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DSU: A Year in review

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Lucy Scholey, News Editor & Laura Parlee, Assistant News Editor

President
Shannon Zimmerman

What she promised:
• An improved DSU website
• A strategic five-year plan
• More DSU visibility across all Dalhousie University campuses

What she did:
• Started working with full-time staff to develop a strategic plan
• Listened to student response during Brains for Change
• Developed more concrete office hours for DSU executive members across campuses
• Attended more events on other campuses
• Hired a society co-ordinator to manage societies across campuses

What she says needs to improve:
• The strategic plan is ongoing and will need more work

Vice President (Student Life) Kris Osmond

What he promised:
• To hold seminars for societies in event planning
• Increased visibility on all campuses
• Improved system for buying tickets for school events

What he did:
• Ran Orientation Week, Dal Fest, Fall Festival, Winter Carnival and the Munro Day ski trip and is planning future events such as Student Appreciation Night and the Residence Charity Hockey Game
• Created Dalhousie’s Got Talent
• Worked with student societies to help run their events
• Organized fundraisers such as Shinerama
• Started Storm, a pilot project for an event magazine (Osmond says the project ended up being too much work, but he is trying to find a company to run the magazine)
What he says needs to improve:
• The ticket system hasn’t been much of an issue this year according to Osmond, but a policy could be drawn up to make tickets more accessible for students on other campuses
• An equipment rental policy should be written to keep societies accountable when they rent Student Union equipment
• There should be a better way to promote Dal Athletics
• There needs to be a new hired position to plan events
– Osmond suggested there should be a better way to advertise events
Vice President (Internal)
Mark Hobbs

What he promised:
• An improved DSU website with regular updates and a web-savvy individual to monitor it
• The ability for students and societies to apply for grants online
• To bring back a 24-hour study space

What he did:
• Contacted different firms about managing the website, asked different campus groups for input and hired Think Digital Media to run the website (Hobbs says he expects website to be running by mid-March)
• Updates the website a couple of times a week
• No 24-hour study space

What he says needs to improve:
• All projects in progress need to be completed
• Needs to be a better way to advertise events
• Need to fast-track the society ratification process
Vice President (Education)
Rob LeForte

What he promised:
• To get the provincial government to match infrastructure funding (This happened soon after LeForte was elected)
• To create an education policy committee (The DSU already had an education policy committee in place)

What he did:
• Ran academic integrity events for international students during orientation week
• Pushed for the Killam Library stay open to 3 a.m. during exam time
• Worked on changes to the academic study principals to allow for a fall study day  (Students will have Nov. 12 off next year)
• Tried to make the information from student course evaluations accessible to all students (The proposal is currently in the Senate)
• Met with the Premier and Minister of Education to push for a comprehensive review of Post Secondary Education (The province commissioned the review on Jan. 22)

What he says needs to improve:
• The agreement between the Nova Scotian government and universities – the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) will need to be re-negotiated next year
• Promote academic integrity among international students
• Student ratings should be public
Board of Governors Representatives, Janet Conrad & Adam Harris
What they promised:
• To improve student apathy
• To decrease divides between campuses
• To increase the number of student services on Sexton Campus
• To work on constitutional reform
• Complete job descriptions for all paid positions on Council
• To address deferred maintenance projects, and to get funding from the government and through private donations
• To upgrade fitness equipment and get sheltered biking spaces around campus
What they did:
• Worked on making academic evaluations accessible online
• Advocated for savings from Dalhousie’s ban on tuition payments via credit card to go toward student benefits
• Addressed deferred maintenance and got federal funding to improve the Dalplex, Health Professions building and the Sexton Campus

What they say needs to improve:
• Make it easier for societies to ratify and advertise events
• Get renewal referendums for societies
Senate Representative, Glenn Blake

What he promised:
• Wanted students to have a say in planning university infrastructure

What he did:
• Kept a blog about the DSU council meetings
• Wasn’t on the planning committee, so couldn’t do much about infrastructure

