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Contents
Contents
Ocean of controversyBouncing backBees?!
Election extravaganza
Arts
Arts
Sports
Sports
Feature
Feature
Election!!!
Election!!!
p. 9
p. 9
p. 15
p. 15
p. 12–13
p. 12–13
p. e1
p. e1
Jaclyn Lytle
explores the depths of
SavingLuna
.
p. 9Sepideh Soltaninia
gets down with Make Your Exit.
p. 14
Men’s basketball rebounds from loss toCarleton.
p. 15
Men’s soccer team survives in spite of nothaving a coach.
p. 17
The U of O is full of great researchers.
SarahLeavitt
introduces you to them.
p. 12–13Di
explains how con
fi
dence makes the man.
p. 22
The
Fulcrum
presents this year’s SFUOelection candidates.
p. e1
It’s your money. The referendum questionsexplained.
p. e7
Putting a new spin on things
Re: “Big dreams and small hopes” (Fea-ture, Jan. 22)
JOE HOWELL’S ARICLE “Bigdreams and small hopes” is guilty o several lies o omission. I would liketo address a number o them. First o all, Howell neglects to mention thatthe Camp David talks ailed whenYasser Araat got up rom the negoti-ating table without making a counterofer; apparently he was too cowardly to accept 97 per cent o the West Bank and 100 per cent o Gaza. Te 3 percent o the West Bank—land inhab-ited by only Jewish Israeli citizens—that Israel was to keep, would be com-pensated by some o the most ertilesoils o Israel proper, and would haveexpanded the size o the Gaza strip.Instead Araat returned to Ramal-lah and launched the second intiadaagainst Israel.Howell mentions that Hamas wasdemocratically elected. He ails to ex-plain that this so-called democraticorganization has a charter based onthe destruction o ellow human be-ings. Hamas’ charter states: “Te Day o Judgment will not come aboutuntil Muslims ght the Jews (killingthe Jews), when the Jew will hide be-hind stones and trees. Te stones andtrees will say O Muslims, O Abdulla,there is a Jew behind me, come andkill him.” Rather than ocus on thewell-being o the Palestinian people,Hamas chooses to devote all time,money, and energy to attacking theirneighbours.Howell also mentions the right o return o the our million displacedPalestinians. In act, only 85,000 Ar-abs le Israel in 1948 and 85,000 Jewswere orced out o Arab countries atthe same time, not to mention thethousands o Jewish reugees comingrom Europe aer the Holocaust.Finally, Howell made sure to omitthe act that o cials rom the Euro-pean Union, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia,among others, have said that Hamas isto blame or the war this past month.Tese are just a handul o the actsthat one should keep in mind whenconsidering Howell’s simplistic at-tempt at explaining the regular un-rest in the Middle East. One can only hope that the students at U o O areintelligent enough not to take How-ell’s article at ace value.
Jennifer Hadad Hillel Ottawa student representative
Don’t hate on Twilight!
Re: “Shut up about Twilight already!” (Opinion, Jan. 22)
IN RESPONE O Maureen Robinson’sarticle criticizing Stephanie Meyer’ssaga
Twilight
, I think that someone istaking the teen novels too seriously.I also have read the our-book series(
Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn
) which predominate-ly targets the emale population, andthough admittedly none o the novelsare Nobel Prize-worthy, they are get-ting thousands o people picking upbooks again. I think it’s wonderulthat the love story o a mortal girl anda vampire is bringing back the love o reading. Similarly, the
Harry Potter
series by J.K. Rowling was met withsimilar criticism in regards to it con-taining the aspects o magic and thedark arts. And yet, it has become boththe most widely read and most chal-lenged book series o the 21st century.But just as in the case o Harry Potterand the magical world o Hogwarts,I am sure that the
Twilight
novels arenot creating “a generation o younggirls who believe that the EdwardCullen prototype actually exists”. No,not everything in the book is realistic,which is why the book is categorizedas just that—antasy.
