Spring 2009 OneWorld WashU

ONEWORLD Washington University ● Issue 4 ● Spring 2009

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STAFF Editors-in-Chief ZOE MADIGAN CHRISTINE WEI

Dear Readers,

Senior Editors JOHN DROLLINGER ALINA KUTSENKO RACHEL SACKS

Art Director DANIELLE HAYES

Associate Editors JOHN DELUREY RACHEL FOLKERTS

Creative Director DANIELLE HAYES

Associate Designer DeAndrea Nichols

The Washington University campus has experienced an exciting school year , one filled with change and progress. This past October, we shared our critiques of the present and visions for the future during the Vice Presidential debates. One month later, we elected the first African American President, Barack Obama. The election was a symbol of triumph and hope for many—a sentiment that we hope will linger on campus and throughout our community.

Since his inauguration as 44th President of the United States, Obama has proceeded to unveil many plans that aim to improve economic and social situations throughout the nation.

On our own campus, many student groups are admirably striving for progress as well. In this issue, we feature sustainability groups like the Burning Kumquat, local initiatives to support public transit, and Alternative Spring Break programs that serve to better the communities of those around us.

As we continue to hope and dream for a better and brighter world, we must always remember to remain focused and grounded. Just as we celebrate our triumphs, we must be vigilant against inadequacy. In addition to applauding groups that are taking action, OneWorld aims to spread the word on injustice, be it on campus, in our local community, or around the world.

At a time when many aspects of our lives are undergoing different transformations, we ask our loyal readers and supporters to stay positive, but to never settle.

with the love of a dying dragon, CHRISTINE & ZOE

Questions / Comments / Submissions: ONEWORLD.WASHU@gmail.com

ONE WORLD Spring 2009

table of

CONTENTS

A LONG RIDE HOME: THE METRO

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CLEAN COAL

45 2 11 16 22 27 32 34 36 41 48

Homegrown: Urban Agriculture Mondiale des Cultures Cancer and Social Justice Ecotourism in Tanzania Preventing Past Mistakes: Gold: The Untold Story Artist Submission A Nation within a Nation: Student Group: The Burning Kumquat Resources

Te x t by Jo h n D r o l l i n ge r Ph o tog ra p h s by D a n i e l l e H aye s

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Home Grown Think about those strawberries you bought from the grocery store this winter. If you’re not from a part of the country that is sunny and warm almost all year round, then there’s a good chance your strawberries came from a farm in California or some international location.

From seed to store, those off-season strawberries are sent from the farm to the packaging plant. Once they’re placed into the small, plastic containers, they are shipped off to grocery stores or distributors across the country. The strawberries are shelved, purchased by you, driven home and put in the refrigerator. The number of additional middlemen involved varies, but chances are you didn’t think that the strawberries’ road trip was so long, or think about their trip at all.

The average meal now travels 1,500 miles to reach your plate. Global warming, foreign oil dependence, obesity, processed food consumption, neighborhood blight, and a multitude of environmental problems covertly shadow the long trip. But there is a modern grass-roots fad that is combating these food problems, and it’s quickly sweeping across the world’s major cities and having a real impact here in the United States. Urban community gardens have sprung up in cities such as Los Angles, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Newark, Oakland, Austin, Minneapolis -- and right here in St. Louis. Started mostly by community members and not-for-profit organizations, these urban farms are blooming and getting the community involved in solving its own specific issues.

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New Roots :

create a model and community reclaiming urban areas in order to rooted in sustainability, evolution, love, and justice.

Small tomato plants and a few herb plants have always been seen growing from apartment windowsills, but since the Industrial Revolution, American city-dwellers have not provided for their own food needs in the same way they once did. The last largescale urban agriculture boom was in the 1940s, when Americans were encouraged to grow “victory gardens” during WWII to reduce the pressure on the public food supply brought on by the war. However, the expansion of the city and the recession of urban agriculture have only increased the farm-to-fork travel distance which, in turn, has increased the price of food due to the expensive cost of transport. That is why this new growth of urban farming is sprouting and flourishing in this age of environmental awareness and economic hardship. Urban agriculture aims to help people save money as well as the environment.

Community members are coming together, buying plots of land or vacant lots on their block, and starting their own gardens. Most of these gardens are completely organic, heavily compost, and are separated into individual planting areas for the different community members. But why garden? The reasons vary. Some people simply wish to provide food for their families and communities, saving money in areas where grocery stores are scarce or of poor quality. In some neighborhoods where such people have developed farms, there aren’t any grocery stores or fresh produce offered.