What he says needs to improve:
• Communication within the DSU
• All required readings should be available to students on reserve at the library
• Secret contracts need to be available to students
• There should be a welcoming group for students at the airport
• More healthy food options on campus
Senate Representative
Meredith Evans

What she promised:
• A uniform grading system across faculties (Making sure an “A” grade is the same percentage in all faculties)
• To work with faculties to make students more aware of plagiarism

What she did:
• Didn’t follow up on grading system because she says people stopped talking about it
• Worked on making academic evaluation forms available to students
• Joined the Committee of Learning and Teaching
• Worked to communicate more with international students about academic integrity (She says they can be more vulnerable to committing plagiarism)
What she says needs to improve:
• More work on educating students about plagiarism
• Better wireless Internet access on-campus
• Bring back 24-hour study space
Senate Representative
Shane Simms

What he promised:
• To focus more on the environment
• To ask students for input on making Dal more environmentally sustainable
• To improve the disciplinary process

What he did:
• Other than buying a reusable mug and printing on both sides of the paper, he says he didn’t focus on the environment (But the senate committee on the environment also disbanded last year)

What he says needs to improve:
• Should be a committee that focuses on the environment
• More focus on welcoming international students in to the university community
• The senate needs to push for student access to academic evaluation forms
• Bring back 24-hour study space
• Improving Internet service on campus
• Levied societies need to be held accountable

The truth as I found it

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Hilary Beaumont

Truth isn’t good or bad. Truth doesn’t rely on conflict.

News is good or bad. News relies on conflict.

This contradiction is one reason Daniel Paul, the Aboriginal author and historian quoted in the feature “White Paper” doesn’t see himself reflected in Halifax’s newspapers. Those pervasive ‘good’ and ‘bad’ lenses combined with a lack of diverse faces in the media, are the reasons local newspapers misrepresent ‘racialized people’.
Newspapers print stories involving White people more often than stories involving Black or Aboriginal people. As a result, publications warp racialized people to a greater degree than White people. A lack of historical context, and a lack of racially diverse reporters in newsrooms, further contributes to this problem.

The feature aims to offer evidence of this problem, and solutions. My goal in publishing it is to continue the discussion the Daily News started. The feature does not aim to label any one newspaper, journalist or editor as ‘racist’. Though individuals make decisions daily that may contribute to this problem, the feature finds fault in structures and systemic ideologies rather than people.

In a survey of the Herald’s news photos, I found disturbing numbers. However, I do not intend to present the survey as a scientific analysis. It is not.

In the feature, I use several terms that may not be immediately recognizable. ‘Racialized people’ is a more current, less offensive term for ‘racial minority’ or ‘people of colour’. Equating the word ‘minority’ to any racial group is inaccurate on a global scale (four-fifths of the people in the world are racially diverse), and if you happen to be in North Preston (the Black population makes up 60 per cent of the community). ‘Minority’ can also be offensive because it lowers the status of a subject, while ‘majority’ places the subject on a higher pedestal. For these reasons, I use the terms ‘racialized people’ and ‘racialized groups’ throughout the feature. The words ‘Black’ and ‘White’ are capitalized to reflect their political connotations.

‘Racism’, according to the definition used by Frances Henry and Carol Tator in Discourses of Domination, is apparent in ideologies and institutional policies, but can also be attributed to individuals. “(Racism) manifests itself in euphemisms, metaphors, and omissions that support given ideologies and policies. It is reflected in the collective belief systems of the dominant (White) culture, and it is woven into the laws, languages, rules, and norms of Canadian society.”

In addition, I do not intend to misrepresent or offend any group or person by publishing this feature. Unfortunately, I am working within the same system and prevalent ideology that I criticize. I am also working with a limited word count, as every journalist does. Ironic as that may be, I remember what Daniel Paul said: “If it’s the right thing to do, do it.” He was referring to a White woman who found out the racist history of Nova Scotia while researching her genealogy. She published a book that shamed her family’s name, and she told the truth.

The truth is the local media do not accurately reflect the racial reality of Halifax. When the media do tell stories that involved racialized people, we do so in a tokenized way. The racialized people we do represent can be split into two categories: prominent public figure or criminal.

