Abdul Rahim Al Shaikh-Palestinian PhD
"Connecting the dots"
The term, "intersectionality" is one of those academic buzz words so in style these days on university campuses. No, it doesn't refer to traffic or stop signs. On the contrary, it gives a green light to connect any two things you want to connect. Put in the hands of wily professors it gives them the power to sell any snake oil theory under the sun to gullible college kids.
But, Abdul Rahim al-Shaikh, the Palestinian professor who spoke at Columbia University's Center for Palestine Studies (whatever that is) recently, takes the proverbial cake. In a lecture that can only be described as bizarre, he "connected the dots" by showing the link between Columbus' discovery of America and the Zionist return to Israel.
http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/15703
My first observation is to ask what university would be complete without a Center for Palestine Studies. What's next, a Center for Bolivian Studies at Harvard?
But I digress.
I won't waste the reader's time by asking how this dolt can make a connection between the above two events, but if I could draw some equivalent topics for discussion....
How about the Cambodian influence on German literature?
How about the intersectionality between Willie Mays' miracle catch in the 1954 World Series and Steve Bartman's miracle non-catch that helped the Chicago Cubs blow the 2003 NLCS against the Florida Marlins? Definitely a connection there.
Most historians agree that the French Revolution was a direct result of the invention of French fries. (They just can't agree on which happened first.)
The first guillotine
And nearly all political experts agree that had it not been for the Lincoln-Douglas debates Jimmy Carter never would have won the presidency in 1976.
It's called connecting the dots, Folks, and nobody can do it better than Professor Abdul Rahim Al-Shaikh.
I think I've commented in the past on how Gary connects dots to make interesting and original patterns.
ReplyDeleteThere is a right way and a wrong way. In DEA a good investigator connects dots by showing associations between people in a drug network. It's the same in other types of police/investigative work.
ReplyDeleteFor example, if someone makes a drug bust, you try to identify others who were involved. Our intell analysts do a lot of that circles and arrows type stuff. Actually so does a good investigator.
By now I am probably beginning to bore you, so let's just say if i did the kind of associations this guy did at Columbia and took it to my boss, I would have been transferred to Nome, Alaska.