The Cord WeeklyThe tie that binds since 1926

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Volume 47 Issue 8 www.cordweekly.comWEDNESDAY OCTOBER 4,2006

BUILD THOSE CALUSESLearn to play guitar and how tostick with it... PAGE 12-13

WLUSU DRAMACo-ordinator loses job in

questionable dismissal ... PAGE 2

NHL PREDICTIONSWho will win the Cup, and why

the Leafs look grim ... PAGE 14

ER crisis hits KitchenerWLU's closest hospitalthreatens to shut itsdoors; then doesn'tTONY FERGUSONNEWS EDITOR

After narrowly averting a tempo-rary closure of its doors on Sundaymorning, the ER at Grand RiverHospital, the closest one to Lau-rier, drafted a last-minute plan tostay open.

A supervisor has been sent toGrand River by the Ministry ofHealth to work with the limitednumber of staff, which was cutdown even further on Friday aftersome emergency-room doctorsresigned.

An inspector has also been ap-pointed to look into the matter,which is a team headed by KenDean, President and CEO ofSt. Jo-seph's hospital in Toronto. Dean'sduties will include reviewing themanagement of emergency ser-vices at Grand River and assistingthe hospital in resolving its op-erating issues in the emergencydepartment.

Karen Ostrander, manager ofHealth Services at Laurier, is do-ing what little she can to ensurethat students are not affected.Because of budgetary constraints,there isn't much that Health Ser-vices can do to compensate forthe shortage at Grand River.

"We're not in a situation to beable to provide 24-hour care or ex-

tended hours so that we'd be ableto cover those emergency typeservices," says Ostrander.

It simply boils down to cost,according to Dean of StudentsDavid McMurray. Universities arenot formally obliged to provideany form of healthcare and somehave even closed down their on-campus healthcare facilities. WhatLaurier offers in terms of its clini-cal care facility is voluntary and isbased on the belief thatLaurier isresponsible for caring for its stu-

dents. In light of the incident atGrand River, any additional re-sponsibilities that Laurier's HealthServices would have to take onwould depend on demand.

"Beyond that, I guess thatwould be a question we'd have toaddress," says McMurray. "Shouldit be open longer hours? Or onweekends? If there's a demand andneed for it, that could be done."

Ostrander doesn't see a demandfor higher level services such aslonger hours and emergency care.

"Students in general are ayoung, healthy group," she says,pointing out that Laurier studentsare lucky to have the healthcarecoverage that they do. "In someways, Laurier students are verylucky because ... they have ac-cess to a family physician, whichis something that 30,000 people inthe region don't have."

Those who have access to Lau-rier's Health Services also, for themost part, have lower wait timesthan most of the Waterloo com-

munity. While waiting times foran on-call doctor in health ser-vices average less than one hour,many people in the communitymust waitat least that for walk-inclinics.

"For [booking] a physical, itmight be a couple of weeks. If Igo to my family doctor, I'm look-ing at two to three months," saysOstrander.

McMurray remains confident

Sydney Helland

OPEN AFTER ALL - A medical transfer van unloads a patient at Grand River Hospital's ER entrance which barely avoided closing on Sunday.

UW Warriors 'hangaround' for near upsetTeam will be'ready togo'for game versus Mac

DAN POLISCHUKSPORTS EDITOR

Any supporters of Laurier's foot-ball team looking to enjoy theteam's feast of the weaker Water-loo Warriors were instead forcedto leave with a bitter taste in theirmouths after an unimpressive 24-21 victory this past Saturday.

Under very wet and slipperyconditions at University Stadium,the Hawks' inability to hold onto

the football gave their city rivalsevery opportunity at an upset.

Thankfully for Laurier, quar-terback lamie Partington camethrough with his bestperformanceof the year in leading the team tothree touchdowns — two throughthe air and one on the ground.

His firstTD strike came with justover a minute left in the first quar-ter as Partington connected withAndy Baechler from 13 yards out.The catch was Baechler's fourthscore this season, tying him forsecond most in the OUA.

The Hawks increased theirlead less than five minutes later.A 46-yard bomb to Bishop tothe Warriors two yard line set upPartington's touchdown; plowingthrough to the endzone followinghis blockers.

Just when things seemed to begoing as expected, Laurier startedto loose their grip on the gameliterally.

Having already committed afumble, caused by running backRyan Lynch, the Hawks added totheir turnover tally with the afore-mentioned Partington throwinginto the hands of the Warriorssafety Stephen Espie.

While the first two mistakes didnot cost Laurier in terms of a ma-jor accuulation of points-against(other than a conceded safety),the Warriors seemed to feed offtheir defence in the second half.

Approximately halfway throughShane Porter

A REAL TEAM EFFORT - It took about every Hawk to handle the War-

riors last weekend._ _

_

SEE HOSPITAL, PAGE 5

- SEE BATTLE, PAGE 15

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WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 4,2006VOLUME 47 ISSUE 8

Next Issue: October 12

QUOTE OF THEWEEK7 read it every dayon the shitter."

■ Josh ofTouch Entertainment talking about the Cord throughthe WLUSP office window

CONTRIBUTORSPaul Alviz Dru Jeffries Don Morgenson

Shane Porter Sarah MacDonald David ShoreSteve Niles Jillian Pencotl Mallory O'BrienAshley Jang Nicole Wray Sarah Bradford

Marie D. Hopkins DJ Demers Caitlin SymakMarkAdam son Lynsay Wellhauser Mary Erskine

JamieNeugerbauer Jackson ShaerrattNick Boyd Chelsea Gusko

WLUSP STAFFProduction Assistants Janel LinsemaiuiCopy Editing Manager Caitlin HendersonCopy Editors TanithPerry-Mills

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Kristy MacDonaldPtlOtO Manager Sydney HellandOnlineProduction Manager Kathy ManeITManager Graham WyattDistribution Manager ..................NeededCord Intern David Goldberg

WLUSP ADMINISTRATIONPresident Fraser McCrackenVP: Advertising Angela FosterVP: Brantford Paige DesmondChair of theBoard Keren GottfriedVice Chair Arthur WongBoard of Directors Rafiq Andani

Penny Shearer

ADVERTISINGAll advertising inquiries should be directed to

VP: Advertising Angela Foster at884-0710, ext. 3560 or angela@wlusp.com

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News

Coordinator cannedCampus clubs head terminated amidst questionable circumstancesMIKE BROWNNEWS EDITOR

WLUSU campus clubs are with-out a leader. Early last week, MattProvost was terminated as cam-pus clubs coordinator, a deci-sion stemming from "a numberof complaints" regarding Matt'sability to manage the depart-ment, according to WLUSU VP:Finance, Mossab Basir.

Questions have since surfacedregarding the legitimacy of that

dismissal. In accordance withWLUSU's performance manage-ment policy, there is a three-stepprocess thatrequires, among oth-er things, the filing ofan incidentreport with the VP: Human Re-sources prior to any dismissals.

"I didn't complete every step,"Basir admits. "I needed to dosomething quickly and I rushedthe decision to do it quickly."

According to an anonymoussource, no one else was presentwhen Basir terminated Provost,

he was not made aware of hisrights, and some of the allega-tions he faces - at least one ofwhich is contested - have neverbeen formally filed were clearviolationsofWLUSU policy.

"My decision to fire him issomething I stand strongly by,however the way I did fire himwas definitely incorrect," saidBasir. "I didn't follow proceduresand that's wrong for anybody todo, especially aVP."

"The campus clubs depart-

ment has been something thatprevious generations of coordi-nators have worked really hardon," saidBasir, who held the coor-dinator position last year. "Basedon a number of complaints at theexecutive level as well as from thepresidents themselves, the de-partment was going backwards."

The exact nature of the com-plaints was not revealed, evento Provost. "There were a couple[of complaints] brought about tohim [Basir]," said the dismissedcoordinator. "I wasn't given great

WLU's Bavarian princessOktoberfest all about'having fun nightsout with friends'

MIKE BROWNNEWS EDITOR

With Kitchener-Waterloo's cel-ebrated Bavarian bash just daysaway, the festival nowhas its am-bassador in place - and she hap-pens to be a proud member ofthe WilfridLaurier community.

Lyndsey Weber, a fourth-yearhonours English student andvolunteer for Laurier Studentsfor Literacy, was named Miss Ok-toberfest 2006 during the MissOktoberfest Ball held at Binge-man's in Kitchener last Fridaynight. She is a native of Kitch-ener and attended high school atnearby ElmiraDistrict SecondarySchool.

For Weber, Oktoberfest is allabout "having fun nights outwith friends and family," andthere will be no shortage ofthosein the next two weeks, as mostof her responsibilities centrearound ceremonial keg tappingsand interaction with the media.She's hoping that the time in thelimelight will improve her publicspeaking skills and perhaps aidher ininterview composure whenshe applies for jobs, says Weber.

Already she seems to displaya measure of media savvy. Whenasked what kind of beer she typi-cally drinks at the bar, Weberjust smiles and says, "A Brick orMolson product," referring tothe events' two main alcoholsponsors.

She isn't exactly a stranger tothe spotlight either. Earlier thisyear, Weber represented CentralOntario in the Miss World Cana-da pageant.

She has also had childhoodexperiences in acting andmodeling.

Weber laughs over a remem-brance of an audition whenshe was 10, in which she gotinto a fight with another child,screamed and yelled, and yet still

got the part.But it was the encouragement

from her friend, Miss Oktoberfest2005 Krystal Benesch, during along car ride that really got herthinking about applying. "Shejust told me a lot about it andsaid that she had a great experi-ence and a lot of fun."

That was enough to convinceher to undertake the applicationprocess, which included an entryform, written biography, three-minute video and hour-long

interview before Friday's finaldecision.

"My family's really excitedabout it," she explains, notingthat her German heritage makesthe honour extra special.

The whirlwind two weeks willinclude many valuable experi-ences, says Weber. "It means get-ting a lot of volunteer experience,it means having fun, it meansparticipating in something thatI've been a part of and my fam-ily's been a part of since I was

little, it means meeting so manynew people - justan overall greatexperience."

Still, one event in particularstands out for her above all therest: the parade.

"I've gone every year sinceI was little," says Weber with asmile. This year will mark slightdivergence from that familiarpattern. This year, she'll be lead-ing it.

With filesfrom David Goldberg

Sydney HellandMISS MEDIA SAVVY - Lyndsey Weber hopes her new role will improve her public speaking.

2 WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 4,2006 ■ THE CORD W.EEKXY

- SEE PROVOST, PAGE 3

detail as to what theywere."Basir did, however, make clear

his view that the campus clubs co-ordinator is expected to not onlyexecute their outlined duties, butalso foster a positive volunteer-ing environment. He didn't feelProvost had succeeded in theseaims, leading to the termination.

The position was subsequentlyposted on the WLUSU HR web-site the following day. It wastaken down Thursday evening,the brief posting chalked up totiming issues for campus clubsin the critical month of Septem-ber, an issue made more criticalby the departure of the businessmanager over the summer and atleast one more executive.

"There were no execs removedfrom theirroles," said Dan Hock-ing, VP: Marketing, adding, "how-ever, we have had execs leavetheirroles."

"They didn't leave becauseMatt was terminated," assuredBasir. "However, part of his termi-nation was based on the businessmanager leaving."

Provost filed an official ap-peal to his termination almostexactly one week after the dis-missal. The email arrived in the

inbox of Matt Park, vice chair ofthe WLUSU board of directors, at10:00 am two days ago, an appealthat came as no shock to a candidBasir.

"He has every right to appealthe position," he said. "He has avery, very strong case. I wouldadmit to the board that I did notfollow the exact termination pro-cedures to fire him and I'm very

"My decision to fire him is something Istand stronglyby, however the way I didfirehim was definitelyincorrect... I didn'tfollow procedures and that's wrong foranybodyto do,especiallya VP."

- MossabBasir: VP: Finance, WLUSU

aware of that. I know that I didn'tfire him the right way."

At this point, though, it re-mains unclear whether or notthe appeal will ever make it to theboard of directors, whose nextmeeting occurs tomorrow at 5:30pm in the WLUSU Board Room.At approximately 1:30 yesterdayafternoon, WLUSU President Al-lan Cayenne issued Provost anoffer of reinstatement.

"Since finding out about the

termination, I investigated fur-ther the process," noted Cay-enne. "As a result of that investi-gation, I've determined that theproper policy wasn't followed interminating the campus clubscoordinator."

As of Tuesday night, Cayennewas still waiting to hear backfrom Provost.

Throughout the procedure,Provost has re-mained fairlytight-lipped. Heexplained thathe did not wantto disclose thegrounds of hisappeal beforeit went beforethe board. Pro-vost has beenunavailable for

comment since the reinstate-ment offer was made, so the ap-peal remains on the table, at leastfor the time being, and Park isready to proceed either way.

"One of the potential outcomesof the appeal anyway is an of-fer of reinstatement, so all this issuggesting to me is that Allan hasdone a preliminary investigation. . . and found out that perhapsthis is the best course of action,"said Park. "If Matt [Provost] is

agreeable to this offer, he has ev-ery right to stop the appeal pro-cess. It's certainly not somethingthat has to continue just becauseit's been initiated."

Cayenne was quick to ac-knowledge that reinstatementwould not be a complete solutionand assured that the initial is-sues prompting the terminationwouldbe addresse. "Ofcourse, wewould have means to ensure hisfuture success as campus clubscoordinator. We would obviouslydeal with anything we needed todeal with."

If, however, Provost opts tocontinue his appeal process, pro-cedure requires Park to look at thecase as an independent mediatorand determine whether there areoutstanding issues for the boardtorule on.

In regards to whether he ex-pected Provost to continue topursue the appeal, Park was left tospeculate. "It all sort of dependson what Matt's hopes are. If he'sinterested in his job back, thenhe's succeeded there. However,ifhe's more so interested in scru-tiny of his lIR record or anythingalong those lines, he can still re-quest that at the board level andthey'll perhaps find somethingthere."

VOCAL CORD

How do you feel aboutthe ER closing atGrand River Hospital?

"It's terrible because I've been in quitea few incidents where the ER wasnecessary. I think it's a bad idea."- Steve FazzariFourth-Year Communication Studies

"That's not cool. People need that andit will create longer wait times at otherhospitals and ambulances."

- Samantha HuttonFirst-Year Biology

"You might as well have a well-staffedER rather that an under-staffed onethat will cause complaints."

-Nate ThomasFourth-Year Economics

"It's probably a bad idea because thereare always emergencies. If it's closedhow are people supposed to get help?"

- Jessica BouchardThird-Year Communication Studies

"They need to hire more doctors- they're important people in thecommunity."

- Erika GmeindlFirst-Year English

Compiled by Ashley Jang,photos bySydney Helland

Entrepreneur week in full swing

Paul AlvizAREN'T YA PRENEURIAL? - Maureen Forrester Recital Hall hosted the Launchpad $50K Kick Off last Friday afternoon for EntrepreneurWeek in Kitchener-Waterloo region. The week's events continue until Friday, when things wrap up at University of Waterloo's Fed Hall witha speech from Guy Kawasaki, author of Art of the Start and the man behind garage.com.

News The Cord Weekly ■ Wednesday October 4,2006 3

Provost ponders Cayenne'sreinstatement offer- FROM PROVOST, PAGE 2

NEWS INBRIEF

WLU adds grads1000extra students will attendboth UW and WLU next fallthanks to a $240 million grantfrom the Ontario government."Some will be for masters stu-dents and some will be fordoctoral students," said theDean of Graduate Research,Joan Norris.

Next year atLaurier, roughly230 more students will receivemasters degrees and PhDs.WLU is finally getting the ex-pansion it wanted. Norris says,"The universities have beenlobbying for this for a while."

