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McGill

DAILY

THE

Volume 98, Issue 28

January 22, 2009

Replicated since 1911

Celebrating theInaugurationNews 3, Commentary 14, Compendium 18, Editors note 19

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e McGill Daily, Thursday, January 22, 2009 3News

Calm masses congregate in D.C.

SHINGTON As a record-break-sea of people assembled on the

ional Mall in Washington, D.C.

esday to witness the inauguration

Barack Obama, Americas 44th

sident, a deep serenity washed

r the crowd.

From all over the world, a pilgrim-

of supporters calmly waited in

icipation to witness the historic

ent of the first black U.S. President,

ugh their tranquility was perfo-

ed with intense displays of pride,

ef, and jubilation.

The masses, stretching back

m the Capitol Building where

swearing-in occurred, cheered

propriately with the entrance of

ngressmen, Senators, and other

nitaries which many viewersched from the two dozen jumbo-

n screens erected on the Mall.

A brief display of negativity

urred with the entrance of out-

ng-President George W. Bush.

me booed, though most remained

pectively silent.

Spectators held their breath for

amas address to the nation, which

erly and sincerely called on the

erican people to commit to a new

age of action and responsibility.

Starting today, we must pick

ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and

begin again the work of remaking

America, the new president pro-claimed. For everywhere we look,

there is work to be done.

With the official announcement

of Obamas inauguration, the crowd

once again erupted into cheers, and

furiously waved their freely-distribut-

ed American flags.

A Bermudan man, who had trav-

eled to Washington to witness this

event, captured the spirit of the

crowd well.

Today is a new day, he said.

Now there is hope for change.

A commercialization of the histor-

ic event was found on the sidewalks:

inauguration paraphernalia t-shirts,

oversized buttons, caps, and posters,

all to commemorate the symbolic

day of change.The cheering quickly died down,

though, as many began to automati-

cally drift away.

With many recognizing the

President as a sign of change, and

endowed with their full confidence,

the populous sensed their work was

done: America had elected Obama.

They could go home.

Suddenly Washington was faced

with two-million lost people, who

either could not access transit, or

were impeded by barricades set up

by over 8,000 security personnel on

the northern side of Mall. The smiling

crowds both cold and tired moved

slowly, with little yelling, chanting, or

pushing. No arrests were made at the

inauguration.

Tuesdays event was the final of

three days of the inauguration pro-

gram. On Sunday, burgeoning crowds

inched toward the Lincoln Memorial

for a patriotic concert featuring per-

formances from international artists,

actors, and actresses.

on Withers

e McGill Daily

With applause, standing

ovations, a few salutes,and even tears, McGill

dents packed into a crowded

Gerts bar yesterday morning to

watch as Barack Obama was sworn

in as the 44th President of the

United States.

Standing shoulder to shoulder,

inches from the television screen, thecrowd became silent as the moment

drew near. In Washington, there was

prayer, performance, and anxiety as

President Barack Obama stumbled

through the oath.

Visibly moved, Eby Heller from

Chicago was overwhelmed and

happy.It means there is a little bit of

hope. He knows he has a long, hard

NAIROBI, KenyaNairobis store-

fronts were covered in posters with

Obamas face as the city geared up for

his inauguration on Tuesday.

A Nairobi University professor

explained that students unilaterally

took a day off school, opting instead

to watch Obamas inauguration on

a stage set up by Citizen TV, a local

station. Bands were set to play for a

party afterward.

Students buzzed around with

smiles on their faces, and a few sport-

ed Obama t-shirts.Ive never seen this many people

at the University. Its so busy! said

one student.

Nairobians appeared visibly proud

that Obama whose father is Kenyan

was taking his oath as the President

of the U.S. For many, this election rep-

resents a new hope, a change mental-

ity within the worlds most powerful

nation and globally. Expectations have

never been higher for one man.

Fred, a third-year student in

Geography who hopes to one day be

involved in politics, was inspired by

Tuesdays events.

Im proud to be a Kenyan. Im

happy to be an African. But now

Im proud to be a citizen of human-

ity. I know he will not help me per-sonally in any way, but Im proud of

[Obama], he said.

Ian Martin

News Writer

Crowds in D.C. fell silent during Obamas inauguration speech on Tuesday afternoon.Arjun Kumar for The McGill Daily

Nairobi students

celebrate Obama

mera Jabir

ws Writer

Alice Walker for The McGill Daily

road ahead of him. I hope that he

respects himself as a human being,

his family, and from there he will do

good work.

The feeling of hope in the room

was so infectious that Eva-Queen

Ngayap from Toronto couldnt help

but join Aretha Franklin in a chorus

of Freedom Ring.

I am expecting a breath of

fresh air, a different stance, a new

perspective and attitude, Ngayap

said.

This is history and we all know

it. Everyone is cherishing this

moment.

The Gerts crowd fell silent as

attention turned toward President

Obamas inauguration speech.

Obamas rather solemn words muted

the celebration, as he spoke frankly

to both Americans and the world

about the challenges ahead.

Samantha Perera from Floridacommented, I feel like we are in

really dark times, not only as a nation

but as a world. Listening to Obama

talk gives me hope that we will pre-

vail, and that America will mean

something in the end.

There was, however, some skepti-

cism.

As a European, weve detested

Bush from the start. And as much as

wed like to believe Obama will bring

change, we are a little bit weary. We

will give it a few months before we

believe in Obama like Americans do,

one student who asked to remain

anonymous said.

If they werent already believers,

though, many in the Gerts crowd

walked away wanting to hope thatthe coming presidency will be as sig-

nificant as it is symbolic.

Obama fans cram into Gerts

urtney Graham and Emma Goold packed into their crowded campus bar to watch the inauguration.

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e McGill Daily, Thursday, January 22, 2009 5News

Three hundred people gathered

in front of the Roddick Gates

Monday afternoon in solidar-

with Israel three weeks after the

nflict in Gaza intensified.

Noah Kochman, U2 Political

ence and a representative of

Canadian Federation of Jewish

dents, kicked off the event with a

ech.

This is not an American issue,

European issue, or an Israeli

ue, [but] a universal issue, said

chman.

And so, I remain proud that the

nadian government has stood

ong the few who have spoken on

half of victims of terror wherever

y may be, recognizing that thedents of southern Israel deserve

same peace and security as the

dents of Mumbai or Montreal.

As his speech continued, cars

sing by the group on Sherbrooke

nked in support of the ra lly, which

mpted students to cheer.

Kochman called upon his fellow

dents to speak for peace and

ucate for peace, as students broke

into dancing and singing Israeli

gs.

An account of a resident from

erot, the Israeli city that has been

st bombarded by rockets, was

d by Dana Remer, an Honors

ial Science and Law student at

rianopolis College.

In the crowd, one student

marked, This is so nice to see. I

hope we will achieve peace.

But protesting the rally were

resentatives from Independent

wish Voices (IJV), yelling Zionism

acism and Israel is apar theid.

[We dont] celebrate war.... We

nk it is crazy that Israel used any

use it could to bomb innocent

ople, explained IJV representative

Emanuel Lowi.

Lowi claimed there are many

Israelis who opposed the war, despite

the fact that polls show 97 per cent of

Israelis support this operation.

All violent regimes will fall even-

tually, Lowi said.

The Consul General of Israel,

Yoram Elron, defended Israels

actions at the rally.

What would you have done?

We have to quell our threats, Elron

said.

Rabbi Pupko from the Beth Israel

Beth Aaron Congregation of Cote St.

Luc stirred the audience by address-

ing those who have questioned

Israels actions.

Maybe we would have taken you

seriously had you gathered after ter-

ror attacks in London, in Madrid, the

rabbi said.

You didnt gather when

Muslims are killed by Muslims or

by Christians.... You only care about

Muslim life when you can point an

accusatory finger at Israel.

