Vol102Iss26

Volume 102, Issue 26

January 21, 2013 mcgilldaily.com

McGill THE

DAILY

Repetitious since 1911

Published by The Daily Publications Society, a student society of McGill University.

MCGILL SEEKS TO REFUSE ACCESS TO INFORMATION REQUESTS EDITORIAL - KEEPING INFORMATION UNDER WRAPS p15

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NEWS 03 NEWS

The McGill Daily Monday, January 21, 2013 mcgilldaily.com

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McGill seeks exception from Access to Information requests

Course Lecturers walk out of meeting with admin

University alleges it is victim of a “complex system”

Science undergraduate society’s finances under review Idle No More supporters hold night demo

Korea Foundation donates money to East Asian Studies

06 COMMENTARY Why McGill should divest from harmful investmnents The role of First Year Council Why we should risk more, love more The demonization of rap music

08 SCI+TECH Finding justice over the internet Science talks, created by students for students The Neuro looks to the future

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SPORTS

Basketball in the Nabe Nationalism reigns at the World Juniors

13

CULTURE

Review: 56 Up Multi-instrumentalist Anna Atkinson The trouble with “bromance”

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EDITORIAL

McGill’s attempt to deny all Access to Information requests

16 COMPENDIUM! Administration endorses campus press

Illustration Amina Batyreva | The McGill Daily Lola Duffort The McGill Daily

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he University is pursuing litigation to exempt itself from fulfilling any Access to Information (ATI) requests filed by McGill students and student journalists.

In a motion filed on December 7 to the Commission d’accès à l’information – the provincial body that oversees ATIs – the University alleges that a “complex system” has been put in place by the 14 respondents named in the motion “as a retaliation measure against McGill in the aftermath of the 2011-2012 student protests.”

The motion argues that the “systematic” and “repetitious” nature of recent ATIs is abusive, and that responding to the requests would represent “serious impediments to [the University’s] activities.”

The motion asks for authorization to deny similar requests submitted by or linked to any McGill student, student journalist at The Daily or Concordia’s the Link, or the website McGilliLeaked.

This would “allow [the University] to basically deny [ATI] requests at will, for an indeterminate amount of time,” according to Mona Luxion, a Daily col-

umnist and one of the motion’s respondents.

For U3 Economics student and McGilliLeaked founder Christopher Bangs, the motion’s breadth and preemptive spirit is worrisome.

“The most upsetting thing is that any request related to the 14 of us, related to The Daily, related to the Link at Concordia, if they make a request that has anything to do with the website I started, McGill has the blanket right to deny it if their motion succeeds. Some of the categories on McGilliLeaked are entire years,” he said.

Sibel Ataogul, the president of the Association des juristes progressistes – the same group that defended Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois during the student strikes – will be representing the respondents before the Commission.

This is not the first time that the University has filed motions to the Commission arguing that the scope of certain requests rendered them impossible to return. McGill filed one last February against the Daily Publications Society, which publishes The Daily and Le Délit, and has filed three against Bangs since last year.

But one respondent, who spoke anonymously to The Daily, said that they had no idea that they were submitting too many requests.

“This was very sudden, this request asking for tremendous authority to disregard all future requests without even ever having heard that we were causing them a problem,” they said.

Several respondents reported filing numerous requests for review with the Commission when the University failed to fulfill ATI requests within the legal time frame or provided documents that they believed were unreasonably redacted.

McGill’s motion groups together 14 McGill students and alumni – despite their ATIs varying in subject matter, and some of the respondents saying they had never met until the motion was filed.

“They’re lumping all of these information requests together in order to make the point that there are too many requests being made, that there’s some coordinated effort,” Luxion said.

The ATIs named in the motion generally fall under three categories: military research, fossil fuel investments, and administrative finances at McGill. Respondents who spoke to The Daily said that while those submitting ATIs on similar topics communicated, there was no coordination between groups or across projects.

“There’s no coordinated effort

to destroy the University through Access to Information requests,” said Bangs, adding that he had “tried to get a lot of information through non-legalized channels… and I’ve been told like four or five times, you have to submit an access to information request.”

Secretary-General Stephen Strople, responsible for responding to ATI requests at the University, reiterated that requests had strained the University’s administrative capacities.

“We could not, in good conscience, continue to allow the University’s limited resources to be used trying to satisfy such an enormous demand for information when other mission-critical and pressing matters must be attended to,” he wrote.

But some respondents argue that the real reason the University is pursuing this motion is simple: revealing information, particularly regarding military research at McGill, would be embarrassing.

“They don’t like it when people publicize the really abhorrent research that some professors do…It would be a problem for them if we had access to some of this information because we’re running campaigns right now around getting McGill out of the business of war,” said Bangs.

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The McGill Daily | Monday, January 21, 2013 | mcgilldaily.com

NEWS

Course lecturers’ union walks out of meeting with administration AGSEM protests cuts in positions Juan Camilo Velásquez The McGill Daily

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nion members walked out of a meeting with senior administrators and other campus unions in protest of planned cuts to course lecturer positions.

The administration had called the meeting to discuss the provincial government’s announcement of budget cuts for universities.

Representatives from campus unions such as the McGill University Association of Support Employees (AMUSE), nonacademic workers at McGill (MUNACA), as well as VicePrincipal (Administration and Finance) Michael Di Grappa were in attendance. The meeting, held in Sherbrooke 688, was a followup to another gathering held in December to which campus union presidents were invited.

Di Grappa began by speaking about a meeting between the principals of Quebec universities

to around $20 million for the fiscal year of 2014, which begins on May 1, 2013.

Course Lecturer Unit President Raad Jassim responded to Di Grappa’s statement by calling for a bottom-up approach to complying with the mandated provincial budget cuts.

“You’re inviting us to a consultation, but actually we have noticed that course lecturers’ jobs are being cut as we speak, they have been announced in a few areas,” Jassim said at the meeting.

Dean of Arts Christopher Manfredi announced that 100 small classes will be eliminated, allowing full-time faculty members to teach classes currently taught by course lecturers.

“We are feeling that this is not a consultation, this is a consultation on the surface… I’m protesting this action, and will ask all my team to stand up and come with me,” he said before leaving the room.

Following Jassim’s statement, seven AGSEM members – represent-

“I’m protesting this action, and will ask all my team to stand up and come with me.”

Raad Jassim Course Lecturer Unit President

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and the provincial government last week.

According to Di Grappa, the University received the news that the cuts are continuing. The cuts to the operating budget will come

ing each of the union’s units – and AGSEM President Lilian Radovac walked out of the meeting.

AGSEM is composed of three different units representing course lecturers, teaching assis-

tants, and invigilators.

AGSEM Communications Officer Stefana Lamasanu told The Daily that they were “pleased with the way they walked in and rejected the cuts.”

“We also made them know that if they are serious about it, they can contact us. But we are not going to pretend to negotiate, we are not going to pretend to engage in confronting when this just a re-packaged control measure,” said Lamasanu.

“We’re not going to sit by and allow this excuse to undermine what we’re bargaining for our members, job security, and course allocations. These things can be affected by the budget cuts, if we let it happen, so we’re not going to sit by idly,” she added.

According to Lamasanu the negotiations for a collective agreement between course lecturers and the University will continue as previously planned.

Di Grappa told The Daily in an email that he thought it was “a productive meeting.”

“I was able to exchange with those present some fairly recent information we’ve received from the government about its firm intention to seek more budget compressions from universities in the future,” he said.

In order to deal effectively with these circumstances, we need to work co-operatively. We agreed to meet again, either at the end of February or during the second week of March.”

Alternative Dispute Resolution Event Management Fashion Management & Promotions Financial Planning

SUS finances questioned at Council

Global Business Management Human Resources Management International Development Marketing Management Public Administration

Councillors vote to close second tax account

10 WAYS TO LAUNCH YOUR CAREER T

Michael Lee-Murphy The McGill Daily

FIND YOUR NICHE WITH A POSTGRAD IN BUSINESS

business.humber.ca/postgrad

he Science Undergraduate Society (SUS) has been filing taxes under two separate accounts for the last several years, it was revealed at a council meeting last Wednesday.

According to a motion filed by VP Finance Elaine Xie, the second account was opened by a predecessor, who acted under the assumption that SUS had “lost its corporate status.”

Xie’s motion, which passed unanimously, sought to close the

second account and return to using the first tax account.

Although Xie was not present at the meeting, SUS President Joanna Xu explained that the society’s accountants had been using one account, while Xie had been using another.

The motion brought the society into compliance with Quebec tax law.

Science Senator Moe Nasr sought to delay proceedings, however, by initiating an open debate among councillors about what he argued was “financial negligence.”

After the motion dissolved the second tax account, councillors debated whether or not to set up

a provisional independent student inquiry into the SUS executive, as advocated by Nasr.

Many councillors declined, citing the lack of a clear mandate for such a committee. Executives encouraged Nasr to bring up a more detailed motion at the next council, on January 30.

In an interview with The Daily, Xu said that she would theoretically support such a committee for financial oversight, but disagreed with Nasr’s characterization of financial negligence.

“The [external] accountants didn’t catch it,” she said, referring to the duplicate tax account.

news

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The McGill Daily | Monday, January 21, 2013 | mcgilldaily.com

Demonstrations held across Canada

WHAT’S THE HAPS

Idle No More takes to Montreal streets

SSMU Presents: Introduction to Quebec Week Monday, January 21 to Friday, January 26 Shatner Building SSMU is working to organize a week of events, talks, and debates that seek better acquaint students to the province. Among the events, there will be a debate on Quebec sovereignty, and talks on Montreal black history and the Quebec student movement.