Convenience stores only offer processed products which lead to high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity. Other urban farmers attempt to help offset their city’s total amount of greenhouse gas emissions, or carbon footprint, contribute to a more selfsustainable city society, eat healthier, or garden for their own enjoyment. Then there are the urban farming pioneers, such as the organization Urban Farming, which have started campaigns to end hunger in our generation while motivating youth and seniors and optimizing the production of unused land

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for good and alternative energy. They grow and distribute their produce to the poor and hungry in their local neighborhoods. Urban Farming has even reached international standing, starting in Detroit and spreading all over the country and into Canada, Jamaica, Haiti and England. They have over 600 gardens and provide fresh produce to an estimated 50,000 people.

Right here in St. Louis, three local forward-looking, earth-friendly entrepreneurs founded New Roots Urban Farm, striving to “reclaim abandoned urban areas in order to create a model and community rooted in sustainability, evolution, love, and justice,” according to their website. With the aid of a few state grants, they purchased six city lots and started farming organically.

The consensus-based collective has created a farming community of all ages and backgrounds, coming together for the objectives of food security, sustainability, and reevaluating the way in which humans live their lives. New Roots has even started a youth program for inner city children, teaching and empowering them to eat healthy and live sustainably through food production and cooking. Their youth apprenticeship program, which consists of a morning workday in the farm, followed by cooking class, and finishes with a discussion on food, nutrition, environmental issues, has successfully been implemented in many cities and is changing youth views on food. The farm also donates fresh produce to local shelters, sells food cheaply to local residents, and now runs the North City Farmers Market, a first-of-its-kind in St. Louis. The North Side has experienced an economic drought that caused stores to move out a long time ago. Most residents purchase their food from gas stations, convenience stores, and liquor stores which carry groceries high in sodium and fat. It just isn’t affordable to travel miles to the nearest supermarket to buy fresh produce.

Fortunately, North City Farmers Market has stepped in to provide North City residents with a choice, and a healthy and organic one

Compost at the Washington University Food & Housing Co-Operative at that. This flourishing market is educating the community about healthy eating and also helping to eradicate hunger, accepting food pantry vouchers and food stamps. Many people and organizations across the country have took this urban farming movement to heart and continue to turn vacant lots into beautiful community gardens, bringing people together for a multitude of causes.

In areas of the city where skyscrapers tend to tower, technology has taken root in attempting to lessen the city’s dependence on fossil fuels and to encourage locally grown produce and livestock. Two very unique advances in urban food farming are in early developmental stages, but have already seen much success in New York City. A Columbia University professor and his students have developed a concept called “vertical farming,” which aims to grow crops and raise animals (e.g. chicken, ducks, fish, and mollusks) inside skyscrapers in city centers. In theory, it is a tall, 30-story transparent building which grows food using hydroponics, a solutionbased method of growing crops without soil. This innovative building would also considerably reduce the distance between producer and consumer. Both hydroponics

and reduced transport would significantly decrease our dependence on fossil fuels, which would in turn reduce food costs and lessen pollution – one fifth of all the fossil fuels used in the United States are used for agriculture in plowing, harvesting, storing, refrigerating, shipping, and processing.

Urban vertical farming, on the other hand, would enjoy a year-round harvest without involving fossil fuels in any way. This feature has attracted many people to the cause, but some still remain slightly skeptical due to the “unnatural” feeling of growing crops in skyscrapers. Nevertheless, “vertical farming” is an innovative, yet challenging project, and its future development looks promising.

Another native New York project actually has its feet in the water. The Science Barge, a new urban farm developed the engineering nonprofit New York Sun Works, was set afloat the Hudson River in 2007. This 135-foot-long floating laboratory is powered by solar energy, wind and biofuels, which are renewable fuels composed of or produced from biological raw materials. It is irrigated by rainwater and purified river water, and grows food in the city with no carbon emissions, no net water consumption, and no waste stream.

The vegetables grown on the Science Barge require seven times less land and four times less water than field crops. Hydroponics is also used for growing the tomatoes, bell peppers, melons, eggplants, lettuce and strawberries in the onboard greenhouse. This water-saving technique is possible because of the recirculation of the stored rain or river water. Everything from the plant that cannot be consumed is composted using worms, also used to feed the tilapias that are grown onboard. The fish waste then goes through a biological filter to convert some of the elements which are used to feed the plants, which plants take up the nutrients, cleaning the water for the fish. And the cycle repeats.

The barge can therefore produce both plants and fish in the same space while still using controlled environment agriculture and eliminating inputs like fertilizer. The Science Barge’s goal is to develop its technique until these efficient and sustainable urban farms can be installed on rooftops across the city.

This is yet another way the agriculture can “bloom” in the city.

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Stills from a stop animation by Danielle Hayes

ALL OF THIS FOOD WAS FOUND - in one night, in one dumpster in the suburbs of Saint Louis. None of it had expired. In fact, it was found one day before the sell by date. According to the USDA, 96 billion pounds of food end up in American landfills each year. That adds up to roughly 130 lbs of food wasted per person every year.