Hillel debated whether or not the

rally was necessary, yet ultimately

concluded that the lack of pro-Isra-

el support on campus was a valid

reason for them to demonstrate

and communicate their viewpoints

safely.

Yael Smiley, the head of Israeli

Affairs at Hillel McGill, said the

rally was happening in the spirit of

education, moderation, and peace.

Unlike the students, though, he

stressed the event was not a protest,

but a way to communicate to other

students that Israel wants peace.

Students held signs with slogans

such as Stop preaching hate! and

Human rights does not equal human

shields, which they explained was

a reference to Hamass practice

of launching rockets from civilian

homes for the past nine years.

Hillel McGill partnered with the

greater Montreal Jewish community

to host the ra lly.

ky Tobianahws Writer

srael supporters want peacellel McGill rally sought to add Pro-Israel voices to the university forum

Julius Grey, civil rights lawyer

and human rights activist and

Israeli-American political activist

d anthropologist Jeff Halper spoke

out the barriers to peace in the

ddle East at McGill last Wednesday.

e event was hosted by Young

ws for Social Justice (YJSJ) and

ependent Jewish Voices (IJ V).

Applause and cheers rang as

per stood to speak.

Halper blamed Israeli tribal

ionalism and a belief in exclusivenership of land as the reasons

y peace remains so elusive, lik-

ening this is our land, but you can

live here too attitude to nationalist

periods seen in Germany, Poland,

Russia.

Think of The Motherland, The

Homeland! People say Israel is a

Western democracy, but it isnt,

Halper said. Zionism comes out

of Eastern Europe, not Western

Europe.

Halper also claimed that this

doctrine of the permanent enemy

guides Israelis to assume that Arabs

want to kill them, and thus that there

is no political solution.

Israel is a military state. It is run

by generals and Israel has set up aset of parameters that make peace

impossible, Halper said.

Halper then used his doctrine

to argue Hamas is the only group

capable of protecting Palestinians

from Israel, concluding that as a

result armed resistance is legitimate

according to international law.

Halper stopped once during his

presentation and allowed a question

to be asked by an upset Israeli, which

was met with a raucous response

from the audience including one

student who tactfully turned around,

shouted, and dramatically mimed

zip-it-up.

Halper concluded his presentation

by claiming that the world was forget-

ting Palestinians and turning theminto surplus humanity by apathy.

He proposed the abandonment

of the two-state concept and a focus

on a single-state solution, an option

on neither partys radar. He noted

Israel has historically come to the

negotiating table expecting to walk

away with everything.

I hope my message wasnt a

down message, but there cannot be

a win/ lose resolution.

Greys discussion preceded

Halper. He felt Canadians have been

far too passive in human r ights activ-

ism, explaining that safe human

rights activists avoid controversy

such as language laws and labour

issues in Canada, and the humanitar-

ian crisis in the Gaza Strip.Human rights are quite useless if not

accompanied by courage,Grey said.

Grey implied Israels recent action

in Gaza has darker Machiavellian

undertones.

Condemning the invasion is in

the interest of Israel, added Grey.

He found any real resolution to be

in the hands of Israels government,

who he said needs to step away from

policies of hate and war. He then out-

lined how Canadian action can speed

up that process.

Representatives from QPIRG

and IJV claimed McGill tried to

censor the event when it demand-

ed an additional $250 for security

on the day of the talk. The audi-

ence was asked for further dona-tions to cover the unexpected

cost.

an Feldmanws Writer

With Israel in conflict, experts urge interventionternational apathy leaves Hamas alone to protect Palestinians: anthropologist

The rally attracted opposition who yelled, Zionism is racism.Roxy Kirshenbaum for the McGill Daily

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Right to write in French

to be on syllabusesThe right of students to submitgraded assessments in French will

be more widely publicized, thanks to

two amended motions passed at yes-

terdays Senate meeting.

The first motion clarified the sort

of assignments students are allowed

to submit in French, and the second

required all course outlines to reiter-

ate that students have this right.

Jane Everett, Dean of Students,

introduced the motions on behalf

of the Senate Committee on Student

Affairs (CSA).

The right has been around since

the eighties, but there is some ques-

tion as to whether or not it exists in

practice, Everett explained.

She stressed how important it is toremind students who are more com-

fortable using French than English

that they will not be at an acad

disadvantage at McGill.

The motion will establish a

playing ground for any student

is more familiar in French tha

English. We are trying to accom

date that.

Adding the article to course

lines was a contentious move

eral professors felt that the syllis not the proper medium thr

which to communicate stu

rights and only passed narr

after three recounts.

With the second motion

hoped to clarify the rule on

mitting assignments in French

proposed changing the descrip

of work that can be submitted

essays, examinations, and these

written work that is to be graded

before, this allowance does not a

to language proficiency courses

The motion passed overwh

ingly.

The two proposals were orig

introduced to Senate in last May

procedural errors made their app

void, postponing their reevaluati

Jennifer Marko

News The McGill Daily, Thursday, January 22, 26

Pro-life speaker Mary Meehan

was met with general applause

and a significant number of

boos at her talk on liberal and femi-

nist support for the pro-life cause dur-

ing an event at McGill on Monday.

The question and answer period,

which lasted over an hour, saw many

heated and a few virulent arguments.

The talk, organized by Choose

Life and entitled Why Liberals and

Feminists Should Defend the Unborn,

drew almost 100 individuals of vary-

ing opinions on the issue of abortion.

The left side of Leacock 232 attracted

the pro-choice supporters, while the

pro-life supporters and event organiz-

ers opted to sit on the far right.Meehan criticized the left sides

current position of worship[ping] at

the shrine of choice.

Some choices really should not

even be considered, because they do

involve harming or taking the lives

of other people, she said. Liberals

indeed are anti-choice on many

issues... the death penalty, most wars,

torture, rape, racial discrimination,

and many more. They should add

abortion to the list.

Speaking at length, Meehan sug-

gested the existence of a eugenics

influence in the pro-choice move-

ment. She alleged that abortion is a

new tool used for population control

in the United States and around the

world.Meehan also cast abortion as a civil

rights issue.

Early in the 20th century, the

eugenicists in the U.S. used compul-

sory sterilization of poor whites and

poor African-Americans to keep their

numbers down, Meehan said. But

eugenicists did not have to use coer-

cion after our Supreme Court legal-

ized abortion in Roe v. Wade.... One

of the ways they do it is by support-

ing public funding of abortion.

Elise Eisenkraft Klein, U2 Jewish

Studies, objected to what she believed

was Meehans conflation of eugenics

and the pro-choice movement.

Choosing to have an abortion is

not the same as forced sterilization,

she said.

Charles Pitman, U2 Economics and

Philosophy, argued that support from

eugenicists does not invalidate the

legitimacy of the pro-choice position.

All sides of the [abortion] issuehave allies that they arent proud of.

Its not like the pro-life side has only

friends that are reputable, he said.

Meehan argued that abortions

performed after neonatal testing

for disabilities were wrong and that

access to abortions increases pater-

nal irresponsibility.

Guys have to talk to guys about

walking out [on women]. We need to

reinstate the old stigma against guys

walking out on their children.

During the question period, Salma

Moolji, U1 International Development

Studies, told her story of becoming

pro-choice while running a school

for abused girls in Nicaragua.

The day that I decided to be

pro-choice was the day that I sawthe child [of a] child die of starva-

tion.... If I put myself one generation

back, I would be in India, where my

grandfather was sold into child slave

labour.... I might have been that girl.

A few students in attendance were

particularly incensed by Meehans

sentiments. One such student,

Elsa Beaulieu, a PhD candidate in

Anthropology, called Meehan arro-

gant and insidious. At the end of

a detailed and emotional criticism

of Meehans points, she pleaded,

What about addressing the real-

ity of womens lives? What about the

consequences of illegal abortions on

womens lives? What about it?

