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SUS reforms: What YOU need to know! P. 4
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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012
Shot through the heart
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A VERY SPECIAL VALENTINE’S DAY SPECIAL Super PACs and US politics: free speech or threat? P. 8
Crossword! Horoscope! Comic! P. 13
p. 10 Camogie: a guide to Ireland’s national sport P. 12
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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012
EDITORIAL
Radioactive ploughshares: War, peace, and Goya Paul ESAU THE CASCADE For those of you who missed the January 25 issue of The Cascade, and thus News Editor Grace Romund’s excellent article on the subject, the Abbotsford Reach gallery is currently hosting an exhibit of works by the 19th century Spanish artist Francisco Goya y Lucientes. The exhibit, consisting mostly of a series of prints collectively entitled The Disasters of War, illustrates Goya’s recollection of the Peninsular War (18081814) between French, Spanish, and British forces. The title of the collection sums up the content of the 80 prints, which incorporate the memories of rapes, murders, atrocities, and corruption into the collective disasters of war. I visited the gallery last Saturday, both to view the exhibit and to attend the accompanying Peace Symposium entitled “Conversations on War & Peace.” As a Mennonite and apprentice military historian (a contradiction if I’ve ever seen one), I was interested both in the content and the apparent oxymoron. The members of my ethnic community tend to dialogue about peace, the members of my academic community tend to analyze war, rarely are the two, in their mutual exclusivity, brought together. Goya, the exhibit claimed, was one of the first artists to exchange the glorification of warfare for a portrayal of its destructive realities. His prints have ambiguous titles such as “I saw it (Yo Lo Vi)”
or “This is bad (Esto es malo),” and depict hulking soldiers and weeping, diminutive civilians. The prints themselves are two centuries old, but the message is timeless. The Symposium, by contrast, addressed the complicated modern war, and its influence on our pursuit of an increasingly tangible peace. The important message, for me, was that of Ernie Regehr, who made the controversial claim that war is not a “natural phenomena.” Regehr is co-founder of Project Ploughshares, an Ontariobased NGO with 30 years of advocacy for peace, reconciliation and justice. His assertions that “war is preventable,” and humanity is “not condemned to repeat patterns of destruction” are challenging ones, since society generally bemoans war as an evil, but accepts it as a reality. Homo Sapiens have, for the duration of their existence, waged increasingly disastrous wars, in what seems suspiciously like a repeating pattern of destruction. Regehr pointed out (controversially) that all 26 current wars occurring globally are civil rather than inter-state conflicts, implying this is progressive step. Perhaps, as Regehr concludes, the efficiency and potency of war machines, coupled with a more dynamic and responsible international community, is making warfare increasingly difficult–but will it end? Will there come a time when we can look at Goya’s works with a clean conscience and see them only as historical relics? There is a significant tradition
in the West which saw and continues to see the Atom Bomb as the beginning of the end of armed conflict. The assumption was that the risks were simply too great, that world leaders would eventually see reason and give up the idea of ever returning to the battlefield. Intrinsic to this hope was an equal fear that those leaders would not see reason, and the world as we know it, would come to an end. Alexei Summers had a compelling piece on the contemporary consequences of this “Cold War mentality” on page 7, yet I had my own experience with apocalyptic fear last week in the anecdotes of former Canadian Reserves member and UFV staff Michael Van Drunen. I pondered Michael’s experience of the Cold War throughout Regehr’s presentation, trying to reconcile Regehr’s notion of an improving global stability with Mike’s story. As a resident of Regina, Saskatchewan, Mike experienced a time and a mentality inscrutable to those of us born in the 1990s. “We were all convinced that nuclear bombs were going to drop sooner or later,” he related, adding that, after they’d taken a tour of the American missile silos only minutes south of the border in Montana, he and his friends realized they were right in the “target zone.” Deprived of protective suits, Mike and his peers were issued iodine pills to counter any potential radioactive fallout in the coming war, a war in which Canada was supposed to be the primary battleground.
It is hard sometimes to hope that wars are illogical, preventable, ultimately unnatural, when people like Mike can remember believing they were in danger of annihilation in the recent past. It is even harder when one sees the natural transformation from fear into violence. “We all knew we would be dead,” Mike said, “we always talked about it openly.... We had all kinds of horrible war chants.... We were going to be terrifying to anybody that came in front of us.... My biggest fear was that I wouldn’t be able to get a shot off at one of these commie buggers. I wanted to at least dust one off before I bought it.” Mike regrets his belligerence, but says it was natural of the times. “Somebody once said that radioactivity is better than no activity,” he quipped, an expression similar to the infamous ‘better dead than red’. Even so, I found myself wanting to believe in Regehr and his understanding of the artificial nature of war. I hope that he is right, that humanity’s collective wisdom can overcome its fear, and that Isaiah 2:4, the verse after which Project Ploughshares is titled, can someday describe our world: “God shall judge between the nations, and shall decide for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more.”
Editor-in-Chief esau@ufvcascade.ca Paul Esau Managing Editor nick@ufvcascade.ca Nick Ubels Business Manager ali@ufvcascade.ca Ali Siemens Online Editor michael@ufvcascade.ca Michael Scoular Production Manager stewart@ufvcascade.ca Stewart Seymour Art Director anthony@ufvcascade.ca Anthony Biondi Copy Editor joel@ufvcascade.ca Joel Smart News Editor grace@ufvcascade.ca Grace Romund Opinion Editor dessa@ufvcascade.ca Dessa Bayrock Arts & Life Editor amy@ufvcascade.ca Amy Van Veen Sports Editor sean@ufvcascade.ca Sean Evans Photojournalist rebecca@ufvcascade.ca Rebecca Groen Staff Writers Karen Aney, Jennifer Colbourne, Joe Johnson, Sasha Moedt, Leanna Pankratz, Alexei Summers
UPCOMING EVENTS
February 9
February 14
February 18
February 20
Ugly Sweater Day
Rivers Dining Room, UFV Culinary Art
Live @ the Reach
President’s 2012 Leadership Lecture Series
UFV’s Culinary Arts students will prepare a culinary feast on Tuesday and Wednesday nights until May 2012. They will be offering prix fixe menus of $25. There will be two evening seatings: 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. The Rivers Dining Room is located at the Canada Education Park Campus – 5579 Tyson Road in Chilliwack. It’s recommended that you make reservations.
The Longhand Trio will be performing live at the Reach ay 7 p.m. Saturday February 18. The jazz group of Tony Wilson, Skye Brooks and Russell Scholberg exhibit an interesting mixture of sounds with guitars, harmonicas, vocals, percussion and bass. They play jazz, blues and variations of those genres as they create their own sound. Tickets are $15 for adults and $12 for students.
UFV is going green… or any other ugly sweater colour you have lying around in the closet this Thursday February 9. In support of the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) campaign to raise awareness about simple energy conservation, UFV will be turning down the heat in some areas of the University. WWF asks that on Ugly Sweater Day Canadians don their ugly (but warm) sweaters so they don’t have to turn up their thermostat. Space heating contributes largely to climate change according to WWF.
Volume 20 · Issues 5 Room C1027 33844 King Road Abbotsford, BC V2S 7M8 604.854.4529
Dr. Patsy George, a social worker and women’s rights activist, will be giving the first lecture of this year’s President’s Leadership Lecture Series. Her lecture is entitled “Social Justice in an Age of Occupy.” Although George is now retired, she is still a strong advocate of social justice, marginalized peoples and particularly those of First Nations communities. This event February 20 beginning at 4:30 p.m. on UFV’s Abbotsford campus is open to students, faculty and staff of UFV as well as the general public.
Contributors Balraj Dhillon, Paige Hoblak, James Inglis, Aaron Levy, Bonnie MacLellan, Kenneth Muir, Tanya Ruscheinski, Missy Spady, Tim Ubels Printed By International WebExpress
The Cascade is UFV’s autonomous student newspaper. It provides a forum for UFV students to have their journalism published. It also acts as an alternative press for the Fraser Valley. The Cascade is funded with UFV student funds. The Cascade is published every Friday with a circulation of 1500 and is distributed at UFV campuses and throughout Abbotsford, Chilliwack, and Mission. The Cascade is a member of the Canadian University Press, a national cooperative of 75 university and college newspapers from Victoria to St. John’s. The Cascade follows the CUP ethical policy concerning material of a prejudicial or oppressive nature. Submissions are preferred in electronic format through e-mail. Please send submissions in “.txt” or “.doc” format only. Articles and letters to the editor must be typed. The Cascade reserves the right to edit submissions for clarity and length. The Cascade will not print any articles that contain racist, sexist, homophobic or libellous content. The writer’s name and student number must be submitted with each submission. Letters to the editor must be under 250 words if intended for print. Only one letter to the editor per writer in any given edition. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect that of UFV, Cascade staff and collective, or associated members.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012
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Aspiring models strut their stuff at UFV fashion show audition aLEXEI SUMMERS
THE CASCADE
Scores of young ladies rose bright and early Saturday morning to prepare themselves for UFV fashion show committee’s auditions for the Absolute Style 2012 Fashion Show. They headed down the Dbuilding hallway of UFV’s Abbotsford Campus to strut their best walks, looks and poses to the best of their abilities. “We had 80 girls come today,” said Michelle Shugg, organizer of the Absolute Style 2012 show. “That’s probably about average, but based on how it will be a smaller show this year, because of the number of students, it’ a really good turnout. Seems to be getting more quality every year. So I’m happy about that.” When asked if small fashion shows like this are a good opportunity to advance into a more professional setting of modeling, Shugg was positive. “Yes. I do think that. A lot of girls come out here just because they think it’s interesting,” said Shugg. “And they either get interested in our fashion department, and end up going into the program for design, and then a lot of other girls start pursuing modeling,” she said.
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Do you have the journalism bug? (And we don’t mean norovirus) We are currently accepting applications for
News Writer The News Writer is responsible for producing quality news articles in conjunction with the News Editor. He or she will endeavor to provide the student body with stories and information pertinent to the UFV community, while upholding the highest in journalism ethics and standards. He or she will produce two News or Feature articles per issue, and must possess strong interviewing and writing skills.
Image: Alexei Summers/The Cascade
According to Shugg, there are a number of models who got there start with the UFV shows. “I probably have six or seven of my models from previous years who are now walking for Vancouver Fashion Week,” she said. “So, they keep in touch with me, and I see them on the runways for professional shows, and it’s really interesting, because if they didn’t get their start at UFV, they would have never even got into that. I think it’s been a very positive experience for the young girls.”
Those who auditioned will find out by February 20 if they will be modeling in the show or not. The Absolute Style 2012 Show will be held on Wednesday, April 25. It will be held in the Student Activity Centre. There will be one show from 2:30 until 3:30 p.m. and another from 7:00 until 8:00 p.m. later in the evening. Tickets can already be purchased by calling (604) 557-4073.
Qualifications: Must be registered in at least one credit hour in the winter semester. Must be available to work varying hours. Must be available to be present in the office for at least two hours per week during publishing weeks. Must have effective interpersonal skills. Pay: $65 per issue Please email resume, brief statement of interest, and sample news article (500 to 750 words) to nick@ufvcascade.ca
UFV students embrace restorative justice in Abbotsford sasha moedt
THE CASCADE
UFV students are becoming more involved in the community as role models and mentors in the recently established Abbotsford Restorative Justice and Advocacy Association (ARJAA). Set up in 2000 by a group of citizens and community leaders, the ARJAA was incorporated as a non-profit society in 2001. The ARJAA serves as a Community Accountability Program under the BC Ministry of Public Safety and the Solicitor General. Their mentoring program was established in 2007. “The goal of our program is to provide a balanced and timely response to crime for first time offenders,” said Julie Czeck, mentoring coordinator of ARJAA. “Restorative Justice views crime as harm done to people and relationships, rather than the breaking of laws.” Czeck, said that part of her job is to “support the youth in the program as they take responsibility for the harm they have caused.” Besides a mediation program, ARJAA also offers a mentoring program for youth. Most of the ARJAA youth referrals come from Abbotsford Police Department and School District 34. “In 2007, ARJAA launched ‘Restorative Action through Mentoring,’ which was designed to provide follow-up support to young people being held responsible
through restorative processes,” Czeck explains, “ARJAA’s mentoring program provides friendship, positive role models, and support to help ensure that the Restorative Justice mediated agreement is successfully fulfilled.” Within the mentoring program, there are two types of mentoring: target and long term. Target generally lasts one to three months, wherein a mentor supports a youth and helps them fulfill his or her agreement to make amends for restorative justice. Long term, on the other hand, lasts longer as the mentor helps the youth with the agreement as well as establishes a year of a mentorship or friend relationship. This is where UFV students come in, Czeck noted. Czeck has seen quite a few effective and empathetic UFV students working as mentors in the program. Kirsten Janzen, a fourth year psychology student at UFV, began volunteering with ARJAA this past September to gain experience in the field of criminology and youth justice. “Being able to put what I have learned in the classroom into practice has been invaluable, and has highlighted just how successful the restorative process is,” Janzen stated. Janzen met her mentee a week before the mediation process began, and supported her through the process. After the mediation, Janzen worked with her mentee on fulfilling the restitution agreement. “The two of us became involved in a local organiza-
tion where we were able to work hands-on helping individuals in the community. Once a week for a couple months we put our hours in, and my mentee enjoyed the experience so much that she asked if we could continue volunteering even though she was no longer required to under her agreement.” Janzen said that the most rewarding part of being involved with ARJAA is just spending time, “I am thrilled that our relationship has grown to continue beyond the legalities of the restorative procedure. What meant the most to me was seeing positive changes take place in my mentee.” Kirsten Janzen’s mentee (who wished to remain anonymous) said, “This process would have been a lot harder without a mentor, because I would have had to do all the volunteering by myself. I would have felt alone in the process, without anyone to talk to. I liked having a mentor – it’s like having a big sister.” “My favourite part of the process was getting to hang out with my mentor when we volunteered, and doing other things with her too. What meant the most to me through this process was being able to help others and work to correct what I did that was wrong.” Julie Czeck said she has noticed UFV students tend to be successful in establishing mentor-mentee relationships. “Youth are very receptive to having a university big brother or big sister as a mentor.
Often times the youth involved in the program are starting to think about the future and what they want to be when they grow up.” All the questions that UFV students have already ploughed through—regarding schools, tuition, programs and life after graduation—are important questions they can provide answers to. “Another reason that UFV students are effective is because they have flexible schedules that can allow them to spend time with youth at times that a ‘9-5 working person’ may not be able to commit to,” Czeck said, explaining that many of the youth in the mentoring program attend alternative schools, often giving them free afternoons to spend with a mentor. Sasha Blaney is in second year at UFV, enrolled in the Criminology Program. “I heard about ARJAA during my Crim 103 class when Kim Polowek talked about it. One of the reasons that I wanted to join ARJAA was because I knew that it would look great on my resume for future jobs. I really love working with at-risk youth and my dream job is to be a youth probation officer.” Balancing school and responsibilities involved in volunteering for this program can be a bit strenuous, Blaney admitted. The situations and cold realities of the mentee’s life can be hard to face, as well. “You can’t let it really affect you,” Blaney said. “You need to be able to be very empathetic
to your mentee. Some of these kids have been through a lot in their life and they need to know that you really do feel for them. You also do need to have a bit of a tough skin to get through this program.” Mentors are given extensive training for the situations you will be confronting, training which is ideal for a criminology student at UFV. “We provide 55 hours extensive victim-offender mediation training for all volunteers,” Julie Czeck explained, which includes mentors and mediators. “This training provides you with many skills and knowledge about restorative justice in the criminal justice context.” Czeck mentioned the various topics of the training – volunteers and the law, the youth criminal justice act, mediation skills, negotiation skills, gender issues and the psychology of learning. Additionally, Czeck said “you will also have the opportunity to practice these skills with the supervision of professional mediation coaches from the Justice Institute.” UFV students looking into the field of criminal justice should consider this program as a foot in the door, and an involved, lifechanging experience. “I think UFV students have empathy for the youth they work with because it wasn’t all that long ago that they survived their own teenage years,” Czeck stated. “They have a positive role model that they can look up to.”
