Blair Witch meetsGodzilla

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MEDIUMThe Voice of the University of Toronto Mississauga

T H E

MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 2008 VOLUME 34, ISSUE 17 www.mediumonline.ca

Marketing mindmanipulation

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A Super Bowl preview

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The University of Toronto Mississauga(UTM) was host to several political talkslast week as Members of Parliament(MPs) and political candidates attendedseparate forums to address national issuesat the post-secondary level.Mississauga-Erindale Liberal MP

Omar Alghabra greeted a small crowd onWednesday evening at an event organizedby the Political Science and Pre-LawAssociation and the UTM YoungLiberals. Among items discussed were theManley Report, which discusses Canada’sfuture role in Afghanistan, and the needfor greener technology.“Canada has a chance to be a leader in

green technology,” he stated. “Do wewant to lead and sell technology now, orbuy it from abroad ten years from now?”The Thursday town hall meeting orga-

nized by UTM’s student unions addressedother issues pertinent to students.Alghabra returned to sit on a panel thatincluded Liberal candidate BonnieCrombie from the Mississauga-Streetsville riding and Mississauga-Brampton SouthMPNavdeep Bains.At the forefront of discussion was Bill

C-398, the Canada Post-SecondaryEducation Act that was introduced to

Parliament on February 5, 2007.Although only at the first reading stage ingovernment, the bill was designed tosecure funding standards for the purposesof accessibility and and accountability topost-scondary students.“International fees have to be regulated

and fair,” said third-year internationalcommerce student Mubashir Ali. “A bal-ance has to be maintained.” According toAli, approximately 10 per cent of UTM’spopulation is comprised of internationalstudents, all of whom pay significantlyhigher tuition fees than Canadians.The panelists also spoke about the

Millenium Scholarship Foundation,which is currently limited to first-year stu-dents.“It needs to be fixed,” Alghabra

argued. “There is a compelling argumentthat is can be expanded.”UTM Students’ Union president

Walied Khogali and Erindale Part-timeUndergraduate Society president VladGlebov both spoke at length about variousissues and action to resolve them.Bains encouraged students to become

involved with their government to helpnecesasry changes to take shape.“Pick a party you feel affinity with and

shape their policy,” he said. “Contact usthrough emails and letters. Write me youropinion, which I can forward to the PrimeMinister.Write to the newspapers.”

Politicians talk to students

photo/Matthew Filipowich

Students listen intently to the good-natured political debate held at UTM last Thursday evening. Several politiciansand student leaders were present to discuss issues affecting post-secondary students.

UTM gets a dose of Winter

photo/Melissa Di Pasquale

WinterFest, held last Thursdayat the RAWC, was a collaborative effort between UTM’s student governments. Over600 students attended the event, which saw plenty of indoor fun and giveaways.

JULIE TYIOSEDITOR-IN-CHIEF

On Friday, January 25, an exhibitionexploring the relationship betweenart and images of war took place atthe MiST Theatre, garnering an audi-ence of over 50 people. The exhibi-tion began with a lecture on the fearof war and its representation throughimages by Professor W.J.T. Mitchell,followed by two panels of discussionwith different speakers on their expe-rience with war-related projects.In the first panel, Allan Harding

MacKay presented an array ofimages called 'Double Bind' from hisvisit to Afghanistan. He showedimages of the airfield that questionedthe boundaries between photojournal-ism and art.

Brigitte van der Sande's discussionon her future project 'Amsterdam atWar' played with the prediction ofwar in her city, how citizens wouldreact to it, and how the society inNetherlands has gone from being acurious, open city to one of high sur-veillance and increased fear of terror-ism. This was followed by IreneLoughlin's literary analysis on thepost-war art of Naufus Figueroa.One of the more provocative pre-

sentations involved StephenEisenman's analysis on images ofwaterboarding-which is a form ofsimulated drowning that is used as atorture technique.

“Some lectures were definitelybetter than others. I liked 'Amsterdamat War' the best - it was scary to seehow our society may be and how itcan affect our privacy,” said JoanneFernandes, a fourth-year visual cul-ture and communication student.The symposium ended with Boris

Groy's questioning of European iden-tity in art and 'otherness' and an opendebate on the lectures, promptingseveral audience members to thinkabout the impact of art in the twenty-first century.

On war and artSymposium andexhibition at MiSTTheatre showcasesmodern-day fear ofwar through art

MEGHA KUMARASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

Monday, January 28, 20082 NNEEWWSSTHE MEDIUM

Amnesty International’s “Write-a-thon”

Still no money for clubs

Administrative shuffling is beingblamed for the delay in distributingfunds for academic socie t ies ,according to University of TorontoMississauga vice-principal acade-mics and dean Gage Averill, andUnivers i ty of TorontoMiss issauga’s Students’ Union(UTMSU) vice-president academicsand equity Anita Chauhan. Both arecurrently involved in the process ofsetting up the Academic SocietiesAffairs Committee (ASAC). “[Academic Societies are] a real-

ly good opportunity to get studentsinvolved with each other. Studentsin teract ing wi th each other i shealthy for social and intellectuallife here,” said Averill. He expectsthe money to be distributed afterthe creation of the ASAC.After taking office on October

15, Averill signed the AcademicSocieties agreement on December10. Charles Jones, who was thedean when the referendum was ini-tially passed, left office on June 30,by which time Chauhan was alreadyelected . Yet the s igning of theagreement languished since latespring and little happened over thesummer, according to Averill.“There were several reasons why

i t had taken so long to get theagreement signed. It was difficult atthe beginning of my term due to thefact that the previous executive hadlef t very l i t t le informat ion andinst ruct ion on how to go about

implementing this endeavor. It wasnot until September 17, when GageAverill was appointed as dean ofacademics, that I actually was ableto get a response from the dean'soffice,” said Chauhan. Chauhan’s predecessor Aun

Jaffery emphasized that it was wellunders tood that s tudents wereexpecting money collected fromthem for academic societies to beput to use as soon as possible. “It was up to the incoming exec-

utive (Chauhan) to follow throughwith academic societies in a timelyfashion. At the joint board meetingwhere the outgoing and incomingexecutives met, it was stressed thatimplementation of academic soci-eties is a time-sensitive issue andmust be picked up soon so that stu-dents can enjoy the benefits of it inSeptember. Anita was present atthat meeting,” said Jaffery. He also added that Chauhan’s

inference that the delay was due toa lack of follow-up information “issimply a reflection of how involvedshe was in the process as an associ-ate.” There is also the issue of a dis-

crepancy regarding the compositionof the ASAC as stated in the consti-tution and the signed agreement.“When [UTMSU and I ] f i rs t

met, we debated whether a constitu-tion should be a part of the sameagreement and it’s my sense thatit’s best to sever the two. The con-stitution does not have a sign-onfrom the dean’s office yet,” saidAvrill. Avrill also indicated that hehad yet to read the constitution but

that he is continuing to work withUTMSU towards having the com-mittee setup and the funds madeavailable.“UTMSU wanted to handle

[ASAC] in a different way - theASAC would be handled based onthe parties to the agreement, whichwould be UTMSU and the dean’soffice. I support a strong and vigor-ous body that would influence thisprocess representing the studentsociet ies ,” said Avri l l . He alsoadded:“The ASAC will be the body that

will decide who is an academicsociety. If there is disagreement,we don’t have a mechanism thatgoes beyond the ASAC so it will beinteresting to see what happens.” Chauhan said clubs will be con-

tac ted af ter the ASAC f inal lymeets. “Money will be dispensed to the

clubs after they have been approvedby the ASAC and the money hasbeen given to us by the university,”said Chauhan.Despite the majority of students

supporting the creation of academicsocieties, some student clubs suchas the Psychology Association forUndergraduate Students a tErindale, are concerned about howthe committee will handle funds forclubs that decide against being co-opted into an academic societymodel.“We want to keep the funds for

academic societ ies, but we wil ldetermine an equitable and fair wayto distribute the money within thestructure,” Chauhan explained.