Cinema Politica Concordia Presents Haiti: Where did the Money Go? and Baseball in the Time of Cholera.

Monday, January 21 7:00 p.m.

Room H-110, Concordia University 1455 Maisonneuve W. By donation

Photo Shane Murphy | The McGill Daily Farid Rener The McGill Daily

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nder last Wednesday night’s overcast sky, approximately 200 demonstrators gathered at Place Émilie-Gamelin as part of a series of nationwide actions linked with the Idle No More movement.

The protest, which set off at 7:30 p.m., wound its way north on Berri and St. Denis before heading south, against traffic, on St. Laurent.

Indigenous activists have been fighting for the repeal of omnibus Bill C-45, stronger environmental protections, and the safeguarding of Indigenous land rights since December, when Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence began a hunger

strike on Victoria Island in Ottawa.

Fireworks were fired into the air, and chants of “Stop destroying Mother Earth. Settlers: Wake Up!” and “Anti-Colonialist!” were heard during the rally. The march was deemed illegal by the SPVM at the outset, as the police had not been notified of the itinerary, though no arrests were made. Police presence was minimal throughout.

Disruptions took place simultaneously across Canada, blocking trains between Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal, and slowing traffic over the Ambassador Bridge – a key trade route for trucks between the U.S. and Canada.

Mateo Du Pekuakami, an Innu protester from Lac Saint-Jean, who gave a speech when the protest

returned to Place Émilie-Gamelin at around 8:45 p.m., told The Daily that he was happy with the turnout.

“We are here in support of Theresa Spence, we also support Aniesh Vollant and Jeannette Pilot, two other Innus who are undertaking a hunger strike,” he said.

“When you have women who are ready to give their lives, we can’t stay inactive.”

Spence has been on a hunger strike with the goal of obtaining a meeting between Stephen Harper, Governor General David Johnston, and Aboriginal leaders. Vollant and Pilot – Innu women from Côte-Nord – have been hunger striking in solidarity since December 31.

Standing behind a large purple banner that read “Decolonize,” Jane,

who did not want to provide her last name, told The Daily in French: “The Idle No More movement needs to be pushed further. It’s about something more profound than the recent bills passed by the government. It’s been 400 years that Natives have been fighting against this government.”

A Facebook event promoting the demonstration was taken down on Tuesday. In an email to organizers, Facebook wrote that the original event violated the website’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. Du Pekuakami, who later created a new Facebook event page, told The Daily that the original page had been created with a fake account, and that someone had probably informed Facebook of this.

Korea Foundation donates $1 million toward professorship East Asian Studies professor points to challenges faced by area studies Cem Ertekin News Writer

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he Korea Foundation, a charitable organization owned by the government of South Korea, has pledged $1 million for the establishment of a Korean Studies chair in the Department of East Asian Studies.

This will be the first time that the University has a tenure-track position in Korean Studies, according to Robin D.S. Yates, the chair of the East Asian Studies Department.

According to its website, the foundation seeks to “broaden understanding of Korea among the peoples in the global society” and describes itself as the nation’s

“foremost institution to advance Korea’s public diplomacy interests through global communication.”

The Department of East Asian Studies has been working with the foundation for over twenty years trying to “develop [McGill’s] Korean language program and Korean studies program,” according to Yates.

Despite its ties to the South Korean government, Dean of Arts Christopher Manfredi told The Daily in an email that while “the University will keep the Foundation informed of the process of selecting the Professor,” all decisions will be made by “the University in its sole discretion, in keeping with its academic mission, and its policies and practices, with

vigilant protection of speech and academic freedom.”

Last year the University raised more than $84 million in gifts and pledges: 73 per cent from individuals, 18 per cent from foundations and 9 per cent from corporations, according to Vice-Principal (Development and Alumni Relations) Marc Weinstein.

“Philanthropic gifts to the University reflect an intersection of donors’ interests and the University’s priorities,” Weinstein told The Daily. “Fundraisers are assigned to every faculty of the University, and work diligently to secure gifts from alumni and friends to support areas of academic priority.”

In an interview with The Daily,

Thomas Lamarre, a professor in the East Asian Studies department, highlighted some of the difficulties faced by “area programs” such as East Asian Studies and African Studies.

Since program budgets have to be maintained in order to keep a permanent staff, the “politics of funding different programs often happen around hiring: what program gets new hires or is allowed to rehire after retirements,” Lamarre said.

The dean and upper administration determine those priorities.

“Obviously every program feels underfunded, and funds will probably get tighter,” Lamarre said, but area studies or non-western studies tend “to receive less funding and generally fewer new hires.”

Cinema Politica Concordia will team up with Canada Haiti Action Network and Rézistants Haitienne to present special guest speakers Jennie Walker, Haitian writer and poet Marie-Célie Agnant, and filmmaker Didier Berry.

The documentary Haiti: Where did the Money Go? asks question of why so much aid money, but so little relief?

Protest the Protocol Wednesday, January 23 12:30 p.m.

Community Square, in front of James Administration AGSEM-McGill’s Teaching Union, AMUSE, MUNACA, and the Philosophy Students’ Association, and their supporters are holding a demonstration against the Provisional Protocol regulating protests on campus, saying they oppose any policy designed to limit the rights enshrined in the Quebec Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The University announced the introduction of a statement of values and a third round of consultations to replace the proposed permanent protocol.

Idle No More McGill Part 1 – Bill C-45, Indigenous Law and Misconceptions in the Media Friday, January 25 1:00 pm Thomson House Restaurant Idle No More supporters at McGill are planning a teach-in at the university. The panel will feature three speakers plus attendees who wish to speak. Panelists will speak about Bill C-45, Indigenous law, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, and stereotypes in the media.

Speakers include Chelsea Vowel, Jameela Jeeroburkhan, and Aaron Detlor.

commentary

The McGill Daily Monday, January 21, 2013 mcgilldaily.com

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A higher standard Challenging McGill’s harmful investments Chris Bangs Commentary Writer

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hen I think about the enormity of climate change, it is easy for me to get depressed. When I learned that McGill funds the companies polluting our planet, it was even harder to stay positive.

McGill – a school that prides itself on going green, with its Office of Sustainability, hundreds of environmental groups and classes, and tremendous student initiatives like Campus Crops and Gorilla Composting – invests in the fossil fuel companies and tar sands companies emitting greenhouse gases and driving climate change.

McGill has one of the largest endowment funds in Canada, about $1 billion in total, with an equally large pension fund. The endowment fund maintains significant investments in the largest fossil fuel companies on the planet, including 14 companies that extract oil from Alberta’s tar sands. The Carbon Tracker Initiative (CTI) published a list of the 100 companies with the largest carbon reserves in coal, as well as another with the 100 companies with the largest carbon reserves in oil and gas. Thirty-five of them appear on McGill’s investment sheet. (The full list of the companies is on the divestmcgill. com website.)

In total, those companies have 205.455 gigatonnes of CO2 stored beneath the ground, which is 7 per cent of the world’s carbon reserves and 36 per cent of our remaining carbon budget for the next 38 years. The CTI estimates that only 886 gigatonnes can be emitted from 2000 to 2050 if we hope to keep warming below 2 degrees Celsius. With 321 gigatonnes burned in the last 12 years, only 565 gigatonnes remain. Thus, 80 per cent of the world’s 2,795 gigatonne fossil fuel reserves must remain underground. None of these fossil fuel companies has pledged to keep 80 per cent of their resources unburned, nor will they as long as it is profitable for them.

At Divest McGill, we have a solution. We want our University to act in line with its supposed values, and sustainability and social responsibility are key values that students, faculty, staff, alumni, and many in the administration share. That is why we are asking the McGill Board of Governors to divest (disinvest) its holdings in the tar sands and fossil fuels.

We are also asking them to divest from the Plan Nord and from companies acting without consent on indigenous land.

Students at 210 universities across North America are asking for the same thing. Our schools collectively provide extraordinary amounts of funding to these companies by owning shares directly, through pooled funds, and by

investing in financial institutions that fund these destructive practices. Just like with apartheid South Africa, we are creating a divestment movement here with the potential to create positive change the world over.

Here is our game plan: we are currently collecting signatures for petitions, which you can sign online. On February 1, we will submit our petitions, signatures, and the final version of the social injury briefs (more on that in a second) to the Board of Governors, where the Committee to Advise on Matters of Social Responsibility (CAMSR) will consider our concerns and make recommendations. It will be a long process, but we intend to finish it however long it takes.

The CAMSR requires a social injury brief detailing the ways in which the companies harm people, the planet, and society before it will consider divestment.

Divest McGill just published the first drafts of its two briefs and is looking for feedback. We will take all recommendations or concerns into account, and submit a revised version to the Board.

We will have a meeting on January 27 at 12 p.m. in the Clubs Lounge in SSMU to kick off a real campaign. Anyone interested in getting involved is welcome to come.

In the meantime, if you are interested in helping out you can sign the petitions, send them to friends, share them on Facebook, and read the briefs. If you are part of a green

Illustration Amina Batyreva | The McGill Daily

club or union on campus, bring this campaign up and ask your organization to endorse this petition.

Together we can make McGill’s investments responsible and sustainable. Let’s work to hold McGill to a higher standard.

Chris Bangs is a U3 Economics and Political Science student. He can be reached at bangs.christopher@ gmail.com. More information can be found at divestmcgill.com, including the petitions and briefs.

