Friday, March 2, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXLII, No. 26

RCH

$190m budget will fuel two years of campus construction

BY SCOTT LOWENSTEIN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Brown’s campus will get a dramatic facelift over the next two years, thanks to an extensive slate of facilities projects approved by the Corporation during its meeting last weekend. The approved projects are part of a $190 million capital budget discussed by the Corporation last weekend.

Though the Corporation hasn’t fully approved the entire $190-million budget, it did endorse specific short-term phases for a range of projects. The Corporation will assess the progress of these initiatives before approving the full budget.

The planned $190 million shows a continued emphasis on physical development at the University.

“The Plan for Academic Enrichment … is designed to set our path as an institution, and so it has to encompass all of the critical elements of that,” such as attracting the best students and faculty to Brown and providing for their needs, said Richard Spies, executive vice president for planning and senior adviser to the president. “It was very clear that as we looked at the University, there were some critical needs that had to be attended to … and one of these was facilities.”

The Corporation approved planning for three projects that had not previously been announced — renovations to Faunce House and the J. Walter Wilson building and capital improvements to the University’s information technology infrastructure.

The $15 million renovation of continued on page 4

2, 2007

Since 1866, Daily Since 1891

Former Guantanamo Bay chaplain describes loss of civil liberties

BY JOY NEUMEYER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

James Yee went from being a highly praised Muslim chaplain at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility to being accused — and later exonerated — of spying for terrorists. Last night he told a crowd in Salomon 101 that Americans’ “civil liberties are under fire” and that “if all this could happen to me … then it can happen to any one of us.”

Yee’s speech kicked off the Brown Muslim Students Association’s Islam Awareness Month 2007. The theme is “the many faces of Islam.”

Yee, a third-generation Chinese-American who converted to Islam in 1991 after graduating from the United States Military Academy, was selected as the Muslim chaplain at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in 2002. In September 2003, while headed home on leave, he was arrested and imprisoned for 76 days on espionage charges. But after a government investigation, all the criminal charges against him were dropped.

“It’s clear that we’re living in

Eunice Hong / Herald Former Muslim chaplain James Yee spoke last night in Salomon 101 about his experiences at Guantanamo Bay.

a very dangerous post-9/11 period, one in which the civil liberties of all Americans … are threatened,” Yee told The Herald before his speech. “My story pinpoints these dangers.”

Noor Najeeb ’09, president of the BMSA, introduced Yee, de-

scribing his life as “a story that is rarely voiced and even more rarely heard.”

Yee described his journey from a Lutheran upbringing to his conversion to Islam. “For me, it was a reconfirmation of my monotheistic faith,” he said. Yee

left active service in the Army in the summer of 1993 to study Arabic and Islamic sciences in Damascus, Syria. He returned to active duty in January 2001 as an Army Muslim chaplain. continued on page 6

Rhodes Center to promote policy-oriented int’l economics

BY DEBBIE LEHMANN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

A $10 million gift from William Rhodes ’57, senior vice chairman of Citigroup and a former University trustee, will establish the Rhodes Center for International Economics at the Watson Institute for International Studies. The gift is the most recent gesture of support for Brown’s growing research and teaching in business, entrepreneurship and economics.

The Corporation last weekend accepted the gift to fund the cen-

ter and create an endowed professorship in international trade and finance. The center will promote “first-rate” research on international economic issues, particularly those that are relevant to policy, according to Professor of Economics Ross Levine, who helped draft the proposal for the gift. The Rhodes Center, which will be located in the Watson Institute, where Rhodes is a board member, will also support academic conferences and visiting professors.

“Economics touches on the lives of many people,” Levine said.

“If we’re teaching students to prepare for the world and take jobs in the world, knowledge of international economics will be of great use to them.”

The establishment of the Rhodes Center goes hand-in-hand with student interest in taking finance and economics classes within the context of a liberal arts education, Levine said.

Student interest in economics has been rising consistently over the past five years, according to Professor of Economics Andrew Foster, the department chair. Fos-

ter said enrollments in economics classes are up 25 percent from last year, partly because there is a renewed “general sense that economics has something to say about world issues.”

Foster said the Department of Economics has changed significantly over the last decade and no longer keeps to itself on campus.

The increase in interdisciplinary programs that include economics is not only due to interest from other departments that want to be continued on page 6

For family, friends and girls, students share videos on YouTube

BY STU WOO FEATURES EDITOR

Su-Yee Lin / Herald Director Ivan Tan ‘09, Whit Schroder ‘09, Ben Struhl ‘09 and Eric Mukherjee ‘09 (left to right) along with Jordan Chesin ‘09 (not pictured), created “Tunak Tunak Brown” and posted it on YouTube as a parody of Daler Mehndi’s “Tunak Tunak Tun.”

INSIDE:

3 ARTS & CULTURE

SAX IN THE CITY Sax in the City festival will be held this weekend to encourage collaboration between experimental musicians and Brown students

www.browndailyherald.com

5 CAMPUS NEWS

CREAM OF THE CROP ResCouncil’s First Pick Competition winner is the video “Skintones,” a short on an all-male, all-naked a cappella group on campus

FEATURE

They don’t do it for fame or money, they say. They just do it for fun.

Or for friends and family. Or for girls.

Though they may never become as popular as lonelygirl15 or Saturday Night Live stars, several Brown students have posted videos that have attracted a small following on YouTube, the popular online video site that allows users to upload videos, such as clips of popular TV shows or homemade movies of, well, practically anything.

One such video is “Tunak Tunak Brown,” which Eric Mukherjee ’09 and his friends posted on the site last May as YouTube was gaining popularity. The video is a parody of Indian artist Daler

11 OPINIONS

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

POINT-COUNTERPOINT The Herald’s columnists debate religion’s role in American politics — should it be taken seriously seriously, or does it detract from the debate?

Mehndi’s “Tunak Tunak Tun” music video, which became an Internet phenomenon a few years ago. A side-to-side comparison of the two music videos shows that, for better or worse, the Brown students stayed faithful to the original.

“We just saw other sorts of Tunak impersonation videos (on YouTube) and they just weren’t up to snuff,” Mukherjee said. “So we decided to go out and do it justice.” He said he and his friends produced the video in their free time just for fun and that he was “pleasantly surprised” to find that the video has been viewed over 7,500 times, according to the Youcontinued on page 4

12 SPORTS

M. ICERS ENTER POSTSEASON Men’s hockey enters postseason play at Princeton in a series that determines whether they will advance to ECACHL quarterfianls

News tips: herald@browndailyherald.com

TODAY THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

PAGE 2

WE A

T H E R

FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 2007

Chocolate Covered Cotton | Mark Brinker

TODAY

TOMORROW

partly cloudy 50 / 29

heavy rain / wind 45 / 33

MEN SHARPE REFECTORY

U

VERNEY-WOOLLEY DINING HALL

LUNCH — Oregon Blend Vegetables, Roasted Eggplant and Tomato Sandwich, BLT Sandwich, Oregon Blend Vegetables, S’mores Bars, Apple Dessert Pizza

LUNCH — Vegetarian Chick Pea Soup, New England Clam Chowder, Chicken Fingers with Sticky Rice, Spinach Pie Casserole, Sugar Snap Peas, S’mores Bars DINNER — Fisherman’s Pie in Puff Pastry, Grilled Chicken, Cheese Raviolis with Sauce, Wild and White Rice Pilaf, Cauliflower, Asparagus with Lemon, Focaccia with Rosemary, Pumpkin Pie

DINNER — V Vegetable Stuffed Peppers, Coconut Tilapia, Basmati Rice Pilaf, Steamed Vegetable Melange, Zucchini Frittata, Apple Dessert Pizza, Pumpkin Pie

SU

WBF | Matt Vascellaro

D O K U

Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9.

How to Get Down | Nate Saunders

Deo | Daniel Perez

Puzzles by Pappocom

CR ACROSS 1 ’60s White House pet 4 Sphere opening 8 Little cities?

14 __ corda: using the soft pedal, in piano music 15 Track 16 Alarms often end them 17 Cable choice 18 TV detective who likes to shoot?

20 Darling 22 Castor’s mother 23 Back-to-back contests?

24 Actress who stinks at golf?

27 Key of A. Dvorák’s “New World Symphony” 28 Choleric 32 Nahuatl speaker 34 Starting 37 “Until every one comes home” sloganeer: Abbr.

38 Retailer who’s a baseball defensive specialist?

42 Ivanovic of women’s tennis 43 Foliage 44 Drink sometimes spiced with cloves 45 Pool worker 48 “Give it __” 49 Writer who enjoys carpentry?

55 Pitch __ 58 Name on a toy truck 59 Charisma’s cousin 60 Comic who plays in a metal band?

63 Dairy abbr.

64 Blowfish partner 65 Adjust spacing between letters, in printing 66 Operation Overlord monogram 67 Ancient mystic 68 Remains on the table 69 Sycophantic reply

O S S W O R D

DOWN 1 Coop 2 Lassitude 3 Clunker 4 Little trip 5 Alec Waugh’s brother 6 Like pairs of socks 7 __ Diable 8 Accent in the supermarket?

9 Dodger 10 Job security, in some circles 11 Jeweler Lalique 12 Wiesbaden wheels 13 Pre-1991 pol. divisions 19 WWII fliers 21 Chair designer Charles 25 Abounding (in) 26 Name for a poodle 29 Square 30 Played for a sucker 31 Colorful parrot 32 Part of a love triangle?

33 Off-the-wall 34 Barley product 35 “Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst” gp.

36 Canceled 39 Singing part 40 Place in a classic 1969 Western 41 Singer Luft 46 Light 47 Takes effect 48 Voice with conviction 50 Pi follower 51 British-accented spokescritter 52 Glacial ridge

53 Shrink in increments 54 Levels 55 Feel a burning need (for) 56 President after Geo. and John 57 Mischievous bow wielder 61 R&B artist Des’__ 62 They may work on drips, briefly

Deep Fried Kittens | Cara FitzGibbon

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Cloudy Side Up | Mike Lauritano

xwordeditor@aol.com

3/2/07

T HE B ROWN D AILY H ERALD Editorial Phone: 401.351.3372 Business Phone: 401.351.3260

University community since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday during the aca-

Eric Beck, President

once in July by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. POSTMASTER please send corrections to

Mary-Catherine Lader, Vice President Ally Ouh, Treasurer Mandeep Gill, Secretary

By Gary Steinmehl (c)2007 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

3/2/07

The Brown Daily Herald (USPS 067.740) is an independent newspaper serving the Brown demic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement, once during Orientation and P.O. Box 2538, Providence, RI 02906. Periodicals postage paid at Providence, R.I. Offices are located at 195 Angell St., Providence, R.I. E-mail herald@browndailyherald.com. World Wide Web: http://www.browndailyherald.com. Subscription prices: $319 one year daily, $139 one semester daily. Copyright 2007 by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.

ARTS & CULTURE FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 2007

PAGE 3

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

“Sax and the City” links students with professional musicians

BY LYDIA GIDWITZ ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR

Eunice Hong / Herald This seven-foot collage features in Jessie Chaney’s ’07senior art show.

Eunice Hong / Herald “Archives,” Jessie Chaney’s ’07 senior show in List Art Center, showcases provocative photographs.

Senior art show seduces, shocks

BY DANIELLE SHERIDAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

At a distance, the nude form could be mistaken for a human one. Her vacant eyes betray a hollow interior, devoid of any signs of life. Her rapturous pose, however, is surprisingly alive — she reclines in orgasmic ecstasy with her arms and head arching backwards.

She is only a mannequin.

“Archives,” the senior show of Jessie Chaney ’07, has both seduced and shocked viewers this past week in the lobby of the List Art Center. Chaney’s audacious and confrontational depictions of female sexuality range from the perverse to the downright raunchy.

