs of tourists (Red Lodge is on one of the major routes into Yellowstone Park). “Ethnic displays” were set up in the local grade school – old-country family pieces, a fair number of which got pilfered from the badly under-supervised rooms. All impossibly dorky, in retrospect, and enormous fun for a little kid. This was the brainchild of the local librarian (and also my high school French teacher, whom I tortured, poor soul–never try to teach French to American adolescent males!), one of those kind of stranded intellectuals about whom Willa Cather wrote and who I doubt exist anymore. And yes, I am aware now, but was not then, that one of the nationalities NOT in evidence were the previous owners — the Crow Indians — who had only recently been displaced. One of the teams that our high school competed against in sports, however, was Lodge Grass, on the Crow reservation — a 3 or 4 hour bus ride away, where phenomenal athletes with names like Pretty on Top and White Man Runs Him routinely kicked our butts. Larry Colton has written a fantastic book about Lodge Grass and their girls’ basketball team, Counting Coup: A True Story of Basketball and Honor on the Little Big Horn.

Sorry–I may have had a point here, but I lost it in reminiscing.

]]> By: Mendi http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2009/04/30/the-importance-of-being-a-dork/comment-page-1/#comment-1543653 Mendi Sun, 03 May 2009 13:23:17 +0000 http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/?p=2898#comment-1543653 <i>If the internet gives us new spaces in which to find common ground with very different people, what’s holding us back from becoming vastly more global and cosmopolitan than most of us are?</i> Could it also be because what makes the blog readable to "the locals" is also what makes it un-followable to the non-local? A blog about my home town will probably be laden with details on the minutiae of local politics, economics, scandal etc. - with commenters adding even more nuanced contradictory comments,or heaping even more detail to show why the poster is right. This tends to be a bit too esoteric for a reader who just might be hearing about it for the first time. And while humor and common interests tends to cut across cultural lines (e.g.a funny blog/ ICT blog about Utar Pradesh will make me want to add it to my RSS feed. However, once it veers towards say, the intricacies of local council politics, with commenters weighing in on the pros and cons, then it becomes less relevant to me especially if I don't know local councilor Patel from Sharma). And seeing that we blog about stuff that matters to us, we end up getting readers who care, sometimes deeply, about the same stuff as well. Which is why even while reading GV, I tend to follow blogs that are closely aligned to what I was already interested in before, or funny blogs, or those that don't require a lot of in-depth knowledge to follow (e.g. photo blogs). If the internet gives us new spaces in which to find common ground with very different people, what’s holding us back from becoming vastly more global and cosmopolitan than most of us are?

Could it also be because what makes the blog readable to “the locals” is also what makes it un-followable to the non-local? A blog about my home town will probably be laden with details on the minutiae of local politics, economics, scandal etc. – with commenters adding even more nuanced contradictory comments,or heaping even more detail to show why the poster is right. This tends to be a bit too esoteric for a reader who just might be hearing about it for the first time. And while humor and common interests tends to cut across cultural lines (e.g.a funny blog/ ICT blog about Utar Pradesh will make me want to add it to my RSS feed. However, once it veers towards say, the intricacies of local council politics, with commenters weighing in on the pros and cons, then it becomes less relevant to me especially if I don’t know local councilor Patel from Sharma).

And seeing that we blog about stuff that matters to us, we end up getting readers who care, sometimes deeply, about the same stuff as well. Which is why even while reading GV, I tend to follow blogs that are closely aligned to what I was already interested in before, or funny blogs, or those that don’t require a lot of in-depth knowledge to follow (e.g. photo blogs).

]]> By: Jim Reische http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2009/04/30/the-importance-of-being-a-dork/comment-page-1/#comment-1541540 Jim Reische Sat, 02 May 2009 14:04:55 +0000 http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/?p=2898#comment-1541540 Great post. I'm glad to hear someone mention the dork factor. It's a pretty common type of fear. The problem, as I see it, is that fear is an indeterminate thing: fear of looking like a dork in front of strangers tends to slide into a fear of those strangers themselves. I've seen a lot of people (including myself, at times) unwittingly go from "I'm afraid to go to place X because the people there might laugh at me" to I"'m afraid to go to there because the people are somehow hostile to me" to "ah, it's safer to just stay close to home and hang out with people like myself." This kind of thing can become pretty paralyzing and isolating. It's really good to see some new thinking about how we can get past these tendencies and create new opportunities for communication. Great post. I’m glad to hear someone mention the dork factor. It’s a pretty common type of fear. The problem, as I see it, is that fear is an indeterminate thing: fear of looking like a dork in front of strangers tends to slide into a fear of those strangers themselves. I’ve seen a lot of people (including myself, at times) unwittingly go from “I’m afraid to go to place X because the people there might laugh at me” to I”‘m afraid to go to there because the people are somehow hostile to me” to “ah, it’s safer to just stay close to home and hang out with people like myself.”

This kind of thing can become pretty paralyzing and isolating. It’s really good to see some new thinking about how we can get past these tendencies and create new opportunities for communication.

]]> By: Graham Holliday http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2009/04/30/the-importance-of-being-a-dork/comment-page-1/#comment-1539368 Graham Holliday Fri, 01 May 2009 07:14:16 +0000 http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/?p=2898#comment-1539368 Your Ghanaian friends ring bells here... whenever we have a big Vietnamese get together in France, they all want to watch flickr slideshows of Saigon street food from. Bourdain's recent Vietnam episode was equally well received. Your Ghanaian friends ring bells here… whenever we have a big Vietnamese get together in France, they all want to watch flickr slideshows of Saigon street food from. Bourdain’s recent Vietnam episode was equally well received.

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