Friday 30 August 2013

NAV messes up again - pay for parental leave 3 months late, AGAIN

The parental leave I have had so far, this Spring, has been rewarding - but the pay I'm entitled to according to Norwegian law has only exceptionally been paid in due time. First, it took 3 months into the parental leave before I received anything at all. In May I had some correspondence with NAV, the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration, and they made some formal changes to my leave, which I had from January 1st to June 24th. The pay for the period following May 17th didn't arrive, so I called NAV, and they told me the money had been paid to my university, University of Stavanger. When I called the handling administrative at my university, I was told she was on sick leave, and that I would have to make contact with her early autumn. And so I did this week - only to hear that UiS thinks that NAV has made (yet another) mistake - the money should never have been transferred to them, but straight to me, since I had graded parental leave combined with a 20% contract at UiS. The result? That pay for some 40 days have not yet been received by me, and that UiS will now ask NAV to pay it to me, some 3 months late.

All in all this means that only the pay for April and half of May has been paid on time. Apart from that, NAV's payments have been 3 months late. And this is how I make a living...

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Letter to the editor on wolf mortality in Dagbladet

Friday August 23rd, the day after the Norwegian Animal Ethics Conference took place in Oslo, I had a letter to the editor published in the Norwegian national daily Dagbladet, entitled "Et ulveliv" [A wolf's life]. The article presents excerpts from my wolf chapter in the recently published anthology Hvem er villest i landet her? [Who's the wildest one in the country here?], and raises the question of whether wild wolves have a right to die of natural causes, rather than by the human hand. A modest management goal is proposed, namely that at least every second wolf should die of natural causes (versus only one out of five today, in Scandinavia).

The complete text has been posted in my Norwegian language blog Utopisk Realisme. The letter to the editor was written with reference to my chairmanship of Minding Animals Norway and as a University of Stavanger scholar.


Thursday 29 August 2013

Teaching - philosophy of science

Yesterday I taught for 5 hours in this autumn's master course for health studies students "Philosophy of science and ethics" (MHV140). Introduction to philosophy of science was the day's topic. The course design is different this year compared with last year, but all seems to go well - and better than last year (which went well enough).

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Working time, autumn 2013 - spread over 3 counties, daytime and evenings

This Spring I had a high percentage of parental leave combined with a 20% contract at University of Stavanger - though I worked long weeks even so, in combination with family life. The puzzle game is perhaps even more complex this autumn. My soon 1 year old son has started in kindergarten 3 days a week in Arendal, where my wife now teaches portuguese. Every second Thursday, when my wife is not working, I am taking him to kindergarten. I teach in Stavanger every Monday (first 9 weeks of the semester) and some Wednesdays (5), and also stay there every Tuesday.

Today I looked over my work weeks this autumn, and arranged tasks. The regular routine when I'm working from home, in Kristiansand, will be that I work 12-15 and then again 19-23. This results in a full work day, and maximises the time to be spent with my son (and wife). Every second Thursday I'll have the evening off, and every second Saturday my father is babysitting our son while my wife and I have a day to spend together. Sundays are workdays, given that I'm commuting between Kristiansand and Stavanger and teach Monday morning.

Friday 16 August 2013

Norwegian Animal Ethics Conference: Press release distributed; undersecretary of Ministry of Environment to open conference

Today I have distributed the press release of the Norwegian Animal Ethics Conference 2013 to my share of recipients.

See my Norwegian language blog Utopisk Realisme for the full text, which includes an updated program for the conference (latest news: Undersecretary at the Ministry of Environment Ellen Øseth will open the conference).

Abstract submitted to Minding Animals Norway's 3rd research seminar; analysis of Norwegian political programs conducted

Yesterday I wrote and submitted the abstract "Ordvalg - en kritisk lesning av omtalen av dyr i norske partiprogrammer" [Word choice/election - a critical reading of the mention of animals in Norwegian political programs] for Minding Animals Norway's 3rd research seminar. My paper will be based of a linguistic analysis of the political programs of nine Norwegian political parties (21 pp).

The Norwegian language abstract of the talk has been posted in my Norwegian blog, Utopisk Realisme.

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Thursday 15 August 2013

Four meetings attended November 5-6 2012

On November 5th and 6th 2012 I took part in several meetings at University of Stavanger's Department of health studies, namely:
* a meeting with my head of department on coordination of implementation of measures used in the web-based bachelor into the regular bachelor in nursing and revision of the overall study program for the bachelor in nursing
* a meeting on the future version of the department's Ex.Phil. course (introductory philosophy), with the coordinator of the bachelor program and others
* a meeting with a member of staff on the practice of admission of prior courses
* the department's regular bachelor meeting

[This is part of my backlog catch up blogging]

Presentation of Ex.Phil. cancelled due to throat infection

I cancelled today's presentation of Ex.Phil., the course in introductory philosophy, at University of Stavanger's Department of health studies, due to a throat infection. I was supposed to present the course over 45 minutes for the new bachelor students in nursing, followed by similar presentations of two more courses.

Mention of Norwegian Animal Ethics Conference in MAI bulletin no. 18

The second Norwegian Animal Ethics Conference (Dyreetikkonferansen) is mentioned in the 18th bulletin of the newsletter of Minding Animals International (p. 1 and 3). The information given includes names of speakers (which includes me) and contributors (not 100% up to date). Minding Animals Norway is one of the organisers of the conference.

The MAI newsletter is distributed via email to some 2.000 activists and others with an interest in Human-Animal Studies.

Tuesday 13 August 2013

"Is a wolf wild..." reading of interest in Australian course "Rethinking wildlife"

My 2010 article "Is a Wolf wild as Long as it Does Not Know that It Is Being Thoroughly Handled?" (published in the online academic journal Humanimalia) is listed among "Readings of interest" in the course "Rethinking Wildlife - Philosophy, Biodiversity, Extinction" (course code ARTS2244), offered in 2012 at The University of New South Wales, Australia – Arts and Social Sciences – School of Humanities. The course, given and convened by lecturer Thom van Dooren, was worth 6 Units of Credits (UOC), and was offered within the Environmental Studies Undergraduate program, and further available within the Philosophy Undergraduate Program. My article is listed in the course description under the very first lecture, given February 28th 2012 and entitled "What is wildlife?"

A fifth letter in Morgenbladet's debate on human distinctiveness

In the August 9-15 issue of the Norwegian weekly Morgenbladet, a fifth letter to the editor following the publication of a book chapter excerpt by professor in biology Dag Hessen is published, entitled "Sannhetens bevissthet" [The consciousness of truth] and written by Norwegian School of Economics student Andreas Masvie, who's also affiliated with "Tankesmien Skaperkraft" [literally "the think tank Creative Power", though "skaperkraft" is also a Christian word meaning something akin to "the power of the Creator"].

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Two more letters in Morgenbladet's debate on human distinctiveness