According to VP: AcademicSue Horton, "It's a win-winsituation." Horton believesthat the increased number ofgraduate students will have apositive affect on the ones inundergrad classes because ofthe potential number of newTAs.

Med school changesStarting in 2007, future doc-tors will be doing their Medi-cal College Admissions Test(MCAT) in computer format.Applicants will have over 22chances a year to take theirMCAT.

The changes will also short-en the test; from eight hoursright down to five hours. Thebad news is that there will belimited seating so it is recom-mended that students booka spot months in advance.In addition, the test is to betaken exclusively in Promet-ric computer testing centres.For more information contactGeoff Vokes at 416-967-4733ext. 215.

Rolling in theresearch dough

The province is giving uni-versity research projects a legup in the form of $550 mil-lion. Of that amount, $800,000will be given to WLU and UW.The Ontario Research Fund isa grant given to universitiesand hospitals across Ontario.A portion ofthe money (about$10 million) will go towardsthe construction of a supercomputing network that willaid advanced research. Lau-rier is one of the 16 universi-ties involved. But the spotlightis going to be thrown on thethree new research projectsthis money will allow exclu-sivelyhere at WLU.

In a release from The Re-cord,Kitchener politician JohnMilloy revealed that one oftheLaurier projects includes acloser look at, "...the provi-sion ofresources for scientificcomputing and visualization."

Complied by David Goldberg

Act targets disadvantagedInvestsments in post-secondary education toboost enrollment, increase graduation rates

STEVE NILESCORD NEWS

On September 7 at Trent Univer-sity, Ontario Premier Dalton Mc-Guinty announced unprecedent-ed investments in post-secondaryeducation that will enable insti-tutes throughout the province toprovide a higher level of educa-tion and better prepare for thechallenges of the future.

McGuinty announced threeyears of funding allocation touniversities and colleges in theprovince, including $4 billion thisyear and rising to $4.3 billion by2008-09.

The agreements have alreadybegun to be implemented andinclude commitments to achieveprovince-wide goals, such asboosting enrollment, increasinggraduation rates, and increasingthe amount of time students can

spend with faculty.Along with specific goals for

universities, the government alsoannounced the doubling of theirinvestment into student financialaid, which is expected to benefitabout 145,000 students this yearalone.

Even if the provincial govern-ment falls in the 2007 provincialelection, it is unlikely this fundingwill completely disappear, accord-ing to Jim Butler, vice president:finance and administration.

Students at Laurier can expectsome positive changes at theschool in regards to representa-tion for certain groups, he said.

"Our target groups includethe disabled, aboriginals andfirst generation students," notedButler. "We feel that these agree-ments will enable these under-represented groups to have betteraccess to the facilities ofLaurier."

"There is a direct correlationbetween graduation from a formof post-secondary education anda better performing economy. Byidentifying groups that do not goto university or college, hopefullyparticipation rates will increase."

The university is also aiming tomaintain a 23 to 1 ratio betweenfull-time undergraduate studentsand professors.

The agreement will allow theuniversity to hire new staff if re-quired, although the universitycurrently operates at a ratio that isslightly better than the target.

"I think what is unprecedentedis the multi-year agreement, theprocess part," said Butler. "Themoney has not been keeping upwith inflation until now. Theyhave never before set aside moneyfor growth."

Unfortunately for some stu-dents, particularly the aboriginalstudents at Laurier, increasedfunding is not a complete solu-tion. The privacy legislation pre-vents individuals at the universityfrom attempting to find fellow ab-

original students, which hindersproper representation as a group.

Laurie Minor, an administra-tive assistant in the global studiesdepartment, understands the is-sues of being a person of aborigi-nal descent at a large school. Shehas been attempting to get officialclub status for aboriginal studentsfor over two years.

All the files that were submit-ted in an attempt to get status asan official club were lost over thesummer, and the students arenow forced to recollect signaturesand file all the prudent paperworkfor a second time.

"We're kind of in a Catch-22 be-cause we cannot advertise aboutgetting aboriginal students in-volved until we get club status,but because of the privacy act, Icannot find out who is aboriginalhere and get them involved."

"It is very hard for these stu-dents to leave their families tocome to school," said Minor. "It isa big culture shock. Having a clubwould definitely ease their transi-tion of coming to Laurier."

Friends gather to rememberThe late Edna Staeblerdraws admirers to hermemorial on Sunday

LAURA CARLSONSTAFF WRITER

Friends and family gathered inthe Senate and Board Chamberson Sunday to celebrate the life ofEdna Staebler, a beloved memberof the Wilfrid Laurier community.Staebler passed away in her sleepSeptember 12 at the age of 100.

Born in Kitchener (then namedBerlin), Staebler was an activemember in the Kitchener-Water-loo area until her death. Not onlydid she contribute financially tovarious organizations and chari-ties, but she also donated her timeand energy, leaving a lasting im-pression on all who had the privi-lege to meet her.

Rose Murray, a good friend ofStaebler's, recalls her remarkablegift to help others. "She alwayssaw the needs of people and in-stitutions, and was willing to givethem what they needed to carryon," said Murray

Laurier was one of the recipi-ents of Staebler's generosity. Herinvolvement with the universitybegan in 1991 when she createdthe Edna Staebler Award for Cre-ative Non-Fiction. Shortly afterthat she began setting up scholar-ships in the names of some of herclosest friends.

Dr. Robert Rosehart, presidentof Wilfrid Laurier University andpersonal friend, talked about howStaebler stood out from other uni-versity donors. "Some people that

have money give it to you, butEdna was a credible person andshe took the time for anybody."

Rosehart feels that one of thereasons Staebler became involvedwith the university was because ofher passion for young people. "Shereally did relate to the youth," hesaid. "When she met young peo-ple she just lit up."

Sally Heath, the first recipientof the Gerald NoonanScholarship(an award set up by Staebler), alsoremembers her friend's youthfulspirit.

"There is this stereotype of se-nior citizens being frail and notlooking forward to things. But shewas different. [Her life] was notabout reliving past memories andthinking that the exciting part was

over. Even at 95 and 96, she wasstill looking forward and lookingahead."

It was through writing thatStaeblerwas able to communicatethis sheer passion for life with themasses. She has written for vari-ous magazines such as Maclean'sand Chatelaine, been theauthor ofseveral non-fiction books and hadher personal diaries published.

However, Staebler's true celeb-rity status was achieved throughher cookbooks. The first in herseries,Food That Really Schmecks,was originally released in 1968.Through her skillful writing andquick wit, these cookbooks al-lowed Staebler to both bring Men-nonite cooking to Canadians andto share personal stories about

her experiences."Her passion for writing really

comes through, as it was such acompelling force for her," Heathexplains. "She has the honestyand ability to analyze her own life.Not many of us are willing to re-ally look at ourselves the way shedid."

For her great contributions tothe writing world, as well as toher own community, Staebler hasbeen recognized by various as-sociations. These include beingnamed the Kitchener-WaterlooWoman of the Year (1980), receiv-ing an Honorary Doctor ofLettersdegree from Laurier (1984), andbeing awarded the Order of Can-ada (1996).

Sydney HellandMEMORY LANE - Friends and family browse through Edna Staebler's photos and memorabilia on Sunday.

News■ WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 4,2006 ■ THE CORD WEEKLY4

that this problem isn't very seri-ous for students. If Grand RiverHospital did close its emergencyroom, students could just go"down the street a litde bit" toSt. Mary's hospital in Kitchener.Only if the situation worsenedto the point that no emergencycare was available at all wouldthe school consider makingthis available through HealthServices.

"If something happened to anextent that there wasn't emer-gency care available at all, whichisn't the case, we would have tore-evaluate our ability to expandwhat we provide now."

"The ministry recognizes thatthere is a staffing problem at

Grand Riverright now and they'retaking steps to remedy the situa-tion," says A.G. Klei, a spokes-man for the Ministry of Health."We know that there have beena number of problems in regardto physician supply in that areaand we've been working on anumber of different measures toimprove that situation." Klei wasunable to comment on exactlywhat these measures were.

"I don't think you can changeyour life and if you need thathealthcare, that's what youneed," says Ostrander. "Certain-ly if [students] are accessing thatoutside healthcare then theyneed to be prepared to wait."

See PAGE 20 for editorial reaction to this story

Sydney Helland

BAG O'CRIMEALARM

Special Constables responded toa security alarm in the Aird Build-ing. Investigation revealed that aMedia Technology employee wasworking in the area and acciden-tally set off the alarm.

MOTOR VEHICLE COLLISION

Special Constables responded to areport of a hit-and-run in lot #3Anear the Athletic Complex. Thelicence plate of the offending ve-hicle was obtained by the ownerof the damaged vehicle who sawthe accident happen. Investiga-tion continuing.

ASSISTANCE MEDICAL

A student attended the Brant-ford Security Office complainingof being light-headed and dizzy.Brantford Special Constables anda Health Services nurse attendedthe office and checked the stu-dent. The student was advised tosee her family doctor. She thenleft the office with a friend.

PROPERTY DAMAGE

Special Constables responded toa call from the Manager ofWilf'swho reported a broken window atthe south stairwell entrance to theNCC. PP&P advised and attendedto make temporaryrepairs.

SUSPICIOUS PERSON

Special Constables respondedparking lot #32 at the rear of theSt. Michael's campus for a reportof a suspicious male. Special Con-stables located the male who wasidentified by way of a WLU OneCard.

GRAFFITI

A Special Constable at the Kitch-ener campus reported findinggraffiti on the exterior wall of theKitchener campus building. Anunknown culprit painted the fol-lowing phrase on the building,"The future is like Lego. Clean.Plastic. Stainless." PP&P were ad-vised and will remove the graffiti.

DRUGS

Special Constables responded to

University Place residence afterreceiving a report of alleged druguse in one of the suites. A smallquantity of marijuana was locat-ed within the residence and wasseized by the responding officer.

DISTURBANCE

Special Constables and Water-loo Regional Police officers re-sponded to the Turret becauseof a fight. Upon arrival officerswere informed that a fight had nothappened but they were worriedthat one could start at anytime.Officers remained in the areafor a short time to monitor thesituation.

ASSISTANCE MEDICAL

Special Constables and Para-

medics attended the FNCC Quadarea for a report of a passed outfemale student who had passedout. Paramedics transported theintoxicated student to hospital forfurther observation.

ALARM

Special Constables responded toa fire alarm at the Science Build-ing. Upon arrival Special Con-stables found an activated pullstation at the main entrance fac-ing Alumni Field. There were nosigns of smoke or fire in the build-ing. The fire system was returnedto normal.

INTOXICATED PERSON

Brantford Residence Servicesadvised Brantford Special Con-stables that an intoxicated stu-dent was taken via ambulance toBrantford General Hospital forobservation after she was foundvomiting and unresponsive in herresidence room.

SUSPICIOUS PERSON

Special Constables and WaterlooRegional Police officers respond-ed to the Peters building regard-ing a male causing a disturbanceand banging on doors on the thirdfloor. An intoxicated non-Laurierstudent was found on the thirdfloor trying to open an office door.The male was arrested and trans-ported by WRPS officers to the Di-vision #1 cell block for the night.

BY-LAW COMPLAINT

Special Constables observed anintoxicated non-Laurier femaleurinating on the St. Michael'sCampus front lawn. The femalewas issued a provincial offencenotice under the City of WaterlooPublic Nuisance By-Law.

ALARM

Waterloo Campus Special Consta-bles responded to an alarm at theKitchener Campus. The buildingwas checked by Special Consta-bles and found to be secure.

ALARM

Special Constables responded to

a fire alarm at the Aird Building.The cause was found to be a dropin water pressure within the sprin-kler system. PP&P were contactedto make repairs.

PROPERTY DAMAGE

Special Constables responded toBricker Residence after ResidenceLife staff reported a broken win-dow on the third floor of the resi-dence. No suspects at this time,PP&P called to make temporaryrepairs. Investigation continuing.

ALARM

Waterloo Campus Special Consta-bles responded to an alarm at theKitchener Campus. The buildingwas checked by Special Consta-bles and found to be secure.

Special Constables issued twoProvincial Offence tickets duringthis period.

GRAFFITI (HATE MOTIVATED)

Special Constables responded tothe Library for a report of graffition the third floor. The messagewas hate motivated and we areasking for the community's helpin identifying the person respon-sible. Any information regardingthis incident can be forwarded toSpecial Constable Adam Parsons.

If you have any information re-garding this or any other incidentplease call Community Safety &

Security at 519-885-333 or CrimeStrappers at 1-800-222-TIPS. Youcan also report a crime electroni-cally through the Campus Safetyand Secutity website.

News The Cord Weekly » Wednesday October 4,2006

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International

Support for Uganda RisingMovie screening only the tip of Ayiko Soloman's fundraising iceberg, as WLU student brings Uganda's crises to Waterloo

MIKE BROWNNEWS EDITOR

Last Thursday, the Princess Cin-ema presented a one-night-onlyscreening of the recent documen-tary Uganda Rising to a packedtheatre, with profits going towardsthe ambitious humanitarian proj-ect of Ayiko Solomon, a third-yearglobal studies student here atLaurier.

Solomon, 32, was born in war-torn Northern Uganda, in the daysof the terrible Idi Amin regime,which saw hundreds ofthousandsdie. Among them, Solomon losthis parents and grandmother be-fore his sixth birthday, makinghis first viewing of the moving yetgraphic film hit especially close tohome.

"I could say I've seen the moviebefore, but I've seen it in action,in the field when I was a child,"explains Solomon. "Some of thosethings happened in front of me."

Indeed, though Amin is nolonger in Uganda, the humanrights violations persist under anew harbinger of terror, JosephKony. The leader of the Lord'sResistance Army (LRA), Kony isresponsible for the abduction ofcountless children, the media re-porting numbers anywhere from20,000-30,000.

"The truth is - nobody knows,"laments Solomon. "If you talkto people, the numbers couldbe much, much higher - muchhigher - than figures that havebeen thrown here and there bythe media. There's not concretedocumentation of what's beenhappening."

But what's been happening isoutiined in devastating detail inUganda Rising. Among other poi-gnant moments, the filmmakersinterview a 17-year-old formerchild soldier, who speaks calmlyof how he was told to beat a halfdozen people to death, and thenlick the blood and brain matter

from their bludgeoned heads, ofhow he was told to take childrenand cast them indiscriminatelyinto a bush, left for dead - of howhe was taught to simply kill bru-tally, or be killed.

For Solomon, such terriblescenes conjure up vivid imagesof a tormented past. Last Thurs-day, after the film, he lay sleeplessuntil 5:00 am. The following nightwas much the same, insomniacreeping in. And yet, optimismcontinues to permeate the slen-der Solomon.

"It's a good thing," he claims."It's putting me back to the reality,my inner reality, an emotionalandpsychological reality, that maybeI'm sometimes trying to distractmyself to facing."

"They were looking at me as [...]

this incredible man that's cometo save us. I'm not a saviour. I'ma simple person, and that's how Iwant them to look at me."

- Ayiko Solomon, Laurier studentand Ugandan

But now, far from being distract-ed, Solomon's set his sights singu-larly on making a difference in thelives of the Ugandan people.

Solomon fled Uganda as ayoung child in 1979; he remem-bers walking so far before reach-ing Sudan that his feet weresoaked with blood - and that justscratches the surface of the sacri-fices people were making to evadethe country's inhuman leaders.

"Some parents had to leavetheir child under a tree becauseit was crying," he recalls. "Eitherthey leave the child or the sol-diers would come and kill manyothers."

Fortunately for Solomon, hedid escape to Sudan, spending thenext 20 years in that similarly dis-

advantaged nation and in Kenya,once his brother in Canada, MoWaiga, discovered that he was stillalive.

