Manthan


Manthan: May 2005 www.nihindia.org The Broken Trust: The Story of a theft Did you hear about this Professor of Genetics at Berkeley whose laptop was stolen while he was talking to the students in *his* class? Apparently after his lecture, a few students came to him to clarify some things about the lecture, and like any professor, he stopped to answer their queries. And it was while he was surrounded by his students, did one of them *steal* his personal laptop! I first heard this story on ABC’s evening news. It was featured in the funny segment of the news, when the TV channels’ newsreaders test their comic self. The news was triggered by an incidence in the classroom, where the professor practically threatened the unknown thief with a really creative scenario of how he was going to catch him/her. Of course, someone in the class shot a video of the episode and passed it to the news media. The TV show presented the story as if the professor had committed a crime of sorts by using the language he did. I was curious; it was indeed an interesting video and interesting content; after all, we are talking about a professor of genetics at one of the country’s top schools. So I decided to investigate it further. And, of course, where do you go to investigate anything these days, the Google. Not surprisingly, the net was overflowing with information about the incident. What I gathered was that after, Dr. Jasper Rine’s (the professor) laptop got stolen from the classroom; he desperately tried to locate it for about 10 days, but in vain. Nobody came back to tell him that it was just a prank, while he suspected that the thief wanted to get his hands on a class test. It was then that he really got upset; he knew it had to be one of his students. He could have gone to the police and they could have tried to locate the thief from among the students. This could have put the entire class in a jam. I don’t know much about the legal system, but since the laptop got stolen in the classroom, everyone who was present that day would be a suspect, with probable cause, namely stealing a class test. Everyone could be questioned, at the least, and it could get embarrassing. Imagine police turning up at your dorm room or home or stop on the street to tell you that you are suspect in a theft! There is even a good chance of someone ratting out crucial information about the thief. There is no evidence that Prof. Rine ever went to the police. I am sure losing his laptop was driving him nuts; I know I would be mad if mine got stolen. Instead of putting all his students in an embarrassing and potentially harmful situation because of the misdeed of one shameless guy, he decided to do something different, he decided to threaten the unknown thief by announcing in one of his classes that his laptop contained classified information and some really high-tech tracking device so the thief would eventually get into even more trouble when the authorities zoned in on him/her. He gave one last chance to the thief to come clean. And in the end, he even apologized to the rest of the students to have to hear all that. (hear the audio) I agree he did use some very imaginary and quite creative stories to scare the hell out of the thief, most of it appeared quite “hollywoody”. But can you blame him? What options did he have? And, of course, no one in the world thought about the incident from his point of view. I screened about 50 blogs, several websites and almost all the news-sites that I could find. Almost no one took the side of the professor; rather everyone made fun of him for trying to threaten his students. I found only one entry, which asked why we were not criticizing the thief, and why we were talking as if the Professor was a moron and the thief was a smart guy. That one voice was drowned in the thousands of voices saying otherwise. I guess it is easier to make fun of someone you know than to criticize the unknown. That’s what got me thinking, what kind of world do we live in these days? What is wrong with us? This hypocrisy makes me sick. We spend almost all our waking hours talking about “values”. The TV, radio, newspapers are all filled with people talking about being fair, being right, being believers in the good of humankind, and in the same vein we are big fans of Jerry Springer, Desperate Housewives, Cops, etc. Let’s look at the true victim in this case, a respectable teacher in one of the finest institutions in the world. Teachers are paid poorly, and most of the people who end up teaching are the people who are smart to do many things but choose to spread knowledge over more lucrative occupations. And this guy is a professor at Berkeley! I did a Pubmed search on Prof. Rine and confirmed that he is a very successful scientist. His website shows the personal side of the man, a seemingly nice guy, who was made out to be a villain by the media. You can bet that Rine did not become a teacher because he could not do anything else. Should we just shake our heads and let things be the way they are? I don’t think so. It is time someone refuses to go with the flow. Agreed that his ways were unconventional, but then to forget the pain behind those actions and to make fun of him while defending the thief at the same time! Where does that leave us? I did brood over this for quite some time. I followed the story and as usual, the story died off, its slow, but natural death. I still haven’t figured out what a person should do in such a situation. Perhaps now, if MY laptop gets stolen by MY students, I would call the police and get all of them in trouble, let the law figure find the at least the ones that saw and did the crime. Because someone who saw the crime but did not do anything is an equal participant in the crime, he/she is equally responsible for the broken trust of a teacher. This event has shown that may be that’s the best solution. The poor professor never got his laptop back, and we are back to talking about the “Next Gilligan’s Island”, and life moves on. Mukesh Kumar mukeshmaryland@yahoo.com

Manthan: May 2005 www.nihindia.org

The Broken Trust: The Story of a theft

Did you hear about this Professor of Genetics at Berkeley whose laptop was stolen while he was talking to the students in his class? Apparently after his lecture, a few students came to him to clarify some things about the lecture, and like any professor, he stopped to answer their queries. And it was while he was surrounded by his students, did one of them steal his personal laptop!

