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Cultura e arte é cool

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Hilary Stamper, Staff Contributor

Last year, Paula and Azeitona da Silva, owners of the Dende do Recife Capoeira club in Halifax, were deported back to Brazil. The da Silvas came to Halifax in 2003 to settle their family, become Canadian citizens and introduce parts of their Brazilian culture into the city. The couple were trained in the Brazilian art of Capoeira. In 2005 they opened the Dende do Recife club in the North End of Halifax so that people could go learn about Brazilian culture, music and history, while getting physically in shape. The couple continues to work on their application for permanent residence in Canada from Brazil. Even in their absence, their beautiful impression on Halifax is felt.
The humble space of Dende do Recife is floored in black and white chequered linoleum. There’s a front room for seating and a main room for classes. The main room is decorated with photos, a few mirrors, training gear and musical instruments. Students and teachers of Capoeira are largely responsible for creating their own music – one of the many distinguishing features of the art. Students initially focus on learning the physical movements of Capoeira but soon find that the instruments creating the musical rhythm are just as important.
“It is all part and parcel,” Ross Burns, a senior student of Capoeira, says of the knowledge students of Capoeira acquire. “People start and they want to know how to do this move, or how to be a better fighter or acrobat, but then they end up learning the music, the language, the African- Brazilian history and other important elements of Capoeira.”
Apart from being a student at the club, Burns is also a teacher and has stepped in as one of the managers while the da Silvas are away.
The consensuses among Capoeira teachers of its origins are uncertain, but most agree that it evolved from various African influences during the Brazilian slave trade.
“The mixing of all the west coast African cultures in that turbulent situation in Brazil gave rise to different cultural things, and Capoeira was a result of all those,” says Burns
One theory is Capoeira was a way for slaves to disguise their martial arts training. Burns suggests that Capoeira evolved as a cultural weapon.
The technicalities of Capoeira can be classified as a combination of dance, acrobatics, martial arts and music.
“It’s an improvised game that is very much spontaneous and playful,” says Burns. “Some movements of Capoeira can be more aggressive, some can be more playful, but ultimately there is no one specific goal and nothing is set out or planned before hand.”
Capoeira’s reputation as a martial art combined with physical and competitive demands have led it to be generally male dominated. Paula da Silva, the co-founder and co-owner of Dende do Recife, has become a role model for many women in and out of the Capoeira community. Burns explained that the machismo attitude that sometimes poisons Capoeira clubs usually reflects the small mindedness of the owner and teachers of certain Capoeira organizations.
“The Dende do Recife group, very explicitly because of Paula, has a different atmosphere,” says Burns. “The people attracted to the da Silvas are more like them, more open and relaxed.”
Aside from teaching Capoeira, Burns is also a musician and appreciates the more rhythmic parts of Capoeira. “If you took away the music from Capoeira it wouldn’t be the same thing anymore,” says Burns. “It would be something different.”
However, Capoeira still involves a lot of strength and physical training to be able to express yourself in an artistic way. Just as the African slaves in Brazil developed Capoeira as a cultural force against their oppressors, current students of Capoeira have evolved the art into appreciative form of expression as well.
Like many other sports, arts or lifestyles, in order to understand them you must partake in them. Capoeira is no exception. Those who train the movements, practice the instruments, learn the language and genuinely submerge themselves into the community will be the ones who fully understand the culture surrounding Capoeira.
It is strange that our supposedly multicultural and diverse nation turned its back on the da Silvas, but their community and cultural appreciators will be here waiting for them when they return.

What’s a gluten-free food lover to do?

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Hannah Griffin, Staff Contributor