However, every year for one month, that polarization is replaced by positive, and sometimes empowering, coverage of Black people. February is Black History Month. It is also a media anomaly. Do reporters and editors need Black History Month as an excuse to cover stories about Black people? There is no good reason reporters can’t seek out the same under-represented sources and stories every day of the year.

Instead of anomalies, newspapers should aim to cover racialized populations as part of an overarching news philosophy. Tell stories about ‘us’, meaning humanity, not ‘them’, meaning ‘the other’. We have a collective history of racism and segregation. We have collective stories, though we all have differing points of view. Newspapers, and other media outlets, should aim to collect those different views as sources, and employ people who hold different views as reporters. If we become aware of our biases, and strive to correct them, we’ll have newspapers that show a flock of diverse truths rather than a dominant, White ideology.

Tigers crack top 10 in national rankings

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Natasha White, Staff Contributor

Basketball action Saturday evening at the Dalplex saw the Tigers take on the UPEI Panthers. The ladies’ victory, 66-41, over the last-place islanders, was badly needed to add to their overall points total. The game was a solid warm-up for Sunday’s all important match against UNB.
The Tigers find themselves tied with UNB as the season winds down, and the play-offs near.
The first half of the women’s game showed off the Panthers’ tight defence inside as the Tigers continued to unsuccessfully force the ball under the basket. The normally dominant Dal forwards looked tired Saturday night, and can thank the strong play of guards Anna von Maltzahn (named Player of the Game), Tricia McNeil, and Brooke Sullivan for picking up the slack. The big three down low for Dal – Cailin Crosby, Laurie Girdwood and Leah Girdwood – only managed to get to the line seven times in the 40-minute show. But once there, the ladies shot an impressive 14 for 14.
The difference maker for the ladies Saturday night was easily first-year guard Trish McNeil. Three blocks, eight points and five boards rounded out McNeil’s stats for the game; but it was what didn’t make the stat sheet that told the real story. Skin met floorboards, as McNeil repeatedly sacrificed her body going for the ball, wrestling four steals away from the overpowered Panthers. Running the court for a break away lay up in the final minutes of the game topped off her performance. McNeil, a rookie Haligonian guard who is studying kinesiology, showed real heart and leadership. She and fellow guard Anna Maltzahn led the Tigers to victory.
Judging by the score on the men’s side, 76-58, Dal’s successful Saturday evening match versus the Panthers would appear to have been a blow out. But unfortunately, it was not the best showing by the Tigers. The defence in the first half seemed scattered, with the Tigers committing the cardinal sins of reaching and losing checks. UPEI found the inside on more than one occasion, feeding the ball to Panther star Manock Lual, for 12 of his 14 points.
On fire from the arch, thankfully, was Tiger guard Andrew Sullivan. Sullivan, a fifth-year engineering student, nailed three of his four three pointers in the first five minutes of the game. Sully continued his strong play with a sweet feed down low to big man Joe Schow for a quick two. Schow, who Dal acquired this season from the University of Calgary, racked up a quiet 19 points, going seven for 13 from the field, and five for six from the line. The Tiger’s offence was greatly aided by an aggressive effort on the boards by both Sandy Veit and Will Yengue. The pair combined for 26 of the team’s 47 rebounds.
Dal continued its trend of a sleepy start after the break, scoring only six points in the first six minutes of the second half. With a narrow 10-point lead on the out-skilled Panthers, Tigers’ star Simon Farine decided to take his game up a notch in the third. After working on the refs between play for a few calls, Farine drove to the net three times at the end of the third and found himself, deservedly, at the line each time. Farine once again dominated the score sheet, having one of his best shooting games of the season, earning player of the game kudos.
Saturday night’s victory had Dal only two points behind St. Mary’s. A foreseeable push by the Dal ladies will have them ready, willing and able for what’s to come at the AUS championships this March in Sydney.