TEJAS AIVALLIASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

Students gathered on Tuesday, January22 at the university’s Women’s Centreto write letters and sign petitions to urgethe Canadian government to do more forindigenous women who are victims ofsexual assault, to admit more refugeesfleeing Iraq and a host of other issues.The “Write-a-thon” was organized byUniversity of Toronto Mississauga’s stu-dent club, Amnesty International. The club’s executive Sandra

Ceccomancini explained that the annualevent, which normally takes placeworldwide on December 10, had to bedelayed due to exam week. Around 40students turned out to collectively writetwelve letters and sign twenty-five peti-tions. “It is for people to collectively write

letters to government to make a differ-ence,” said Ceccomancini. She also spoke more about Amnesty

International at UTM and its first year atthe university. “We have about 100 members. Our

aim is to bring awareness to students andto provide outlets to students and to acton issues like equality for women to anycurrent issues, abolishing the deathpenalty and the crisis in Darfur,” saidCeccomancini. Pacinthe Mattar, a fifth-year student

of political science and teaching andlearning french came in to sign a petitionabout the Toronto 18, but signed others. “I signed about ending violence

against Aboriginal women and ending

child executions. It is easy to talk aboutissues and complain and mourn, but nota lot of people do much about it. This isa step away from complicity. It’s greatthat there is a chapter of AmnestyInternational here at UTM. Given thediversity of people here, there shouldn’tbe a shortage of passionate people andthings they are passionate about,” saidMattar. Gregg Mendes, a fourth year history

major and member of AmnestyInternational at UTM commented on theimportance of organizing such an event. “A lot of people doing a little bit is

more possible than one person doing alot. I have donated money to Amnestybefore. By donating money from afar,you don’t see any reaction, but now thatI am involved I can see change,” saidMendes. “To those who feel this is useless I’d

say with this project [of] bombardinggovernment with rallies, mail, etc. maynot make them change their mind but itwill put it at back of their mind that a lotof their electorate is concerned aboutthis. The government will at least tweaktheir policies,” said Cullingham. “I am here to add my name to the list

of those who want Ottawa to not justnotice, but act to help resolve the crisisin Darfur. Canadians like to believe thatthe Canadian Forces personnel areengaged in “peace-keeping measures”beyond our borders. If so, then why arethey deployed in Afghanistan and notDarfur?” said Deepali Swarup, a fourthyear student in biology and genderStudies.

TEJAS AIVALLIASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

Rogers and family booted out of UTMOne stage of Adam Rogers’ rockyrelat ionship with UTM endedFriday morning, after the sheriff ofthe Landlord and Tenant Boardevicted him from his townhouse inSchreiberwood residence.The married father of four moved

into the unit last year assuming thathe was officially a student afterbeing assigned a student number bythe university and given the optionto lease. But the university laterdecided not to admit him, and toldhim to leave the townhouse. Rogers, who is suing the universi-

ty for $5 million, considered him-self a student, with every right to bethere.“The lease speaks for itself,” he

said to reporters outside his town-house, while campus police lookedon.“You can’t live in university rez

without being entitled to enroll as astudent. It’s not my error – and theuniversity keeps passing the buck!”Rogers challenged the university

almost f rom day one, but theOntario Landlord and Tenant Boardruled in the university’s favour inOctober.

Rogers, whose fourth child wasborn shortly after moving in, saidthe university provided little sup-port for much of the crisis, asidefrom pointing out some generalcommunity resources. He said hefeared for his family, as they have“nowhere to go.”“We’ll end up in a shelter – if

there’s room,” he said.But, evicted or not, Rogers vowed

to pursue his lawsuit against theuniversity.“This is not going to stop until

it’s been resolved,” he said. “I’mnot letting up, and I’m not walkingaway from it. No matter what hap-pens, the university will be heldaccountable and they will compen-sate us for what they’ve done.”UTM spokesperson Jane Stirling

reiterated the university’s positionthat Rogers was never a student,and said UTM would fight the law-suit until it was struck down.“We have student families on the

waiting list for units,” Stirling said.“Our f i rs t pr ior i ty is to our

University of Toronto students.”However, Stirling also said the

university had forgiven Rogers’ cur-rent debt to the university – around$6,000 in unpaid rent and otherfees.

DANIEL FILIPE MARTINS

photo/Melissa Di Pasquale

Adam Rogers speaks with the press before his eviction early last Friday. Although homeless, Rogers is determined to pur-sue his $5 million lawsuit against the university.

Monday, January 28, 2008 3NNEEWWSS THE MEDIUM

Pub night: Leave your clothes at the door

Most students showed up the the Blind Duck clothesless last Thursday for theAnything But Clothes pub night organized by Me to We UTM. The event soughtto raise money for the Free The Children foundation.

photo/Vlad Glebov

Frum lecturesThe war on terror is necessary andwinnable, the United States has aone and a half party system, GeorgeW. Bush is not responsible for thedecreased populari ty of theRepublican Party, and, while youhave every r ight to feel thatChristian fundamentalism is akin toIslamic fundamentalism, you wouldbe wrong to think as much. Thesewere some of the points presentedby David Frum during a free lectureat Hart House on January 23, whichwas organized by the Hart HouseDebate Committee and the FraserInstitute.Frum, a former speechwriter to

George W. Bush, Universi ty ofToronto alumnus, and the currentadvisor to Republican presidentialhopeful Rudy Giuliani, treated stu-dents to an address focusing onparty politics in the United States,the war in Iraq and Islamic funda-mentalists. In the midst of promoting his new

book “Comeback: ConservatismThat Can Win Again,” Frum choseto forego much of the nuanced poli-cy discussion presented in the book,choosing instead to present ideasthat proved to be provocative for notonly Republicans but everyone,regardless of party affiliation. In American politics, one party

tends to enjoy considerable popular-ity over the other in terms of partyidentification among voters. Thewar in Iraq and the American econo-my has presented a strong case tosuggest it is the Democrat’s turn togovern. Frum argued that for the

Republican party to remain relevant,the income gap should be addressedand policy makers must strive todemonstrate a better understandingof environmental concerns, bothpressing issues in popular politics. Frum acknowledged students’

propensity for “grand causes” andidentified climate change as the

dominant issue in student activism. According to Frum, the

Republican party would be wise toremember that the philosophy of theschoolroom in one generation is thephilosophy of government in thenext , and they should considerreforming if they wish to be thatgovernment.

The American primaries were ofpopular interest during the lecture.Frum observed that it is Democraticpresidential hopeful Barack Obamawho evokes the Bill Clinton-likefinesse in his manner. Frum praisedBill Clinton’s ability to communi-cate with voters and to identify eventhe most poorly articulated concernsof the electorate. Frum added thatObama shows similar care in hispublic discourse. When questioned about the role of

the religious right in the Republicanparty, Frum replied: “three hundredmillion people. Two parties. Youdon’t fire people from your coali-tion.”Frum further explained that the

religious right has effectively mobi-lized their grassroots but, just likeany special interest group, if theybecome a liability they will quicklydiscover the limits to their influence.Frum stood by George W. Bush’s

ideals concerning Islamic terrorism,saying that the violent means usedby terrorists to further their causeseffectively “takes them out of thegame.”

MEREDITH LILLY

“Three hundred millionpeople. Two parties. You

don’t fire people from yourcoalition.”

-David Frum on Americanpolitics and the religious right

Write for NewsEmail Saira at news@mediumonline.ca

UTM NewsBriefs

Last Thursday, Me to We UTMserved up a campus first with theAnything But Clothes pub at the BlindDuck. Attendees were encouraged towear anything they could find at homethat was not an item of clothing.Garbage bags, newspapers, towels,and shower curtains all came throughthe door slung about bodies in manycreative ways.“This theme has always been in the

back of my head,” said organizer andMe to We UTM executive ChrisAiken. “I’ve always wanted to be partof one here at UTM.”Ticket pre-sales surpassed the 200

mark, forecasting a successful eveningand fundraiser for the club. Many ofMe to We UTM’s members set theprecedent for the evening by wearingbody paint and swimsuits to the event.Me to We UTM is a new club on

campus that provides many volunteeropportunities with services around theGTA. The club is currently fundrais-ing as part of an initiative with FreeThe Children, a University ofToronto-affiliated group. “[We’re] fundraising to send volun-

teers to Africa and India,” said Aikenof the pub night’s cause. “All thefunds from tonight are going towardthis cause, and all our fundraisingevents go toward Free The Children.”