An asset for first years The vital role of the First Year Council First Year Council Commentary Writers

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he First Year Council (FYC) of the Students’ Society of McGill University is a democratic body that represents the concerns of all 5,891 students in their first year at McGill. The FYC consists of six executive members, two of whom chair their respective Events and Academic portfolios. The FYC’s role is to serve a diverse community of students in ensuring their successful integration and transition into university. We are an important resource available for students in terms of advocacy, because we are the only council that represents students beyond the scope of divisions such as residence, age, academic

term, or program. It is our job to bring together solutions to large, overarching issues faced by the first-year body. The FYC’s primary mandate is to aid first-year students in the significant changes when coming to university – both academic and social.

A major part of our mandate is to collaborate and communicate with the many first-year organizations representing various faculties and groups of students.

The FYC aims to promote and facilitate coordination between all representative sources. We serve as a political and administrative body for first years. The FYC also votes in the SSMU Council with the responsibility of having our vote represent the best interests of first years. If we should feel that our vote will fail to represent the best interests of first years, we will

either abstain from voting or poll first-year students regarding what position to take. As an example of our efforts to represent students to the administration, this year, FYC is looking into how students feel about mandatory advanced standing credits at McGill.

As one of the representative voices for all first-year students at McGill, FYC is eager to advocate for changes to be made to improve the academic experience during the difficult transition year into university. In particular, this year FYC has chosen to focus on improving McGill’s advising structure to ensure firstyear students feel informed, supported, and guided while making all the complicated decisions that will greatly impact their future.

With the help of the First-Year Office and various other student-

based groups, we hope to ensure that all first years feel they have access to the resources they need to make the choices that are best for them.

This year, the FYC is creating a website which will include a suggestion box where students can send in their opinions and questions. We will also have regular polls regarding SSMU political issues and other campus changes.

We are also working specifically on improving support for off-campus students and international students. The FYC is working to set up a tighter-knit social support system for off-campus students, which will include one-on-one relationship building.

The council organizes events and collaborates with other firstyear representative groups. This year, the Council will be coordi-

nating an inter-faculty event in February. In December, the FYC organized an event for all all first year students, where they could receive free massages to relieve their exam time stress. The FYC is also working on an apartment crawl event in the springtime with other councils so that firstyear students can have a better understanding of Montreal’s housing scene.

The First Year Council has a strong commitment to transparency. All our finances, meeting minutes, and meetings are open to the public. To stay in touch, the First Year Council sends out regular listservs through the McGill email system. Our email, fyc@ssmu.mcgill.ca, is eagerly awaiting any communication it may receive. Like us on Facebook to stay connected!

commentary

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The McGill Daily | Monday, January 21, 2013 | mcgilldaily.com

The only thing we have to fear…

On safety and risk Wyatt Negrini Commentary Writer

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ur society is obsessed with safety. We surround ourselves with things, things, and more things, all to stave off insecurity. Yet we all face the ultimate risk – the inevitable fall into blackness – death itself. Our comfort and our things serve to distract us: “If I just have a house, if I just pay back this loan, if I just get this one thing, then maybe, just maybe I’ll have control.”

No, you won’t. We live and die by the dice. Society is the safest it’s ever been and we’re the saddest we’ve ever been; maybe they’re related. You see, surviving adversity is something which gives us strength. When there is no existential risk, we feel fake, like everything we do is unreal, and yet we’re still insecure because we still know we will die. Shhh! Don’t say that!

Look at how skillfully we have removed death from all aspects of our culture. Most of us live in cities, far from the natural world; we are removed from the birth/death cycle of animals. We eat meat, but I doubt a single reader has killed their own meal. Death is on the plate; life feeds off the death of other life. Vegetarians too, are often far removed from, or unaware of, where their food is grown. We are detached from the things which

sustain us, and from our final end.

We have sterilized our world. We have sterilized our sex. We hide our defecation, we hide the soil and remove the visual reminder of where our food comes from. We do all this to avoid our corpo-reality: the fact that we are all merely physical beings with a finite lifespan.

Despite these efforts, however, we are more insecure and obsessed with danger and mortality than any other culture. Like sexual repression, you cannot eliminate or repress the reality of death and danger. Our news and our media allow us to gorge on images of death while simultaneously keeping us warm, safe, and far away from them. We are sterilized, zerotolerance playgrounds where play is too violent, and Saw movies. With wide eyes we stare at the screen in bloodlust, but we cringe at having to squish an insect or kill a mouse.

We cheer as UFC fighters pummel each other, but few of us have ever been in a real fight.

We talk a lot about love, but we are starving for it. Few of us are willing to take the risk of rejection, let’s make love safe instead!

Matchmaking services abound, promising to find you your perfect soulmate, hassle and risk-free. We Facebook stalk people we’d be mortified to say hello to in real life. But love for another is born out of risk, the risk of giving oneself entirely to another human being, and the

Illustration Amina Batyreva | The McGill Daily

possibility of being rejected. True love exists as faith, the faith that the other will return the same sentiment, though they may not. When we love we put our very core and sense of self at risk, yet requited love is one of life’s greatest affirmations. Life’s most rewarding pleasure has the potential to be its most destructive too.

Sorry, my friends. There is no safe love and there is no safe life.

Life and love, to be lived, must be lived dangerously, as Nietzsche said. I’m not advocating that we dismantle our justice system or destroy the social construct, but I

am advocating a slight relaxation on our obsession with safety and risk reduction. Take some risks, fall in love, have an argument, hell, maybe even get into a fight or two!

Our society is the safest it’s ever been and yet we cry.

Remember that we own nothing, and no one owns us. We are here on borrowed time, all of us.

Everything is a rental, even your mind and body, so use them! Go and have some fun, take some risks, and create something. Ask out the person you like, risk rejection.

Apply for that internship abroad, risk loneliness and homesickness.

Take that extra course, risk stress.

Write that shitty poem, risk a loss of pride. As an athlete, push for that extra second, risk pain. But most of all, take risks and ignore the sirens of safety that preach caution. We are all on death row, every single one of us, each waiting for the day our name is called. When your number is called, what will you have to show for it? The ultimate destination will be reached my friends – the only question is, how will you reach it?

Wyatt Negrini is a U2 Philosophy major. He can be reached at wyatt. negrini@mail.mcgill.ca.

Parental advisory: explicit content The demonization of rap music Davide Mastracci The McGill Daily

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’ve loved rap music for most of my life, but when I was younger I was ashamed to admit this to anyone. For a kid trying to get good grades, be liked by teachers, and stay out of trouble, rap music seemed like it would be problematic. I often wondered if the figures of authority I admired would lose any respect they had for me if they found out I listened to rap music. Would I be taken less seriously?

Now, almost ten years later, though my love of rap is not hidden in any way, similar questions often arise. And this is due to the fact that when you’re an explicit fan of rap music (or a fan of explicit rap music) you can’t just simply enjoy the music.

As Chris Rock famously stated, you have to defend it. It’s reasonable to expect that people won’t always share your taste in music. Yet with rap, the accusations thrown at the music often go beyond matters of taste and have serious political con-

notations. These accusations usually fit into two categories.

The first category is the pseudoartistic critiques which seem to come up in casual conversations about rap music. An example is the “legacy” critique. Will rap music be able to last the test of time? I’ve been asked this question – the intent being insult – on numerous occasions.

The most memorable, however, was last summer at a barbecue. An iPod was playing Notorious B.I.G over the speaker system when an older white man threw the question my way. The song playing at the time was “Big Papa,” which is nearly twenty years old. Rap music has lasted the test of time in cultures where it plays a prominent role. It may not be important to fifty-year-old white rock fans, just like Led Zeppelin means nothing to me, but for many populations which are pushed into the “other” category, hip hop is crucial.

A second example is the “slang” critique: “At least with rock music you can understand what they’re saying!” When I hear this, I respond with “In rock music YOU can hear

what they’re saying.” Rock music and rap music alike use forms of slang. Slang in rap is no less legitimate than in rock; it simply exists in communities those who criticize the slang don’t engage with or participate in. So critiquing rap for using slang is really just attacking it for using slang that doesn’t adhere to certain WASP standards.

Far more examples of these pseudo-artistic critiques exist, but the more problematic arguments against rap fit into the second category, which is comprised of explicit political critiques of rap music. Rap music without a doubt has many issues. A great deal of rap is filled with sexist, homophobic, and shadeist lyrics. Just like any other medium which perpetuates oppressive content, rap deserves to be criticized and numerous valuable critiques of elements in rap music exist, such as Tricia Rose’s text The Hip-Hop Wars.

However, a lot of the political criticism of rap music has troubling connotations. For example, Rose describes some critics of sexism in hip-hop as people who “use hip

hop’s sexism (and other ghettoinspired imagery) as a means to cement and consolidate the perception of black deviance and inferiority and advance socially conservative and anti-feminist agendas.” When conservatives like Bill O’Reilly attack hip hop for sexism, they are expressing the same sort of fear white men in America have expressed throughout history toward black men acting ‘unruly’ – they appear unaware of critiques of the sexism prevalent in ‘mainstream’ culture. They do not care about women’s rights; they’re more concerned with the supposed lack of respect from black males.

Additionally, critiques of rap which focus on violence are usually paradoxical. Rap music is at once blamed for glorifying violent cultures while at the same time credited with actually creating the violence portrayed within the content.

While rap music certainly can glorify violence by portraying it as a necessary component of masculinity, rap music does not cause violence.

