W E D N E S D A Y OCTOBER 2, 2002
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXXXVII, No. 83
An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891
www.browndailyherald.com
U. to hire diversity chief, Simmons tells faculty Arming Brown Police may take two years, Simmons says BY JULIETTE WALLACK
President Ruth Simmons outlined her plans for hiring a director of diversity, discussed University financial shortfalls and said that arming Brown Police could take up to two years at Tuesday’s faculty meeting. The University was one of few institutions with a positive return on its endowment last year, Simmons told a packed Salomon 001. Though the return of 0.3 percent on the endowment was “very modest,” Simmons said, it was not disappointing given that the average return for universities was minus 4 percent. Simmons said one of the reasons for the positive return in the midst of such a poor economic climate was a change in the investment office that allowed officials to diversify the University’s investment portfolio. Simmons said she is now focused on two areas of the University’s budget: fundraising and financial aid. She would like to increase significantly the number of donors who give to Brown each year, she said. She is confident that the number of donors and the size of the Brown Alumni Fund can be increased, especially see FACULTY, page 8 Ellen Bak / Herald
Gilat Bayne and Aman Chole of the Eskesta Dance Theater perform traditional shoulder dance in Solomon 101.
Ethiopian dance troupe performs for packed house in effort to share culture BY GEORGE HAWS
When Jordan Elpern-Waxman ‘04, president of the Jewish Multicultural Club, first arranged for the Ethiopian-Israeli Eskesta Dance Theater to perform on campus, he was worried, he said. With “as few as 60 people” having previously attended JMC events, the prospect of empty seats in Salomon 101 seemed a real possibility. But the dance troupe performed to a full house Tuesday night, with about 600 in attendance. They prayed, stomped, shook, swayed, sang, kicked, chanted and otherwise gyrated for about an hour in an effort to share their culture — that of the Beta-Israelis or Ethiopian Jews — drawing a standing ovation. Eskesta means “shoulder dance” in Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia. Ruth Eshel, the troupe’s artistic director, gave this name to the troupe when she founded it at the University of Haifa in the mid-1990s. Eshel, a lecturer in multidisciplinary studies at the University of Haifa, is a former professional dancer, choreographer and a dance critic for the Hebrew daily Ha’aretz. She has danced with many companies, including the prestigious Batsheva Dance Company. The dance program, called the “Dances of the Beta-Israel: Past and Present,” focused mainly on shoulder dancing, or eskesta, in which the shoulders “undulate vertically” and “move hor-
izontally as does the head,” according to the dance program. The dances then increased “in speed and intensity,” and the dancers’ shoulders began “to jerk vertically, horizontally, or backward, sometimes twisting.” The performance, presented by the University of Haifa and the American Society of the University of Haifa, began with a series of Beta-Israeli prayers chanted in Ge’ez, an ancient tongue now used only for prayer. These prayers, passed from generation to generation by oral tradition, are the most important aspect of the Beta-Israeli culture, Eshel said. “This is a unique Jewish heritage,” she said. “Eskesta is the only group in the world to sing these prayers today.” The group also incorporated other forms of traditional and modern Ethiopian dance, including a mélange of Ethiopian tribal dances, a “Love Duet” and a modern dance in which the members wore jeans and t-shirts. For most of the performance, however, the dancers wore traditional Amharan dress. “I always liked to … use national fabrics,” Eshel said. The troupe aims to preserve the community’s ancient liturgies, bringing folklore to dance and creating artistic dance based on movements which characterize the community, Eshel said. And that community has undergone
great trials just to exist today. Eshel described a kingdom that existed from the 6th to 16th century and evolved from an ancient Judaic tribe. But as the Christian Inquisition came from the east and Islam came from the north, the kingdom was squeezed into a smaller and smaller area and eventually collapsed, she said. The remaining Jewish tribes clung desperately to their heritage despite intense persecution, but and when they heard about Operation Moses, the Israeli government’s plan to liberate them, they undertook a second Exodus across the Sudan desert to waiting Israeli aircraft — and many thousands died along the way, she said. Today, Israel is home to around 80,000 Beta-Israelis. Of the members of the Eskesta Dance Theater, one trekked across the Sudan desert when she was seven, and two were born in in that desert. One dancer’s family took two-and-a-half years to complete its journey. “We are very happy to be in the U.S., especially Providence,” said Aman Chole, a student in the Departments of Geography and Multidisciplinary Studies at the University of Haifa. “We bring two countries and two cultures (together) on one stage.” The troupe has already visited Chicago, Milwaukee, Decater, Columbus, New York and Boston. This is their first U.S. tour.
I N S I D E W E D N E S D AY, O C T O B E R 2 , 2 0 0 2 Professor Marion Orr to head professional political scientist association page 3
Award winning novelist describes the threedimensional sentence to students page 5
Long-time activist Eric Mann discusses racial and social injustice and calls students to action page 5
Experts highlight dangers of US-led invasion of Iraq BY JULIA ZUCKERMAN
Despite the danger involved in a U.S. invasion of Iraq and the possible ineffectiveness of such an invasion, the Bush administration will likely receive broad international support for war, a panel of experts said last night in a public discussion, “The Politics of War with Iraq.” Panelists offered analysis and opinions on the proposed invasion from the perspective of strategy, international theory, U.S. domestic politics and international responses in Europe and the Middle East. Professor of Political Science P. Terrence Hopmann said the Bush administration has not shown the current situation to meet conditions to justify a preemptive strike. Under “just war” theory, the primary conditions of such a strike are that the targeted country pose a “direct and imminent threat” to the attacker, and that the strike be undertaken as a “last resort,” Hopmann said. Iraq, still struggling to rebuild its nuclear weapons program after the United Nations Special Commission dismantled it, does not pose an imminent threat to the United States he said. Neta Crawford, an associate research professor at the Watson Institute, said a U.S. strategy of pre-emption could prove counterproductive. “The military elements of the strategy emphasize pre-emption to an unprecedented degree,” she said. “Pre-emption may not be the best prevention.
see IRAQ, page 9
TO D AY ’ S F O R E C A S T Sarah Green ’04 says new legislation gives unborn fetuses more rights than moms column,page 11
Men’s cross country places third out of 25 in New York City tournament sports,page 12
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