Being gluten-free can feel like a curse. There is the persistent feeling of being an inconvenience when eating out, or going to people’s places for dinner. Not to mention the shame of bringing vodka and Coke through the door of a kegger – on St. Patty’s Day no less. And let’s not forget the misery of having to tell the server at the Ardmore, “No toast, thanks,” when she asks whether I would like my Lumberjack Breakfast accompanied by two delicious buttery pieces of white or whole wheat bread.
Despite this recently bestowed curse, I refuse to compromise my culinary enjoyment by eating spelt all day. While consoling myself with still permissible favourites of sushi and ice cream, I began to investigate the best ways to stay content and well fed in Halifax. So whether you have a gluten or wheat allergy, are celiac or are just not down with flour, read on to learn about the best gluten-free chow in town.
First stop: Superstore. Some of the best bets here are from the Glutino and Enjoy Life lines, including apple-cinnamon and chocolate-flavoured granola bars. If you heat the chocolate ones up in the microwave, they taste just like a brownie. Glutino also makes a couple different kinds of bread, including flax bread, plain rice flour bread, and my personal favourite: cheese bread. Keep in mind that this bread tastes like a dry sponge until toasted, and then it takes on a chewy and much improved texture.
The Enjoy Life Cinnamon Crunch granola, filled with raisins, is definitely a good buy. Steer clear of the prepackaged pizza; I excitedly tried to nurse a hangover with one two weeks ago and the soggy consistency made it much, much worse.
Next stop: Pete’s Frootique (1515 Dresden Row). Pete’s offers a very good selection of gluten-free eats. At the very back of the store sits a small, shelved section bursting with delicious and easily digested goodies. These include sun dried tomato and oregano crackers, almond and cranberry-orange biscotti, three kinds of rice flour pasta, apple and cinnamon cereal, Red Mill pizza crust and glazed cashew granola.
The frozen section houses an array of breads, sesame and poppy-seed bagels, as well as microwaveable pad Thai and chicken Alfredo dinners. At the deli counter you can ask for fresh rice bread – a definite step up from the frozen Glutino loaves.
However delicious the options are at both these grocery stores, the reality is that most students can’t shell out close to $6 for a loaf of bread, or $5 for a small package of granola. So what’s the alternative for the cash-strapped gluten-free student? Baking!
The best place to find gluten-free recipes is on the Internet. Although there are lots of sites out there, the best one I have come across is Karina’s Kitchen (glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com). This website is packed with hundreds of great recipes, including tips to make your own bread. The gluten-free baker will want to stock up on sorghum, millet and rice flours to make some of Karina’s tried and true breads. As well as recipes for the everyday staples and meal ideas, there are also those for deserts and an entire section featuring alternatives to gluten-packed holiday foods. One highlight is the maple-roasted acorn squash and cornbread stuffing, adorned with curried apple and cranberries.
When it comes to dining out, there are a surprisingly large array of restaurant options in Halifax that cater to the gluten-free, including Morris East, The Wooden Monkey, Heartwood Café and Jane’s on the Common.
Morris East (5212 Morris St.) offers eight delicious gourmet pizzas available on crispy gluten-free crust, topped with unique ingredients including caramelized onions, spicy banana peppers, blue cheese and pork loin. They also offer a handful of scrumptious salads. The grilled vegetable and goat cheese pizza on rice flour crust was so good that I would order it even if I could eat wheat. They also make an amazing flourless chocolate cake, rich and full of dark chocolate flavour.
The Wooden Monkey (1707 Grafton St.) also offers a large range of options – nachos to pizza. The gluten-free pizza crust isn’t quite as crispy as Morris East, but the rice bowl with brown rice, scallions, almonds, tofu and sesame oil is filling and the vegetables are fresh. For dessert, they carry Big Life’s chewy gluten-free brownies. Big plus: they serve gluten- free beer!
Heartwood Café (6250 Quinpool Rd.) has 13 gluten-free options among the 25 dishes on the menu. Unfortunately they don’t offer rice flour pizza crust, but they definitely make up for it with their Heartwood Bowls. You can choose either brown rice or rice vermicelli and then create your own bowl of steamed veggies, tofu and sprouts topped with spicy peanut, coconut, miso-tahini or tomato sauce.
For the brunch lover, Jane’s on the Common (2394 Robie St.) eliminates the toast problem by serving a jazzed up take on the traditional diner breakfast, accompanied by thick slices of sourdough toast. Eggs Benedict is served on a sweet-potato biscuit. They also offer a charbroiled beef burger on a gluten-free bun.
Despite good restaurant options, the problem arises of what to do at 2 a.m. when all your gluten tolerant friends are scarfing slices at Pizza Corner. Look no further than Rocky’s barbeque stand, located in the alcove just outside Willy’s, where Rocky serves up some of the best meat on a stick in town.
So as you can see, being gluten-free in Halifax isn’t always the curse it might seem. Sure, sometimes I still get a bit mournful when I think of some of my favourite wheat-filled foods (Kraft Dinner, that means you), but then I turn to daydreams of Morris East’s prosciutto, blue cheese and arugula pizza, and everything is all right again.

Get your Af-freak-on

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Rebecca Spence, Staff Contributor