But derogatory comments from

the audience toward Meehan con-

vinced Raphael Dumas, U1 Civil

Engineering, to reconsider his posi-

tion.

Those few rude students actually

pushed me in the direction of [thepro-life stance], Dumas said.

Meehan insisted that her position

is not hostile to women who have

had abortions.

I want to say to [those women

who have had abortions] that Im not

out to make you feel badly or send

you on a guilt trip, but I appeal to

you to take another look at this i ssue,

because there are more lives at stake

every day. I hope that you will help

save some of them.

Choose Life, granted interim club

status by SSMU in October 2008,

will be applying for full club status at

the end of this month. According to

Choose Lifes Community Outreach

coordinator Kathryn Sawyer, the

group tries to offer resources towomen who want an alternative to

abortion on campus.

Ariel Lefkowitz

News Writer

Principal Heather Monroe-Blum

was the highlight of the first

SSMU Council session of the

semester last Thursday evening. In

her opening remarks, Monroe-Blum

expressed a wish to stay in contact

with Council on a more regular

basis, and her intention to respond

to all councillors questions.

When Law Senator Alexandre

Shee asked about tuition increases,

Monroe-Blum tried to explain the

financial logic behind her support

for a form of deregulation of tuitionfees, which she calls re-regulation,

and described as deregulation with

principles.

What you should know is with

our international students...McGill

receives only the Quebec tuition from

your fees. If you pay, say $12,000,

McGill receives $1,750, and the rest

goes into the Quebec system to subsi-

dize students who come in free from

France and from the Francophonie.

I think if you want to look at a fair-

ness issue you should look at that,

Monroe-Blum said.

Monroe-Blum noted that under

her proposed system, the full amount

charged to international students

would get channelled back to the

postsecondary institution they attend,

and would theoretically benefit all

students. She also defended McGills

capital campaign and drive for private

funding.

Theres often a question a

[if we are] overly corporatized..

experience is not that the pr

sector or philanthropists want t

us how to do our business, she

[But the] government tries to tall the time how to do our resea

Government values certain d

plines over others...Humanities

social sciences get short [change

Arts Representative Seb

Ronderos-Morgan asked a

McGills new travel policy, w

restricts students from travellin

countries with formal travel warn

from the Canadian government.

After commenting on the

national nature of McGill, Mon

Blum stressed how dangerous t

to insecure areas can be. She

tioned that Canadian diplomatic

federal support pulls out of the c

tries that the di rective would pre

travel to.

Ive lost three colleagues Afghanistan and Mumbai] in

than six months. These arent c

concerns about safety, she said.

SSMU VP External Devin A

asked why former Quebec H

Minister Philipe Couillard

appointed as a Senior Fellow

McGills Law School. Couillar

under investigation by Que

lobby commissioner for talks

held with a private health care

pany that was not registered

the provincial lobby bank and

hired Couillard two months afte

retired as Health Minister.

Controversy, in itself, does

have us shy away if somethin

good at McGill. We actually inv

lot of people to come work in as a

tinguished speaker or a fellow. I

guys corrupted, I think there

record on that, Munroe-Blum sa

his defence.

Pro-lifer seeks liberal supportEugenics sparks debate on abortion rights

There is no one more helpless than an unborn human being, said Mary Meehan.Shu Jiang / The McGill Daily

Principal defends tuition increas

travel policy at Council

The majority of inter-

national tuition goes to

provincial government

Erin Hale

The McGill Daily

NEWSBRIEF

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The McGill Daily, Thursday, January 22, 2009Letters 7

curity: at what expense?

Tadamon! is no Paragonmmentary | January 12

Yes, let us not oversimplify. The

ue in Gaza at the moment is not

e that anyone can even begin to

ess in a weekly column or in a

ple letter. It is an issue involv-

a history of charged emotions,

ep-seated biases, and millions of

l- and ill-informed opinions. Do

mistake me, I am not writing

s in to be the archetypal Arab

ocate of Palestinian human rights

m simply writing this to place

emphasis on the ill-informed

ure of the debates and discus-

ns taking place on this is sue.

Hamas is and has been, for

me time now, launching attacks

Israel at the expense of Gazan

lians. And we all know that

mber one on the Israeli govern-

nts to do list is secur ity. I just

te this to prompt the question:

what expense? Lets bring up the

Machiavellian concept, the endifies the means. Really? Is that

at the world has come down to?

Let me get this straight, Ricky.

e only way for Israel to win is

kill Hamas soldiers, but thats

d when they hide behind the

ribly literal skirts of Gazan civil-

s. Right. So Israel is basically

with no alternatives. One of

richest, most powerful nations

he world is simply out of ideas.

ere is no other way to weaken

mas. Lets just aim at Hamas

diers, and hey, if a couple of hun-

d children die in the process,

a price we are willing to pay.

Honestly, no matter who you

or what side youre on, I think

should all agree that that is noce anyone should be willing

pay. Cmon, people. I remain

convinced. There are other ways

handle Hamas and weaken its

elligence and military structures.

Heck yes, let us never allow

ilists to use our own moral-

against us. Let us instead

llenge them, question their

ry move, and place pressure

those who claim to be work-

toward justifiable ends to

me up with new means.

ah Albanna

nternational Developmentdies and Sociology

Education is anything

but a commodityRe: Education isnt a right, its a com-modity | Letters | January 12

Let me begin by saying that what

I have to say it isnt all bad: one part

is an attack, but I will compensate by

applauding Lofranco on one of his

points as well. But first, the cr iticism.

I agree, Mr. Lofranco, educa-

tion is not a right. Simila rly though,

water is not a right, and food is

not a right either. It is access to

these things which is a right. Now,

perhaps we wont find access to

university education amongst the

rights on the UN declarations, but

I do believe that they are in the

spirit of them. I hate to get bogged

down in syntax, but I think that themain issue of your point of view,

and in fact that of others depends

on this linguistic misconception.

I will return to this point, but I

wish to make clear that education is

not, nor should it be, a commodity.

Perhaps, Mr. Lofranco, you mean

by commodity that it is something

which is not essential to survival,

and thus callously use this word

instead of privilege or luxury, but

it has much more ingrained sig-

nificance than that. To say that it

is a commodity is to claim that it

should be reserved for those who

can afford it, in a purely monetary

sense, and that we should acquire

it if we feel like it, as an extra little

feather in our cap, so long as wecan foot the bill. The consequences

of this conception of education

are far from desirable, particularly

for a person of your persuasion.

I would like to end by agree-

ing with what you say at the very

end of your letter, about making

universities places for the academic

elite. After all, isnt that what we

should be striving for? By all means,

raise the fees if it will lead to bet-

ter education, so long as we raise

the standards a s well. I would only

suggest that we also invest in stu-

dent aid to ensure that the best

and the brightest can still afford

to become part of this elite.

Charles Pitman

U2 Economics and Philosophy

Serious or embarrass-

ing take your pickRe: Smashing one piata at a time| Commentary | January 15

Ahoy Comrade Ted,

Thanks so much for the delight-

fully tongue-in-cheek article thisweek. You so effectively caricatured

the absurd conclusions and out-

of-context half-truths that radical

anti-Israel activists are constantly

spouting. The obvious grammatical

errors only heightened the satire.

Thank you for shedding some

humour on such a dark situa-

tion. I only hope nobody will be

silly enough to think youre being

serious here, as that would be

very embarrassing for you.

In solidarity,

Mookie Kideckel

U1 Political Science

Does Hamas really want to talk?Re: Hamas must be talked to| Features | January 15

In his article, Niko Block praises

Hamas for calling Obama to con-

gratulate him on his victory, yet fails

to discuss the aid being sent from

Israel into Gaza, and the extreme

measures that the Israeli Defense

Forces (IDF) take to prevent the

killing of innocent civilians. He

credits the recent violence to the

fact that Hamas has found nothing

but closed doors in the diplomatic

sphereespecially with Israel.