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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012
NEWS
Student Union Society restructures executive positions tanya ruscheinski
CONTRIBUTOR
It was a little early in the year for the UFV Student Union Society’s (SUS) Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM), but there was plenty on the agenda and a good turn-out to made it an effective gathering. While the changes that were voted on won’t be implemented until the new fiscal year that begins April 1, the 15-person quorum voted on a host of different motions on January 30 that will apply to the new board that commences this spring. According to Carlos Vidal, SUS president, the main issue that was addressed during the meeting was responding to how the SUS is changing and growing. “We were basically trying to do some strategic planning to basically restructure the executives to adapt to this,” said Vidal. This restructuring ended up being split into two structure sections and one log-in section. The first two motions that were addressed, and carried, were hour increases and subsequent honoraria increases for both the SUS
president and vice-president. Under the new guidelines, the president will now be responsible for 30 hours of work per week, double the established requirement now, with a proportional honoraria increase from $800 to $1600 a month. The vice-president, in turn, would be required to clock 20 hours per week, a five hour increase from before, and would receive an honoraria increase from $800 to $1050 a month. “We felt that it was time for us to take these positions and bump up their required hours so that they would have a mandate to make sure that they can get the work done,” said Vidal. “We have a lot more work to do, frankly, than what was five years ago.” The second motion that was carried was a matter of accountability. The change will now stipulate that all directors must keep a record of their working hours so they are keeping themselves accountable for the hours required of them. While these changes received an “overwhelming approval,” there were two other motions that didn’t make the cut. One of these changes would have required that both the president and vice-president take a minimum of two UFV
classes, instead of the already prescribed one, but this was stricken from the agenda before the actual meeting. The second change that was voted down proposed further requirements that presidential candidates would have to have been elected onto the board at least once before in the last five years before being able to run. “The idea was that we would have this stipulation so you were at least familiar with how the SUS operates and how to represent it and you’re not thrown into the boat without a paddle,” said Greg Stickland, a representative at large
who voted against the motion. “Generally the people who voted it down were concerned that it wasn’t the best way to go about it,” said Stickland, “and the rewards wouldn’t be worth the risks, mainly because it would limit the pool of people who could be the SUS president.” The last motion on the SUS agenda that was carried involved a change in by-law that allows a change in the designated time of the society’s mandatory meetings. They will still be held every other Friday, but the idea is to allow for the time to be determined by the
new board that will begin in April to allow for more flexibility. Beyond that, Vidal mentioned that funding that had been established for clubs and associations last fall were addressed again to “refine it a bit and make it work better,” and a 75 per cent funding grant of $2250 was given to the Biology and Chemistry Student Association (BCSA) who came forward and presented at the meeting. The budget wasn’t ready yet for this meeting so another meeting will be called closer to March to have it approved.
Image: geograph.org
image: tess forsyth/The Martlet
Image: submitted photo
NEWS BRIEFS
imgae: takashimaya
Spanking kids can cause long-term harm: Canada study
After U.S. oil snub, Canada focuses on China
House Republicans try again to move Keystone pipeline
Lost items recovered from University of Victoria break-in
UNB researchers investigate deadly bat fungus
TORONTO (Reuters) - Spanking children can cause long-term developmental damage and may even lower a child’s IQ, according to a new Canadian analysis that seeks to shift the ethical debate over corporal punishment into the medical sphere. The study, published this week in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, reached its conclusion after examining 20 years of published research on the issue. The authors say the medical finding have been largely overlooked and overshadowed by concerns that parents should have the right to determine how their children are disciplined. While spanking is certainly not as widespread as it was 20 years ago, many still cling to the practice and see prohibiting spanking as limiting the rights of parents. That point of view highlights the difficulty in changing hearts and minds on the issue, despite a mountain of accumulated evidence showing the damage physical punishment can have on a child, says Joan Durant, a professor at University of Manitoba and one of the authors of the study. “We’re really past the point of calling this a controversy. That’s a word that’s used and I don’t know why, because in the research there really is no controversy,” she said in an interview. “If we had this level of consistency in findings in any other area of health, we would be acting on it. We’d be pulling out all the stops to work on the issue.” Durant and co-author Ron Ensom, with the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa, cite research showing that physical punishment makes children more aggressive and antisocial, and can cause cognitive impairment and developmental difficulties.
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada will focus on exporting oil and other goods to China and other booming Asian economies even if Washington overturns its decision to block a pipeline that would have sent more Canadian crude to the United States. Speaking ahead of Canada’s most high-powered trade mission to Beijing for almost 15 years, Prime Minister Stephen Harper told Reuters that Canada must focus on markets that are growing, regardless of the fate of the Keystone XL pipeline, which is proposed to carry crude from the Alberta oil sands to Texas refineries. The U.S. State Department blocked Keystone last month, saying they didn’t have time for a thorough environmental review. “I think we need to be clear. As much as I want to see that Keystone project proceed, I think this incident ... underscore(s) the fact that it is in this country’s national interest to be able to sell products beyond the United States,” Harper told Reuters in an interview. “And I don’t think a reversal of an American decision can change that fundamental reality. So I think it is absolutely essential that we find ways of being able to sell our products to the biggest growing markets in the world, and those are in Asia.” Canada - the largest supplier of energy to the United States - was profoundly disappointed by Washington’s decision to veto TransCanada Corp’s Keystone project. The United States - which is by far Canada’s largest trading partner - is unlikely to look at it again until next year.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans in the House of Representatives will try to force quick approval of the Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL oil pipeline using a highway funding bill, but the plan’s author said on Monday there may be more than one avenue for advancing the project. President Barack Obama’s administration blocked TransCanada’s $7 billion project last month. A key House panel is set to vote on Tuesday to attach a plan to speed approval for the project into the highway bill, but a must-pass payroll tax cut legislation provides another option, said Lee Terry, a Republican from Nebraska. “We’ll keep swinging,”Terry told reporters. “Maybe we’ll use both.” Terry’s plan is slated for a vote by the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Tuesday. It would transfer authority for permitting the 1700-mile (2720-km) project to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and direct the commission to approve the project within 30 days. At a hearing on Monday, John Dingell, a Democratic member of the committee, noted the bill was unlikely to be approved by the Democratic-controlled Senate, nor signed by Obama. The Senate Finance Committee will vote on changes to the Senate version of the highway bill on Tuesday. Republican Orrin Hatch, a member of that panel, has floated an amendment that would approve Keystone.
VICTORIA (CUP) — Electronics that Saanich Police believe are those stolen from the University of Victoria in the Jan. 7–8 break-in of the Administrative Services Building are now in police possession. A Canada Post employee found the laptops, flash drives and other devices inside a Canada Post red street letter box near Bear Mountain Parkway on Jan. 18. The items were in a black garbage bag labeled “From UVic,” along with a note apparently from the party who left them there. All of the items were drilled out so that they are inoperable. “We had a technical assessment done on these things,” said Sgt. Dean Jantzen of Saanich Police. “The word from the IT specialist, the computer forensic specialist, was, ‘Well, someone did this who knew what they were doing and how to destroy a hard drive,’ because typically these guys have a very high degree of success in recovering some data off a hard drive that’s been compromised.” In this case all data was irretrievable. It was not a hammer smash job. The perpetrators used a significant steel bit in a heavy drill to expertly disable the drives. This has increased concerns for the investigators who don’t know whether those responsible may be motivated by altruism, guilt or something more sinister.
FREDERICTON (CUP) — Researchers, including those based at the faculty of biology at the University of New Brunswick, are searching for a way to explain and stop a phenomenon that has killed nearly seven million little brown bats in just six years, pushing the species to the verge of extinction. In 2006, scientists in New York state noticed a decrease in the bat population. After surveying some caves, they discovered some hibernating bats had white spots on their muzzles and wings. The fungus has been aptly dubbed white-nose syndrome. In 2010, Graham Forbes, a professor of biology at UNB and director of the N.B. Cooperative Fish Wildlife Research Unit, along with his team, decided to check local caves to see whether the infection had spread to New Brunswick. “It was a new species [of fungus] and nobody knew where it came from, in part because nobody has done research on what type of fungus is already in caves or on bats. So we wanted to find out — maybe it was already here and no one looked for it,” Forbes said. At that time, the team surveyed several caves and found no evidence of white-nose syndrome among hibernating bats. They have also collected data from several bats to determine what types of fungi reside on the bats.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012
We are currently accepting applications for the position of
Managing Editor The Managing Editor acts largely as support for the Editorin-Chief, assisting with EIC duties. While the focus of the Editor-in-Chief is largely on the content in The Cascade, the Managing Editor focuses on the personnel side of the paper; he/she hires and trains staff, with input from the EIC. The Managing Editor is responsible for office management, scheduling and chairing editorial and writers’ meetings, recruiting contributors, and human resources. The Managing Editor also assists sectional editors in developing features for the paper and contributes content as needed. Qualifications: Must be registered in at least one credit hour in the winter semester. Must be available to work varying hours. Must be available to be present in the office for at least 12 hours per week during publishing weeks. Must be available to oversee production on Monday and Tuesdays. Must have effective interpersonal skills and strong organizational abilities. Pay is $300 per issue
Position starts March 5, 2012. Please email resume, statement of interest, and sample article (500 to 750 words) in .doc format to Nick Ubels (nick@ufvcascade.ca).
www.ufvcascade.ca
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BC Liberals visit with UFV trades students joe johnson
THE CASCADE
Advanced Education Minister Naomi Yamamoto recently visited the Riverse Dining Room in Chilliwack Trades and Technology Centre. The event was also attended by the Agriculture Minister Don McRae and MLA John Les. They were there to meet with trades students and discuss various aspects of education, from funding to barriers of entry to such programs. According to Yamamoto, the reason for this trip was to pick up on what students are thinking and the types of challenges and experiences they face while they get their education, “Just another conversation, another dialogue with students…it helps me do my job better.” Representing the UFV side of things was President Mark Evered, two student board members, as well as a few other faculty members. The trades students, of whom there were eight of, were from mostly programs such as welding and livestock. As an informal roundtable type with questions posed by each of the visiting politicians, it began with a simple introduction of each student; their name, program, background type of thing. One of the larger points of discussion arrived early, and was commented on by Yamamoto. It was the fact that many trades’ students at the discussion did not follow a typical post-secondary route. Already trying the job market after high school, they were back to obtain an education which
would open more opportunities for them. Evered later commented that because of the universities position in the valley, more people are having the opportunities that they didn’t previously, “We’re in a valley where traditionally participation rates have been quite low, and so what we’re seeing here, with the number of students, is students who were following the pattern of, where five-ten years ago, where people didn’t go on to postsecondary, but now later in life are able to do so because we are here and we offer the kind of accessibility that you won’t find in any of the traditional universities.” Then Yamamoto raised the tuition funding issue, “I haven’t met a student, personally, that says that they don’t think that they shouldn’t be paying any tuition at all. Although, that’s what you quite hear often in the media. But when I look at and talk with students, I have yet someone who says to me, face-to-face, ‘tax payers should pay for my entire education. I shouldn’t be responsible for that.’” One student brought up an interesting point to that. Their thoughts were that if students weren’t paying for the tuition, they would be a lot more complacent in their classroom participation. Students who are paying for their education realize the value and try to get as much back as possible. Another interesting topic put forth by Les was the acknowledgement of tuition costs and how UFV is operating at 105 per cent`dfs capacity, “we have 35,000 additional post-secondary spaces
today (across BC) than we had 10 years ago. So access has improved, it sounds to me like we can still do some more work to improve access.” In response to Les, a student brought up weekend courses to be a simple solution since some programs courses aren’t offered on Saturdays. Although, this was countered by another, who would prefer to use the weekends to work in order to pay to be able to go to university. At the end, Yamamoto spoke with me about what she will be taking away from the visit. She referenced the recent potential jobs being created across the province with the Premiers new jobs plan and how skilled labour is going to be needed. “Yep, you know, it’s for me, it’s great to hear about the experiences that the students are having in the trades programs, knowing that we have a shortage of skills…in some areas.” She said. Adding, “And part of my job is to ensure that we match those training programs with those areas we have shortages in. So it’s good to hear that the university is meeting those demands.” Speaking for the university, Evered mentioned before leaving, “I’m delighted that the minister is listening to our students…it was a great opportunity for students to present a number of issues that were on their mind.” He then added, “I’m personally pleased that many of the issues that we’ve talked to the ministry about were reinforced in the conversation.”
Human rights and the “War on Terror” james inglis
CONTRIBUTOR
The Faculty and Staff Association (Human Rights & International Solidarity) and the Race & Antiracism Network (RAN) sponsored the lecture “Human Rights and the ‘War on Terror’” January 30 at UFV’s Abbotsford campus. Presenter, Dr. Sunera Thobani, Associate Professor in Women’s and Gender Studies at UBC spoke on the topic of “Imperialism, Feminism and the ‘War on Terror’.” Ron Dart, a faculty member in UFV’s department of Political Science presented on the topic of “Human Rights, Terrorism and the American Empire: The Double Hook.” Elder-in-residence, Charlotte Point opened the lecture by welcoming the speakers and the audience to First Nation’s territory. Dr. Thobani, an outspoken commentator on issues such as feminism, racism and gender relations, followed and delivered an impassioned presentation to a hushed room of students, faculty, staff and members of the public. Thobani began her presentation by stating, “wherever we travel to, wherever we go in BC, in Canada, in North America, these are lands that were stolen from indigenous people.” She believes there is a need to acknowledge what has been done and continues to be done to the indigenous population. According to Dr. Thobani, the war on terror and its impact on race and gender
relations and forms of masculinity and femininity that are being deployed through this war on terror and the question of colonialism are central to how the war on terror has been framed and how support for that war has been mobilized. War on terror has enabled “a new found public sanction for invasion,” and racial profiling. Thobani called Canada “a global settler state.” She said that “colonialism, occupation [and] invasion has been central to [Canada’s] founding.” Dr. Thobani did not believe that the war on terror is something new that only began with the attacks on 9/11. Her research traces which countries have been the chief players on the war on terror through history, but focuses on the western feminist response to the war on terror. Thobani argued that colonialism has never ended in the west and sees the war on terror as a “perpetuation of that particular phenomenon.” Dr. Thobani’s presentation examined “how feminist responses to the war have intersected with the larger ideological framing of the war that has been forwarded by neo-conservatives who have been the chief architects of it.” Thobani said that her main argument about the war in “terms of race is that the war on terror is actually a reconstituting at the global level the institution of white supremacy.” She viewed the war on terror as a new form of colonial-
ism for the 21st century. Thobani was of the mind that white feminists “used the opening that the war gave them to reconstitute themselves as the real enlightened subjects of the west to redefine gender equality as an integral feature of western culture and western commitment and in the process many feminists ended up building an alliance with the State, actively included in the project of civilizing Muslim women and particularly around efforts to build reconstruction projects in countries like Afghanistan.” Dr. Thobani stated the war on terror has permitted the front-line participation of women in the war, both on the battlefields both in support and combat roles in American, Canadian and British armed forces. The war on terror has permitted women to be active in the role of foreign policy, military establishments and war journalism in ways that had not been permitted before. Thobani’s research into how western feminists reacted to the war on terror reveals three general feminists responses to the war on terror. The first reaction is supportive of the war and subsequent actions taken by the United States. The second reaction, championed by such by feminists as Judith Butler, is to oppose the invasion of Iraq, but focus on the actions of 9/11 and beyond. This response tends to ignore or minimize the violence committed against others by the United States. Thobani
states this position creates the innocence of the American Feminist Subject. The final response of western feminists, Thobani noted, is a reaction to an Islamophobic construct of Muslim men as hyperpatriarchal, hyper-masculine, and hyper-misogynist and argues that American men also oppress American women. Thobani believes this response results in both American and Muslim women being seen as victims. Thobani concluded, “anti-racist and anti-colonial feminists have long argued that western feminism historically have a flawed relationship with colonial and imperial projects that have been central to the construction of the west and to the re-emergence of white supremacy at the global level.” Ron Dart’s presentation, “Terror in the American Empire, the Double Hook” touched on the different phases of human rights and focused on political rights as they link to states and the American Empire. Dart stated that Canada has always had a love-hate relationship with the United States. Dart discussed Edward Herman’s examination of how the language of terrorism is used. According to Herman’s work there are three types of terror: constructive terror, benign terror and nefarious terror. Dart states that constructive terror can be used to describe violence that “fulfills the needs and ambitions of the USA.” Benign terror is described
as “something that is not done directly by an imperial power, but a client state of the USA to consolidate power in an area.” Nefarious terror, according to Dart, is “what hurts us. [It] is what the enemies of the first world do to other states.” Dart argued in the post-9/11 world, Islamism “has become the new focus of nefarious terror” and nefarious terror is deemed to be what other nations do to the USA. According to Dart, although constructive terror has killed millions it is often ignored because the deaths have been committed by “us”, and therefore is not deemed to be negative. On the other side, if violence threatens the West then that is considered nefarious. Dart spoke to the issue of the way the American Empire views violence committed by Authoritarian states friendly to the U.S. and Totalitarian states unfriendly to the USA. Similar acts can be committed by both types of governments, but the USA views only the actions by totalitarian governments as being nefarious. Dart described the USA as having “Captain America Syndrome.” The USA cannot see its own actions as ever being wrong. Dart concluded his presentation with a quote from Sheila Watson, the author of the book Double Hook, “when you fish for glory you catch the darkness. That if you hook twice the glory, you hook twice the fear and when fear dominates militaries expand. Aggressiveness becomes even more celebrated.”