I first heard this story on ABC’s evening news. It was featured in the funny segment of the news, when the TV channels’ newsreaders test their comic self. The news was triggered by an incidence in the classroom, where the professor practically threatened the unknown thief with a really creative scenario of how he was going to catch him/her. Of course, someone in the class shot a video of the episode and passed it to the news media. The TV show presented the story as if the professor had committed a crime of sorts by using the language he did. I was curious; it was indeed an interesting video and interesting content; after all, we are talking about a professor of genetics at one of the country’s top schools. So I decided to investigate it further. And, of course, where do you go to investigate anything these days, the Google.

Not surprisingly, the net was overflowing with information about the incident. What I gathered was that after, Dr. Jasper Rine’s (the professor) laptop got stolen from the classroom; he desperately tried to locate it for about 10 days, but in vain. Nobody came back to tell him that it was just a prank, while he suspected that the thief wanted to get his hands on a class test. It was then that he really got upset; he knew it had to be one of his students. He could have gone to the police and they could have tried to locate the thief from among the students. This could have put the entire class in a jam. I don’t know much about the legal system, but since the laptop got stolen in the classroom, everyone who was present that day would be a suspect, with probable cause, namely stealing a class test. Everyone could be questioned, at the least, and it could get embarrassing. Imagine police turning up at your dorm room or home or stop on the street to tell you that you are suspect in a theft! There is even a good chance of someone ratting out crucial information about the thief. There is no evidence that Prof. Rine ever went to the police. I am sure losing his laptop was driving him nuts; I know I would be mad if mine got stolen. Instead of putting all his students in an embarrassing and potentially harmful situation because of the misdeed of one shameless guy, he decided to do something different, he decided to threaten the unknown thief by announcing in one of his classes that his laptop contained classified information and some really high-tech tracking device so the thief would eventually get into even more trouble when the authorities zoned in on him/her. He gave one last chance to the thief to come clean. And in the end, he even apologized to the rest of the students to have to hear all that. (hear the audio)

I agree he did use some very imaginary and quite creative stories to scare the hell out of the thief, most of it appeared quite “hollywoody”. But can you blame him? What options did he have? And, of course, no one in the world thought about the incident from his point of view. I screened about 50 blogs, several websites and almost all the news-sites that I could find. Almost no one took the side of the professor; rather everyone made fun of him for trying to threaten his students. I found only one entry, which asked why we were not criticizing the thief, and why we were talking as if the Professor was a moron and the thief was a smart guy. That one voice was drowned in the thousands of voices saying otherwise. I guess it is easier to make fun of someone you know than to criticize the unknown.

That’s what got me thinking, what kind of world do we live in these days? What is wrong with us? This hypocrisy makes me sick. We spend almost all our waking hours talking about “values”. The TV, radio, newspapers are all filled with people talking about being fair, being right, being believers in the good of humankind, and in the same vein we are big fans of Jerry Springer, Desperate Housewives, Cops, etc.

Let’s look at the true victim in this case, a respectable teacher in one of the finest institutions in the world. Teachers are paid poorly, and most of the people who end up teaching are the people who are smart to do many things but choose to spread knowledge over more lucrative occupations. And this guy is a professor at Berkeley! I did a Pubmed search on Prof. Rine and confirmed that he is a very successful scientist. His website shows the personal side of the man, a seemingly nice guy, who was made out to be a villain by the media. You can bet that Rine did not become a teacher because he could not do anything else. Should we just shake our heads and let things be the way they are? I don’t think so. It is time someone refuses to go with the flow. Agreed that his ways were unconventional, but then to forget the pain behind those actions and to make fun of him while defending the thief at the same time! Where does that leave us?

I did brood over this for quite some time. I followed the story and as usual, the story died off, its slow, but natural death. I still haven’t figured out what a person should do in such a situation. Perhaps now, if MY laptop gets stolen by MY students, I would call the police and get all of them in trouble, let the law figure find the at least the ones that saw and did the crime. Because someone who saw the crime but did not do anything is an equal participant in the crime, he/she is equally responsible for the broken trust of a teacher. This event has shown that may be that’s the best solution.

The poor professor never got his laptop back, and we are back to talking about the “Next Gilligan’s Island”, and life moves on.

Mukesh Kumar

mukeshmaryland@yahoo.com