From Kenya, Solomon was ableto come to Canada in 1999, thanksto theWorld University Service ofCanada (WUSC). After he spent ayear in Ottawa, his brother slippedinto a coma.

"I came to be by his bedside fortwo years, until he died, and thenI took his body back to Uganda,"he says."He was somebody wholiked home. There's nothing hewould've wanted apart from hisbody to be buried back home."

The 2002 marked his first returnto Uganda, but it seems poised tobecome one of many. In August,Solomon returned again, thanks

in large part to anumber of dona-tions from variousWLU groups, mostnotably the Stu-dent's Union andArts Student Ad-vancement Plan.

With helpfrom Friends ofOrphans, a localNGO, Solomon be-gan his ambitious

projects for peace and sustainablemicro-economic development.The two are inextricably linked,he says.

"You can't talk about heal-ing and peace when somebody'sstarving - they have to combinetogether."

While recent months have seenthe LRA increasingly open topeace talks, the struggle in Ugan-da is far from over. In his mostrecent visit, Solomon saw a manknifed to death over seven centsand a misunderstanding, leavingfour orphans in his wake.

In the midst of heartache,though, Solomon sought to be apositive messenger. "That's a rolethat I want to play. At the begin-ning, they were looking at me as

someone who is knowledgeable,this incredible man that's cometo save us. I'm not a saviour. I'ma simple person, and that's how Iwant them to look at me."

Solomon, like his homeland,faces an uphill battle. He hopesto raise $30,000 before returningto Uganda after exams in Decem-ber. On top of that, he's pouredso much into the project that he'sbehind on rent and will lose thehydro in his downtown Kitchenerapartment if he hasn't paid up byFriday.

But Solomon remains obsti-nately optimistic.

"Despite my life with people in

general and how that affected myperception about people's com-mitment to love and cooperationand humanity, I find it hard to losehope on people and the ability tolove unconditionally."

Another event to raise moneyfor Uganda is set for Saturday, Oc-tober 21; the Gulu Walk is takingplace around the globe, seeking10,000 participants, each raising$100 for a $1 million total. TheWaterloo walk starts at 1 pm inWaterloo Park; more informationcan be found at www.gulwalk.com.

For information, Solomon canbe reached at soloo6oo@wlu.ca.

Contributed Photo

WALKING FOR SOMETHING OR OTHER - Students gathered worldwidefor the annual GuluWalk last year. Waterloo will be host to its ownwalk, taking place Saturday, October 21.

Terrorism justifiedby guest speakerDAVID SHORECORD INTERNATIONAL

Terrorism is wrong. The suicidebombings and killings by Pales-tinians in the Middle-East is ter-rorism and it is wrong. Very fewpeople would say otherwise, thatis, since this is the status quo. TedHonderich, moral philosopherand Grote professor Emeritus ofUniversity College London, is oneto go against this norm.

He even goes a step further thanjust saying it, he publishes it. Hislatest book, "Humanity, Terror-ism, Terrorist War: Palestine, 9/11,Iraq, 7/7..." Honderich exploresthe morality of key issues since9/11 and comes to some very con-troversial conclusions.

It was these conclusions on Pal-estine, Israel, 9/11, and the Iraq

war that were the topic ofhis lec-ture last night here at Laurier. Hisstop at WLU was part of his tour ofNorth American universities.

Although most of Honderich'sbooks are on the subject of theconsciousness and the mind, hislatest writing on the moral philos-ophy surrounding Palestine hasgarnered him the greatest amountof attention - and the greatestamount of criticism.

Much of the controversy sur-rounding him come from hisstatements that Palestinian ter-rorism is morally justified. Heelaborated on these in his lecture.

Internationally, this philoso-phy has not been well-received.Oxfam, an international NGO,refused to accept a £5,000 dona-tion from Honderich, gatheredthrough royalties. Multiple people

have tagged him an anti-Semiteand anti-Zionist.

Honderich fiercely denies theseallegations as "libel and slander...not worthy of the great traditionof Jewish compassion and excel-lence." Much of his lecture wasfocused on Israel's moral right toexist as a state under the bordersspecified in 1948. He defends this,which he calls Zionism, in con-trast to his attack of Israel's ex-pansion since 1967, which he callsneo-Zionism.

In a question period after thelecture, it was Honderich's de-fence of Zionism that sparked themost controversy with the audi-ence. One woman, particularlyaggressive to his Zionist argu-ment, he dismissed as "a partisan"and "simple." No questions orarguments were raised in regard

to his defence of a moral right toterrorism.

Before pursuing a career in phi-losophy in London, Honderichworked in KW as a reporter for TheRecord. He is the younger brotherto the late Beland Honderich, for-mer publisher of the Toronto Star.

Honderich began the talk witha ten-minutedisclaimer that whathe was about to express was solelyopinion, since definitive moralfact is subjective and thereforeimpossible.

He then went on to explain his"Principle of Humanity," which hedescribes as "getting and keepingpeople out of bad lives." He usedthis principle to come to his con-clusions about Palestine, as wellas Iraq and 9/11.

Whatever one's view's on Hon-derich's controversial morality, itis clear that immediately judgingterrorism as wrong is reactionaryand requires some more thought.

Sydney Helland

HONDERICH - "Should we neverfight?"

6 WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 4, 2006 ■ THE CORD WEEKLY

Fingerwagging hits awhole new low at UNOutrageousUN commentsthrough the years

MARY ERSKINESTAFF WRITER

1960"Were Kennedy not a million-aire, illiterate and ignorant,then he would obviously un-derstand that you cannot re-volt against the peasants."- Fidel Castro, on then-presiden-tialcandidate John F. Kennedy

1975"For there are among you -

and here I intend the UnitedStates of America and otherslike it - who supply our enemyfreely with planes and bombsand a wide variety of murderi-ous weapons."

Yasser Arafat, Palestinianleader

1987"Before consulting the hot-heads who present variousmilitary options such as amilitary invasion: remember,President Reagan, Rambo onlyexists in the movies."- Daniel Ortega, president ofNicaragua

2006"If the governments of theUnited States or the UnitedKingdom, who are perma-nent members of the SecurityCouncil, commit aggression,occupation and violation ofinternational law, which ofthe organs of the UN can takethem into account?"- MahmoudAhmadinejad, Presi-dentofIran

The dramatic comments of Ven-ezuelan president Hugo Chavezat the recent international meet-ing of the United Nations in NewYork sparked waves of discussionand controversy which were feltaround the world.

Chavez's fiery speech was inmost part towards his negativeviews of the American govern-ment. Many critics believe hestepped over the lines of diploma-cy when he referred to US Presi-dent George Bush as the devil in-carnate, stating: "The devil camehere yesterday right here. It smellsofsulfurstill today, this table that Iam now standing in front of."

He then went on to hold up acopy of Noam Chomsky's three-year-old book Hegemony or Sur-vival: America's Quest for GlobalDominance. After the speech, inwhich Chavez urged Americansto read the publication "insteadof watching Superman movies,"sales reached number one on anumber of bestseller lists for days.Today, it stillremains in the top 20bestsellers onAmazon.com.

During his speech, Chavez mis-takenly stated that Chomsky wasdead. Once corrected, he statedthat he now hopes that the left-wing writer will visit Venezu-ela. Chomsky, age 77, provided astatement to the media last weekthat he would be "happy to meet"the Venezuelan leader and thathe finds many of Chavez's views"constructive."

Chavez's particular combina-tion of timing and character il-lustrates the power of words andparticularly underlines the globalmedia attention which can bedrawn to a political actor whostrays from the norms of acceptedpolitical discourse.

However, it is also important tokeep in mind the fact that he is notthe first leader to make inflamma-tory remarks, even those directedtowards the US, on the United Na-tions stage.

During the '60s, leaders suchas Castro, Guevara, and Khrush-chev certainly made their pres-ences known on the UN stage.Further attacks on the Americanpresident have been somewhat ofa constant throughout the years.In 1987, the then-president ofNicaragua Daniel Ortega, com-mented: "Before consulting thehotheads who present variousmilitary options such as a militaryinvasion: remember, PresidentReagan, Rambo only exists in themovies."

Today, the names of Ahmadine-jad and Chavez, among others aremerely joining the list of a long listof names which have been at theforefront the political controversythroughout the years.

Contributed PhotoSMELLS OF SULPHUR - A longtime critic of the Bush administration, Chavez joined a lengthy list of worldleaders in his act of diplomatic disobedience at the United Nations General Assembly late September.

Diversity tolerance a"veneer" in CanadaARLA LATTO-HALLINTERNATIONAL EDITOR

Stephen Lewis may not havegraduated from university, buthis passion for the African con-tinent has carried him to wildsuccess as the UN special envoyfor HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Renowned for his roles in theinternational sphere, the formerCanadian ambassador to theUN spoke to a captive audienceat UW's Hagey Hall as part of itshomecoming weekend, cappingoffits Diversity Week.

"I have always felt that uni-versities were the superb placeto celebrate diversity.... And youhave an opportunity to bring in-ternational students to the uni-versity, and engage collectivelyand individually in going outto other climes ... which will ex-pose other Canadians to what'sgoing on in other parts in theworld. And make us appreciatethe intensity of diversity."

UW's WUSC group is current-ly preparing for a referendumthat will see $0.99 added to eachstudent's tuition, intended topay for one to two refugee stu-dents to attend the universityfor a fixed period of two to threeyears. Laurier's WUSC programcurrently sponsors two refugeestudents for three years each,and collects two dollars fromeach student to do so after get-ting student approval in a refer-endum. A student is expected toarrive at Laurier in January.

"You see, whenever we dealwith women, we always end upwith less."

- StephenLewis, UN Special Envoy

Although Lewis is knownmostly for his work about HIV/AIDS, his Saturday appearancehad a feminist bent, surpris-ing some of the audience whenhe noted that "recognizing thestruggle for gender equality is

the single most important cen-trepiece around the embrace ofdiversity.

"We have no major interna-tional agency to deal with 52percent of the world's popula-tion," he said, but when the UNmade gender equality on all de-cision-making bodies a centralitem on their agenda, their 15-member reform body featuredonly three women. The neworganization will be drasticallyunderfunded, with an operatingbudget of $200 million, only 10percent that of UNICEE

"You see, whenever we dealwith women, we always emergewith less. It just never managesto accept the prescription ofequality. Never. No matter whatdomain we're dealing in."

Much like the UN, Canadafailed to escape Lewis' scath-ing review of the internationalcommunity's inaction. As Lewisargues, its professions of toler-ance are misleading.

"What we have done to theaboriginal peoples of Canada,our first nations, is absolutelyunforgivable.... And that refus-al to embrace the diversity of thefirst peoples of a country sayssomething about the veneer ofmulticulturalism," rather thanthe practice of multicultural-ism." Lewis will no longer speakin front ofthe UN Human RightsCommittee because of the "in-tensely embarrassing" nature ofCanada's Achilles' heel.

"We're the only country inthe entire G8 thatrefuses to set atimetable to reach0.7 percent," ofwhich Canada isan architect.

"The govern-ment ... hasn't gotits act together.The public has its

act together ... it is less givento the subterranean feelings, Ithink, than the government. "

Lewis is expected to come toLaurier in early March, accord-ing to LSPiRG representativeswho are organizing the event.

International The Cord Weekly ■ Wednesday October 4,2006 7

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Dating tips on a budget

How to impress yourdate on a budget,without looking cheapSTEVE NILESCORD STUDENT LIFEFor students with constraints ofa small budget, romantic candle-light dinners are nearly impos-sible. Candles are too expensive,and open flames violate ourleases.

Dating at Laurier should not bereduced to Wilf's, but how is onesupposed to do to impress with-out blowing the budget? There hasto be a better way then invitingsomeone back to check out yournew posters or watching a PearlJamDVD.

Thankfully, for all you would-beCasanovas, there are alternativesthat allow you to date cheap with-out looking cheap.

The best wayto have a cheap yetclassy date is to use the resourcesalready around you. The RobertLangen art gallery on campusoften features artists from boththe school and the communitydisplaying their works. If you cantake someone here for a date, youjust scream class.

For the finishing touch, ensureyou mention that you "much pre-fer Kandinsky because of his vividuse of colour" simply because itmakes you sound smarter. Seri-ously, have you ever even heard ofKandinsky? Dropping the name ofan obscure artist is a surefire signofclass.

There may be no such thing asa free lunch, but there still can be

cheap dinners. Making a meal forsomeone is a surefire way to im-press on a first date. It's hard toburn pasta, so it's asafe and afford-able bet. But don't use spaghetti;use a much fancier sounding pas-ta like vermicelli, to continue thischarade of sophistication. Top itall off with a cheap bottle of wine,but ensure nobody sees the label.Pouring it into a decanter you gotat Value Village instead ensuresnobody will be the wiser that youonly spent $11.

After you have made a nice bigmeal, it's time to relax with someentertainment. The computer-savvy among us would be wise todownload an artsy movie such asCold Mountain because it satisfieseveryone's tastes. You look like anintellectual, but what you are re-ally excited for is the brief nudityand scenes of violence.

If downloading is not an option,you may just have to suck it upand rent it from Rogers or Gen-X and you're set. Just make suredon't look too interested duringcertain scenes or else your shamis over.

The library is an entire buildingfilled with free entertainment. Re-citing love poetry is a guaranteedway to get someone swooningthrough sonnets.

Literally hundreds of books areawaiting you, filled with romanticcrap you otherwise could care lessabout. Check out Love Poems byEmily Dickinson.

Just read it and pretend youknow what's going on. If your spe-cial someone doesn't understandthe symbolism you are layingon thick, it's their problem, notyours.

Sydney Helland

CAN I BUY YOU A DRINK - Steve Niles is the type of date you want totake home to mom and dad.

The white trash guideto a cheap date, whilelooking cheapDJ DEMERSSTAFF WRITER

When I take a lovely lady out on adate, I don't intend to spend a lotof money. In fact, spending nomoney at all is the ultimate goal,and is quite easy to do.

There are a lot of folks outthere who will tell you that youshouldn't be cheap on a date, orat the very least, you should at-tempt to hide your frugality. Idisagree with this. We're all livingon a student budget. If your datedoesn't understand this, she's notthe type of girl you want to dateanyway. She's probably lookingfor a guy with "class" who is "go-ing somewhere" and who "doesn'thave a body odour problem." Youdon't need a girl like that. Allowme to break down the perfectcheap date.

First off, how about you andthe apple of your eye go out for anice dinner? Whatever she wantsshe can have; that's just how

you roll. She gets the angel hairprimavera, you get the pennepolio. Enjoy the free garlic breadwith your meals, and don't worryabout purchasing appetizers.Have some (free) water with yourmeal, and hope she follows yourlead.

When she goes to the bath-room - and she will go to thebathroom - you execute. Ripout a couple of hairs (from yourhead) and add a new topping toher meal. When she gets back,she will be disgusted that she waseating a meal that had hair in it.At this point, you call over thewaiter. Feign outrage.

"We ordered angel hair prima-vera, not the dirty chef hair pri-mavera! What kind of an opera-tion are you running here?"

Enjoy your free meal.After this fabulous start, who's

up for a little partying? Let herdouble on the handlebars of yourbicycle (make sure you let herknow how awesome your sus-pension is, girls love that kind ofstuff) and head over to the near-est keg party.

When you arrive, there is sureto be a $10 entrance fee. Wouldyou look at that! You only have adebit card, and no cash. Perhaps

your sweetheart wouldn't mindspotting you the $10? Alright,now make sure you drink a lot ofbeer at this party. Your date paidtwenty dollars for this, and youwant to make sure she is gettingbang for her buck.