Plants and Animals are inhuman

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Nick Laugher, Staff Contributor

Grade: A+

Taking the stage under the sputtering glow of stage lights and the rabid breath of the flannel clad masses, Plants and Animals cast a spell of belligerence that remained cemented in the air until the door closed. The Haligonian-cum-Montrealers drew a handsome and hyped crowd that filled the Paragon to the brim, anxiously rocking back and forth, awaiting their heroes.
Opening the show was Dave Macleod, a longtime friend and collaborator of Plants and Animals. His three-piece tossed the crowd a personalized brand of upbeat, melodic indie-rock as he dazzled with a humble and honest charm. The drumming was worth taking a second look at. If you looked close enough you might have realized that under the black wig and toque, under the pillow-stuffed-up-the-t-shirt was Matthew “Woody” Woodley, of Plants and Animals. After setting the bar with fast-paced dance beats and head-bobbing sing-alongs, Macleod abdicated his throne and made way for beasts and botanicals.
More animal than plant, the band blew onto the stage in a maelstrom of cheering and wasted no time as they plowed through the song “Tom Cruise” with a supple and sultry vibe that shook and twirled around the bearded faces and doe-skinned torsos littering the room. The trio was noticeably elated. The audience stood in awe one moment only to explode in a cascade of reckless dancing due to the energy exuded from the sweat pouring off their heroes’ faces in the next. Both crowd and band took no mercy.
Balancing their set with an ample mixture of crowd pleasing favourites, obscure oldies and even tossing us all a bone with some of their recent masterpieces, the band was a ball of kinetic cacophony. New compositions from their forthcoming sophomore LP La La Land such as “Mama et Papa” and the current single “Bye Bye Bye” rang through the rafters like My Bloody Valentine on a week long binge of amphetamines and LSD with no hint of any inspiration from N-Sync.
Tearing into the musical entity known as “Faerie Dance”, the trio proceeded to blow the minds of the eager and mindful crowd. Aware of, yet entirely disregarding reality, they propelled the song to an entirely alien realm of beauty and chaos. Feeding off the audience and eagerly craving their chants and sing-alongs to fill out the epic, singer Warren Spicer tapped into Halifax’s sense of community and collaboration to flush out the vast and terrifying intricacies of the crowd favorite as he howled with sincerity and stunning aptness: “We’re living in the wild life!”
Like a blur they had run through the set. They flew off and right back on to the stage after a raucous melee of  “P and A!” chants. They arrived back on the scene, donning fake hair paired with the all too real arsenal of a final, seething face-melter, unleashing an unrivaled, incendiary force of psychedelic, jarring and jangly guitars supplemented by tribal rhythms as their final blow. After the bone crushing power of the riffs had faded from the collective ears, leaving only a persistent ringing, the crowd reluctantly cleared out; weary and worn, but still aching for more.

The Philistine

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Cheryl Hann, Staff Contributor

Grade: B+

Clocking in at just under 40 pages, The Philistine, King’s College’s new creative publication, features contributions from 24 of UKC’s most imaginative students, who offer up a wealth of photos, prose and poetry. The Philistine is laid out beautifully, full of coloured photographs and illustrations to accompany written works, and a great introduction by Dr. Thomas Curran that helps explain the publication’s title, for anyone who was wondering.
Some of the content in this inaugural issue of the Philistine is staggeringly good (a prime example being the short story Cowboys On Mars by Reed Clements).
Of course, I’m not a literary critic; I’m just some schmoe with a Mac Book. In any case, it doesn’t matter what you think of the content of The Philistine. Even if every page were filled with sophomoric drivel (which thankfully, is not the case), you still couldn’t deny its utility. The simple existence of a creative publication for any university is a wonderful thing. My hope is that The Philistine will incite a write-riot at UKC; that it will pull reluctant artists out of their shells, like so many delicious, boiled-lobsters. See? That simile is exactly why I could never write for The Philistine. But you can.

If you want to contribute to the next issue of The Philistine, e-mail the editors at philistine.editors@gmail.com.