By the end of the 80-minute class, Dalhousie dance instructor Susan Barratt and her 19 theatre students look exhausted. But they can’t stop smiling.
For many of the students, this was their very first exposure to African dance. The class has spent much of their last two years learning traditional dance genres, such as ballet and jazz. Never before had they been given the chance to experience such a foreign culture in their studio.
“It was very refreshing,” says Claire St-Francois, a 21-year-old honours theatre student who is specializing in acting. “I learned that you don’t need a ridiculous amount of experience to be able to do this. It’s all about soul it seems.”
Richelle Khan, also a 21-year-old acting major, agrees.
“I loved the fact that you don’t really have to fully get the choreography,” she says. “It’s way more about how much physical exertion you put into it.”
“I have a lot of dance experience and I found that it uses a totally different part of your body than the techniques you would learn in ballet or jazz.”
Throughout Barratt’s choreographed routine, the intensity within the studio gradually built. With the help of drummers Glenn Fraser and Peter Watson (a.k.a Unca Pete) who busted out beats on instruments called doun-douns and the djembe, the rhythm became all-consuming. From stomping their feet like elephants to flapping their arms like exotic birds, the class followed its animal instincts. At some points, the energy was so high that Barratt and her students let out yelps and howls.
Katie MacDonald, 23, explains that technique is typical for the group.
“We’re encouraged by our professors to let it all out, and not inhibit yourself.”
An intense physical connection to the art was obviously essential to the process. Watching Barratt, it appeared as though every muscle in her body was 100 per cent committed to the dance. Her eyes wide and her knees bent, she stayed low to the ground like a cheetah on the savannah, patiently waiting to attack its prey.
“I like that it uses every muscle in your body. You feel everything,” says Barratt. “There’s something very organic about it.”
This is Barratt’s first year of teaching at Dalhousie, but she has been teaching African dance classes for about seven years now. She was trained in Montreal, where there is a large community of French-speaking West Africans. She met musicians Fraser and Watson in a samba group in Halifax about 10 years ago. Together they offer their African dance workshops every Friday night at DANSpace.
“I like how celebratory and energetic it is,” says Barratt, smiling. “It makes me happy.”
Throughout the class, Barratt’s theatre students were enthusiastic and eager to learn something new. Many of the students agreed they would like more of an opportunity to experience different cultures through dance.
“I would love to explore India’s Bollywood style of dancing,” says Christine Milburn, 21. “That would be amazing.”
“Russian dance would be really cool,” says Katie MacDonald.
African dance proved to be a great place to start, as it was much less constraining than the genres the class was used to practicing.
“It was very much about being free in your own body,” says Claire St-Francois, 21. “It’s really liberating to do.”

Modern day sailors

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Dalhousie Gazette Staff

Ryan Lenssen, keyboardist and chief arranger for The Most Serene Republic, is on a break in Ontario before setting off on another jaunt along the east coast. He probably needs it. His band’s touring partners, Toronto’s Meligrove Band, have recently come down with a bout of the Jon and Kate of sicknesses: H1N1.
“I don’t think any of us have caught the swine,” says Lenssen. “But who knows what else we may be carrying.”
Emerging from Milton, Ontario, the band broke free of their hometown confines in the middle of the decade under the wing of Canadian powerhouse label Arts&Crafts.
In the summer of 2005, they opened up for Broken Social Scene and Modest Mouse for the much-hyped Olympic Island concert. Walking on stage amid the swirling synthesizer textures of Lenssen’s many keyboards, the band broke into a plethora of songs on their recently released Underwater Cinematographer. Those in Toronto took note, especially press such as Now magazine and Exclaim!
Their universe has expanded ever since.
“There’s no way in hell I’m going to forget that concert,” says Lenssen. “Unless I continue my habit of drinking.”
Over the next few years, the band endlessly toured while releasing albums and EPs consistently.
“It just sort of happened really quickly, or right away,” Lenssen reflects.
With three albums under their belts, a few big name TV appearances and a string of festival shows, it is hard to believe the band has been around for little more than five years.
With their new album …And the Ever Expanding Universe, the suburban Ontario septet has ditched the Moog synthesizer sounds and guitar trickery of Underwater Cinematographer in favour of something much more classically based. The album is decorated with baroque and romantic woodwinds, brass flourishes, strings and even a banjo. However, this sound is nothing new to the band.
“I think we’ve always had a classical base,” says Lenssen. “But it really came down to ambition and availability.”
For the first time in their short career, the band is able to explore a deeper sonic scope. They also do the unheard of; the album lacks any semblance of pretension generally associated with a rock band getting their Chopin on.
“More resources became available to us and are allowing us to expand on certain ideas,” explains Lenssen.
The result is one of the most ornate records on the Arts&Crafts label, something arguably a certain group of friends could never produce with as much glamour and glitz.
When asked if being associated with such famous Canadian bands as Broken Social Scene and Feist causes problems for the band, Lenssen is taken aback at the thought of it being a hamper on them. He feels that although it may somewhat overshadow some of their press endeavours, it certainly is a help and a blessing to be connected to other bands on the label.
“If I’m reading an article about a popular band and the things they are similar to are things I like, I’m much more likely to go and check out that band than, say, if they were compared to Simple Plan.”
Luckily for Most Serene Republic fans, the band doesn’t seem to be stopping their creative experimentation in favour of a mainstream sound anytime soon.
“The sort of motto we live by is that there is nothing you can’t do when it comes to art,” says Lenssen. “Risk and chance are everything. It doesn’t work so well in the real world. But when it comes to art, it seems to become the golden rule.”

