tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post930663143490636596..comments2024-03-12T22:31:46.500-04:00Comments on What Would Phoebe Do?: In defense of studying abroad in ParisPhoebe Maltz Bovyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17996039330841139883noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post-23045788326190914342009-12-15T05:08:16.732-05:002009-12-15T05:08:16.732-05:00SImone also (reportedly) had tons of good sex with...SImone also (reportedly) had tons of good sex with Nelson (sorry, Jean-Paul) in the US.<br />On a totally unrelated topic, studying in Paris does count (you should come and I'm here)Clementinenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post-43898682461442157792009-12-14T13:02:53.857-05:002009-12-14T13:02:53.857-05:00Well done, Phoebe. And Samuel Johnson has got your...Well done, Phoebe. And Samuel Johnson has got your back with his take on travel and its putative rewards, "To bring back riches from the East you must bring riches with you."Mark Cohenhttp://www.markcohen.biznoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post-6695333505805651512009-12-14T08:57:10.674-05:002009-12-14T08:57:10.674-05:00I just read Simone de Beauvoir's account of fo...I just read Simone de Beauvoir's account of four months spent in the US, a book written well, and when she was neither young nor inexperienced. Nor is the US so radically different from France. And... she got the place (nearly) all wrong, on so many levels, such that the word "superficial" comes to mind. I think just about any visit-and-assess is bound to go this route. College-age naivete and a very different environment can't help, but I do think the issue goes beyond either of those. You can't sum up a place you've lived in for years, but you definitely will sound ridiculous doing so with a place you've barely lived in at all.<br /><br />Anyway, a college student wishing to solve a problem in Africa would probably need either to figure things out a bit before (or rather than) going, or to use the trip not as an end, but as a beginning for further investigation. But I don't think the mere fact of voluntarily <i>seeing</i> developing-world poverty makes one a humanitarian.Phoebe Maltz Bovyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17996039330841139883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post-67959032866174539272009-12-14T08:49:07.430-05:002009-12-14T08:49:07.430-05:00I'd also add that the type of impression you c...I'd also add that the type of impression you can get while visiting a culture very different from one's own for a short period of time (perhaps especially while young and inexperience, though I'm less sure on this) is primarily a <i>superficial</i> one. I'd not be surprised if undergrads spending some time in Africa mostly split into two groups, one who thought problems there couldn't be solved, so that there was no reason to try, and those who thought the problems were really easy to solve. Neither impression is likely to be very helpful in making real progress.Matthttp://www.law.upenn.edu/cf/faculty/mlister/noreply@blogger.com