- Julie Tyios

After reaching 300 performancesacross Canada and the United States,Vancouver-based artist MeghanGardiner performed a powerful one-woman show about drug-induced rapeto a rapt audience of UTMers onWednesday. About 30 people attendedthe performance that was held at theMiST Theater in the CCT building.The play was followed by an opendiscussion on sexual assault with apanel of professionals.Gardiner’s show teaches about

drugs such as GHB (gamma hydroxy-butyric acid) and Rohypnol (flunitraz-pam, also known as Roofies), whichare often involved in date-rape scenar-ios. Surfacing as medicinal drugs inthe 1980s, GHB and Rophynol havebeen abused in various ways over thepast two decades. Some effects ofthese drugs are blackouts, slurredspeech, and disorientation; symptomswhich can easily allow sexual preda-tors to take advantage of their victims. Gardiner enacted scenes from her

own experiences, leading up to memo-ry loss in a club. Her earnest perfor-mance and the revelation that she hadbeen a victim of date rape seven yearsago contributed to a stellar production. “I'm a working actor, the response

has been overwhelming and I get toshare my message to all women. Ihave gotten my moral justice!”Gardener said after the show. During the panel discussion several

issues were raised, such as the lack ofeducation about date rape on campusand the illusion it happens only withstrangers. Tina Garnett, communityrelations coordinator at the RapeCrisis Centre of Peel, said that 80 percent of the victims she had talked toknew their assailant to some degree.The performance tied in with the

purpose of the Ask First/No MeansNo campaign, a University of Torontoinitiative that seeks to educate andprevent date rape.

- Megha Kumar

PPaacckkeedd ppuubb ggeettss rraaccyy

AA ppoowweerrffuull ppeerrffoorrmmaannccee

War. We’re part of a nation obsessed with war. And it’s time for it to stop.John Manley’s recently released report opens with the line: "Afghanistan is at war

and Canadians are combatants." In it, he argues that our country should remaininvolved in the war in Afghanistan, despite problems with the mission. Although weare a nation that has, throughout time, committed to keeping the peace, it doesn’t seemlike the case here.The Liberals have pushed for our soldiers to be out of Afghanistan by 2009. It’s time

to end this now. Our money and our resources have been drained by this bloody battle,and our soldiers remain in the middle of combat without equipment that is necessaryfor their safety. It is morally irresponsible to send our citizens into such a death trapwithout proper defense.Although we’ve only lost a comparitively small number of lives (79 for us, 481

American) in the Afghan war since 2002, the war has cost us $4.1 billion. With prob-lems in health care and education, that kind of money could go a long way. It’s time toend the war and bring our troops - and our resources - back home.

EEDDIITTOORRIIAALL Monday, January 28, 2008 4 THE MEDIUM

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I have no inspiration right now, so I blurb. The font problem has been overcome. 10.30 and we’er slow. Saira has gone for coffee. Rob left and came back. Arts boy has been here since I woke him out of bed at 4.30. Gin Rummy rematch.You owe me $20. “Nah, it’s 18.40!” I’ll spare you some of your pride. Let the Medium Olympics begin! Nikita came and gone, Melissa is here. She brought us sushi. Some of mine disappeared. :( Cop out! I’ve been bombarding Ali withexcerpts from Jesus Christ Superstar and the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Yes, you will love musicals by the time I’m through with you. “What a fruit!” Rob says of Ali’s grande strawberries and creme frappucino blended creme. Yes,Saira has returned. Dan is the only one without a cup. “Your negligence will not be forgotten,” he swears. Finally found editorial fodder. I should read the Mississauga News more often. Ali’s playing EIC trainee tonight, consulting the CPStyle Book and all. He has a problem with “defence” versus “defense.” Good eye, Arts Boy, good eye. I await our GR rematch. Now he’s arguing it with Dan. Z versus S. Zed. Zed is dead, baby. Five scene points if you recognize the refer-ence. Yes, recognize, not recognise. Arts Boy leans over my shoulder. Smells like Singapore. He takes on the Zed challenge - and wins! Now, if only it was a question in Trivial Pursuit, you might win. “Bring it!” “I’ll beat you again - whatdo you mean again?” Yeah, exactly. You’re 0 for 3. Dan copy edits behind my monitor. All I hear is a BBC voice. Office is quiet otherwise. Everyone’s gone to work. 11.57. I brought out the glasses today, but no slithery beasts. Someday,rob, someday. The sounds of Hurra Torpedo fill the office. I got the album from iTunes. Love it. Diana is officially back from the south. Ali and Melissa crowd around Saira. I hear debating about photo processes. A writer’s desk - mine fitsthe profile right now. Surrounded by drinks, computers, keyboards, printers, paper, but no cat. I should bring in my secret weapon next week - Chuckie T, el gato volador. I’ll make her a cape. She can write my editorial for me. I am beingcalled. Rob picked up a Gideon’s Bible this past week. It has yellow pages for problems. Dan reads to me to find a passage for inspiration: “Considering divorce? Oh, you’re bitter and critical. Perhaps you’re contemplating revenge?You’re in danger or threatened? Your friends have failed you? You need guidance? You are tempted to commit suicide? Your faith is weak? You are distressed or troubled? You feel attacked? Tempted to envy? Distressed or troubled?Doubting? Thankful? Failure has come to you? You are considering divorce? You are contemplating marriage? At your wits end? You’re facing death? you’re tempted to drug abuse? You’re tempted to drink abuse? You are just retired?You are tempted to lie? Sleepless? Lonely? Choosing a career? Weary?” “I can haz cheezburger??” LOLZ. Big changes here at The Medium. Moose is our hero. Total eclipse of the heartttttttttt... crashcrashbangbangbangbangCRASH.LOVE Hurra torpedo. Everyone wonders about the Sims 2 on their desktops. Er, sorry. It’s addictive. Deer sightings have increased lately. Moose saw a troop last night. Ali brought some posters into the office. Where’s the double-sidedtape? Tejas makes t into the Mississauga News! Th e blame game is going on, I hear. Curious to see how it ends up. My alarm keeps going off from the Boggle game earlier. Not much of an ass-kicking this time, Arts Boy. You’s lucky. 8.

OpinionJULIE TYIOS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF | editor@mediumonline.ca

www.mediumonline.ca

Special thanks to our assistanteditors:

AArrttss aanndd EEnntteerrttaaiinnmmeennttAndrea GrassiRafay Agha

NNeewwss Tejas AivalliMegha Kumar

FFeeaattuurreessP. Andrew Hamilton-SmithLujayn Ali

PPhhoottooggrraapphhyyMatthew Filipowich

SSppoorrttssChristopher Sa’dSunny Pathak

Dear fellow students, faculty andmembers of the UTM Community,

On behalf of the U.T.M. StudentsUnion, I would like to start of by wel-coming you all back to another jam-packed semester. I hope you all had awell deserved break with your familiesand friends from last semester’s testsand exams. Fortunately UTMSU hasplenty of campaigns/events/socialsinstall for each one of you to keep youpreoccupied, so please come by theoffice and visit your student unionrepresentatives and get involved in theaction. I would also like to thank allmy fellow students that volunteeredand participated in WinterFest. I thinkeveryone had a great time thanks tothe hard work of Ms. Ishani Sharmaand Mr. Razan Khan. The other greatevent we had last week was the MPPanel on Tuition Fees, where studentsshared their experiences with theirelected representatives. I want to thankeveryone that came out, especially theorganizers Mr. Wasah Malik, Ms. SafiaFarouk, Ms. Saaliha Malik and the par-ticipating members of parliament.There shall be more town halls in the

future where you can all participate. I would also like to raise two very

important points in this editorial,beginning with correcting the erro-neous article of Mr. Tejas Aivalli onJanuary 21st 2008. Mr. Aivalli in hisarticle on academic societies madeinaccurate statements and alluded thatUTMSU was dragging its feet on theprocess. Let me provide some contextand a reality check. Firstly, AcademicSocieties are uniquely funded and rec-ognized academic units by the univer-sity and your student union. In 2007,Students overwhelmingly agreed tosupport the project of implementingAcademic Societies on our campus.Why? Well due to the lack of academicadvocacy caused by the secession ofUTM from the department of Art’sand Science, hence the Arts andScience Student Union. In 2006, asVice –President UTM, I secured a dol-lar to dollar match with the then Deanof Academics Mrs. Cheryl Misak. Itwas in 2007, that UTMSU under theleadership of Mr. Aun Jaffery was thequestion to support academic societiesput to each one of you through refer-endum.