When you've had enough and/or the kegs have run dry, do whateveryone does after a great party:go home and make out. Nowshe may suggest going to grabsome late night MacDonnell's ormaybe going to Dooly's for a littlepool. Be polite, but immediatelyshut down these suggestions.Anything she wants to do at thispoint is going to cost money.Making out is free.

Once you're home, it's smoothsailing from there. The only(welcome) change of plans maycome if the making out escalatesinto fornication. In this event,just make sure that she has pur-chased prophylactics, you classyman.

You've now had the perfectdate, without spending a cent.Watch out for my article nextweek on how to guarantee youwill not have a second date witha woman. Coincidentally, it is es-sentially the same article as thisone.

Contributed PhotoYOUR CHARIOT AWAITS - It might look like fun, but avoid this type of date at all costs.

Student Life8 ■ WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 4,2006 ■ THE CORD WEEKLY

Got questions about sex?Email the Cord's new sex expert.campuskiss@cordweekly.com

A day in the life...of the Cord EICNicole Wray chats with the editor of Laurier'sstudent newspaper to discuss the joys andstresses of student journalismNICOLE WRAYCORD STUDENT LIFE

The news never sleeps, and itseems that some days of the week,neither does the editor-in-chief ofthe Cord Weekly, April Robinson.

Robinson started writing for theCord in her second year at Laurierand quickly worked her way up tonews editor.

When the position became openRobinson said, "I really wanted todo it, so I went for it and did it."

Her enthusiastic attitude to-ward journalism allowed her tokeep her news editor position inher third year at Laurier and spe-cial projects editor in her fourthyear.

After graduating from Lau-rier, Robinson "didn't know if shewanted to stick around for anoth-eryear," but decided to come backto Laurier to work full time as theeditor-in-chief.

When talking to Robinson, Ilearned that a day in the life of theeditor of the school paper relatesto a day in the life of many stu-dents atLaurier.

Robinson starts out with an ideaof what she would like to get donein the day, "but there are so many

interruptions in a day, so manythings that come up that the daycompletely changes from begin-ning to end."

Robinson fills her day withanswering emails, planning forevents, overseeing the activity ofeach section, helping out with de-sign and layout and of course "al-ways editing and reading."

Robinson tries to keep herhours from about 10:00am to 5:00pm and "usually later," during theweek except for the day beforethe release of the paper when sheworks "all day and all night, really,

really late on Tuesday."As for the bad parts of the job

Robinson said, "I'll lie in bed atnight and just think about it all,"she explained. "It's definitely closeto insanity."

She also said that "you alwayshave enemies," but this is good inthatpeople are reading and think-ing about what Laurier studentshave to say.

To keep calm Robinson tries toget out of the office for lunch, takea walk, or talk with friends or hernew husband.

Though Robinson had a difficulttime thinking about worst part ofher job, she was quick to tell me"the best part of my job is seeingthe end result and seeing peopleimprove."

SYDNEY HELLANDSTACKIN' IT UP - April Robinson in front of the WLUSP office.

Student Life The Cord Weekly ■ Wednesday october 4,2006 9

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Religious cultandcontroversyHow to tell thedifference betweena'cult' and a newreligious movement

JACKSON SHERRATTRELIGION GRAD STUDENT

The term "cult" yields consider-able rhetorical impact. Lackingboth subtly and nuance, it is asshocking and, indeed, offensiveas any other of the four-lettervariety.

In popular discourse, the termcult is often, though not exclusive-

ly, used to describe New ReligiousMovements whose spiritual inno-vations exist in tension with tradi-tional forms ofworship, especiallythose seen to challenge the centralbeliefs ofestablished religions likeJudaism or Christianity.

Indeed, the term cult func-tions more as an adjective (thanas a noun), and is used to describecontroversial movements, someof which do not even identify asreligious.

Of course, the term contro-versial, though not quite as slip-pery as the term cult, also defiessimple definition. When appliedto New Religious Movements,however, the term controversialis often a euphemism for deviant,and is used to refer to groups sus-pected of aberrant or bizarre be-haviour—behaviour that extends

well beyond heresy.The most publicized forms of

deviance associated withNew Re-ligious Movements include: coer-

Not all religious traditions thatengage in controversial acts arenew religious traditions. Evenestablishedreligions occasionallymake media headlines withstories of corruption and abuse.

cion, financial exploitation, sexu-al misconduct, violence, anythinginvolving a spaceship and occa-sionally mass murder or suicide.

As we all know, however, the"ordinary" has a lower media-

market value than the "extraor-dinary" or "scandalous." As such,groups that engage in such formsof deviance are the ones that re-

ceive the mostmedia attention(think Waco).

Major abusesare, believe it ornot, fairly rare. In-deed, the view thatall New ReligiousMovements are ofthe killer Kool-Aidvariety is falselyconstructed andis grounded in a

lack ofknowledge about religionin general, reflecting little morethan well-developed, media-in-duced, stereotypes.

Not all New Religious Move-ments are led by spiritual frauds

and charismatic sex-fiends.Likewise, not everyone who

joins a New Religious Movement,such as Scientology, has been"brainwashed" into submission.

Simply put, not all New Reli-gious Movements are "contro-versial." In fact, not all religioustraditions that engage in con-troversial acts are new religioustraditions.

Even established religions oc-casionally make media headlineswith stories of corruption andabuse.

The only difference between"cults" and New Religious Move-ments is the language used todescribe them. As such, and inthe spirit of respect and appre-ciation, it is perhaps best to avoidthe term "cult" altogether.

In fact, it is advisable to simplyrefer to such groups as they referto themselves.

letters@cordweekly.com

Time management tipsFrom steering clear ofFacebook to using yourWLU'er, learn how tobetter manage timeCHELSEA GASKOCORD STUDENT LIFE

I sat down last night with the iron-ic intentions of writing an articleabout how to manage time. After aquick nap and a bite to eat, I real-ized I had a hankering for a pint.And so I was offto Wilf's, procras-tinating my procrastination ar-ticle - I'd reached the epitome ofstudenthood.

Once I sobered up, I got tothinking about what we studentsare up against. Living in a weebubble saturated with friends,booze and technology, it's nowonder schoolwork often takesthe ol' back burner.

So I've formulated a very sci-entific list of what to do and whatnot to do when midterm seasonsneaks up and bites you in thebutt once again:

- Sign off MSN - people simplydon't update their display pics as

often as you check them.

- Don't watch an eight hour mara-thon of Dog: The Bounty Hunterwhy not try limiting TV intake toappointment viewing, i.e. Grey'sAnatomy or Date My Mom.

- Use an agenda - ifyou write yourlife down, it will stop getting somessed up in your head.

- Don't even think about openingFacebook. Just don't do it.

- Study in the shower- why not...you drink in there, don't you?

- Know Thyself - if you know youcan study all day Saturday afterowning the pole at Phil's Friday,do it.

If you find yourself unable toget over the paradox of takingtime management advice fromthe queen of the all-nighter, goodjudgment call. I am credible onlyto the extent that I've been herethree years and have yet to flunkout.

Here are some tips from Coun-seling Services on how to effec-tively manage your time (it's theirjob, so these must be good):

- Break down large tasks intosmaller and less-daunting bits. Bysetting reasonable goals you won'tend up suicidal when you realizeyou can't physically write 12 pagesin 27 minutes.

- Study in a quiet place withoutdistractions. I'm guessing this re-fers to gettingreally serious aboutsome library time (we're talkingsixth floorserious).

- Know when you work best. Ithink I'm really smart at 4:00 am.Some of you may be morningpeople. Experiment.

- Reward yourself when you ac-complish a goal. Heck, go aheadand give yourself a reward rightnow for sticking to it and finishingthis article.

Student Life10 ■ WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 4,2006 ■ THE CORD WEEKLY

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WLU fees we love to hateWith over six mysterious fees on Laurier tuition bills, students often don'tknow what they're paying for when it's time to pony up the dough

LYNSAY WELLHAUSERCORD STUDENT LIFE

Whether you're in first year orfourth, there is a general confu-sion around campus as to wherestudent money is going.

"I don't know what half of thesupplementary fees are for," saysfirst year student Emily Kuepfer. "Ijust blindly paid up."

The names of some fees givehints as to their purpose; othersgive no hints at all. Students caninfer that the Student PublicationsFee affords you the newspaperyou are currently reading. Howev-er, the Enhancement of Life Levyis harder to figure out. So where isyour money going?

COMPREHENSIVE STUDENTSERVICES FEE

At $140, the Comprehensive Stu-dent Services Fee is the largeststudents will have to pay. "It cov-ers things like the chaplain's office,counseling services, health ser-vices, and accessible learning, justas a few examples," explains AllanCayenne, president ofWLUSU.

The list of services the fee pro-vides, available from the Laurierwebsite, is extensive. The StudentServices Fee funds everythingfrom Student Health and Devel-opment to the Student NutritionAction Committee. It also paysfor some of the campus facilities,such as the Athletic Complex.

For the most part, your fee paysfor these services, but, Cayennecontinues, "Areas do generateadditional funds for themselves,like athletics through intramuralprograms."

For more information, contactDan Dawson, General Manager ofStudent Services.

WLUSU FUNDING

The Administration Council Fee,the Enhancement of Life Levy,and the Student Union BuildingFee are all collected to support theStudents' Union.

"Any money we generate goesback into services ... such as FootPatrol, ERT, Legal Resources, PeerHelpline, Tutorial Services, FoodBank, BACCHUS, and LSFL," ex-plains Cayenne. "[The StudentLife Levy] is a fee that we collectthat we actually donate back tothe university . . . Examples ofwhat that money goes towards arethings like the Alumni Field."

Many of the events put on bythe university are paid for byWLUSU as well. "A lot of studentsdon't realize that certain eventsand campaigns are put on by theStudents' Union, so they may takesomething as being aLaurier Uni-versity campaign when really it'stheir own money being put to-wards those activities," says Moss-ab Basir, VP ofFinance at WLUSU.

The Bus Pass is also underWLU-SU jurisdiction.

Due to GRT security purposes,you cannot opt out of the fee, andpart-time students cannot opt in.Cayenne reveals that "[WLUSU]was getting a lot of complaintsfrom part-time students, so wemade a deal to opt-out all part-time students .... We're nowworking on opt-in clauses forpart-time students, but it's diffi-cult and tricky to work out."

Using your OneCard as a buspass is cheaper than using a regu-lar pass.

Normal rates for a bus pass are$148 for three months, comparedto the $40.89 students pay for theterm.

WLUSU is writing up a reporttelling students where WLUSUfunding is going. Basir explainsthat "[the information] is alwaysavailable to them, even if theyjust want to drop by the office andask questions .... The decision toput it online or even make a pub-lication of it is just more forwardthinking .... Some of the onlinecontent should be up mid to lateOctober."

HEALTH AND DENTAL PLAN

The Health and Dental Plan feesare two of the larger fees studentspay. However, you can save moneyby remaining opted in to the plans,as Charlene LaCelle explains.

"Take travel insurance, for ex-ample. If a student decides tostudy abroad, we can extend theircoverage for their entire durationabroad at no additional fee . . . itsaves students $300 to $400 ininsurance."

LaCelle recommends studentsnot opt out. Once a student hasopted out of the plan, they cannot

opt back in until next school year."I get a lot of students who opt

out who want back in halfwaythrough the year, because theyrealize 'oh hey, I need this, but myplan will only cover that'."

If a student already has a healthinsurance plan, they can com-bine it and the Laurier plan andbenefit from both. "Most studentsdon't realize that you can coordi-nate benefits using more than oneplan... I tell parents that if they'repaying more than $104 a year forcoverage, and we offer things thatmay not be covered on their plan,then do not opt out. Financially,it's beneficial."

For more information, theHealth and Dental Plan office islocated on the third floor of the

campus centre.

ARTS STUDENT ADVANCEMENTPROGRAM FEE

The Arts Student AdvancementProgram Fee is charged only to

students enrolled with the FacultyofArts, and students can opt out.

According to the Laurier website,this $3 per half credit fee goes to-wards things such as conferences,speakers, clubs, and performanc-es within the Faculty of Arts.

Established last year, the web-site explains, "This program . .

.

is mandated to improve the edu-cational experiences and oppor-tunities for undergraduate artsstudents, which are not normallyfunded through the university'sbudget."

For example, the ASAP fee paysfor conferences for the World Af-fairs Society. Also funded by theASAP fee was last year's produc-tion of Urinetown, put on by the.Laurier Musical Theatre.

More information is availablethrough the Laurier website.

PRISM - SBE CONTRIBUTION

Another faculty specific fee is thePRISM - SBE contribution, onlycharged to students enrolled inBusiness and Economics. AaronGoldrup, president of PRISM atLaurier, explains that it "offersvarious services, which includeaccess to PRISM computer labs,training programs, and the abilityto rent out technology."

"Our computer labs servicemembers with technology that isupdated at a faster pace than therest of the campus .... Along withCPUs, PRISM members have ac-cess to cheaper printing."

SBE students can also take ad-vantage of equipment rental, con-sisting of "laptops, video cameras,digital cameras and the like."

"Many members who cannotafford this type of technology, orsimply don't wish to purchase itoutright, benefit by being PRISMmembers and having exclusiveaccess to such technology."

To take advantage ofPRISM ser-vices student can go to the HeldDesk in P1029.

GREEN FEE

The Green Fee is the smallest ofthe supplementary fees that stu-dents have to pay at only 50 centsper semester.

"It essentially was started tohelp with recycling on campus...It goes into a reserve fund whichcan be accessed for greening proj-ects... as well as it contributes tothe funding for the Environmen-tal Awareness Committee (Eco-hawks)," explains ID Muir, VPof university affairs in WLUSU."All EAC funding comes from theGreen Fee."

"University recycling has to becontracted out because, tradition-ally, the amount of recycling that auniversity produces is almost theequivalent of a small town... [Thefee] was brought in to help miti-gate the amount of waste we areputting out."

One of the Ecohawks' current

projects is a revamp of the re-cycling system around campus.Kaydee Hartman, an executivewith the Ecohawks, says that they"really want to improve the re-cycling that goes on within theschool, just to make it really clearwhat containers go in what recy-cling bins, and make them moreaccessible."

Hartman explains that it is "topromote recycling and make ev-eryone aware there are other op-tions than throwing things out."

PUBLIC INTEREST RESEARCHGROUP

Environmental awareness alsofalls to the Laurier Students'Public Interest Research Group(LSPiRG).

Started in 2001, its aim is to cre-ate a more socially and environ-mentally aware campus. Accord-ing to their website, LSPiRG is "thehub for Laurier's student activismnetwork" and aims to "provide op-portunities for students to gain

experience in research, projectmanagement and brain-storm-ing in a group dynamic." LSPiRG,funds things such as the upcomingBuy Nothing Day which includesguest speakers and informationbooths. LSPiRG also supports oth-er student initiatives, like LaurierStudents for the Ethical Treatmentof Animals, and helped to coordi-nate Laurier for Peace.

"We hope to soon establishourselves as a full PIRG whichwill allow us to help provide moreresources and assistance to stu-dents," the website explains.

Student Life The CordWeekly ■ Wednesday october 4,2006 11

12 • WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 4, 2006 • THE CORD WEEKlY

Mallory O'Brien

FEATU

Guitar 101

Any self-respecting student with even a scrape of Therefore you should learn how to play guitar. V

ALEX HAYTER FEATURES EDITOR

Where should a complete novice start?

The one thing I find myself repeating a lot is to just play guitar every day. If you don't have a lot of money, go ahead, just take one lesson and don't take them every week. Or don't take lessons every week, if you're not going to prac­tice every day; it's a waste of money; don't do it. But if you play every day, no matter who you are, you're going to get better; no one's going to stop you. No one can stop you if you play every day, and make it a way of your life. Music will show on you. You get out of it what you put into it.

