20 May 2011

I don't get it. I mean, maybe I am seriously naïve or too detached from the real world. Some weeks ago I finished a translation of a lengthy scholarly essay on the traditions of giving, gift vs exchange paradigms etc. The author - university professor with a tight schedule of global lectures and conferences - wrote in depth about anti-utalitarian concepts and gift traditions in peasant communities and urban settings and so on. Very committed and detailed. 
Her research and with it my fee was funded by a generous gift from one of these philantropic billionaires, who is also a friend of the author. In a footnote, this gift has been praised as an example of some ancient human gift giving spirit, bla bla and bla.
Today, I get a request from the author for a taxable invoice, i.e. to set off against her personal income tax. No joke.
Well, you can stuff it!

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