Currently UTMSU’s Vice presidentAcademics and Equity Ms. AnitaChauhan was left with the task of itsimplementation in coordination withthe university. Unfortunately the pre-vious UTM Dean of Academics waspromoted to a senior administrationposition as deputy provost leaving agap in the portfolio. The current VicePresident Academic and Dean, UTM -Prof. Gage Averill was appointed onOctober 15th 2007. Under Anita’sLeadership we have worked closelywith the Dean and signed an M.O.Aon December 10th 2007. We are cur-rently working on the implementationphase of the agreement. UTMSU andthe Dean of Academics Office haveand will continue to meet regularlyover the next months to implementour agreement as soon as possible.Another inaccuracy is the role ofASAC, the Academics Society AffairsCommittee, which is the governancebody that reports to the UTMSUBoard of Directors. ASAC is responsi-ble for the allocation of funds receivedfrom the levy. It will therefore becounterintuitive for UTM or UTMSUto appoint representatives of the soci-

eties on the committee because its issimple bureaucratic and unaccount-able. Fortunately ASAC will be con-vened in the next two weeks to discussthe funding allocation, thanks to theleadership of Ms. Anita Chauhan andProfessor and Dean Gage Averill.The second matter I would like to

raise with each one of you is theUTMSU-EPUS referendum. This is aspecial moment in our union’s history.Your student union and the ErindalePart time Undergraduate Societywould like to recommend a consolida-tion of representation, services andfees. This arrangement was endorsedby both organizations through theirExecutive committee, Board ofDirectors and membership at ourrespective annual general meetings. Sowhat does this mean to each one of us?Well if the resolution is passed andendorsed by the various governancebodies. UTMSU will represent allundergraduate students (full time andpart-time). So you might wonder whyis it a good idea? Well the initial bene-fit is lower incidental fees for currentpart-time students. UTMSU would also be able to lobby

more effectively due to the strength innumbers. Part-time students will beeligible for the UPASS and other greatservices, such as club funding, 2 centphotocopying, essay printing, foodbank etc.So if you are taking less than 3.0

credits this year, you are a part-timestudent eligible to vote. It’s your deci-sion to make, so come out and makehistory and vote on WednesdayFebruary 6th and Thursday February7th between 12 p.m and 7 p.m at theSouth building and CCT link.I would like to end this week’s edi-

torial by reflecting on a quote fromMr. Thomas Jefferson who said “I likethe dreams of the future better thanthe history of the past”. Unlike Mr.Jefferson, I think its important no justto only dream, but act.

Stay tuned for more progressivechanges at UTM.

In student Solidarity,

Walied KhogaliPresident, U.T.M Students Union.

PRESIDENT ENCOURAGES STUDENT INVOLVEMENT

Visit us online atwww.mediumonline.ca

EDITORIAL

Julie TyiosYours,

Monday, January 28, 2008 5THE MEDIUMAADDVVEERRTTIISSEEMMEENNTT

One of the highlights of watchingTransformers in the cinema lastsummer was Cloverfield’s trailerbefore the show. Audiences leftthe theater teased over this upcom-ing, mysterious film from produc-er J.J . Abrams (T .V’s Los t ) ,which depicted the city of NewYork in sudden devastation, and adecapitated, headless Statue ofLiberty. Was this another sequel toGodzi l la or Armageddon? Theabsence of a ti t le in the trailerprompted more suspense, alongwith several fake or working titleswhich inc luded “Unt i t led J . J .Abrams Project” or the releasedate, “1-18-08”. Months later, itwas established that Cloverfield,d i rec ted by Matt Reeves , wasindeed a movie about a monster.The movie is very similar to that

of The Blair Witch Project, withregards espec ia l ly to how i tbegins. Via a videotape found onan army site formerly known asCentral Park, the entire movie isshot with a hand-held camera. Thevideo footage begins with twoapparent lovers named Beth(Odette Yustman ) and Rob(Michael Stahl-David ) on themorning of Apr i l 27 . Rob isbehind the video camera filmingBeth while they both decide toventure out to Coney Island. Thevideo jump cuts to a May 22 sur-prise party for Rob, who is leavingfor Japan after becoming vice-president for his company. Therest of the story is told through thepoint of view of Rob’s best friend,

Hud (T.J. Miller), who is giventhe responsibility of “document-ing” the party. Because the Mayvideo is taped over the Apr i lvideo, we occasionally go verybriefly back to the peaceful Aprilday to see Rob and Beth on theirway to Coney Island.Hud provides a fairly good doc-

umentation of the monster attackwi th occas iona l humorousremarks. The shaky camera stylei s very much s imi la r to PaulGreengrass’ work on United 93,providing the notion of “real” andallowing the audience to be rightin the middle of the chaos .Drawing parallel once again withBlair Witch, the cast of unknownsadds to this effect of making thevideo seem more rea l i s t ic .However, despite all these effortsfor realism, there were momentswhere I couldn’t shake the feelingthat everything was too plannedout.It is hard to believe that Hud

would keep the camera rolling andpointed to everything importantfor the audience to see in the midstof all the chaos without having putdown the camera for long periodsof t ime. His camera shots jus tseem too convenient – we seeeverything that needs to be seenwithout missing anything. There isalso too much of a story in theapparently “random” video thatreeks of a planned out plot bywriter Drew Goddard.The monster, revealed through

the right amount of glimpses, wasa hit and never failed to chill theoften-unsuspecting audience. Thatis, of course, until we catch a full

view of it. Lackluster animationand graphics – unor ig ina l andlooking like it stepped out of theset of a B-grade horror f l ick –make you wonder where youhaven’t seen something like thisbefore. For the most part of themovie however , the hand-heldcamera is able to smoothen out theline between what is real and whatis CGI, thus making it bearable towatch . Overa l l , th i s mons termovie is pretty thrilling, but thelit t le faults within force it justunder the satisfy-the-hype level.

6 THE MEDIUM Monday, January 28, 2008

Arts & EntertainmentALI KASIM, EDITOR | arts@mediumonline.ca

Blair Witch meets GodzillaThe Medium reviews the latest hype that is Cloverfield

JEAN LEIGH

photos/www.cinempire.com

Bluesy Monday

According to psychologists, the thirdMonday in January is the bluest day ofthe year. Broken New Year resolutions,miserable weather and, of course, thetraditional Monday blues all conspire tobring us down. What better antidote forBlue Monday than the 11th annualMaple Blues Awards.The annual awards gala was held last

Monday, January 21, 2008 at the ModClub on College Street in Toronto.Organized by the Toronto BluesSociety, and hosted on the night byDawn Taylor Watson, the MapleBlues Awards celebrates contributionsmade by Canadian artists, producers,and writers each year. Hundreds of

bodies were crammed into the modest-sized Toronto venue, creating an oldfashioned country ambience in theheart of Little Italy. The audiencetapped their toes to country and tradi-tional styles and urban Chicago rhythmand blues. The majority of the people atthe gala were grizzled blues veterans,but it was the younger generation thathad crowds whistling in their whiskey.One of the highlights of the night

was Little Miss Higgins. JoleneHiggins, 29 and hailing from smalltown Saskatchewan, surprised thecrowd with her 1930’s vintage-sound-ing performance. She plugged in a 60’sKay guitar and sung with a spiritedvoice like a young girl who grew up inthe Louisiana countryside, with just atouch of Minnie the Moocher. She isthe fresh faced and gutsy voiced younglady whom the audience fell in lovewith. Higgins however, lost out on theaward for “Best New Artist” to ThomSwift. Thom, who has been playing inthe blues circuit for over 15 years withhis trio band, Hot Toddy, was thefront-runner in the category after thesuccess of his first solo album, Into theDirt. With his soulful, traditional voice,his acoustic style takes an alternativespin on classic eastern blues.