Merely taking a look at history since

the creation of the State of Israel

forces one to ask the question: at

what point were these doors closed?

In 1937, the Arabs rejected the

Peel Commission, which would

have served as a compromise divid-

ing the land west of the Jordan

River into two independent states.

In 1947, the United Nations pro-

posed the Partition Plan, which

would have made a Jewish state outof merely 15 per cent of the land

originally promised to the Jews in

1917 in the Balfour Declaration.

In a quest for peace, mirror-

ing their decision on the Peel

Commission, the Jews ratified it

and the Arab world rejected it.

In 1979 at Camp David, Prime

Minister Begin aspired to peace

and returned the Sinai Peninsula

to Egypt and its president Anwar

Sadat as a gesture of good faith. In

2000, Prime Minister Ehud Barak

went back to Camp David and

offered Palestinians 97 per cent of

the territories, granting the right to

return to many refugees, and mili-

tary control over Eastern Jerusalem

and parts of the Old City. Instead ofsitting down to talk, Yasser Arafat

waged a war of terror. In 2005,

Israel disengaged from Gush Katif,

a settlement in Gaza, only to be

plagued by thousands of rockets.

So what have we learned from

Hamas track record? We have

learned that the Palestinians have

yet to uphold their end of the Land

for Peace negotiations. We have

seen that while Israel has been will-

ing to compromise, the Palestinians

have not, and maybe, just maybe,

Hamas doesnt really want to talk.

First step to peace: end violenceRe: What the World doesnt knowabout Israel | Letters | January 15

Bravo, well done! Eden Sagman

has successfully regurgitated the

popular mantras professed by

mendacious world leaders, ideas

held as common truths drilled into

peoples minds day after day.

Essentially, that the Israeli gov-

ernment has the right to defend

itself, that Hamas is a terrorist

organization contributing to the

destruction of Gaza, and finally, that

the Israel Defense Force is making

great efforts to reduce the amount of

civilian casualties. Your words hold

neither credibility nor truth when

one accepts the undeniable fact that

more than 1,300 Palestinians have

been killed in a massacre orchestrat-

ed by one of the most powerful mili-

tary forces on the face of this planet.

The Palestinians have been

living under occupation for over

60 years a dehumanizing and

degrading situation that you and Iwill never be able to grasp. Sagman

audaciously claims that Israel just

wants peace and quiet. Well

then I suggest it begins by ending

its indiscriminate use of violent

force against innocent civilians.

Amanie Antar

U3 Education

Read before respondingRe: Jews, Muslims, and Arabs should

stand together | Letters | January 15

I typically do not respond to

Letters to the Editor, but in the last

edition Isaac Binkovitz implied that

opinion pieces that I, along with

Ricky Kreitner and Mookie Kideckel,

had written fuelled the supposed

tensions between Jewish, Muslim,

and Arab communities in diaspora.

While I will not deny this claim

about Kreitner and Kideckel whose

opinion pieces were rife with misin-

formation almost directly out of the

mouths of an Israeli military spokes-

person I politely yet vehemently

refute this asser tion about my piece.

In it, I am in no way dehumaniz-

ing, stereotyping, or otherwise deni-grating innocent civilians and their

diasporic counterparts, as Binkovitz

implies. Read my piece carefully;

you will not find one mention of

the words Jew, Muslim, or Arab.

As for Kreitner and Kideckel, I

am quite sure that their extremist

views are negated by the substantial

participation of the Jewish commu-

nity in social justice work through-

out the world. Let us not forget,

the demonstrations in Montreal

over the past few weeks have been

equalled by those in Tel Aviv in

shock over the continuing Israeli

assault on the people of Gaza.

While Im at it, as is the case

with all of my writings, I will gladly

provide references for all of thefacts used in my opinion pieces. My

pieces are always submitted with

references included, which the edi-

tors then remove before printing.

Nasser Mohieddin Abukhdeir

PhD IV Chemical Engineering

Thank you for shedding some humour on such

a dark situation. I only hope nobody will besilly enough to think youre being serious here,

as that would be very embarrassing for you.Mookie Kideckel Serious or embarrsssing take your pick

Re: Smashing one piata at a time | Commentary | January 15

SashaPlotni

kova/TheMcGillDaily

Leanne Silberberg

U0 Psychology and Linguistics

The Daily received more letters than it could print this issue, they will appear in the nextpossible issue. Send your non-offensive letters to letters@mcgilldaily.comat 300 words orless, and include your year and program.

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The McGill Daily, Thursday, January 22, 2Mind&Body

All hopped upJoseph Watts

Depanneurs are peculiar stages for the drama of life. Ifyouve been in one, youve been in 20, but everyone hasa favourite. There is a cozy familiarity one has with thedep closest to their apartment. Maybe the old man behind thecounter smiles when you come in, but its a shame that beer inMontreal is sold almost exclusively in deps, which are little more

picerie Jos inc.470 Duluth E.

The most like a classic dep dep. You can stop pick up a loaf ofbread or cigarettes on your way home and get lost amid a staggeringbeer selection, or roped into one of their weekly beer, cider, or winetastings. picerie Jos gets brownie points for having the best pricesof the bunch with lots of deals on 12 packs and 6 packs you can make

yourself.

Selection: 350 styles total, about 200 from Quebec brewersManagers Pick: Les Trois Mousquetaires Signature SeriesAll Hopped Ups Pick: Something from the brand new Brasseurs deMontrealReason to come back: Tastings. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, from 5-9p.m.

Les Dlires du Terroir6406 St.-Hubert

This small shop in Rosemount is big on beer, as long as its fromQuebec. Owner Sylfranc Ct orders beers with age in mind so thattwo or three years from now that strong beer will be at its best. Ctis also passionate about pairing beer with food. They have a fine work-ing relationship with sausages from Le Queue de Cochon, the artesianbutcher next door.

Selection: 195 styles, all from QuebecManagers Pick: La Barbarie India Pale AleAll Hopped Ups Pick: lAbri de la Tempte Corne de Brume an agedscotch aleReason to come back: When the Saint Reserve beers from MicrobrasserieCharlevoix arrive, youll have a chance to taste what Ct considers tobe Quebecs best beer.

Super March Rahman151 Laurier O.

The ultimate beer dep, Le Paradis de la Bire has been a purveyorof Quebec microbrews for 18 years. Its massive selection places fortiesof Black Label next to magnums of nobler stuff, but the shining stars arethe five kinds of house beer. Rahman h imself formulated the recipes forthe Paradisiac beers traditional styles brewed with Indian spices, allbottled at local breweries.

Selection: around 500 styles, 250-300 of which are from QuebecManagers Pick: Paradisiac Scotch Ale

All Hopped Ups Pick: Paradisiac Cuivre a strong, hoppy beerReason to come back: Trying a different beer each time you come in willkeep you busy for years.

Fromagerie AtwaterAtwater Market

Okay, its a cheese shop, but theyre serious about their beer. With 20new styles in since Christmas, theyre constantly updating their supply

with the freshest, most current offerings from Quebecs micro brewer-ies. The best part is that you can shop for the best cheese to pair with

your beer in the same store. Just ask any of the knowledgeable staff whowill gladly tell you what complements what.

Selection: 125 styles total, 95 from Quebec brewersManagers Pick: Au Maitre Brasseur Noire de Fromagerie Atwater

All Hopped Ups Pick: Buy a bottle of Maudite from Unibroue and a cheesecalled Le Ftard which spent its formative years being washed in theaforementioned stuffReason to come back: Lots of beer, lots of cheese, lots of tasty combopossibilities.

The wideworld ofdeps

than glorified newsstands peddling cigarettes, forties of Modry, and overpriced groceries despite such minor charms.