Social movements still worth building

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Dave Bush, Opinions Contributor

This month, pages of newspapers and magazine will be filled with the reflections and analysis of two events that have defined our era over the last 20 years.
The fall of the Berlin Wall two decades ago ushered in the end of real existing socialism and the creation of a new world order. This supposed end of history or post-political era was the triumph of neo-liberalism. Markets were freed in a way that benefited the few in the global North while devastating economies in the global South. North American and European farmers flooded the global food markets with cheap, subsidized food, while farmers in the south were stripped of all subsidies and trade protections. The system created a supply of cheap labour for manufacturing industries that were quickly located in the global South.
The neo-liberal project, which had been well underway by the time the Berlin wall was torn down, went into hyper speed in the 10 years that followed. Formal transnational trading bodies, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, oversaw the neo-liberal project. Trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement were implemented, while new broader agreements such as the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas and the Multilateral Agreement on Investment were dreamed up in order to open markets.
The neo-liberal agenda was not without its detractors. Significant resistance to unfair trading practices and policies of the IMF and World Bank were widespread in the global South. From farmers in India and Jamaica to sweatshop workers in Indonesia and Mexico, the losers in the globalization game were not accepting their position in the new world order.
During the 1990s, North American social movements were slowly coming to grips with trade liberalization. A loss of industrial jobs, an influx of cheap foreign goods and the destruction of the Soviet Bloc meant that unions, Marxist-Leninist parties and traditional bastions of the left were in decline. The global economy required activists to build global rather than national social justice movements.
The mass protest against the WTO in Seattle was neither the first nor the biggest protest against neo-liberalism in the global North. However, it was the most iconic.
It showed there was widespread discontent with the neo-liberal agenda and more importantly it symbolized that such diverse groups as labour unions, environmental groups, church groups, anarchists and anti-corporate activists, could organize together and defeat the WTO in the richest nation on the planet.
When I was 18, I remember being glued to the television watching in awe that so many people thought there was something wrong with this world. It forced me to think about why the world was that way, and to re-evaluate my position in it. It inspired me to take action.
This was not an uncommon feeling among my peers. From 2000 to 2003, you couldn’t go to a meeting, workshop or teach-in without Seattle being mentioned. Seattle was hope.
The Alter-Globalization Movement spread. There were massive protests in Quebec City, Prague, Quito, Gothenburg and Genoa, among a host of cities. The World Social Forum, an annual gathering of leftists activists and organizations, started in 2001 with a massive conference in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
There was hope in the air that a united global justice movement could construct living alternatives to neo-liberalism. There was hope, real existing hope, that the world could be different. Hope that workers and the impoverished could live a just and meaningful life. Hope that our planet could be saved from the destruction of capitalist exploitation. That people from all over the world could take back control over their lives and communities. However, in the global North, the hope of something different faded under the crushing discourse of terror and war. People became less interested in politics, and more willing to let people speak for them – to let leaders embody hope.
The defeated social movements in the north had their language appropriated by NGOs and CEOs. ‘Fair trade’, ‘organic’, and ‘social and environmental responsibility’ are now terms used by those at the top of our economic pyramid.
Seattle’s memory is being whitewashed, or better yet greenwashed. Gone from our public memory is the radical kernel of change that the movement inspired. Forgotten was the fact that the ideological grip of capital was shaken, the impossible was made possible, was deemed necessary.
George Orwell wrote, “He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future.”
This ideological filter when it comes to public memory is as true in totalitarian states as it is in democracies.
Our collective memory is a reflection of dominant ideological positions. When we remember the Berlin Wall fall, we fail to mention that the protesters were not calling for free market liberalization. The driving force behind destruction of the wall came from socialist movements, such as Democracy Now, and New Forum in East Germany. The end result of the wall may have been a symbolic representation of the victory of global capitalism. However, real change stemmed from social movements that called for socialism with a human face, not from Regan or free marketers.
As we remember Seattle in the north we must note that Seattle was not a call for reform; it was a call for radical change. It showed that global capitalist projects could be confronted, even in America.
Milan Kundera once wrote, “The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.” As the world fractures more drastically into have and have not, as resources become more expensive to extract, as our planet is dramatically altered by our economic activity we can’t afford to forget real change is possible.

Climate catastrophe approaching

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Nicole Feriancek, Opinions Contributor