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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012
NEWS
The controversial tail of bitumen joe johnson
THE CASCADE
As pressure increases to export the Athabascan oil sands in northern Alberta, tensions are heating up. In what may be described to be one of Western Canada’s greatest environmental and economic battles, events are quickly unfolding. It began when the decision on the Keystone XL pipeline, that was meant to route the oil from the oil sands into the USA, was postponed by the American government. Quickly on its heels, though, was a proposal by Enbridge with their Northern Gateway pipelines. The $5.5 billion Northern Gateway project would see the raw form of oil, called bitumen, piped westward across 1177 km to BC’s coast in Kitimat – opening up the coastline for the first time to massive oil tankers. Most of this is designed for the Asian market, more specifically China. A second pipe, in the opposite direction, would carry a natural gas condensate. Given that the coastal area around Kitimat is notoriously difficult to navigate, and that the 525,000 barrels per day of oil would have to cross over 1000 rivers, waterways, as well as aboriginal lands, this proposal is not one that will be given the green light without lengthy deliberation. It was then decided by the government to obtain approval through the National Energy Board (NEB), an independent regulatory tribal wing of the federal government. At the NEB a joint review panel will weigh the benefits and risks of the pipeline. It first begins by holding a moving hearing process across different cities where
Protesters oppose the Enbridge pipeline. advocates and opponents will both raise concerns and opinions. At this point, 4300 people have enlisted to speak. This process could last into 2013. When the hearings are over, a report will be released which will include, according to the NEB, “the Panel’s rationale for its conclusions and recommendations.” As well as “any mitigation measures, followup programs and a summary of comments received from participants.” The federal government can then review these findings and make their choices, before going back to the NEB for a final decision. Currently, it is at the hearing stage and all sides have come out to have their voices heard. Environmentalists, aboriginals, economists, the federal and provincial governments, and lobbyists are doing their best to influence the panel. The media has also played a role in unearthing issues such
as control of oil sands ownership. From the environmentalists standpoint, the case is shaped in a “when, not if” point-of-view in terms of accidents. Enbridge has had a history of oil spills, most recently when, in Illinois, a ruptured pipe released an estimated 6100 barrels of oil. If this were to happen in BC, there could be an effect on the wild life, as well as drinking water. Roughly 1000 First Nations’ people took to the streets of Prince Rupert on the weekend to protest the pipeline. They too are mainly concerned with the potential environmental impacts. With regards to economics, recently Robyn Allan—a leader in her field and previous ICBC CEO—submitted a report to the NEB, which cast the project in a negative light. She raised a significant point on the project’s limited benefits for Canadians as she stated, “Northern Gateway repre-
Image: greenpeace.org
sents an inflationary price shock which will have a negative and prolonged impact on the Canadian economy by reducing output, employment, labour income and government revenues.” “With the pipeline in place, Canadians will pay $2 to $3 more for every barrel of crude oil purchased in Canada, than without the pipeline – on every barrel, every year, for the next 30 years,” Allan said. An opposing view to Allan’s is that the returns made on the open market will more than offset the costs, and that the increase in per barrel cost won’t be reflected at the gas pump. But it’s her point on the government which resonates with a lot of the issues left in the shadows, “Northern Gateway means lost opportunity to create a long term energy security strategy for Canadians. It also represents a lost opportunity to ensure reasoned and sustainable development of
crude oil resources that captures real value added in an environmentally responsible manner for the benefit of all Canadians.” Her report became even more political when she said, “Canada’s federal and provincial leaders have abdicated their responsibility for meaningful energy policy by endorsing Northern Gateway, and have willingly stepped aside while the value added potential of our raw resources is sold-short on the international market. From a public policy standpoint, Canada is being outplayed.” In the political backstage Allan suggested that much of the focus has been on the media. To start, aside from lobby groups such as EthicalOil.org, the federal government, namely Stephen Harper, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver and Premier Christy Clark, insist that the large number speaking out against the pipeline is in part a plan by “foreign special interest” trying to choke the system, calling them “radical groups.” While it’s said by supporters that the pipeline could increase domestic GDP by $270 billion, it has been pointed out through different mainstream media outlets that a significant percentage of ownership of the oil sands companies is being bought by foreign businesses and in some cases foreign nationally-owned businesses. Yet, if we increase our export availability for foreign ownership, the big winners are the foreign multinationals who would then own Canada’s production and exports of oil-based energy. Not to be lost in all of this is the public opinion. Commissioned by Enbridge, an Ipsos-Reid poll found close to 50 per cent of the people of BC support the pipeline.
Agree? Disagree? Comment at The Cascade online at ufvcascade.ca
The Voice of Reason Advice from the Student Association for Philosophical Counselling (SAPC) serving the students of UFV Dear SAPC, I’ve been following your articles. Time management, jealousy and friendship are all things I’ve come across too, but all these issues only started after I started university. Does that mean that school is the root of my all problems? If so, why am I subjecting myself to that? Why am I subjecting myself to university when it is so hard and seems to be causing all these other problems? What’s the point?? Fed up and frustrated
Dear fed up and frustrated, You have clearly given this some thought and have tried to reason it out. You raise some good points and have proposed some connections, but it sounds like that’s where you’re stuck. There are two things we’d like to address. First, it is important not to confuse causes with effects. Specifically, the connections made between school and the other ‘issues’ that have come up since having started university. Many of us didn’t really have too much trouble managing our time when we were in high
school so managing time was a new challenge (among many others) when starting university. For this reason, it could be easily associated with something ‘caused’ by university. However, learning to manage time was not caused by university. Learning to manage time was caused by a need to manage time. The effect university had on our time; the additional course load, or a course load that we were previously unfamiliar with forced us to prioritize our tasks and manage our time. The second thing we would like to address is your question
of “what is the point?” This is an interesting question because as we’ve discussed in an earlier article, we only question something when life happens not according to our plan. Given that it’s the beginning of a new semester and we’ve just come back from a holiday, our minds are fresh with the comparison of ‘life-withoutschool’ and how great that was. Add to that the recent week of school closure/missed classes and unanticipated and inconvenient weather—it’s undeniably an overwhelming time, take that into account. Often, when we feel overwhelmed, we feel a little compromised and question things we wouldn’t otherwise. We lose perspective in the chaos. Epicurus said, “Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” We, as students, started this
journey for a reason. If that means flipping back to our high school journal or revisiting the pages of our year book to re-ignite the flame of inspiration, so be it. In these times, we need go back to that moment when we decided we were going to pursue a university education. That affluent career, that degree, the happiness it would bring our parents, whatever our motivation was, we need to remember that and use that as our reminder to keep going. We know what the point is, sometimes we just need a reminder. This is one of those times. Our best wishes to you and all the readers for the upcoming term. Stay warm. We hope this helps, SAPC If you’d like to respond to this issue, or ask a question, or get some advice from the SAPC you can do so by e-mailing grace@ufvcascade.ca
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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012
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Literature is dead. Long live literature. NICK UBELS
THE CASCADE
Under the humming glare of incandescent lights, browsing the local bookstore, I encounter an end-cap display of paperbacks painted black, red and occasionally this weird yellow colour, stamped with titles like Vampire for your Love and Grodenia: Princess of the Dark in uniformly ghoulish type settings. A few aisles later, I see hundreds of legal thrillers whose covers bear James Patterson’s name, embossed in big, gold letters. I could go on, describing row after row of shitty romance and true crime books – trite, commercial exercises devoid of substance, feeling, or originality. It’s almost enough to make you want to give up on the whole enterprise. In last week’s issue, Leanna Pankratz argued that there is nothing new in literature, that great authors simply vanished at the end of the 1990s. While I can understand the despair and listlessness a perusal of
any bookstore’s New Release section can often inspire, I believe there is hope. While the bulk of post-millennial literature may not compare to Salinger or Joyce or Dickens, neither did the majority of books filling out shelves next to theirs during their own lifetimes. Pulp paperbacks are not a recent phenomenon. The Da Vinci Code pales in comparison to The Catcher in the Rye, but was it ever a fair fight? It’s relatively easy to look back on previous eras of art to find the cream of the crop, the enduring works that have outlasted their peers to become the canon. And sure, the last decade can hardly compete with the best of 1000 years of English literature, but that’s to be expected. Taken on a decade-bydecade basis, the aughts have produced some truly memorable work. As an English student who spends most of his reading time working with the canon, I realize my familiarity with contemporary literature is somewhat limited, but authors
like Erik Larson, David Foster Wallace, Dave Eggers, Cormac McCarthy, Zadie Smith, and Malcolm Gladwell have produced work in the last decade that has stuck with me. I’ve seen an explosion of creative energy directed towards non-fiction, graphic novels, and genre-bending. It’s also worth noting that new media for storytelling has scattered our generation’s best writers across film and television among other forms. And that’s just a small selection of great work that has found popular success; we must remember that critical consensus often takes a long time to develop. The following passage is excerpted from “The Critic as Artist,” a dialogue by Oscar Wilde, one of the authors cited in last week’s article: ERNEST: But what is the difference between literature and journalism? GILBERT: Oh! Journalism is unreadable and literature is not read. The irony of printing this quote in a student newspaper is not lost on me, but I’d like to focus on the
Image: Nick Ubels/The Cascade
second part of what Wilde wrote, “Literature is not read.” History is kind to great artists, but they are often neglected by their contemporaries and left to languish in obscurity until long after their deaths, whenever it is deemed appropriate for future scholars to venerate their life’s work. It’s safe to heap further praise on works that have already achieved critical consensus, but one of the
joys of reading is the process of discovery. There’s something invigorating about approaching a novel with an open mind. If we don’t give anything new a chance, we deprive ourselves of the opportunity to find something fresh and moving and original. Sure, it might require sifting through stack after stack of utter dreck, but doesn’t that make it that much sweeter when you finally come across something memorable?
Growing up in the wake of the Cold War ALEXEI SUMMERS THE CASCADE
The other day, a friend and I had a conversation about an article I’d written about the death of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il. “Alexei,” he said, “really, why are you so certain the world is going to blow itself up? Must you be so damned pessimistic all the time in your writing? Your whole generation is like that. You’re all pessimists.” He looked at me sternly. “Do you really believe this guff about there being a third World War waiting to happen?” This fellow was older than myself, and I won’t name him. Let’s just say that he’s of the mind that the Cold War is over, and we shouldn’t worry ourselves with wars breaking out. He told me that he’d survived the Cold War, and that my genera-
Bomb shelter
Image: x-ray delta one
tion acting like the Cold War was still on was silly. It soon dawned on me that this was not simply a clash of ideologies, but also a clash between two generations. “My generation is fearful,” I told him. “We’re always afraid of being blown up. Just like yours was. But yours isn’t afraid anymore. We’re
afraid we’re going to be the next victims in a terrorist attack, and we grew up with Cold War paranoia instilled into us. My generation grew up in the wake of the Cold War. So you’ll have to forgive us if we’re a bit cynical or mistrustful.” These thoughts lingered in my mind after the conversation ended, and I found myself deep in thought. Those who lived through the 1990s remember them as a transitional decade. Analog technology was becoming antiquated and was being replaced with digital tech. There was the transfer of power in the USSR, and the eventual dissolving of the Soviet Union. There was the mass availability of the Internet, and the personal computer. These were the days of Clinton, Chrétien, Gorbachev, and (unfortunately) Yeltsin. The end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st created
a wave of uncertainty within the minds of its youth: uncertainty of the future, and fear of the unknown. I was one of those youths. On September 11, 2001, I turned on my television and watched in disbelief as an airplane flew directly into the twin towers in New York City, reducing them to dust and flame. Osama Bin Laden claimed responsibility for the deadly attack that resulted in the death of thousands of human beings, of many different nationalities. To the ‘90s generation, this was a pivotal moment of childhood. All those who saw it can vividly recall what they were doing on that fateful morning. It is burned into our memories. This is the same equivalent of previous generations claims of being able to remember what they were doing when they heard that President John F. Kennedy had been shot in Dallas, Texas in 1963. The point I’m trying
to make here is that there is still fear. The Cold War has never really ended. It carries on now through the proxy nations (like Afghanistan, Korea, Laos, and others) that the USSR once used to do their bidding. The USSR left a bad attitude in those proxy nations towards the western world, which will cause serious problems in the future – more than it already has. There is good reason for fear. It’s been 21 years since the Soviet Union fell. Most of us born in the ‘90s do not recall the Cold War itself, but we were born in its shadow, and it is impossible for us to get away from it. We were born in the wake of a great empire collapsing in on itself, and the ripples from that collapse have echoed long on into the waters of our lives, and continue to disperse out across the pond.
ing things in order to fully immerse themselves into the unknown. Although this may seem liberating — a new beginning perhaps — it’s often reported as being very lonely and often above and beyond alienated. Anthropologists have to be fearless; this fearlessness is inspiring and something that we can all learn from. You may ask how this connects to our own society – you, after all, certainly don’t live in the wilderness. Well, if an anthropologist can spend a year in the bush with people who have a completely different way of life, and get by with a language they might not even fully comprehend, then shouldn’t the average North American be able to sit next to a person on the bus in the same fashion? Accepting that we are all connected as one race, shouldn’t that be able to guide us in our daily lives without the continuous threat of racism, bullying and stereotyping? Quite honestly, I have had enough.
I am no perfect person, I assure you, but I do believe if we opened our minds and kept them open, we might be able to mend the critical issues that plague our society. There is a logical set of explanations for why some things the way they are, such as why Africans have darker skin or why the Inuit have thicker bodies than Asians. Educating our society on the cultural, physical and environmental variations that this world carries is one step in the right direction in regards to respecting and appreciating diversity rather than being scared by it. Need I say more about the importance of anthropology in the North American education system? I firmly believe that learning about cultural variations at a young age could ultimately bridge the gap forever between us and them, a gap which has been ignored for far too long.