Chaney’s most stunning piece, a 7-foot collage of black and white photographs sprawled entirely across one wall, depicts an immense variety of candid snapshots.

Gritty urban street scenes parallel the unadulterated appearance of anonymous women who tug provocatively at their lingerie. Brazen, forward and almost intimidating, these leggy temptresses are faceless and therefore sexually acces-

sible.

By abruptly cropping these photographs, Chaney provides the spectator with an unusual vantage point from which viewers imagine crouching surreptitiously with an eye pressed up against the boudoir keyhole.

This notion of a taboo scene concealed from our sight gives the viewer a sense of satisfying a guilty or forbidden pleasure, which can be unsettling.

REVIEW “At some points, it even made me feel uncomfortable to think that other people may see me looking so intently at the pieces,” said Kieran Gopaul ’07. “It really made me question my comfort level with sexual images and objects.”

“Archives” is Chaney’s first show and is the culmination of six years of work. “In a sense, these works really represent the closure of this last phase of my life as I embark upon the next one,” Chaney said.

A general quality of edginess

pervades the exhibit. Chaney’s portrayal of mannequins as sex objects and her use of pink dildos and fluffy handcuffs as subjects for a still life are startling, but her approach cannot be regarded as characteristically explicit.

In her horizontal series of redtinted photographs, for instance, the allusions to eroticism are more suggestive and subtle in nature. A partial face, unidentifiable limbs and outlines are only barely discernable. Fragmented shots of latex and lace would seem to suggest a kinky encounter, but the true nature of the scene remains ambiguous. Chaney does not shock through confrontation as much as she woos with her sensuous presentation of subtle contours.

Next year Chaney intends to participate in the yearlong master’s degree program offered by Sotheby’s auction house in London and plans to pursue photography on the side.

“I just feel so lucky to have already found my passion in life. So many graduates are uncertain about what they want to do with their lives and it’s a real gift to already have some sort of idea,” Chaney said.

“Sax in the City,” a music festival co-hosted this weekend by the Department of Music and the student group Brown New Music, will encourage collaboration between music students and established professional musicians through a series of events centering on new music.

Trio Saxiana, a Parisian music group, will perform tonight at 8 p.m. “Sax and the City” is also bringing to campus several composers who have written pieces for Trio Saxiana.

“This is a tour of premieres,” said Gerald Shapiro, professor of music. “They are performing pieces written especially for them by three American composers.” These composers — Neely Bruce, Mark Phillips and Shapiro — will conduct workshops, rehearse and perform with students. In addition, French composer Thierry Pecou will also be in residence for the weekend.

The effort to educate students through direct collaboration with professional musicians underlies the festival. One of Brown New Music’s goals has been to bring more professional musicians to campus, said Whit Bernard ’07, head of Brown New Music, which promotes the performance of new compositions as a way to support student composers.

“We’re emphasizing more experimental things,” Bernard said. “There are a lot of composers who think they are doing a continuation of an old craft. Some (others) think of it as a way to challenge the genre and do something new,” he said. “We’ve seen the value on both sides and we’re trying to bring both together with edgy but crafted compositions.” The festival’s Saturday night concert — in which students, the composers in residence for the weekend and professional mu-

sicians will perform new music together — exemplifies this dialectic.

Students will also have their compositions discussed and then recorded with professional musicians. “People will have a chance to get work recorded, which is the most important thing for composers,” Bernard said.

Trio Saxiana will conduct an open discussion regarding its new pieces and the collaboration process more generally.

The emphasis on collaboration brought Trio Saxiana to Brown in the first place.

“They heard some music of mine and wanted to arrange my piece,” Shapiro said. “I wrote them a piece and become involved in a lot of other pieces for saxophones in Paris.”

“Sax in the City” kicks off Trio Saxiana’s American tour.

They will be heading to Wesleyan University, Ohio University and University of Indiana.

“It’s a nice example of the University making the arts happen,” Shapiro said. The festival is mostly funded through the Creative Arts Council and the music department. “Universities in this country are really the only place that has support for the arts,” Shapiro added.

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

PAGE 4

FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 2007

Student YouTubers post performances, parodies continued from page 1 Tube counter.

Another YouTuber, Herald Sports Columnist Tom Trudeau ’09, has attracted an even greater following. One of his latest videos, “Bambi II: Thumper’s Revenge,” is a parody of a gangster movie trailer — think of a cliched and overacted “The Departed.” The movie has been viewed over 65,000 times, probably helped by the fact it was the highest-rated YouTube movie for a day, Trudeau said.

Trudeau’s foray into YouTube started when the Saturday Night Live sketch “Lazy Sunday,” which is often credited for putting YouTube on the national radar in late 2005, inspired him to film a parody last spring. In “Unproductive Monday,” Trudeau and his brother rap about getting Chinese food and watching baseball star Randy Johnson pitch for the New York Yankees.

Then, this fall, Trudeau and his friend Ben Bernstein ’09, a Herald opinions columnist, decided to start making more films. After about half a dozen films, they starting getting subscribers to their “channel” and now have over 130.

“There isn’t a point to the videos, other than it’s a fun thing to do, than to try to get your friends to laugh.” Trudeau said. “I don’t

really aspire to make films. If it leads somewhere, it’s great, but it’s just a hobby.”

And perhaps a way to meet girls, too. “(We wanted) to make girls think we’re funny,” Trudeau sheepishly admitted. “Ben and I thought all girls love that.”

But other students use YouTube to share videos of performances with friends and family.

Adam Cassel ’08 has posted six videos of a cappella concerts in which he has sung.

“It’s mostly for family and friends” at other schools who couldn’t see the live performance, Cassel said. He added that his group was “floored” by the fact that one of the videos had gotten over a thousand views.

Arthur Kim ’08, who posted a video of himself and his friends performing a dance from a music video from the band OK Go, said he loves the ease and accessibility of YouTube.

What YouTube does “is really phenomenal,” Kim said. He said he doesn’t have to worry about having enough disk space to store a video on his computer, and he can always go on YouTube “because I know the video is there and I can go back and see it whenever I want.”

In fact, members of OK Go have said in interviews that You-

Tube is part of the reason for the band’s success. Its music video for “Here It Goes Again,” which won a Grammy two weeks ago, is currently the ninth-most watched video on the site, with nearly 12 million views.

There are also other Brown performances and events posted on YouTube. One user has uploaded videos of dance performances by the Filipino Alliance and the group Offbeat, and of performances from the Third World Transition Program. There is also a video of the recent Cornel West speech at Brown and of a lecture

by Professor of Biology Ken Miller ’70 P’02.

Andy van Dam, professor of computer science, wrote in an email to The Herald that YouTube’s growing popularity is easy to understand.

“It’s another medium to be shared, and with cell phones and digital cameras as cheap video cameras for short snippets, it makes sense to post in a public place where your friends and even unknown people can partake,” he wrote.

Van Dam might know a thing or two about YouTube. The first item that appears on a YouTube search for “Brown University” is a video of the professor losing to a teaching assistant in a spirited game of Ping Pong.

Corporation launches new phases of physical development projects continued from page 1

www.browndailyherald.com

Faunce will create the Stephen Robert Campus Center, and a $20 million renovation of the J. Walter Wilson building, located across the street, will turn the biological laboratory building into a home for student support services.

“We have a building (Faunce) which is really at the center of campus, and it is not being used as effectively as it could be,” said Russell Carey ’91 MA’06, interim vice president for campus life and student services. “We are renovating it to make better use of the space,” he said, which would include food vending, social areas and a games room.

J. Walter Wilson must be renovated before work on Faunce can begin. It is not yet clear which specific offices will move into J. Walter Wilson, but it will most likely house offices currently located in Rhode Island Hall and Faunce, Carey said.

The renovation of J. Walter Wilson will most likely begin this summer, and offices may begin moving into the building during the summer of 2008. The Faunce project is planned to start in the summer of 2008 and should be at least partially completed during the 2008-09 academic year, Spies said.

The technology upgrades will center on the University’s data center, which is currently housed in the basement of the Center for Information Technology, said Elizabeth Huidekoper, executive vice president for finance and administration.

“We want to ensure that (the data center) is adequately sized and secure,” Huidekoper said. “There are a lot of options, but we know that it needs to be strengthened.”

Possible upgrades include purchasing new hardware and changing the center’s location. Because of the complexity of the effort, several years of planning will likely be required before the project moves

forward, she said.

The larger technology improvement will be augmented by smaller projects outside of the capital budget, such as improving and expanding the wireless network around campus, Huidekoper said.

Other projects approved by the Corporation include renovations to Rhode Island Hall and Pembroke Hall and continued planning for the construction of 154 Angell St., which will house the cognitive and linguistic sciences department, and the Walk, the pathway that will link Lincoln Field with the Pembroke campus.

The Corporation also approved the construction phase of renovations to Pembroke Hall, which will become the new home of the Cogut Humanities Center and the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women in Pembroke Hall.

The renovated Pembroke Hall will include new offices — including those for visiting professors or fellows in the centers — and teaching space and some flexible space for “humanities labs,” Spies said. The upper floor will continue to function as a meeting and special events space. The project has a budget of about $9 million and is expected to be completed by fall 2007.

The Corporation also expressed its continued support for several projects whose planning phases are underway.

The furthest along of these projects is the Nelson Fitness Center, which will be located in the current athletic complex. Construction may begin as soon as the summer of 2008 and aims to be completed by spring 2010 at the earliest, Spies said.

Planning is also underway for 154 Angell St., which will be located next to the Brown Office Building.

Construction is slated to begin as early as the summer of 2008. The five-story building will house the Department of Cognitive and Lin-

guistic Sciences, along with classrooms, an auditorium and offices, Spies said, and could be completed in the summer of 2010 at the earliest.

The new Creative Arts Building, which will be located near the J. Walter Wilson building on Waterman Street, has a planned completion date in 2010 or 2011, Spies said.

He added that the project is so early in the planning and development phase that it is hard to pinpoint a specific time for its completion.

The design of the Creative Arts Building is especially daunting because of the unconventional nature of some of its components. The building is set to include student practice, performance spaces and room for collaborative projects, Spies told The Herald.

“There are no exact models anywhere that we can find where we can say ‘That’s what we want,’” he said. “It is something that we are learning as we go along.”

The renovation of Rhode Island Hall to house the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World is also in the early planning stages and may be completed sometime in 2009 or 2010, Spies said.

The Walk, which will link Lincoln Field with the Pembroke campus, was also given continued support by the Corporation, Spies said.

A portion of the Walk around the Sidney Frank Hall for Life Sciences already exists, and another leg of the Walk, along with the relocation of Peter Green House, will be completed this summer.

Though these projects may be the most visible changes to campus this summer, the University will also undertake smaller infrastructure and landscaping initiatives outside of the capital budget, including increasing dorm accessibility for handicapped students, repairing or replacing aging utilities and improving the lighting on the Main Green and Lincoln Field, Huidekoper said.

Campus News FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 2007

PAGE 5

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

CICILLINE ‘83 ON SEXUALIT Y

‘Skintones’ wins group first pick of housing

BY OLIVER BOWERS S ENIOR S TAFF WRITER

Eunice Hong / Herald Providence Mayor David Cicilline ‘83 led a midday discussion in Petteruti Lounge Thursday afternoon as part of Brown’s first annual Sexuality Series. He spoke about being the first openly gay mayor in a U.S. state capital and fielded questions about sexuality at Brown, gay marriage and gay Republicans.

NEW

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Unions petition U.N. to support grad student unions Two unions asked a United Nations agency Monday to declare the United States in violation of international labor rights for preventing teaching and research assistants from being allowed to unionize at private universities. A 2004 case involving Brown graduate students established that such unions are illegal.

The United Auto Workers and the AFL-CIO based their complaint to the U.N.’s International Labor Organization on a 3-2 ruling by the National Labor Relations Board, which interprets U.S. labor laws, against granting collective bargaining rights to graduate assistants at Brown.

