Reading "El Gringo" as a realization of the Self

"El Gringo" is the journey of a man who, by running away from "the other", ultimately finds his own self. Though the film's plot is a highly screen-bound unrealistic American action setting, the message is quite real; that the self is only realized in the land of the other. In other words, to use Rene Descartes' altered ideology of the cogito in Zizekian terms, the self is an empty place of what is left when the rest of the world is expelled from itself. It is the process of subjectivization that the man in El Gringo in possession of the bulk money goes through, which fills his void, wherein the latter is given an identity, which is altered by none other but his own Self. The barmaid in the film, Anna, serves as a undeniable symptom in the man's existence towards his ultimate self-realization. Just as much as the film ends with the union of "El Gringo" and Anna, it also proves that woman is not a mere fantasy object of the man, the cause of his desire, but one that sustains him through and to his sublime realization. The woman thief, who puts the man in trying situations by never ceasing to rob his bag of money also realizes herself  in the end. However, all self-actualizations are realized through the man, which makes the movie highly phallo-centric in direction.

The entire action to self realization happens in El Fronteras- literally the frontiers. The selection of the venue out of America itself, in the underworld drug ridden Mexican frontiers suggests that it is only out of context that the man is capable to identify with the Self. However, though some philosophical insight into the Self vs Other is readable through the film, it's ending where the American, the stranger and his ideology is welcomed, negates the rational other, while promoting the American and his view and actions. The ending is quite superficial, is this sense, for a man with a bloody past receives unlawful justice, not to forget, in a land which is not America. The new colonization of the world by the Americans...

The purpose of student struggles

There is serious anxiety in the minds of both staff, administration and students in the aftermath of the ban on student unions and and formations and 5 student suspensions. The ban imposed on order of the Minister of Higher Education has serious repercussions for the student community. It is true that the student unions have to make a voice on behalf of the needs and requirements of the student population, if the authorities keep a blind eye to matters. However, the union leaders, representative of the student body, seem to have forgotten the very purpose of the formation of such collective action and voice. If the interest is to benefit the undergraduate needs and requirements, the very ways in which their protests are conducted, as students of better intellect, should be intellectually decided and constructive, not destructive to the learning environment. For example, the conventional lunch hour pickets were lately replaced by forced boycotting of fellow students for the purpose of conducting large vociferous protests from the Faculty premises outside. This was preceded by a meeting and campaign followed by speeches of union leaders just in front of the Dean's office, with prior notification to even lecturers of the event via letters. Such measures have never been heard of at SUSL in its entire history, and as teachers of this student population, we remain awed by the techniques utilized, against a non-dictatorial university administration within. Students have also become volatile pawns of certain political parties to breed new members (mere "votes" in the party's eyes), and have lost their integrity as independent, intellectual thinkers of situations, the future hands of this country, and the very purpose out of which they ended up privileged for tertiary education in the first place. It would be better if we could see independent thinkers, formidable youth dealing in universities, rather than puppets who dance to the tunes and strings of hind-sighted beings with power. As tertiary education teachers, we must too have our obligations towards the creation of such an undergraduate, rather than use students for one's own political gains. Yet, within a country whose macro political structure also resembles that of within the university microcosm, there is faint hope for either. The purpose of struggle, is therefore, lost. Let us hope that students would understand the sign and signified better, for the own betterment.