Charles Betz Blog

Rodenstock is the name of the lens btw, not the flower. It was made with a home made mount of an old and extremely fast Rodenstock lens with a fixed focus (i.e. you focus by moving forward or backward) and is only suitable for macro work.

I'm writing this not only because of the recent events on Austrian and other universities that Joel is very enthusiastically engaged in. I had this on my mind for quite some time. So let me just make it clear at this point that this is my personal opinion and not a personal attack against anybody who does not agree with me.
Being a student is frustrating. I should know it, I'm a academic student since 2003 and will probably be for couple more years. Don't get me wrong, I love it, but I can see why so many other students are so much more annoyed by "the system", "reforms", lack of money and motivation on the academic side. The current discussion in Austria among other places is whether is is legal / ethical for the universities to demand a fee from the students. While I agree wholeheartedly with the statement that knowledge should be accessible to anyone, I do not agree with the UN Charta stipulated free access to universities, at least not as is. Of course I also agree that there should be world peace and equally distributed riches. But I also know that's not how our world works, and a bunch of revolutionary students won't change that fact. Purely calculated, most governments could financially bear the load of financing free access universities (not including housing and living costs of the students though). But this would in my mind result in an abolition of academic quality in general.
Another thing I know from being a student is that we sometimes tend to be lazy and like stuff that comes for free. We need lots of motivation, and for me, finishing the university with the best possible grades in the least amount of time is quite motivating when facing the fact that I do not want any longer to be dependent financially of my parents or a student loan that I have to pay back. Bear in mind that I do not accuse any of the students demonstrating now of anything. I'm just saying that in life, most things worth having don't come for free, and people should learn to appreciate that. By now you're probably shouting that me thinking I'm an arrogant snob with too much money (which I can guarantee you I'm not). Of course everybody with the potential should have access to the university. This could be achieved with student loans guaranteed by your respective government. The amount should be adapted to your & your parents financial situation, the university you like to study at and last but not least your grades (I know this is difficult to calculate in on a personal basis). People having finished their studies should then get a personalized plan depending again on their financial situation on how to pay back the loan. Maybe this is exactly what the protesters want and I got them all wrong. Still I don't like their way of showing it, because first of all I think that any protest involving adolescents and missing courses will attract way too many people that just care about this latter matter and think it's cool to go on a strike (man, I do sound like I'm 80). Second, I personally would be really pissed to have my courses boycotted by people whose opinions I do not share.
Sure you can not just allow anything happening to you. And I'm also in favor of young people taking an interest in their own future. My university is comparatively well funded in comparison to other foreign institutions, but I still think that a university is more apt to decide its budget (e.g. by raising fees) than a government (who almost exclusively cuts down budgets to fund for more short term expenditures). Sure it sucks that every couple of years you have to pay more fees. But I much rather have this and a constant quality of education, than governmental cut downs that change with every legislation. To put it plainly: I think the universities should be (at least partially) funded but the people who take advantage of these institutions (i.e. students), who will later on (hopefully) have a better paid job, rather than the general public (by raising taxes for everybody to pay for the education of the few). Then again, what do I know.

Just a bunch of random pics from the past couple of days

Most people should by now have realized that I love Haruki Murakami, a Japanese author, and that I especially love his translations into German in the Dumont edition. A couple of weeks ago I came along his newest book/story and even though I'm usually not such a big fan of his shorter stories, this one is a clear exception. Not only is the story great, being a typography and layout nerd, I was even more amazed by the book itself. Everything, from the dreamy duotone illustrations by Kat Menschik, to the font and the paper of this edition screams work of art right at you. I hope you'll remember it next time you pass by your local book store and have a look at it. If you're not sold after this, it's ok.