In the 2004 case, the University asked the NLRB to overturn a ruling made in 2001 allowing graduate students to form unions. The board, dominated by appointees of President Bush, determined that teaching and lab assistants’ connection to the University is primarily academic, not economic, and so they are not workers.

“We urge the ILO to issue a strong condemnation of this latest attempt by the Bush board to strip working people of the right to come together to bargain with their employers for a better life,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney in a statement.

This is not the first time a NLRB ruling has been challenged with a petition to the U.N organization, but the ILO’s resolutions are not binding.

— Scott Lowenstein

Students undress for Starf*ck ads Students took off their clothes and put on jewelry, boas and various costumes Saturday to pose for risque advertisements for Queer Alliance’s Starf*ck party.

Forty students came to model for the photographs. They were invited through QA, the Female Sexuality Workshop and other groups.

“Anyone and everyone was certainly welcome to go,” said Amanda Lehtinen ’08.5, a member of the QA dance committee who modeled for the photographs.

This year, the posters will include costumes and accessories. “We played around with the idea that you don’t have to be completely nude to be sexy,” said Kathryn Lamb ’10, who also modeled for the photographs. Many students came to the shoot with their own props or jewelry at the request of the photographer, said Daniel Scudellari ’07. Some came in drag.

Advertisements for Starf*ck and its counterpart in the fall, Sex Power God, have long been known for being provocative and became more so in the fall of 2005 when, for the first time, students were the models. The event coordinator at the time “wanted to make the posters more Brown-specific,” said QA Head Chair Michael DeLucia ’07.

Both Lehtinen and Lamb laughed when describing the experience of being photographed for the ads. Lehtinen said she felt shy at first, but after she took part, she felt liberated.“It was a good Saturday afternoon activity,” Lamb said.

DeLucia emphasized that the posters — like the dance itself — are intended as a place for sexual expression and liberation. “It’s about pushing your boundaries, about losing your boundaries,” he said.

Starf*ck will be held March 17 in Alumnae Hall.

— Amanda Bauer

The video “Skintones” won first place in Residential Council’s third annual First Pick Competition. The video, submitted by a group of eight students, earned them the first choice of housing in this year’s housing lottery.

The First Pick Competition, held each year since 2005, allows students to submit a video, audiotape, drawing, written piece or any other media production stating why they should receive the best room on campus. Students then vote on their favorite entry, guaranteeing the winners the first pick of housing for the next year.

“Skintones” won by a “considerable margin,” said Justin GlavisBloom ’07, chair of ResCouncil.

Glavis-Bloom said 852 students voted in the contest.

The “Skintones” video featured an allegedly naked a cappella group singing off-key tunes in the Rockefeller Library’s Absolute Quiet Room, on the steps of Faunce House and inside the wooden sculpture near the Van Wickle Gates. Black boxes that read “censored” were inserted digitally, as if they were covering scandalous body parts.

The students were not actually naked in the video, choosing instead to wear boxers, said Brad Greenburg ’10, one of the contest winners. The other members of the group were Herald Contributing Writer Patrick Corey ’10, Erik Duhaime ’10, Herald Contributing Writer Franklin Kanin ’10, Colin O’Brien ’10, Devin Sutcliffe ’10, Sam Wolfson ’10 and Scott Zager ’10.

The students had to reserve the Absolute Quiet Room in order to shoot the video, Greenburg said. The library insisted that the group film early in the morning

Courtesy of Brown.edu The video “Skintones” won the First Pick Competition, an annual contest sponsored

by Residential Council that awards the winner first pick of campus housing.

— the video was shot at 8:30 a.m.

— and required that the group collect signed release forms from people studying in the room who were inadvertently caught on camera.

As the group filmed in the wood sculpture near the Main Green, a Department of Public Safety officer requested that they leave after responding to a complaint of “suspicious naked people singing,” Greenburg said.

The video also featured a clip of former Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino, who in his cameo expressed an interest in joining Skintones. The clip was recorded for the video with the help of Greenburg’s father, who works with Marino.

The group “didn’t expect” to win, Greenburg said. He said the members are still unsure of which rooms they will choose. The students have discussed rooms in the Vartan Gregorian Quadrangle, Young Orchard Apartments and Minden Hall, Greenburg said. Last year, eight sophomores won the contest for their video “Trapped in a Triple” and selected suites in New Dorm.

There were seven finalists for the first pick this year. Other videos included a comical game of football played on the Wriston Quadrangle and a parody of the YouTube video “Liam’s Shoes.”

Voting for this year’s contest began on Feb. 24 and ended Thursday.

Brown neuroscientists explain why painkillers work

BY CAITLIN BROWNE C ONTRIBUTING WRITER

Brown neuroscientists have discovered why painkillers such as morphine and other opioids are so effective. The findings were released online on Feb. 11 and will appear in the March edition of Nature Neuroscience.

Jesica Raingo, a postdoctoral research associate, authored the findings along with Professor of Neuroscience Diane Lipscombe and former Brown graduate student Andrew Castiglioni PhD’06.

The scientists found that morphine and other opioids inhibit pain signals by blocking a special kind of N-type calcium channel, a protein that controls the passage of pain signals between nerve cells, according to a Feb. 15 news release by the University.

Lipscombe is an expert in Ntype calcium channels, which are “cellular gatekeepers” that control the release of neurotransmitters at the synapse, the point of intersection between nerve cells. Neu-

rotransmitters carry messages, including those for pain, between nerve cells.

Lipscombe and her team discovered a unique form of N-type channel in nociceptors, the neurons that carry pain signals to the spinal cord, that painkillers such as morphine affect. Typical N-type channels are made up of about 2,400 amino acids, but the channels discovered by Lipscombe’s team differ from typical N-type channels by 14 amino acids, Lipscombe told The Herald. The team found that this small difference makes the channels especially sensitive and enables painkillers to take effect.

“We’re hoping that companies can use that information to design better drugs that have the desirable actions of morphine without the negative central effects of morphine,” Lipscombe said. Morphine and similar painkillers are highly addictive, and patients quickly become dependent and develop a tolerance to them, Lipscombe added.

“We’ve known that morphine and opioids were the antagonists

of pain, but we were unclear exactly why,” Lipscombe said. Her team’s research “add(s) one tiny little piece of the puzzle. Providing an answer to something that has puzzled the field” was “satisfying,” although it is difficult to know what role the findings will play in future research, she said.

Raingo has been working on this project for the last two-and-a-half years, according to Lipscombe, although some of the research used in the project dates back 15 years, to when Lipscombe first came to the University. Over the years, many people have been involved with the research, including several undergraduate students, she said.

Castiglioni’s research “focused on how exon 37a impacts the function of the N-type (calcium) channel,” he wrote in an e-mail to the Herald. He called the project a collaborative effort but added, “The calcium current recordings throughout the paper are all Jesica’s data. Her results are beautiful to behold.”

www.browndailyherald.com

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

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FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 2007

WWII conduct debate U.S. plans to build new hydrogen bomb flares again in Japan

BY RALPH VARTABEDIAN LOS ANGELES T IMES

BY BRUCE WALLACE LOS ANGELES T IMES

TOKYO — The sensitive debate over Japan’s wartime conduct was reignited Thursday when nationalist lawmakers demanded that the government recant its admission that the Japanese military forced women into sexual slavery, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed there is no evidence that it did.

But Abe also said his government would not revise or reopen debate on its 1993 apology to the victims, in which it acknowledged the Japanese military’s role in holding women in “comfort stations” against their will.

A group of about 120 lawmakers from his governing party want Abe to revise the official apology, which has become a pillar of Japanese diplomacy and a litmus test of its sincerity about atonement for war crimes.

The lawmakers claim there is no evidence to suggest the Japanese military was directly involved in coercing the women. They said they would present the government with a petition next week demanding a rewrite of the apology, which they consider a stain on Japan’s national honor.

On Thursday, Abe told reporters in his Tokyo office that he shared the belief that there was no direct proof of the military’s involvement.

“The fact is, there is no evidence to prove there was coercion,” he said.

But Abe also said he would

stick by his pledge to parliament made last October that he and his government would abide by previous admissions of Japan’s responsibility for the suffering caused by its occupation of swaths of Asia.

In 1993, the government offered a “sincere apology and remorse” for the confinement of the women for sexual slavery, and acknowledged the Japanese military “directly or indirectly” was responsible for maintaining these “comfort stations.”

Most historians and Japan’s own government inquiries have concluded that the military worked with private contractors to force about 200,000 women from across Asia to provide sex to its troops.

Many of the surviving victims have maintained that the 1993 apology did not go far enough, and some have continued to seek compensation in Japanese courts.

Meanwhile, nationalist politicians and academics have continued to press their claim that the women were professional prostitutes.

The conservative lawmakers are not contesting the existence of comfort stations, only the assertion of a military role in their management. But critics inside and outside Japan contend that the move is an insidious attempt to chip away at the international consensus over Japanese war guilt and war crimes.

The issue is awkward for Abe, who must balance the demands of continued on page 8

The Energy Department will announce Friday a contract to develop the nation’s first new hydrogen bomb in two decades, involving a collaboration between three national weapons laboratories, the Los Angeles Times has learned.

The new bomb would include design features from all three labs, though Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the San Francisco Bay Area appears to have the taken the lead position in the project. Los Alamos and Sandia national labs in New Mexico will also be part of the effort.

Teams of scientists in California and New Mexico have been working since last year to develop the new bomb, using the world’s most powerful supercomputers. The bomb is known as the reliable replacement warhead, intended to replace aging warheads that are currently deployed on missiles aboard Trident submarines.

The contract decision was made by the Nuclear Weapons Council, consisting of officials from the Defense Department and the National Nuclear Security Administration, part of the Energy Department. Plans were under way Thursday to announce the contract award Friday afternoon. The nuclear administration will issue the contract and run the program.

The cost of the development is secret, though outside experts said it will cost billions

Yee says interrogators used Islam to “break” prisoners continued from page 1 After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Yee was asked to hold briefings to educate U.S. soldiers about Islam. At Guantanamo, he said, his duties were to advise the prison’s administrators and serve the religious needs of detainees and Muslim soldiers.

Yee said he had “unescorted access” to prisoner holding areas to carry out these duties. “I was one of the few individuals who could speak freely” to detainees, he said. And though he was assigned to the detention operation and not intelligence-gathering, Yee said he knew what was happening in the interrogation rooms.

“Guantanamo Bay’s secret weapon,” he said, is “the use of Islam against prisoners to break them.” He said prisoners were forced to prostrate in the center of a circle inscribed with a pentagram by a guard who yelled, “Satan is your God now, not Allah.” He said female interrogators “exploit(ed) conservative Islamic etiquette” by undressing before interrogating detainees and “giving lap dances” to unnerve them.

Yee said the Quran, believed

by Muslims to be the literal word of God, was “desecrated in many different ways,” such as being urinated upon and “tossed on the floor.” These acts resulted in “hunger strikes” and “mass suicide attempts,” he said. Yee said he tried to create more tolerance for detainees’ faith by helping

institute new policies that were more respectful towards the Quran.

After being officially recognized twice for outstanding performance, Yee was arrested in September 2003 in Jacksonville, Fla., by agents who said he was found in possession of suspicious documents. He was then transported to solitary confinement in a naval brig for 76 days.

Though he was initially charged with espionage, that was eventually replaced by charges of mishandling classified information, downloading pornography from the Internet and adultery.

In 2004, all charges were eventually dropped. After resigning and receiving an honorable discharge in January 2005, Yee received a second Army commendation medal for “exceptionally meritorious service.”

Yee described his case as “a gross miscarriage of justice.”

He said he was targeted for his Muslim faith, ethnicity and for advocating the “humane treatment of prisoners.” He said it is the responsibility of students at Brown and other universities to “redirect our country” from such abuses of civil and Constitutional liberties.