Idealists who make this claim ignore the fact that rap music often is cre-

ated by the most disadvantaged and oppressed members of society, who come from areas where crime and poverty are rampant. Those who blame rap for violence miss the chance to offer more important structural critiques of capitalist society that survives through violence, and makes violent crime-ridden communities inevitable.

Essentially, like anything else, music is political, and it is not created in a vacuum. As such, the widespread disapproval of rap music cannot be written off as simple disagreements on musical elements.

Critiques of a form of music which arises mainly from people of colour in lower income brackets can certainly be valid, but they should be scrutinized. Especially when they come from above, whether it be through those with more wealth, or those who enjoy the privilege afforded to them by their ethnicity.

Davide Mastracci is a U2 History and Political Science student. He can be reached at davide.mastracci@mail.mcgill.ca.

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The McGill Daily Monday, January 21, 2013 mcgilldaily.com

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Illustration Hera Chan | The McGill Daily

From “Brother Sharp” to Kody Maxson Crowd-sourcing identities, on both sides of the Pacific Kaj Huddart The McGill Daily

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n the evening of July 3, 2012, a bizarre incident occurred in Loudi, a city of about four million people in the Hunan province of China. On the bank of the Lian Shui river, 27-year-old Deng Jinjie was walking his two large dogs when he noticed a family of three people crying for help from the middle of the Lian Shui’s current. Deng jumped into the water to try to help, with two other people following his example. The two other good Samaritans helped the family out of the water, but Deng himself was not so lucky: when the rescue party and the family reached shore, he was not among them. The family that ostensibly owed their lives to Deng Jinjie immediately left the scene, offering no thanks to the other two rescuers, and displaying no concern for their saviour.

When the story broke on China’s Weibo services – microblogging websites akin to Twitter – it immediately went viral. The rage against the ungrateful family built through internet users’ (netizens) posts about the incident. “Human flesh search them,” cried thousands of netizens.

The expression “human flesh search” has an ugly ring to it in English, but it’s a confusing translation. It refers to the use of crowd-sourcing to find individuals; “human flesh” refers to the searchers, not the target. Often, such as in the case of Deng Jinjie’s drowning, the online masses, fueled by indignation, are seeking a type of vigilante justice. In this case, thousands of Weibo users in the city of Loudi cooperated to identify the family, who were forced to make amends, of a sort. Under police protection they apologized to a portrait of the deceased, kowtowed to Deng’s family, and handed his grieving mother an envelope full of cash.

Without the power of the human flesh search, it is highly unlikely that their moral transgression would ever have been found out.

Some human flesh searches have been more philanthropic in nature. In 2010, a user on an amateur photography site posted the picture of a handsome and well-dressed homeless man in the city of Ningbo, which was later re-posted to a Weibo service. The man in question quickly became an explosively popular meme, gaining the name “Brother Sharp,” and began to be harassed on the street by middleclass teenagers wanting to take pictures with him. It was learned that he was seriously mentally ill.

Eventually, he was reunited with his family in their village, and offered a social assistance allowance with the intent of reintegrating him into society. Their project now complete, flesh-searching netizens turned their attention to other anonymous pictures.

Another common focus is cor-

rupt local government officials.

For instance, netizens have investigated the social network profiles of women who flaunt luxury-brand goods and refer to being mistresses of party functionaries, whose salaries normally wouldn’t cover such extravagance. When this type of flesh search happens, the phenomenon takes on a unique political role.

Tim Sedo, professor of Chinese history at Concordia University, characterizes it as “issue-based activism,” the outing of individual examples of corruption to criticize how the system facilitates graft.

This can have surprisingly contradictory effects on China’s authoritarian power structure.

The Chinese conception of government, Sedo says, is divided between guo jia, which includes the concept of the nation state as well as the top-level leadership, and zheng fu, which represents the entire breadth of government between the leadership and the average citizen. While human flesh searches are often to the

detriment of the zheng fu, they can actually be a legitimizing force for the guo jia. Often, the higher authorities will respond to Weibotrending cases of corruption by punishing the exposed officials, and Chinese state media will even explicitly mention the role of human flesh searching in bringing such figures to justice.

Although the Chinese internet censors and overseers technically have the power to do such investigations on their own, Sedo explained, they don’t have the will or the need to. Human flesh searches include the people in the judicial process in a way that doesn’t fundamentally threaten the existing power structure.

China’s secretive political elite ensures that top level officials are never targeted by netizens.

And for many normal citizens, the prospect of being able to out corrupt politicians – even low level officials – is tantalizing.

Would such an ad hoc system

continued on page 9

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The McGill Daily | Monday, January 21, 2013 | mcgilldaily.com

In science, students fill the gap U2 Physics and Math student launches lecture series

Illustration Amina Batyreva | The McGill Daily

hen Adam Hitchcock, a professor of chemistry at McMaster University, came last week to McGill for a lecture on x-ray scanning, he spoke with gravitas. Hitchcock is a Canada Research Chair in Materials Research and has published – along with his research group at McMaster – a large number of peerreviewed articles on x-ray scanning and microbiology. Nobody in the

room could doubt his expertise.

Alex May, on the other hand, is a U2 Student in Physics and Mathematics.

Although May doesn’t have a research chair, last summer he organized a series of student-run lectures in physics, computer science, and math. What he lacks in years of studying, he makes up for in enthusiasm.

“I asked friends for advice, and I just decided that anybody who’d like to talk would get to speak,” May told The Daily. “And often in the cases where I thought that it wouldn’t be that great of a talk, I was surprised.

It [was] very open-form.”

What began as a shoestring operation with sparsely attended talks – the very first lecture saw a turnout of six people in the physics student lounge – eventually grew into a popular phenomenon among science students.

“We’d have up to thirty people... if it was more accessible to a general audience,” May said. “There was one on exo-planet research, and it was very popular.”

For May, the fact that undergraduates hosted most of these lectures wasn’t a problem.

“Undergraduates certainly can do interesting research,” he said. “Even if they don’t come up with new results, they can still be very satisfying.”

His research on quantum information and how it moves around space-time was the subject of his own talk.

“Professors might talk about these subjects for a second, but you’re not going to get a lot of depth,” he said. “So [these talks] expose you to things that aren’t in your comfort zone.”

But these conferences aren’t a

substitute for class.

“They’re a good way to find out about new things and get a sense about what’s going on,” he explained.

“If you should happen to come across something you find particularly interesting, you should find out about it more in-depth in other ways.”

The project will continue without May. No talks are scheduled for the Winter semester, since the Society of Physics Students is hosting its own lecture series.

The initiative will be continued by one of his colleagues throughout next summer.

continued from page 8 of outing corrupt government officials exist in a country with due process? “Probably not,” Sedo says, suggesting that human flesh search is filling in a gap in Chinese society.

Netizens can now post evidence of corruption to a Weibo service, and hope that the viral tornado of outrage will pick up the story. It isn’t a particularly reliable process, but it is more appealing than the petition system, the antiquated system of bringing grievances against the authorities that the Communist Party has deliberately neglected.

In the absence of a consistent and workable legal system, one that is mostly impervious to the influence of patronage, the collective-powered human flesh search can cut down even well-connected government officials.

Although it is a fascinating process for Westerners to watch, observers on this side of the

Pacific have often misunderstood the human flesh search, or have tried to force it into the typical American narrative, which is perpetually concerned with how and when China will “democratize.”

“When human rights advocates look at this stuff and call it nascent democratization, they get it wrong,” Sedo said. China’s young generation is used to running well ahead of the state internet censor – in fact, the Weibo systems host surprisingly open political conversations.

But their focus, Sedo said, seems to be on correcting mistakes, not on replacing the Party or the system that supports it. Often, the human flesh searches are not about politics at all, but rather about good or bad expressions of national character, such as in the case of the drowning of Deng Jinjie.

Although the human flesh search has been observed most frequently in China, variants have

been practiced occasionally elsewhere in East Asia, and, increasingly, in the West. Anonymous, the nebulous hacktivist group – some call it a subculture – uses ‘doxing,’ a term invented to describe the process of crowd-sourcing individuals’ personal information with the intent of publishing it publicly on the internet. Doxing uses the same mechanism as human flesh search, but has a narrower objective: it has so far only been used to expose people whom Anonymous sees as deserving of punishment.

In the past, this has included online pedophiles, racist commenters on online forums, and the suspected bully who elicited compromising photographs from Amanda Todd, a 15-year-old from outside Vancouver who committed suicide on October 10, 2012.

Unfortunately, Anonymous initially released a false dox (as a noun, it refers to a dossier of personal

information). Although they got a real name – Kody Maxson, a man with some dubious online history – Maxson wasn’t necessarily the culprit in the Amanda Todd case.

Furthermore, the dossier was filled with false information, one piece of which led to an innocent woman’s house in New Westminster, a suburb of Vancouver. She phoned the police after receiving death threats at her address.

Anonymous’ false dox raises serious questions about the effectiveness and the ethical implications of crowd-sourcing private information. Although the innocent woman was never harmed, the false outing demonstrates the limitations of dox and human flesh search, which is a problem shared with much of the internet: a combination of excitement and anonymity encourages people to pass along information they aren’t necessarily sure of, and false

leads can go viral well before they are fully investigated. Vice and Jezebel reported Anonymous’ dox as fact, before everyone realized that the phone number, street address, and email addresses were false, and worse, that they could lead would-be vigilantes to the homes and lives of unrelated, innocent people.