A familiar name and face at theshow was Colin James. James has soldover 8 million albums and has won 6Junos over his ten-album career. Jamesbagged “Entertainer of the Year”, “BestElectrical Act” and “Best Recording”for Colin James and the Little Big BandIV. The baby faced 43-year-old, a pro-tégé of Stevie Ray Vaughan at the ten-der age of 18, continues to inspire andinfluence guitar players with his rawsound which spans the music of the40’s, 50’s and 60’s.

The Downchild Blues Band tookhome five trophies for “Bass Player ofthe Year”, “Male Vocalist of the Year”,“Drummer of the Year”, “Horn Playerof the Year,” and “Keyboard Player ofthe Year”. Anyone familiar with thelocal independent blues scene wouldnot be surprised at their feat.Downchild has been in the businesssince 1969 and continues to be an icon-ic and seminal Canadian blues band.Also among the seventeen awards

handed out was a special award givento Brad Wheeler of the Globe &Mail’s Review Section for “BluesBooster of the Year”. Host DawnWatson, herself a charismatic bluesqueen from Montreal, not only helddown the fort but went away with “Best

Female Vocalist Award” and sent theaudience home happy with her raw ver-sion of the Beatles’ Come Together. Asalways, the host band provided us witha sample of some of Canada’s bestblues musicians, most notably AlLerman, an extraordinary harmonicaplayer and founder of the award-win-ning Canadian blues band Fathead.Overall, blues as a musical genre is

embraced countrywide and crosses all

cultural boundaries. Toronto andMontreal relate to the more traditionalChicago blues while those in theMaritimes and the Prairies fuse countryand the blues together in the tradition ofNashville and New Orleans. Canada ison the verge of producing an interna-tional “blues star” so take advantagenow of the free-of-charge blues clubsthat Toronto has to offer and supportthis wonderful homegrown tradition.

The Medium scopesout the Maple BluesAwards, Canada’snational blues awardsprogram, held inToronto last week.

LINDSAY HOPE

photo/www.thomswift.com

Recently turned solo artist Thom Swift at the Awards Show.

Close the door. Shut the light. Hideyour Chachi-jee in the closet andmuster your might. The followingmaterial may hurt egos. I’ve beenapproached many times by angryfaces with baseball bats wanting tobeat me for my excessive, exploitive,and critical rants about Indian Culture(you haven’t silenced me yet).There is a scourge. A scourge on

satellite television. A scourge thatintoxicates and sickens, blurs andblinds, breast-feeds and bastardizesmy people, spilling daal malkani andvegetable pulao in our two eyes andbeating our third with a cricket bat. Iam talking about Indian soap operatelevision, Bollywood’s lesserknown, greedier Ayn Rand disciplethat cultivates oil barrels of stereo-types every year and trades it for easycash from plebeian viewers.Watched religiously by Indian fam-

ilies living in North America, Indianshows are finding their way on toRogers Cable. Drama series repletewith rehashed clichés, rehashed plotlines, rehashed characters, andrehashed families. They are overlydramatic, overly stupid, overlystereotypical, and say nothing aboutIndia whatsoever. But allow me to bea little more specific. Here are 14 rea-

sons why I hate Indian televisionshows:1. Every show is about a virtuous

family girl who is loved by everyonein her wealthy family except a bitchycharacter who wants to bring the fam-ily down or take over the family, forno apparent reason sometimes. The“bitch” is usually the mother-in-law,sister-in-law, sister, aunt, aunt-in-law,husband’s old lover, grandmother,grandmother-in-law – basically anyrole made for a woman. Men areexempt from being bitches – theyusually play docile doctors or busi-nessmen with no clue about what’sgoing on in the show. When they findout who the bitch is – the crappy cul-mination of every season – they usu-ally do too little to stop her; thinkingthe problem can be solved with a dra-matic slap. But it doesn’t solve theproblem, because then someone diesand we have the start of a new sea-son. There is a “bitch” in everyIndian television show. It’s a prereq-uisite. And her character never quitedies. A new one always replaces theold one. Sometimes more than one.And it’s always a woman.2. Everyone in the family dresses

like they’re about to go to a wedding– every day! Clothes consist usuallyof heavy jewellery, sparkling saris,gold necklaces, and then some. Insome scenes, they’re seen sleeping inthose clothes too. It’s just wrong.

3. Probably because of the clothes,characters display very little or nobody language. They just stand. Theydon’t even look at each other whenthey speak, facing the camera or theopen spaces instead. They’re almostlike puppets, with no one pulling thestrings.4. The camera suddenly zooms in

to every character’s face to highlighttheir reaction. As a technique this isfine, but not when it happens in prac-tically every scene; and in accordanceto the most insignificant piece of dia-logue. Characters widen their eyes tocreate tension. Very annoying, and anexcellent tool to waste time – a half-hour show consists of twenty-minutesof zoom-ins.5. The father figure in every family

is usually old and sick. He is the go-to guy for sympathy. He has multipleheart attacks throughout the series butmiraculously survives all of them.When the show is nearing its climaxand the “bitch” is about to be defeat-ed, the heart attack kills him andwe’re back to square one. The fatherfigure is usually clueless as to what ishappening in the household.6. When the women are pregnant,

it’s always revealed in dramatic fash-ion (usually before they’re about toabort it). If they don’t abort it, then atragic accident puts them in the hos-pital and the baby either has to beaborted or surgically removed while

the mother dies. The audience cannever actually tell when the womenare pregnant because there are nophysical features to show it. It couldbe the third trimester and her belly isstill flat! The baby just pops out oneday and “poof” we have a new char-acter who ages three years in twoepisodes.7. When the children characters are

supposedly three years old, the direc-tor gets a nine year old actor to playthem. They tend to have very stupidfiller lines.8. Daughters/daughters-in-law are

frequent runaways due to disputeswith elders. This lasts for an episodeor two until they get killed in a carcrash or return home after learningtheir father is about to die from aheart attack.9. Everyone has cell phones with

really outdated ringtones (MIDIfiles). Every person’s ring tone is thesame.10. The extras on the show are ter-

rible actors. In extended hospitalscenes (which are frequent), the nursewould talk like she’s reading from thescript.11. Characters and family do not

look alike. Some are fair skinned,others are dark skinned.12. When characters are by them-

selves, they talk to themselves.Frequent monologues and voiceoversare cornerstones of the Indian soap

opera. They “think” really dumb andredundantly in their monologues,clueless as to what the “bitch” isplanning or if there is a “bitch” at all.The “bitch” has the most monologuesbecause she has to “connive” in orderfor us to know she is a bitch. Wordsspeak louder than actions in Indiantelevision.13. Characters’ friends usually

(and I mean 90% of the time) becomefamily as the show progresses aftermarrying a family member.14. Seasons prolong through five

years of show. Episodes air usuallyfive days a week. We do not knowwhen they get time to film.I love you, India, I really do. But

stop constantly making the sameshow over and over again. The sameshow that reinforces tired, old, con-servative clichés that appeal only toold women in saris who suffer fromdiabetes, and clearly attempt to con-vert the new generation to be virtuouswhen they clearly are not (thinkBollywood and its scantily clad musicvideos). Stop making consumercocaine programming that gets ushooked but does nothing for us. Startwriting from your hearts. To all whowatch Indian Television; we need tostart craving creativity, not blandnaivety. Be critical of what you watchand demand change. Now, if you’llexcuse me, I have to prepare for somebaseball bats.

