Thanks Alex for the note, I do not read my listserve emails all the time these days. We are an global studies program and we must evolve as time goes on, so moving around is good. I think the Costa Rica center should move to South America too. Even though Bangalore was a very interesting city in terms of economics, sometime change is good.

I've just returned from a 2 month research trip to India, I was there as an FWstudent in Fall 96. The staff was scared to death that this threat to move the center was really going to happen. None of them can afford to uproot from Bangalore. As some of you know India's expanse and diversity is much larger than its physical size. Moving around India is a job in itself, at least that was the reality when I lived there. Today there are various competing airlines in India, this last time I was there you could fly anywhere one-way for $50. So this justification of things being closer or on certain train lines is no longer valid. Bangalore is central, that's what it has to offer. It also has the expertice of a staff that has unbelievable connections. Everything is coming to Bangalore these days, to limit that observation to IT is naive. Nearly every ethnicity, religion, and people of India are represented in Bangalore. Which can serve well for any introduction a student seeks out their first semester; the second and subsequent semesters many of us leave anyway to the far corners where our more precise interests dwell.
Both China and Japan have gone through periods of decline in student numbers and recovered- India is not less popular, I would question other ascpects of why India's enrollement is down. Maybe the fact that centers have been shut down right and left, including the WHQ at Southampton, and then core program in London. How much confidence would you put in a program that in the midst of such a clear case of identity crisis?
The SAC center can survive anywhere in India, this is true. So why not where it exists now? Which urban entity can serve any better than any other to satiate the expectations of students that have never been to India, who chose a center on the very basis of having already decided what they want to study and where.
I admit, change is refreshing; and I'm guilty of bias. I care a lot about the staff at the SAC, and have a lot of faith in their abilities, they just played an immense part in my research-- Gita led me to a source in 5 minutes of phone calls that I had personally given up on after 2 weeks of futile searching. I'm also cautious toward the decisions this director has come to make over the years. I knew of him the first time when I was in India, he was asking the students in the Comparative Religion program about their experience as he would lead the group in the following years. To be honest, he didn't listen to us then, he paid ear service, but he didn't listen. And he basically does exactly what he wants with the program now without necessarily taking into consideration the best interests of the FW model. Asking new students why they don't want to study somewhere is not a way to justify moving somewhere else. Jesus, who the hell wants to spend money to live on Long Island for a semester. But we go where the knowledge is with an open mind, having to spend a semester in Southampton didn't keep me from going there. I didn't say, "well, it would be much nicer if the WHQ was in Vancouver, which is a much more open- minded place, ...and considering the political situation- it would make more sense to have the center outside of the US in protest to its foreign policy. Plus, it's next to Seattle- I'm a Nirvana fan, I can visit Cobain's grave, and the tickets to Japan would be much less expensive than from New York." I went to Long Island, and I read Miles Horton, and then I went to 5 FW centers, they introduced me to each respective country- and helped me sharpen my direction for further study. And let me tell you, Miles Horton was more of a home than anything called Southampton or Long Island.
The staff at the SAC have knowledge and direction for these students, and they can cater to their needs. Posing the question, "Why do you not wish to study in South India?"- is not a question, it is an answer looking for justification. Please Robert, these are why centers close, if we push the benefits and the positive of what FW can offer we might get somewhere. A program with confidence believes in itself, it doesn't have to ask prospective students where they want to go. A wise program says, "Go here. There are things for you to learn here, and people who can either teach them to you or give you guidance." That is confidence.
The "wouldn't it be cool if there was a center here"- is also a nice approach; creative, with an eye for transformation. But that approach can get carried away, and is often a case of projecting one's fantasy onto a location, a sort of "orientalism". The whole idea of emphasizing location in order to attract students is disturbing to me. It is the crux of my issue, not really whether the SAC moves, or if Australia is a good place to open a center. I guess its the fact that FW has compromised itself for "trends", the Lonely Planet crowd, Dharmsala is hip and endorsed by MTV, Costa Rica is in and user friendly, Journalism in Jerusalem, Gay rights in Palestine, sex-workers in India, Traditional Japanese Dance, Environmental Issues facing China. Students know about the world before they enter into it, they read about it in Newsweek and Mother Jones. They know which places are raw and untouched, they know what issues are on the cutting edge of Western concern. Have any of you experienced the disappointment of any number of FW students at any time, with the same story about how they came to this or that country expressly to study a certain thing and the center let them down, or that the country didn't have the resources to fulfill their expectations. Centers should exist because they have what it takes to mentor students, to pass on experience and knowlegde in a particular region. Otherwise you end up catering to uninformed whim and projection. There is a reason the uninitiated are not taught the secret teachings of self control and sacred movement- they dance around like bulls in a temple, unable to focus, knocking everything down with their nervous discomposure.
Before I begin to sound jaded and judgemental about young people who are not nearly as naive as I was when I went out in search of "Education", I should just say that I feel very strongly about the possiblities FW offered, and I hate to see one opportunity trounced at the feet of whim. I think its fine for a program to evolve, change can be good. But Robert, the very center locations you claim to consider are all extremely relevant to your interests as a "Buddhist" and student of Comparative Religion. I think you need to read your Miles Horton again, or have we already closed that center as well?
Here, here! Who wants to start a new school?
Your faithful and loving compadre,
Daniel Molyneux