To the ardent defenders of individual liberty, being punished by a jury of anonymous, online peers is an ominous prospect. This form of crowd-sourced justice has already proven itself to be both collectively gratifying but individually dangerous. While it serves myriad purposes in China, where it both challenges and reinforces existing power structures, its use in North America has been more exclusively punitive. Either way, people seem eager to use the internet to collectivize their moral sense and shape society accordingly.

Laurent Bastien Corbeil The McGill Daily

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The McGill Daily | Monday, January 21, 2013 | mcgilldaily.com

Photo Laurent Bastien Corbeil | The McGill Daily

Refocusing and collaboration Dr. Guy Rouleau speaks about the future of the Neuro Anqi Zhang The McGill Daily

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eventy-eight years is not a long time, in the scope of Montreal’s history or McGill’s history. But for the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital (MNI), affectionately referred to as the Neuro, 78 years is all it has taken to effectively build an international reputation. The Neuro points to its successes – the words and names that stick out of its history in bold-faced type, like Wilder Penfield, the Montreal procedure, Brenda Milner, and neuropsychology – as stemming from a successful collaboration between a research institute and a clinical treatment centre. With the appointment of a new director, Dr. Guy Rouleau, previously of the Université de Montréal (UdeM), and with an upcoming relocation planned, the Neuro now looks toward the future.

McGill Daily (MD): First of all, congratulations on your recent appointment as the director of the MNI. How do you think your research background and experience will shape your vision for where the Neuro will go in the future as both a research institution and a hospital?

Guy Rouleau (GR): I’m a clinical neurologist, and I do research

[…] in neurology [...] and neurosurgery, but applied. In other words, I’m interested in clinical questions and I use basic methods to investigate the clinical questions. This is what the Neuro was built on and this is what a lot of the Neuro does, and I think that the future of the Neuro is that kind of research. The idea is that we’re in a hospital. If we were going to do basic neuroscience, we could do that, but that’s the basic neuroscience institute; that’s not who we are. We combine the clinical and the research; that’s basically the vision for the place.

It’s been [doing] what it’s supposed to be doing since it was created. I think there may have been all kinds of changes of directions [...] but that’s got to be the direction we go in. That’s what I’ve done all my life, so I kind of understand it and I believe in it.

MD: Do you see any particular focuses?

GR: I think there will be focuses, because there are too many diseases and too many things to do. We’re going to do an exercise where we’re going to look to see, what are we really good at? And we will have the focus of development on those things [that] we identify we’re very good at. We’ve got to be very good at it, and it has to have a future. There’s no use focusing on a disease that’s disappearing. We’ll focus on diseases that are impor-

tant problems and will continue to be important problems, where we have a lot of expertise and where we could do better. [...] There’s going to be a list that’s going to be drawn out [...] We’ll probably get groups together to do some thinking...and I’ll invite all the different groups to think about their strengths, their weaknesses, and what they want to do. We’ll have an outside committee come and look as well.

MD: Do you think this might lead to a bit of restructuring as to how the Neuro goes about its business?

GR: I mean, restructuring is a big word; I think it’ll be a refocusing. The Neuro is a very good place, and it works well...so we don’t need to do major surgery here. It’s just fine tuning and deciding where it is we want to invest the most time.

MD: In Principal Heather Munroe-Blum’s message announcing your appointment, she mentioned the goals of “creating and strengthening ties with the community, academic institutions and hospitals around Quebec.” How do you hope to do this and what does the Neuro hope to gain from such ties?

GR: The Neuro exists within the province and the patients are patients in the province, largely, and there are certain subgroups that we have particular missions to serve, for example the Inuit.

It’s not a large population but it’s an important population. We want

to further develop our links with these special groups. They have special health problems that are [neurological] and we have expertise in the field, and [we want to] better serve them. At the same time, good medicine moves with good research, so we’ll probably combine the two ... to refine [our practices]. The obvious institution is the MUHC [McGill University Health Centre] that we’re a part of and a little separate [from]. We’re going to develop well how we work with them and deal with them and provide the services – that’s mostly the hospital part. And we’re going to develop links also with the University of Montreal. There’s a notion of “Neuro Montreal”...in the air. If you take where the most neuroscience is done in Canada, it’s in Montreal; half is at the UdeM and half here. So if we work together [...]we’ll be able to do better things and be more competitive. [...] There is a Parkinson’s disease network being created and that includes UdeM and McGill and the MNI. The idea is to work together and be more competitive.

MD: Is outreach toward the students of McGill University a goal for the Neuro, in addition to outreach to other institutions?

GR: Yes, actually I just met one of the people here who’s really dedicated to outreach and education.

So there are a number of things

we’re thinking of. There could be public lectures, not targeted directly for McGill students. But public lectures could interest students who are not in neurology, and could interest anyone who wants to learn about [neuroscience].

And the department of Neurology runs the Integrated Program in Neuroscience, and that’s the largest graduate program at...McGill.

MD: Will the Neuro also be moving to the Glen site [in Notre-Damede-Grâce] when it is completed?

GR: Yes, we have approval from the ministry and the decision has been made between the MUHC and McGill. So everybody agrees that that is what needs to be done.

There are very practical reasons why that should be so. For example, the MUHC that’s being built down at the Glen site has no neurology or neurosurgery beds. So it would make sense to have a Neuro there.

And again, we want to keep the neurology research and clinical integrated at one site.

MD: How will being in a noncentral location (at least, relative to McGill campus) affect the Neuro’s relationship to the educational side of McGill?

GR: You know, I don’t think it’ll change anything. It might be inconvenient to be so far from the main campus, I agree, for students and for teachers, but I don’t think it’ll change anything.

sports

The McGill Daily Monday, January 21, 2013 mcgilldaily.com

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Illustration by Alice Shen

Difference as a second language Sports, race, and class mix in a grade six basketball league Christina Colizza The McGill Daily

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t’s November of 2002 and I’m sitting next to Ronnie Dumas in the Nabe. He is telling me how people say he looks a lot like “fiddy cent” and how he is about to kill this basketball tryout. I think he is flirting with me, but in sixth grade these things are difficult to tell.

‘The Nabe’ is shorthand for the ‘Neighbourhood house,’ an afterschool program and community resource center in Morristown, New Jersey. According to its website, the centre is dedicated to assist “working and impoverished families to maximize their educational, social, physical, and economic potential,” as well as to help immigrant families “transition into their communities.” It’s a somewhat odd place for me, a privileged white kid, to be joining a basketball league. As a girl, it’s even more strange to join a league of mostly boys.

Yet there I found myself, nervously chatting with Ronnie Dumas in the Nabe’s crumbling

little gym. People may think of the Northeastern United States as more racially integrated or tolerant, but ethnicity still divides neighbourhoods like lines on a court.

Therefore, “fiddy cent” lookalike Ronnie and I lived worlds apart. He lived in Morristown and I lived in Morris Plains. Little differentiates the two municipalities; they share grocery stories, a high school, and all the little neighbourly concerns of small town New Jersey. Although it’s only a few minutes’ drive from my house, Ronnie was most likely from “the Hollow,” or “the area around Martin Luther King Street,” or whatever Morristown neologism that allows us all to speak the unspeakable. To say, “where all the black and Spanish people live.” To note, “Spanish” in Morristown means Hispanic. Few residents know – or care – to recognize the difference.

By virtue of girls sprouting earlier than boys, I was a desirable team member and picked within the first round. We received our t-shirts. They were plain Fruit of the Loom cotton tees with our team name screen-printed on top.

I was unimpressed, to say the least.

On my previous basketball team, in a Catholic girls’ league, we all had brand-new jerseys and matching shorts. They came assorted by size and wrapped in plastic bags.

At the Nabe, t-shirts were pulled out from old cardboard boxes.

While notions like racism and classism were not words my 11-yearold mind was familiar with, community basketball played a large part in teaching me about socioeconomic and cultural difference.

Unlike school, or church, or any other social venue in which I came to understand differences of class, race, and gender, it was only by playing basketball at the Nabe that I came to understand how these things intertwined. With my growing knowledge, I began to understand why we had t-shirts instead of shiny jerseys, or why we only had a couple of half-inflated balls at practices instead of a whole rack.

I would be lying if I said I thoroughly enjoyed playing at the Nabe. I remember tearful car rides after missing birthday parties or sleepovers because I had a game to play. Furthermore, I was only one of two females in a league of

over sixty kids. It was something I reminded my mother of constantly.

“I didn’t raise quitters,” she would say in response. And I’m glad she didn’t let me quit; not only did I learn the value of team loyalty, but also that there are certain spaces where difference hardly matters.

At the Nabe, I was good. I was tall, and was told “you play good D, girl.

You play good D” by my coach. On the court, my girlness or whiteness hardly mattered. I was cheered on all the same. I got to beat boys at a game they felt was their own. It was a lovely little gender transgression. Furthermore, the small size of the gym made parents’ cheers sound louder than the big gyms at St. Wherever. Essentially, the Nabe had spirit in a way that the Catholic girls’ league didn’t.

I don’t want to suggest that sports aren’t heavily imbued with racial politics. Black boxer Joe Louis cared about more than just a title when he knocked out Max Schmelling. Most viewers’ relish at Jeremy Lin’s rare placement as an NBA player is based on more than just athletic skill. Racial politics were certainly at play at the Nabe

too. The question that remains is: couldn’t sports at an early age be a place of better racial and class integration if leagues weren’t structured around separation? By the time sixth grade rolls around, little leagues disappear, and kids are separated into school teams by gender. Difference, like learning a second language, is best learned and accepted at an early age, and sports seems like the perfect venue. Inaccessibility and closed minds are what keep the game from being played.