Yet 1 in 10 people in the United States live in households that cope with food scarcity.

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A Long Ride on the Metro

Tex t by Rach el Sack s

Ph o tog ra p h s by Se th C a p l a n

On November 4th, amidst celebrations for a new president, one event marred the evening: the Proposition M failed to pass.

Failing by approximately 18,000 votes, this loss signified more than a rejection of a bill aimed to expand the Metro and maintain its current services by increasing county sales tax by .5%; rather, it signified a communal rejection of mass transit. Some people have become disenchanted with the Metro partly because of a lawsuit Metro Transit Company filed and lost against contractors, and partly because many county residents do not think it is the taxpayers’ responsibility to bolster a system they do not use.

It seems that at the core of this loss lies an anti-mass transit mentality and a deficit in not just funds, but also in community spirit.

We need to understand the scope of the cuts and the crisis that Missouri public transit faces without communal and political support. With the cuts already in place since March 31, about a quarter of the 2,300 Metro employees are now out of jobs. Metro must deal with a $45 million operating deficit this year. Metro’s service area is shrinking by two thirds. While service in Illinois is not affected because it is fully funded, service is ceasing at 2,300 of the 9,000 Missouri bus stops and shelters. The bus fleet is reduced from 320 to 140 buses, and the Call-A-Ride service that serves the disabled in the community has been cut as well. These

changes in the Metro are not merely cuts; they are drastic slashes to a system that people rely on to go about their daily lives.

While working for the Proposition M campaign, I had the opportunity to go on the Metrolink and talk to the people who use the Metro—those who need it, those who use it daily to get to and from work, those whose livelihood depends upon this public service. Many of the people who need the Metro live in the city rather than the county, and therefore did not have a vote on the measure because Prop M was a county initiative. Instead, the people who got to determine the future of the transit system were the ones who could afford to buy cars and live in the suburbs.

Several people from the city described how they needed the Metro to get to work at late hours like 11:00 pm, yet even those who needed the Metro did not always support the bill. One man I talked to outside the polls needed the Metro to get to work but refused to vote for the bill because he perceived that Metro used funds inefficiently, a reference to the failed lawsuit against the construction company. His response represented a greater, community-wide disillusionment with the Metro system—a growing distrust of public transit and, ultimately, a failure to consider the tangible, measurable benefits that the Metro provides. State Rep. Rachel Storch, D-St. Louis, articulates the need for people to get over the past and face the severity of the current crisis:

Roughly 40,000 people in the area commute to work using public transportation.

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“...We have to deal with the crisis of today and the fact that people are relying on these bus routes to get to work... simply to live their daily lives.”

- State Rep. Rachel Storch, D-St. Louis

“Right now because of the drastic situation with Metro, people have got to put behind them whatever animosity they feel toward Metro based on the past. We have to deal with the crisis of today and the fact that people are relying on these bus routes to get to work, they’re relying on Call-ARide...simply to live their daily lives.”

Since the failed campaign, I have continued to look for ways in the community to support public transit. I participated in Conservation Lobby Day, sponsored by the Missouri Votes Conservation, the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, and the Sierra Club. In Jefferson City, I lobbied for public transit and discussed it with a number of state legislators, many of whom shared my concerns. One Republican representative and I discussed the antitransit mentality and how mass transit improves the city of St. Louis and the state as a whole. After Lobby Day, my concern for the Metro strengthened, as did my belief that despite the loss of Proposition M, a political solution could and will be found.

At this point, I realized my own ignorance regarding the politics of Missouri. To learn more about the political structure in order to be a better, smarter supporter, I met with State Senator Jeff Smith to discuss the state of the Metro and the political structure that impedes its development.

We talked about the powerful influence of contractors and highway lobbyists in the Republican majority legislature. As stltoday.com reports, Metro gets only $1.4 million a year from the state, which is less than any other metropolitan transit system in the country. This lack of funding

has hastened the problems plaguing the Metro. While state leadership prioritizes highways and roads, it treats public transit as a “neglected step-child, allowed to lurch along from one temporary, last-minute fix to another,” according to the website.

We think of public transit as a system of trains for commuters or of buses that get students from campus to places in St. Louis. But public transit is not limited to city circulation, nor does it always occur on a large scale. Washington University’s Green Action co-president Melissa Legge describes how public transit, even in a small way, functions to help the community in her hometown: “In St. Johnsbury, Vermont, we have a small bus that goes from the old folks’ home to the hospital to the doctor’s office.

It costs 25 cents. It’s not much, but people use it.”

This is an example of policy designed to help the community—one that contrasts with the policy in Missouri. This kind of community spirit is not present in Missouri.

The people who need the Metro are the ones without voices, the ones without power, the ones whom we ignore, except for when they are no longer around to help us because they can no longer get to their jobs. Approximately 40,000 people in the area commute to work using public transportation, as well as students, the elderly, and the disabled.