Where to buy good beer is the question Im asked the mIt seems that people are interested in drinking quality brewreluctant to shell out $7 a pint at a bar. But never fear! Therdeps that suit your purpose i f youre after something morea Molson Ex. Well, actually, some arent deps in fact theyscoff at the stereotype that beer needs be sold next to bottl

Porte dEnfer. Nevertheless, these four establishments arebest purveyors of local, cra ft-brewed beer in the city. Alonga description, each review has the managers pick, my owna reason to go more tha n once.

Find All Hopped Up in the Mind&Body section every oThursday. Cant wait? Send Joe your top ten encounters

your elderly, smiling dep manager to allhoppedup@gmail

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e McGill Daily, Thursday, January 22, 2009 9Mind&Body

Passing the smell testomantic love skews heterosexual females ability to sniff out potential partners, McGill postdocs study finds

n O'Callaghane McGill Daily

L

ove can skew womens scent

recognition when it comes to

male body odour, accordinga recent study published in the

cember 2008 issue ofHormones

d Behavior.

The study, Romantic love modu-

s womens identification of mens

dy odors, which was carried out

McGill postdoc student Johan

ndstrm under the supervision of

fessor Marilyn Jones-Gotman,

es that the more in love hetero-

ual female participants claimed

be with their male partners, the

rse they were at identifying the

dy odour of another potential par t-

, such as a male friend. However,

magnitude of love reported had

effect on the ability to detect the

nt of female friends, because, in

case of this heterosexual female-tred study, they were not viewed

potential romantic partners.

Lundstrm, who is no longer a

Gill student and is now working

Monell Chemical Senses Centre

Philadelphia, wrote in an email

The Daily that the inspiration

hind the study was based upon

ecdotal observations regarding

body odours combined with his aca-

demic interests.

You really like smelling your

partners body odour, and when real-

ly in love, you dont particularly like

the body odour emitted by others,Lundstrm said.

The focus of my research regard-

ing body odours is to determine what

form of social and biological signals

are hiding within [them], and how

are we able to extract and process

these [olfactory] cues, he added.

The studys representative sample

consisted of 20 couples, along with

a male and a female friend of each

female partner.

According to Jones-Gotman, a

professor in McGills Department

of Neurology and Neurosurgery,

and specialist in the neural corre-

lates of smell and taste, who over-

saw Lundstrms study, only female

partners were evaluated because of

their greater sensitivity to scent rec-ognition. She stated that the findings

would not be valid if the results from

male and female partners were com-

pared in the same study.

The ability for scent recogni-

tion is not always the same between

sexes, Jones-Gotman noted, adding

that women are better at detecting

scents in general.

Jones-Gotman also said that she

did not think the results would have

been much different had a larger

sample group been used. However,

she noted the need to address the

question of how the use of same-sex couples would change the out-

come of such a study, adding that a

study using same-sex couples is the

logical next step as a continuation of

Lundstrms work.

Jones-Gotman also suggested

doing a study of couples in more

short-term relationships, lasting six

months or less, or longer ones, last-

ing up to seven years. These results

could then be compared to those of

Lundstrms more recent study, in

which subject couples had been in a

relationship for one to three years.

Lundstrm has his own plans for

future behavioural studies investigat-

ing the ways our brains process part-

ners body odours.

We have already investigatedhow maternal love is manifested in

the brain in [the] lab here at [the

University of Pennsylvania].... This is

a logical extension of [such a] line of

research, he said.

Beyond his initial personal inter-

est in the subject, Lundstrm also

argued that his work is important in

more concrete ways.

This goes to show that even

such complex emotions such

as love [are] but a part of a more

complex network of emotions and

psychobiological processes, and

that our sense of smell is capableof conveying complex informa-

tion, he said.

However, Lundstrm

is not suggesting that his

study may be a new way

to predict true love; the

study merely shows the

connection between

emotion, scent,

and the mys-

terious and

intricate

organ that is

the brain.

EvanNewton/TheMcGillDaily

The nose can be

a powerful tool in

womens search for

compatible partners.

8/14/2019 McGill Daily 98_28_22JAN08

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Features10

I know this because I overheard two mem-

bers of the McGill Outdoors Club (MOC) dis-

cussing just such a situation as I sat in the back

of a station wagon en route to the Adirondacks

for a weekend of winter camping zipperless

winter camping.

Ifirst contacted the MOC in the middle ofNovember. I wanted to write a story on wilder-ness survival and, knowing nothing about the

topic (I hadnt been camp-

ing since grade school), I

figured that an outdoors

club might be a good place

to start.

Sasan Ghinani, a sec-ond year Masters student

and MOC executive, replied

to my email: In a weeks

time hed be leading a trip

to New Yorks Adirondack

Mountains, and he had

saved me a spot. But the

trip, he explained, had a

twist. Apparently, the MOC

has a few longstanding tra-

ditions. One tradition has

members hike up Mount Marcy, the highest

peak in New York State, with a four-piece band

in tow. Another has canoeists paddle through

ice on Lake Saranac, shortly after the winters

first freeze. And one of the more storied MOC

traditions the trip Ghinani wanted me to

come on involves winter camping without the

use of zippers: no tents, no sleeping bags, nojackets, no fancy Mountain Equipment Co-op

backpacks.

Out coldWith only grade-school camping experience under his belt,

Daniel Lametti braves a winters night in the Adirondacks

Daniel Lametti / The McGi

When waking at night with a full blad-

der, a true winter camper will opt to

urinate into a bottle and then hug

the warm vessel of urine against her chest as

she drifts back to sleep. You see, precious body

heat heat that might stop your fingers and

toes from freezing as you sleep will be used

to keep any urine in your bladder at body tem-

perature. Nalgenes, with their large volume and

extra-wide lid, work best in these situations.

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The McGill Daily, Thursday, January 22, 200911

Three days after receiving Ghinanis email,I make my way to a MOC meeting on thed floor of the Shatner building; Im there to

more information on the zipperless trip and

decide whether I actually want to go. Severalzen students have shown up and, to my dis-

y, they all look much more equipped to deal

h the outdoors than I do. In contrast to my

at shoes, everyone seems to be wearing seri-

hiking boots. Nalgenes, cargo pants, and

raordinarily large backpacks also appear

te popular. In fact, most of the students

m ready to jump up and go camping that

ant. And as I take a seat in the crowd, I start

wonder if Im in over my head. Ghinanis

ener does not reassure me.

People have been dropping out like flies,

says, referring to the trip. Everyone laughs

me.

Bring blankets, Ghinani says all the blan-

s you own. And clothes more clothes

n you think you can carry. And boots

nter boots are essential.

I glance down at my boat shoes. Id have torow a pair of boots. The trip costs $40. But

e Daily had agreed to pay. My excuses are

ning out. Plus, camping without zippers,

w bad could it be? I hand Ghinani two twen-

and walk out.

And thus, the following Saturday, having

learned that I may have to spend the night

h a bottle of urine pressed against my chest,

ep out of a Ford Taurus, and am greeted by

00 foot mountains covered in several feet of

w.

reparing to camp without zippers had

proven difficult everything has a fuck-

zipper. Even the six MOC members who

d decided to come on the trip had found it

llenging. And waiting beside our cars for

nani to return from the rangers hut, in

zero weather, jacketless, layered in sweat-

and carrying reusable grocery bags stuffed

h blankets, well, we look like a bunch of

ateurs. The park ranger seems to agree.

Ghinani had planned for us to hike Algonquin

k the second highest peak in New York, at

14 feet. After the hike, we would build a shel-

and a campfire to, presumably, keep us al ive

ing the night. That was the plan, at least,

il he emerges from the rangers hut with a

appointed look on his face.