A question and answer period followed Yee’s speech. When Chelsea Rudman ’08 asked Yee what he would say to President Bush if they were to meet, Yee said he would urge Bush to “take a sincere look at Islam.” Lack of understanding of Islam and the abandonment of a commitment to human rights are the reasons

the Iraq war and other operations have been “such a disaster,” he said. “These are the things pushing people away from America.”

Asked by another audience member what students could do to help shut down the Guantanamo Bay prison, Yee said the prison is “not going away anytime soon” as the government has invested so much money into building new facilities there.

Yee also joked that there were probably officials from the various government agencies that conduct interrogations at Guantanamo in the audience. “It’s good that they’re learning something,” he said, laughing.

After taking questions, Yee showed a PowerPoint slideshow of photographs taken at Guantanamo Bay, including pictures of current and prior detainees and of the different camps at which detainees are held. He also demonstrated a “stress position” used during prisoner interrogations.

Students said the speech was thought-provoking.

“It kind of got to me,” said Samuel Iditov ’09. “Hearing this from a person who was actually there had more impact” than simply reading about Guantanamo Bay in the media, he said.

Gabriel Doss ’10 said Yee’s presentation was “very enlightening … a different climate and a different subject matter than I’m used to exploring at Brown.”

Najeb said she hoped “discussion and research” of the prison at Guantanamo Bay and related issues would continue after the lecture.

of dollars — perhaps tens of billions — to develop the new bomb, build new factories to restart high-volume weapons production and then actually assemble the weapons.

If Livermore does become the lead laboratory, it would bolster confidence in the facility and could quell political suggestions that its role in weapons development is unnecessary. If Los Alamos wins the program, it would help extract the lab from deep political problems growing out of security breaches. The program, however, is not expected to create a surge of employment at any of the labs.

The program would mark the first time that the military would field nuclear weapon design without an underground test. The last time scientists set off a hydrogen bomb was in 1991 under the Nevada desert. President Clinton ordered a moratorium on testing, a decision continued by President Bush.

Since the entire reason for building the new bomb is to maintain confidence in the nation’s nuclear deterrent, experts say that the Nuclear Weapons Council would want the most conservative design, giving Livermore the upper hand.

The design details of the new bomb are secret, but Livermore’s design utilized major components that had been tested — but not produced — for a Navy bomb about two decades ago. By contrast, Los Alamos selected a design that involved an atomic trigger and a ther-

monuclear component that had been separately tested. But the two elements were never tested together, according to Philip Coyle, who serves on scientific advisory committees and formerly was deputy director at Livermore.

The Los Alamos design was said to contain some highly attractive features, including innovative mechanisms that would prevent terrorists from ever being able to detonate a bomb should one be stolen, according to experts. Those controls were cited by military officials as a key reason for developing the new weapon.

Proponents of the reliable replacement warhead effort say the nation’s existing nuclear stockpile is getting old and that doubts will eventually grow about the reliability of the weapons. They say the new weapon would not have any greater nuclear yield and could not perform any new militar y missions beyond those of existing weapons.

So far, those arguments have attracted bipartisan support, including from Democrats who have long played a leading role in nuclear weapons issues.

But critics say the existing stockpile is perfectly reliable and that it can be carefully maintained for decades. The new bomb would undermine U.S. efforts to stop nuclear proliferation, they add. Also, a recent scientific report said that plutonium components in the weapon are aging much more slowly than expected.

New center to promote international economics continued from page 1 engaged, he said, but also to faculty within the department who are interested in disciplines outside of economics.

“Economics is not just about business and money,” Foster said.

“It’s also important in areas like haealth care and international affairs. And this idea has become broadly recognized.”

Foster pointed to recognition that the most interesting economic matters “involve issues that aren’t traditional economic issues.” In addition, Foster said there is a sense that economists are more directly involved in policy than they were in the past.

This fits well with the objectives of the new center, which will bring in more policy-oriented economists, according to Watson Institute Associate Director Geoffrey Kirkman ’91.

“Our mandate is to influence policy,” Kirkman said. “Our hope is that the center will channel academic resources to solve real policy problems.”

The Rhodes gift is part of a larger trend of donations and grants to the University’s economics and entrepreneurship programs. The University accepted $3.5 million last weekend for its Commerce, Organizations and Entrepreneurship program, an interdisciplinary program launched last year.

In October, the University accepted a $15 million gift from the C.V. Starr Foundation to provide

endowment funds for the COE program, and in December, the University accepted a $2 million grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to expand entrepreneurship education and activity on campus.

The Rhodes Center will interact closely with the COE program and the Department of Economics, as “everything in economics that we study has an international aspect,” said Maria Carkovic, COE’s administrative director.

Carkovic said students in COE study economic frameworks, organizational studies and technology management. “None of these aspects would survive on its own without a view of the global economy,” she said. “I just see a natural fit between what we study and what the Rhodes Center will be doing.”

The COE program already offers several courses that touch on international issues, Carkovic said.

In addition, the program offers an international internship, in which students work in companies across India.

The Rhodes Center offers an opportunity to bring together students focused on getting a job on Wall Street and students concerned about poverty around the world, Levine said.

“It would be very nice in terms of cross-fertilization of views if these groups were to intermingle more,” Levine said. “The disciplines underlying their interests are much closer than these groups tend to believe or exploit.”

W ORLD & N ATION FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 2007

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Historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. dies at 89 WASHINGTON (Washington Post)— Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian who wrote about the evolution of the American democratic tradition, served in the Kennedy White House as a “court philosopher” and was among the foremost public intellectuals of his era, died Feb. 28 at New York Downtown Hospital after a heart attack. He was 89.

Schlesinger rose to prominence at 28 when his book “The Age of Jackson,” about the democratization of U.S. politics under President Andrew Jackson in the early 19th century, won the 1946 Pulitzer for history. Twenty years later, his book “A Thousand Days,” an account of his role as special assistant to the President Kennedy, won the Pulitzer in the category of biography or autobiography.

In the 1950s, Schlesinger also wrote three volumes about President Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal, the Depression-era political and economic doctrine. Published as “The Age of Roosevelt,” the books were considered valuable early accounts of a tumultuous period.

Sean Wilentz, a history professor and former director of American studies at Princeton University, said of Schlesinger: “He was certainly one of the outstanding American historians of his generation. He set the terms for understanding not just one or two but three eras of American history— Jackson, Franklin Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy.

It’s enough for most historians to write one book and get recognition for it.”

Schlesinger wrote or edited more than 25 books, most recently “War and the American Presidency,” published in 2004, which called President Bush’s approach to aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks “a ghastly mess.”

Bush hears frustrations about pace of Katrina aid NEW ORLEANS (Washington Post) — In his first visit to the Gulf Coast in six months, President Bush said Thursday that he heard “loud and clear” the growing complaints in the region that the federal response to Hurricane Katrina has become ensnared in red tape.

But in a trip designed to highlight the progress that has been made in the 18 months since the hurricane devastated New Orleans and the Mississippi coast, the president insisted that “people’s lives are improving and there is hope.”

As billions of federal dollars have sat in state accounts untapped in part because of complex federal rules, Louisiana officials in particular have become vocal about what they called the Bush administration’s wavering interest in the rebuilding process. The frustration came to a boil when Bush failed to mention Katrina during his State of the Union address, prompting Democratic Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco to observe that the “the pains of the hurricane are yesterday’s news in Washington.”

After a meeting with state and local officials in Biloxi, Miss., Thursday, Bush said he had listened as the officials described their “continued frustration with the slowness of federal response at times. It’s important for me to hear that.”

In Washington, House Democrats renewed their own criticism of the administration. They promised to move legislation— which has not been endorsed by Bush— to forgive some federal loans to disaster-wracked communities while easing matching fund requirements now tied to some federal aid.

Clintons to appear at Civil Rights event featuring Obama WASHINGTON (Washington Post) — Former President Bill Clinton will join his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, at a commemoration of the 1965 civil rights march in Selma, Ala., on Sunday, bringing his star power and popularity among African Americans to a weekend of events that had been shaping up as a showcase for the candidacy of Sen. Barack Obama.

It will be Clinton’s first major public appearance with his wife since she launched her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination last month.

Obama, D-Ill., announced several weeks ago that he would deliver the keynote speech at a service honoring the march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, joining Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., and other veterans of the civil rights movement in marking the historic event. Obama has gained significantly among black voters in recent months, according to a recent Washington Post-ABC News survey, jeopardizing Sen. Clinton’s early lead in the Democratic primary field.

Reluctant to give any ground to Obama even at this stage of the campaign, Sen. Clinton, D-N.Y., decided early last week that she, too, would go to Selma this weekend. She arranged a simultaneous appearance at a church just steps away from the one where Obama will speak Sunday morning, and she agreed to accept a civil rights award on behalf of her husband.

Late Thursday, after organizers initially said he would not attend, Clinton’s campaign announced that the former president would be making the trip after all.

www.browndailyherald.com

Clouds added to many economic forecasts

BY NELL HENDERSON THE WASHINGTON POST

WASHINGTON — A few weeks ago, Wall Street was praising the Federal Reserve for cooling the U.S. economy just enough to tame inflation without chilling it into a recession. Now, after several days of financial market turmoil and conflicting economic reports, analysts are having second thoughts.

Thursday, several said they see rising risks of higher inflation and much weaker economic growth.

Consumer prices jumped in January, while home construction fell sharply, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

That combined with falling stock prices, distress in some credit markets and declining business investment to sour many forecasts.

“I think the odds of a recession have gone up in the last two weeks,” said David Shulman, a senior economist with the Anderson Forecast at the University of California at Los Angeles.

But more optimistic observers pointed Thursday to Commerce’s report that consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of the nation’s economic activity, rose briskly in January, while incomes climbed even more rapidly.

The nation’s factories also produced more goods, hired more workers and booked more new orders in February, the Institute for Supply Management, a business association, said Thursday.

And the labor market remains tight, with unemployment at a low 4.6 percent in January, though many forecasters expect that rate to edge higher in coming months.

“I think that overall the economy is in great shape,” said Bernard Baumohl, managing director of the Economic Outlook Group, who argues that buoyant consumer spending will more than offset the economy’s soft spots.

The disagreement is typical of a time when the figures are mixed, and it is unclear how consumers will respond to falling stock prices. If consumers pull back now, the economy is likely to falter, several analysts said.

That hasn’t happened yet. Consumer spending rose 0.3 percent in January, after adjusting for inflation, fueled by a 0.5 percent increase in after-tax income.

Before adjusting for taxes and inflation, personal income rose 1 percent in January, the fastest rate in a year, partly reflecting big bonus payments, stock market gains and pay raises for federal workers, the Commerce Department said.

This fits with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s statement Wednesday that the central bank still foresees moderate economic growth this year — about 2.5 to 3 percent. That would be slower than last year’s 3.3 percent expansion, but good enough to keep unemployment low.

Bernanke’s predecessor, Alan Greenspan, said Monday in re-

marks to a private group that a recession is possible later this year — words that contributed to the stock market sell-off Tuesday. On Wednesday, he stressed to another group that he does not see a recession as likely — a view similar to the Fed’s and many other forecasts.

And in a speech in Washington, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. said, “I am watching developments carefully, and I believe that the U.S. economy is healthy.”

The latest inflation figures, however, did not match the Fed’s forecast of diminishing price pressures. Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.3 percent in January, the fastest rate since August, and was up 2.3 percent from a year earlier, Commerce said. Bernanke and other Fed policy-makers have said they prefer to keep price increases in a range of 1 to 2 percent annually.

The Institute for Supply Management’s report also showed that manufacturers paid higher prices for raw materials in February.