Metro cuts do not only hurt St. Louis, they also hurt the surrounding communities that rely upon the workers coming in from the city. This includes health workers whose displacement will affect the quality of care

in the region. There will be a domino effect of repercussions as the greater community feels the effects of the cuts. According to Ken Leiser of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, hundreds of people need the bus to get to service jobs in the bedroom communities of west St. Louis County. The middle-class and county residents will feel the pain of the crisis as well.

Residents of Missouri need to change their attitudes toward St. Louis. The Missouri legislature that neglects public transit and minimizes the interests of St. Louis reflects its constituency, which shares these views. However, the conditions of the city affect the region. Reviving public transit in the St. Louis area, as well as throughout the state, would improve the region in so many ways—socially, economically, culturally, and environmentally. An active mass transit system helps the community by “connecting people to jobs, education, retail hubs and other opportunities,” as stltoday.com reports in an article on the service cuts.

When we talk about the crisis, we forget about the basic joys of having an accessible transit system. In my short time here in St. Louis, I have come to love the Metro and what it has to offer. As a student without a car, I can still explore St. Louis because of the Metro. I get to interact with the city that I now call home. We need to embrace public transit for all the wonderful things it provides: an environmentallyconscious mode of transportation, a way for those who are less fortunate to live their daily lives, and a means of connecting people and enriching the social fabric of

the community.

Currently, there are bills on the state legislature’s floor that aim to increase funding for the Metro and public transit.

There are community activists who aim to teach people in our community about what they can do to support the movement. Green Action, a Wash U environmental group, has worked with local activists and groups this past year to help bring back the Metro and revive public transit, by participating in the Proposition M campaign, meeting with community leaders, and working to educate the community on the importance of the public transit. We need to change the cultural attitudes towards public

transit—a revolution that will be impossible without the people in our community. It is up to you, as a citizen, voter, and member of this community, to educate yourself and understand the public transit crisis. When you pass judgment, I hope that you will stand behind those who truly need public transportation by supporting funding for Missouri mass transit.

Don’t just vote yes for the Metro. Get involved. Join a student group, or go to a website listed at the back of the magazine.

Whatever you choose, just do something.

Remember that with your help, we can increase community spirit and can restore public transit.

“

True peace

is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.

�

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

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“ Mondial des Cultures”

by Sa l ly Wi p p m a n

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Each year, dance troupes from around the world congregate in one of the biggest expressions of traditional dance: “Mondial des Cultures,” or the international festival of dance. Each troupe invited to participate in this cultural conversation through dance comes from a different country with a different artistic background. The stiff arms of the Irish dancers from America, the high jumps of the Ukrainian dancers from Canada, the rhythmic movement of the Mexican dancers, and the flowy skirts of the Haitian dancers are only a few of the sights to take in at this showcase of tradition. While dancers arrive with a distinct background of both their dance and their culture at home, the multicultural dance festival provides the grounds for communication and the breaking down of barriers between fellow dancers, offering a strong basis for achieving a cosmopolitan line of thinking.

The “recognition that human beings are different and that we can learn from each other’s differences,” as Appiah calls it in his book Cosmopolitanism, is the root of the international dance festival. These differences go beyond dance technique—they exist in the present cultures of the dance groups in language, food, and daily habits. They ONEWORLD Spring 2009

become evident as the Americans eat rabbit for their first meal, practice their Spanish with the Mexican group, and still attempt to avoid the constraints of their chaperones. The yearning to forge relationships with the other dance groups and learn more about their art of dance seems to overcome culture-based walls. The festival opens the threshold by providing a key factor that all groups share: the passion for dance.

Each dance performed is rooted in traditions that have been passed down from ancestors and adapted to the individual group, contributing to the art’s connection to cultural identity. But contrary to situations of disputes over the ownership of cultural elements, the festival fosters continuous sharing and teaching of each country’s unique art form. The process of sharing dance helps the dancers move past differences in culture, adopting a more cosmopolitan identity at the festival by allowing themselves to learn, adapt, and inquire first about dance, then about individual dancers. Dancers not only watch the performances of other troupes, but some learn enough to participate in the showcases of other countries. Each dance is like a shared commodity; dancers do not claim their dance as a special artifact that

can only be touched by those of their own culture. Diversity is welcome. It is interesting; it motivates new profundities in the dance styles of others, and it starts the cultural conversation.

Each dance is also particular in its history, execution, music, and more, though none are completely exclusive in these aspects. For example, the Haitian women hold their skirts and toss them with certain movements just as the Mexican mujeres do.

The Mexicans create rhythms by stamping their feet, similar to the way the Irish dancers do. The Irish dancers form a “step-about” in which dancers stand in a half circle as one moves to the middle to perform a “trick” exactly as the Ukrainian dancers do. Thus, the roots that some of the countries’ dances share become noticeable. There may be some past bond between the South Korean head twirls and the País Basque line dances after all. Maybe not, but, at some point, many of the “dance cultures” must have crossed.