Climate change is no longer about energy saving light bulbs and reusable grocery bags. It’s the single biggest problem humanity has ever faced. Ever. It’s being called a climate catastrophe.
You might not believe me.
Climate change is a good thing, you might tell me. Hey, I wouldn’t mind Nova Scotia being a few degrees warmer either, but did you know that the sea ice in the Polar Regions has shrunk to its lowest level ever in known history?
Of course you did, intelligent readers.
Did you know that 80 per cent of the world’s forests are gone? That the remaining old growth forests are being chopped down as you read this, to make flyers that you immediately throw away?
By the way, when you throw something away, where is “away”, exactly?
Think about it.
OK, you’re getting the point – plastic bags are bad, pollution sucks, human beings are stupid.
But let’s talk about just how stupid we are. Canadians in particular.
Well, Canada is in the top 10 most polluting nations in the world. Canada is polluting more and faster than any other G8 country. Canada’s tarsands are the most destructive means of extracting oil on the planet. More carbon is released into the atmosphere by the tarsands than any other oil exporter.
You all know that carbon in our atmosphere is bad, and that it’s the cause of rising global temperatures.
Think of it like this: our Earth’s atmosphere can only hold so much carbon safely (350 parts per billion). Currently we are at 378.
“Carbon pollution is being trapped in our atmosphere, creating a heat trapping blanket that is smothering the earth,” says Tzeporah Berman, environmental activist.
The tipping point between safety and chaos is 350. At the rate our world is polluting, in eight years, we will have reached 450 parts per billion of carbon in our atmosphere. At this point, it will be out of our hands. Global warming will be on a downward spiral that can no longer be affected by human actions. Mass devastation will be inevitable. We have one last chance to fix the wrongs we have done to our environment.
This December, every world leader and country will get together in Copenhagen to talk about solutions to create a new Kyoto Protocol. Canada has no solidified plan for negotiations.
Our government is actively ignoring the issue, to the point of disrupting international discussions.
If any of this made you think, or made you feel any shame or negativity for Canada, you need to let our politicians know. Write a letter to your member of parliament. Call them. Leave a message saying you’re discouraged, that you expect better.
Stand up. Say something. Let’s all wake up and stop ignoring global warming and let our government know why.

Obama waging wrong war

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Donnie MacIntyre, Opinions Contributor

President Barack Obama and his administration have named their enemy and declared war; but the enemy may not be whom you expect. No, it isn’t Taliban forces fighting to regain control in Afghanistan, or al-Qaida insurgents hiding in the mountainous region of Pakistan. It isn’t even those rich Wall Street bankers who brought on the global recession with their greed and mismanagement. No, in this era of economic crisis, chaos in the Middle East, and national debate over health care reform, Obama and his team decided now is the time to go after that constant pain in the butt of Democrats across America: FOX News Channel.
That, I say, is a mistake.
Several weeks ago FOX network (not FOX News Channel (FNC), but instead its cable counterpart) was the only network that decided not to air the President’s address on health care reform. As a result, FOX News Sunday was the only Sunday morning current events program left off the list of Obama’s whirlwind interview blitz with every other network that morning.
When host Chris Wallace referred to the administration as “a bunch of crybabies”, a White House official responded by saying, “Fox is an ideological outlet where the president has been interviewed before and will likely be interviewed again, not that the whining particularly strengthens their case for participation any time soon.”
Naturally, this ignited a firestorm for FNC’s conservative talk show hosts, particularly Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck, who had a field day painting Obama as a thin-skinned president who surely can’t deal with the likes of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad if he can’t even handle a few political pundits.
To seal the deal, White House Communications Director Anita Dunn told CNN during an interview that FNC is “opinion journalism masquerading as news (and) often operates as either the research arm or communications arm of the Republican Party.”
There have been shots fired back and forth ever since.
Now, regardless of your opinion of FOX News, and it seems that everyone who has ever watched the channel has one, this is one tactic that will surely backfire on the White House.
First of all, as just alluded to, Obama is leaving himself wide open to charges that he is weak. “He’s going to sit down and talk to the president of Iran? He’s weak on relations with rogue nations! He’s going to end the war in Iraq? He’s weak on terror!”
Add to the mix the fact that he won’t face a loud mouth pundit with a camera and the fodder for this line of attack seems endless. If Obama truly believes FNC acts as an extension of the Republican Party, couldn’t his refusal to face them head on be construed as a sign that he is afraid to take on the Republicans themselves?
If you’d prefer to interpret this as a sign that he is simply unwilling to waste his time talking to a Republican outfit, then doesn’t that fly in the face of his mantra of crossing the aisle and working together with the Grand Old Party? Another popular conservative talking point since the President took office is that he has not followed through on his promise to unite both parties. See? These are two weapons Obama is handing directly to his enemies.
“But so what?” you might be thinking. “The conservative hosts on FOX and talk radio are going to be using these attacks on the Obama Administration anyway.”
Yes, that is true. But now they have an opportunity to make White House officials look foolish while they are at it.
Just take a look at Glenn Beck’s latest stunt as a prime example. He set up a red phone like the one that linked the White House to the Kremlin during the Cold War. Painting the administration as a bunch of Communists is a favourite past time of Beck’s. He had the phone number sent to Anita Dunn herself. Beck is encouraging Dunn or any other White House official to give him a call at any time to correct him if he is mistaken with any of his constant attacks on Obama and his associates.
The implication, which Beck is constantly reminding us of, is that if what he is saying is not true, that phone would surely ring and someone on the other end would present the facts. But since what he says is true, the White House cannot respond and thus the phone remains silent.
On the Oct. 28 edition of his show, Beck plainly stated, “They never called. They aren’t going to call. We have to stop expecting answers from these people. Their silence is their answer.”
Now, how can the Obama Administration show they are unafraid to confront their foes and directly respond to that while they are determined to not talk to FOX?
It’s likely that Dunn and all the rest are simply ignoring Beck’s taunts knowing very well that should they actually call and confront him they would not only be playing right into his hands, they would also be giving him a ratings boost at the same time.
This refusal to give Beck a boost leads directly to this next monkey wrench in the White House’s operation. If Obama is trying to cause FNC to lose credibility, and thusly viewers, it is not working – the news channel’s ratings have actually increased during this whole brou-ha-ha. According to official Nielson ratings data for October 2009, the month in which the majority of this battle took place, FNC easily dominated its competition.
Glenn Beck, who joined the network in January and is possibly the single biggest participant in this battle from FOX’s side, has increased his timeslot’s ratings by 64 per cent in total viewers and 188 per cent in the demo from this same month last year. I hate to say it, but if the administration was actually unaware that a controversy of this proportion would draw even more viewers to FNC, a network that feeds off controversy and used it to climb to the top of the ratings pile years ago and remain there ever since, they truly must be foolish.
It is true that many FOX News viewers are die-hard conservatives, but approximately 20 per cent of FNC viewers label themselves as Independent. It’s the Independents that Obama wants to reach out to. He already has the support of most Democrats, but the Independents are almost always the ones who can make or break an election or vote.
Especially now, with Obama trying to garner support anywhere he can for his health care reform plan, one would think he would make every effort he possibly can to get his message out to Independents. Why would Obama choose to let FOX control the message that all these voters are taking in, without trying to get out there and set the record straight?
Presidents often make major gaffes while in office, and this whole anti-FOX campaign just may be a huge one. Obama needs to realize he is not campaigning any longer; he is the president. It is time to put away the gloves and stop participating in fights with needless enemies. Use FOX News Channel to your advantage, Obama; don’t let them use you to theirs.