An ode to anthropology PAIGE HOBLAK CONTRIBUTOR
Have you ever felt a curiosity burn so strongly that you can’t help but question the most basic concepts about life? I suppose this curiosity is why we attend university in the first place, why we read, why we listen to narratives both small and profound. Where did we really come from? How come our body shapes differ so much from that of another ethnicity? Why is my skin brown, white, or black, and why is my body muscular over thin? Why does society operate so inefficiently? Where did the institution of marriage come from? Contemplating these questions is what drew me in to anthropology. It always gets me when I explain that I‘m taking anthropology courses and people look back at me, dumbfounded. Their puzzled faces explain it all. So… you’re learning about dinosaurs and stuff? Umm,
not exactly. Although archaeology is a subfield of anthropology, palaeontology, however, is not. Anthropology is the study of humans with an emphasis on culture. How is it that so many adults I know and some of my peers in university don’t even know what anthropology is? In elementary school we are taught right from wrong, how to write and read, basic multiplication, and so forth. In high school we are exposed to a more in-depth look into the basic subjects: math, history, literature, science, English. But what I absolutely cannot wrap my head around is the fact that anthropology is not even offered, which ultimately leads to ignorance unlike any other. In anthropology I have gained a high level of respect for cultures that differ from mine. Anthropologists, (who I consider to be some of the most ingenious people to ever walk our planet), engage in the exciting and often terrifying practice, known
as fieldwork or ethnography. To be granted this opportunity is a gift unlike any other. It takes much research and education for an anthropologist to even be considered for a chance to actively engage in ethnography. This process entails going abroad for about a year to become a part of a tribe or particular indigenous group. In this year the anthropologist must learn the language, customs, rituals and religion of the society and provide extensive, in-depth coverage of their experience. These indigenous groups often have no technology whatsoever and rely heavily on the local environment for their food and shelter. Some anthropologists have been so lucky to encounter cultures that haven’t even made contact with the world outside their own. As glamorous as this job can be, it also carries a heavy burden. Anthropologists have to shed all of their preconceived knowledge about the Western world and their ways of do-
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OPINION
Money talks: Sean and Nick discuss American politics for the everyman ens the legitimacy of the political process and makes it ripe for corruption. It doesn’t help that most SuperPACs opt for these vaguely sinister, Orwellian names like Restore Our Future, Leaders for Families, and Endorse Liberty. I mean, who wouldn’t want to endorse liberty? Sean, you raise an important point in asking where the true allegiance of the candidates will lie. Herman Cain’s dubious endorsement of “the people” notwithstanding, do you think a heightened sensitivity to economic disparity will make voters resent candidates who seem to be in the pocket of big corporations and billionaires? Which candidates can be trusted to fight for the little guy amid a sea of ceaselessly flowing cash?
NICK UBELS SEAN EVANS
THE CASCADE
Have a hard time following conversations about the American primaries? Have no fear. Sean and Nick discuss and debate American politics for the everyman, so even your cat can follow along! Soon you, too, will be able to name-drop in drunken conversations with PoliSci students. Stay smart, stay informed. It might be States politics but it affects us Canadian kids too. Nick: Neil Diamond once sang that “money talks.” He also sang “gold don’t rust,” but let’s hold that thought for the time being. My point is that the cost of a successful Presidential campaign is higher than ever before, even if you don’t factor in money spent by Super PACs (Political Action Committees, supposedly independent organizations that campaign for a certain candidate without that candidate’s oversight). In Thursday’s Globe and Mail, Konrad Yakabuski reported that campaign spending will likely pass $6 billion (USD) in this year’s election cycle. While that number includes estimates for both Presidential and Congressional campaigns across the entire US-of-A, it’s still an exorbitantly large number. It’s an average of 18 dollars for every man, woman and child living in the States. Although individual donations are capped at $2500, Obama still managed to raise $141 million in 2011 for his re-election bid and spent almost $750 million on his 2008 campaign. Do you think these sort of campaign spending habits threaten free access to the political process or are they simply “the costs of democracy?” Sean: The issue of finances and democracy is a tough one. The simple reality is that it takes money to reach an audience large enough to get elected. I like to believe that if you are talented enough, and your ideas resonate with the people around you, you can build a support base and eventually build the finances that it takes to get noticed. The reality, however, is that no candidate in the Republican primaries has a net
Sean: Ron Paul. Nick: Care to elaborate? image: Stewart Seymour
worth less than a million dollars. It takes money to get noticed. Money is what drives this beast forward. What concerns me is where the candidates get money from. Like you said, Nick, the Super-PAC allows candidates to essentially receive an unlimited amount of money from anyone – including corporations. It is reasonable to wonder where the allegiance will lie: with the people, or with the corporations and major donors. Currently, Mitt Romney’s largest donors are hedge fund moguls. Romney’s Super-PAC raised over 30 million in 2011 (compared to two million for Gingrich and one million for Paul). As well, 56.6 per cent of Romney’s support came from investment and financial industries, including the CEO of Bain Capitol, Romney’s former company that made money liquidating businesses and laying off hundreds of employees. Another top donor for Romney last year was John Paulson, found of Paulson and Co. Inc., a hedge fund firm that made billions of dollars during the sub-prime mortgage crisis. It is no wonder that people are cynical about the seedy underbelly of the world of politics. Nick, what are your thoughts on the ability of an inspirational leader to raise massive amounts of funds through small amounts? We
saw Obama raise millions in 2008 through donations that were less than $10. We’ve seen it this year with Ron Paul being able to haul in millions for his campaign (as well as his Super-PAC). Does the nature of the Super-PAC essentially negate the power of the people? Nick: I, too, really want to believe that the best candidates will eventually rise to the top through some combination of dedication and public support. Looking at the pack of Republican hopefuls, I’m beginning to feel a little more cynical; surely they can do better than Gingrich and Romney. As far as the candidates’ official campaigns are concerned, limits on individual contributions help strike a delicate balance between fair access to the political process and freedom of expression through donations to a particular candidate. But when it comes to Super-PACs, these caps don’t exist. The Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in the 2010 Citizens United case held that the First Amendment prevents the government from placing limits on independent campaign donations, including those from unions and corporations. Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion cited difficulties in distinguishing between freedom
of speech in journalism and other media, allowing for unlimited budgets for “electioneering communications.” The Super-PAC was born. This will be the first Presidential election where Super-PACs will be an important factor and already their impact is being felt in the slough of attack ads clogging the airwaves in states holding their primaries and caucuses. According to The Washington Post, only 23 per cent of PAC funding actually comes from corporations. It is likely that corporate spending is curbed only because the Federal Election Commission publicly discloses donor’s identities; most corporations aim to avoid showing any political slant. In October 2010, Target donated $150,000 to Minnesota Forward, a conservative Super-PAC. The move led to boycotts from the LGBT community and a high profile snub by Lady Gaga, who had previously agreed to an exclusive deluxe release of her latest album. Of course, this hasn’t prevented a small group of billionaires from exerting a tremendous influence on U.S. politics by way of donating to Super-PACs like Karl Rove’s American Crossroads, which raised 91 per cent of its funds in 2010 from billionaires. This kind of pull seriously threat-
Sean: I think his record speaks for itself. But for the uninformed, Ron Paul’s campaign finances have come primarily from small individual donations. Most of Dr. Paul’s support are young, college-aged and idealistic (as opposed to the rest of the Republican base: old and cynical). As a result, the Paul campaign has focused on building funds through many donations: 56 per cent of donations to Paul during this campaign were under $200, while 60 per cent of Romney donations were $2500. On that same note, Ron Paul spends his money like he earns it – in small amounts. When the campaign hit Council Bluffs, Iowa, Rick Perry racked up a $1204 bill at the Hilton. Ron Paul paid $64.38 at a Super 8 Motel. In his disclosure report, as seen on chron.com, Ron Paul’s campaign listed a large amount of purchases from cost-effective places like Walmart, The Dollar Tree, Subway and over 40 outings at McDonalds (Paul’s favourite). His smallest purchase was one dollar at the Salvation Army. Paul is a man that puts his (and his supporter’s) money where his mouth is. Stay tuned next week, when Sean and Nick tackle more American politics and issues that you don’t understand! (But don’t worry – you will. And so will your cat.)
Caring is Creepy: Sudden apathy in today’s youth MISSY SPADY
CONTRIBUTOR
I want to know when it became so “un-hip” to care about things. We, as the future, are an amalgamation of people who have the entire world at our fingertips and instead of taking that opportunity to do some good, are choosing to shrug our shoulders and say “whatev.” We are smart individuals born out of the technology and information age. We implicitly know how to work electronics and have a natural curiosity to be in the know. So why are we spending so much time and effort making it look like we just don’t give a damn about anything? The world is in chaos whether you like to admit it or not. We are at a huge turning point in history where
things could either crumble to the vicious grip of capitalism and consumerism, or (my favourite choice) we can open our eyes to the possibility of a better world. I don’t mean to say that every waking moment of our lives needs to be dedicated to a cause, but if we spent a little less time making sure our hair looks perfectly tousled and a little more time even just thinking or talking about the state of affairs I believe we could make a difference. I already hear the old standby, “What can I do? I’m just one person!” I’d like to remind everyone about how smart we really are: Canada is one of the top three most educated places in the entire world. That’s right: think about the statement “entire world.” We are privileged to be born here and experience this kind
of life, but so many of us are wasting it like it’s the crumbled chip particles at the bottom of the bag. It pains me to think that people still seem to believe that just because they are one person, they can’t make a difference. Anyone heard of the domino effect? Anyone?! You know all that time you spend looking at cat videos on the Internet? Why don’t you take five minutes from that and start signing some online petitions? There are tons of websites out there (http://www.avaaz. org/en/ for example) that not only have, but continue to make changes all over the world by having singular people like you sign their names saying that you simply don’t agree with what’s being done. Was that so hard? No, and it took only a few precious moments of your glorious
internet time. How about sharing it on a social media site? Click, you’re done. All of your friends will now see that you care about something (the horror) enough to put it up for others to see. That’s how it works, just one click and all 568 of your closest friends and family will now see your link. We have the ability to transfer information to hundreds (nay, thousands!) of people at once and you’re still using your Facebook and Twitter to constantly complain about how no boys like you, or how you don’t own the new Call of Duty game that everyone’s playing and it isn’t fair. I want you all to think about that for a moment. If you still seem to think that you’re too cool to care about anything because “it doesn’t affect you” then I’m going to give you something
to care about. This pertains to everyone reading this because I know that nearly every single one of you is surfing the web daily; www.openmedia.ca is “is a non-profit organization that safeguards the possibilities of the open and affordable Internet. We work towards informed & participatory digital policy.” (I just took that straight from the “about us” section. This info isn’t hard to find.) Essentially, they’re working hard without monetary benefit to make sure that you, yes you, and other people like you can still have the ability to freely access whatever the Internet has to offer without being monitored by big brother, charged a ridiculous amount of money, or convicted of piracy to possibly serve jail time. Are you still too cool to care?
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012
www.ufvcascade.ca
9
OPINION
LCLB holds the Rio theatre’s life by the threads JOE JOHNSON THE CASCADE
Let’s face it – going to the movies is not the experience it once was. I find the new larger theatres to be cold, expensive and really unenjoyable. That’s why when I first heard that the Rio (the only theatre in East Vancouver) had run into some recent problems, I perked up my ears. The Rio is a great place to catch flicks – such as when the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was shown last September. It was new owner Corrine Lea’s idea to shift that idea into a multi-purpose venue of live events, as well as movies. But that idea is not one shared by the Liquor Control and Licensing Board. Lea had tried for over a year to obtain a liquor-primary license so that the Rio would be able to sell alcohol at their concerts as well as other live events. They were recently granted that license, but on the stipulation that they stop showing movies. That news came as a bit of a shock to Lea,
who was under the impression that as long as the alcohol only come out during non-movie times, then everything should be fine. Upon receiving the license, however, what the Rio really got was a major slap in the face. The Rio is a small theatre, losing $2000 a day because of the LCLB’s decision, and trying to survive in an industry enveloped by large corporations. As people became aware of the issue, there was a lot of noise for regulation to be changed. There has been plenty of mainstream media coverage, the Rio’s website has splashed this issue right up front, and even the city of Vancouver—primarily headed by Councillor Heather Deal—has taken up the cause. The city actually unanimously passed and carried out a request that the provincial government move on the LCLB to allow for it to create a condition in the regulation, which would allow for the Rio to operate the way it had planned. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean progress is being made. “I can’t tell you how or when they will
image: Emma Rogers
respond,” Deal explained, when reached for comment. “The media attention is liky (sic) to get at least as much response as our letter.” It’s that attention which the Rio now has put its efforts in getting out and pushing for change. The most current update on the Rio’s website has been completely open about the effect this regulation has had
Money money money money (money) DESSA BAYROCK THE CASCADE
As grad school lumbers closer to my immediate future, more often than not I find myself considering a problem everybody has: money. Specifically, a lack of it. These days, everything is expensive. The tuition piper is always waiting to be paid. My problem is I turned 20 and I feel I should become more adult about money. But how do I go about doing that? There are so many self-help guides that it’s more than easy to give up before even starting. There’s too much on my mind already without putting time into finding the perfect system to make me rich and successful (as so many books, DVDs and seminars promise they can). Just being on the subject opens a brand new can of worms: what are the moral connotations of cold hard cash? I don’t even want to think about that. People are starving in Africa and I’m complaining that grad school is too expensive. Should I give away my meagre part-time earnings to those who are less fortunate? It’s a downward spiral. The whole mess makes me want to move to Tibet and eke out an existence herding goats, trading milk and writing haikus in return for bread and salt. However, despite never really delving into the world of finance theory, I’ve always been an avid reader. Because so much of our culture revolves around money (how to get it, how to lose it, who has it, who doesn’t, and why), it was unavoidable that I form some home-grown ideas about how, exactly, the concept of money works. There are two concepts in particular that have stuck with me. The first stems from Ayn Rand; when I was in high school, I read Atlas Shrugged for the first time. Over the next cou-
ple of years I slowly devoured the rest of her work. The worlds of her books are intense to say the least, sometimes viciously so. Her entire philosophy is built on the assumption that whatever a person earns, they deserve. If a man can’t fend for himself, he is a parasite and doesn’t deserve pity or, say, social services. If you can’t fend for yourself, Rand reasons, there must be a reason no one will pay you to do anything. If you aren’t producing anything of value then you don’t deserve to be paid. This is a pretty harsh take on how society should work, but it’s stuck with me. I can’t expect to be paid for work that nobody wants. I shouldn’t expect to be supported if I’m not willing to support myself. On the other hand, I recently read something else that (in some ironic, unlikely way) stuck with me pretty hard as well: comedian Louis CK. Some of you may be familiar with his work, which (somewhat like Ayn Rand) makes no bones about what it is: crass, blunt, and occasionally offensive. He released a wildly popular special, Live at the Beacon Theatre, just this past December. What makes this story interesting is that rather than take the conventional route of going through a manufacturer to produce and distribute DVDs, he decided to release the digital version himself, through his website, at $5 a pop. He made a million dollars in the first 12 days. “That’s a lot of money,” he wrote. “Really too much money.” A lot of people—and I’m not really pointing fingers, Wall Street one per cent—would hoard that kind of coin away and save it for when things get rough. Let’s be serious; we all know some bad times are coming, probably worse than what we’re experiencing now. Why not salt some serious dough away for a rainy day?