In finding commonalities in dance, the individual dancers can find connections with more substantial cultural elements.

The Mexican group begins teaching the Irish dancers a step or two, the Irish dancers reciprocate, and the groups begin talking.

They speak in Spanish, in English. About dance, then everyday life, then home. And the conversations continue. The groups become friends. They form lasting relationships that matter because in any other place, the aspiration for open communication may have failed. Even in times when cultural encounters between two governments is impossible, the festival prevails as a catalyst for conversation. For instance, the first multicultural festival I ever participated in took place in Drummondville, Canada and hosted groups from Cyprus, Haiti, and South Korea. Looking at the relationship between the United States and these countries, one may expect certain parallels between what some individuals thought about the American foreign policy plans with their country, and what those same people thought about us.

In each of these countries, the United States has played roles of leadership, support, and reliance. But despite whatever foreign relations existed, it did not seem to interfere with forming relationships from scratch when meeting those from other countries during the festival. Dancing provided a basis for sharing, allowing dancers to relate to other individuals. On that same note, Appiah ‘s book includes the extreme example that

that “it is easier to remember that Osama Bin Laden is not the typical Muslim when we recall that Eric Rudolph is not the typical Christian.” I feel that the festival takes the small-scale approach, making it much easier to remember that these people are your typical Americans, Cyprians, Haitians, and South Koreans.

Another distinct memory of mine took place during a parade in which we marched near memebers of a group from Africa. I had never even heard of the country they were from, and they wore tribal costumes of straw and painted bones on their bodies with white. But this did not faze my troupe; after all, we stood there with curly-haired wigs and strange, bright dresses. Instead of judging, we learned. We used their props which looked like long spears and they would come up behind us and scare us while we waited for the parade to start. Small instances like that were some of the most defining moments of the festivals. Despite whatever knowledge— or lack of knowledge—anyone came in with about the other countries, learning became more important than preconceived notions.

The festival provided an opportunity for individuals to think like cosmopolitans and recognize the value in those of different ON E WO R L D Spring 2009

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cultures through the initial recognition of what they find significant: their personal art form.

From multiple perspectives, the international dance festivals seem to provide a place of learning, friendship, culture-sharing, and tolerance. The question, then, is if the festival’s positive qualities hold weight in the real world—or are the lessons learned lost once the dancers perform their last dance?

The biggest concern that accompanies the development of multicultural trains of thought during the festival is the loss of such trains of thought outside festival bounds. For example, do we maintain an obligation to our new friends? Once it ends, the impact on the dancers’ lives remains, but does it spread?

Yes, the festival promotes a shared identity for the people who participate, and yes, many relate on an individual or small-group basis. But it also seems that the festival gives some reason for feeling a sense of identity with human kind. Take the previous example of the African tribal dancers at the parade.

Typically, I do not think an American would feel a sense of commonality or obligation for those people, knowing nothing about them or their country. The festival opens the door for this, giving weight to the relationship between people of such drastically different cultures. But do the dancers recognize their worldliness as a way to share types of cosmopolitan thought instead of looking at the festival simply as a happy memory?

It is difficult in some respects to determine whether the international festival functions as a place that promotes worldliness only within the time constraints of the performances, or if strong cosmopolitan thoughts carry on after the festival ends.

Despite these questions, there is no doubt that the international dance festival provides excellent opportunity to spur the sharing of cultures amongst individuals.

Through dance, the conversation begins, allowing dancers from different countries to form relationships and strengthen bonds between troupes. Dancers begin to see the importance in diversity and in valuing others who initially seem very different from them.

People of all different races and ages come as members of dance troupes, but they leave members of the world, singing together that one day, as John Lennon’s song goes, “the world will live as one.”

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cancer &

social justice

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fighting cancer , fighting injustice Cancer itself is an unjust killer. It can strike anyone at any age at any time. According to the American Cancer Society, one in three Americans will suffer from cancer at some point throughout their life. Falling just behind heart disease and ahead of cerebrovascular disease, cancer is the number two cause of death in the United States. Each year, cancer takes the lives of more than half a million Americans, accounting for nearly a quarter of all deaths in the United States.

The American Cancer Society also states that cancer rates in the United States peaked in 1990 for men and 1991 for women. As of 2004, the cancer death rate had decreased 18.4% for men and 10.5% for women.

These changes have marked significant strides and advancements in both the detection and treatment of cancer. However, the advances in detection technologies and treatments have not reached all Americans at equal rates.

In the United States and around the world, different demographics face different risks of cancer. Specifically, low income individuals, minorities, individuals with learning and or physical disabilities, those suffering from mental illness, and those who reside in rural communities all face an increased risk of death from cancer.