Second place no reason to cheer

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Jake Byrne, Staff Contributor

Statistics Canada released its annual Tuition Fee Report last month detailing average tuition fees across the country. According to the report, tuition fees in Nova Scotia dropped 3.1 per cent, meaning we now pay the second highest fees in the country as opposed to the highest; a title we held for two decades.
The government was quick to pat themselves on the back. “Lower tuition will help ensure more young people are able to attend our world-class universities,” cheered one press release.
But wait a minute. There’s no tuition fee reduction in place in Nova Scotia, so how did we lose the Stats Can title of highest fees in the country?
The fact is that tuition fees in Nova Scotia have remained the same since 2007 when the government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with universities guaranteeing more funding in exchange for a tuition fee freeze. This was a step in the right direction but did not remedy the damage done by decades of under-funding and massive tuition fee increases.
Twenty years of sky-high fees means the average student’s debt has climbed to almost $30,000 and a slew of Nova Scotia youth have fled the province to study or work in other, less expensive, provinces. Four years ago, in response to this growing problem, the Progressive Conservative government of the day promised to bring tuition fees down to the national average. At the time, students cautiously applauded the move, but we later found out how the government planed to reach its goal – by freezing tuition fees and waiting for fees in other provinces to meet, or pass, those in Nova Scotia. Ontario, which according to the report now has the highest fees, did just that. Since 2006, fees in that province have been allowed to increase a total of 20 to 36 per cent.
In the meantime, the government has provided only some students (Nova Scotia students studying in the province) with a $267 per year tuition fee “rebate”, the equivalent of a tuition fee coupon with a 2011 expiry date. Due to this rebate scheme, Nova Scotia is one of only two provinces that charges out-of-province students higher fees. Both the provincial government and Stats Can count this rebate as a reduction.
A true reduction in tuition fees would apply to all students, and would be included in the province’s annual budget for universities, rather than as an “instant rebate”. It has been four months since the current government took office and it has failed to provide a comprehensive plan, or even a tangible outline, of how it plans to improve access to post-secondary education in Nova Scotia. The NDP government needs to make a real investment to reduce tuition fees for all students. With the $14 million this government has pledged for tuition fee tax credits, we could reduce tuition fees across the board by $350 – nearly triple the province’s need-based grants program.
Myself and other representatives of the Canadian Federation of Students have met with decision makers on both the provincial and federal level, including Education Minister Marilyn More, to lobby for real tuition fee relief and increases in government funding and grants. But as they say there’s “strength in numbers” and if we ever want to see this government reduce fees we, as students, need to flex our collective muscle.
This semester, students from across the province have already collected thousands of signatures on a petition calling for reduced fees for all students, an increase in per-student funding to the national average, and 50 per cent of every provincial student loan to be provided as a grant. We will present this petition to the Nova Scotia legislature.
So pick up a pen, a clipboard, and a stack of petitions and hit the streets or hallways. Because when students work together, we get results.

Jake Byrne is the Nova Scotia Representative of the Canadian Federation of Students and a second-year student at the University of King’s College.