Especially if one million dollars just landed in your lap. Nope. Not Louis CK. He split the wad into four roughly equal quarters; part of it went to pay for the special and the website used to distribute the special, part of it to charities, and part to his staff as bonuses. He kept the smallest piece for himself: a relatively quiet 220K. “I never viewed money as being ‘my money’,” CK wrote, “I always saw it as ‘The money.’ It’s a resource. If it pools up around me then it needs to be flushed back out into the system.” Ayn Rand believes that producing something of value will return to you as profit: Louis CK appears to prove this rule. On the other hand, Rand also believes that you should never give your hard-earned money away willy-nilly, which is what CK is kind of doing when he talks about flushing it back into the system – so now I’m torn between two ideas that both make a lot of sense to me. Although I only read CK’s press release two weeks ago, it really hit home. Aren’t we in the #occupy trouble we’re in because people have been hoarding money they would never be able to spend? I can’t even count to a million, let alone a billion. There’s no way anyone should have that much money. I can agree that if you earn money, it’s yours to do what you want with – but if you have more money than you could ever possibly spend is it not your duty to flush out into the larger world? Maybe that’s just the grad school talking. If you need to get rid of some cash in a hurry, give me a shout. Meanwhile, these are purely theoretical questions. My bank account, as always, is fairly barren. The question of what to do with hemorrhaging funds is one I’m fairly certain I will never have to deal with.
on them in order to get people fired up. They are blunt about having to lay off employees. They are making it known that a film festival has the potential to be left in the cold if, as of Tuesday of this week, the changes haven’t been made. Obviously, the anger they are looking to stir up has to go somewhere, and it’s the Minister of Public Safety, Shirley Bond,
that the Rio is imploring people to give their opinion to. She has the direct ability to make the necessary change in regulation which would save the theatre. But for the Rio, running at a continued loss every day after being forced to eliminate their cinema side of business, time really is a factor. All of this attention — be it from the media or the city or the people — is absolutely great. But if everything is all for naught, I’m afraid we’re going to see one less theatre of its kind. If you’ve never been to the Rio, I suggest you take a trip out there to see, at the very least, a live event. And if the mood strikes you, give Minister Bond your thoughts. She’s on Twitter, Facebook, and old-fashioned email. Three weeks ago the last movie was shown. It was Network from 1978 – perhaps the most fitting movie to air, as the famous line rang throughout the theatre, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take it anymore.”
Sugar and spice and everything nice SASHA MOEDT THE CASCADE
A new report is out, citing sugar as the root of all evil: from it flows heart disease, obesity, diabetes and cancers. Dr. Robert Lustig is publishing the report in Nature, a top research journal, in which he points to all the unhealthy effects of sugar intake, and proposes “societal intervention” to stop youth from consuming too much sugar. Sugar is added to everything processed, and it is difficult to remain beneath the recommended limit. For adults, the American Heart Association recommends limiting sugar intake to 45 grams (9 tbsp) for males, and 30 grams (6 tbsp) for females. The AHA is applying this to added sugar, in sweets, cappuccinos, cookies and ketchup – foods not necessary to consume every day, and evidently unhealthy. This doesn’t apply, however, to healthy sugars, such as the sort found in fruits. So they’re trying to take sugar away. These days, this whole “promoting healthy living” scam is trying to take away everything nice. What’s next, spice? Do you even know what girls are made of? That’s right. Am I the only one seeing a pattern here? The phrases “kills slowly” and “toxic” are both used in the report. Oh, boy. I eat sugar under stress. I used to scoop spoonfuls into my mouth straight from the Roger’s Sugar package, but I’ve advanced from there. These days, I shovel sugar into my tea by the tablespoon. I’ve had people take a sip of my tea and spew it out because it’s so sweet. I always say (as I put sugar in my tea, scoop after scoop) that sugar makes you sweet. If you think I’m nasty now, you don’t want to see me without sugar. What’s the world coming to? By the way, shut up about Splenda. That shit scares me.
Got sugar?
Image: Romaine Behar
The report is looking at setting an age limit for the purchase of soft drinks, and controlling the number of fast food restaurants and convenience stores in certain areas with schools and so forth. But I don’t know about that. “Societal intervention” doesn‘t help. People will find ways of getting their fix, especially if you try and stop them. This whole prohibition thing they’re looking at won’t fly, not with me. If this thing escalates, I’m going to be a sugar bootlegger, I swear. Education is always the best system. If people have a clear concept of how much their bodies can take, what sugar is doing to the liver after that root beer, and what is in these processed products, maybe children (and adults) will be able to take charge of their health themselves. Or just not. It would work well for me. I’m down with ignoring the facts. Everywhere I turn, we’re crashing and burning. And now they’re taking away my sugar? They can’t. I won’t let them. Educate me, tell me how bad it is for me so I can ignore you, but please, for the love of god, don’t take sugar away from me. I’ll follow it to hell.
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www.ufvcascade.ca
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012
FEATURE
Vapid viewing for Valentine’s Day
Five sexy gifts for Valentine’s
KAREN ANEY
THE CASCADE
Ah, Valentine’s Day. People argue about the saint it was named for, but it definitely has something to do with love. Or execution. Either way, Chaucer was all over it—courtly love style, of course— so we celebrate it by buying overpriced flowers and trying not to argue with our significant others for an entire 24 hours. Most importantly, though, we celebrate it with television. The following is a comprehensive round-up of Valentine’s Day specials. Saved By the Bell, “The Zack Tapes” If you grew up in the ‘90s and didn’t watch this show, you did it wrong. For those of you that did it right, you probably remember this one. The gang learns about subliminal advertising, and Zack uses it to try to make the girls fall in love with him. There’s cardboard hearts around everyone’s neck and a sweetheart dance – it’ll leave you wondering why your high school never did this, and wishing UFV’s student body wasn’t too mature to do this. Happy Days, “Be My Valentine” Yes, it’s an old show. You may have never seen it. But if you’re going to watch just one episode, make it this one: the entire episode is a musical. Think Glee, except with bad lighting and camera work. It’s good for a laugh, if nothing else. And speaking of Glee... Glee, “Silly Love Songs” It starts off with Puck singing Queen and ends with Rachel showing how little talent Katie Perry actually has. It is typical Glee: you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll feel awkward when you realize you’re a legal adult watching a show that makes 11-year-old girls scream. If you’re trying to talk your boyfriend into watching it with you, mention that it has a girl fight with someone who had a spread in Maxim. Grey’s Anatomy, “Valentine’s Day Massacre” If you’re not interested in the sickly sweet stuff, this one’s for you. A roof collapses, an arm gets attached to an abdomen, people bleed everywhere and some shuffle right off this mortal coil. That being said, there’s a romantic sto-
VIOLET HART THE CASCADE
Image: savedbythebell.wikia.com
The cast of Saved By the Bell
ryline for everyone: the recently jilted, the lesbians identifying with tension, the working professionals and those who dye their hair blonde because their boyfriend assumed they wanted to raise the illegitimate baby of their illegitimate offspring alongside them. What? Just go with it.
about when to hook up with a girl and Roy’s clueless male shtick pushes Pam just a little bit closer to Jim. Oh, and Phyllis, the Aunt Jemima of the office, gets a giant teddy bear that will make everyone long for a time when it was okay to want giant stuffed teddy bears for presents.
30 Rock, “Anna Howard Shaw Day” Oh, Liz Lemon. She schedules a dental surgery to avoid dealing with V-Day, only to forget that she doesn’t have anyone to take her home afterwards. More importantly, she reminds the feminist in all of us that February 14 is really about Anna Howard Shaw, the celebrated suffragette. Girl power. Lemon-style.
Community, “Communication Studies” Troy and Pierce dress like women, Troy calls Pierce a slut as he mopeds off on a fro-yo date, and it’s funny enough that you almost forget that there’s no touching Troy-Abed moment during the credits. Courtney Love gets made fun of—twice—and the creepy Human Being mascot is dressed as Cupid. Just close your eyes for that part, it’s over pretty quickly.
The Office, “Valentine’s Day” Probably the most creatively titled of all the episodes mentioned, this one’s worth the watch. Why? The creepy grin on Dwight’s face when he gets the Dwight bobblehead from his secret lover. How clandestine. And creepy. Elsewhere in the office, Michael spills the beans on his hook-up with Jan, Ryan realizes he’s got a lot to learn
Image: NBC Photo by Danny Feld
The Office on Valentine’s Day
Discussion Below the Belt
Modern Family, “My Funky Valentine” Claire and Phil—that is, Clive and Juliana—rendezvous at a hotel so that Claire can get her dress caught in an escalator with her father watching. Well, they don’t rendezvous at the hotel for that, really, but that’s what happens. Also, we learn a valuable lesson: Claire tells Phil he won’t be getting any sleep that night, so he should probably have a nap at the office – and Phil responds “I always do,” in that seductively creepy way he has. So what can we learn from that? If you want a pretty sweet life, like the Dunphees, nap at work.
Valentine’s Day: the day couples celebrate their love. Couples, mind you. And couples have a special sort of love that family and friends don’t – romantic love. Which is basically a fancy way of saying sex. Yes, Valentine’s is the day of sex. That doesn’t mean that “romance” doesn’t have a place in it. Of course it does. When you love a person (i.e. you care about them and desire them), you want to show them that love. Hence the romantic gestures and gifts. This shows you care. It follows, of course, that you also want to show your love by banging them. This shows that you desire them. Ah, love! So, there are the usual gifts on Valentine’s that you give to show that you care: flowers, chocolates, candy, cards, stuffed animals, jewellery. These are great and are appreciated by both sexes. Of course, you can buy these kinds of gifts for your mom as well. She’ll also love and appreciate them. But what about showing that you desire your partner? Here’s a few gift ideas to show that special kind of love; gifts that you should never, ever buy your mom: 1. Massage oils: Massage is an excellent way to get in a relaxed and sensual mood on Valentine’s. There are dozens of videos online that teach basic sensual massage techniques. The Kama Sutra line of sensual oils, body paints and the like can be found in almost any local sex store. Personally, I like using coconut oil for massage, which can be purchased at any health food store. Not only is it edible, natural and delicious smelling, but it also makes a good lube too (NOT if you use latex condoms however – oil will break latex down). 2. Sexy wear: Lingerie is a great classic Valentine’s gift for women. However, as sweet as another teddy or negligee may be, sometimes it’s good to think outside the box. There’s so much sex-wear out there for both guys and girls—body netting, corsets, leather outfits, costumes, garters and stockings—that the list is endless. Feeling sexy is key to good sex, and everybody loves looking hot in bed.
3. Basic bondage: Bondage may bring up some jarring hard-core BDSM associations. However, basic bondage does not have to be painful at all; and it can be a fun, new activity to spice up your sex life. Love cuffs— handcuffs lined with soft fabric to keep the metal from hurting the wrists—and a satin blindfold are a great way to start and can be found at any sex store. Another gentle and painless way to restrain your partner is with Japanese silk love rope. If you want to be a bit more adventurous, you can also try out ball gags, collars, leashes, ticklers and whips. Though a whip may sound painful, many of the cheap, thin little latex whips don’t hurt at all and give a delicious shivering sensation when run lightly up the skin. 4. Erotica: Buying raunchy porn for your partner screams anything but romance. However, there are a lot of classy, sexy videos and books out there that both of you can enjoy. Erotica can take a lot of pressure off in the bedroom, and can be very arousing for you and your partner. Another great gift idea is to get sexy pictures taken by a professional photographer for your partner’s enjoyment or you can pay to have pictures or videos done together. 5. Sex games: Sex games are useful in pushing a couple toward exploring their sexuality – this is especially helpful if you are too shy or embarrassed to suggest trying new things. Love coupons are the most basic type of sex game. These can be a fun way to offer sexual favours, especially things neither of you have tried before; then the power is in your partner’s hands for trying something different out without pressure. Johnny Roddick and I have taken the initiative to provide a few free sex coupons that can be cut out for your Valentine on the adjacent page. Now go out and have yourself a sexy Valentine’s! “Like” Violet Hart on Facebook. Check out Violet Hart’s articles online at violethartcascade.wordpress.com.
Friends, “The One with the Candy Hearts” Why isn’t television this good anymore? In one episode, Chandler has an “oh. My. GAWD.” blind date, Joey watches a girl eat like a squirrel, Ross makes things awkward for the token lesbians, and Phoebe, Rachel, and Monica almost burn the apartment down while trying to cleanse themselves of a picture of chest-hair-sweater guy. Watch this for inspiration if you’re single, ladies, because those firemen were hot. Be more like the girls on Friends, and date a fireman this Valentine’s day! Image: www.areyougame.com
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012
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FEATURE
Violet Hart & Johnny Roddick’s
Valentine’s Cut-Out Sex Coupons Good for The bearer of this coupon is entitled to: J
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Happy Endings? One Free Foot and Back Massage... and then...
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The bearer of this coupon is entitled to: The Classic Date One Dinner, One Movie, and One Night of Sweet, Sweet Lovemaking
Quickie Anytime, Anywhere...
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*This coupon is valid only for Canadian beer– not shitty American beer
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One role-play encounter with costume/ characters chosen by coupon bearer
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Make-Believe Time
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The recipient of this coupon is obligated to reward the bearerwith:
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One sexy photo of themselves
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The recipient of this coupon is obligated to reward the bearerwith:
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One night out, wearing a skirt and no underwear
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*Coupon includes candles and soft music
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The recipient of this coupon is obligated to reward the bearerwith:
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www.ufvcascade.ca
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012
ARTS & LIFE
Dine & Dash: Lou’s Grill 2852 Gladys Ave Abbotsford, BC 604.855.8777 Hours: Monday to Friday: 11 a.m. to 1 a.m.; Saturday 10 a.m. to 1 a.m.; Sunday 10 a.m. to 12 a.m. Prices: up to $26.95
AMY VAN VEEN
THE CASCADE
Lou’s Grill has, allegedly, been a staple in the Abbotsford community for a number of years – but sadly it’s a staple I hadn’t yet experienced. I’ve driven past it, of course, as has anyone on their way to Mission, but since it’s tucked just behind downtown Abby’s corner, it’s tucked just outside of most people’s line of vision. This particular restaurant has a way of breaking expectations. From the outside, with its gravel parking lot and simple neon sign, Lou’s seems to be more of a down home grill. Images of bearded men and pitchers of beer filled my mind, but stepping through the door I found quite the opposite. Less of a grill and more of a lounge, Lou’s offers hushed lighting, louder music and cozy seating
for more intimate conversations. Despite the look of tables being on top of one another, I never once heard a word of conversation from the table next to me. It’s not a large space, but it is utilized with obvious planning. The main drawback, though, would be the low chairs and high tables that never cease to make me feel infantile. Despite its loungey-atmosphere, Lou’s breaks yet another expectation once the menu is perused. I find most restaurants that offer this kind of experience diminish their menus, focusing on a few plates— mostly appetizers—and a drink menu. However, Lou’s menu was so comprehensive, it took probably twice as long to narrow down the choices than it would at any other restaurant. From a dozen different appetizers to sandwiches, burgers, grilled entrees, pastas and almost anything your heart desires, Lou’s packed menu isn’t just limited to food. Their cocktail menu—especially martinis—alone could easily rival other lounges’ dinner menus. In order to truly take advantage of their menu, a selection of appetizers was ordered including their extra-large nacho platter, classic chicken strips and fries and baconwrapped scallops. The chicken strips and fries found that balanced ratio between crispy outside
Image: Amy Van Veen/ The Cascade
With an unassuming exterior, this lounge-like grill offers many dining options and scrumptious outside, the bacon-wrapped scallops were served in a creamy, tangy sauce, but the nachos took centre stage. With layer after layer of crunchy nacho chips and melted cheese served with a variety dipping sauces, this plate was a marvel. How the cheese didn’t turn the chips soggy
The Cascade Cookbook
is a mystery I’d love to solve, but for under $15, it’s a secret I’ll gladly let them hold on to. As the weather gets over itself, the heated patio acts as a nice reprieve from the intimacy inside, but it would be best enjoyed on a lazy summer afternoon with one of the many martinis in hand. For
those who want a lot of selection, a lounge-like atmosphere and friendly, conversational service, head north from downtown Abbotsford on Gladys and you’ll see Lou’s Grill peeking out from behind the bushes.
Drink o’ the Week:
Violet Hart’s “Better than Sex” Chocolate Fudge Cake
Violet Hart has been The Cascade’s sex columnist since 2010. She loves nothing better than getting hot and bothered in the kitchen, and thoroughly enjoys hot buns.