Hollerado’s bag of goodies

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Michaël Côté, Arts Contributor

It’s in the bag for Hollerado. The four guys from Manotick, Ontario, will be releasing their debut album, Record in a Bag, in (you guessed it) sandwich bags throughout the country on Feb. 9.
“When we first made our first demo, we obviously just burned it on to a CD like everybody else does. And then we realized we needed a case to put it in and we couldn’t find anything in the house to put it in,” says lead singer, Menno Versteeg. “We just put it in a Ziploc bag, and we thought it was kind of cool, so we drew on it … and then we kept putting our CDs in bags.”
To some, Hollerado may be a slight reminder of a crazy Canadian version of The Fratellis; their sound is filled with jumpy guitar riffs and entertaining melodies jam-packed with enough lyrics do turn your brain to mush.
Songs such as “Americanarama”, “Do the Doot Da Doot Do” and their new single “Juliette”, offer an extra-strength relief of winter blues.
Overall, the honest feel of the album makes it worth its while; it’s a tad insane, touches on a whole lot of every day material, and is bound to make you speed walk from point A to point B.
“We always listen to different stuff,” says Versteeg. “I try not to think about it. We’re in the middle of writing a new album and I find if I think about (my inspirations) too hard it messes with me. It’s one of those things you can’t explain. The wackiness comes from us being really open minded.”
The band will be playing every Saturday in February at the Divan Orange in Montreal, where they have temporarily settled while recording their new album.
Montreal isn’t the only place this band has seen; from the Great Wall of China to the beaches of Brazil and the glitzy American cities, the band has had opportunities to travel and make their name a relatively popular word.
“The hardships of being on the road are interesting to deal with too,” said Versteeg. “We like to tour a lot. I love seeing the world, and for the last little while, we’ve been all over the place, but it’s really important to me to balance travel and family time.”
Networking sites such as MySpace remain a great way for Hollerado to reach out to listeners. Their success can also be attributed to years of hard work and dedication to the other members. The guys are in it for the long run.
“We’re a very special group. We all grew up on the same street, and two of the guys in the band are brothers. We’re basically family. Even if you want to kill each other, leaving the band is not an option, we’re so close that we can fight like dogs and we can be closer than most.”
With venues packing up in Ontario and Quebec, Hollerado have been proving themselves to the Canadian music industry and are beginning an ascent in popularity.
The crowd-pulling is understandable; with a fresh song introduced to MuchMusic, an album in a bag filled with goodies and sound to keep your earbuds thumping, Hollerado seems to have it well off.
Expect their album to drop on Feb. 9, and who knows, maybe you’ll end up with their hand-made prize vouchers: a guitar, the band playing at your birthday party, or, if you’re lucky, a free pass to all their shows and free beer.

Tegan, Sara and the ever-growing crowd

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Erica Eades, Staff Contributor

Grade: A

In the past month, Tegan and Sara Quin have put on 19 concerts in eight provinces. But as they played the final show of their Canadian tour at the Halifax Metro Centre on Jan. 27, they showed no signs of exhaustion.
The duo offered a long, high-energy set that combined some older hits with songs from their latest album, Sainthood. They even threw in some rarities and B-sides for the die-hard fans. Although their newly released songs were well-received by the audience, it was not until they played their 2007 hit “Walking With a Ghost” that the audience really went wild.
The goal for Sainthood was to create a record that was playable live, and this was certainly evident from their performance. In a previous interview with The Gazette, Tegan said, “The songs are getting really great responses and I think it’s because they sound like the record. They’re recognizable, and there is no excess. It really was a streamlined record and I think our live show has that vibe to it. It’s kind of no-nonsense.”
Tegan and Sara played non-stop for an hour and a half, pausing only to switch instruments and to share the occasional story with the audience. They also took some time to promote their poster sale, from which they are donating all proceeds to Doctors Without Borders and Partners in Health. To date, they have raised $20,000 for relief efforts in Haiti.
The concert closed with “Someday”, the final track on their latest album. Tegan made a slight slip in the opening lyrics, but quickly brushed it off and started again. The audience gave an enthusiastic and sincere round of applause, to which Tegan responded with a quiet, yet genuine, “Thanks, Halifax.”
Upon finishing, Tegan and Sara promptly left the stage. Their finale was met with roaring cheers that continued until they walked back on stage a few moments later. With nothing but guitars and a xylophone, they entertained the audience for another 30 minutes. They brought out some of their most popular songs at this point, such as “Call It Off”, “My Number” and “Back In Your Head”.
Tegan and Sara have a solid fan base in most major Canadian cities. This was demonstrated on their recent tour, in which they sold out shows in nearly every city they played. After moving their Halifax concert from the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium to the Metro Centre, they played to an almost packed stadium.
“It seems like every year, the audience grows,” said Sara. “So thank you. This show is for you guys.”