The ranger, upon observing our ragtag

parel and lack of appropriate hiking gear,

s not going to allow us to climb Algonquin

k. And in another blow, were told that its

inst state law to build a campfire in the park.

e later discover that we had mistakenly driv-

to the wrong campsite. A private facility, five

nutes up the road, allows campfires).By this point, Im starting to wonder if going

the trip was a big mistake. I glance over at

nani, who, surprisingly, doesnt seem too

rried. In fact, hes convinced the ranger to

us climb a smaller, less challenging, peak

unt Phelps, a tame 4,161 feet and hes ada-

nt that we can survive the night without a

mpfire. Im not as sure.

Ghinani, who is built like a tree trunk andsports a pair of overly large and well-omed sideburns, is no stranger to taking

s in the wild. Once, while paddling in white-

ter, he came upon a canoe flipped over,

ned against a tree.

Strainers are trees that fall into the river,

told me, and if your canoe hits one, the

ssure of the water and the river pins you

wn there. Thats how most canoeists die.Assuming the worst, he dove into the freez-

water to search for dead bodies. He didnt

find any, but he decided to stay in the river to

remove both the canoe and the tree. Nobody

wanted to do the dangerous parts, he said, so

I volunteered. He was in the water for more

than an hour and came out with hypothermia.I was delirious, he said, I didnt know my

name.

Ghinani is the definition of an altruist. I

ran into him once at the gym and, in between

sets on the bench press, he mentioned that

he wasnt doing cardio that day because hed

spent the past half hour pushing cars stuck in

the snow up Docteur-Penfield.

So as we depart from the rangers station,

en route to our campsite, Im somewhat reas-

sured by the thought that if anything bad does

happen in the woods, Ghinani will at least be

there to throw me over his shoulder and carry

me to safety.

By the time we reach the campsite and dropoff our gear, the sun has passed the midwaypoint in the sky and we have but a few hours

to ascend Mount Phelps and make it back tocamp before dark. With this in mind, we push

ourselves up the icy trail, stopping only briefly

to take in the magnificent views and to gulp

water.

Mount Phelps, located in the northeast of

New York State, is part of 46 mountains that

are collectively known as the Adirondack High

Peaks. All but four are greater than 4,000 feet.

To date, more than 6,000 people have climbed

all 46 of the Peaks. Those that achieve this feat

are entitled to membership in the Adirondack

46ers and a commemorative badge.

As we approach the top of Mount Phelps,

breathless from a final scramble up a particu-

larly icy slope, the trees give way to a clearing

that provides a panoramic view of the area.

White Face, the site of the alpine events in the

1980 Winter Olympics, is to the North; Mount

Marcy, the highest of the High Peaks, towers

over us to the South; and Algonquin Peak, the

forbidden fruit, the sun setting behind its back,

glares at us from the West.

A picture is never as good as the real thing,

Ghinani offers, staring off into the horizon. We

snap a few photos, pass around a granola bar,

and head down the trail, determined to make it

back to camp before dark.

Having just climbed a mountain, the mood

of the group on the way down is noticeably

upbeat. The MOC members joke about differ-

ent techniques for shitting in the woods (the

friendship lean involves two people and a

great deal of trust), while I skip along beside

the group, gleefully scribbling notes.

Im starting to understand why people do

these things climb mountains, that is. Hiking

a mountain gives one an intense adrenalinerush. In fact, Im so wired that as we approach

our campsite, with the sun slipping behind the

mountains and the temperature rapidly drop-

ping, Ive completely forgotten that the trip is

far from over we still have to spend a night

outdoors, in subzero weather, without tents,

sleeping bags, or a fire.

H ypothermia progresses in six stages.Stages one and two are characterized bya decrease in blood flow to the non-essential

organs, an aching in the fingers and toes, and

uncontrollable contractions in the muscles of

the body, or shivering, in an attempt to gener-

ate heat. In stages three and four blood flow to

the brain is greatly decreased, decision-making

becomes impaired, and fine motor skills are

lost. By stage five, body temperature has typi-

cally dropped by more than seven degrees.At this point most people lose consciousness.

Stage six is death.

Standing by our campsite, shivering, won-

dering when I would enter stage three, I start

to worry that I might not make it through the

night. My feet, which had gotten wet during the

climb, are especially cold. I ask Ghinani if hehas a backup plan in case things get worse.

There are ways of keeping warm, he says.

Body heat will keep you so warm, and if it

comes down to it, and youre cold, fuck, get

down and give me ten pushups. It actuall y helps

a lot. He pauses. If your feet are completely

frozen and you think theyre going to fall off,

you take your feet and you put them I mean,

it sucks for the other person but you put your

feet inside a persons jacket, on their stomach.

Without a fire, Ghinani explains, this is really

the only way to defrost cold feet in the bush.

Unable to imagine myself shoeless, feet

pressed against Ghinanis burly stomach, I opt

to put on three pairs of socks and run laps

around the campsite.

When spending a winters night in the bush,

a quinzhee, or hollowed-out moundof snow, provides the best possible shelter.

Quinzhees are entirely windproof, and with

body heat and a candle the inside can reach

two or three degrees Celcius. The downside

of a quinzhee is

that they take four

or five hours to

construct and are

typically only big

enough for a cou-

ple of people.

Winter camping

with a large group

usually calls for

tents. Or, if youre

moronic enough

to go camping

without zippers,

several tarps and a roll of twine can be used

to construct a tent-like shelter. And, as I watch,

this is exactly what Ghinani and first year stu-

dent Marc Kojima proceed to do.

Kojima places a tarp on the snow to form a

ground sheet while Ghinani runs twine between

two adjacent trees. Over the line they drape a

second tarp, stretching it over the g round sheet

and tacking its end into the snow. It looks like a

wedge of cheese. They call it an A-frame. I hope

it will keep me alive that night.

Several camping stoves are lit and dinner is

prepared. The food brings a feeling of warmth

to the group, and the mood, which had fallen

with the disappearance of the sun, lightens. As

we sit in a circle, cradling cups of hot chocolate,

headlamps shining into each others eyes, the

survival stories start to come out.

Ive done 72 hours with nothing, saysfourth year student Chloe Dumouchel-Fournier.

Youre thrown in the woods and you have to

build a shelter. I was unlucky and had pouring

rain for 24 of the 72 hours.

Did you ever fast on a solo? asks third year

student Anya Bernton. Nobody had. Berton had

been on a three-day solo and, given almost no

provisions, she decided to fast for the duration

of the trip. After you start eating again, she

explains, you barf a lot.

I did a solo, Ghinani chimes in, but

mine was completely different than you guys.

Dropped off on an island, in the middle of

nowhere, free from societys watchful eyes,

Ghinani decided to spend 48 hours in the

nude.

So Im lying naked on my island, he con-

tinues, on a rock, right by the shore, and ran-

domly there was another group of canoeists Idont know, teenage kids. And you could imag-

ine how weird this looks: Youre canoeing in

the wilderness for nine days, and on the ninth

day you see a naked guy on an island. We all

laugh.

Ghinanis story, although not really about

survival, seems to top them all.

For the nights sleep, wed trucked 22 blan-kets into the woods. These included aqueen-sized duvet and a sleeping bag that

Ghinani had ceremoniously cut the zippers off

of the night before. Before retiring for the eve-

ning I cocoon myself in three of the blankets.

Underneath, Im wearing three wool sweaters,

two pairs of fleece pants, three pairs of socks,

two pairs of gloves, and a wool toque. I wrap

another wool sweater around my feet, for go od

measure, and worm my way into the middle of

the A-frame. Im optimistic about my heat situ-

ation: Im wrapped in a fucking sheep. How

could I get cold?

I wake up three hours later freezing. An

icicle of drool has formed at the side of my

mouth, and I cant feel my toes. Stage six imme-

diately comes to mind. I pull my toque over myface, bring my knees up to my chest and curl

into a fetal position. I dont move, or sleep, for

another five hours. Thankfully, I never have to

pee.