Between 2000 and 2004, 321.8 out every 100,000 black Americans died of cancer; during that same time period, 234.7 out every 100,000 white Americans died of cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.

This means that black Americans are 27% more likely to pass away from cancer than the average white American.

Similarly, the American Cancer Society reports that in 2006, 54% of men ages 50 and older were screened for prostate cancer. However, of those with less than a high school education, only 40% were screened, and even more alarming, of those without health insurance, only 27% were screened.

This data highlights the inequitable distribution of cancer care in the current healthcare system. These discrepancies suggest the need for funds to go beyond researching cancer technologies. The easiest way to decrease morbidity would be to increase awareness about cancer and to educate all communities about how and when to get tested and screened for different cancers. By focusing on education and screening, we will be able to catch cancer earlier—a factor that singlehandedly leads to higher treatment success.

Likewise, treatment access is a major issue.

For many Americans, the cost of cancer treatment is not only daunting, but out of reach. The U.S. Census

Bureau estimates that there are approximately 47 million Americans without health insurance. For these Americans, paying for treatment out of pocket is nearly impossible. For example, in Maryland, the average cost of treating cancer is $20,000 per year.

This year, several legislators from Maryland decided to take on the socioeconomic divides that plague cancer treatment by introducing House Bill 181 and Senate Bill 487, titled the Maryland Cancer Treatment Program. This program is rooted in the ideology that all people deserve the right to cancer treatment regardless of socioeconomic status. As such, the bill will provide cancer care to uninsured residents below the federal poverty level. Further development of programs like this and increased attention to cancer education throughout our community will help remedy some of the injustices that surround this disease.

This past semester, OneWorld sponsored a Relay for Life team. Relay for Life is the American Cancer Society’s signature event, which typically takes place at a local sports field or park and lasts from six to twelve hours.

In preparation for the event, each team raises money for the foundation and commits to walking around a track throughout the night, to symbolize the tenuous battle that all those affected by cancer face. The funds raised for the event go to fund the development of new technologies, research, advocacy, and patient services.

Each Relay for Life event typically features a keynote speaker—a survivor who is there to share his or her story. This year, the Washington University Relay for Life committee found Tony Perolio, a current Wash U student and leukemia survivor to speak at the event.

In the days preceding the event, however, Tony suffered an infection precipitated by his weakened immune system and couldn’t speak at the ceremony. Graciously, his fiancé Jessica Krusemark volunteered to deliver his speech. Everyone on our staff was so touched by Tony’s story that we were inspired to write a feature on the injustices of cancer. We also requested to reprint Tony’s speech, so that all of our readers could be touched by this inspirational and moving description of our classmate’s battle against cancer. I hope that you take the time to read Tony’s speech and reflect upon our community’s role in this struggle for health and justice.

We are OneWorld, so let’s fight the battle against the injustices of cancer because together we are stronger.

Together we can help those in our community and all other communities overcome the perils of this merciless disease.

- Zo e M a d i ga n p h o to s by A lwy n L o h

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foreword by tony’s

fiancée jessica

krusemark

A couple months ago, my fiancé, Tony Perolio, a very enthusiastic boy, called me just to announce that he was asked to give a speech at Relay for Life. He was so excited and so incredibly honored. First of all, he loves talking. Period. Secondly, he revels in every chance he has to make people tear up. Thirdly, and most importantly, he truly sees his personal struggle as a learning experience and sincerely desires to share his life lessons with others, so that their lives might be bettered, even if in a very small way.

Tony wrote the speech I am going to read to you in a few minutes a couple weeks ago.

He spent time revising, editing, deciding what to take out and what to leave in. He wanted his message to be direct, while also giving you an idea of what kind of man he is, outside of the cancer.

Tony is unable to attend this event today because he is in the hospital. Very suddenly, because of his lowered immune system, he caught an awful respiratory virus, which requires him to be closely monitored and on oxygen, for we don’t know how long. He was very sad he could not give his speech today because this message is so important to him.

I assured Tony that the speech would be read; the message would get out. More so, perhaps, than the speech I am about to read, Tony’s message will be relayed by his personal testament. Whether you have had the privilege to meet Tony or not, his story is one of hope and inspiration. Him being unable to give this speech today makes his testament all the more real: This fight is not over. We are not finished.

I will now read what Tony wrote for this special occasion. Please hold it in your hearts as you pass through the night on your very noble journey.

TonyR Perolio’s speec h L 2009

“

e l ay f o r

Hello everyone. My name is Tony Perolio.

I’m a last semester senior in engineering here at Wash U. Tonight, I would like to talk to you about appreciation—on many levels. Before I do that however, it would help to tell you a bit about my history. You most likely don’t know me because I do not have a typical Wash U background.