TV Party

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Cheryl Hann, Staff Contributor

Have you ever laid awake at night wondering if The Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers were really as kung-fu-awesome as you remember? Or watched a particularly embarrassing YouTube clip and thought, your heart full of pity: “In 20 years, this kid will get married. As a joke, his best man will play this video. Then, everyone will know that a demon possessed him on Christmas morning at the exact moment that he unwrapped his Nintendo 64.” ? If, like me, you spent your childhood watching bad TV, and your adulthood watching bad TV uploaded on to YouTube, you may have. Mark Black and Stephan MacLeod, the hosts of TV Party at Gus’ Pub, definitely have.
“TV Party is a night of people showing found footage and insane YouTube clips,” MacLeod says of the monthly show. “It takes place on the last Tuesday of each month and has been happening since last June.” “It’s essentially our love letter to television, pop culture and video,” adds Black, “unscripted, and hopefully ridiculous.”  The TV Party, if you’ve never been, is kind of like huddling around a friend’s computer while everyone shares their favorite YouTube videos. Except, in this case, your friends have seen everything, and are on stage, holding microphones. Inspired by the likes of TV Carnage, Everything is Terrible and The Found Footage Festival, Black and MacLeod have put together a night that showcases all the bizarre videos you’ve dreamt about, but never seen. Black brings the awkward, sometimes-confrontational comedic commentary, while MacLeod focuses on blowing your mind, video-style.
“The show is very loose,” MacLeod says. “Mark and I come in with tons of videos but no real plan or order for showing them. The mood tends to be set by how we are feeling in the moment, or by audience reaction.”
And the audience reaction varies.
“As the night goes on and we’ve had more drinks, things start to get more unpredictable,” says MacLeod. “The audience tends to take part in yelling things. We try to prank call the people in the videos. People get offended. They walk out on us.”
“Making spontaneous prank phone calls to those who appear in the videos is pretty much my favorite part of the night,” says Black.
“Oh!” he adds, remembering something. “We also give out prizes.”
Yes, they do. One prize you get, just for showing up, is your very own table littered with a wealth of popcorn, chips and candy. Other prizes include hilarity, and special guests.
“I think what sets TV Party apart from (things such as TV Carnage), is that we take a community-based approach,” says MacLeod, both by encouraging audience participation/snacking, and “by inviting local filmmakers, comedians, and friends to showcase their favorite video clips.”
The TV Party has had a near guest-star bonanza, with contributions from the likes of Jason Eisner, Mark Little and fellow absurd-video scavenger Ryan Delehanty.
“Some guests have really understood the concept, and others have interpreted it in their own way. Ryan seems to really just take what we do and run with it and outdo us all. It’s embarrassing showing stereotypical Anti-Drug PSA after Anti-Drug PSA when Ryan comes up and shows the most amazing bike safety video that has all of the cyclists rapping,” says Black. “He put the new Classified video to shame.”
So, why should you log on to Facebook, scope out the next TV Party event and click ‘attending’? Well, if you enjoy unintentional humor, child-scarring, youth programming and men with mustaches in thigh-clinging spandex, the answer is obvious. Add in the fact that Black and MacLeod have done all of the Internet-scouring for you, and there’s no real reason not to go.
“We’ve just been piecing together fragments of television and pop culture to make what amounts to a TV mixed tape,” says Black. “I guess we’re just trying to add to the collective knowledge of our generation while at the same time making everyone dumber.”