Sex: not just for the able-bodied

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Katie Toth, Sex Columnist

Picture someone with disabilities in the bedroom. Many of us usually think they’re either sleeping or asking for help getting dressed. We should all forget every stereotype we’ve been taught and instead remember Claire Sainsbury’s simple words on Scarleteen: “Disabled people have sex, too!”
People with disabilities are often overlooked in healthy sexuality discourses. Meloukhia, a feminist blogger with disabilities, writes, “Either we are desexualized, or we are fetishized for our bodies and treated explicitly as sex objects/playthings for able bodied fetishists.”
I am quick to gloss over the discussion of sexuality in the context of disability, fearing that the intersecting issues will get too complicated or I will get in over my head. But I’m not the only one.
Different disabilities are stigmatized in different ways, but many people who have them can identify with a common thread: the assumption that those who are disabled do not have sexual agency. Whether you’re disabled physically, intellectually or have learning or mental health difficulties, our society sends a clear message that it is weird for you to be sexual.
This kind of stigma negates the ability of people with disabilities to have a sexual identity. I was about to say that this stigma renders them asexual, but it doesn’t even do that. In acknowledging someone as asexual, you offer him or her a sense of agency, an opportunity to identify with a lack of sexual desire.
How does this fit in with the rampant sexual abuse of people who have disabilities? With the trope of the “desperate” disabled woman, or with the concept that if you have disabilities and someone abuses you, it’s not really abuse, but rather flattery – you should be “happy” about it or “take what you can get.”
When you are in a wheelchair, your body often becomes associated not with hot sex, but with either a childlike, protected state or one that is stoic and heroic. Deaf people and people who can’t see, like Marlee Maitlin on Family Guy, get mocked. This just perpetuates a stereotype that those who are physically different can’t be smoking hot. Thank god for Maitlin’s stint on The L Word to challenge some of that bullshit.
With those who have intellectual/developmental disabilities, some people – often doctors, caregivers, conservative family members or even strangers – worry about giving people information they’re “not ready for” or that will “encourage them”. The blatant paternalism of such behaviour should be obvious. Why shouldn’t people with disabilities be encouraged to feel sexual? Do they not have the same rights to self-expression as everyone else?
Secondly, and of perhaps more urgent importance, is the necessity of education in order to protect anyone from what they may decide they aren’t ready for. Because people with disabilities aren’t always given consistent information about relationships and sexuality they need, out of a weird “protective” (read: condescending) drive on the behalf of caregivers, they remain some of the most sexually vulnerable people in the world.
According to the Wisconsin Coalition against sexual assault, as many as 83 per cent of women and 32 per cent of men who are developmentally disabled are victims of sexual assault. How can anyone be expected to speak out against their abuse if they haven’t been given the properly extensive educational tools and language to do so?
For those who have physical disabilities, stigma can be less blatantly paternalistic, but that doesn’t necessarily make it less condescending.
In the university community, many of us identify as having some sort of learning disability. Many of us can look back to some point in high school where this made us feel isolated or weird.
I’ve never experienced not being refused entry into a mall, store or someone’s home because my wheelchair didn’t fit, but the isolation that would cause is probably more than just emotional. I can say that I was on crutches once for a summer, and walking places suddenly became a large and draining effort. When I did finally get somewhere, such as Starbucks, and receive extra whip cream from the hot Starbucks guy, and start to feel kind of sexy, my friends would tell me that he probably felt sorry for me because my crutches made me look like a gimp. Thanks, douchebags.
It’s like a double whammy on your ability to date and be sexy. Not only does it take you more time, more effort and exhaustion to be social, but also, once you throw yourself out there, you’re treated like you’re somehow not entitled to the same rights and privileges inherent in being there, such as the right to flirt or assume you’re worth taking home. Suddenly, I was only expected to look sad and pathetic in my plushy, comfortable chair.
But I digress. The discussion of sex and disability doesn’t have to be all stigma, assault and disparity.
Despite all the bullshit people who have disabilities are forced to overcome, they – like everyone – still engage in some pretty rad sex. That is, when you open your mind to the question of what sex is. The sexuality spectrum is broad for people who have disabilities, just like for people who “don’t”.
Diane Heatherington, a Halifax sex educator, emphasized one thing during a recent interview: when it comes to sex, the necessity of a sex-positive environment rich in education and consistent information is the same for everyone. All people – with or without disabilities – can benefit from more education, more acceptance of their feelings, and a more open mind about the huge spectrum that constitutes “sex”.
For deaf people, or those who don’t communicate auditorily, sex might just come with a priority to leave the lights on. That’s not just a hearing-impaired thing, though – it’s a hot thing.
For people who can’t see so well, oral communication becomes key, and any of us who are good auditory learners can learn from these cues and start making more noises and asking for what we want out loud in the bedroom.
Those with disabilities that affect their hands or penile functioning might bring in toys, vibrators and lube. Again, this isn’t “modifying” sex for a disability, any more than me going down on a hot lesbian who’s easy on the eyes is “modifying” sex for homosexual tendencies. It’s just having hot sex in a way that some people don’t jump to when they’re busy thinking of the standard hetero missionary position.
Whether we have disabilities or not, we can all learn from trying different methods of communication and different ways of getting ourselves, and our partners, off. Including those with disabilities in a discussion on healthy sexuality only makes everyone’s sex life more fun.