A lot of people who want to play guitar just want to be hand-fed every­thing. But a lot about playing guitar is

about being hungry, and wanting to feed yourself.

Get some songs, ones that you really like, and learn how to play them. Once you get

sick of them, you'll find that you're better at them.

You get sick of them a little more, to the point that you're going to

puke, then

you're even better. Spend at to six days a week of f"U'-LR,,~ three days a week, urull-a.u-•.•u•

Should I take sons? How long fore I should s

You never stop learning. you think that you do have out, you're screwed. I'm always learning, always new stuff.

[When I teach] I like to so that you won't need any sons; so that you have c;u,,u~-'IJ

for yourself. I've worked w teachers who try to put a of your face; they don't ever lose you as a student; maybe they're scared that you'll than them. I try not to hold back; if they want to play a totally lightyears beyond at least get them started. I you can't quite do this thing need to work on those things will get you there. And can get there.

What's the best guitar music to start with?

I try to feed students the Zepplin, Pink Floyd and

a big Phish-head too. I by getting

FEATURE

1~01 • •

f 0

THE CORD WEEKLY • WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 4, 2006 • 13

eco e mm

lith even a ·scrape of cool credibility can play guitar. If you can't play, that means that you aren't cool. 1w to play guitar. Veteran guitarist Joel Morelli gives his best advice to The Cord for the benefit of your musical education

you're even better. Spend at least four to six days a week of practicing. With three days a week, half-an-hour a day, you won't rust; but you won't improve.

Should I take les­sons? How long be­fore I should stop?

You never stop learning. Ever. And if you think that you do have it figured out, you're screwed. I'm constantly always learning, always searching for new stuff.

[When I teach] I like to teach enough so that you won't need any more les­sons; so that you have enough to learn for yourself. I've worked w ith a lot of teachers who try to put a carrot in front of your face; they don't ever want to lose you as a student; maybe because they're scared that you'll get better than them. I try not to hold anybody back; if they want to play a song that is totally lightyears beyond them, I like to at least get them started. I like to say; you can't quite do this thing yet; we need to work on those things and that will get you there. And eventually they can get there.

What's the best guitar music to start with?

I try to feed students the Beatles, Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd and Hendrix. I'm

a big Phish-head too. I say start by getting a basic

chord sheet and a simple song that (hopefully) you'll like. Because if you don't like it, you won't feel comfort­able practicing it or playing in front of a campfire. Some people hate ''Yel­low Submarine," so they shouldn't play it. But they should play something like "Yellow Submarine;" a song with three chords or so. Own those chords. Memorize them. Sooner or later you're playing a song that you hopefully like. Just focus on a handful of chords, so it's not an information overload. Learn­ing should be straightforward. It's not rocket science.

Find something that you like, like a Neil Young song or a Bob Dylan song; even if it's, I don't know, "Hey Ya'' or "Smelly Cat". "Smelly Cat" I've taught to kids and it's turned them around from not practicing to practicing a lot. Once they know the song, they've memorized three chords. And with those chords, we can learn another song.

How about Stairway to Heaven?

Stairway I love, but it's too much of a good thing. It's not a good first song, I've found. It's harder. You have to tell them; 'This is not beginner, it is inter­mediate. You are a beginner, and there are certain steps to get there'. Teaching songs is a fine line; you have to find a balance. But I try to get them hooked on whatever they want to play, just so they go home and practice

it. One thing th_at people who want to play guitar have to realize it that you have to really work at it, and you'll eventually have to practice playing stuff that you might not really like.

How do I make switching chords easier?

Use shortcuts. There are certain chords that seem to fall better together. For example, let's call 'C' and 'A minor' cousins. To get from 'C' to 'A minor', a lot of people just take everything off and rebuild the new chord. But really you've got a short -cut; all you have to do is move your third finger. We can keep those other two [fingers] glued. When teaching songs, I always .make students freeze a chord and show them a shortcut to the next one.

How long before I'm good?

In reply to that, I ask 'how long did you practice?' My buddy Pete, who is an amazing guitarist... lived at friend's house out in BC and played for about nine hours a day, for about eight months.

And so that's when he grew the most. I grew the most by playing acoustic for about five hours a day for a year. I defi­nitely could tell the difference. But it's hard to do that; keeping up food and rent [laughs]. But that's what happens

when you practice a lot; you get good.

Don't make it a phase. Make it a real commitment. Say 'I'm going to do this every day'. Not necessarily I'm going to do this for five hours every day, which is kind of unhealthy, but do half an hour, have a ten minute break, half an our; ten minute break. The more little breaks you take, the

more time you're giving your brain to absorb everything.

If you stop playing you get rusty. You have to always

keep doing it.

What's the best first guitar? Is acoustic better than

electric to begin?

Acoustic versus electric? There's always

been that argument. In the long run, it doesn't really matter. In the short run, you're going to develop stronger mus­cles playing acoustic. And you're going to have a rude awakening if you start electric then you go to an acoustic. But you can develop sensitivity by starting on an electric. I personally think it's nicer to start on an acoustic.

Is tablature better than musical notation?

The advantage of tab is that anyone can read it. The disadvantage is that it does not notate time very well.

To show how short or long a note is, tab often tries to use spacing; so it'll show a '2' and leave a big space to show a long note. Then it will be '2 2 2'; so those are quick. Tabs are only useful if you have audio to reference it. Defi­nitely take advantage of the internet.

As far as chords go, I like rukind.com. That's got Bob Dylan, Grateful Dead, Frank Zappa, Beatles, Neil Young; and it's all chords lined up with the syl­lables of the words.

For tabs, I go to mxtabs.com because they actually rate their tabs; like two stars or five stars. Advantage of tabs is that you get to learn riffs. Music [musi­cal notation] is the universal language; it will never die. With it, it's hard to show different positions on the guitar. Is it a 'D' note here [plays low D] or up here [plays high D]?

Do I have to learn scales?

I teach [students] whatever they want to learn. Some students don't want scales, they just want chords and songs.

For someone who doesn't know anything about scales, I tell them that they know a scale already: 'doh ray mee lah so fah tee doh'. Really, if you break down certain parts of scales; you get chords. So it all ties together anyway.

My fingers hurt! Can I stop now?

If your muscles hurt, take a break. You can do permanent damage.

If your tendons and your muscles in your hands hurt, take a rest; yet again, lots of rests are good. If your finger­tips hurt; tough it out, don't be a baby! If you do it every day, it's not going to hurt.

If you play every day of your life, mu­sic will be good to you. It won't be good

to you if you don't. If you flake out for a couple days then come back to playing and you say'Ouch, my fingers are going to bleed', well, you did it to yourself.

Stevie Ray Vaughn used to bend [the strings] so hard that he'd separate the nails from his fingers. He would super glue them back to his fingers and his quote was: 'Aw, after five minutes play­ing, you don't feel it any more'. Hard­core! And he's right; after a little while, you get desensitized to it, and you don't feel it any more.

Cut your nails, keep them short. Most of the time, you want to keep everything round to leave as much room in chords as you can.

How do 'I improve my strumming?

Practice strumming by putting rests into your strumming.

You get different rhythms by messing . / With the rests, rather than by strum-ming differently.

How should I hold a pick? Should I always use one?

Just make sure it's comfortable. What I like to do is to put it between my thumb and forefinger, and if there's lettering on the pick, I cover it up. A lot of guys do it differently. Mostly people want to know if they should use a pick or just their fingers. I do finger-strumming all of the time; whenever I play acoustic.

Is guitar easy?

Compared to something like piano, yeah; I think so. But some people don't [think so]. It depends on what you're used to.

Some people find piano easier; I don't. With piano you're doing two things at once; you've doing bass clef right hand, treble clefleft hand.

People who play the piano before guitar tend to pick up the guitar much more quickly than someone who plays a guitar as their first instrument.

Playing guitar is easy to learn; diffi­cult to master. The bass guitar is even more so.

Joel Morelli is a 26-year- old guitar in­structor at Waterloos Long & Mcquade on King St, and has been playing guitar for over 13years. Outside of teaching, he has been producing personal material over the past year and also plays with acoustic trio Hungry Life. He teaches ages ?to 70.

.:-.

NHL Preview

ATTACK OF THE SHARKSThe Cord's hockey panel predicts,

among other things, thatSan Jose will ride the back of captain

Joe Thornton to a Stanley Cupchampionship

Simon Gagne, Philadelphia Flyers"(Contributed Photo)

PANEL: DAN POLISCHUK, JOE TURCOTTE, MARK ADAMSON, JAMIE NEUGEBAUER

Joe Thornton, San Jose Sharks (Contributed Photo)The Budsare dudsthis yearMARK D. HOPKINSCORD SPORTS

While John Ferguson Jr. evi-dently bolstered his blue-lineduring the off-season, the lackofdepth up front and questionmarks between the pipes yielda dim picture for the MapleLeafs.

Adding Pavel Kubina to PaulMaurice's defensive arsenalto complement the powerfulBryan McCabe and smoothTomas Kaberle should help.

Addition by subtraction wasachieved by losing Aki Bergto the Finish Elite League.Use that term "elite" loosely,please.

However, Ferguson pro-ceeded to find a slightly im-proved North American ver-sion of Berg with Hal Gill, for-merly of the Bruins.

The Leafs belligerent back-stopper of the blue paint(maybe Joe Bowen is betterwith the alliteration) will bethird-year NHLer AndrewRaycroft. After commencinghis career with a Calder trophyseason, Raycroft had a dismalseason in 2005-2006 that lefthim third on the Bruins' depthchart by years end. Only timewill tell who the "real" Raycroftis.

Perhaps the most promi-nent issue with Toronto is theannual pre-season question:who is going to play with cap-tain Mats Sundin?

Don't get me wrong. DarcyTucker, Alexei Ponikarovsky,and Jeff O'Neill are solid NHLforwards. However, they be-long on the second and thirdlines of a quality NHL roster.

And it is until these coreissues are addressed thatthe Leafs will continue tostir around in the world ofmediocrity.

NHL turns 'blind eye' to visors

MARK ADAMSONCORD SPORTS

The NHL made many rule chang-es last season after returning froma lengthy lockout. The rule chang-es made for a more entertainingbrand of hockey one that electri-fied crowds and reminded fanshow exciting the game can be.

One can only hope that theleague institutes at least one morerule change: to ensure that everyone of their players is fitted with avisor.

Ever since I watched former To-ronto Maple Leaf Bryan Berard lieon the ice in a pool ofblood, aftertaking a stick to his unprotectedeye in 2000, I've marvelled at howthe NHL has failed to make play-ers protect their eyes with visors.

The NHL is a league of slowlearners. The inability of the NHLto protect their biggest asset -

the players - stems from the factthat hockey has been slow to ac-cept change in the nature of theirgame.

So-called "hockey purists" criti-cize players for donning the visorsto protect themselves.

Players who wear visors areconsidered cowardly by some,while believed to be lacking intoughness by others.

It was this same bone-headedattitude that resulted in the criti-cism of lacques Plante, who wasbranded a coward when he firstwore a goalie mask in 1959. It wasthis same thinking thatresulted inoutrage when helmets were mademandatory for new players in1979.

True, visors aren't perfect (justask Saku Koivu and his detachedretina from last season's playoffs)but to say that they aren't effectiveat preventing eye injuries is akinto saying that seatbelts don't savelives.

The biggest reason for players towear these visors is to keep them

on the ice where the fans can seethem play.

I don't want to see legends likeSteve Yzerman lose precious timeon the ice, as he did after taking apuck to the eye which caused himto miss the end of the 2004 play-offs. I don't want to see Mats Sun-din miss ten games after taking apuck to his eye, and potentiallycost his team a playoff spot, as hedid last season.

Players have grown up play-ing with full cage masks on theirfaces.

They've had to play juniorhockey while wearing the visors.There's no acceptable reason whythey should be able to cast themaside when they reach the pros.

This season, the AmericanHockey League has taken the nextstep in protecting its players bymaking visors mandatory for allplayers. Hopefully the NHL seesthe light on the visor issue andfollows suit to protect their play-ers before any other careers arecut short.

Is the Cupcominghome?JAMIE NEUGEBAUERCORD SPORTS

With the puck drop imminent,the Cord ranks the chances ofStanley Cup glory for teamsnorth of the border.

Calgary Flames: The Flameshave a new coach, a new moreoffensive philosophy and thetroops to carry out said offen-sive philosophy. Add to that aworld-class goalie and a rocksolid defense the Flames willbe definitely be contenders forthe Cup.

Ottawa Senators: The ques-tion mark of Martin Gerber willbe the factor either for Senatorsuccess or failure. Regardless,the Sens will score in bunches.

Montreal Canadiens: Ahealthy and contributing SakuKoivu will be a key factor inthe success or failure of theHabs. One of their two goalieswill have to step up in order to

compete come playoff time.Edmonton Oilers: Missing

from MacTavish's boys this yearare the likes of Peca, Pronger,Samsanov, and Spacek; majorpieces of last year's magnifi-cent puzzle that were lost tooff-season transactions. Don'tlook for oil come the playoffs.

Vancouver Canucks: Theboys from the far west haveworld class goaltending, butnot much else. The loss of de-fenceman Ed Jovanovski andsniper Anson Carter leaves theteam with major holes to fill.

Toronto Maple Leafs: Ray-croft will have to return to hisrookie-season form for PaulMaurice's gang to be a fac-tor. Offensive question marksleaves the Leafs hopes of play-off hockey very unlikely.

14WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 4, 2006 ■ THE CORD WEEKLY

the third, UWrunning back RyanFelhaber went off on a 40-yarddash to within 11 yards of scor-ing. Quarterback Jon Morbey fin-ished the job though with a tossto receiver Sean Cowie at the nearcorner of the endzone.

TheWarriors would, to the sur-prise of the Laurier faithful, takethe lead as the last few secondsticked away in the quarter. Com-ing as a result of another fumbleby Lynch, UW's Morbey was ableto hit Cowie for a TD on a playidentical to the one capping thelast scoring drive.

Not until the Hawks put a handin their little bag of tricks werethey able to take charge again- for good.

A pass-interference call on theWarriors on an attempted flea-flicker sent the Hawks within

striking range. From 20 yards out,Partington hooked up with WillNorthcote to go ahead 21-16.

A 25-yard field goal by ChrisMamo would prove to be essen-tial to victory, however, as UWmade a valiant last-ditch effortwith a field goal and forcing aconceded safety.

As it has been all season though,it was the Hawks' defence thatlocked things up in the end, withYannick Carter getting his secondinterception of the game withtime all but up in the fourth.

While Laurier walked awaywith the win, it was a game theywould rather forget, according tothe Hawk linebacker.

"We didn't, really, put up toomuch of an effort. It wasn't great,"said Carter.

Asked if the turnovers, whichtotaled seven (six fumbles, oneinterception) when all was saidand done, was due to the weatheror more of a problem that need-ed fixing, Carter was fair in hisassessment.

"It's something to work on fornext week. We can't blame any-body. They had to play in thesame weather that we did - they

didn't turn over the ball thatmany times," he commented,adding, "We gave them back-to-back touchdowns; they got themomentum.

"They came here to play andwe didn't."

Andy Baechler, the only offen-sive player it seemed that didn'tturn over the ball, echoed thosethoughts.

"The weather today definitelyfavoured them in that they are arunning team; they like to controlthe ball as opposed to our thing- we're more spread offence. Sothat favoured them.

"At the same time, we can'tuse that as an excuse. We're bothplaying in the same weather.Partially their defence, partiallyourselves. We know that," com-mented Baechler.

Baechler was also quick to ac-knowledge the Warriors for sti-fling Laurier's plans of getting offto a quick start offensively in thegame and taking full control.

