In Reply to: OT: Oh the humanities! posted by KirklandBruin on October 03, 2024 at 15:59:16
Wake up. Do you think he gave $31mm to Ucla? Do you think that money benefits students in any way? Does it burnish the Ucla "brand", makes it a better school or makes Ucla more "elite" (a favorite, self-referential term around here)? If you guess none of the above, you're on the right path.
He likely gets a $31mm income tax deduction which he likely is using to offset a windfall or other income that he realized this year. The "donated" money is still under his direct control, he hasn't "given it to Ucla". Ucla just gets the PR and the oohs and ahhs from the unknowing.
Warren Buffet uses the same stunt here in the US to great effect.
Whoever studies Japan at Ucla will get his version of Japanese history and culture. Whatever he chooses people to know and remember about Japan will be what they know and remember about Japan. His voice becomes more authoritative in defining what Japan is in the heads of Americans or others who encounter his institute. Ucla is just the delivery mechanism and they likely collect a small tip for their services.
This chowderheaded "OMG" outlook on the world is what plagues Ucla football. We can never get it together because our leaders and our followers (fans) don't see objective reality clearly and accordingly live in an imaginary world. Morgan Center lives in the defunct past, the "do it the right way" student-athlete, NCAA-centric past as we watch CFB move quickly past us into an outright for-profit business model.
Our fans think our program is debilitated by coaches, bad recruiting and bad players, not by a completely outdated mentality and a broken managerial system emanating from Morgan Center and Ucla.
It's not surprising that they believe someone just gave Ucla $31mm to help the school and for the betterment of students and themselves. WAFJ.