The last I heard about Ronnie was that he was in prison, charged with second-degree robbery for assaulting a high school kid in Clifton and stealing his iPhone. My personal privilege has led me other places. As I finish writing this, I’m staring at endless rows of books: scholarly meditations and a sea of knowledge at my fingertips. A decade after our time at the Nabe, is Ronnie looking at a row of bars?

Or maybe, during the one hour a day or a week, he is shooting some hoops on a tiny basketball court, in a neighbourhood unlike the one we once knew.

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The McGill Daily | Monday, January 21, 2013 | mcgilldaily.com

sports

Illustration by Amina Batyreva | The McGill Daily

Rally around the flag National identities go head to head at the World Juniors Evan Dent The McGill Daily

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s the National Hockey League (NHL) stumbled over itself in late December, further infuriating and alienating fans during the lockout, hockey devotees across North America struggled to find a replacement for their favourite sport. Some dove into college hockey or minor leagues like the Ontario Hockey League or American Hockey League, while others kept up with European professional leagues, reading poorly translated game recaps and watching pirated feeds at odd hours.

But the games that garnered the most attention from hockeystarved fans, especially in Canada, were those at the recently concluded World Junior Hockey Championships (WJHCs). Stocked with each participating nation’s best under-20 players, the tournament is usually a showcase of the future generation of NHL stars. During a regular NHL season (that is, one where games are actually being played), the tournament does not quite get the same coverage as it did this year. Most Canadian cities, however, have had little to watch since the Canadian football season ended. The baseball season has not yet begun, and

the only professional Canadian basketball team, the Toronto Raptors, has struggled this season.

A sports-deprived nation, then, shifted its eyes toward the WJHCs with increased intensity. This devotion would have been fine if the discussion surrounding it weren’t so troubling.

The media coverage of the tournament, especially on Canada’s Total Sports Network (TSN), was laughable. Not only was TSN unabashedly pro-Canadian (it was hard to find one voice in the middle ground), it was as though the entire staff forgot that the players on the team are teenagers between the ages of 17 and 19. These players were expected to represent the nation, and do it without making mistakes. Mistakes led to incessant ridicule from observers, giving no mercy despite the fact that, once again, they are kids.

Even worse was the treatment of players who were cut from the team. For many young athletes, making the national team is a lifelong dream. The Canadian team, though, releases the names of the cuts one by one during primetime news hours, forcing the freshly cut players to face the media immediately after receiving some of the worst news of their life.

The players are athletes, soon to be professional, and will have

to deal with this sort of media attention in the future; however, to force it upon them as they are still developing as players is at the very least discomforting.

The WJHCs unfortunately have become an exercise in flag-waving, as nations look to perpetuate positive perceptions of their own players and demean other nations’ supposed ‘character’. Each nation’s media was quick to paint their squad as ‘hard-working’ and ‘gritty,’ a supposed reflector of the nation’s ‘identity’. This is especially absurd for a team like Canada, which is stocked with talented firstround NHL draft picks. Attacks on other nations were usually coded descriptors meant to demean other nations; Russia, Sweden, Finland, and other European countries are often labeled as ‘talented’, but ‘inconsistent’, one step away from calling them lazy.

Certain styles of play have been elevated as indicative of a nation’s character, a practice dating back to the 1950s, when nations recognized the importance of international sports competitions during the Cold War. Citizens used them as barometres of national supremacy. The traditional stereotypes for nations break down among remarkably political lines; the “hard-working” Canadians and Americans succeed with their

superior effort, despite a perceived dearth of talent (no matter how untrue that is, the stereotype was fostered when the USSR was dominating international hockey competitions), reflecting to some extent a capitalist ideology. The Russians, Swedes, Finns, and other European nations are usually characterized as ‘talented‘ and lauded for their ‘puck control.’ When these styles of play were first introduced – during the height of the Soviet Union – observers were quick to label it as ‘socialist’ hockey. Despite the breakdown of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, these perceptions still exist and are still widely used.

The media and the fans on social media were quick to both use these perceptions, and use them in poor taste. On Twitter, where anyone (and any idiot) can have a voice, insults were lobbed back and forth – dirty Canadians, lazy Russians, et cetera. Don Cherry, the venerated Canadian commentator, complained that the Canadians couldn’t play their hard-hitting style because of international rules, and that other nations benefited from the junior Canadian leagues’ coaching, and then called for exclusively Canadian players in the junior leagues. Nail Yakupov, one of Russia’s top prospects, was quoted as calling the Canadian team

“dirty”, causing more squabbles, when (as it has been suggested), most likely, his interview was poorly translated from Russian. When the Americans beat the Canadians 5-1 in the medal rounds, a new round of barbs went back and forth between the sides. The insults went back and forth, a whirling chaos of jingoism. The question became: what are we watching? The world’s best young hockey players competing for our enjoyment as hockey fans, or an exercise in misplaced national pride? For too many fans, it was the latter.

I watched the World Juniors, a starved hockey fan myself, waking up early in the morning (the games were played in Ufa, Russia, meaning 3 a.m. EST starts) to see if the U.S. team could pull off a gold medal finish. While I had some fun chiding my Canadian friends throughout the tournament, a lot of the discussion by both the media and other fans made me uncomfortable. What I saw when I watched the U.S. take on Sweden in the gold medal game was two teams firing outlet passes through the neutral zone, catching their teammates on well-timed breakouts; fluid, beautiful hockey. Unfortunately, the players can’t just play. Their nations’ histories, and all the connotations that come with them, are written across their uniforms.

culture

The McGill Daily Monday, January 21, 2013 mcgilldaily.com

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A popular portrait Michael Apted’s 56 Up Christopher Webster The McGill Daily

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he premise of 56 Up, while being of great interest to me, was cause for some concern heading into Cinema du Parc.

The documentary is made up of a series of instalments that chronicle the lives of 14 British individuals at seven-year intervals, and I worried whether the value of the film might be a little lost on one who hadn’t seen the previous instalments. My apprehensions, however, were soon put to rest, for if nothing else, 56 Up is a wonderful composite of stories, a project that allows us to understand how people change, grow, and ultimately shape their lives in ways that are particular to each of us. The scope and intimacy of the project result in a moving portrayal of human life that is more true to form than most fictional stories ever could be. It is this main tenet on which the strength of the movie lies.

Fourteen lives can contain a plethora of information and experiences, and any filmmaker would tell you that squeezing a detailed portrayal of that many lives into the movie’s 150-minute run time involves cutting a great deal of material for the finished product.

Indeed, this is a primary complaint for several of the volunteer subjects, such as John Brisby, who feels that

the series’ original goal – to track the influences of Britain’s class system on its subjects – reduces the characters to overarching stereotypes.

In a frank interview with Michael Apted, the director and narrator of the project, Brisby explains that while he was portrayed as coming from the “privileged upper class,” the death of his father when he was nine years old, and the subsequent work he had to put in to attend Oxford on a scholarship, was largely ignored. Others, such as Peter Davies, have taken long sabbaticals from appearing in the series. In fact, Davies’ reason for returning after 28 years was largely economical, not sentimental: he appears to promote his country-influenced band, The Good Intentions.

Despite these reactions, the film is largely successful at establishing a basic identity for each of its subjects, with some of these investigations leading to powerful and poignant expressions of character. Jackie Bassett, one of only four women profiled, talks at length about the deaths of many of her close family members, as well as her battle with rheumatoid arthritis. Bassett, who until the time of filming had been living off of disability benefits and contributions from her sons, had just received notice that she was no longer eligible for these allowances. Bemoaning her physical condition, she issues a direct chal-

Photo Courtesy of 56 Up

Nick at age 42, as seen in 56 Up, a film by Michael Apted. A First Run Features release. lenge to the federal government: “If Mark Hoban [the UK’s Minister of Employment] can come down here and find me a job that I can do, I will do it.”

Most compelling of all is the story of Neil Hughes, a man from Liverpool who was homeless during the 21 Up and 28 Up installments and who finally became a District Councillor thanks in part to emotional and financial support from

Bruce Balden, another subject in the film. It is with Hughes’ character that the constant flashbacks to previous films are most justified. Apted traces Hughes’ evolution from a homeless man struggling with mental health issues to a successful local politician. It is the kind of experience that most people will never get to see up close, and the nuances of his complex character are fascinating to behold. At one point, he

explains his decision to abstain from parenthood: “No matter how sweet and caring the mother may be, the child will have to inherit something from me, and that is not fair to it.”

In short, if you are interested in exploring the human experience in any shape or form, go see this movie. It is an expression of life, the existential impact of which will reverberate in the memories of those who see it for years to come.

Trying out the Mooniture Multi-instrumentalist Anna Atkinson tours her latest album Charlotte O’Neill Culture Writer

A

nna Atkinson is an up-andcoming one-woman band who hails from Toronto.

Her accumulation of musical talents includes the ability to play viola, violin, banjo, guitar, piano, accordion, ukulele, and even the electric guitar. Atkinson most recently showcased her talents at the Stratford Festival, where she has been performing annually since 2010 as a stage performer and singer-songwriter. Her album Mooniture, which was recently re-released, is still something of a well-kept secret. On January 12, Atkinson graced Montreal with her presence, performing at Grumpy’s bar located downtown just off of Ste. Catherine.