"They were able to hangaround, but, obviously, the big-gest thing is the turnovers wehad. You have to credit Waterloowith playing tough and forcing

those turnovers," he said.It is because of this surprising

effort that Carter expects UW tobe a force to be reckoned with inthe future.

"They're an up-and-comingteam. You saw them play Queen'slast weekend and they pulled outthe win. We knew that if we didn'tcome out here and play our bestsomething like this was going tohappen, or even worse, we weregoing to get the loss," said Carter.

"They're a great football team,they've got great athletes andwe've got to play a lot betteragainst them."

All accolades aside, however,could not soften the sting of de-feat of Warriors receiver SeanCowie.

"We came out hard. I don'tthink very many people aroundthe league, or anywhere, expectedus to be in the game. We were veryconfident thatwe had a chance towin the game," said Cowie, whoaccumulated 157 yards receivingon 10 catches - including the twotouchdowns.

"It's a nice feeling [comingclose to winning], but at thesame timeit's very disappointing.

We could've won that game," headded.

As Laurier enters one of itsmost important game of the year,versus McMaster this weekend,Baechler figures the team will re-bound quickly.

"It's a wake up call in terms ofwe realize the importance of tak-ing care of the ball from an offen-sive standpoint. There's no doubtabout that; lesson learned.

"In terms of going into McMas-ter, I think anytime you have agame on that big of a stage a lotof the timeyou don't need a lot ofmomentum going in.

"By next Saturday attwo o'clockall the guys are going to be readyto go-"

Shane PorterOUT OF REACH - Laurier safety Josh Maltin tries to get a hand on Waterloo's Shawn Cowie Saturday

Sports

Two-year streak is overLacrosse team finally sees a notch put in the "loss column" as perfect record erased by TorontoSTEVE NILESCORD SPORTS

The Laurier Women's Lacrosseteam suffered a painful loss at thehands of the University ofTorontoBlues Sunday afternoon by a finalscore of 14-13.

In front of an energetic contin-gent at University Stadium, thewomen suffered their first loss intwo perfect seasons after wagingan impressive comeback in the fi-

nal minutes that came up short.Laurier trailed for most of the

game until quick goals in the finalminutes tied it up. However it was

not enough as Toronto scored thewinning goal in the final secondsto secure the victory.

The loss dropped theirrecord to4-1, which is still good enough forfirst in their division.

Leading the way for the GoldenHawks wereKirsten Gerrie and Er-ica Howard with four goals apiece,and Amy Fincham tallying two.

"We played a little down to-day," said Howard. "Sometimeswe didn't communicate and we'dleave our own girl open. We cando better than that."

While the loss is a setback forthe team, the three-time defend-

ing OUA champions will take it asa learning experience.

"We needed a game like this toallow us to step up our game abit," added Howard, the fourth-year captain out ofKitchener.

The team was expecting to playgames on the new athletic fieldon campus, and some players aredisappointed they are not gettingthe exposure.

"It's disappointing. It's closerto the fans, they spent so muchmoney, and only two teams canplay on it," said Gerrie, referringto the million-dollar replacementforWillison field.

Coach Lynn Orth feels that Uni-versity Stadium is a good venue,but she shares some of her play-ers' sentiments regarding not be-ing in a more lucrative location.

"We don't mind playing here,but it would be nice if we couldhold junior tournaments on thenew field," said the coach. "We'relimited in what we can do in re-gards to exposure."

The Hawks will now go on theroad for their next four games.They will finishup at home againsthighly touted Queen's and McGill,with the playoffs following soonafter.

The Cord Weekly ■ Wednesday October 4,2006 ■ 15

'Theycame here to play*- FROM BATTLE, COVER

GOLDEN HAWKUPDAT

Week of■ .

9.30.06M Football 24 - Waterloo 21

M Soccer 0 - Windsor 1W Soccer 0 - Windsor 3W Rugby 0 - Guelph 35M Rugby 26 - Trent 5

10.01.06W Lacrosse 16 - McMaster 4

M Baseball 6 - Guelph 4M Soccer 0 - Western 4W Soccer 0 - Western 4

W Lacrosse 13 - Toronto 14M Baseball 7 - Alumni 8

10.02.06M Baseball 1 - Waterloo 0

'

UPCOMING HOME GAMES10.04.06

W Hockey vs Stoney CreekWaterloo Rec Complex, 7:oopm

M Baseball vs WaterlooBcchtel Park, 7:3opm

70.06.06W Rugby vs Brock

Fisher Hallman Field, 3:oopm

10.0/ .06M Baseball vs BrockBechtet Park, 10:30am

M Baseball vs McMasterBechtel Park, 1:00pm & 3:oopm

LA DRIER BOOKSTOREATHLETES OF.THE.WEEK

Brad BinnsMen's BaseballWhitney Rich

Swimming

w.laurierathletics.a

A&E

Laughing at our absurdityBy pushing the boundaries of political correctness Yuk Yuk's comedians provide a night of laughter and social commentaryPAUL ALVIZSTAFF WRITER

Thanks to the comedic talents ofYuk Yuk's Eddie Delia Siepe andKyle Radke, last Wednesday nightwas an evening full of laughs.

The night was put togetherthrough a joint effort by WLUSU'sA-team and Wilf's, and was thefirst of a series of events that willbe staged on the last Wednesdayof every month.

The stage was set and the floorwas packed with filled chairs asEddie Siepe began warming upthe crowd by a method preferredby many comics, tearing into thecrowd.

"You're taking Geography?Lookat him everybody, he's going tobe a waiter," Siepe said as he be-gan prodding the audience for areaction.

For their part the students inattendance enjoyed the soft ridi-cule, whichranged from their par-ents' occupations to their racialbackground, a subject which canvery easily turn into a touchy one.

However, on this night the stu-dents were feeling all right withbeing called things like, "Asianman" or "young and white, withall the possibilities in the world."

It's a unique opportunity thatonly comics come across, theability to let everyone leave theirhang-ups at the door and have alaugh at our "politically correct"world.

Siepe comments on studentcrowds saying, "It's odd becauseif I do a show at Yuk Yuk's, I findthat they go in with the notionthat they're going to maybe hear

something offensive"."Here, I find that because kids areright in the midst of their educa-tion, I find that they get offendedreally quickly. You're very awareof racial segregation, and youfigure out the outlines of how so-ciety works... then I get up therewith something like 'hey...what'sup with this guy? He's from thePhilippines!'"

Siepe's comedy focuses on thewitty, often cynical everyday lifeobservations that we all experi-ence on dates, in school and atwork. A large part of the routineinvolves crowd interaction, whichis especially important duringuniversity shows for developing afriend status.

"If they trust you, then you cango to the dirty side . . . becausesome of them are thinking, 'may-be the walls are bugged and mypoli-sci teacher is going to findout'," Siepe commented.

With the pouring of pitchersand dozens of other places stu-dents could be, interaction is alsoimportant for keeping them in-terested. When asked if he foundstudents had a shorter attentionspan than regular audiences,Siepe simply replied, "They do,sometimes I have to shake 'em,like a British nanny."

Kyle Redke also stepped overthe lines of the traditionallytouchy subjects that are hardlymentioned between the best offriends, let alone a room full ofpeople. Redke's act has a strongemphasis on everything betweenthe waist and the knees, as heexplores subjects such as pros-tate exams, "swass" (sweaty ass),

and something many of the stu-dents heard of for the first timethat night: oral sex. talkingabout his doctor, Redke offeredthe crowd some practical insight,"Every six months he wants to ex-amine my testicles, which seemsexcessive to me, and I'm like well

can I self examine? 'Cause I'mdown there all the time anyways,"quipped Redke.

By focussing upon the tawdryaspects of life, while constant-ly pushing the lines of what isdeemed as appropriate discourse,Siepe and Redke create stand-up

routines that allow the audienceto let go over their inhibitionsand laugh at the things that soci-ety generally tends not to discuss.And in an institute ofhigher learn-ing, an opportunity to call intoquestion the sensibilities of main-stream society is always welcome.

Paul Alviz

SHOCK AND AWE - Kyle Redke performs at Wilt's and allows the crowd to let go and be politically incorrect.

Landscape portraits reveal urban plightArtist depicts The Spaces Between everyday lifeTONY FERGUSONNEWS EDITOR

When was the last time you werein an empty parking lot at night?Did you feel like you might havebeen there before? Most of us deal

with these urban spaces at leastonce in our daily routines, wheth-er we are driving to work or run-ning errands.

Peter Harris, who has a new col-lection on display at the RobertLangdon gallery, feels that people

fail to appreciate these places.Harris not only notices the urbanlandscape, he paints it.

His latest collection, The SpacesBetween, features roadways, gasbars and empty parking lots.

"Most people don't notice thesethings," says Harris, "but focus-ing my attention on them [makes]people get a fresh look on their

surroundings."These landscape paintings,

compiled over the last four years,mostly feature empty parking lotsand highways, a subject at whichHarris arrived after painting moretraditional Canadian wildernesslandscapes. After finding that hecan relate more to urban spacesmore than he can to wilderness,Harris decided to start paintingthis new style of landscape, whichhe says is becoming "the newlandscape of Canada."

Harris points out that the fea-tures of the Canadian urban land-scape are just as significant as thenatural landscapes painted byCanadian artists like the Group ofSeven.

Whereas before more peopleassociated with nature, today, asmore people live in urban centres,more are associating with urbanlandscapes.

There is a sense of familiaritythat comes with urban landscapessuch as parking lots and roadways,according to Harris, who explainsthat they are designed in some of-fice building and "dropped" intolocations all over the country.

Since the designs don't vary

much, there is a lot of repetitionwhich explains the feelings of dejavu that are conjured up in someof the people who look at hispaintings.

For Harris, it's not just the land-scape itself, but how the constant-ly changing environment aroundthat landscape can alter it.

"If you capture it in the rightkind of light, they take on a differ-ent sense of atmosphere," he says,pointing to one of his paintings ofa Wal-Mart parking lot after dark."Usually it's pretty ugly. At nightit's pretty interesting."

There have been some whothink the paintings are unappeal-ing altogether. Some people havelooked at Harris' work with shock,unable to figure out why anyonewould want to paint asphalt andconcrete.

"I think people deal with thesescenes everyday whether they en-joy it or not," says Harris, "in theend if people spend some timewith the work, I think they can re-late to it in some way — positivelyor negatively."

The Spaces Between will be ondisplay in the Robert Langdongallery until October 14.

Contributed Photo

ALONE AT NIGHT - Peter Harris' exhibit at the Robert Langdon Gallery examines the isolation of urban life.

16WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 4, 2006 ■ THE CORD WEEKLY

Old-schoolrock 'n' rollAlways looking for a good time, Kitchener-Waterloo's own Saigon Hookers aim to break outNICK BOYDCORD A&E

It's a regular Monday night atWilf's and the boys from Kitchen-er-Waterloo's own Saigon Hook-ers are doing what they do best...pounding back pitchers of brew,taking shots of Jager and playing afew tunes along the way.

The group is the true definitionofwhat a rock 'n' roll band shouldbe: a group of buddies that livelife day-by-day, rocking out witha drink in hand while having awicked good time doing it.

The power trio known as theSaigon Hookers consists of theaxe slinging Tommy Smokes onlead vocals and guitar, the slickand stylish Carmine A. Romanohammering out bass lines whilethe wild-man Feeney pounds the"skins."

This sleazy rock 'n' roll creationall came about after Smokes foundhis two raunchy rockin' partnersthrough mutual friends. A twoweek drinking binge later and theSaigon Hookers were formed.

They may not be playing any-thing revolutionary, but what theHookers are doing is helping tomake rock music fun and danger-ous again. Never pretentious, theSaigon Hookers epitomize theearly 70s rock 'n' roll lifestyle.

For a band that has been to-gether for just over a year, theHookers have been making mas-sive strides in the right directionand they have done it all their way"First and foremost is the musicfor us, ifthings fall in our lap or wework hard enough to get it thenit's there," Romano states, whenpressed for a reason behind the

band's rise.Martin Streek, from The Edge

102.1 FM, has also played an in-strumental role in the successof the Hookers. A few monthsago, Streek strolled into a SaigonHookers show in Toronto and wasblown away. It was because of thisperformance that tracks off of theband's You're theDeer EP began tobe played on light rotation on TheEdge.

The radio play on The Edgecoupled with an extensive tourof Ontario and US, which saw theband opening for the Supersuck-ers, Nashville Pussy, Robin Blackand the Black Halos, has helpedthe Saigon Hookers to build a cult-like following. And for a true rockband, that is the way to do it, es-pecially one that isn't even signedto a major label.

The Saigon Hookers are a trueindie band and Tommy Smokesexplains their reasoning behindthe decision not to have alreadysigned to a record deal.

"I'mnot goingto sign on to a baddeal, I have my own business andI know a thing or two about it." Asthe owner of Uptown Waterloo'sclothing store Gloss, Smokes hasenough business experience andacumen to know not to sign thefirst deal that comes the band'sway.

So following a year of touringand with no label to call home,the band went to work in the stu-dio to create a full-length album.With the help of acclaimed rockproducer lan Blurton, the SaigonHookers hope to have crafted arock gem in the form ofHello Rockand Roll.

The 10-track disc, which hit

music store shelves on October3, clocks in at around 25 minutesof good old-fashioned hard rock.With the production help of Blur-ton, the album has captured theraw live vibe that the band wastrying to get across.

"Our live shows are all aboutJagerettes, Jagermeister and . . .

rock 'n' roll," Feeney exclaims ashe alludes to the trio's October 5CD release performance at theStarlight Lounge.

Adding to Feeney's comments,Smoke explains how the SaigonHookers create their sound.

"A lot of new rock is overpro-duced and pretty. We draw inspira-tion from more '70s and '80s-stylerecordings and we try to capture asound more like that," he boasts.

Hello Rock and Roll is full ofquick, loud and dirty tunes.

The album's lead single "You'rethe Deer" alongside other rau-cous tracks like "We Don't Care","Sweetheart" and "She Blows MyMind" contribute to the sense thatthe Saigon Hookers are rooted inthe spirit of rock 'n' roll.

Never pretty but always fun, theHookers specialize in unapologet-

ic sleazy riff-rock that Smokes ex-plains is, "all about drinking andfast cars and sex, drugs and rock'n' roll."

In a time when rock music feelsstale, over-marketed and phony,the Saigon Hookers are a refresh-ing voice.

As a throwback to rock 'ri roll'searly decadence and revolution-ary spirit, this Kitchener-Waterlooband seems poised to break outand revitalize an otherwise blandrock scene.

Contributed Photo

IT'S BETTER LIVE - Between 4:30 - 6 pm today, the Saigon Hookers will be performing on Radio Laurier.

Sunday spent dancing with the IslandsThis past Sunday The Islands brought their mix of caplyso and funk to the Starlight Lounge, where the crowd was ready to danceSARAH MACDONALDCORD A&E

The October Ist1 st Islands show atWaterloo's Starlight Lounge start-ed later than expected. Althoughthe doors at the venue opened at9pm the night's opening band didnot arrive on stage until sometimearound 10:15pm.

With such a long wait the nightfelt a lot like waiting at Kool Hausin downtown Toronto, with the ex-ception ofthe comfortable couch-es that Starlight provides.

All-in-all the night's, wait wasnot without entertainment as alady who held a porcelain manne-quin hand where hers should havebeen, waved it around, yelling to

the crowd 'Waltah, Waltah!' easilypassed the time in the disco-balland lava-lamp lit room that had aretro, yet modern, atmosphere.

Sometime around 10pm, peo-ple started congregating near thesmall stage and waited patientlyfor the opening band, advertisedas Malajube, to come on stage.

