The tour of the Salk Institute yesterday reminded me of what a land of opportunity California has been for immigrants. Jonas Salk was the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants (bio) and obtained enough funding from the March of Dimes to develop the polio vaccine (perfected in the mid 1950s; our tour guide said that the disease was due to be eradicated from the world by now but Muslims in places such as Pakistan and Afghanistan are refusing to take the vaccine because they believe it causes sterility). By 1960 Salk had obtained $20 million to build the Salk Institute and hired Louis Kahn (bio), who’d emigrated to the U.S. at the age of 5.
It seems that nearly every corner of California has been a place where an immigrant’s dream has come true.
[More: see the movie My Architect.]
Photography and Architecture to me are the two perfect blends of art and science/technical knowledge.
Philip, I have had several profs who throw in various political and other observational bits into their lectures discussions even when completely irrelevant. I’ve noticed you sort of do the same thing, albeit in a more entertaining way on your blog. Do you do the same thing when you’re teaching at MIT? Do the students ever get angry that a tenured faculty member would say things like “but Muslims in places such as Pakistan and Afghanistan are refusing to take the vaccine because they believe it causes sterility” ?
It’s true that you find immigrant success stories everywhere you turn in California. But to be fair, you also find a system that exploits laborers for wages that are far from dreamy. For an interesting day-trip, head for the homeless camps in the Mission Gorge or in the hills south of La Jolla and the Salk Institute. The American dream there is often one of working a 12-hour day to gather enough money to try to feed your family. In other words, it is survival, without the availability of safe housing or medical care. Perhaps worth the risk because it is better than what they can find in Mexico, but nothing we could possibility consider a fair deal.
Nothing wrong with looking at the success stories, but it’s a bit like going to Vegas and only noticing the winners.
Some folks realize the American dream and take what they’ve learned back to their homelands: http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=ourWorldNews&storyID=4764323&pageNumber=1.
Bob J, the statement about Muslims refusing to take the vaccine seemed tangential, but not totally irrelevant to me. Also, it’s pretty much true, though it seems to be happening in Nigeria. See this article Nigerian Islamists veto vaccines.
Hey Philip,
Although the Salk institute is in San Diego, I don’t see how that shows that CA offers any greater opportunities for immigrants than anywhere else in the USA.
According to the bio you linked, Salk was born to immigrant parents in NYC, and developed the polio vaccine at the University of Pittsburgh. So, he himself was not an immigrant, his immigrant connection was in NYC, and he did his most important work in Pittsburgh.
The Louis Kahn bio that you linked begins thus: “One of the most influential international architects of the second half of the twentieth century, Louis I. Kahn’s life was firmly rooted in Philadelphia…”
Maybe your entry should really have been titled, “Pennsylvania, the immigrant’s paradise.” 😉
Bob J, the statement Philip made seemed designed to avoid the worst of the controversy. What I’ve read elsewhere implies the Muslims involved are claiming it is little more than a conspiracy to supress their population. While avoiding the topic entirely might be politically correct, it does little to illuminate the otherwise mysterious question of why polio persists.
That should have been “suppress” for anyone expecting the correct spelling. Damn these web forms that prevent my spell checker from working!
Bob J, Philip does not seem to be a tenured faculty member at MIT as far as I can tell, his title is “Lecturer”.
Not that this reflects poorly on him.
Interesting, I thought he was faculty…I actually wasn’t offended by what philip said, just curiouos if your blog-writing style was similar to your lectture style. At least it keeps it interesting.
And right next door in Arizona is the Illegal Immigrant’s paradise
‘Maybe your entry should really have been titled, “Pennsylvania, the immigrant’s paradise.” ;-)’
Touch
Folks: I’m just a retired nerd who volunteers at MIT, not a tenured faculty member. I also volunteer at the public high school in Cambridge, Massachusetts (across the street from my house). Many of my students at both institutions are Muslim immigrants and I enjoy helping them learn. But that doesn’t keep me from accurately quoting the tour guide at the Salk Institute. He did not seem to be motivated by prejudice.
Bob: I do work in a lot of random facts and anecdotes into my discussions with students. I don’t really lecture, though, in 6.171. It is a lab course and I prefer to let the students present their work and moderate discussion among the other students. They’re mostly seniors and need to learn to participate in engineering meetings. I do enough talking on my Web site so I don’t need to waste classroom time hearing myself speak.
Philip: Cool! I would love to hear one of your lectures. I’m sure the’re as much fun as your blog, which is prety darn fun!