Rising inflation and a danger of slower economic growth put the Fed in a bind. Central bank policy-makers restrain price increases by raising interest rates, making it harder for businesses and consumers to borrow and spend, which dampens demand; it responds to weak growth by cutcontinued on page 9

Baghdad won’t get full power until 2013, U.S. says

BY DAVID WOOD THE BALTIMORE SUN

WASHINGTON — Getting fulltime electric power turned on in Baghdad, a key wartime goal toward which the United States has spent $4.2 billion, won’t be accomplished until 2013, U.S. officials said Thursday.

Power outages in the Iraqi capital are frequent, leaving residents without electricity for an average of 17 or 18 hours a day. For most residents without personal generators, that means not just no lights but dead radios, televisions, heaters, washing machines and water.

Army Brig. Gen. Michael J. Walsh, the senior U.S. military officer overseeing reconstruction efforts, told reporters Thursday via video teleconference that the Iraqi government planned to increase power generation “to catch up with demand” for electric power by 2013, “somewhere in around that area.”

When President Bush announced in January that he was sending additional troops to Baghdad, he said the initiative must go “beyond military operations.” Ordinary Iraqis, Bush said, “must see visible improvements” in their neighborhoods.

Continuing shortages of electricity and other vital government services violate a key provision of the counterinsurgency strategy written by Gen. David Petraeus, the new top military commander in Iraq. That strategy dictates that a government must provide tangible benefits to its citizens to attract their loyalty away from the insurgents.

The United States has poured

almost $22 billion into reconstruction projects in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, intended to provide jobs, health care, education, power and clean water. But much of the money has been siphoned off for security initiatives such as training and equipping Iraqi army and police units, according to a report in January by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.

As a result, many of the reconstruction projects are unfinished.

The power problem is most significant.

“It’s critical, because electricity is a key measure of how well the government is providing for its people,” said Kalev Sepp, a retired U.S. Army special forces officer and a counterinsurgency consultant to the U.S. military command in Baghdad.

“People living in Baghdad have to make a choice to support the government or support the insurgency, even if they do that passively,” said Sepp, who teaches special forces at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif.

A key to fighting an insurgency is to persuade neighborhood people to provide intelligence on insurgents, Sepp said.

“Right now it’s going the other way — when people see an unusual collection of cars, or people moving around at 2 a.m., they don’t report it to the government because the government is not helping them,” he said. “They have no stake in the government to balance the retribution they’d suffer from the insurgents.”

Electricity generation in Iraq today is slightly below prewar levels. According to U.S. State De-

partment data, Iraq was producing 3,958 megawatts per month before March, 2003, and as of mid — February, production was running at 3,640 megawatts. Before the war, residents of Baghdad had an average of 16 to 24 hours of power per day. In December, that average was down to 6.7 hours per day. In January, it was 4.4 hours; in February, it was 5.9.

American and Iraqi engineers have struggled with rickety power generation and distribution facilities and sabotage by insurgents and scavengers.

The larger problem, Walsh said, is an ironic one: since 2003, more people have been able to buy electric appliances. He said demand for electricity has risen 70 percent in that time.

“We find ourselves constantly chasing increasing demand,” Walsh said.

Walsh emphasized that distribution of electricity nationwide had increased, under a plan to distribute power equitably among Iraq’s regions rather than concentrating it in Baghdad, as was done under Saddam Hussein’s regime.

He said “much of the country” was currently receiving 10 to 12 hours of power a day.

Nonetheless, Bush and others have said Baghdad is critical to the counterinsurgency campaign.

“Baghdad is the key to the future of Iraq,” Lt. Gen. Ray Ordierno, the ground-forces commander in Iraq, told reporters recently.

He said the new U.S.-led initiative there would “take months in order to be successful.”

Waiting six years to get the power turned on, Sepp said, “is too long.”

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

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Real ID deadline pushed back to end of 2009

BY NICOLE GAOUETTE LOS ANGELES T IMES

WASHINGTON — Under siege from states and angry lawmakers, the White House on Thursday moved back a deadline to implement national driver’s license standards that critics say would undermine personal privacy and burden states with a hefty bill.

The announcement that states could have an extra 20 months, until the end of 2009, to meet the requirements of the Real ID Act did little to ease criticism of the law from conservative activists, privacy advocates, motor vehicle departments and lawmakers. Almost two dozen states are weighing legislation to oppose Real ID, with some governors dismissing it as a “nightmare.”

The resistance to a policy the administration describes as an essential weapon in the “war on terror” reflects a shift from the almost total support the administration initially enjoyed for its national security agenda after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

“In the months after Sept. 11, we adopted a ‘do anything, do everything’ mode,” said Jim Harper, a public policy expert at the libertarian Cato Institute who advises the Department of Homeland Security and opposes the Real ID Act. “Here with five-plus years behind us, now it’s time to look at what does work and what doesn’t and lift the veil of secrecy.”

Delayed implementation would not resolve the serious privacy and security concerns that Real ID raises, said Tim Sparapani, legislative counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union.

“Essentially, we’ve just kicked the can down the road another two years,” he said.

The 2005 law requires new

tamper-proof security features on licenses issued only to people who can prove citizenship or legal status; their personal data would be kept in a database network that would be accessible by motor vehicle departments nationwide. All Americans would be required to renew their licenses by 2013. Those without one would be barred from federal buildings or airplanes unless they could show a passport or another form of federally approved identification with a photo.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who described Real ID as “a critical new tool to prevent terrorism and to protect our homeland,” recalled that 18 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers obtained fraudulent ID, including driver’s licenses. “Two … obtained the paperwork for their Virginia driver’s licenses by handing $100 to an illegal alien in a convenience store parking lot,” Chertoff said.

As a result, the bipartisan 9/11 Commission urged Congress to set national standards for identification. Rep. James F. Sensenbrenner Jr., R-Wis., then chairman of the Judiciary Committee, wrote the Real ID Act, which quickly passed the Republican-controlled House.

He then tied the bill to a Senate-bound emergency spending measure for Hurricane Katrina and troops in Iraq. The move meant Real ID did not undergo Senate debate or hearings and made it politically risky to oppose.

On Thursday, Sensenbrenner decried the law’s delayed implementation, saying it could jeopardize public safety and blaming the Department of Homeland Security.

“This was avoidable,” he said.

“It’s their own fault because they’ve had almost two years to issue the regulations.”

The National Conference of State Legislatures and the National Governors Association were also unhappy, noting that the federal government has not moved to offset the cost to states.

They have estimated the cost at $11 billion, while the Department of Homeland Security puts it at $14.6 billion.

“It’s going to cost money because security does cost money,” Chertoff said. He announced that states could use up to 20 percent of their homeland security grants to pay for Real ID compliance, for a total of $100 million.

Congress has appropriated $40 million to help states implement Real ID, but only $6 million has been set aside, and President Bush’s budget proposal for 2008 did not include any funds to help states.

Many states are concerned about longer lines, higher fees and fewer Department of Motor Vehicles centers, because they will have to meet stringent new security standards. Civil-rights advocates wonder about people who do not have birth certificates or other ID needed to get a Real ID license.

And privacy advocates worry about the linked databases, warning of the creation of a de facto national ID card and the increased possibility of identity theft without any added protection against fraud.

“Even if we could ensure no one would be bribed, these could be based on documents that could be forged,” said Bruce Schneier, a cryptographer and security expert who likened the linked databases to one-stop shopping for identity thieves. “The databases are the biggest expense, the biggest problem, the biggest security risk.”

George Valverde, director of the California DMV, noted that the databases don’t even exist yet — another hurdle to getting Real ID up and running in the real world. “Those systems need to be developed before we would be in a position to verify those things,” he said, adding that federal officials bore that responsibility, since the system would have to incorporate data from all the states.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, RTenn., was among a group of senators who said they would use the two-year delay to re-examine Real-ID. “It’s not insignificant that there are privacy concerns,” Alexander said. “Big brother government is a big problem.”

FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 2007

Rice names critic of Iraq policy to counselor’s post

BY GLENN KESSLER WASHINGTON POST

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has tapped Eliot Cohen, a prominent writer on national security strategy and an outspoken critic of the administration’s postwar occupation of Iraq, as her counselor, State Department officials said Thursday.

Cohen would replace Philip Zelikow, a longtime Rice associate who left the administration earlier this year to return to teaching history at the University of Virginia.

Despite Cohen’s sometimes caustic views on administration policies, officials said he has impressed both Rice and President Bush with his writings, especially “Supreme Command,” a study of the relationship between civilian commanders in chief and their military leaders.

In hiring Cohen, a professor at the John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies whose son served a tour of duty as an Army officer in Iraq, Rice has lured a leading figure of the neoconservative movement as her policies toward North Korea and Iran draw fierce attack from the Republican Party’s right wing. Cohen has connections in that circle and deep roots in the military establishment, and he is likely to concentrate initially on Iraq and Afghanistan and on reshaping the State Department to better handle post-conflict environments.

The counselor position is unique to the State Department. It was once one of the top jobs at Foggy Bottom — formerly held by such luminaries as George F. Kennan, Robert Lansing and Helmut Sonnenfeldt — but it laid dormant during Bush’s first term until it was resurrected by Rice.

Zelikow played a critical role for Rice as an intellectual sounding board, operating as a one-person think tank who churned out policy papers on a variety of issues and took on special tasks while unencumbered with managerial responsibilities.

Cohen, in an interview, said Rice’s job offer surprised him. “I have known her for a long time, but we did not have a close relationship,” he said. He received a call from her office that Rice wanted to discuss policy, but once he arrived at her office, she got straight to the point and said she was interested in hiring him.

Cohen said he made sure to discuss his views on a range of issues but Rice appeared to value his different perspective and was unbothered by the prospect of internal disagreements. He declined

to discuss his opinions Thursday, saying he planned to provide “unvarnished and discreet advice” to Rice. “I already have teeth marks on my tongue,” he said, though he acknowledged his long paper trail will provide fodder for journalists.

“I’m sure you guys will have fun with that,” Cohen said.

In a 2005 article for the Washington Post titled “A Hawk Questions Himself as His Son Goes to War,” Cohen wrote that while the decision to invade was sound, “what I did not know then that I do know now is just how incompetent we would be at carrying out that task.” He derided what he called “cockamamie schemes” in creating the Iraq army and the “under-planned, under-prepared and in some respects mis-manned Coalition Provisional Authority.”

“The scholar in me is not surprised when our leaders blunder, although the pundit in me is dismayed when they do,” Cohen wrote. “What the father in me expects from our leaders is, simply, the truth — an end to happy talk and denials of error, and a seriousness equal to that of the men and women our country sends into the fight.”

When Rice was named secretary of state after four years as national security adviser, Cohen wrote in the Wall Street Journal that the administration’s foreign policy had “backbone and clarity of vision” but also “sheer stubbornness, culpable tactlessness and more dangerously, a lack of realism.” He described the decision-making circle overseen by Rice as a “small, intimate coterie,” saying such “policy-making groups become contemptuous of disagreement, indifferent to contrary arguments and at the end, impervious to reality itself.”

But Cohen was also fiercely critical of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group report, writing in the Wall Street Journal that “a fatuous process yields, necessarily, fatuous results.” Cohen, who has described himself as sympathetic to Israel, also denounced a paper last year by two prominent professors on the influence of the “Israel Lobby” as “inept, even kooky academic work” that was undeniably anti-Semitic.

Cohen is a member of Defense Policy Advisory Board and has on several occasions met with Bush to provide advice on Iraq, but he said he generally has been “perched on the margins (of government) for some time.” He said he felt an obligation to serve when the country is at war, “when family is serving, students are serving and friends are serving.”

WWII conduct debate flares again in Japan continued from page 6

www.browndailyherald.com

his conservative base with a Japanese national interest that requires better relations with China and South Korea, both of which nurse raw wounds from living under Japanese occupation. Abe visited the capitals of both countries during his first month in office, and received what aides describe as a private lecture from South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun on the importance of acknowledging Japan’s past crimes.

