Ahira's Hangar

My knoweldge of International Baccalaureate is insufficient to address most of those issues.

I recall someone (probably my guidance counsellor) bringing the IB program to my attention back in my school days, but it's a vague memory now.

Anyway, I hope that student is happy where she is now. I hope she realizes how lucky she is to be in a country that could offer her things like an IB program. I mean, think about girls in Afghanistan who are denied an education because of religious fundamentalism! (Okay, I admit I'm being a tad snarky here.)

It's a valid point, tho, MW. There *are* people in the world who would be grateful to get a free education. The difference between the girl in question, and the powers-that-be in those countries who restrict women from being educated at all, is, in one sense, only a matter of degree. In both cases, someone is forcing a system of morality on others and deciding what *should* be taught.

(Boy, am I glad I didn't put this in the Tank. There, I'd be eviscerated for that analogy....)

Do not even get me started on the evils of the Tank.

And yes - it sounds like this girl's upbringing has imprisoned her mind in a self imposed mental burkha.

I thought Orwell was exploring the dangers of a communist-type society, not its benefits...

--A

That's what I got out of it, too. I musta missed something.

It's clear to me Mr. Doyle, one who wrote the guide cited for the comment, seized the fact that Orwell was once a Party member and came to the conclusion that Orwell could only a pro-Communist book. Mr Doyle was clearly ignorant of Orwell's activities after he resigned from the CPGB.

p.s. It's not clear if Mr. Doyle has even read 1984. Because the explicit sex as decribed in the text is not purient, titilating or very sexy.

I seem to recall a single low key sex scene in 1984? granted it has been a while since I read it, but do not remember anything particularly racy.

Yeah, me neither. Guy probably never read it himself. Bah, you shoulda seen the book banning that went on under apartheid in this country. Catch-22 and Black Beauy spring immediately to mind.

--A

Black Beauty? The one about a horse with a strong anti-cruelty to animals theme?

That's the one. Anna Sewell IIRC.

See, as in the case we were discussing earlier, the censors never actually read the book. And in apartheid South Africa, nothing black could be beautiful, so it must be a seditious book. Ridiculous huh?

--A

Tell me about it.

--A