WAY back in the summer of 2000, I graduated high school. I enlisted in the military in 1999, when I was only a junior.

I itched for adventure and to serve my country; I was just waiting to graduate. I left for service in July of 2000. I planned on taking college classes while being in active duty, however rigorous training and constantly changing deployment schedules made that impossible. I made the best of my time though; I had amazing experiences and met great people. I spent almost all of 2003 in Iraq. So, I was there at the beginning of it all. I was honorably discharged in July of 2004 as a sergeant.

I was so happy. I was a free man!

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ife

Don’t get me wrong; I was very proud of my service and had no regrets, but I was beyond eager to get back into academia and get my degree. I could finally be on my own schedule, in control of my own life. I applied and was accepted for the UMSL/ WASH U joint engineering program before I was even discharged. I got home and I was like a hyperactive little boy—a 22 year-old little boy. Excited by everything! I was more active than ever. I ran every morning and most nights. I was an avid climber, sneaking away to a camping-climbing weekend whenever possible. I played drums in a band. I caught up with all the friends I had left and made new friends. I felt that I could finally do everything I wanted to do (that I had waited 4 years to do) and I could do it all on my own terms. I felt as if I was finally in charge of my future.

During the fall semester of 2006, everything was going wonderfully. I was getting ready to transfer full time to Washington University. That October though, I started to

notice strange things happening in my body.

My typical runs, ranging anywhere from 3 to 20 miles, became more difficult every day.

Each day, I became more easily exhausted.

My eyes were severely sensitive to daylight.

Walking upstairs was a feat in itself. My selfdiagnosis was Mono and I thought that all I needed to do was tough it out. It wasn’t until my family saw me on Thanksgiving Day that I began to think it was perhaps something more. The minute they took a look at me, they ordered me to go to the doctor: immediately.

I went the next day and the doctor seemed initially confounded as she drew some blood and prescribed some antibiotics as a vague catch-all plan. The next day, the blood results came back and I was ordered to return to the hospital immediately. This is the day I was diagnosed with Acute Leukemia, or “ALL.” My family was in shock. I was in shock.

That’s not possible… How could that be possible? I ate better than anyone I knew.

I ran several miles a day. I climbed difficult routes. I was not a smoker. I hardly ever even

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had a drink! How could this be possible?

The answer? It turns out that Leukemia is a random attacker. Indiscriminant. Unbiased. As far as the medical community knows today, any given person in the world has the same chance of getting this disease at any given point. There is no certain-known cause for it.

Three weeks before finals in 2006 (so close to finishing!), I was pulled out of classes and admitted into Barnes Jewish Hospital. I underwent heavy chemotherapy for a month and was allowed to go home right before Christmas. I spent the next several months healing and recovering. It was boring, but I was secretly thankful for a forced break from school.

The initial heavy treatment put me into remission, but it did not cure me. Doctors told us very early on that a stem cell transplant is the only way to be “cured.” So, although disappointing, it was no real surprise in March 2007 when I relapsed. Each day was a race against time to find a donor. It’s a grueling race in which the cancer patient is powerless, yet their fate rests entirely on the results. After two possible donors fell through, and at the last second, I finally received an adult stem cell transplant from an unrelated donor in May of 2007.

My initial heavy treatment was physically a cakewalk compared to the new healing I struggled through.

Without going into details, when you get a stem cell transplant, your body is literally reborn from the inside out. With enormous support from my fiancé, family and doctors, I slowly healed over the summer of 2007. So amazing was my support that I was actually able to reattend the classes I was pulled from in late 2006 and finished them the fall of 2007. My hair was still patchy and only starting to grow back in.

Over Christmas break of 2007, I finally applied to Washington University as a transfer student and here I am. All things considered, I have recovered very well.

According to my doctors, this is most likely due to my health before I was diagnosed. I’m not out of the woods yet, but every day I take one more step further from relapse.

My life has changed permanently. I will experience complications and (what I like to call) “annoying” after-effects, most likely for the rest of my life. Even, now, as Jessie speaks, I am stuck at Barnes with a lower respiratory virus because my immune system is suppressed. I do not know how long I will have to stay, and my life might always be this unpredictable. However, even after all the past obstacles, the present one I am fighting now, and the future ones that are to come, I do not complain. In fact, I am grateful. Beyond grateful.

Actually, “grateful” in comparison to what I feel in my heart is a measly word that doesn’t begin to describe my appreciation.

50 years ago, 30 years ago, less, I would not have

lived far past my diagnoses. In fact, I would have died several days later. Exponential acceleration in medical advances saves hundreds of thousands of people a year and survivorship grows even larger every year.

You know my story now, so put yourself in my shoes.

Think about your family, your friends, your parents, your husband, your wife, girlfriend, boyfriend, best friend.