But Abe comes from the conservative flanks of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, part of a new generation of politicians calling for a more assertive brand of nationalist politics. As a rising politician, he

had questioned the validity of the Tokyo war crimes tribunal’s guilty verdicts as well as the historical consensus on the Japanese military’s role in enslaving the “comfort women.” He has muted those views since becoming prime minister last September.

Abe made clear that his first priority as prime minister was to repair Japan’s badly strained relations with its neighbors, which had been damaged by his predecessor Junchiro Koizumi’s visits to Yasukuni Shrine, where Japan’s war dead and war criminals alike are mourned.

In October, he told parliament that he had not altered his personal views but merely accepted a broader definition of the concept of coer-

cion.

That middle ground angered many in his conservative base, who accused him of bending to pressure from China. Their disillusionment has only grown as Abe’s approval ratings have continued a downward plunge into the mid-30 percent range.

“Some people want to put the prime minister on the spot, saying that once he became prime minister he shifted his views,” said Hiroshi Suzuki, an Abe spokesman. “But he is saying that while it may be true there’s no smoking gun, from a broader point of view the Japanese military was involved.

“He has no intention of diluting the content of the statement.”

FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

PAGE 9

Mazerov’s March Madness musings: Unsolicited and unscientific advice

M. icers open postseason play at Princeton tonight

continued from page 12 Draft weekend of course. I mean, what could be better than listening to Mel Kiper Jr. for 48 straight hours?

What this extreme unpredictability means is that you’ll never have a shot at winning your dorm pool if you don’t pick a bunch of upsets. Your odds of predicting most of the bracket right are pretty small.

You could play it safe and go with a “chalky” bracket that will likely place you in the middle of the pack. But you’re not paying five or 10 bucks to finish with a mediocre bracket — you’re in this to win. You can maximize your chances of getting more games right than everyone else in your pool if you pick several upsets.

In the first round, a couple of 10 seeds over seven seeds and maybe an 11-over-6 are good bets. But don’t limit yourself to picking upsets in the first round only.

For the truly adventurous, consider picking a No. 4 or No. 5 seed to make it to the Final Four. Now, if you’ve had my luck the last few years, your fi fth-seeded pick will get knocked out in the first round.

But if you select the right team, say hello to a few hundred big ones.

This year, keep your eyes on Vanderbilt University, which knocked off the defending national champion and then-national No. 1 University of Florida two weeks ago.

Hate Duke I know this tip might seem relatively insignificant and that my friends in Durham might give me some heat for it, but the zealous Duke-hater in me just has to rub this one in: Duke University, currently in the midst of a five-year title drought, has a habit of flaming out in the Big Dance. Last year, even as a heavily favored No. 1 seed that was ranked first in the nation for most of the season, the Blue Devils failed to advance past

Many economic forecasts now cloudy continued from page 7 ting rates, which has the opposite effect.

Bernanke told Congress last month that the Fed thought it could probably hold its benchmark short-term interest rate steady for a while because it expects slower growth to lower inflation. But he also warned that if price pressures pick up, he and his colleagues would raise the rate.

Raising the short-term rate now, however, would make it harder for borrowers with adjustablerate mortgages to refinance their loans. That would exacerbate the credit crunch in the market for loans to sub-prime borrowers, who have lower incomes and poor credit histories. Delinquencies and defaults on those loans have risen sharply in recent months, causing some lenders to go out of business.

The UCLA Anderson Forecast is lowering its expectations for economic growth primarily because it believes the turmoil in the subprime mortgage market will prolong and deepen the housing slump, Shulman said. The group won’t release its updated forecast until April but anticipates that defaults will rise, increasing the number of homes for sale, while

lenders make fewer loans, reducing the number of buyers.

Investors in futures contracts increased their bets Thursday that the central bank will cut interest rates by summer, which might help the subprime market.

But cutting rates might also spur inflation higher — a danger that may strengthen the Fed’s case for leaving policy on hold for now.

The Fed does not have to do anything to lower long-term interest rates — such as on fixed-rate mortgages — which are determined in global financial markets.

Long-term rates are already falling because investors are moving their money out of stocks and into much safer Treasury securities, pushing down their yields, which serve as benchmarks for private debt. For example, the interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is linked to the yield on the 10-year Treasury bond, which has tumbled over the past week.

Interest rates have been historically low in recent months, but not low enough to stimulate business spending on new plants, equipment and computers. Such capital investment spending declined in late 2006 and in January, according to two recent Commerce Department reports.

W. tennis drops two to Vanderbilt, U UVa continued from page 12 The Bears’ doubles teams faced stiff competition as well. Emily Ellis ’10 and partner Kirkpatrick fell in their No. 1 doubles match, 8-2, and No. 2 team Mansur and Brett Finkelstein ’09 lost 8-4.

One of the main factors in the weekend’s steep defeats was that No. 1 doubles and No. 2 singles player Michelle Pautler ’07 fell ill after her doubles match versus Vanderbilt and had to miss the match-up versus Virginia. Since Pautler was unable to play for the remainder of the weekend, each player moved up a slot to cover the absence. Though the Bears were out of their comfort zones, they were still able to deliver a spirited

effort against the Cavaliers.

“We came in as an untested team against teams used to being high-level. We showed that we can hang with them really well,” Assistant Coach Cecily Dubusker said.

“But when it comes down to big points, like deuce, we get tight.”

Nevertheless, the Bears are thinking positively about the future and the fast-approaching Ivy League season.

“We are getting good experience,” said Dubusker. “We will continue to think of the court in three dimensions and make our opponents move around. We are playing maturely. We want to stay focused in matches and not play hyper-tennis — just calm, confident tennis.”

the Sweet Sixteen.

This year, in what even the Cameron Crazies concede is a rebuilding year (also a nice excuse for bad losses), Duke is only a shadow of its former J.J. Redick- and Sheldon Williams-led self. Right now, Duke has a mediocre 8-7 conference record good enough for sixth place in the Atlantic Coast Conference, and last month it fell out of the Top 25 for the first time since the 19951996 season.

With no go-to guy on their roster, there’s no way the Blue Devils can perform any better in the tourney, when the pressure is really on, than they did in the regular season. The bottom line is don’t pick Duke to go deep into the tournament. I guarantee you that you won’t win any money if you do.

continued from page 12 2005-2006, the teams tied twice.

“We are just getting ready this week,” said assistant captain and forward Antonin Roux ’07. “We’re feeling really confident. We played them in close games this season, and we know they’re a good team.

They are very physical, so we’ll have to match them there, as well as matching their speed. They’re fast. But we are definitely capable of beating them if we show up to play.”

This is the 10th meeting between the schools in the postseason. Brown leads the series 5-4, but this weekend is the first time Brown has ever had to travel to New Jersey for a playoff match-up. The last time the Bears and Tigers squared off in the playoffs was 1998, when Brown took the first two games on

Alex Mazerov ’10 thinks he could score almost as many points against Duke as Gilbert Arenas. He wouldn’t even think about passing.

its way to the ECACHL Final Four.

The winner of the series will advance to the quarterfinals of the ECACHL tournament. If the Bears win this weekend, they will travel to either Clarkson University or St. Lawrence University the following weekend for another best-of-three series. The loser will be eliminated.

“This weekend should be no different than any other road-trip weekend,” said Head Coach Roger Grillo. “There is a little more riding on it given the finality implied if we lose, but we are capable of beating anybody in the league. I honestly believe that, and so does the team.

“We beat the first place team in the league (St. Lawrence on Dec. 1 in Providence) and lost in overtime to them at their place. Any team in the league has the opportunity to win this championship, including us.”

M. swimming medley team is eclectic mix continued from page 12 Is it tough to be leaving this relay team after such a successful season?

O’Mara: It’s bittersweet. On one hand, I would love to swim with these guys for another year, so I could be part of what they are doing. But on the other hand, I have been swimming for 17 years. That’s a pretty long time.

I’m pretty happy to confront other challenges, like some amateur triathlons.

Have you competed in one before?

O’Mara: I’ve competed in an Iron Man competition at Coeur d’Alene (Idaho). It’s the same distance as the real Iron Man competition (bike 112 miles, run 26.2 miles, swim 2.4 miles). I was actually fi fth out of the water, 1,001st off the bike and around 1,400th when I finished in 13 hours and 25 minutes. Over the course of two hours, I got passed by around 1,400 people.

What was the hardest part?

O’Mara: The last 200 yards are crazy. Although it had been about four hours since the winner had crossed the finish line, there were still hundreds of fans, maybe eight deep, cheering for you. You sprint the last 200 yards and they check you for hyponutrimia to make sure you were eating enough during the bike and run.

What did you eat and drink?

O’Mara: I drank Gatorade, power gels and some chicken broth. Then I ate some power bars, bananas and some of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. You have to eat in small portions.

Kevin, why does everyone know that you are from Tampa?

Hug: Probably because I talk about it all the time. It’s my hometown, and I’m pretty proud of it.

Hooters started there and George Steinbrenner grew up there.

O’Mara: His sister is also a great swimmer.

Hug: My sister made it to the NCAA tournament as a freshman

swimmer at Stanford University.

She’s currently 30th in the country.

O’Mara: Kevin is currently the tallest swimmer in the Ivy League Conference at 6-feet, 8-inches.

What did you do after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the Super Bowl in 2003?

Hug: I drove to the stadium and got caught in a massive traffic jam at 10 p.m. on a Sunday night.

It was gridlocked around the stadium. Florida is by far the best sports state over the last decade.

Dan, do you love Maryland as much as Kevin loves Florida?

Ricketts: I love the Baltimore Ravens. They are going to win the Super Bowl for the next five years.

O’Mara: Ricketts is a good source of humor on the team. He keeps us lighthearted. He has a great photo on the Brown Bears Web site. As a team, we went four weeks without shaving and he was the only one to grow a full beard.

Like sports?

Write sports!

Come to The Brown Daily Herald’s sports meeting 6pm Sunday, March 4th 195 Angell Street Good times. Good people. Free pizza.

www.browndailyherald.com

E DITORIAL & L ETTERS THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

PAGE 10

FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 2007

STAF F EDITORIAL

Diamonds and coal A diamond to Miko Exoticwear for moving closer to Brown.

We’re flattered they’re coming all the way here just for our patronage — we must put out more money than those kids in University Heights.

And coal to the proposed bill that would raise the beer tax in Rhode Island ever so slightly. Taco Bell’s Crunchwrap Supreme, Wal-Mart’s sweatshop-low prices, Target’s tantalizing Issac Mizrahi line and now beer — must we go to Seekonk for everything?

A cubic zirconium to Nancy Dunbar for demonstrating how to use Banner on a PowerPoint. We appreciate the effort, but half our professors haven’t figured out how to use PowerPoint and project it onto a screen. You really don’t think eight clicks will be too much for them?

Coal to Dartmouth for banning water pong. We thought the other type of pong was the kind that leads to the destruction of university property and “overhydration.”

ROXANNE PALMER

We retract our diamond to POM and award the overpriced beverage cubic zirconium instead. The American Medical Association reported this week that antioxidants may in fact kill. It’s a tough call — death by antioxidants or sips of light pink, sugary goodness.

A diamond to the stars of “Skintones.” Congratulations. You’ll find those four-person suites in Young O will provide a lot more privacy than the Absolute Quiet Room.

Coal to Princeton’s system that allows students to send feedback to their professors anonymously. At Brown that would be called the Daily Jolt.

A diamond to the natural superglue being studied by scientists at Brown and Indiana University. Sure, it will have medical applications, but we’re betting that the medical situations it is associated with will mainly be of the self-inflicted variety.

A cubic zirconium to students’ love for Ruth because she reminds them of grandma. You think she has time to make you cookies? Kids, grandma’s a bit too busy for baked goods — but if you’d like hardcore fundraising and an impeccable fashion sense, Ruth’s your woman.