The instant you enter Grumpy’s, it’s clear that everything you’re about to see is going to be a little quirky. The evening

had a somewhat sleazy tinge to it: my companion and I were offered cocaine not fifteen minutes after we sat down, which seemed an incongruous choice for an evening of folk music. Otherwise, the eclectic crowd had the relaxed attitude of bar regulars. Red lights adorn the walls, making the room feel instantly warmer, and giving it a woozy glow. The low ceilings and dim lighting do nothing to hide the fact that this is a bar located underground. However, small touches such as a fireplace make it cozy nonetheless. The walls are covered in nostalgia, including license plates from various states, and other collected souvenirs strewn haphazardly throughout the bar.

The small, low stage is located directly beside the bar and in front of an array of small tables.

Atkinson, a tall brunette with cropped hair, casually sipped a few drinks at the bar with her friends before making her way onto the stage. She began her show with

a duet with Tamara Sandor, a friend of hers who seemed giddy with excitement about the gig.

While Atkinson played the violin, Sandor sang a song she wrote herself. It was a slow number named “Birds” with an eerie melody sung in a deep, monotone voice. It’s a strange pairing, the plucky violin with a sorrowful voice, yet overall it seemed pleasing to the audience.

At the close of “Birds,” Sandor exited the stage.

The next song Atkinson performed is titled “Old Man Song.” She gave no explanation for the title and replaced her violin with an accordion. It was upbeat, with a touch of folk thrown in. Atkinson’s strong voice was slightly too loud for the space she is in, and the audience noticed.

The chirpiness of her voice, accompanied with the insistent rhythm of her accordion, gave the impression that she is a carnival performer. The lyrics of the song were bizarre and seemed meaningless, especially with no introduction explaining the

peculiar subject matter.

Following “Old Man Song” was “Nobody Knows You Like I Do.” Again, the song’s tune was repetitive and choppy. The lyrics are cyclic and sound quite silly and shallow, despite the emotional title. If Atkinson is looking to sound eccentric then she has definitely achieved that goal, but to an almost cheesy degree. Her next few songs don’t diverge from this sound much, which quite disappoints the audience. “So Hard Living Without You” and “Only A Fiddle” are both accompanied with only an accordion and once again mimic a carnival performance that’s slightly folk-inspired.

At the close of her performance Atkinson adopted a different sound. The song was called “Mooniture,” the most well-known cut from her album of the same name. She spoke detail about the source of the song, which she wrote after being dumped by her boyfriend. She comically told us that she immediately drank ten

cups of green tea under stress and then peered into her backyard, only to see what she thought was glowing furniture. Delirious from the copious amounts of tea, she began to imagine what it would be like if furniture could be constructed from pieces of the moon, and how enchanting that would be. “Mooniture” is much more sad than her other pieces; however, it works to her advantage. Her strong voice encapsulates the sorrowful lyrics startlingly, and evokes a melancholy feeling for the entire audience who seemed very receptive to the catchy song.

It is clear that Atkinson is far from ordinary, with an abundant amount of musical talent, yet her more experimental compositions stray toward the limited and meaningless. “Mooniture” captured the best of her talents, and despite having a different vibe than the rest of her album, it’s clear that her more conventional pop tunes are where her voice can really shine.

14

culture

The McGill Daily | Monday, January 21, 2013 | mcgilldaily.com

Our romance with the “bromance” No homo, man Amina Batyreva The McGill Daily

T

he term “bromance” was coined in the 90s by skaters to describe close-knit relationships between male friends.

The reality is that “bromance” stems primarily from two places: homophobia and the growing awareness of homosexuality in mainstream culture. While Star Trek’s Kirk and Spock have one of the most iconic bromances in modern entertainment, the alternative subculture that believes the two share a deeper homoerotic bond was never close enough to the mainstream to threaten the platonic perception of the same-sex relationship in Star Trek’s original run in the sixties. It doesn’t seem a coincidence that the idea of “bromance” as a pop cultural phenomenon emerged in the nineties, just as society began to open up to the idea of gay marriage and homosexuality portrayed on screen.

People use “bromance” to completely close off the possibility of romantic or sexual same-sex interaction between two close male friends. It’s defensive and painfully self-conscious, trying to pre-empt the accusation of homosexuality before it can be lobbed. It is akin to “no homo” but made more palatable for self-identifying enlightened liberal audiences. It is akin to the phrases “man crush” and “girl crush,” used to refer to feelings of affection beyond the heterosexual norm towards a person of the same sex – feelings that are rendered harmless through the same linguistic process that makes the term “bromance” such a powerful tool for erasing homoerotic subtext. Close same-sex friendships have been around in fiction and the media since the dawn of civilization (check out Gilgamesh and his gallivanting male companion, Enkidu), but it is a special brand of insidious homophobia that takes these same-sex relationships and sanitizes them for the heteronormative audience.

The bromance comedy genre, which includes popular films like Superbad, The Hangover, and I Love You, Man, show the bromance has become laughable, juvenile, and ridiculous. But more than ever, the borderline between the underlying gay tension and the purely platonic label of bromantic friendship has become tenuous – the more hyperaware society becomes of the homoeroticism that is masked by the “bromance” label in popular entertainment, the more it threatens to burst free into unknown and unexplored territory. The fear, the unease, and the residual disgust with homosexuality that lingers in

our cultural psyche makes the bromance a desperate refuge, with the walls between gay and straight desperately thrown up. We can see this defensive rejection of actual homoeroticism woven throughout these comedic, testosterone-fueled flicks, such as in I Love You, Man, where Paul Rudd’s character goes on a series of “dates” with men to find a best man for his wedding. When one of his dates misinterprets his intentions and actually kisses him at the end of the evening, the scene is played for laughs, and Rudd is shown with jaw agape, shocked that his same-sex outings might be seen as homoerotic. The underlying subtextual tension in the movie is that within these platonic man-dates runs the sub-current of legitimate homosexual dating practice.

In today’s celebrity entertainment, the bromance du jour is the “Larry Stylinson” phenomenon of the world’s biggest boy band, One Direction. The name is a portmanteau of two of the members’ names, Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles, who have borne the majority of gay rumours surrounding the band.

The rumours were so prevalent that Louis has gone to the media several times insisting that the insinuations are ruining his and Harry’s friendship, and Louis’ relationship with his girlfriend. It’s interesting to note that when browsing comments on articles regarding Tomlinson and Styles, the most common defense against accusations of romantic intimacy is “it’s just a bromance!” Early in their careers, before they became an international sensation, gossip rags gushed over the idea of Tomlinson and Styles as a couple, since they lived together and exchanged loving tweets with romantic endearments.

Then on the cusp their American breakthrough, they were pushed under the cover of “bromance” as if to neutralize all of the homoerotic chemistry that fans had sensed between them and render it palatable for the American audience.

In the world of fictional entertainment, corporate executives have embraced the use of homoerotic subtextual tension to court fan interest in their products. The industry has become savvy at exploiting the audience’s enthusiasm for same-sex relationships on screen, whether they’re platonic friendships or ambiguously homoerotic and rife with tension. The bromance label provides refuge for these writers, allowing these series to embrace male bonding and intimacy without actually portraying homosexual relationships. It allows writers to exploit a significant demographic, mostly made up of straight and queer women, who enjoy mainstream series and movies predominantly for the same-sex relationship at its core. We can see it in the

Illustration Joanna Schacter | The McGill Daily

recent Sherlock Holmes reboot, with Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law wrestling half-naked on a train while Downey is dressed in drag.

We saw it in the popular series House, where the friendship between Dr. House and Dr. Wilson was a drawing point for many people in the fandom, some of whom seriously expected the two to get together by its end.

The idea of bromance allowed the show’s directors to publish a sexually suggestive, full-page spread of Hugh Laurie spraying Robert Sean Leonard in the face with white silly string, and render it immediately harmless by adding a ‘b’ in front of ‘romance’ in the caption: “true bromance.” It’s coy, irritating, and homophobic – and most of all, its popularity seems to be propelled

by the idea that being open about bromances, incredibly close relationships both physically and emotionally between male friends, demonstrates how open you are about homosexuality – as long as they’re not actually gay, of course!

The current MTV show Teen Wolf is an example of the “powers that be” becoming aware of, and tapping into, the sizeable portion of fandom interested in the idea of a same-sex relationship on the show. Creator Jeff Davis said in an E! interview that he never intended characters Stiles and Derek to be romantically involved. When Entertainment Weekly held a poll of readers’ favourite romantic relationship in a TV show, the magazine rejected write-in ballots for Stiles and Derek, because it’s ostensibly

still a platonic bromance on the show itself. However, the fandom interested in this same-sex relationship is sizeable and vocal enough to have gotten the attention of the show creator and actors, who often acknowledge and even play up the homosexual subtext to please fans.

These spectacles of popular entertainment demonstrate the coy and evasive way corporate executives manipulate the perception of the tenuous line between platonic bromance and genuine homoerotic relationship. Perhaps one day this will-they-or-won’tthey dance will give way, and the damaging dichotomy of romance versus bromance will be erased, along with other manifestations of the repressed homophobia gripping our society.