Black and MacLeod will also be putting out a DVD of their best found footage, which will be available by the end of February. You can check out the TV Party on the last Tuesday of every month, Gus’ Pub at 10:30 p.m.

Americans stuffed, Mexicans starved

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Kaleigh McGregor-Bales, Opinions Contributor

Raj Patel worked for the World Bank and World Trade Organization (WTO) and has been protesting against them ever since. On Feb. 3, Patel spoke at St. Mary’s University. He is an activist, academic and author of the book Stuffed and Starved that exposes the many flaws of the global industrial food system.
In particular, he discuses how free trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have decimated the world’s rural farmers. By definition, free trade agreements allow transactions to occur across borders without the interference of the government. In theory, in free trade economies there are no trade barriers, no policies that distort prices and there is free access to the market for all.
However, according to Patel, these agreements are causing rural farmers worldwide to suffer unacceptable high rates of unemployment and loss of culture and way of life.
NAFTA merged the economies of two rich countries, the United States and Canada, with the much poorer country Mexico, into an integrated economy where national borders do not impact trade. NAFTA specifically included trade in agriculture so that Mexican and American farmers were competing in the same market.
Patel believes that NAFTA is not a free trade economy and the contradictions in policy have devastated rural Mexico. Specifically NAFTA has devastated Mexican corn farmers.
While American corn has infiltrated the Mexican market, Mexicans have failed to sell corn in the United States because the price of American corn is artificially low. Despite the elimination of tariffs that NAFTA prescribes, the U.S. has protectionist policies in place to ensure that Mexican farmers cannot establish successful markets in the U.S. The government of the U.S. subsidizes its corn so that the market price is less than the cost of production. The Mexican government also gives subsidies however these subsidies do not reach the poor farmers, but are given to the two largest flour producers.
Before NAFTA, corn production was the source of livelihood for three million Mexicans. Corn cultivation as an agricultural practice began 5,000 years ago in Mexico and its production and consumption are important for Mexican culture.
The result of the open market and the artificial cost of corn is that poor Mexican farmers cannot support themselves by farming corn anymore.
Economic theory assumes that when producers are not succeeding they can switch products. The cultural importance of corn in Mexico contributes to a refusal to abandon corn production. More pressing, though, is the reality that Mexican farmers do not have the resources to switch crops.
The farmers who cannot switch products increase their corn production to compensate for the lower price in a desperate effort to make a living income. Still more farmers are left unemployed and desperate. This has lead to immigration to the cities, illegal immigration to the U.S. and suicide rates increase.
NAFTA attracted large agri-businesses into Mexico. These companies’ profits have sky rocketed while according to the Mexican Agricultural Ministry, in 2001 rural poverty reached 81.5 per cent.
The complex underlying political climate contributed to how the poor Mexican farmers were neglected.
In his book, Stuffed and Starved, Raj Patel explains that Mexico did have certain policies to protect its national markets. The Mexican government imposed a quota on corn imports from the U.S. When the U.S. exceeded the quota the Mexican government decided not to charge the duty that amounted to US$2 billion.
Presumably the Mexican government, similar to many governments in the Global South fear challenging the will of the U.S. because the country is so powerful and holds clout in the World Trade Organization and World Bank who both provide loans to the developing country.
In many cases the country also cannot contradict the will of the U.S. because of the stipulation in the tied aid they receive.
The U.S. exploited their power to control global food markets at the expense of rural farmers globally. The U.S. government uses free trade rhetoric to justify the resulting decimation. When discussing trade liberalization there is constant contradiction in the discourse of corporations and the government.
On one hand, trade liberalization is praised because it will decrease the cost of food, increase efficiency and even that the wealth in the U.S. will spread across the border, bringing prosperity to Mexicans. On the other hand American corn farming and food corporations are highly subsidized by the government, which contradicts the definition of free trade.
The American government will preach neoliberalism one hour and protectionism the next, meanwhile developing countries know they will face repercussions if they do anything to contradict the U.S.
The livelihood of rural Mexicans was the sacrificial lamb of NAFTA. Fifteen years after NAFTA came into effect, profits have soared for a few large transnational food conglomerates while small scale rural farmers are becoming poorer and more desperate.