In a slit in the curtain, the open-ers could be seen doing a pre-show frolic, chanting and jump-ing up and down, clasping eachother's hands tightly. The lightswent dim and they came onto thestage, only it wasn't Malajube thatpicked up their instruments.

Instead of the popular Frenchpop-rock band, the Montreal-based English speaking band

Creature took to the stage.The band's performance

Those are the joys of a smallintimate setting, as the crowdis privy to the side of rock thatis refreshingly simple andunadulterated.

brought about feelings of psy-chedelic rock that should only beappreciated under the influenceof acid. Keyboardist Lisa prancedaround on stage, looking asthough she was channeling YeahYeah Yeahs front woman Karen O.

For the most part the band'ssongs were strong, even though

the song "Kanda-har" slipped intosome unfortunateBlur moments, as'woo-hooing' wasinserted betweenverses.

After Creature'sperformance itwas up to thenight's main at-

traction to take over. It was re-freshing and a little hilarious tosee Islands performing their ownsound check and to see that theband had written their set list onhalved pieces of Styrofoam plates.

It was also interesting to see the

band not wearing their trademarkall white outfits. Those are the joysof a small intimate setting, as thecrowd is privy to the side of rockthat is refreshingly simple andunadulterated.

Following their soundcheck theband exited the stage and cameback dressed in all white andready to perform.

Opening with the epic "Swan(Life after Death)" the band suc-cesfully shifted the mood to theircalypso-funk stylings, bringingdown the tone of psychedelicsounds Creature had left in theair.

With a strong set Island wasable to get the Starlight crowd outof their seats and dancing along.

A&E The Cord Weekly ■ Wednesday October 4,2006 ■ 17

Diversity on displayCBC Radio 3 and Bande ÀPart unite to show off our nation's French andEnglish musical talentsJILLIAN PANCOTTCORD A&E

Sunday, October 1 was Interna-tional Music Day. I was vaguelyaware of this fact when I attendedthe See Vous Play concert at theKool Haus presented by CBC Ra-dio 3 and BandeAPart.

However, it was an opportunetime for me to become acquaint-ed with some up-and-coming andrelatively well-established Cana-dian acts.

The night included sets byLes Breastfeeders (a punk bandfrom Quebec), Emily Haines andthe Soft Skeleton (Metric's frontwoman's side project), Les TroisAccords (another French Canadi-an rock band), and the headlinerof the evening, the Joel PlaskettEmergency.

I learned very quickly that mu-sic, while it does transcend thelanguage barrier, does have itslimits. Les Breastfeeders and LesTrois Accords were enjoyable tolisten to, with upbeat, near poppy

tunes, but eventually it all be-gan to blur together. Ultimately,I could hardly tell the end of onesongfrom the next solely becauseI didn't have a clue what they weresaying.

At times I was tempted to shout"En anglais, s'il vous plait!" but Ialso knew this wouldn't be fair tothe other language of our nation.Regardless of the language, I didenjoy the mod feel of Les Breast-feeders, and began to reminisceabout the Austin Powers movietrilogy.

Emily Haines and the Soft Skel-eton was the second act, and thistime I knew what she was singing.However, I think I should haveshouted, "En francais s'il vousplait!" solely because after the up-beat tunes of Les Breastfeeders,her music was utterly depress-ing. Okay, that's a little harsh, butthe contrast between the two wasextreme.

Her voice however is amazinglybeautiful and hypnotic, and I be-gan to notice everyone just gazing

at her as if in a complete tranceof admiration. Being backed by astring and brass section made themusic that much more interestingand almost exotic. And during her45-minute set, everything becamequite tranquil in the Kool Haus.

But to me at least, the most ex-citing act came at the end of thenight. Joel Plaskett Emergencywas the last to perform, but wasit ever worth it. Despite his feverfrom the previous day, his energyon the stage and interaction withthe crowd was something I couldnever pull off, even in perfecthealth.

Plaskett's songs are fun and ev-eryone was clearly enjoying them,from the rocker kids to the olderadults in the crowd.

Sounding much like Great BigSea (also from the east coast ofCanada), I think that some ofPlaskett's songs, such as "Nowherewith You", have the potential toclaim a spot on the end-of-the-night playlist for bars.

As enjoyable as the evening was,

my biggest complaint was it wason a Sunday night and I paid forit the next day at work. However,my biggest compliment about thenight was the variety and qual-ity of music. All acts performed

exceptionally well live and theirstage presence was great.

And on a day like InternationalMusic Day, the appropriateness ofthe variety of music was well ex-ecuted and it was a true represen-

Anushila Shaw

SOUND OF MUSIC - Plaskett at the ecclectic See Vous Play concert.

Beautiful voice and talentWith The Summer ofHigh Hopes, Emm Gryner crafts musical masterpieceDRU JEFFRIESSTAFF WRITER

Considering howprolific the crim-inally under-appreciated EmmGryner has been since her 1996debut album, The Original LeapYear, it's quite a bold statement tocall her latest effort, The SummerofHigh Hopes, her finest. Releasedjust a few weeks ago in Canada,High Hopes is the eighth albumfor the Forest, Ontario native.

While some of her other albumshave been hampered by either tooglossy a coating of radio-friendlypop veneer (1998's Public, heronly major-label effort) or a too-pared down recording style (theself-produced and recorded Sci-

Emm GrynerThe SummerofHigh HopesOriginal Release Date:September 26,2006Label: Dead Daisy RecordsRecommendaton:

BUY IT

ence Fair), High Hopes hits uponthe perfect combination of popsophistication and intimate bal-ladry.

From the first moments of"Girls Are Murder," the album'ssuperior opening track, it's clearthat Gryner is finally as comfort-able in the studio as a woman ofher talents should be.

Gryner's live show often con-sists of her alone on stage withonly an acoustic guitar, a bass, apiano and a microphone. Whileher past albums sometimeshaven't allowed her voice room tobreathe, concealing her raw deliv-ery through multi-tracking, HighHopes never puts the productionbefore the song.

On "Blackwinged Bird", Grynerdeliberately restrains her power-ful voice during the verses, mak-ing the vocal climax at the end ofeach chorus that much more ca-thartic. Songs like this one mimicher live solo performances morefaithfully than any of her previousalbums do.

Many of the album's best mo-ments come from the acousticguitar-driven songs, like "Merlot"and the devastating "See the Sea".These are two of the most emo-tionally bare songs in her entirecatalogue; the honesty of herdelivery of a line like "hurts likefuck" is enough to bring a personto tears.

The subtle and beautiful acous-tic finger-picking on "Merlot" issome of her best work, provingthat Emm should pick up a guitarat least as often as she sits in frontof the piano.

In short, her songs are just asbeautiful as she is—which is nosmall feat for the woman whoplayed the angel in the video forNeverending White Lights' "TheGrace".

The more upbeat songs on thealbum, like "Black-Eyed Blue Sky"

and "Sunshine", juxtapose poppymelodies against downbeat lyri-cal subject matter, resulting inthe bittersweet texture that hasbecome Gryner's trademark. Theinterplay between guitars andthe pop dynamics of these songswould fit right in on one of the FooFighters' more recent albums.

"Star/Crossed" is the most am-bitious song on the album, withits plucked string section, electricdrums and multi-layered falsettovocals creating an ambient ex-

perimental soundscape that is farremoved from her comfort zoneofradio-friendly pop.

The "navy skies of summer" de-scribed in the album closer, "SweetDestroyer", are perhaps a littledarker than an optimist wouldforecast for an ideal summer.

High expectations, however, areseldom fully realized, a sad factthat Gryner must be all too awareof. Luckily for us, The Summer ofHigh Hopes more than lives up toexpectations.

A&E18 ■ WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 4,2006 ■ THE CORD WEEKLY

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The CordWeekly ■ Wednesday october 4,2006 19Classifieds/Fun

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The Cord WeeklyEditorial Board 2006-07

Editor-in-ChiefApril Robinsonarobinson@cordweekly.com(519) 884-0710 ext. 3563

News EditorsMike Brownmbrown@cordweekly.com

Tony Fergusontferguson@cordweekly.com(519) 884-0710 ext. 3564

Sports EditorDan Polischukdpolischuk@cordweekly.com

International EditorAria Latto-Hallarlalh@cordweekly.com

Special Projects EditorMichelle Pinchevmpinchev@cordweekly.com

Features EditorAlex Hayterahayter@cordweekly.com

Student Life EditorVeronica Hughesvhughes@cordweekly.com

Arts & Entertainment EditorJoe Turcottejturcotte@cordweekly.com

Opinion EditorBlair Forsyth-Starkblairfs@cordweekly.com

Graphics EditorEmilie Joslinejoslin@cordweekly.com

Photography ManagerSydney Hellandshelland@cordweekly.com

Print Production ManagerBrandon Curriebcurrie@cordweekly.com

Health mattersAnd so it begins. After several years of increasing health care-relatedcomplaints, the proverbial sky has seemingly fallen. On Sunday, Oc-tober 1, 2006, Grand River Hospital's emergency room doors cameprecariously close to closing, confirming what the Canadian ChickenLittles have been warning for years: Canada's health care system is injeopardy. And as students, it's about damn time we took notice.

The health care troubles began in the early 19905, when record def-icits caused the federal government to cut back on the money beinggiven to the provincial government's health care budgets. Since then,innumerable problems have arisen including drastically extended waittimes and doctor and nurse shortages. While problems with Canada'ssystem have definitely come to the forefront as of late, including beinga primary issue during the 2004 elections, there is a noticeable lack ofconcern amongst students. Some students even stated that they didn'tvote in the last federal elections because "none of the issues were ap-plicable" to them.

But when the largest emergency room in a region almost closesdown, it affects everyone. From children to seniors, the services offeredby ER personnel are useful to every age bracket and can be needed bythe "healthiest" of individuals.

Laurier's Health Services is quick to point out that students have anadvantage over manyWaterloo residents as their wait times are drasti-cally lower at the on-campus location. Dean McMurray, dean of stu-dents, indicated that if there was a demand, Health Services couldostensibly increase their hours. Such measures are hardly progressive,and while universities are not obliged to provide health care servicesto their students, it's not exactly a selling point for potential students iftheir future town has no accessible emergency health care. McMurrayindicated that St. Mary's emergency room, the second nearest one afterGrand River, is just "down the street a little bit," but when coping with aserious injury, that little jaunt down the street could literally mean thedifference between life and death.

While student accessibility to health care is important, there have yetto be any major problems on Laurier's campus, especially when com-pared to the current national crisis. Undergraduate students need tostart affecting change on a national scale.

Writing letters to your MPs or participating in protests or demon-strations may strike some as ineffectual techniques, they let politiciansknow which issues are important to the voting public. In turn, politi-cians then focus on the "important" issues as decided by the public intheir platforms.

Additionally, students need to start taking preventative measures.Many argue that the reason our health care system is currently in sham-bles is because of the increase in medical issues. The reliance on greasyfast-food as an alternative to cooking a healthy, homemade meal andthe use of cars, which decrease individual physical activity, are only twoof the many reasons why our nation's health is failing.

Another measure students can employ to help the healthcare fiascois to avoid overusing the system. A bad head cold or fever do not meritthe attention of emergency room health care physicians.

Finally, the state of medical schools in the country needs to be ad-dressed by students and politicians. Too many qualified individuals aredenied entry into medical school because a lack of resources limits thespots available. Consequently, students are forced to study medicineabroad and as such, aren't confined to practicing medicine only in On-tario or Canada.

Many options exist to address the state of Canada's healthcare sys-tem, but until students realize that this is an extremely important is-sue and that Canadians are becoming close to losing a system thatwasonce a point of national pride, change could likely stagnate.

The issue ofhealth care needs to be at the forefront so that a workingand efficient system remains for future generations. If action is takenimmediately, perhaps the sky will never fall.

These unsigned editorials were agreed upon byat least two-thirds of theCord's edito-rial board and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Cord's volunteers, staff or

WLUSP.

Opinion

Crock-toberfestFor students planning on partaking in Oktoberfest celebrations, don'texpect any cultural enlightenment or foreign beer, laments Mike Brown

MIKE BROWNNEWS EDITOR

In 48 hours, many of you will beon your way home to surroundyourself with loved ones and givethanks for your first decent mealin over a month. Many others,myself included, will remain inWaterloo and give thanks thatwe attend a school in the heart ofCanada's largest Bavarian festi-val, oft touted as the biggest oneoutside of Germany.

We will come together sport-ing lederhosen and dirndls forthe few days each year whenit's socially acceptable. We willmunch on bratwurst and sauer-kraut and indulge in the finestGerman ales, and our inevitableinebriation won't be the only rea-son we're just convinced we're inMunich itself. Oh yes, it will begrand indeed.

Except not so much.As a near lifelong resident of

Kitchener-Waterloo, I've longbeen surrounded by Oktoberfest- so much so, in fact, that I didn'teven go the firstyear I was legallypermitted to, the lustre of thismonumental cultural phenom-enon worn offpreemptively.

Until last year, that is. Awak-ened suddenly to the unique op-portunity for cultural explorationafforded me by fluke geography- aided and abetted by the allureof half-price tickets from a friend

- I set out to discover my Bavar-ian roots. The Bavarian rootsof a sixth-generation Canadianwhose only minute extra-conti-nental ties lay in the UK. Just gowith it. I know a lot of people ofGerman descent, after all. Surely,I'm therefore rooted in all thingsBavarian by process of osmosis.Done.

A quick perusal of Oktober-fest events made clear the literaltransformation my city wouldundergo to so closely resemblethis particular celebrated Eu-ropean culture. All your Bavar-ian throwbacks were there: theMuch Music Retro Video Party,Rocktoberfest (this year head-lined by Germany's iconic rock-ers, Sloan), Hip-Hop-toberfest,and of course, Pride-toberfest,which celebrates Germany asthe first truly progressive countryto accept the rights of the queercommunity.

I couldn't wait to drop byKarlsberghaus, where I spentmany a childhood Friday nightcheering on the OHL's KitchenerRangers. Or to meander throughAltes Muenchen Haus, which Ifound bore an eerie semblanceto the school I took shop class atin grade eight.

All facetiousness aside, myfirst experience of the highly-touted Oktoberfest definitely fellflat. There was shockingly little todifferentiate it from the standardSaturday night shenanigans tak-en to the extreme. The studentsstill piss all over Veteran's Green,but screaming "Willkommen" in

the process just makes it seemso cultural, right? Yes, a culturalshit-show.

Of course, that is not to sayI didn't have a blast. In threenights at the festhallen, "gem-uetlichkeit" grabbed hold of metight, which I was later relievedto learn meant a spirit of "conge-niality", though it sounds morelike a disease that would rendermy lower torso ineffectual.

I somehow found the vast ma-jority of my drinks purchased forme - a bizarre glimpse into howthe better halflives - and fun washad by all. Still, I was definitelyirked by the notable lack of pol-ka music and the fact the bar atBingeman's (not "Jodler Haus" )

served only Coors Light and Ca-nadian. CANADIAN. By defini-tion, there is nothing Bavarianabout that.

And like me, I'm sure you willall have a tremendous time Okto-berfesting to your heart's contentand your liver's lament. But, foryour sake, I hope you don't sharethe delusions of cultural signifi-cance I took into it.

So, go on. I encourage you topolka the night away. But as youraise that ice cold Coors Light,don't delude yourself into think-ing this drunk can be written offas a night of cultural exploration.

As for me, I'm headed to theConcordia Club, the largest Ger-man ethnic club in the nation,in my never-ending quest to getthis Bavarian business right.

letters@cordweekly. com

20 WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 4,2006 ■ THE CORD WEEKLY

Drinkingpart ofstudentexperienceBy enforcing underage drinking policies, residence life is hindering theexperience of undergrads and fostering an exclusive'of age'environment

DAVID SHORENO RELATION TO PAULY

Undoubtedly one of the mostfrustrating and tragic conditionsknown to our generation is to bein university and to be under thelegal drinking age.