Monday, January 28, 2008 7THE MEDIUMAARRTTSS

The scourge: 14 reasons why I hateIndian television showsASHISH SETH AND ABHISHEK SETH

Last week, the Brussels-based HealthConsumer Powerhouse (HCP) and theFrontier Centre for Public Policy (FCPP)released a report stating that Canada ranksat the bottomof a 30-nation survey.Canada’s value for money ratio was dis-

mal, the report concluded, although thepatient care outcomes were average.Overall, we ranked “poor to adequate,” inthe language of the report. This sort ofwording might make Canadians feel asthough their system is in some sort of a cri-sis but how many of us - free-market con-servatives excluded - would considerCanada’s health care to be poor to ade-quate? It is worth pointing out that theHCP is a European organization that trackssuch things as medical outcomes andvalue-for-money when comparing the pub-lic health systems of Europe. The FCPPdecided to compare Canada’s health caresystem to those found in Europe, which isnot exactly a random sample. According tothe World Health Organization’s (WHO)2006 ranking of health care systems in 191nations, the top 30 includes nearly everyEuropean nation, including France (first),Italy (second), Spain (third), Austria (fifth),and the UK (eighteenth), to name a few.

Many of the top ten nations are in factsmall city-states, such as Luxembourg,Malta and Singapore, which further distortthe rankings.Regardless, Canada’s ranking in the

WHO survey was thirtieth overall, and inthe HCP/FCPP survey it twenty-third.Suddenly, the headline “Canada ranks atthe bottom of health care survey” seems alittle bit extreme. So why exaggerate thecondition of Canadian health care, makingit seem as though the system is on the pathto destruction? Clearly there is an agendathat prevents us from having a sensible,objective discussion about health care.It may be the presence of the United

States just south of Canada, where publichealth care is seen by some as a plot to stealAmerican liberties and freedoms.Republican presidential candidate RudyGiuliani, former mayor of New York,wrote in the Boston Globe last August 3:“the healthcare system is being draggeddown by decades of government-imposedmandates (and) wasteful bureaucracy,” andconcludes that only tax cuts and incentiveswill fix the US system. This sort ofinflamed rhetoric from south of the bordermay be what causes the Canadian debateto move away from statistics and figuresalone. There are certain groups in Canada,such as the right-wing Fraser Institute and

C.D. Howe Institute, which also insist thatincreased corporate and private involve-ment in Canada’s health care system willalleviate its inadequacies. The solutionsproposed by these groups look very similarto those used in the United States, where“users” – not patients - buy their own pri-vate health coverage, and the governmentpays for only the very poorest members ofsociety. At the very least, they say,Canadians should be able to see a privateclinic and send the bill to the government,so that they can get treatment as soon aspossible - if they can afford it.

These right-wing groups argue that apublic system destroys the freedom ofhard-working, successful Canadians, whoare forced to wait in line with everyoneelse for health care, when in theUS anyonecan get care right away - if they can affordit. “Allowing private hospitals to competefor the delivery of publicly funded care is aproven policy that would improve the stateof Medicare for all Canadians,” accordingto an article on the Fraser Institute’s web-site. Sounds good, right?Turning again to the WHO health care

rankings, just out of curiosity, how did theUnited States score? Despite the highestspending levels, as measured as a propor-tion ofGDP, of any nation on earth, theUSranked thirty-seventh overall – just ahead of

communist Cuba. Furthermore, the overallhealth of Americans was ranked seventy-second, compared to Canada’s thirty-fifth,and even though they spend a huge amounton health care as a nation, 16 per cent ofAmericans have no health coverage at all.This is themiracle of the private health caredelivery system.According to anOctober 13, 2002 article

in theNewYorkTimes: “When health carebecomes a commodity, the criterion forreceiving it is ability to pay, not medicalneed… the hallmark of the [US] system isthe extent to which health funds are divert-ed to overhead and profits.”In order to remain profitable and com-

petitive, US insurance companies andmed-ical HMOs play a game of “hot potato”with the most expensive patients – thosewho need the most care – and this gamerequires lots and lots of management andoversight. Perhaps a private system is notautomatically more efficient just because itis “free-market” and run by businesses. Infact, statistical evidence seems to suggestthe opposite: it becomes less efficient whenopened to the freemarket. Thismay be onereason why this issue is so hotly debated inCanada – the facts are counter-intuitive towhatwemay believe, and so arguments aredistorted by emotion and faulty logic.So where does the truth lie? Should

Canada try to restrict all private involve-ment in health care, as the Liberals andNDP are trying to do right now with theunfortunately named “Canadian PublicHealth Care Protection Initiative?” Shouldwe considermore ofwhat is called “P3,” orPrivate-Public Partnerships, such as wasused to buildBramptonCivicHospital. Thefacility has apparently gone $300 millionover budget? Aren’t we involving privatebuilders and operators to avoid cost over-runs, which were commonplace in the pastwhen the government handled all costs andconstruction alone?Personally, I don’t think more private

involvement will solve the problembecause there really isn’t a problem.Canada has one of the best health care sys-tems in the world, and it is amazing thatanyone could try to say otherwise. Despiteour vast size, disparate and aging popula-tion, it is quite an achievement forCanadians to receive this level of care ascheaply aswe do. Yes, costs are increasing,but that is due to many factors, such asthose mentioned above - an aging popula-tion especially and also increasing pharma-ceutical costs, over which the governmenthas no control. Finding solutions to theseobstacles will not be easy, but we must notbe distracted by empty and misleadingarguments for greater private investment.

FeaturesMonday, January 28, 20088 THE MEDIUM

NIKITA KING, EDITOR | features@mediumonline.ca

Ahealth care system in need of healing?P. ANDREW HAMILTON SMITHASSISTANT FEATURES EDITOR

In literary heaven allis done for theheck of it,

and problems only arisefor the sakeof a novel

or short story.Last Sunday Nabokov

was puttingthe finishing toucheson a text he describedas pure delectation,in the sense that thereader had twooptions when

confronted with it.The first is the pathevery reader takes,

starting at the beginningand ending on the last

page,all the while paying

attention to character andsetting descriptions;the second method

consists in leaving plotand action behind,concentrating onenjoying the wordsthemselves,

and how they arearranged and manipulated.His story was later actedout by Capote and Camusunder the title Lovelylevitating liaison oflight bulb flashes.

-Trevor Abes

Creative Corner

illustration/Gabriella Guo

Literallyheaven

Do you ever have a moment where you’refrozen with disturbance, when you’re tooafraid to move, when it might be a night-mare you’ll never wake from? Yourthoughts are blank and all you can hear isthe rapid blinking of your eyelids. Thatwas the verymoment that mademe realizeI would never ever watch Happy TreeFriends again.For those who are unfamiliar with the

TV show, brace yourself. The showalways starts off with adorable and rathercolourful cartoon characters with puppyeyes that you can’t resist. But as cute asthey are, throughout the show, they eithersuffer gruesome deaths or slaughter eachother. Yes, it’s a guts-galore showdownwith heads being ripped off and bloodspurting, alongwith torturous screaming.

Now I don’t particularly like watchingpointless gore in movies, yet I have alwaysloved innocent and fun cartoons. So here’sthe strange part - though I initially foundthe show totally inappropriate, I couldn’tunderstand why I would still watch it, andworse, laugh at it. Fascinated with thisstrange behavior, I decided to researchmore about what had just happened to me.Finally, I found out that I had fallen victimto a very popular psychological phenome-non: classical conditioning.Classical conditioning is defined as a

type of learning in which a stimulusacquires the potential to evoke a responsethat was originally evoked by another stim-ulus. It was first discovered around 1900by a Russian physiologist named IvonPavlov. Pavlov was initially just trying tostudy the role of saliva in the digestive sys-tem of dogs. He would present meat pow-der in front of the dogs and collect theirsaliva in a tube. However, he noticed thatthe dogs would salivate before the meatpowder was even presented to them.Instead, the dogs would start salivating tothe clicking sound of a device that wasused to present the meat powder to thedogs. The dogs would normally not startsalivating to a clicking sound, yet whenthis soundwas paired with the presentationofmeat powder, the dogswere conditionedto salivate to the clicking sound of thedevice.Applying the rules of classical condi-

tioning to my reaction to Happy TreeFriends, I noticed that I had always foundthe characters in the show funny becauseof the way they looked. For example, thecharacter that always made me laugh onsight was a little baby blue elephant thatwore nerdy glasses. I then realized thatwhen these funny-looking cartoon charac-ters were paired with violence, I was con-ditioned to elicit the same emotionalresponse of laughter toward the violence.As weird as my behavior may sound,

classical conditioning is rather common.Psychologists have proved that classicalconditioning can even play a key role inshaping other emotional responses such asfear. Case studies of patients sufferingfrom phobias suggest that many irrationalfears can be traced back to experiences that

involved classical conditioning.Back in 1920, John B. Watson, an

American psychologist, performed a ratherunethical experiment with an eleven-month-old baby called Albert. Like manybabies, little Albert wasn’t afraid of a rat.However, Watson decided to pair the ratwith a loud frightening sound so thatAlbertwould be conditioned to fear the rat.Every time the rat was placed before