15

EDITORIAL

volume 102 number 26

Keeping information under wraps

editorial board 3480 McTavish St., Rm. B-24 Montreal, QC H3A 1X9 Illustration Amina Batyreva | The McGill Daily

phone 514.398.6784 fax 514.398.8318 mcgilldaily.com coordinating editor

Queen Arsem-O’Malley

coordinating@mcgilldaily.com

coordinating news editor

Juan Camilo Velásquez news editors

Laurent Bastien Corbeil Lola Duffort commentary&compendium! editors

Jacqueline Brandon Steve Eldon Kerr culture editors

Kaj Huddart Hillary Pasternak features editor

Christina Colizza science+technology editor

Anqi Zhang

health&education editor

Ralph Haddad sports editor

Evan Dent

multimedia editor

Kate McGillivray photo editor

Hera Chan illustrations editor

Amina Batyreva design&production editors

Edna Chan Rebecca Katzman

copy editor

Nicole Leonard web editor

Tom Acker le délit

Nicolas Quiazua

If the McGill administration gets its way, they will have the power to decide in what circumstances to be subject to access to information laws.

In December, McGill filed a motion with the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec against 14 McGill students, seeking to disregard several Access to Information (ATI) requests.

In the conclusion of the motion, McGill demands the authority to “disregard future requests [...] submitted by the respondents or students of McGill or student journalists of The McGill Daily and the Link (Concordia University) or by persons associated to McGilliLeaked or by persons that could reasonably be linked to such requestors,” if those requests meet one of five vague characteristics.

One of those characteristics includes being “overly broad.” Another is if the request “is associated to one or more categories of documents and information published on McGilliLeaked, a website that compiles the results of ATI requests.

Some of the categories on McGilliLeaked include “administrative,” “contracts,” “construction,” “legal,” “expenses,” and years, such as “2010,” and “2011.”

McGill will not be hard-pressed to meet these criteria should they want to deny an ATI,

effectively nullifying the Quebec Act respecting Access to documents held by public bodies and the protection of personal information.

This Act – like access to information laws across the world – is meant to guarantee the transparency and accountability of public institutions, including universities such as McGill.

At a time when McGill is embroiled in several ongoing corruption scandals surrounding the McGill University Health Centre, and as more and more allegations of corruption at the municipal level in Montreal come to light, the public’s right to know is of paramount importance.

Requesting information from McGill has never been a very accessible or transparent process. By asking to disregard ATI requests, McGill is attempting to remove one of the only avenues that journalists and students alike have to investigate the workings of their university.

The draconian nature of their recent motion shows just how shallow McGill’s commitment to transparency really is.

—The McGill Daily Editorial Board Full disclosure: A Daily editor and a regular contributor are among the respondents named in this motion.

rec@delitfrancais.com

cover design Amina Batyreva and Hera Chan contributors Christopher Bangs, Cem Ertekin, First Year Council, Michael Lee-Murphy, Davide Mastracci, Shane Murphy, Wyatt Negrini, Charlotte O’Neill, Farid Rener, Joanna Schacter, Alice Shen, Christopher Webster

Errata In the article “Campus groups organize against provincial budget cuts” (News, January 14, page 3), the sub-headline stated that “professors’ union publicly denounce decision.” Instead, it should have read “professors’ association publicly denounce decision.”

In the article “SSMU over $200,000 in the red,” The Daily incorrectly referred to reduced ‘non-essential services,’ when in fact it should have only referred to ‘non-essential expenditures.’

Furthermore, the infographic attached to the article should have specified that the revenues and expenses assigned to 2012-2013 were budgeted amounts, and that the numbers assigned to 20112012 were final audited amounts.

The Daily regrets the errors.

3480 McTavish St., Rm. B-26 Montreal, QC H3A 1X9 phone 514.398.6790 fax 514.398.8318 advertising & general manager Boris

Shedov sales representative Letty Matteo ad layout & design Geneviève Robert Mathieu Ménard dps board of directors

Queen Arsem-O’Malley, Erin Hudson, Rebecca Katzman, Michael Lee-Murphy, Anthony Lecossois, Matthew Milne, Sheehan Moore (chair@dailypublications.org), Joan Moses, Farid Muttalib, Shannon Palus, Nicolas Quiazua, Boris Shedov

All contents © 2012 Daily Publications Society. All rights reserved. The content of this newspaper is the responsibility of The McGill Daily and does not necessarily represent the views of McGill University. Products or companies advertised in this newspaper are not necessarily endorsed by Daily staff.

Printed by Imprimerie Transcontinental Transmag. Anjou, Quebec.

ISSN 1192-4608.

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compendium!

The McGill Daily Monday, January 21, 2013 mcgilldaily.com

lies, half-truths, and half-truths and lies

I6

University administration endorses ‘yes’ vote Campus publications praised for “insight and brilliance” Euan EK The Twice-a-Weekly

S

tanding behind a tall oak lectern decorated with maple inlays last Friday at 3 p.m., Mortono Joaquin Fendelson broke his previously emotion-free discourse with simple declaration: “Radiant, quite radiant.”

The occasion wasn’t, as you might expect, a lecture on solar energy, or an Art History class on Da Vinci. Rather, Fendelson was announcing the McGall administration’s endorsement of a ‘yes’ vote in the upcoming TwiceWeekly Publications Society (TWPS) referendum.

Speaking to reporters from The Twice-a-Weekly, Le Willit, and the McGall Herald-Tribune, Fendelson, renowned scholar, orator, and winner of a bronze medal in the Javelin at London 2012, said that the decision to endorse a ‘yes’ vote was easy because the “people at that newspaper know more about how this place works than we do.”

“It’s not that we are bad at running the University,” said Fendelson, who was impeccably dressed in a Jil Sander suit with tailor-made blue suede shoes.

“It’s just that there are so many

documents and emails and stuff that we have to read and some of them are really long and often reference complex concepts such as ‘knowledge’ and ‘freedom’ which are kind of too boring for me. The Twice-a-Weekly crew just does a lot of that kind of ‘thinky-assessmenty’ stuff for us, in that indirect ‘we-read-iton-the-website-when-they-put-itthere’ kind of a way.”

Fendelson, who is known globally for his excellent judgement and inability to make mistakes ever, said that, in his personal opinion “the TWPS is the best thing I have ever experienced since all of Shania Twain’s albums: creative yet sensual, vital yet timeless, spiritual yet prefigurative of a better age to come.”

“If Fendelson has endorsed the organization then you can be sure it is the right thing to do,” said Michael Sandel, Professor of Political Philosophy at Harvard University and author of Justice: What’s the right thing to do?

“Really the only correct choice to make from an ethical perspective is voting for the TWPS,” said Peter Singer, Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton.

“This is particularly the case if Fendelson has also endorsed the TWPS, which he has.”

The Twice-a-Weekly understands that McGall Principal Heatha Mama Boom had planned to make the announcement but found herself overwhelmed by the occasion.

“Yes, unfortunately Mama couldn’t be here today,” said Fendelson. “She told us that she needs time alone to dwell with and within her own thoughts at this time of spiritual rebirth and becoming. The Twice-a-Weekly has been, and continues to be, a big part of her life: she feels its echo – it’s mark, it’s legacy – in all material things; and [she] likes that.”

The administration’s endorsement of the TWPS has come as a surprise in some quarters.

“Are they trying to be funny?” asked U4 Orwellian student Jolivier Jolly Conroy. “Why do they make life so difficult for the campus press if they love them?”

When The Twice-a-Weekly put Conroy’s question to Fendelson, he replied with a chuckle.

“Oh you silly sausages! We were just testing them! All that stuff with denying them Access to Information requests and threatening to sue them and being all mean in interviews was just one big joke! We put out the hoops to see if they could do it, and they did! They know about

Illustration Amino Acid | The Twice-a-Weekly

the Law and all those old books of legal stuff better than we do, in fact! They passed with flying colours. We did kinda mess up on the whole referendum thing; we didn’t realize it would be a thing that would have to keep happen-

ing, or even happen at all if we’re honest...didn’t read [our own] small print! Woopsy-daisy! We love The Twice-a-Weekly!”

“I too love campus media,” said Nelson Mandela, choking back tears of hope.

Crosswords’r’back Thank your brilliant fairy The Crossword Fairy The Twice-a-Weekly

Down

1. Main course in a mead hall 2. Pakistani language 3. Propriety programming language 4. Electrify?

5. One who showers 6. German city 7. Not us 8. Scold 9. Finish the poem 10. Flattering poems 11. Conjugation of servir 12. A-X Gunslinger 20. You of yore 23. Old-timey beer 24. Lady Bird and family 25. Ultra Low Emission Locomotive 26. --bing 27. One Ring to --28. Sis sib 29. Nerd 30. Famous canal

31. Convenience stores 33. Help 36. -- Speedwagon 37. Toboggan 39. Agreements to meet 40. Mrs. Darcy’s maiden name 42. Decrees 43. Middle Eastern leader (var.)

44. Long flowing hair 45. -- girl!

46. Type of cheese 47. “It’s a --!” -Ackbar 48. Some are black 49. Divisible by two 50. Military cafeteria

Across

1. Boom -- cycle 5. Gamble 8. Perch 13. See one at Sea World 14. Friend of Pikachu 15. Orson’s creation 16. Brouhahas 17. Mao -- tung 18. Dutch town

19. One Ring to -21. Times in Teheran 22. Coop resident 23. Butterflies and bees boxer 24. Land -28. Mixed 32. Play loudy (as music) 33. Exist 34. Blood and guts 35. Sith opponent 36. Spanish river 37. Render useless (a screw) 38. Askew 40. Chaps 41. Skele- -42. Payment 43. Friendship 46. One Ring to -51. Trig and calc 52. Sprinted 53. Wander 54. Close-up, e.g.

55. Mineral suffix 56. Ironic homonym of ails 57. Sheafs of paper 58. This timezone 59. Writing implements