Love in a Glass
“After trying this cake, you will never think about chocolate the same way again.” Chocolate Cake Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups flour 1 cup sugar 1/2 tsp salt 1 tsp baking soda 3 tbsp cocoa 1/3 cup canola oil 1 tbsp vinegar 1 tsp vanilla 1 cup water Chocolate Cake Directions: Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Add oil, vinegar, vanilla and water. Stir well. Pour into an ungreased 9X9 cake pan and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. A toothpick in the centre should come out clean.
Violet Hart
Art: Anthony BIondi
Fudge Frosting Ingredients: 1 cup sugar 1/4 cup cocoa 1/4 cup margarine 1/4 cup milk 1 tsp vanilla Fudge Frosting Ingredients: Mix sugar, cocoa, margarine, and milk in a saucepan. Stir constantly. Bring to a boil for one minute. Remove from heat and beat until creamy but still pourable. Add vanilla and pour immediately over cake. *These also make great cupcakes. **Sometimes I also add walnuts to the fudge icing. Estimated cost: $8
A sweet red drink Cupid himself could not turn down. Perfect for an evening of romance. 1 1/2 oz raspberry liqueur 1 1/2 oz vodka 2 dashes amaretto 1 oz sweet and sour mix* Pour ingredients into cocktail shaker with ice. Shake. Serve in two glasses. *To make sweet and sour mix: combine 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar in a saucepan. Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves; bring almost to a boil and remove from heat. Add 1 cup fresh lemon juice and 1 cup fresh lime juice. Chill. Ideal for: Your valentine Bad for: Your nemesis On the Cascade scale: A
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012
www.ufvcascade.ca
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ARTS & LIFE
CROSSWORD 1
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Love letters
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THE CASCADE
ACROSS
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JENNIFER COLBOURNE
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1. A yellow rose is the symbol of _____. (10 letters) 4. Valentine’s Day is said to have been created to supersede what Roman festival? (10 letters) 8. Cupid scratched himself with his own arrow and fell in love with ____. (6 letters) 9. This famous poet wrote a poem about Don Juan. (5 letters) 10. “It is the east, and Juliet is the ____.” (3 letters) 12. A type of shellfish considered to be an aphrodisiac. (7 letters) 13. The false lover of Samson. (7 letters) 14. A short, loose fitting negligee. (8 letters) 15. St. Valentine is said to have been executed by Emperor _____ II. (8 letters)
DOWN
2. The author of “My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose.” (6, 5 letters) 3. A Chinese festival sometimes called the “Chinese Valentine’s Day.” (4 letters) 5. This Italian lover is associated with the art of seduction. (8 letters) 6. “My Funny Valentine” is a show tune from what musical? (5, 2, 4 letters) 7. A treat in which fruit or cheese is dipped into melted chocolate. (6 letters) 11. The Roman goddess of love and sex. (5 letters) 13. “And, if God choose,/ I shall but love thee better after _____.” (5 letters)
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LAST WEEK’S Answer Key Across 1. Sunset Boulevard 9. Edward G Robinson 10. Dick Tracy Down 1. Sam Spade 2. Orson Welles 3. Humphrey Bogart 4. The Big Heat 5. Touch of Evil 6. Lauren Becall 7. Philip Marlowe 8. James Cagney
15 EclipseCrossword.com
Aquarius: Jan 20 - Feb 18 Venus says, “Get your valentine a giant dildo! Nothing says romance like a big plastic wiener.”
Pisces: Feb 19 - March 20 Stop stalking Leo. Climb out of the tree, and put the binoculars down.
Aries: March 21 - April 19 Your life is like a box of chocolates. Everyone is going to devour you and suck out your insides.
The Weekly Horoscope Gemini: May 21 - June 21
Star Signs from the Sumas Sibyl Libra: Sept 23 - Oct 22
Forget Valentine’s, it’s no big deal. Of course, you’re going to die sad and alone, but whatever.
Have no fear, your love will be back – or was that a robot-killer from the future? In that case, have fear.
Cancer: June 22 - July 22
Scorpio: Oct 23 - Nov 21
Don’t be surprised if you’re alone. Nobody likes Cancer.
Don’t listen to Violet Hart. She’s a crackpot 40-year old virgin who lives in her mother’s basement.
Leo: July 23 - Aug 22
Sagittarius: Nov 22 - Dec 21
Pisces wants to be your Valentine! How sweet.
Give your special someone cinnamon hearts? Ick. Cinnamon Fireball Whisky on the other hand…
Taurus: April 20 - May 20
Virgo: Aug 23 - Sept 22
St. Valentine says… Who cares? Nobody knows who the hell he is anyway.
Watch out. Cupid is about to shoot an arrow at your heart. No, seriously, watch out. He usually misses and hits low.
Capricorn: Dec 22 - Jan 19 Don’t worry, Jesus loves you. Then again, he’s not going to buy you lingerie or a box of chocolates now, is he?
Visit us at www.monktucky.com!
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ARTS & LIFE
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012
ALBUM REVIEW
Coeur de Pirate – Blonde LEANNA PANKRATZ
CONTRIBUTOR
CHARTS
1 2
Boyhood Boyhood
Yamantaka // Sonic Titan YT//ST
3 4 5
Coeur De Pirate Blonde The Brains Drunk Not Dead
Rouge Modern Lovers I/ Destruction
6
The Darcys Aja Interpreted By the Darcys
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Wooden Wand Briarwood Mitchmatic It’s Probably Raining Craig Finn Clear Heat Full Eyes Silver Dapple English Girlfriend
Harma White Reptile Fanaticus Fanaticus
Lydia Loveless Indestructible Machine
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Los Campesinos Hello Sadness Lamb Of God Resolution Fred Eaglesmith 6 Volts The Barr Brothers The Barr Brothers Honheehonhee Shouts Odonis Odonis Hollandaze Duchess Says In A Fung Day T!
Shuffle BRAD VAN HAASTREGT CIVL DJ/CONTRIBUTOR
Brad van Haastregt hosts Haters Gonna Hate every Tuesday from 11-1 p.m. He has trouble writing about himself in the third person. The Shins – “Simple Song” The newest single, off The Shins newest album Port of Morrow, “Simple Song” is anything but a simple song. The first new album to be released under their new label some thought that Port of Morrow wouldn’t be as good, but “Simple Song” shows right out of the gate that The Shins still got it. Port of Morrow hits the self March 2012.
Bon Iver – “Skinny Love” What do you do when ending a relationship? Maybe stick your head in ice cream buckets or go on alcoholic binges. Not Justin Vernon. He locks himself in a Wisconsin backwoods cabin writing music. From acclaimed album For Emma Forever Ago, “Skinny Love” is a must for breakup playlists everywhere.
It is admittedly rare that a foreign language album breaks its way into the English-speaking mainstream. However, this is exactly the feat accomplished by nineteen-year-old francophone chanteuse Beatrice Martin, who is more commonly recognized by her stage name, Coeur de Pirate. Martin released her sophomore album, Blonde, on November 7, 2011 – an album that reached number one on French-Canadian charts, and whose title is a wink-and-nudge to the underlying theme of its tracks (the word blonde is common slang for “girlfriend” in Quebec). Martin certainly makes no secret that her own experiences as a once-too-often jilted girlfriend are what drove her pen this album. “While the story is very personal, this album is not so much a breakup album as a relationship album,” she stated in an interview with Exclaim.ca. “It discusses every single phase of a relationship. For me, it was about a girl who loves a boy and everything that comes with it. And it’s kind of a tribute to the people I have loved. It wasn’t just one boy.” However, Blonde’s lyrics of spurned romance are not crafted for cry-along sessions à la Adele, and that is the precise reason the album feels so uniquely fresh. Comparing it to her first self-titled, piano driven, and slightly generic first album, Coeur de Pirate’s latest discographic addition has taken her sound in a new direction that has granted her a certainly more definitive style – a welcome commodity in the often incomprehen-
If you didn’t already know Ashleigh Ball, lead singer of Hey Ocean is the vocal talent behind the characters of Rainbow Dash and Applejacks on My Little Pony. In other more relevant news Hey Ocean latest single is for sure worth a listen before judgment is passed.
Said the Whale – “Heavy Ceiling” When I first heard this song I thought that Said the Whale was releasing their tune “Last Night” on their new album Little Mountain, but it turns out that “Heavy Ceiling” is nothing more than “Last Night” retooled and a few vocals added. Don’t get me wrong I still love Said the Whale it just stings a little to find that out.
homage to all things Bardot, Gall, and Gainsbourg – modernized by an occasional grungy guitar lick, and vocals that never lose their inherent edge. Non-French-speaking listeners who may feel deterred by the suggestion of a Francophone album will be reassured at the accessibility of Coeur de Pirate. In each track is a remarkable attention to detail by the artist, along with a healthy dose of culture-defying emotional universality that transcends even an obvious language barrier. Martin’s songs are multi-layered and full-sounding, utilizing everything from piano, soft, cinematic strings, surf guitar and retro drum beats. From the smartly arranged “Adieu” to the catchy, almost early Beatles-esque “Pour un Infidele,” she relays tales of heartbreak, betrayal, and revenge with a grin, wink, and bite – never, however, losing the whimsically insouciant quality that makes Blonde so remarkably listen-able.
CASCADE ARCADE
We often play games to be our ideal selves JOEL SMART
THE CASCADE
Hey Ocean – “Big Blue Wave”
sible jumble that is the indie music scene. In Blonde, Martin demonstrates an admirable talent for combining her poignant and sharp lyrics with a quirkily retro tone that pervades the album – an homage to the sprightly pop music in the swinging sixties. “I really wanted Blonde to sound classic,” Martin said in the same interview with Exclaim. “To me, the sixties are perfect – in change, in cinema, in culture. And I really like what they did in France as well when it comes to music, so I am very inspired by that musical and cultural era. One could sing about very intense subjects with very light and happy music. My lyrics aren’t happy, but the music is Riviera-chic – very danceable.” In the duration of Blonde, the dollfeatured, bouffant-haired and tattooed Martin weaves melodies that are certainly reminiscent of a French New Wave soundtrack. Tracks such as “Danse et Danse” and “Golden Baby” betray an obvious and charmingly arranged
'...the motives and psychology behind the choices players make when roleplaying is certainly a valuable area to research.' In a new Psychological Science issue, an article discusses a recent study that hypothesizes that we’re drawn to games that allow us to role-play as those with our “ideal self characteristics.” The study, run by Andrew Przbylski, asked gamers about their personalities types, not just as themselves but also as their ideal-selves and as the characters they play as in games. The results backed up the claim, and Przbylski noted how the phenomenon is most common in those with a great difference between their personalities and the personality of what they perceive to be ideal. Jamie Madigan, who operates www.psychologyofgames. com and has a Ph.D. in psychology, wrote a fascinating article for Gamesutra about the study and its possible implications for game designers. His primary focus is on the way players choose to develop their characters in role playing games – either with experience
points or in games that allow players to make morality choices. For Madigan, it only becomes interesting when it moves past the oversimplified dichotomies of pureevil and overly-heroic. Things can get more complicated than deciding whether you want to save the busload of orphans or hurl them off the edge of a cliff. “Taking Przbylski’s research to heart, effective choices in these games are going to be the ones that let players adopt a much wider spectrum of personality, desires, values and judgments,” Madigan explained. It’s a valuable suggestion for an industry that tends default to the more base levels – at least compared to film and literature. Yet progress is being made, and Madigan alludes to this in a discussion of Dues Ex: Human Revolution and Dragon Age 2, two recent games that allow players to develop their characters in terms of more abstract, ideological and moral positions. Though it’s not an entirely novel concept, the motives and psychology behind the choices players make when roleplaying is certainly a valuable area to research – especially with the growing popularity of games like Second Life, or even just the different ways people misrepresent themselves online (often unintentionally). The inclination is always to put your most attractive picture as your profile
picture on Facebook, and to perhaps avoid letting people see your frustrated emotional outbursts on a bad day. However, within the context of a more traditional game, the option to explore moral choices really provides an opportunity to “try out” characteristics that differ from their own; while the inclination may be to be that ideal self, I suspect that when the consequences are taken away, many will at least temporarily find equal value in the ability to explore different morals and values. There is always room for improvement, of course; few games truly allow a player to complete a game in a variety of different ways. Is it possible for a game to accept and adapt to a player that is free to truly explore any number of varying personalities? Some games do allow a player to conceivably beat an action game as a pacifist, but it’s rarely a viable strategy. Ideally, the choices you make or fail to make would have an ever-expanding impact on the overall direction of the game. Unfortunately the amount of programming and resources necessary to accomplish such an ambitious plan are the current limiting factors, but games like Heavy Rain seem to be taking baby steps in that direction. If nothing else, Przbylski’s study and Madigan’s response offer an intriguing opportunity to reflect on the reasons you play the way you do.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012
www.ufvcascade.ca
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Mini Album Reviews
SoundBites
ARTS & LIFE
Sharon Van Etten Tramp The album title Tramp is as much of a statement for Sharon Van Etten as it is a challenge, commanding listeners to free themselves of the uncertainty and loneliness of uncomfortable relationships and embrace the unattached lifestyle. The Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter has grown out of the popular “confessional” style songwriting that engulfed her acclaimed 2010 release Epic. Tramp reveals Van Etten’s aspirations to find more about herself, which comes across as dark, yet refreshing, as multiple listens of the first few tracks reveal layers and not just peaks in her music. Producer Aaron Dessner of the National mixes lush arrangements with a menacing atmosphere, upon which Van Etten’s understated and mournful vocals can build. Her lyrics are very personal, yet accessible. She is able to retain a biting sense of directness and unbridled sincerity throughout. The album shines through as a cohesively mature and thematically focused record, however, the latter half of Tramp is indicative that in the future, some of Van Etten’s uninhibited ambition should be placed under stricter guidelines.
TIM UBELS
Haute Stuff LEANNA PANKRATZ
THE CASCADE
I somewhat regretfully admit to my almost daily check-ins with the various fashion blogs and publications (Bill Cunningham candids, anyone?) that will forever brand me as a fashion geek. This primarily serves its purpose as inspiration to write, or perhaps most obviously, attain tangible style tips. Regardless of the publication, however, I find myself constantly drawn to anything with the slightest implication of anything eastern USA. Something about the East Coast has always called to me. It’s a long distance love affair that even I find hard to pin down. I’ve been fascinated by everything from Greenwich Village hipsters, to uptown eccentrics, to perhaps most recently and notably, the concept of prep culture. Now, prep is a hard idea to capture in words. Long story short, this pastel-clad merging of fashion and lifestyle began in New England, USA, where old money clans intermingled within affluent communities. These were people who considered summer a verb, pearls a necessity and who recognized the merits of an education. In these
Prinzhorn Dance School Clay Class
To say that Brighton’s Prinzhorn Dance School reduces post-punk to its essential elements would be an understatement. The duo, consisting of Tobin Prinz and Suzi Horn, most often sticks to a minimalism marked by lyrics half-shouted by both members, thudding bass lines, and standup drums with the occasional angular guitar line. The band’s sophomore effort for James Murphy’s DFA imprint is virtually indistinguishable from their first. There are nods to Wire and The Kills, but minus the unpredictability of the former and the immediate, boozy soul of the latter. The production is spot on, unadorned and sharp, but the song writing lacks variety. “Usurper,” “I Want You,” and “Turn Up the Light” are memorable tracks, but the rest tends to sort of bleed together. Prinzhorn Dance School doesn’t suffer from a lack of compelling guitar riffs or cerebrally-stimulating experiments, but without a strong song writing foundation, their strident minimalism only reveals a bankruptcy of substance. The band has potential and perhaps their next release will show some growth, but if Clay Class is any indication, the band may not have the motivation required to produce a truly great album.
NICK UBELS
The Man Whom
John K Samson
Within the first minute of listening to The Greatest Event, the debut album from the Irish band The Man Whom, I was instantly captivated. This is the kind of music I live for. If you are a fan of Mumford and Sons, you are bound to fall in love with The Man Whom. The songs from this album sound a lot like the songs you would hear on a Mumford and Sons album, but with a softer feel to it. The tracks that stuck out were, “Over and Under,” in which holds the capacity to immediately put you in a great mood, and “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” which beautifully deals with the more difficult trials faced by the average man. Something about Irish music gets me every time, and this is no exception. This may be my new favourite band and my favourite album of the New Year. I can personally guarantee that this album will make a lasting impression on you, just as it has on me.