Albert, Watson would present a loud, star-tling sound to scare Albert. After aboutseven pairings, Albert had an adverse reac-tion whenever he saw the rat by itself.However, beforeWatson could reverse thefear, Albert’s mother took him away.Apparently, Albert had not only becomefearful of rats, but he also became fearfulof anything furry: fur coats, a Santa Clausbeard, and even hair.There are many common phobias that

result from classical conditioning. Forexample, someone may have almostdrowned in a pool at a young age. Thepairing of such a traumatic experiencewiththe sight of pool water can eventually leadto the person to elicit a fearful responsetoward being in thewater.Classical conditioning is also routinely

used to manipulate emotions in persuasiveefforts. Advertising is a popular means oftaking advantage of classical conditioning.A typical advertisement for a new beerbrand may feature a voluptuous womansqueezing the beer bottle against her chestand her lips pressing against the bottle’sneck. According to the theory of classicalconditioning, this image plays on themen’s sexual arousals. Eventually, thesame arousal evoked from the image of theprovocative woman in the ad can be elicit-ed whenever the man comes across thebeer brand – eventually persuading him tobuy the brand.The world of business and politics also

makes use of classical conditioning. Finewines, luxurious restaurants, and luxurycars are often used to entertain possibleclients. Politicians almost always show upat all kinds of pleasant public events thatoften have nothing to do with their publicservice obligations. In both cases, the pro-moters are trying to pair themselves withpositive events, so that they are associatedwith pleasant emotions.But pleasant isn’t always the case.

Perhaps the ultimate political perversion ofthe principles of classical conditioningoccurred in Nazi Germany. The Nazisused many propaganda techniques to cre-ate prejudice against Jews and Gypsies.One such strategy was the repeated pairingof disgusting, repulsive imageswith stereo-typical pictures of Jews. For example, theNazis would show alternating pictures ofrats and roaches over filthy garbage along-side pictures of stereotypical Jewish faces.This was an attempt to condition theGerman population to have negative emo-tional responses to Jews and associatethemwith vermin.

It is not a thing for politics of the past,however. In 2000, there was much uproaragainst a 30-second TV advertisement forPresident Bush, which dealt with the issueof prescription funding for the elderly.Alongside images of vice president AlGore, the ad showed fragments of the slo-gan "Bureaucrats decide." The word"RATS" was flashed for a split secondbefore the complete word "bureaucrats"appeared below Al Gore’s face. ThoughBush dismisses the scene as “accidentaland bizarre,” experts on political advertis-ing say that the word “RATS” was verycarefully superimposed.Another concern similar to the abuse of

general classical conditioning is the contro-versy associated with subliminal messagespaired with products. This is an uncon-scious type of classical conditioning wheresubliminal perception is involved.Subliminal perception is the registration

of sensory input without conscious aware-ness. The controversy began in 1957 whenan executive named James Vicary placedhidden messages such as “eat popcorn” ina film showing at a theatre in New Jersey.The messages were superimposed on onlya few frames of the film and flashed by

quickly and imperceptibly. Vicary claimedin the press that popcorn sales increased by58 per cent.Since that time, books have been pub-

lished claiming that sexual words anddrawings are embedded subliminally inmagazine advertisements to elicitfavourable unconscious reactions fromconsumers. Religious overtones wereadded to this controversy in the 1980swhen subliminalmessages that encourageddevil worship were allegedly found in cer-tain rock music. It always occurred inmusic that was played backward, an effectknown as backwardmasking. In 1982, LedZeppelin’s song “Stairway toHeaven”wascriticized for demonic messages that wereheard when the song was played back-ward. Critics claimed such messages couldbe heard as “the Lord turns me off - there'sno escaping it. Here's to my sweet Satan.”However, whether this was coincidence orintentional by the band is still amystery.The Starbucks logo is considered by

some to carry a controversial subliminalimage. Though Starbucks claims that theirlogo features a "twin-tailed mermaid,"some critics go as far to say that the logo isa subliminal message of a woman holding

her legs up in a sexual position. The critics’theories states that this sexual logo uncon-sciously plays on a person’s arousal thatthen becomes paired with Starbucks mer-chandise, enticing people to buy their prod-ucts.To date, however, there is no published

evidence that subliminal messages areentirely that effective. Considering theenormous sums that advertisers invest inusing these kinds of marketing techniques,it seems reasonable to speculate that indi-vidual companies have data on their specif-ic practices to demonstrate their efficacy.But these data are notmade available to thepublic.If we’re constantly bombarded with ads

aired on the radio, TV shows, and printedin newspapers andmagazines, how canweprevent our emotions from being manipu-lated? Well, trying to avoid magazines,breaking away from the internet and con-stantly making an excuse to re-fill yourpopcorn bowl every time a TV commer-cial pops up is not that realistic. Only byconsciously exploring these undercovertactics can we finally see what we need tosee, rather than what advertisements wantus to see.

Monday, January 28, 2008 9FFEEAATTUURREESS THE MEDIUM

Mind the manipulation of marketingBY NIKITA KINGFEATURES EDITOR

By pairing classy images with smoking, advertisments can mentally conditionyou to think smoking is classy.

photos/Melissa Di Pasquale

Does the Starbucks logo have a subliminal message of a woman holding herlegs up in a sexual position ?

The controversy began in 1957when an executive namedJames Vicary placed hiddenmessages such as “eat

popcorn” in a film showing at atheatre in New Jersey.

Vicary claimed in the press thatpopcorn sales increased

by 58 per cent.

Everybody - American Gladiatorsis back, so let’s take a minute andsoak it in.For those of you who haven’t

seen the show from the eightiesand nineties, the American televi-sion program displays amateur ath-letes who compete agianst eachother, as well as against the show'sown "Gladiators." It’s a battle ofstrength and agility with a verycatchy theme song that will leaveyou humming and whistl ing forhours.In the ear l ie r vers ion of the

show, American Gladiators createdthe impress ion of a leg i t imatesport ing event , s imilar to whatwrestling does. There were colour-

commentators calling the play-by-plays, providing informative com-mentary, and analyzingthe contestants whilethey competedamongst themselves, aswell as the Gladiators.The new NBC ver-

sion of the show, host-ed by Hulk Hogan andLaila Ali , add a newkind of spunk to theonce-popular show.Hogan should actuallybe the solo hos t asLaila doesn’t seem tobe hos t -wor thy wi thher cliché commentarythat doesn’t add muchto the viewer’s experi-ence. Hogan’s reputa-tion gives the viewerthe unique “Hulk-a-maniac” exper ience

that wrestling fans became accus-tomed to throughout his charismat-

ic pro-wrestling career.So what’s new? They’ve added a

pool to the joust event. It looksawesome and creates a hilariousmood when a contestant splashesdown, as opposed to the corny gymmats from the earlier version.Then there is “Conquer.” This

event is held in mid-air on a plexi-glass platform. Very entertaining,and looks extremely dangerous asit is a long fall down if you gettossed. The event is pretty simple,you wrestle with a very high risk offalling.The bigges t change from the

older version involves the femaleGladiators. They are much hotterthan before. I know the formerfemales had the old fluffy hair-styles that in retrospect look com-pletely ridiculous, but they were allmuscular, butchy, and could proba-bly toss me a beating in a second.

