End of Term Blues

I am in St. Catharines mired in marking term papers today.  Most of them are not very good.  Some of them are so bad as to make me despair for the human condition.  And I have to explain in detail in the margins exactly why I have to assign a failing grade.  Marking lousy papers is the worst part of this professor gig.  Anyway fortunately it is only a very small part of the job.

Wu Shilin Reflects on Our Friendship

友情_吴时霖_新浪博客

    Charles Burton是我30多年的老朋友，他比我年轻20岁，1978年他从英国剑桥大学东方研究学院来复旦大学哲学系学习，师从严北溟教授，1981年离开复 旦大学，在学期间发表论文“道家辯证哲学思想”（"Daoist Philosophic Thought and Materialism", supervised by Yan Beiming），那时十年动乱已结朿，开放改革正在开始，在这样的时代背景下，我们认识并成为朋友。1980年他回国度假，他知道我家庭30多年分离的 情况，还特地绕道去台湾，在台北的电话簿上查到我表兄胡至法（三军参谋大学教授，上校）名字与地址，并由他带领去看望我的父亲，使我家断掉30多年联系， 间接联系上，彼此都很高兴。1984年我父亲在台北因心脏病故世，当时我在渥太华，形势不允许我去台北赴丧，他说你怎么不早说，按照我国风俗习惯于 1986年清明节前将我父的骨灰盒由台北经香港带回上海，一路关卡重重，手捧骨灰盒多次申报，平安抵沪，到了虹桥机场才给我挂电话。这样无私的帮助，我们 全家都很感激，子孙后代永不忘记。后他回加拿大于1987年获多伦多大学获博士学位。1983年至1985年我在渥太华大学计算机科学系做访问学者期间， 经常到他在多伦多住处去玩，也曾去过在渥太华他父亲慈祥老Burton家，他是一位医学博士，曾任加拿大总督私人医生，在渥太华有很高的威望。我在加拿大 期间，他父亲曾到我在渥太华住处问寒问暖，提供帮助，至今铭记在心。不幸的老人家于今年5月在渥太华去逝，享年九十有三。Charles Burton 1991-1993 与1998-2000 分别先任加拿大驻中国使馆一等秘书后任文化参赞（Served as Counsellor at the Canadian Embassy to China 1991-1993 and 1998-2000）。在任职其间，经他相邀我曾去他在北京官邸，共述旧谊。并参观大使官邸，还驱车到使馆附近一家咖啡馆，一边晒太阳，一边与大使全家坐 在路边共进以汉堡包为主的午餐，中、西方请吃饭文化差别，至今记忆犹新。Charles Burton现任职于加拿大多伦多Brock University 政治学教授。现研究国际关系问题，每年均来北京中央党校讲课一个月。
   二年前（2007年8月）曾与夫人及儿子来过复旦逗留四天（当时我安排他们住复旦燕园宾馆），Charles、我与陶黎铭夫妇蒙大山（曾是Charles 下属）的赠票邀请观看他与郭冬临在上海话剧中心表演的喜剧。我们戯说大山很会赚钱，你只知道做学问教书不会赚钱，连主持多伦多华人春节联欢会还要自己赔钱 掏腰包。今年6月份Charles Burton偕夫人与儿女去昆明度假，他单独一人定于8月8日--11日来上海寻旧，并逗留看看复旦大学的变化。我安排他住校内的卿云宾馆，他细端详，故 址换新装。寻寻觅觅，这里当时原他住过的留学生楼，特别是卿云宾館中心楼底层，每间房间都去看看，正是个中事，意难忘。硕师、俊彦今何在？

                     Charles（左）与博主（右）在客房的合影

http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_50a124b40100f4qi.html

Wang Zhaojun Reflects on Our Friendship

周志雄：你在小说中多次写到人之间的友谊，如《拂晓前的葬礼》中的吕锋和田家祥，《绿帽子》中的胡大威和姜一品，《青桐树》中的刘树和文风，他们年龄都差不多，都是同学。就我所知，你有两个好朋友，一个是与你同过事合著过书的吴国光，一个是你的同学Charles Burton。一个人在成长的历史中，朋友的影响可能大于父母，可以谈谈朋友对你的影响吗？

王兆军：我的朋友不是很多，私交范围比较窄。我不是那种会来事的人，经常叫人觉得无趣。可以设想，谁会跟一个无趣的人交往呢！我最头痛的就是走亲访友。我 的几个朋友，的确都比较知心，所以很珍惜。父母和朋友是很不同的。父母是长辈，是两代人，他们天然地拥有批评你的权力，交流起来很困难，有时得被迫接受他 们的观念。吴国光虽然是我的学生，但他在我的写作道路上给我很多帮助，其中有些是批评的形式。他很敏锐，也渊博，写过一些评论，我从他那儿受益不少。他现 在是香港中文大学教授。