A singer/song writer for indie rock band The Weakerthans, John K Samson released his first solo album after four albums with the band. Provincial is a plaintive and evocative album entirely devoted to Manitoba. The songs are peaceful and familiar with lyrics dwelling on the intimate small town details of life in Manitoba. From heartbreak, homework and video games in “When I Write my Master‘s Thesis,” to the nagging phrases in “Cruise Night”—“I can’t take another week of feeling lame / with the same old tin can on my ten speed / circling the Dairy Queen while jacked up rides idle at me”—Samson’s lyrics are vivid and sharp in their imagery. The most melancholic is “Letter In Icelandic From The Ninette San,” with beautiful lyrics: “in another year / I’ll be buried or shivering here. Coughing at the grey spittoon / painted orange by the harvest moon.” Samson keeps his full, diverse sound and captures the essence of a place that, though no one would want to go, emanates love songs.
The Greatest Event
PAIGE HOBLAK
Provincial
SASHA MOEDT
The old boys’ club: musings on prepdom
eastern academic institutions, a definitive look was born that would go on to perhaps define the very core of classic American style – cardigans, plaid and good leather shoes, to name a few staples. It’s the image of the tried-and-true social mover – a romanticized young Ivy Leaguer riding a bicycle in a pair of brown J. Crew loafers. A person who wears and lives their intellect and ambition, and does so with a certain well heeled, bred and read charm that is often attempted in the fashion world, but rarely done justice as a concept or culture. Prep is a decidedly antifashion world, in fact. Opting for classics rather than trend pieces (pearls will always take first string over anything with the slightest glitz or gleam), the preppy look is style stripped down to its absolute essentials – crisp, clean, and to the point. I admit to having once held a certain skepticism towards prepdom – particularly the clan’s apparent hang-up with quality over fashionable quantity. The fascination with anything that is simple and square was boring at best and archaic at worst – are we not in the age of experimentation? This past summer, though, I
found myself on a two-hour sailing experience with a group of four friends at White Rock beach. Through a philosophy of functionality more than anything else, I opted for a pair of plain white cutoffs paired with a navy-and-white sailor shirt. For a girl who loves to pile on layers and accessories, this sudden adherence to the basic rules of activity-appropriate dressing was liberating. (Not to mention the whole sailing thing was brilliantly Kennedy-esque. Can someone direct me to Cape Cod?) The simplicity of prep is unnervingly intoxicating, and in many ways, I have found the look to be among my most prominent style inspirations. There are few sartorial guilty pleasures more satisfying than a brightly-coloured Lilly Pulitzer summer dress, or a varsityinspired rugby sweater from none other than Ralph Polo. Tommy Hilfiger’s spring 2012 line brilliant plays off this ideal with a collection of academically inspired beige and navy sweaters, khakis evoking lazy afternoons on the campus grass, boat shoes and, of course, polo shirts in everything from pastels to classic white. A striped top is often a fantastic addition to any scholarly
Image: Noah Emerich/ Tommy Hilfiger
look, as well as a good plaid skirt or pair of trousers. His prep highness Hilfiger, himself, has set up an official Tumblr page that acts as a sort of scrapbook for photos of all things easterly, from mountaintop “champagne and ski” parties to sepia snapshots of Vassar freshmen decked out in white mini-dresses and tied back hair. That such a definitive look still exists and thrives says a lot about the staying power of the classic American dream. Through our garment choices, we are free to
make political, social and cultural statements that, perhaps unbeknownst to us, are more sociological than we realize. The preps will always have pearls, pastels and Pulitzer, regardless of the United States spinning nonstop towards the future. The sustainability of the prep represents the tenacity many westerners hold to their roots, even though (as Lisa Birnbach says in her opening to the 2011 guidebook, True Prep) “It’s a whole new Old World.”
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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012
ARTS & LIFE
Book Review From Shy to Social: The Shy Man’s Guide to Personal & Dating Success by Christopher Gray
LANE ANDERSON
CONTRIBUTOR
PAUL ESAU
THE CASCADE “This book,” states Christopher Gray in the preface to his guide, “is a comprehensive plan detailing the methods I used to change from being extremely self-conscious around women I was interested in, to someone who could confidently initiate conversation with women under almost any conditions.” It promises to make the reader, “the better man you want to be, while opening up new social avenues for meeting women who will help you find satisfaction and happiness.” Now immediately I would ask said catalysts of this satisfaction and happiness—women—to stop reading. The whole point of the book is to persuade the estrogeninclined into providing “satisfaction,” and it would be deeply unfair if you were wise to all our tricks before we (the testosteroneinclined) even tried them. Remember that, at least for the purpose of this work, you are like carefree, prancing gazelle on the African savannah, and we are like starving, lust-crazed cheetahs, anxiously developing our plan to stalk through the long grasses, separate you from the rest of the herd, and possibly obtain your phone-number. So stop reading. Trust me, it’s better this way. Now men, there are two immediate things to know about this book. First of all it’s called the Shy Man’s Guide. This is important. If you are not shy, then this book is going to have a limited application to your situation. It can help your “approach” (this will be defined later), but it will not teach you when to shut up and be sensitive (which would probably be more useful). Secondly, this book is a guide to Personal & Dating Success, which means its premise extends beyond simply stringing together a sweaty series of one night stands. At least in theory. The first half of Gray’s book is therefore devoted to making shy guys social. It encourages them to get out more, develop new interests and proposes “assignments” to encourage their development (contribute to a forum online, volunteer at a charity organization, engage in personal hygiene, etc.). It encourages those who, like Gray, suffer from social anxiety to confront their destructive tendencies or perspectives and attempt to correct them. This is the good part of the book. The second half of Gray’s work is about the aforementioned gazelles and cheetahs. It’s about taking these liberated shy guys and
Charles Dickens’ bicentenniel: Tales of urban poverty still relevant
releasing them upon the innocent female population. Gray gives advice on everything from online dating profiles (no nude shots, no mirror/cellphone shots, no texting language) to creating engaging conversation (don’t ask what they do, don’t interrupt with “I did that too!” and consider memorizing witty anecdotes for emergencies). Much of his advice is on the topic of “approaching” women in public situations. Grey’s analysis is intensely mechanical. He dissects hypothetical interactions on the bus, in the gym, at the supermarket and evaluates potential icebreakers, conversation topics and psychological cues. The assignments become more challenging (Assignment #7: Approach 50 Women in 10 Days!), and Gray begins to relate personal conquests as valuable learning experiences. A chapter is devoted to the evaluation of concepts such as “wingman” and “pick up artist,” and another to a rather abbreviated discussion on female psychology. This half of the book is possibly in need of some cross-gender editing. “Women,” as Gray states unequivocally, “make decisions based on feelings rather than logic. If she decides you are not the one for her, no matter the cause, you could recruit a team of the world’s greatest thinkers and philosophers, led by the spirit of Socrates, and they would still fail to change
Postcard Lit Call for Submissions
her mind.” I feel that this is a statement that Gray, in his boundless quest to understand and manipulate the female mind, should not have committed to print. I base this conclusion upon my mother’s reaction to the quote; she responded with the profound feeling that the best use of Gray’s guide would be as projectile hurtling through a window. Women, in my limited understanding, do not respond positively to the assertion that they feel rather than think, which is why I told them all to stop reading in the second paragraph. Anyway, I would consider Gray’s work a compelling rallying point for those men who do experience extreme shyness or anxiety, with many useful tips to help improve their ability to interact with society. I would respectfully decline to recommend it as guide to dating success, as I feel Gray’s advice is less likely to inspire confidence than a subtle paranoia. Are you walking assertively? Gray demands to know. Are you maintaining eye contact? Have you forgotten to imply a false time constraint, or hinted, by smiling oddly, that you are probably a convicted felon? Do you want to be forever alone?
Two centuries ago this Tuesday, February 7, Charles John Huffam Dickens was born to an English working class family. His difficult youth inspired the stories that endeared Dickens to so many. In his 58 years he wrote 20 novels and many short stories, as well as plays, poetry and non-fiction. I will be celebrating his bicentennial, if only by checking another one of his novels off my reading list and putting a “happy birthday” message into the social network universe. But not many people enjoy such enduring recognition as to have their birthday recognized centuries later. What makes Dickens so special, then? Dickens did not become a celebrated novelist by inventing elaborate fictions about faraway places and fanciful people. He wrote about a very real place, London, honestly and without restraint. He described it in all its inglorious stench and filth. He wrote about the very real plights that he witnessed and experienced daily – the injustice, the suffering, the poverty. He created the characters that have become iconic—so thoroughly and intricately designed, commanding our love, hate, or indifference— and placed them into the very real place with the very real problems. With this formula Dickens showed us the best and the worst that humans are capable of. He wrote about London as it existed during a deplorable time in its history. The city has changed immensely since then, yet his stories are no less relevant today than they were then. Maybe it’s because the follies and ambitions of people haven’t changed at all, no matter the improvement in the setting; or
maybe it’s because we see something familiar in the injustice, suffering, and poverty of 19th century London. The state of the working poor was a recurrent focus for Dickens. At the time Britain was amongst the leaders of the world economically and politically and the quality of life for the aristocratic class had never been better. Conversely, Dickens drew attention to the near-slave conditions of the working class on whose back these riches were enabled. Most notably in Hard Times, Dickens censured the exploitation and oppression of the labouring poor. The conditions in the workhouses and the state of sanitation were inhumane. While the wealthy enjoyed the increased luxuries delivered by the industrial revolution, the poor suffered the burden of providing the labour that made it possible. Dickens’ relevance has not been lost because this imbalance has not disappeared; it has just taken on a new scale. Rather than the picture being wholly represented in a single city, London, with its poor constrained to their own districts, conveniently out of sight of the wealthy by whom they were exploited, the picture now encompasses the globe. Now the impoverished labourers are hidden further away, taking up a large portion of entire countries. The borders of separation are different, but the circumstances are not. This is why Charles Dickens is still revered today, 200 years after his birth. The injustice he points out is recognizable in the plights of our own time. The question, then, is who is the author of our era, ready to step forward with as much authority, pointedness, admonishment and yet simultaneous popularity as Dickens?
Publisher: Sunhow Press Price: $19.95
Charles John Huffam Dickens: a lovely portrait.
Please attach all submissions as a Word .doc.
or community members.
Would you like to see your short fiction published? The Cascade is looking for original flash fiction to grace the pages of this fine publication. Each week, we will include a thematic prompt for writers to work with.
Submissions must be under 500 words. Show us what you can do in a limited amount of space.
Biography: - Feel free to include a short 50-75 word blurb about yourself in your submission.
Submissions may touch on any theme or topic.
What we like: - General fiction is preferred, but humour and satire are also appreciated. - We’re not sticklers for genre. As long as it’s good, we’ll consider it. - Please inform us if your submission has been previously published. - Submissions can come from UFV students, faculty
Submission guidelines *Insert name of story, poem, or monologue here* by *Insert name of author here*.
Writers are encouraged to create new work each week to fit with the prompt.
Response time will typically be one week. Please email all submissions to: alexei@ufvcascade.ca Stories will be accepted until February 15.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012
FilmReview
www.ufvcascade.ca
ARTS & LIFE
The Grey
MICHEAL SCOULAR
THE CASCADE
The Grey, Joe Carnahan’s second consecutive collaboration with Liam Neeson as a lead, again pulls strength from Neeson’s size and charisma, which were two of several well-tuned components that made The A-Team a far better movie than its TV-adaptation’s reputation might suggest. In The Grey, they again work together, conveying the expansive intensity of a movie’s world, as well as lending a certain degree of familiarity and likeability to the lead role, but Carnahan is working in a different register this time. Neeson, a thin line of darkness against the white wasteland he’s lost in, has a lot to contend with. Some might wonder what the significance of the unassuming title is, and like a lot of things in the wilderness, it isn’t something that can be completely pinned down. Yet, there are several viable interpretations: the obvious monochromatic palette of the northern British Columbian winter Carnahan captures with a long, steady gaze (an abrupt change from his Tony Scott-related action aesthetic); the beloved “grey area” of what is the right thing to do in sticky situations (one of the few survivors of the crash that lands the cast in the middle of nowhere shouts at one of the predatory elements of their dangerous trek to somewhere “You’re not the animals, we’re the animals!”); finally, there is Neeson himself, caught in
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limbo before he ever arrives in the land where both the sky above and the mud below are covered in suffocating white. Neeson’s world-weary, poetryof-an-opening is followed by a reveal that his character Ottway’s primary memory of childhood and
the source of his haggard inspiration is poetry. All plays out to a long take backdrop of bar fights and curses, which give way to more curses, only in response to blood and death rather than aching backs and spilled drinks. Despite their exteriors, where the main
way of determining who’s who is the length and cut of their facial hair and the lines on their faces, the supporting cast of The Grey regards a fellow man’s passing, inevitable though it apparently is, with the terrified gaze of someone seeing their first grandparent slip away. And Neeson stands beside them all, the same yet different. He acclimates to the terrain and the habitat though he’s never been there before, and is in constant search for something he’s never seen before. Next to the way he carries himself, the tremulous, then supposedly tough “fuck”s and “Jesus Christ”s of his fellow passengers sound like the most empty statements in the world. “I just want to get laid one more time,” one bruised body says, but Ottway has other things on his mind. He returns, again and again, to a memory of his wife; a memory that, though it takes place under sheets, is distinctly asexual. It’s a light in his memory, a moment he can touch but not feel anymore, and as clichéd as the flashback fragment might be, it’s a more enduring image than one expects in a movie where men laugh wildly following the lustful jokethat’s-not-really-a-joke above. In between the whites of the deathly soft crunch of the snow and the dead soft touch of his wife, Ottway laments at the sky, “I wish I could believe in that stuff.” Though there might be moments of grace in The Grey’s landscape of indifference, there is no heaven. Most prominent of their physi-
cal struggles is the threat of death by wolves on the hunt. Though the fear of being preyed upon with no help on the way reaches for plausibility, these predators are a movie manifestation. The pack of supposed hunters is notable not for their realistic behavior (they appear only when one is alone and all is silent, or emerge as a front line of menace in perfect unison) or the way in which they are dispatched (more often than not they slink away because man make fire), but for their appearance, both tangible and not. They appear with demonic glowing eyes, then pass away like mist, triggering nightmares for men, who act more like boys in their presence. And how can they not? For them, they are the perfect representation of ghosts, urging them across the expanses of a dream world where the snow never ends, and the pain never ceases. The Grey features some stumbles along the way, including a “thirdact moment” that is all-too-familiar territory for a movie that’s supposed to be about the opposite, but the images (veering between eerily coherent and complete cacophony) and the oppressive sound (there is a score that doesn’t disrupt the mood, but it’s the wind, all piercing whistles and thundering gusts, that permeates as a more than adequate soundtrack) all tie together in the mind and body of Liam Neeson and feature most strongly.