T HE B ROWN D AILY H ERALD Editors-in-Chief Eric Beck Mary-Catherine Lader

Executive Editors Allison Kwong Ben Leubsdorf

Senior Editors Stephen Colelli Sonia Saraiya

Arts & Culture Editor Arts & Culture Editor Features Editor Features Editor Metro Editor Metro Editor News Editor Opinions Editor Opinions Editor Sports Editor Sports Editor Asst. Sports Editor Asst. Sports Editor Asst. Sports Editor

To the Editor: Sriram Subramanian ’10’s recent letter (“Divestment may not effect genocide in Sudan,” Feb. 28) fails to properly address both the mechanisms of targeted divestment and the rationale for taking such action. Divesting from Sudan is an effective, and necessary, method of placing economic pressure on the Sudanese government and ensuring our state is not inadvertently supporting the genocide in Darfur.

Like Subramanian, we are almost always against economic sanctions as a means of addressing global conflicts. But, as New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof recently wrote, “Sudan is an exception, a rare instance where narrowly focused divestment makes practical as well as moral sense.”

The targeted divestment approach currently being considered by the State of Rhode Island, and recently implemented in both Providence and at Brown, requires divestment from only the worst offending companies conducting business in Sudan. Subramanian is mistaken; we are not divesting from Sudanese companies, but rather multinational oil and telecommunications companies providing the government of Sudan with the revenue they need to conduct their expensive genocide. Clear evidence has documented that 60-80 percent of oil revenue that Sudan receives goes directly towards its military expenditures; the same military carrying out the genocide. There is an indisputable link between the targeted multinational companies and the genocide in Darfur.

Furthermore, divestment has already proven to be effective in Sudan. The Sudanese government has a long history of susceptibility to economic pressure. The emerging Sudan divestment movement has already caught the attention of the Sudanese government, who has spent considerable time and energy attacking the effort by publishing press releases and buying full page New York Times ads against the movement. Several major companies operating in Sudan have also altered their business practices or left the country largely in response to the divestment movement. Prominent foreign policy experts and think tanks, such as the International Crisis Group and Human Rights Watch, have recently endorsed targeted divestment, calling it a critical tool for influencing the behavior of the Sudanese government and bringing long-term peace and security to the region.

The State of Rhode Island is currently considering targeted divestment legislation. Brown’s Darfur Action Network has been at the forefront of this effort, working to ensure Rhode Island becomes the eighth state in the country to dissociate itself from genocide. Please visit www.DivestRhodeIsland.org to help us pass this crucial bill.

Scott Warren ‘09 Darfur Action Network/ Sudan Divestment Task Force Feb. 28

BUSINESS

EDITORIAL Lydia Gidwitz Lindsey Meyers Stephanie Bernhard Stu Woo Simmi Aujla Sara Molinaro Ross Frazier Jacob Schuman Michal Zapendowski Peter Cipparone Justin Goldman Sarah Demers Erin Frauenhofer Madeleine Marecki

Divesting has real impact on Sudan

General Manager Mandeep Gill General Manager Ally Ouh Executive Manager Darren Ball Executive Manager Dan DeNorch Laurie-Ann Paliotti Sr. Advertising Manager Office Manager Susan Dansereau PRODUCTION Design Editor Steve DeLucia Copy Desk Chief Chris Gang Graphics Editor Mark Brinker Graphics Editor Roxanne Palmer Web Editor Luke Harris

CORRECTION

Managing Editor Managing Editor Managing Editor Features Editor Features Editor

An article in Thursday’s Herald (“Changes to Faunce could come as soon as summer,” March 1) incorrectly reported that renovations that would transform Faunce House into the Stephen Robert Campus Center may begin as soon as this summer, by which time student services offices located in Faunce may have moved into the J. Walter Wilson building. In fact, renovations to prepare J. Walter Wilson to house student support offices may begin as soon as this summer, and offices may begin moving into the building as early as the summer of 2008.

Renovations to Faunce, which will begin after the move of Faunce offices to J. Walter Wilson is complete, are expected to occur during the 2008-2009 academic year.

Senior Staff Writers Rachel Arndt, Michael Bechek, Oliver Bowers, Zachary Chapman, Chaz Firestone, Kristina Kelleher, Debbie Lehmann, Scott Lowenstein, James Shapiro, Michael Skocpol Staff Writers Susana Aho, Taylor Barnes, Brianna Barzola, Evan Boggs, Irene Chen, Stewart Dearing, Nicole Dungca, Thi Ho, Rebecca Jacobson, Tsvetina Kamenova, Hannah Levintova, Abe Lubetkin, Christian Martell, Taryn Martinez, Zachary McCune, Nathalie Pierrepont, Robin Steele, Allissa Wickham, Max Winograd Sports Staff Writers Amy Ehrhart, Kaitlyn Laabs, Eliza Lane, Kathleen Loughlin, Megan McCahill, Marco Santini, Tom Trudeau, Steele West Account Administrators Emilie Aries, Alexander Hughes Design Staff Brianna Barzola, Aurora Durfee, Sophie Elsner, Christian Martell, Matthew McCabe, Ezra Miller, Sarah Raifman Photo Staff Stuart Duncan-Smith, Austin Freeman, Tai Ho Shin Copy Editors Ayelet Brinn, Catherine Cullen, Erin Cummings, Karen Evans, Jacob Frank, Ted Lamm, Lauren Levitz, Cici Matheny, Alex Mazerov, Ezra Miller, Joy Neumeyer, Madeleine Rosenberg, Lucy Stark, Meha Verghese

CORRECTIONS POLICY The Brown Daily Herald is committed to providing the Brown University community with the most accurate information possible. Corrections may be submitted up to seven calendar days after publication.

COMMENTAR Y POLICY The staff editorial is the majority opinion of the editorial board of The Brown Daily Herald. The editorial viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the views of The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Columns, letters and comics reflect the opinions of their authors only.

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PHOTO Eunice Hong Christopher Bennett Jacob Melrose

Photo Editor Photo Editor Sports Photo Editor

POST- MAGAZINE Hillary Dixler Melanie Duch Taryn Martinez Rajiv Jayadevan Mindy Smith

Brianna Barzola, Steve DeLucia, Designers Fariha Ali, Jacob Frank, Ezra Miller, Copy Editors

O PINIONS FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 2007

PAGE 11

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Religion in America: unavoidable reality or unnecessary digression?

Religion distracts from the real issues In the fall, some fellow Americans and I went to see “Borat: Cultural Learning of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazkhstan.” At one point Borat visits an evangelical camp meeting whose attendees are caricatures of ignorance and bigotry. I looked around the theater: Only the Americans were laughing. We saw that the film’s producers had deliberately sought radical representatives of American Christianity — to the British audience around us, Borat’s new friends reflected their perception of the American mainstream.

Just last week, an Oxford University history lecturer argued that America’s current Iraq policy reflects the “control of evangelical Christianity over U.S. government” — a desire to take over the Middle East because it’s the Promised Land. This is among the more absurd conspiracy theories I’ve heard about the war since 2003, but the remark elicited no challenge from the British audience of the lecture.

Turn on American news shows, and it’s easy see to where this picture comes from.

Our most visible politician, President Bush, speaks a highly ideological language, often involving an explicit invocation of God’s blessing for America. Candidates from both parties leak charming photos of their families attending church to the press to win over the public with their personal morality.

Their political platforms — and our electoral choices — turn on social issues like abortion, stem-cell research and gay marriage — moral questions often decided on a religious basis. Religion seems to dominate our political discourse.

Unlike the conspiracy theorists, however, I don’t actually believe religion dominates American political policy. I know the justifications given for the Iraq war were pragmatic, no matter if our President may have couched them in religious terms, and pragmatic political policies can come from religious individuals.

However, the presence of religion in our political discourse stifles the real debate.

Politicians on the right talk about governing by moral conviction, translating religious principles into faith-based initiatives or abstinence-only education — but after making clear the moral foundation for these policies, they spend little time detailing their practical benefits. Politicians on the left rail against these policies as an excessive intrusion of religion but rarely manage to posit alternative policies or prove how religion-inspired proposals are pragmatically flawed.

The problem is not that politicians and voters are often men of faith who bring personal principles to bear in making choices.

The problem with religion is that voters and political observers rarely get to hear about its pragmatic implications — what we have is a passionate debate on religiosity, and no debate on how religion affects policy.

Take the coming U.S. Presidential election: The recent smear campaign against Barack Obama over his Muslim middle name (Hussein) tells me a lot about his family history but very little about his politics.

Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., is controversial chiefly because he’s a Mormon. When asked about his candidacy, pundits return constantly to the question of his faith — is America ready for a presidential candidate outside our usual religious comfort zone?

Apparently, the policies he champions aren’t an issue. They pale in importance next to his religious identity.

As a voter, I have little chance of discovering what kind of leader such a candidate would actually make. By the time two talking heads on CNN’s “Crossfire” have shouted each other deaf about Mormonism or Islam, it’s time for a commercial break. The

time that ought to be spent explaining a candidate’s plans for education or health care is wasted trying to “classify” him according to his faith. What I can’t stand about this debate over religiosity is that it smacks so loudly of identity politics, and identity politics degenerates too easily into blind attacks and aggression.

When we open the religious Pandora’s box, what we get is distraction from actual policy and the hasty and intolerant labeling of politicians as either “good Christians” or “bad” anything else. Religion is not the problem — it’s the way religion operates as a distraction from what real politics should be about.

The religiosity of political debate also poses a moral threat to real religion. Public displays of organized Christianity and the ubiquitous religious language of political speeches are not valorizations of the faith of most Americans, as some would argue. At its essence, faith is personal, and linking it to public displays undermines and insults this individual component. Marshalling religion to sanction policy that not all Americans of faith agree with runs the risk of alienating as many people as it draws in.

Religion does not stand alone as an ideo-

Religion’s not psychotic, so stop sneering In his Feb. 1 column “Democrats, Republicans and the Jews,” Benjamin Bright ’07 espoused, in an offhand remark, the one form of prejudice that is tolerated and even commended at Brown. Tucked inside an otherwise well-constructed column about a potential Jewish shift to the right was a quote from Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla.

Bright quotes a 2001 speech in which Sen. Inhofe uses a Biblical passage to defend a Jewish Israel, concluding that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is “not a political battle at all (but) a contest over whether or not the word of God is true.” Bright comments: “Don’t get me wrong, I find this kind of God-speak absurd.”

I am not religious. I’m not even Christian. But this remark struck me as very offensive. Unfortunately, I’m sure most Brown students do not share my reaction.

We love to violently insist that we are tolerant of anyone of regardless of race, sexual orientation and religion, but rarely do we recognize that we do not extend this tolerance to anyone who actually practices religion. In extreme cases, these individuals are treated as dangerous psychotics.

Like many Brown students, I would identify myself as non-religious. As a lib-

BY MAHA ATAL COLUMNIST ABROAD

POINT COUNTERPOINT

BY CHELSEA RUDMAN GUEST COLUMNIST

logical question that drowns out pragmatism in our political debates. But with its moral component, religion has more rhetorical force than other identity factors such as gender and race. Bringing up a candidate’s race as an argument against him or her is not politically acceptable, but attacking them for their lack of religiosity is.

I wish religion drew a lot less attention in American politics. Our unceasing debate about religion and religiosity becomes so purely ideological that it leaves no space for real debate.

The fact that the Borat movie seemed more like a documentary than an absurdist satire to the British audience around me is a sign that ideology has gotten the better of policy on our side of the Atlantic. In this hyper-rhetorical America, a leader willing to open real debate about governance and results would be as bizarre and other-wordly as a Biblical miracle — and perhaps even more inspirational.