Point/Counterpoint

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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Point (Neil McPhee): A university is fulfilling its responsibilities if and only if it works to further its research and to provide students with the greatest possible education. When a university knowingly hires a less qualified individual to further its academic research, this university engages in an action that directly undermines its own responsibilities. The same holds true when a university hires a less qualified person to fill a teaching position. University affirmative action policies for hiring new faculty take into consideration not only a publication record, teaching awards, and letters of recommendation – they knowingly give preference to people in possession of superficial qualities gained by accident of birth. Being Black, Hispanic, Asian or Caucasian has no bearing on an individual’s ability to teach or conduct research. Furthermore, to reward a person for what they cannot help runs counter to the academic spirit of rewarding people for what they’ve done.

Counterpoint (Gavin Charles): Affirmative action does not necessarily mean prioritizing one person over another regardless of relative merit. “Accident of birth” is not prioritized over the other criteria discussed, but alongside – and normally as a last resort. Generally, affirmative action means that if two candidates are of roughly equal experience and each demonstrates roughly equal potential, the employer will favour the candidate who comes from a background underrepresented in the particular field of work for which the employer is hiring. As for the idea that affirmative action policies are bad because they are not linked to the quality of one’s achievements, that actually does ignore the notion of relative merit. If two persons have made equal achievements, why shouldn’t we prioritize the person who, statistically speaking, has probably had to overcome greater barriers to make those achievements? And why shouldn’t we make a point of sending the message that those barriers can be overcome?

Point: Affirmative action proponents often argue that the university has a social responsibility to promote racial diversity. If this is true, then a university must have a visibly diverse staff or they risk not being taken seriously if they condemn other agencies for a homogeneous working environment. However, I deny that a university has any societal responsibility of the kind suggested in adopting affirmative action policies. The responsibility of the university lies only in promoting and developing academics. The responsibility to promote the acceptance of visible minorities lies with our government and other social organizations. If a university has no responsibility in this matter, and if the university harms its own legitimate responsibilities by overstepping its boundaries, then the university should not institute or maintain affirmative action hiring policies.

Counterpoint: Universities are on the very forefront of society. What happens in universities affects the way that the leaders of tomorrow will act and coexist. Since they have such an opportunity to foster the development of values, universities should promote socially positive ideals including tolerance and equality. On a related note, everyone knows that the professor matters as much as, if not more than, the class material. Some people undoubtedly will or do feel as though they cannot become the person in front of the class because all the people in front of the class are unlike them. Moreover, that person at the front of the class may also end up on TV or in the newspaper, discussing their work as a scientist or researcher. Some studies indicate that when schoolchildren are asked to draw a scientist, they usually draw a white male. Universities can, and should, work to change these popular conceptions. Otherwise, the world, and the universities, may miss out on the next great researcher, simply because she or he was convinced from an early age, perhaps subconsciously, to abandon that career path.

Point: Does visible diversity within the academic atmosphere intrinsically benefit academia? It is unclear how this could be true. Perhaps coming from a visible minority provides unique perspectives on particular issues? First, it is unclear why this should be true. The perspective an individual develops is something manufactured by their interaction with their environment. It is silly to suggest your environmental interactions are any more unique as a black person in our society as it is for a Scientologist or Catholic. That is, race is no better an indicator of diversity of opinions than are beliefs an individual can choose to develop. Second, even if this was true, it is unclear why affirmative action is necessary for these opinions to be heard. I’m not so naïve as to think a visible minority can’t produce a CV rivaling that of a middle-aged white man.

Counterpoint: Again, affirmative action usually does not mean that a visible minority ‘takes away’ a white man’s job, and the common misperception that it does mean that is unfortunate. The association of minorities – and women, because this affects them as well – with “unique perspectives” is not because they all think the same way, which is obviously untrue. Rather, this association, in a university setting at least, exists because a university is, very specifically, a place where a wide variety of viewpoints and perspectives are welcome. If minorities and women have interesting perspectives to provide, simply based on their experiences as minorities and women, they should be encouraged to share those perspectives in academia. This is true, in fact, even if those perspectives are largely the same as those of the majority or men, because that would clarify those similarities instead of hiding or obscuring them.

Neil McPhee and Gavin Charles are members of Sodales, the Dalhousie Debating Society. Debaters are notorious for arguing things they don’t actually believe. Positions taken by the authors aren’t necessarily their personal beliefs. Vote for the side of the debate you agree with at www.sodales.ca.

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