POSTCARD LITERATURE Lost Lagoon I was tired. It had been a long night. I waited on the other side of the yellow tape for my scoop. The sun was rising and there was a light rain that was beginning to seep through my coat. I wish I had worn my hat. They were beginning to pull the red Buick from the lagoon. Water was pouring out through the shattered windows. Someone had decorated the car with bullets. I stood on the far side of the road, the beach barely visible through the trees and the cops. It was hard to tell if there was still a body in the car. “Figured I would find you here, Halligan.” It was French. I could smell his cologne a mile away. His finger was picking at his belt, the way it always did. “Do you know anything about this?” “What gives you that idea, Chuck?” I flicked the ash off the end of my cigarette. “I’m just working.” French chuckled. It was that kind of laugh that reminded me of that slow rhythmic tap of a typewriter. I always enjoyed talking to the kid. He
was new, just promoted a few months ago from patrol. Apparently nothing got past him. I wondered how true that was. The car was now fully exposed on the beach. I could read the bullet holes like a book in the library. Chances are French could read them too. Whomever’s car this was, they had been barking up the wrong tree. “Care to take a look at the body? You know these people, you may be able to give us a break.” French was quick. Quicker than I gave him credit for. “Sure,” I said. I had nothing to worry about from him. I’ve been clean for years. He led me under the tape. I had my notepad ready. Suppose they didn’t care about the press after all. The body came into view, limp and wet and splayed back against the seat. Suddenly my gut wrenched into my throat and my palms seized, but only for a moment. It wasn’t her. It can be hard to tell with corpses. The dead have a look all their own. Whoever this was, she looked close
enough to her to draw sweat on my forehead. I knew this wasn’t good news. I had the feeling my career was about to hit the tubes. “Don’t know her, Chuck.” “Too bad, I thought you could make this easy.” He sneered and lit a cigarette. I offered him a light. “She looks like that old con artist you ratted out a few years back. Problem is we can’t
Anthony Biondi
be sure. But I suppose you answered that for us, at least. My guess is this woman was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Got mistaken for someone she wasn’t. It’s a shame she ended up in the Lost Lagoon. We’ll give you a release when we have an ID. Watch your back, Frank.” French was always smooth, but it wasn’t her name I was
interested in anyway, and he knew it. He knew how tight my gut was at that moment. He knew. I couldn’t shake that feeling that told me that Irene was back in town, and she had conned the wrong crowd. Somehow I felt like this would catch up to me. And somehow I knew that when it did, French would be there.
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Giants edge out Patriots in Super Bowl XXXXVI BALRAJ DHILLON CONTRIBUTOR
Super Bowl 46 was everything it was hyped up to be; a close game that came down to the wire, game changing plays and the birth of legacies. In a rematch of Super Bowl 42, the New England Patriots lead by quarterback Tom Brady faced off against Eli Manning and the New York Giants who ruined their perfect season in 2007. Brady, starting his 5th Super Bowl, was looking to earn his 4th Super Bowl title which would put him in a tie with the legendary Joe Montana for most championships. With the win, Brady would surpass Montana for most post-season victories with 17. On the other side, Eli Manning, dubbed as “Peyton’s little brother,” looked to win his second NFL Championship, which would surpass his older brother Peyton and would catapult him into the category of elite quarterbacks. Unfortunately for the Patriots, it was a repeat of 2007. The Patriots scored right before halftime to go up 10-9 and scored on the opening drive of the second half to go up 17-9. It looked as though the Patriots could put the game out of reach, however,
a few three-and-outs caused by the Giants defence allowed their offence to drive down the field and kick field goals to close the gap at 17-15. With less than two minutes to go and the Giants knocking on the Patriots goal line, the Patriots defence allowed the Giants to score which put them up by four and gave Brady and the Patriots offence the ball back with 57 seconds left. However, two drops by receivers Deon Branch and Aaron Hernandez took time off the clock as the Patriots remained on their own 20-yard line. Following a few key completions, including one on fourth and 16, the Patriots had one last chance: a hailmary pass. Brady took the snap and scrambled around the pocket before launching the ball 50 yards into the end zone. The ball was tipped by the defenders and on its way down was kicked unintentionally upwards by the foot of a Giants defender. Unfortunately for the Patriots, the closest player to the ball, Rob Gronkowski, attempted diving for the ball and the ball kicked up right into his chest and he could not make the play. It would be a lie to say either quarterback didn’t deserve to win. Brady was 27/41 for 276 yards and two touchdowns while Manning was 30/40 for 296 yards and a touchdown.
Brady added to his never ending list of NFL records he holds by breaking two more on Sunday night. He first passed Kurt Warner for most passing yards in the post-season with 1156 yards. Secondly, he broke Joe Montana’s record of 13 straight completions by completing 16 straight passes. For New England, a team who somehow overcame adversity and made it to the Super Bowl despite having the second worst defence in the league, the loss is more disappointing due to the fact they were playing for the late Myra Kraft, the wife of Patriots owner Bob Kraft. For the Giants, they won their fourth Super Bowl in franchise history and Eli Manning earned his second Super Bowl MVP award. Both teams provided a close, nail biting game, making for great entertainment for even non-football fans. In the end, the Giants outlasted the Patriots by a score of 21-17. At the end of the night, there are 30 other teams in the NFL who would have traded places with the Patriots in a heartbeat; to have a chance at winning the Lombardi trophy with under a minute left to play.
Canadian Super Bowl parties: an analysis SEAN EVANS THE CASCADE
As a Canadian, the Super Bowl presents somewhat of a challenge. Who to cheer for? Why is the field so small? What on earth is Madonna doing – isn’t she like 50? Why do the Americans get all the good commercials? The confusion and frustration can often be too much for one Canadian boy to handle. It’s interesting how Super Bowl parties in Canada work. In my experience (limited as it may be), they generally follow a similar pattern. First, the guests arrive and the question is asked: “Who’re you going for?” Nine-
ty per cent will declare a side, (in our case, Giants or Patriots) and quickly qualify the statement by saying “… but, I don’t really follow football too closely.” The other 10 per cent give a puzzled look, likely unaware that there is even a football game on. It’s actually quite funny to watch a group of people, who are not really all too invested in the outcome of a game, subtly start acting like they’ve been following a team all year long. The Patriots take the lead and one yells out: “Thats my boy! Tom Brady! MVP! MVP!” Meanwhile, the “fans” of the Giants have migrated to the snack table to converse about how Luongo finally won in a shoot-out. “Time to trade him,” suggests one
soon-to-be-GM. The convergence of hockey and football was inevitable. “The Patriots are definitely the Red Wings of the NFL. I hate them.” The comparison between the NFL playoffs and the Stanley Cup playoffs is made. The cup is way harder to win, it’s decided. I suggest that maybe NFL refs should start using flags – one could imagine Bob Cole puzzling over where the brightly coloured flag came from. “Well folks, it looks like there’s a flag on the ice… Uhm, I think it’s against the team in the white jerseys.” But I digress. In all seriousness, it would be nice if NHL refs explained the calls they make like NFL refs. Take note, Gary Bettman.
Madonna sings, jokes are made about how old she is and someone references the need to make sure that Justin Timberlake is nowhere near the stage… or the building, for that matter. Halftime is over, to the relief of many, and play continues. Then, ironically, the collective ignorance is shown when someone asks a question: “How many quarters are in this thing? ...How many downs are left?” Even worse is when the collective begins to try to answer the questions being thrown out into the abyss: “No, I think he has to have both feet planted… It’s a safety. It means he’s safe.” Snippets of conversations come and go and the game wears on. The Giants take the lead and the embry-
onic fans of said team begin to shout and holler that they knew it all along. “What was the name of the quarterback again? ...Payton Manning! I love that guy.” Now, I am not one to talk. I am primarily a hockey fan. To be honest, the amount of football games I watch a year can be counted on one hand. Perhaps it is what makes the Super Bowl so… super – you don’t have to know a great deal, nor do you even have to follow the NFL season. You just show up, grab some Doritos and a beer, pick a team and hang on for the ride. This year, I picked the Giants. It was a good afternoon.
Health Kick: Equipment to get you started KEN MUIR
CONTRIBUTOR Have you ever heard someone say “you should be doing this run at 60 per cent effort” or “do these sets at 80 per cent,” without having any idea what they’re on about? Sixty per cent of what? Typically when you hear those sorts of comments from a coach or a health instructor, they’re referring to percentages of your maximum possible effort, or more directly, your maximum possible heart rate. Trouble is, most people don’t actually know what their max heart rate is, so they end up working at a different effort level than what’s required for the workout. Making these unguided decisions can actually be extremely detrimental if you’re training for a specific goal, such as losing weight or becoming competent at the 100m dash. Training at different intensity levels trains your body to do different things.
Lower intensity generally works on your body’s aerobic capacity (the ability to use oxygen effectively) and burns fat, whereas higher intensities work your body’s anaerobic capacity (the ability to exercise without sufficient oxygen) and promote muscle growth and speed. Obviously these endorse different goals. In order to stop yourself from becoming a power athlete when all you wanted to do was lose 10 pounds, you’d best figure out your max heart rate. Here’s an easy recipe to finding it: Ingredients: One treadmill One stopwatch (Optional): One friend to hold the stopwatch and record heart rates (and maybe egg you on; in fact, bring some cheerleaders) Step 1: Become competent at checking your heart rate Checking your heart rate is a required skill. Usually it’s easy to find the beat by pressing two fingers
against either side of your trachea (for the non-science crowd: the breathing tube in your neck). Heart rate is always measured in beats per minute, so, using the stopwatch, count beats for 20 seconds, and then multiply by three. It’s not necessary to count for the whole minute, but just know that the closer to a minute that you count, the more accurate the reading. Counting for 20-30 seconds is sufficient. If you have a heart rate monitor you can avoid all this hoo-hah, but only if you have a chest strap monitor, and then only if you know how to use it. The heart rate monitors that measure at the wrist are extremely inaccurate and should be avoided. Step 2: Figure out the treadmill For this test, do not change the incline percentage: it’s not necessary. Just keep it at zero. We’re only interested in the speed increments. Most treadmills calculate speed using an arbitrary whole number and one row
of decimals. During this test, every time you need to change the speed, change it by half a number, such as 5.0 to 5.5. Step 3: Start the test After warming up, start the treadmill at a comfortable jogging speed (but only on half-number speed increments, such as 5.0, 5.5, etc.). After exactly two minutes, step to the side of the treadmill and record your heart rate. Rest only for the amount of time it takes to measure it. Next, increase the speed of the treadmill and hop back on for another two minutes. Check your heart rate again, increase the speed, and run again for another two minutes. Keep doing this until you can’t keep up with the treadmill. After you’ve fallen off the pace (hopefully not literally), immediately check your heart rate. This number is your max heart rate. It’s important to run to the absolute limit of exhaustion. It can really help to bring a friend along to time for you and to cheer you on.
And know before going in: this test is brutal. The entire point is to reach your greatest limit of pain in order to acquire your max heart rate. The test is not very fun but the magic number you gain from it is well worth the effort. With your max heart rate, you can better tailor your effort levels to match your goals. By monitoring your heart rate during and after your workout, you’ll know whether or not you’re on target by comparing your current heart rate to your max heart rate. For instance, a workout meant to be done at 60 per cent effort for someone who has a max heart rate of 200 should have a heart rate around 120 beats per minute during the workout. It’s important to not only train hard, but to train smart. By sticking to the right effort levels by using your heart rate, you can maximize the effectiveness of your workouts to give you the results that you’re looking for.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012
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Sports you’ve never heard of: Camogie
Image: Max.Pride/Wikipedia
GRACE ROMUND THE CASCADE
Perhaps you have heard of the brutish ball-and-stick sport played by the Irish called hurling. Men partake in this highly physical, lacrosse/hockey like game mainly in Ireland, but it has grown in popularity over the years to now be played widely across North America. However, hurling is exclusively for men. What are women to do if they are eager to beat other women with sticks while chasing after a small baseball like object? They play Camogie: the female variant of hurling. Camogie, just like hurling, originated in Ireland and was formerly called “camoguidheacht.” Hurling and Camogie are the two official sports of Ireland. Camogie is primarily played in Ireland and in Irish communities outside of Ireland. The game is played in 60 minute matches, with 15 players a side – on a field with H-shaped goal posts on each end. In what would seem to be mixture of soccer and American football to score points, one can either propel the ball over the crossbar between the two posts (similar to a field goal) for one point or propel the ball between the posts under the crossbar (similar to a soccer goal) for three points. To score all these points the women must employ the use of a “hurley.” A hurley is a long stick with a broad end used to hit the ball or “sliotar” which is the size of a baseball. Hurleys and sliotars are also used in the male variant, hurling, but there are some distinguishing features of camogie which single it out as a sport of its own when compared to hurling. Some of the main differences between the sports are that, when playing camogie, women can hand-pass to score (which is an illegal move in hurling), women can drop their hurley for a hand-pass, side-to-side charging (tackling) in not allowed, and because it is an exclusively female sport all participants must wear skirts or skorts at all time (shorts are not permitted). Camogie is officiated by the Camogie Association which was formed in 1905 when the official rules of the sport were first put in place. The sport gets its name from the Irish names for the hurleys. In hurling, the Irish called the hurleys “camans” and women used a shorter version of the camans which were called “camogs. ” Every year in Ireland the All Ireland Camogie Championships are held, which are highly publicized and attended by over 30,000 people each year. Additionally, the championships are watched diligently by almost 10 per cent of the Irish population.
You call that a slump? JOEL SMART
THE CASCADE
The Canucks have been remarkably fortunate over the last couple of weeks that their goaltenders have managed to avoid falling into the same slump that the rest of the team has. It’s been pretty hard to watch some of the last Canucks games, as the team seems almost lackadaisical for two-thirds of each game. Not only are they allowing horrendous oddman rushes that require acrobatic saves, but they’re failing to provide any kind of pushback. Yet, thanks to the spot-on performances of both Canuck goaltenders, the team has been managing to still take away points. As frustrating as it must be for Vancouver fans, some solace must be taken in knowing how much more irritating it must be for those from the teams trying to catch up to the Canucks. The recent against-the-grain
nooner win in Colorado marked the seventh game to go to overtime in nine games, the fourth in a row. Of the seven, the Canucks won five – pretty good considering they’ve only lost five games that have gone past regulation all year. In the 10 games stretching back from that win against the Avs, only two teams in the West earned more points – the Detroit Redwings with 17 points to the Canucks’ 14, and the Nashville Predators with 16 points. Directly below Vancouver in the standings, the San Jose Sharks managed 11 points in that span. It’s nice to know that despite the recent struggles with the Canucks play, they’ve actually been making ground on the competition. However, there is a possible downside to the ability of the Canucks to keep winning through a slump – the entrenching of bad habits. When you know you can get away with something, it can be difficult to maintain
the highest level of effort. You get lazy. The longer you’re allowed to be lazy, the harder it is break out of it, when things stop working out. When the league is this competitive, it wouldn’t take long to suffer the consequences. The Canucks have such a good team this year; it would be such a shame if their recent laissez-faire attitudes got in the way of the success they could have. Yet, I suspect that with the February 27 NHL Trade Deadline quickly approaching, players may feel the sudden urge to prove their worth to Gillis in upcoming games. That said, the same motivations from players on opposing teams may lead to the opposite effect. Though the Canucks are currently over 10 points up on each of their divisional rivals, three of their next four games are divisional games – starting with Minnesota on Thursday, February 9, followed by a Saturday bout with Calgary, and
finishing with a heated Colorado rematch on Wednesday, February 15. Ensuring we stay ahead in our Northwest division will provide the Canucks with an invaluable safety net down the stretch, considering the powerhouse that is the Central division this year – a division that has not only Detroit and Chicago, but the suddenly very dangerous Nashville Predators and St. Louis Blues. If the Canucks can stay ahead in their division they will be guaranteed at least a top three finish in the West after the regular season. To say Vancouver would benefit from putting even more distance between them and the rest of their division is an understatement. So, while it’s hardly been the kind of slump to write angry letters to your local politicians about, there’s no better time for the Canucks to start firing on all cylinders again. Twin powers, activate!
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ELECTION ‘12 Candidate nomination
packages are available as of January 21st, 2012 at the SUS offices in Abby C1015 & Chwk G133 and at ufvSUS.ca. Completed nomination packages will be accepted at the SUS offices during business hours between Jan. 31 at 8:30 a.m. & Feb. 20, 2012 at 4 p.m.
The 2012 SUS Election Campaign Period will run from Feb. 22 to March 6, 2012.
Polling will take place online at MY.UFV.CA from 12:01 a.m., Wed., March 7 to 11:59 p.m., Tues., March 13.
Get involved with UFV Life. Date posted: January 31, 2012