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Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Another Sachs UM pilgrimage
Jeffrey Sachs is in Malaysia again for another 'Praise Malaysia to the High Heavens' UM tour. To be fair to him, I didn't think that he would come back to Malaysia so soon (it's winter break in the US). I thought that he'd only be back in summer. Furthermore, he might have said some more critical things about Malaysia's poverty eradication schemes but it might not have been reported. He could also be conducting genuine poverty research when he's not giving his rehashed speeches. And his latest bio, updated in January 2008 (this month), still does not state his affiliation with the UM, which defeats the purpose of using him to raise the profile of UM internationally.
I think UM is better calling Oprah Winfrey or Martha Stewart. At least get good coverage in E news channel on Astro!
ReplyDeleteDude, with all due respect, while I am in admiration with your consistent follow-up with the education scene back home, I think it is improper to judge Sachs just because he does not update his CV with an invited talk/chair position with UM etc (and since this is the 2nd time you brought this up, I am simply stunned). Furthermore, how pathetic can it be if we expect UM's name to be known only because this Sachs person put UM's name in his CV. Cmon now. UM has some integrity. I would emphasize more on the content of his talk and debate more critically on what he has to say instead (data-driven). I am sure you would know that there are many highly admirable people out there who do not worry too much about having an infinitely long updated CV (enough about all the tonnes of publications/talks which may not mean much no matter what h-index or impact factor you try to quantify). Having been in the US, I can understand how US academics are clearly skillful in marketing themselves especially with indicators, which is fair enough but since you will be minted soon, I hope you can look a little more beyond this. I tend to see a slight obsession on your side wrt rankings and all that. My 0.02. - Weng Hong
ReplyDeleteKM sees the world as GOOD VS. BAD. One dimensional. He's like a dog *bark*
ReplyDelete