The next morning we find out that the tem-

perature in the High Peaks had dropped to

-15C during the night. In fact, before going to

sleep wed come across two campers, just down

the trail from us, who had full zippered gear

and a lean-to to sleep in, but had still broken

the rules and made a fire. Were fucking cold,

one complained. They werent at their campsite

in the morning. It looked like they had bailed

during the night. I was pretty cold, and I hadnt

slept very much, but at least Id stuck it out till

the morning.

Two weeks later, back in Montreal, I meet upwith Ghinani at Thomson House for a beer.We start talking about Chris McCandless, a col-

lege grad who wandered into the wilds of Alaska

in an attempt to escape society. After several

months in the bush, he ended up dying of star-vation. McCandlesss death has since been made

famous by the 1996 Jon Krakauer bookInto the

Wildand the 2008 movie of the same name.

McCandless greatly underestimated

nature, says Ghinani, which you should never

do. The idea is romantic being outside in the

wilderness on your own. I can see eye-to-eye

with him on that for sure. I can see his rea-

soning about wanting to go into the woods to

escape society, he says. But in order to do that

you have to be prepared. You have to know

what youre doing and how to do it.

And what about our trip, I ask, remembering

the high of the mountain climb and the low of

the sleepless, freezing cold night. How did he

think it went?

Flawless, he replies.

Im optimistic about my

heat situation: Im wrapped

in a fucking sheep. How

could I get cold?

For more photos from Dans expe-dition, visit mcgilldaily.com

and click on Features.

8/14/2019 McGill Daily 98_28_22JAN08

12/20

Commentary The McGill Daily, Thursday, January 22, 212

The Banyan tree is known for its

fantastic appearance: a dense

forest of connected branch-

es that prove to be, in fact, a single

tree.

The trees branches spread them-

selves wide, drop perpendicular

branches, and form new roots wher-

ever these branches land, although

where they land is often quite

far from their origin, says Ccile

Rousseau, a transcultural psychiatrist

at McGill. Specializing in child refu-

gees and war trauma, she sees the

Banyan tree as a perfect metaphorfor the migrant child.

Like the Banyan tree, whose

anomalous root structure makes it

more biologically sound, the migrant

child who has successfully grown

new roots is often stronger and

more resilient than a child who has

not faced such hardships. Suffering

can be positive and transformative,

according to Rousseau, if psychologi-

cal supports are in place.

Fittingly, Banyan is also the name

of the group of psychiatrists who

help young refugees deal with the

psychological traumas of war or dis-

placement, using art as an avenue for

expression. Rousseau explains that

the group works with preschoolers,

elementary school students, and ado-

lescents, using the notion that retell-

ing a traumatic event is therapeutic.

The preschool students use sand-

play to tell their story. They are given

a sand tray with colourful figurines

that they use to represent the world:

people, cars, animals, trees, build-

ings, as well as several religious sig-

nifiers, such as Hindu gods, Buddha,

and Islamic and Christian symbols.

The children then use these sym-

bols to give meaning to the world.

The sand game allows them to cre-

ate a world of their own, and to

tell a story in this world, which

they then perform for their peers.

The same technique applies to the

elementary school students; how-ever, the older kids use more tradi-

tional forms of representation such

as drawing and writing.

Final ly, the adolescents concentrate

on experimental political theatre as a

means of expression a concept that

is based on the techniques of Augusto

Boals Theatre of the Oppressed.

According to Boal, interactive theatre

creates dialogue, standing in opposi-

tion to the monologue, which exists

as the origin of oppression.

[The technique] is about col-

lective voices and action, Rousseau

says.

All three programs contain a ver-

bal and a non-verbal component

visual, musical, tactile.

Western psychology has placed a

lot of emphasis on verbal expression,

but no emphasis on bodily or non-

verbal expression. In cases of trauma

not everything can be easily said or

even concretized. Words can be too

difficult, and so it is sometimes more

useful to deal in the abstract, in rep-

resentation.

Rousseau sees many of the worlds

conflicts as stemming in part from

peoples inability to recognize the

possibility of the coexistence of mul-

tiple truths.

The absolute is dangerous. The

fact that a community or a group of

people would say we have the truth

that is dangerous. Artistic expres-

sion, however, in its non-verbal incar-

nation, allows for a multiplicity of

meaning, thus fostering moral com-

plexity.

And thats why its especially

upsetting when, in a single summer,

a government can cut $44.5-million

and over a dozen programs geared

to directly funding and supporting

the arts. Compared to the threat of

war, religious persecution, oppres-

sion based on gender or sexual ori-

entation, fanatic totalitarian leaders,

and an array of natural disasters, the

arts may seem a luxury, as they did to

Stephen Harper not so long ago.

When ordinary working people

come home, turn on the TV, and see

all sorts of people at a rich gala all

subsidized by the taxpayer, claiming

their subsidies arent high enough

when they know they have actually

gone up, Im not sure thats some-

thing that resonates with ordinary

people. Ordinary people unders

we have to live within a bu

Harper rationalizes.

But let us not fall into the

dency that we have, accordin

Rousseau, to consider that our

ety is essentially benevolent. If

tic expression has the transform

psychological power that Rous

and her colleagues have obse

then cutting funding to the arts i

the act of a benevolent leader, n

it even benign. In fact, it could p

serious threat, in and of itself.

Tadamon! clears up opportunism for the misinformed

In an article published in the

January 12 issue of The Daily,Tadamon!, a Montreal-based

social justice group active on, among

other things, the issue of Palestine, is

characterized as opportunistic. The

author of the article, Ricky Kreitner,

passes this judgment despite admit-

tedly having done minimal research

on our group.

The article implies that Tadamon!

is exploiting the recent attack on

occupied Gaza to criticize Israel for

heavily targeting civilians and civilian

infrastructure in Gaza. One thing

that opportunists do, the author

states, is to take undeniably horrible

circumstances and use them to their

own advantage.

Precisely how and why this char-

acterization of opportunism fits thecontent of Tadamon!s online bulle-

tin the main object of the authors

objections is unclear and remains

unexplained in the article. This is

undoubtedly because the fit is any-

thing but evident. However, despite

the gratuitousness of the judgment

on Tadamon!, it may be taken at facevalue by some readers, and given that

it is meant to damage the image of its

target, it must be addressed.

Let us speak fir st about the unde-

niably horrible circumstances in

Gaza. During the three weeks of

attacks on Gaza, Israel murdered

more than 1,300 Palestinians, spe-

cifically targeting educational insti-

tutions including UN schools, the

Islamic University of Gaza, and the

University Teachers Association in

Gaza City.

Israels attack on Palestinian civil-

ians in Gaza is well documented

and morally repulsive. Days into the

recent bombardment on Gaza, five

Palestinian sisters were killed while

sleeping through an Israeli air strikeon the Jabalya refugee camp, buried

in their beds as the walls of the fam-

ily home collapsed after being hit by

an Israeli missile.

The Palestinian sisters Tahrir,

17; Ikram, 15; Samar, 12; Dina, eight;

and Jawaher, four unfortunately

stand as only one horrible exampleof the over 300 Palestinian children

killed in Gaza over the past weeks.

Israels recent military attack on

Gaza takes place in the context of

a two-year siege on occupied Gaza,

which, among other things, denied

Palestinians the freedom to leave

Gaza, as well as access to sufficient

fuel, adequate food, medical care,

and employment.

By this past December, 200

Palestinians had died because they

could not leave Gaza to receive medi-

cal care, 80 per cent of the popula-

tion was dependent on food relief

from the United Nations Relief and

Works Agency, and the World Food

Program, and unemployment was at

45 per cent.Based on such circumstances, it

is clear that Israel is heavily targeting

civilians, whether during the recent

three-week military assault or during

its prolonged and ongoing siege and

blockade of Gaza, which amounts to

collective punishment.

Yet, even if Kreitner would admitto the targeting of civilians, it seems

that this strategy would not be a

problem for him. The article con-

tends that Israeli soldiers must mur-

der Palestinians in order to get at

their real target: Hamas. Murdering

Palestinian civilians is justified, the

author contends, because Hamas

uses them as human shields or, in

his terms, as horribly literal skirts

[behind which Hama s fighters hide].