Britney CastlemanSecond-year French as a Second Language student
More than just a village
Re: “Not in my village” (Letters, Jan. 29)
DEAR RAVIS WEAGAN,While I respect your wishes to starta No campaign against the Millen-nium Village initiative, I eel you areat best seriously missing the point,and at worst gravely misinormingstudents.Firstly, you mentioned that this hasnothing to do with your education.Well, it does. Tere will be internshipopportunities in the villages—it lookslike several positions a semester—tolearn about solutions-based, holisticcommunity-led development ap-proaches. Tere is also talk o creatingcourses and incorporating the ideainto a global community services cen-tre. More than just a village, it’s a plat-orm or engagement in these issuesthat exists nowhere else. And I’m not just talking about international de- velopment students. Tis will greatly enhance the learning experience oranyone interested in cross-culturalperspectives on sustainable develop-ment, chemistry, biology, agroor-estry, political science, internationalrelations, sociology, anthropology,environmental studies, policy admin-istration, engineering, economics…need I go on? We will be one o therst, i not the rst university in theworld to do anything like this. Tishas already generated, and will con-tinue to generate, a world o opportu-nities or students in many ways.Secondly, you mentioned that youalready give to charity. Tat’s awe-some! But the truth is that this ismore than just a charity. Yes, you willbe helping improve the lives o 5,000people and acilitating their own ejec-tion out o extreme poverty, but it’salso about creating a partnership be-tween Carleton University, the U o O, and a leading research institution,the Earth Institute at Columbia Uni- versity. It’s about creating hands-onlearning opportunities or studentswho want to make a real diference.It’s about showing other universities,the government, and the world thatwe care and about leading by exam-ple. It has nothing to do with “tryingto donate your money better than youcan”.As a member o the Students oEnd Extreme Poverty, these are only some o the reasons why we are ask-ing students i they will invest $6 peryear in support o a Millennium Vil-lage, as much or your own educationand growth as or the villagers youwill be supporting.
Kellie PichéU of O alumna
Defning the privilege o tenure
AS AN ALUMNUS o the Faculty o Engineering at the University o Ot-tawa, I have a vested interest in thereputation o both the Faculty o En-gineering and the Faculty o Scienceat the U o O. While I can not com-ment on the specic circumstances o Proessor Denis Rancourt’s dismissal,I have heard him speak o cially atthe Ottawa Public Library on his views regarding both the pedagogy o the Faculty o Science and U o OPresident Allan Rock. Te main pointo contention brought up in this talk was that the Department o Physicshad reused to allow one o Rancourt’sourth-year physics students to con-duct a ourth-year project o his ownchoosing that would count towardshis degree. When I questioned thestudent as to the topic o his projecthe told me it was on how the way sci-ence is taught afects what is learnedin the course. I would have to agreewith the Department o Physics that,while it may be a valuable topic to ex-plore, it is not a topic that alls into thedomain o physics and hence shouldnot count towards a physics degree.Proessor Rancourt very much struck me as both a rebel without a cause andan anarchist. While he should be reein Canadian society to be both, these views are in no way related to aca-
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Feb. 5–11, 2009
Letters
Frank AppleyardEditor-in-Chief editor@thefulcrum.ca
3
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demic reedom that is aforded a ten-ured proessor. I Rancourt had been viciously attacking a physics theory ora published experiment then the uni- versity would have a duty to saeguardhis academic reedom. As it is clearly not the case in this situation, I do notbelieve that the privilege o tenure hasbeen violated.
Jason Butler U of O alumnus
Millennium Villagemissing a ew steps
NEX WEEK WE will be voting onsix reerendum questions, one o which is the unding o a MillenniumVillage at the cost o $6 per academicyear, per student. At rst glance itseems like a wonderul project thatwill truly benet amilies that aredeeply in need. Don’t get me wrong,a project like this isn’t terrible at all;it has achieved good things and I’mcompletely or its idealistic nature.However, some things have to besaid.What is the Millennium Village?It’s based on the United Nations’ de- velopment goals established in 2000to end poverty in Arica. EconomistJefrey Sachs, who had a utopian idealor solving poverty dilemmas in A-rica, led the project.
LETTERS continued on p. 20
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