Reconstructing Russia
Assistant Professor of International Relations Andrei Tsygankov comments
on Vladimir Putin's political prospects in a Nov. 23 article in Russia
Profile. "I very much doubt that Putin is seeking to be re-elected
for a third term, let alone willing to assume the position of the Leader
of the Nation if it ever becomes formally established," Tsygankov
writes. "A more likely explanation for setting up the For Putin
movement has to do with the desire to establish Putin's own network
of supporters independently of United Russia. …. One way or another,
a movement in support of the current policy course is in the making."
LGBT-friendly retirement
Professor of Gerontology Brian de Vries provided insight into the oldest
generation of openly gay men and women in a Nov. 25 Denver Post article
about LGBT-friendly retirement communities that are springing up across
the country. De Vries noted that while the culture at large has made
significant gains in acceptance of homosexuality, those gains are not
evident in the 80-plus crowd. "That includes the heterosexuals with
whom these gay men and lesbians might otherwise live," de Vries
said. "But also the gay men and lesbians themselves, who probably
bring forward with them some of the homophobia in which they've spent
almost all of their lives."
Peace and pessimism
In a Nov. 26 CBS Eyewitness News broadcast, Dina Ibrahim, assistant professor
of broadcast and electronic communication arts, commented on President
Bush’s recent peace talks with Israel’s prime minister
and the president of the Palestinian authority. "This is the shift
forward, particularly with the participation of Syria and Saudi Arabia,
that definitely represents a departure from previous pessimism and
being completely closed off to the idea of sitting at the same negotiation
table with Israel. There’s very little chance of success for
these negotiations," Ibrahim said. "I don’t say that
because I enjoy being a pessimist about the Middle East, but I believe
that if they were better organized, if there were real commitments
on both sides to move forward, if they had been planned better, then
they could have had better outcomes."
Wide-angle view
In a Nov. 25 letter to the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, Cinema
Professor James Kitses strongly recommends the film "The Assassination
of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," which he describes
as "a deserving film hailed by some of the country's most prominent
critics as a masterpiece." Responding to a review by Chronicle
film critic Peter Hartlaub, which didn't recommend the film for anyone
but "cineastes," Kitses asked, "Why would a pop culture
critic want to positively discourage audiences from … creative
explorations of a popular genre like the Western by different, modern
sensibilities? Even first-year film students are routinely taught to
suspend quick judgment that can short-circuit understanding of a work."
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see SF State in the News.
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