Thoughts on this fruit as a metaphor for various things in our society and at the mdw from the viewpoint of the hmdw Press Office
What, bananas again? Haven’t we had enough of them, already!? The notion of Felix Austria—“happy Austria”—seems to have taken quite a beating amidst the numerous “banana republic”-allusions surrounding the postponement of the repeat of our presidential election runoff. But do bananas really deserve such associations? “They don’t have it easy, that‘s clear, but with their origins and appearance, they’d better adapt themselves to our country! There’s no place here for such crooked things!” Some people in this country just will view things this way. Luckily, we here at the mdw practice tolerance in our interactions: our university is a place where one can learn how bananas sometimes taste different that one expected—and how that can be a good thing.
And the world of the mdw isn’t always straightforward to begin with, which might even be a crucial advantage: taking the necessary detours and eliminating various hurdles brings us together—students, instructors, and support staff. Besides which, bananas can’t be bent straight without breaking them. At the hmdw, we’re conscious of that, which is why we’re dedicated to providing help and support to those who need it. You can see an additional example of this “we’re all in this together”-attitude in the talk that I had recently with the mdw legal experts Karl-Gerhard Straßl and Martina Baravalle, which can be read in the November issue of quart. And I can also warmly recommend a visit to mdw.ac.at/aki, where you can find help on questions about scholarly papers and similar.
Another thing we know about bananas is that they usually aren’t quite ripe yet when they arrive here in Austria, so they ripen in shops or at home—and will eventually go bad if let go for too long. Good things, after all, can sometimes be time-sensitive, which was recently the case with our new mdw Library. That’s why a temporary borrowing and return service was set up at the former mdw Shop for the printed music and specialist literature that are so essential to what we do. If you ever have any questions, essential or otherwise, our hmdw office is always open to everyone seeking help—including banana milk!
A column of the student body of the mdw (hmdw)