It is something over half of firstyears are experiencing at the mo-ment and a great majority of up-per year students can sympathizewith.

In the wake of O-Week andhomecoming weekend, underagestudents are left feeling a gapingdivide between themselves andthe of-age majority of the studentpopulace.

They are forced to sit and watchjealously as roommates crack

open cans ofbeer or congregate tohead out to the bar on aThursdaynight. And with just under half offirst year students already 19, andmany more turning 19 as the yearprogresses, one can hardly arguethat being unable to drink legallyis simply "part of the universityexperience."

Being unable to drink in resi-dence or go out to the bars withtheir fellow students makes a lotof underaged students feel likethey aren't as privileged, or are

just plain unlucky.It is not surprising that most

underagers feel that their segrega-tion from the rest of the studentsis due to an arbitrary and out-dat-ed provincial law.

And they are right. The legalage in Ontario was last changedin 1979, when it was raised oneyear to 19. Since then, many so-

cial factors have changed in the

province, the most relevant beingthe removal of OAC, reducing highschool to a four-year process.

The sentiment shared by nearly

The strict rules of residenceare put in place to create an"inclusive" environment, yetunderaged students can't help butfeel underprivileged and often leftout next to their nineteen-year-old neighbours.

every underage student is that ifone is old enough to drive on theroads, drive with some alcohol intheir blood, vote in elections andhave the responsibility that comesalong with attending university,why is it that one cannot make the

choice to drink? Indeed, there is alack of logical argument to contestthis.

However, the inequality that somany first years suffer from can-not be blamed completely on thegovernment.

The strict rules of residenceare put in place to create an "in-clusive" environment, yet under-aged students can't help but feelunderprivileged and often left outnext to their nineteen-year-oldneighbours.

The simple truth is that for moststudents, alcohol is an integralpart of the university experience.Laurier clearly recognizes this, of-fering on-campus establishments

that serve alcoholsuch as Wilf's andhaving BACCHUSin order to ensuresafe drinking forstudents.

Yet the schoolremains strict inrestricting andpunishing under-age drinkers inresidence.

Unlike Lau-rier, other schools

are beginning to catch on. At theUniversity of Guelph, althoughunderage drinking is still harshlypunished, the residences providean environment where under-age students can drink withoutas much stress over being caught.

Guelph's RAs (dons) aren't re-quired to know the ages of theirfirst-year students.

This allows them to do whatmany Laurier dons would like todo: treat all the students as if theywere 19.

Not only does this allow the stu-dents at Guelph to have a goodtime partying with everyone else,but it allows them to feel equal.

Of course, it's not as if it's ac-tually difficult to get a drink inthis town. There are keggers andhouse parties galore on any de-cent night, and there's no lack ofpeople willing to buy booze forthe 18-year-olds.

Anybody that wants to drinkand can't just isn't trying hardenough.

Being underage at universityclearly never stops students fromgetting hammered.

But it does restrict them fromgetting the most out of their stayin residence and feeling equal tothe other students. It is ultimatelyup to the government to changethe legal drinking age to includeall university students and moreimportandy, all legal adults.

However, until this happens,it is the responsibility of the uni-versity to re-evaluate its policyin order to meet the needs of thestudents.

letters@cordweekly.com

Contributed Photo

MAKE THAT A DOUBLE - These clever undergrads constructed a make-shift bar in residence so that all residents could partake in the birthday festivities, regardless of their age.

OpinionThe Cord Weekly ■ Wednesday October 4,2006 21

Letters to the EditorFeminism is about choiceAnyone who read Ryan Bolton's ar-ticle can not help but see that he doesnot understand the Women's Move-ment. He purports to know what'sbest for women but fails to see thatthe Women's Movement is aboutchoice. While early feminists mightnot have been fighting for a women'sright to dress sexy that does not meanthey would not defend her doing so.Feminism is about choice and ifsomewomen want to dress sexy and maybeeven (gasp) enjoy sex what the hell isso wrong with that?- Neil McKay

Good intentions gone wrongOh, Ryan. You have such good inten-tions, but they are backed by such avast lack of knowledge. Thank you,sir, for informing me of what 1 needto do, as a woman (and as a feminist)to empower myself. But did you everstop to consider that what's disem-powering to us gals is not the wearingofskimpy clothing, but men telling uswhat to do?

Feminism is about agency andchoice. If I decide to come to class ina short skirt, that's my decision, andhas absolutely nothing to do withyou. For some women, dressing pro-vocatively can be a form of empower-ment - it can represent a reclamationof women's sexuality or an accep-tance and celebration of the femalebody, two issues of primary concernto us feminists. Thanks to feminism,we can choose for ourselves how wewant to dress and what those choic-es represent. Your analysis does notprovide valid reasons for women tostop dressing provocatively, ratherit implies that you have a problemwithwomen being able to make suchchoices.

You argue that there is a correla-tion between skimpy clothes and in-creased rates of sexual harassment,but this argument is irresponsible,as it fails to address the real problem,that being that the attitudes of thosemen that think it's acceptable to ha-rass or assault women. No woman- no matter what she's wearing - de-serves this kind of treatment. Men

need to respect women and respectour choices, including our choice ofdress. If all women wore turtlenecksand ankle-length skirts, I'm prettysure sexual harassment and assaultwould still occur, so something tellsme that clothing is not at the heart ofthe problem.

I'm sure you meant well, Ryan, butif you really want to help women,tiien lay off. Stop telling us what to

do, and start telling other guys thatwe deserve respect, no matter whatwe're wearing.- Alexandra Apolloni

Attractive personalityAlthough Ryan Bolton does provide

a good argument in his article "Scant-ily clad females set back Women'sMovements", I do feel like he has for-gotten a major cause of thisproblem.His article seemed to point the fingerat women being the sole cause ofthis problem and that is not the case.Bolton mentions that popular cultureicons such as Britney Spears, Chris-tina Aguilera and Paris Hilton are to

blame for the overall clause of"less ismore" when it comes to clothing.

However, there are more than justwomen in the media dressing in sucha manner that wouldcause such a re-action in the general public. It is thereaction. Britney, Christina and Parisare followed and idolized due to theirpopularity. Men are just as much toblame.

All men can not say they have notlooked at Britney, Christina and Parisand thought theywere "hot".

Women then get the notion thatif men think these women are hot,they too can be hot if they mimicthese women in all aspects, includingappearance.

So thank you, Ryan Bolton, forstepping out and saying that sexy isnot what you wear (or what you don'twear sometimes) but an attitude.However, this is a message that needsto be equally addressed to men.

If you think women are dress-ing too scantily clad then you mustchange that thought that all men lookat in women are the breasts and thebutt, that personality is in fact a key

feature of her attraction.- AmeliaLockhart

An unsexy rant

This is a letter in response to theOpinionpiece writtenby Ryan Boltonin last week's edition. Though his in-tentions are no doubt noble, Bolton'sopinion belies a lack of both under-standing and respect for the goals offeminism and the struggle womenhave gone through to achieve them.Women now have the right to vote,to compete for high-profile jobs, andto determine their lives however theysee fit.

Part of this self-determination iscontrolling their sexuality and life-style. If some women feel they wantto dress a certain way they should beallowed to without pompous arm-chair feminists denouncing their useof this freedom as a betrayal of theequality movement.

This isn't a Jenny Jones, special,"You Dress Too Skanky, There'sBetter Ways To Get Hanky-Panky," soget off their backs! Let girls figure outfor themselves that wearing trashyclothing won't get you respect. Youdon't see me denouncing metrosexu-als as a betrayal of masculinity, doyou? No, I'm letting them figure it outfor themselves.

And while I'm ranting, let me justsay that sexiness isn't all on the in-side. That's why people wear make-up, buy new clothes, workout, andcare about their appearances. A lotof what makes somebody sexy iswhat's on the outside. Few readingthis article would be attracted to amorbidly obese person just becausethey have a confident air about them.Fewer still would flirt with a wretch-edly ugly person just because they'rethe smartest one in the class. Let'sjust face facts. Sexy is both inside andoutside. It's what you've got, but alsohow you use it. I say let people use ithow they want.

I know what I think is sexy, and it'snot Paris Hilton.- John Cooper

Womanifesta

I AM A WOMAN AT LAURIER, AND I:

• Have the right to dress any wayI want. My clothing is my choiceand my own fucking business, and Ido not have to justify that choice to

anyone.• Know that my clothing does notsend "messages" nor "infer" anythingto anyone.• Realize that if I am assaulted, itis not my fault, and it certainly hasnothing to do with the way I amdressed. Blaming sexual assault onthe way women dress is not only of-fensive but downright stupid.• Know that the majority of sexualassaults are perpetrated in homes bypeople women know and trust.• Firmly declare that wearing "re-vealing" clothing does not mean Iam slutty, ditzy, or promiscuous. Myclothing makes no comment what-soever on my sexual preferences orchoices, let alone my intelligence.• Not only deserve but demandthe respect of men regardless of myclothing.• Am not "setting back the women'smovement" by choosing to wear a re-vealing outfit. In fact, I am furtheringthe women's movement by demon-strating that I and I alone make myown choices, and can wear anything Ichoose and still be respected, valued,and taken seriously.• Do not need a man (or anyoneelse, for that matter) to tell me how todress. I do not need a man to empow-er me or to tell me how to empowermyself. I do not need a man to ex-plain the women's movement to me.• Know that whatever I wear is both"acceptable" and "suitable" because Ichose it.• Recognize that feminism and re-vealing clothing are not at odds withone another.• Am aware that even if all womendressed "conservatively," sexual as-sault would still happen.• Assert that if I wear revealing cloth-ing, it's not because I saw it on TV. Iam too smart to be influenced by themedia.

• Affirm that sexual assault happensnot because women wear a certaintype of clothing, but because we livein a society that not only tolerates butpropagates the abuse of women.• Am beautiful, strong, sexy and in-telligent whether I wear a sweatshirtor a tube top."YES MEANS YES, NO MEANS NO!HOWEVER I DRESS, WHEREVER IGO!!!"- Brittany Lavery

Bring the Hawk back

AsaformerWLUSU executive, alumni,and now employee ofthe university Iwas heartbroken this summer whenIlearned the Hawk hadbeen tiled over.There are very few "landmarks" onthis campus to be proud of-we haveno clock tower, no stone buildings(except the seminary), sparse ivy onthe residences, and more parking lotsthan green space. The Hawk was oneofthe few aesthetic things to be proudof, and judging by the overwhelmingresponse of the current students itwas a bad decision to get rid ofit. I'mof the opinion that some traditionsare worth preserving - if money isan issue perhaps Mr. Cayenne couldlet us know how much it would costto bring back the Hawk (or at least arespectable new rendition, not somemini-me version) and give those of uswho care the opportunity to chip inand support theproject?- Scott Harris

letters@cord weekly,com

Letters Policy:

All letters to the editor must be signed and sub-mitted with the author's name, student identifica-tion number, and telephone number. Letters mustbe received by 12:00 pm Monday via email to let-ters@cordweekly.com or through our websiteat www.cordweekly.com. Letters must not ex-ceed 350 words. The Cord reserves the right toedit any letter for brevity and clarity. Spelling andgrammarwill be corrected. TheCord reserves theright to reject any letter, in whole or in part.

The Cord reserves the right to not publishmaterial that is deemed to be libelous or in con-travention with the Cord's Code of Ethics or jour-nalistic standards.

Opinion22 WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 4,2006 ■ THE CORD WEEKLY

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Common gooduncommon

DON MORGENSONPERSPECTIVE

Do you remember, as I do, formerToronto Raptors star basketballplayer and multi-million dollarcontractVince Carter saying whenhe showed up late for practiceswhile trade rumors swirled; "Ihope the fans understand. I wantwhat's best for me like anybodyelse would"?

Oops, so much for teamspirit. Lawrence Kohlberg, apsychologist studying moraldevelopment, might argue Cart-er's attitude represents moral im-maturity. Kohlberg argued thatthe highest level of moral devel-opment represents the impor-tance of a "principled morality"— people are motivated by justice,equality, decency — the commongood.

In 1932, US President Rooseveltfaced a nation in dire straits; thedepression was sapping the eco-nomic growth and incentive outof every American. Though de-rided, he felt the common goodwould be best served by passinglegislation putting men and wom-en back to work, and the CivilianConstruction Corps and WorksProgress Administration wereborn. Years ago Lester Pearsonand "Tommy" Douglas put aside

their own political agendas andlegislated programs designed toserve the common good - CanadaPension Plan and National HealthInsurance.

Today the Vince Carters of theworld brusquely set aside the com -

mon good to make way for "porkbarrel" politics serving purely a"Me First" mentality. Respondingrecently to an Op-Ed piece, thecorrespondent wondered what isthis 'Common Good' the writerwas blathering about?"

Surely when we grasp the factthat the wealthiest 500 people inthe world control more wealththan the poorest 3 billion — thecommon good is violated. Orwhen we fix on the large ecologi-cal environmental footprint (in-dicating the use of world-wideresources) made by rich countriesas opposed to the infinitesimallysmall footprint made by those indeveloping countries, the obviousscenario becomes: "Each one forhimselfand God for us all, said theelephant as he danced among thechickens."

Were we to make our prioritiesnot the needs of the wealthiest butthe needs of the common good,there would be sufficient moniesto educate our children, to sup-port health insurance maintain-ing "wellness", to fight the AIDSepidemic, and monies to developand sustain renewable energies.

But what is necessary is to firstavoid focusing on the painfully

unequal distribution of wealth.As Bill McKibben, staff writer forMother Jones points out — thesubtle power of Bill Gates, WarrenBuffett, the Forbes, Lord and LadyBlack, et al, is their ability to makeus think as they think.

Look around your own neigh-bourhood. .. what you see is wide-spread evidence of the urge toemulate the wealthiest who haveconvinced all of us to thinkas theythink. The late Christopher Laschreferred to this cognitive style as"unreflective egoism."

As we divest ourselves of in-stitutionalized "hyperindividu-alism" we just might develop ahealth system with responsiblelimits; we just might be able todevelop a stable welfare system;we just might develop an energypolicy that limits heedless burn-ing, drilling, mining, refining, etc.None of these changes are easy,but the first step would be to sup-port the "common good", whichmight mean giving up just a littleof our psychopathic, conscience-less pursuit of individual good.

What it means, too, is beginningto identify with something largerthan ourselves. In theologicalterms we find a significant major-ity does in fact identify themselveswith something significantly larg-er and more powerful, somethingtranscendent... life force, God,whatever the name. The questionthen becomes, why is it so difficultto identify with a force for good

which transcends the individual?Aforce that insists onsocial justice— fair, broad-based taxes, return-ing to barter, or even attemptingto pay for products made by ourneighbors across the street, caringdeeply about schools even if wehave no children of our own, etc.

This headlong race to satisfyone's needs first is now so deeplyingrained that political leaderswho mention the "common good"worry that their political platformwill be undermined.

Some argue that the commongood will become everyone's goal

only when we develop a wartimementality, a trench mentality; witha common adversary we will pulltogether rather than pull apart.

Alter 9/11, Americans were ea-ger and willing to pull together.Such a mentality, however, did notlast long. Now we feel as if we arepulling apart, and whenwe do thevital infrastructures of our societyrepresented by the needs of the"common good" may come tum-bling down.

letters@cordweekly.com

RAISE IT - Vince's behaviour serves himself, not the common good.

OpinionThe CordWeekly ■ Wednesday october 4,2006 ■ 23

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24 ■ WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 4,2006 ■ The CORD WEEKLY

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