In Continuum.

When the people heard about the king planning to arrest their representatives and taking them to the Bastille, which was a medieval fortress and prison, they stormed the Bastille and hacked the commander to death and then paraded through the city with his head and that of Paris's chief magistrate stuck on pikes. It was a bloody episode in the history textbooks, but that day is still celebrated as a national holiday in France until this day. It was the day when ordinary people stood up against the tyranny and incompetence of a government, the day when they realized

their rights and fought for them in an attempt to regain what is rightfully theirs. Most revolutions, not just the French's, follows a same basic principles from the cause and to the cause, and almost all of them are always the result of an unfair treatment of the government's subjects. Not all revolutions need to be shrouded with a veil of blood, because even revolutions can be peaceful and quiet as well. It must have been a great feeling to be part of a great change, to know that what you are doing right now is going to benefit a whole lot of other people and not just yourself. I guess it is the same feeling you get on Christmas, the all-giving and selfless spirit you feel when you are wrapping up those presents and sending out those Christmas cards. 

I am proud to say that I am currently part of a revolution as well, though it does not even compare to the historical ones mentioned in the textbooks in terms of the scale. Yet, a revolution is a revolution, a fight for our emancipation on a small scale is still a fight nonetheless. For months, I have been under the oppression of our incompetent lecturer at school, the one who has taught in class for a grand total of one lesson throughout this semester. I have already spent too much time, wasted too much effort speaking of her misdeeds on this blog in the past. In fact, I was a little reluctant when I first started typing this entry, remembering the oath to myself never to mention her name again. Still, I feel that reading the chapter about the various revolutions in our human history has sparked off that old enemy that I have buried six feet under a few weeks ago. It is time for me to rise up against this tyranny all over again - and this time, I am not alone.

A petition has been floating around the e-mails of fellow course mates and through instant messaging conversation windows. It is a petition written by one of my friends in an attempt to raise the awareness of Rosemary's incompetence and inadequacy to the administrative board in school. Of course, as already proven, my lecturer's evaluation last semester certainly did  not create a spark in the system at all, and she is obviously back in this semester for more. The school couldn't be bothered with my feedback, since it was just the words of one single entity - myself. I knew that I was fighting an uphill battle back then, throwing punches in the water. Still, I knew that I had to do something against her, because I simply grew sick and tired of her pompous nature and her ignorance. A lot has been said about those aspects of this ugly, ugly human being, so I shall not elaborate again. I am glad that more people have been subjected to her stupidity in this semester though, more people to pick up where I left off and to come back for a second wave of attack.

The petition can be found here, and feel free to sign the petition against Rosemary if you are a UB student yourself. We are not asking for the administrative board to fire her, not to depose her from her position as the lecturer or anything. It's just that we feel that our rights as students have been compromised over the semesters, and it is especially intolerable judging from the amount of school fees we are paying to the school, and in turn, to her. We feel that it is our rights to raise the awareness and lodge a complaint to the school in regards to the situation that happens twice a week during her lecture sessions, behind closed doors and away from the attention of the people in charge. A lot of people have made jokes about petitions, telling people how useless it is to exist in the very first place, because they don't work. But even if this doesn't work, I still feel that it is a great thing that we are coming together to fight this formidable enemy from school, especially when it concerns our grades. 

The only complaint that I have about the complaint posted, is probably the lack of details. A lot more could have been written about her atrocities in class, and yes, I used the word 'Atrocities'. I don't think Shen, the guy who wrote the petition, interviewed enough people to gain even more insights into the situation that is getting worse with every passing lecture, or lack thereof. A lot more could have been included, even from the old students of hers from the past semesters who were victims of her incompetence as well. This is a woman who thinks that she is above all others just because she has a 'Dr' tagged with her last name, though she really isn't somebody who should have that kind of title in the first place. It is an insult, to those who have worked hard to claim that title. Someone as lazy and as useless as herself getting a doctorate, it really is quite a confusing thing, at least to me. I guess it goes to show that intelligence really only gets you that far in life, especially when your social skills are as bad as her own. Seriously, I might have been wrong when I was the only person that lodged a complaint last semester. But everybody can't be wrong this time around, really.

So we are trying to storm Rosemary's Bastille this time around, and it doesn't matter if it is going to end in blood shed. Well, that last sentence really shouldn't be taken literally, as we do not intend to head to school with guns or other sharp objects to hurt her physically. We are not asking for her to suffer physically for her mistakes, nor are we demanding for her to step down from her current position as a lecturer. We are merely conveying our message to someone higher up in the food chain, someone to do the dirty work for us. It may sound rather malicious, but then politics is never clean. I can only picture Rosemary up in one of those towers in the Bastille, staring out into the distance and seeing a whole bunch of her students storming her fortress with butcher knifes and pikes, feeling her world crashing down upon her. Of course, it is not going to happen in real life, but I guess it is harmless for one to relish in his own fantasies and imaginations every once in a while. 

But this petition is for real, this 'revolution' is for real as well. I do hope that it gets into the hands of the administration, and that something is done in the near future regarding her teaching methods and style. So wish us luck, and keep your fingers crossed. Because the Bastille of Rosemary is ready to fall. 

"Summary of Complaints

Overall, we feel that she is abusing the power she has a lecturer. To date, she has taught (in the conventional sense of the word) only the first chapter, with the rest of the chapters (currently, we are at chapter 7) being taught by our peers. She has only facilitated what we could have done by ourselves in the library or at home reading our textbooks. We feel that we are barely (or not at all) getting the education we paid for. To put it succinctly, as one student from the cohort put it, “We are paying her with our school fees so that we can do her job for her”.

In summation, we would just like to restate our stand that she is an ineffective lecturer. If this complaint sounds too much like we are trying to get emancipation, it is (ironically) entirely because she has never taught us that topic (Chapter 6) or anything much in the first place.
Sincerely,

The Undersigned"