Charles Burton现在是柏罗克大学教授，做过加拿大驻华使馆的文化参事和政治处主任。在Charles Burton身上，我学到了西方人的很多好品质，尤其是英国人那种绅士风度。他们能在任何时候都不失态，那种顽强维护人格和尊严的气概，对我来说很值得借 鉴。中国人经受的苦难太多，有时会因为一些屑琐小事或小东西而失态。我和他的交往，后来也有过一些分歧，主要是我的心理问题，有文化冲突的成分，不好多 说。

总起来说，我珍惜友情，主张朋友之间平等相待。不同文化之间，虽然有先进落后之分，但没有尊卑之分，不能笼统地说一种文化比另一种文化好，朋友之间更应当 彼此尊重。有时候，我渴望有很多朋友，经常一起喝茶聊天随便说笑自由自在，但更多的时候是怕麻烦。我不喜欢人多的地方，但不能没有朋友。


http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_60e98fa80100g0xn.html

August 13, 2009: A very good day for 5 year-old Geoffrey Burton

Having just flown in from Shanghai the day before, I returned to the Toronto Airport on August 12 to pick up Mary, Lucy and Geoffrey who travelled back to Canada from Kunming via Beijing.

Geoffrey had been there since the end of May. He was obviously very happy to be home this morning. He played quietly by himself with his toys that he had been away from for 2 and a half months. For lunch he had his favourite food, shepherd's pie into which he mixes some ketchup. After lunch we went for a swim in the condo pool (just the two of us in there the whole time). Geoffrey spent a long time in the bath afterwards playing with his boats and plastic figures of pirates, etc. For supper I made him a hamburger. He watched a video and spoke to me in English only all day.

Nothing much happened. But I feel that perhaps we could not have had a better day together. It has been a day to keep in memory for all its simple joy.

Peter Michael Burton - 05/31/2009

Peter Michael Burton, MB, BS, MRCS, LRCP, MD. Physician. Died peacefully on May 30, 2009, Peter was for 55 years the loving and much loved husband of Rachel (nee Greaves). Born in London on March 7, 1916, Peter was educated at St. Martin’s Preparatory School, Epsom College, and at the Medical College of St. Mary’s Hospital, London, where he studied under Sir Alexander Fleming while Fleming was undertaking the first trials of penicillin. Peter enlisted as a medical officer in the RAF in 1940. After the war, he returned to St. Mary’s for postgraduate work. In 1954, he and Rachel were married at St. Michael’s, Chester Square, and decided to come to Canada. While Peter was on the staff of the Civic Hospital in Ottawa for 35 years, he was primarily a family physician and, in the custom of the day, made house calls every morning and evening. An immensely elegant, kindly, and reassuring figure, he was completely free of pretence, had a wonderful sense of humour, and a talent for putting children at ease. Uninterested in politics, he was a favourite of politicians of all parties who enjoyed his easy good nature and sympathetic ear. (He was, for example, a confidant of successive Prime Ministers, and Household Physician to the Governors General of Canada from the 1950s to the 1970s). But his heart lay with poor elderly people living alone, to whom he was especially attentive. He was respected and loved by his patients, family and friends. He is survived by his wife Rachel; sons Prof. Charles (Brock University) and the Rt. Rev. Anthony (Diocese of Dallas); daughters-in-law Mary and Anna; grandchildren Lucy, Caroline, Peter and Geoffrey. A Requiem Eucharist will be held at St. Bartholomew’s Anglican Church, 125 MacKay St., Ottawa on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 at 11 a.m.

Keith Tinkler Child Porn Charges

Wed, 2009-04-22 15:35.
A 67 year old man is facing child porn charges after a raid in St. Catharines Wednesday.
Police say they started investigating earlier this month.
Today, they searched a home on Bellevue Terrace, seizing computer components and other evidence.
Keith Tinkler is facing charges of possessing , distributing and making child pornography.
(http://www.610cktb.com/news/565/916084)

Comment: I just became aware of this today. Keith Tinkler is a colleague at Brock University. He is set to retire from the Department of Earth Sciences this June. He has been teaching at Brock since 1975. I did not know him well, but I often nodded to him as we passed in the halls on the way to lectures.
The part of this extremely disturbing news that preys on my mind is the allegation that he was "making child pornography." I shudder to imagine what that implies. How is it that he could have acted on such utterly evil impulses? Did we all miss some critical signs that behind Keith's mild gnome-like gently smiling exterior lurked Satan himself?
I pray for the healing of all the children that he is alleged to have damaged.
If the charges are proved, I ardently hope that Keith Tinkler will spend the rest of his life in prison in remorse and repentance.


Update June 3, 2009: Keith Tinkler was sentenced to 20 months imprisonment: http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2607237

Reference Letters and TAs

I am finding more and more that students that I have never met are asking me for letters of reference. These are students who have attended my lectures, but have never had me as a seminar leader. These students have gone through their university careers instructed mostly by part-time contract employees. So they are in an awkward situation when it comes to requesting reference letters as the part-timers tend to be transient and anyway their lack of academic qualifications weakens the authoritativeness of their recommendation letters.

Undoubtedly the quality of education these students have received is inferior to that that students I taught in my early years at Brock received when classes were much smaller and direct interaction with tenured faculty was more the norm. This is a serious concern and a source of considerable regret to me.