Enjoy responsibly

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Dustin Griffin, Opinions Contributors

As university students, we are not shy about our relationship with alcohol. It seems the game of drink is as integrated into the educational experience as the all-nighter. Alcohol acts a social lubricant that helps us catch up with old friends and make new ones. However, I’m afraid we have lost our way.
Sitting in the cafeteria of Risley Hall, it’s clockwork that every Saturday and Sunday morning the common topic of discussion is how drunk someone was last night. Fellow students reminisce over glasses of orange juice about who couldn’t stand, who blacked out and what stupid act topped the evening’s entertainment the night before.
Never mind the health implications of getting repeatedly inebriated, getting shit-faced is also a disgusting exploitation of a true cultural institution.
Nearly every culture on the face of this planet has a customary form of alcohol. Traditionally, northern Europe has beer, southern Europe has wine, Russia has vodka, Mexico has tequila, and Japan has saki. I could go on for pages about the different types of drink that have their roots in the world’s many cultures.
Beer, wine and spirits have many methods of production, which serves to give us a multitude of wondrous tastes, smells and textures in our choice of drink. Yet, it is all horrifically ignored in pursuit of intoxication.
Beer is humanity’s oldest and most popular alcoholic beverage. The craft of brewing is known the world over.
All beer is made of four prime ingredients: water, yeast, malt and hops. Yet even with only four ingredients, brew masters have varied the brewing process and added their secret to the recipe to give us thousands of tastes. Even two beers made exactly the same way that use ingredients from different locations will have different tastes.
The problem is you cannot fully enjoy a beer if it is ice cold. Pale beers should be served chilled but stronger beers should be at room temperature.
That ice-cold can of (insert mainstream brand here) can be enjoyed only because you can’t taste it. If you could, you would recognize it for the swill it truly is. So put down the crap and properly enjoy a real beer, otherwise switch to water because it’s the same thing.
Wine has a reputation for being an aristocratic drink, which is understandable because wine has a culture of its own. Wine tastings can be an intense experience with the converted but even those of us who lack such a ‘refined palate’ can enjoy the nuances of the different wine varieties in our midst.
We have the luck of being in a country that produces top quality wine. One type of wine that Canada in particular is well known for is ice wine. These grapes are harvested only after a cold snap of at least – 8 C. Ice wine is a risky business as you have to leave the grapes on the vine until they freeze and if the cold comes too late the crop will rot and be lost. But the risk is worth it as the freezing allows for a more concentrated grape that is sweeter than any other type.
And to those who think wine is for sissies, remember your cherished beer is only five to seven per cent alcohol while wine is eight to 23 per cent.
Spirits is a class of beverage that encompasses drinks made by distilling. Rum, whiskey and tequila are all made by distilling. Unfortunately these are the most commonly exploited drinks because of their high alcohol content. Many of these drinks must be enjoyed on their own.
You absolutely do not mix soda with scotch.
Good tequila and whiskey can be enjoyed similarly to wine. Essentially, the rule is the better the spirit the greater the offence if you do not enjoy it on its own.
Spirits also permit mixologists, more commonly known as bartenders, to continue to wow us with their new creations. Cocktails open a new world of enjoyment for spirits but a good cocktail does not hide the flavours of their base. If your drinking a drink that you would not be able to tell if it was alcoholic or not, then you’re missing out.
Take the time to look into different types of alcohol and see how they are made and what makes each of them special. Each class of drink has its own special experience for each to us to try.
Getting blasted should not be the reason for drinking. Sure drinking games are fun and serve their purpose but who said you can’t enjoy your weapon of choice? Take up the responsible appreciation of the diverse world of alcohol.
If your goal is to not remember the night, you are missing out on liquid art.

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The Dalhousie Gazette is the main student publication at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The paper first began publishing in 1868, making it the oldest continually operating student newspaper in North America followed by The Harvard Crimson and The Columbia Daily Spectator

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