Maha Atal ’08 is of questionable moral fiber.

eral, Unitarian Universalist and “cultural” Jew, I find the use of religious argument in political discourse not merely inappropriate but frightening. However, Bright’s irreverent response represents the exact danger that many Brown students attribute to the religious community: an alienating close-mindedness. And I don’t mean to single out Bright. His comment is relatively harmless in comparison to the threatening views it represents.

Refusing to show respect for religion as a critical social force isn’t just disrespectful — it’s ignorant. According to an April 2006 CBS News Poll, 82 percent of Americans believe in God, and 85 percent assign religion at least some importance in their daily lives. Sneering at an opponent’s politics is one thing, but attacking an opponent’s religion is a personal insult and will ensure that he or she stops listening. Dismissing religion out of hand will smother the much-needed political dialogue between the left and the right.

Until this fall, I shared my Brown friends’ attitude towards religion. “I don’t

understand the religious,” I wondered.

“Don’t they see the danger of mixing religion and politics? Why don’t they wake up and realize this is the 21st century? Why don’t they get it?”

Then I spent a semester at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va. I would never suggest that my one semester living there makes me some kind of expert on the South, especially since southern Virginia barely qualifies as such. Yet three months living in Williamsburg transformed my cultural understanding of 21stcentury America.

I had an especially rude wake-up call.

It was the first time in my life I was fully aware that I am neither religious nor Christian. This revelation began with my reaction against my roommate, a Bible study leader from Kentucky who dotted her desk with Bible verses on Post-Its. There were also the religious proselytizers who, every few weeks, assailed us between classes with signs bearing slogans such as “TURN TO JESUS OR FACE ETERNAL DAMNATION.” William and Mary is a public school, so such groups are permitted on campus. And marriage was constitutionally defined as exclusively “between a man and a woman” while I was living in Virginia. It wasn’t even a close vote: 57 percent of Virginians approved the amendment.

I was shocked, but I was one of the few. “This is Virginia,” my friends snorted. “Are you really so surprised?” I was reminded of the woman who famously remarked after Nixon won the 1968 election, “How could Nixon have won? Nobody I knew voted for him.”

Which, of course, is totally irrelevant.

And the fact that nobody I know would vote in favor of the marriage amendment is equally irrelevant — over a million people did. Living in Virginia, I realized that religion is a force to be reckoned with. I’m the one who didn’t “get it.” Regardless of whether or not I think religion, God or the Bible are bad sources of authority, millions think otherwise.

So we at Brown and we as liberals need to take religion seriously, since it figures heavily in the lives of many in this country.

No, the extremists of the religious right are probably not going to vote Democratic any time soon. But there is a vast gray area of semi-religious people who have left the door open to discussion about issues such as global warming, healthcare reform and yes, even gay marriage. That door slams shut the minute we insult religion. It’s not impossible for religious people to support liberal positions — Virginian voters who passed the Marshall/Newman marriage amendment, for example, put Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., into the Senate in the same election. And my roommate never raised the subject of religion, since we were too busy trading recipes — we are both vegetarian — and movie suggestions (she and her boyfriend thought “Saved!” was hilarious). She hated the screaming sign-wavers, by the way. I believe she referred to them as “insane.”

Brown is not a microcosm of America or even a microcosm of the liberal community. Down South, in the Midwest and even right here in the Northeast, you will be the dangerous psychotic if you sneer at “Godspeak.” So stop sneering.

But maybe you don’t need me to tell you that. After all, no one you know would do such a thing.

Chelsea Rudman ’08 is one step closer to her personal salvation through Jesus Christ.

S PORTS W EEKEND FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 2007

PAGE 12

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

M. icers open postseason play at Princeton tonight

BY ELIZA LANE SPORTS STAFF WRITER

Jacob Melrose / Herald File Photo Jeff Prough ’08 finished the regular-season 11th in the ECACHL in scoring with 13 goals and 14 assists.

The Bears commence postseason play tonight as they travel to Princeton to face the Tigers. The best-of-three first-round series will take place Friday, Saturday and — if necessary — Sunday at Baker Rink.

The Bears finished the regular season in 11th place in the ECACHL at 10-13-6 and will take on the league’s sixth-place team.

The Bears acknowledge the difficulties that the Tigers pose.

“Obviously, Princeton did a lot of things well this season,” said forward Chris Poli ’08. “We need to tip our hat to them for that. They are, if anything, an extremely hard-working team, and very physical and tough. Still, we can play with them if we come out ready to compete, and we’ll win if we are consistent and string together three solid periods of our style of hockey.”

After completing their regular season last weekend, Brown enters the game with some of the ECACHL’s top offensive threats.

Jeff Prough ’08 is fourth in the

conference in goal scoring with 16, and the league’s 11th-ranked point-producer overall with 32 points. Sean Hurley ’08 ranks fourth in the ECACHL defenseman-scoring with 22 points overall. His 10 goals lead all defensemen and are three more than the next closest defender, Nick St. Pierre from Colgate University.

Despite its offensive firepower, Brown must control its aggression this weekend in order to swing the upset. The Bears finished the season fourth in the league in penalty minutes with almost 20 per game. The Tigers were the least penalized team in the ECACHL this season.

During the regular season Brown and Princeton played down to the wire in both meetings. At Princeton on Jan. 13, the Bears lost to the Tigers, 3-2 in overtime.

At Meehan Auditorium on Feb. 2, the two teams again needed extra time to decide the contest, which ended in a 1-1 tie.

Including this season, the teams have played an extra session four consecutive times — in continued on page 9

M. swimming 200-yard medley relay squad is eclectic mix Herald: Where have you been swimming since Smith Swim Center closed?

Hug: We have traveled to Providence College, Seekonk High School and sometimes the Fox Point Boys Club pool. It’s probably the worst pool I’ve ever seen.

O’Mara: The pool is three feet deep in the shallow end and four lanes. But at least it was a pool.

We’re lucky that the pool problems didn’t affect us for the majority of the season.

BY MARCO SANTINI SPORTS STAFF WRITER

Last weekend at EISL Championships, the men’s swim team’s 200-yard medley relay squad became the second fastest relay team in Brown history with a time of 1:31:68. The team is composed of Kevin Hug ’08 with the backstroke, Michael O’Mara ’07 with the breaststroke, Daniel Ricketts ’09 with the butterfly and freestyler Brian Kelly ’08. The Bears finished seventh overall at the meet.

part of Brown history as the second fastest 200-yard medley relay team?

Kelly: We really wanted to break (the record), but it was a great effort by everyone. I would like to get the number-one team

ATHLETES OF THE WEEK tested (for steroids), although the record was from a while ago.

I’ll be shocked if we don’t break at least three relay records next year, despite losing Michael.

Brian, how does it feel to be a

Brian, in addition to your success in the relay, you placed fourth in the 100-meter freestyle. How exciting was it to set Brown’s 100yard free record in the process?

Kelly: It was great. I get my name on the board. I thought I was going to do it, but I didn’t expect it this year. I thought I could get it done by senior year, but I was pretty pumped. My time of 44.81 was good for fourth at the meet. continued on page 9

March Madness musings Even though college basketball’s Selection Sunday is still more than a week away, it’s never too early to start thinking about those March Madness bracket pools. After all, the calendar now reads March — if only March 2. So without further delay, here are Alex Mazerov some not-veryMaz’s Minute insiderish, but hopefully useful tips for you non-experts in bracketology to follow when you’re filling out those brackets.

Beware of the chalk…

In other words, don’t pick the better seeds to win all the games.

I think even most casual college basketball fans know better than to pick all the No. 1 seeds to make it to the Final Four. After all, since 1985 — when the tournament was expanded to 64 teams — never have all four No. 1 seeds made it to the Final Four. But even picking three number ones to make it that far is risky. Not since 2001 have three top seeds advanced to the tournament semifinals. Your best bet for the Final Four is to go with two No. 1 seeds and then some combination of twos, threes and fours for the last two spots. … and pick some upsets The NCAA tournament is incredibly unpredictable. Who could have guessed that George Mason University — a No. 11 seed — would make the Final Four last year? (Actually a few people did: 1,853 out of more than 1.5 million people who entered ESPN.com’s Tournament Challenge.) That anything-can-happen atmosphere is part of what makes March one of my favorite times of the year. Other than the NFL continued on page 9

W. tennis drops two to No. 25 Vanderbilt, No. 28 UVa

BY MEGAN DANSBY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

After sweeping three matches the weekend of Feb. 17, the women’s tennis team was swept by two of the nation’s top programs last weekend. Brown fell at home to No. 25 Vanderbilt University 6-1 and No. 28 University of Virginia, 7-0.

The weekend highlight was provided by Kelley Kirkpatrick ’08

SP

O R T S

FRIDAY, DAY MARCH 2 DAY, BASEBALL: at Georgia Southern M. BASKETBALL: at Princeton W. BASKETBALL: vs. Princeton, Pizzitola Center, 7 p.m.

M. HOCKEY: at Princeton M. LACROSSE: at Sacred Heart SOFTBALL: at Bowling Green; at Charleston Southern M. & W. SWIMMING: at NCAA Zones (Piscataway, N.J.) WRESTLING: EIWA Championship (Stroudsburg, Pa.)

SATURDAY, ATURDAY MARCH 3 ATURDAY, BASEBALL: at Georgia Southern; at Kennesaw State M. BASKETBALL: at Penn W. BASKETBALL: vs. Penn, Pizzitola Center, 7 p.m.

EQUESTRIAN: at Wesleyan University FENCING: at IFA Championships (Princeton, N.J.) GYMNASTICS: at Yale M. HOCKEY: at Princeton

in her match versus Vanderbilt on Saturday. Playing at No. 6 singles, Kirkpatrick crushed her opponent with a 6-0, 6-3 victory. She kept her opponent on the run with her solid returns that struck deep in the court and in the corners.

“That was the best match I’ve played in a long time,” Kirkpatrick said. “I made lots of points at the net and my serves were really good.”

But her opponent did not go

SCH

E D U L E

M. LACROSSE: vs. Hofstra, ofstra, Stevenson Field, 1 of p.m.

SOFTBALL: at Hartford; at Campbell M. & W. SWIMMING: at NCAA Zones (Piscataway, N.J.) W. TENNIS: vs. Marquette M. TRACK: at IC4A Championships (Boston, Mass.)

W. TRACK: at ECAC Championships (Boston, Mass.)

W. WATER POLO: at Wagner; at Harvard with Bucknell WRESTLING: EIWA Championship (Eaststroudsburg, Penn.

SUNDAY, DAY MARCH 4 DAY, BASEBALL: at Kennesaw State GYMNASTICS: at Ivy Classic (Philadelphia, Pa.) W. LACROSSE: at Stony Brook SOFTBALL: at Providence W. TENNIS: at Syracuse M. TRACK: at IC4A Championships (Boston, Mass.)

W. TRACK: at ECAC Championships (Boston, Mass.)

down without a fight.

“She got a lot of balls back,” Kirkpatrick said. “I kept telling myself to stay aggressive and keep playing the net — that’s how I was beating her. I want to keep playing like I played (Saturday) in singles and doubles, and not be sloppy.”

Sara Mansur ’09 and Tanja Vucetic ’10 played tightly-contested sets that went into tiebreakers against Vanderbilt on Saturday.

Mansur dropped her No. 2 singles match 7-6 (3), 6-4, and Vucetic fell 7-6 (3), 7-5 at fi fth singles.

“She was really good under pressure and came in with big points,” Mansur said about her opponent. “But it was a nothing-tolose situation since they are such a highly ranked school. It helped me play loose.”

On Sunday, the women struggled against Virginia. First singles player Daisy Ames ’07 put up a fight but fell 6-1, 3-6, 7-5.

“I showed signs of improvement in the second set,” Ames said. “I still need to move my feet more and I am working on my volley-game and strengthening my ground strokes.” continued on page 9

Ashley Hess / Herald File Photo Kelley Kirkpatrick ’08 won her No. 6 singles match versus University of Virginia 6-3, 6-0 on Saturday.