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September 11, 2007
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22
Sports
Vol. 80 Issue #2
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Free Access to Ideas... Full Freedom of Expression
New Alert System On Campus
By Joe Robillard Anchor Editor A new emergency alert system is being implemented on Rhode Island College’s campus. The implementation of this system comes as a response to last fall’s shooting on the Virginia Tech campus. The new system will send a text message, regardless of which cell phone/PDA service being used by the recipient, to any RIC campus members enrolled for the free service. “It’s something we hope we never have to use,” explained Dr. Richard Prull, Assistant Vice President of Information Services. If it does have to be used, here’s how it would work: If something deemed an emergency happens on campus, one of the ten or so administrators/security personnel with authority could author a notification to be sent to all cell phones enrolled for the service. The final list of who exactly will have authority is still being worked out by the 14-member committee created in the wake of last fall’s shootings. The committee is tasked with improving the campus’s ability to respond to these emergency situations. Enrollment is the key to the process. Using RIConnect, students and faculty can enroll for the service. The process consists of a few clicks of the mouse and then in-
putting your cell phone number. The RIConnect login page has a link to a guide desined to walk users through the process. The exact circumstances warranting use of the system is still being reviewed by the 14-person council. It’s still being decided if the system will be used to warn schools of very dangerous weather or other non-violence related emergencies. Prull cautioned that the administration would not be using it for simple class cancellations. The system used to send messages out to students is pretty secure. Authorized users will have to use a USB key with a specialized microchip in it to gain access to the message-sending system. In cases of power failure to the campus, there’s a process in place to have authorized users dictate the emergency message to Apogee Technology, the owners of the program. Apogee is located
in Texas, so its very unlikely that any power failure here would affect them at the same time. Administration is hoping to roll out a test run of the program sometime in October, after students have had a chance to enroll. The text messaging system gives the administration another tool to warn the campus of danger. An email and voicemail system was already in place. It’s remaining in place alongside the new text messaging system, which is particularly important to students with poor or no cell phone reception on campus. “We’re not putting all of our eggs in one basket,” continued Prull. This fall schools across the country are exploring options to increase their campus’s safety.
INTERNATIONAL SPOTLIGHT: ECONOMIC MELTDOWN IN ZIMBABWE
By Ndahiriwe Bienvenue Anchor Staff Economically speaking, Zimbabwe — a country located in Southern Africa, is falling apart. In fact, with about 80 percent of the population out of job, every business nearly running out goods and commodities as a result of an endless hyperinflation, gas shortages, and sporadic power outages that sometimes amount to 20 hours in a day, Zimbabwe has at the moment the “worst-performing economy” worldwide. In July 2007 alone, Zimbabwe set a new record when government officials reported an inflation rate of 7,638 percent, though independent sources estimated it to be as high as 25,000 percent. Things are to get worse for the International Monetary Fund predict the Zimbabwean inflation to reach the bar of 100,000 percent by December 2007. Prices are endlessly increasing. Yet wages have never been more stagnant than in the last decade. As a BBC journalist reports, “One candle cost twice the official government wage for a farm worker.” Needless to say that immediate and far-reaching impact of Zimbabwe’s misfortunes on both a local and regional level is of wild and formidable magnitude. Millions of Zimbabweans have already fled the country. According to the latest estimations, it is believed that on a daily basis, nearly 3,000 Zimbabweans seek refuge in neighboring countries, Europe and the Americas. Along
with that massive exodus, there have been alarming reports of ever-increasing smuggling, booming of black markets and rampant profiteering that benefit only the wealthy and powerful. One might then wonder about the why, how and when of this more than chaotic situation? For economists and other experts of that part of the world, Zimbabwe’s woes have their roots in the land reform policy enacted by the current government in the late 1990s, early 2000s. In fact, with a white minority controlling most of the country’s fertile lands even two decades
after Zimbabwe’s autonomy from colonial rule, Robert Mugabe, current president and father of independence of that country, saw a solution to an ever-increasing poverty of the black majority and unequal distribution of wealth in the ruthless seizure of farms throughout the country. Given however the earnest with which the Zimbabwean government implemented that policy of land reform and more importantly the evident unpreparedness of those that took over, the Zimbabwean dream of post-independence prosperity rapidly turned into a bitter and hellish nightmare. In an act of solidarity with the Zimbabwean white minority, the European Union led by the United Kingdom —former colonial power quickly froze virtually all relations with Zimbabwe. Banned from the Commonwealth — a cultural and economic organization made of most of former British colonies and deprived of bilateral and multilateral partnerships that are necessary to the welfare of a country, many express the answer to the question, ‘Just how close are Zimbabwean authorities from the brink of a total collapse?’ Socially unstable, economically exhausted, and politically stretched on all sides, Zimbabwe, more than any other country worldwide is ripe for a costly and bloody upheaval. Meanwhile however, Zimbabweans are the ones that are being hardest hit, straining and struggling to keep food on the table and shelters over their heads.