So it’s a lot easier on the eye nowwhen you tune into NBC .Now, as a huge fan of the show,

I go against many of the reviewstha t don’ t qui te apprec ia te theGladiators like I do, but I don’tcare . The jous ts , obs tac les ,wrestling, ball-loaded guns that areawesome to watch when they spitout ball after ball at the contestants(pretty cool), and highly attractivefemales make the show worthwatching.There is one problem though: the

show is only scheduled for eightepisodes with no guarantee of asecond season. So for those of youwho are used to watching the clas-sic Gladiators on ESPN Classic,don’t get too thri l led about theshow’s return because it seems thatyou might have to default back toESPN to get your Gladiator fix.

SportsMonday, January 28, 200810 THE MEDIUM

ROBERT SILVA, EDITOR | sports@mediumonline.ca

Gladiators unite

ROBERT SILVASPORTS EDITOR

It’s not a giant Q-tip, it’s a weapon

Meet Crush. The picture speaks for itself.

photo/nbc.com

11THE MEDIUMMonday, January 28, 2008SSPPOORRTTSS

photo/Rickey Cheongcaption/Sunny Pathak and Christopher Sa’d

On Wednesday, January 23,the Eagles opened the secondhalf of their season with aconvincing win against SkuleA. Later that week, the Eaglesplaced 4th in a regional tour-nament, losing to Humber forthe eighth consecutive time.

The Eagles take on the UTSCRacoons this Wednesday at 9p.m. In their previous meet-ing, players from both sideswere suspended for an on-court fight. The Racoons andEagles will battle for worldsupremacy among the animalfamily at the RAWC.

If you’re wondering why TheMedium didn’t use a picturefrom the game or the tourna-ment, both assistant editors -Sunny Pathak and ChristopherSa’d - were in Atlanta enjoyingthe festivities of the NHL All-Star game, where the beerflowed like wine and thewomen flocked to beat writersto sweet sounds of JonCapistrano.

Sports editor Rob Silva waslast seen in Las Vegas, wherehe was training with hiscousin, Anderson Silva, for hisfuture MMA fight. The Silvafamily will be kicking ass andtaking names.

Men’s Div 1 basketball team finish4th in regional tournament

In UTM’s largest basketball recreationdivision, ten teams battled it out over thepast nine weeks to determine the Men’sDivision 2 Basketball Champions. In the semi-finals, powerhouse Mike &

Friends, led by the Mikes, took onUTMAC’s Entourage. In a back and forth game, Ambrish

Patel led Entourage, scoring 31 in the 53-50 upset victory. Mike Hickey led Mike &Friends with 26 points. In the other semi-finals, Division 1 play-

er Neil Sehra of I Can’t Believe It’s NotButter, with a game high 34 points, couldnot overcome the balanced attack of theCarebears, ending in a 48-40 loss. In the finals, Entourage came out with

energy as they were determined to“Ambrish” the Carebears. However, theCarebears put the pressure on theEntourage, building a 10-point lead by thehalf.

The Carebears took care of business inthe second, going on on to upset Entourage47-35. Ivan lead the Carebears with 15points, while Patel recorded 20 of his own. Special thanks goes out to all the players

in a very successful and entertaining sea-son. Congratulations to the championCarebears for a hard-earned victory.

Carebears stare theirway to a Division 2ChampionshipMIKE VAN

photo/images.google.ca

A Carebear prospect looks to becomestarter for next season.

photo/images.google.ca

UTM’s Women's Lacrosse teams ta r t ed t he s ea son o f f p l ay ingagainst the a lways-compet i t iveNew Co l l ege (NC) , l a s tWednesday night . The Eagles ,led by Jessica Doberstein, AlizaMack la i , Ka t e Ne l son , andS tephan i e Weg ie r ack , s co redquickly showing NC that this wasan improved Eag l e t e am tha tshouldn’t be taken lightly. NC fought back, however, as

their veterans took advantage ofthe Eagles’ rookie line, scoringthree quick tallies.

Unwi l l i ng t o g ive up , UTMbulked up its defence and stoppedall of NC's offensive attacks forthe rest of the half. The first halffinished with a yellow card, onemore goal by Adrianna Dziuba,and a 5-3 lead for UTM.NC got lucky in the second half

with two fortunate goals, and afew ques t ionab le ca l l s aga ins tUTM by the refs. With the gameknot ted up a t f ive , bo th teamshustled and worked hard creatingan intense game for the rest of theway.NC scored another two goals

creating a 7-5 lead. UTM howev-er, kept their composure and werede t e rmined t o even t he s co re .

S t ephan i e Weg ie r ak and Ka t eNelson each scored their secondgoals of the evening to t ie thegame at seven goals apiece. Thegame ended as a 7-7 draw.Spec i a l men t i on goes t o

Heather Sabiston for her intenseplaying throughout the night—herpass ionate defence in t imidatedeven the referees, who presentedher a ye l low card for her hardwork. Overall, it was a great start to

the season. Good work to all theladies who came out and played towin (o r a t l e a s t t i e ) . Spec i a lthanks to those on the sidelineswho came ou t to suppor t the i rteam.

Women’s Div 1 lacrossecome from behind to earnwell-deserved draw ADRIANNA DZIUBA

SPORTS wants your input.Contact Rob Silva at

sports@mediumonline.ca and tell us what you want to read about through

the month of February. Do it for the Carebears.

Monday, January 28, 200812 THE MEDIUMSSPPOORRTTSS

With the Super Bowl just one week away,all talk is about what may be the biggestgame of the decade. A national show-down between AFC champions the NewEngland Patriots and NFC champions theNew York Giants will take place February3 in Arizona, home of Super Bowl XLII.Over the last week, the media focus has

been on New England’s star quarterbackTom Brady and whether or not his injuryis valid, or if it’s just a theoretical conspir-acy to disorient his opponents and view-ers. Tom Brady is Super Bowl XLII’s main

focus. If the Patriots win, they will notonly be crowned champions for the fourthtime in the last seven seasons, they will beengraved in history as one of the best (ifnot the best) team ever assembled. With awin Sunday, the Patriots will go undefeat-ed in 16 regular season games and unde-feated in their three playoff games, leavingthem with a 19-0 record, something whichno team has ever accomplished. Those rooting for the underdog need

not be disappointed. Although it mayseem like a long shot for the Giants to winthe Super Bowl by defeating the undefeat-ed Patriots, it is a possibility.

A similar situation occurred during the2007 World Series. A late season burst bythe Colorado Rockies got them into theplayoffs, and also a trip to the champi-

onship. Never have so many Colorado jer-seys sold in one season. Everyone wantedthe Rockies to win, except for the RedSox fans, who saw their team sweep theRockies in the final. Just like the Red Sox,the Patriots have been on top since dayone of the season. The Giants got their lateseason burst and went on a winning spreeright through the playoffs. At the beginning of the season, the

media hit up the New England Patriotsand their coach Bill Belichick for thewrong reason. In week three, it was saidthat the Patriots cheat their wins by havingmembers of the team secretly video tapesignals made by the opposing teams’offense and defense, and were headlinedas cheaters. Coach Belichick denied allrumours, citing that the team only viewedauthorized game tapes.The two teams have different goals.

New England should continue to play theway they did early in the season, and notlet the public get to them. They have tofocus on playing as a regular team, theway they did in the three previous SuperBowl wins. If not, they may fall apart andallow room for defeat.The Giants must treat this game as any

other game. They have to have all eyes onBrady at all times. They have to do exact-ly what they did in week 17 to keep thegame close, and they will heavily rely onEli Manning to step it up and play like hisbrother Peyton in last year’s Super Bowl.The key to a Giants victory is the runninggame of Brandon Jacobs and AhmadBradshaw. If the Giants can balance outthe running of both Jacobs and Bradshaw,and if Eli can recognize the Pats defence,New England will have their hands full inArizona.In retrospect, this will surely be the

game of the decade. Most likely, TomBrady will play like a superstar quarter-back. The Giants defence will do all that ispossible to stop Brady, but history is onthe line and we may just witness a piece ofhistory, but will the Giants complete theirCinderella story?

Prediction:

Tough to call a big game like this, but Ithink the underdog will be out and howl-ing all night long on February 3rd, and theNew York Giants will be Super BowlChamps.

David vs. Goliath: A Super Bowl previewROBERT KIELEK

Is Tom Brady really injured? photo/nfl.com