What is strikingly and alarmingly

literal, however, is the authors blink-

ered backing and parroting of Israels

official spin and rationalizations for

the crimes that the Israeli army and

political leaders committed in occu-

pied Gaza.

Most importantly, the misin-formed author perhaps does not

realize that the majority of the Gaza

Strips population is Palestinian

gees, expelled from their home

Israel in 1948 Palestinians pu

aside to make way for the Is

state. Israels foundational i

tice as a nation built on land which over 750,000 indigenous

Palestinians were expelled, rem

the root of the conflict today.

In the end, if Kreitner truly

likes opportunism and is kee

expose it, he should examine

own writing, positions, and

bases upon which his own m

ity rests. Because what is opp

nistic is to give moral justificatio

mass confinement, to massacre

the destruction of homes, fam

livelihoods, and civilian infras

ture at the expense of thousand

Palestinian children and the ent

of a largely refugee population.

Rosie Aiello

The

conversationalist

The art of falling far from the tree

Dr. Ccile Rousseaus psychiatry group offers support to young refugees through artistic expressionShu Jiang / The McG

HYDE PARK

Tadamon! collective

Rosies column appears every o

Thursday. Send her that funk,

sweet, that artsy, that gushy stuff to

conversationalist@mcgilldailyco

To contact the Tadamon! collecvisit tadamon.ca or write to t

mon@resist.ca.

8/14/2019 McGill Daily 98_28_22JAN08

13/20

e McGill Daily, Thursday, January 22, 2009 13Commentary

HYDE PARK

HYDE PARK

Iemerged from Jeff Halpers

January 14 talk at McGill deeply

disappointed at how acceptable

it has become to distort and misrep-

resent facts when the purpose is to

denigrate Israel. I wasnt expecting to

agree with much of what was said at

the Halper event, but call me crazy

I wasnt expecting to be subjected

to a barrage of unabashed misrepre-

sentations, either. Let me provide a

few examples of what I mean.

Halpers address stuck to one con-

sistent and dismally dishonest theme.

His overall approach consisted of

projecting the political positions ofthe Israeli right-wing fringe onto the

country as a whole. He presented

the notion of the historical Land of

Israel as if there existed an Israeli

consensus in favour of maintaining

control over its entirety. Nothing

could be further from the truth.

Heres a working estimate: of the

120 representatives in the Israeli

Knesset (Parliament), approximate-

ly nine to 20 stand for ideological

attachment to the concept of the

Land of Israel. Some 70 are either

willing or eager to make territorial

concessions, of varying extent. The

remaining number of representa-

tives, perhaps about 35, may or may

not favour territorial concessions,

depending on various contingent

factors. And yet Halper, addressing

an audience who, we must assume,

is less familiar than he with Israeli

politics, depicts the right-wing fringe

as representative of the entire coun-

try. This is the stuff of calumny; it

is simply untrue. The fact as has

been widely covered in the interna-

tional media is that Israeli govern-

ments of the left, the right, and the

centre have been negotiating territo-

rial withdrawal with the Palestinians

since 1991 and thus obviously cannot

have been guided by the ideological

concept of the Land of I srael.

Halper stated that in Israel we

dont talk about Palestinians

only about Arabs. To call them

Palestinians would legitimize them,

he explained. He was referring to the

Arab citizens of Israel, who indeed

are generally, though not exclusively,

conceived of inside and outside of

Israel as Israeli Arabs.

And yet Halper, by leaving his

statement unqualified, blithe-

ly allowed his audience to con-

clude that he was referring to the

Palestinians at large rather than only

to Arab citizens of Israel. The fact is

that just about every part of Israeli

society, even most of the right-wingfringe with which he would like to

identify Israel as a whole, refers to

the Palestinians, be they in the West

Bank, Gaza, or any other place out-

side of Israel, as Palestinians. Yet

Halper chose to imply that Israel is

some sort of strange place, in denial

and disconnection from the world,

where the very term Palestinian

does not exist. Once again, especially

when presented to an audience not

likely to have travelled to Israel, this

is the stuff of calumny.

Halper had the effrontery, as

part of a most unenlightening dis-

cussion as to whether or not Israel

is a Western country, to say that

Israel appears to be superficially

Western because Israelis are kinda

white. Never mind the various loath-

some, illogical, and even nonsensi-

cal aspects of such a statement: it

is about as accurate as saying that

Americans are white. It constitutes

yet another example of the cheesy

attitude evinced by Halper through-

out his talk: he pandered to the low-

est instincts of a hapless audience.

Oliver Moore

Oliver Moore is a Law IV student.

Send your kinda whiteness to oliver.

moore@mail.mcgill.ca.

rle Nicolle

Beyond the

dichotomous

debate

War is a terrible thing. It

comes with tears, deaths,

devastation and raging

s. It comes with aghast civilians

ght in fighting, dying children,

ble, shells, rockets, and fear.

me think there is not enough hor-

there and would like to add smear

d lies. In light of the crisis between

ael and Hamas in the Gaza Strip,ny of us have stakes and many

uld like to simply take a stand.

hould be a stand for dialogue. It

become crucial when writing

out the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

decrease not the passion but the

sion.

The utterly restrictive and sadly

espread belief that those express-

support for one side must consid-

he other people as their enemies,

d as such unworthy of their com-

sion, has been propagated on our

n campus by irresponsible medias

d agitated group leaders. This

redibly divisive argument keeps

moderate voices in the dark.

Perhaps especially in the context

the conflict between Israel andestine, words have great mean-

and numbers have little bearing.

There is little meaning to consider-

ations on the exact proportion of

Hamas men to civilians in the 1,300

Palestinian deaths in Gaza, and only

pettiness in thinking the exact num-

bers actually matter. It is plain that

too many innocents have died, in

Israel as in Gaza. Yet, as we awake to a

ceasefire and realize the extent of the

devastation caused in Gaza, let us use

some restraint before indulging in

the all-too-usual branding of Israel as

an evil creation of colonialist power.In a sometimes seemingly sense-

less world, words have power and

sense. It is in no way negating the

suffering of civilians in Gaza to

remark that Israel is far from com-

mitting genocide. Israel is not try-

ing to annihilate the Palestinians, is

not deliberately targeting civilians,

and is not starving an entire people.

Israel is not a fascist state, in fact it

is (arguably with Lebanon) the only

democratic country of this region. It

is in no way denying that Palestinian

civilians have been the primary vic-

tims of this conflict to remind that

some of their suffering has also been

self-inflicted: by the Hamas govern-

ment using its own population as

human shields, rejecting ceasefires,and Egyptian mediations, and by the

terrorists using schools and homes

as rocket launching bases.

If anything, the use of such

words as genocide along with slo-

gans that borderline anti-Semitism

in demonstrations, and with words

negating Israels right to exist iso-

late the voices calling for compro-

mise on both sides of the front lines.

They cloud the debate and alienate,

they divide along Manichean lines

a conflict so old and so long that its

complexity is hard to grasp. Whats

more, they insinuate that the suffer-ing of the population of Gaza is not

great enough, not terrible enough to

be described by words that actually

apply. Have the Gazans really not suf-

fered enough that proper character-

ization would fail to catch the worlds

attention? Or is it just rather that it

failed to arouse enough anger and

calls for revenge?

This ceasefire brings a renewed

opportunity for dialogue. Our cam-

pus leaders would do well to seize it

to appease their own base. An educa-

tional institution is no place for slan-

der and hate, but an ideal environ-

ment for discussion and exchange.

Perle Nicolle is a U4 Mechanical

Engineering student. Get the discus-sion started at perle.nicolle@mail.

mcgill.ca.

Halper should stick to

facts, not calumny

books on tape