Think about all the people in your life who would be devastated by your diagnoses. This was the hardest part for me. I always felt that I actually had the easy part of the whole process. All I had to do was obey doctor’s orders and deal with the disease. My faith allowed me to be surprisingly OK with whatever outcome; I did not fear for my own life. I was not ok, however, with seeing my parents, friends, and the woman who would later become my fiancé, totally petrified and inconsolable.

This was the unbearable part for me and it was for all of them that I prayed I would make it through.

This is where you may start to see my appreciation rise above all the frustration and confusion. Before I got sick, the word “Leukemia” was never even in my vocabulary! Never in my worst dreams did I imagine I would get cancer! It wasn’t even a possibility. But it was; and I did get sick. I didn’t know it, but there was a whole network ready for people exactly like me: doctors, hospitals, patient advocacy services like the American Cancer Society and the Gateway Leukemia Society here in St. Louis; they had everything covered.

Medical advances and the people who work toward them kept me with all the people that I care about and love. But funding and support is the only reason medical advances can grow at the rate they do! Doctors need money to research and implement better ways for saving lives! Unless you’re a survivor, the importance of what you’re doing here today is so much bigger than most of you can imagine.

I’m a senior with an overwhelming workload, and even I forget to stop and simply appreciate. We all need to take the time to appreciate what we have. Appreciate your health now! The air that you breathe, the fact that you can run! or walk! or roll! or whatever! around this track tonight. All these little things in life are not little, they are not insignificant. You can, and you should, take all the steps to stay as healthy as you can, but you can’t control everything. Take comfort in knowing that should the day ever come where what happened to me should happen to you, or someone you love, doctors are ready to help you. Nurses are ready to help you. Numerous patient advocacy programs are ready to help you. Your friends and family will be there. Medical knowledge advances as we speak! It all starts here. And I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart… because YOU were all saving me before I even knew I would need you. Thank you.

”

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EXPLORATION & EXPLOITATION: A Photographic Study of Ecotourism in East Africa

by Jo h n De l u re y My Tanzanian experience was a mixture of ecotourism and cultural exposure. I am fortunate enough to have a family who loves to travel, so I wasn’t too surprised when my family announced that our next big trip was to East Africa in the summer of 2007. We were to spend a week and a half in the country: partly spent immersing ourselves in the Maasai culture, and partly spent on safari. My first impression upon arrival was sheer awe at the sublimity of the landscape and its people, something I attempted to capture in the first couple of pictures of the series. After spending time with the Maasai, however, I realized that something was not quite right. The Maasai were uneasy around us at best, angry at us at worst. I began to notice a trend; when I took out my camera, the Maasai would disappear. It wasn’t until my guide informed me that some Maasai have superstitions about cameras that I understood my cultural faux pas. Even with my camera sheathed I felt as though I was an unwelcome visitor to some of the locals, which seemed to view us as a necessary evil. Even wildlife seemed to be averse to my presence. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was a disturbance in this land. It was not until my studies this year that I learned about the inequalities of the ecotourism industry—inequalities that I hope to expose in this photo essay.

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We were one of the first cars to arrive and see an enourmous male lion walk on scene rom the underbrush to drink. After thoroughly photographing the lion and attempting to exclude the other tourists from the frame, I thought it would be interesting, if not comical, to show the other tourists scrambling to get closer to the animal. It was not until recently that I began to think that they were seeing the same scene through their lenses too. I am in no way exempt from the criticisms of ecotourism, I am merely trying to bring them to attention.

It was still dark enough that I couldn’t distinctly make out what was moving in the grass. I set my camera to flash and snapped a picture of the plain, hoping to get a better view. What I saw were 20 or so pairs of eyes staring back at me. The artificial light from my flash interrupted the natural dawn of the landscape. It could be argued that tourists are more disruptive to the land than the native inhabitants.

These Maasai had never seen a video camera before, so it was a novel experience for them to see themselves on screen. Such technologies are sure to widen the already vast gap between the local people and tourists. While some enjoyed the new technology, others were apparently jealous and resentful of this cultural disturbance. The Maasai certainly should have the right to choose whether to modernize, but we need to revise the tourism industry to converse on a more equal playing field. The current model not only displaces people from their traditional lands, but also puts them on display for tourists.

“It is impossible to separate milk and water,

so as to separate the Maasai people from wildlife and habitat conservation” -Maasai Saying

Ecotourism is often viewed as a win-win scenario; the natural splendor of the ecosystem is preserved and the local people receive economic benefits from the tourism industry. Unfortunately, this conception is misguided, if not wholly unfounded. The more likely scenario is that the local people are displaced from their traditional lands and receive very few benefits. The land that was once prime grazing land for their livestock is now completely off limits under the title of “Game Reserve.” These are often the most productive savanna, land that the Maasai now need to pay an entrance fee to access. When I visited the Serengeti and Ngorongoro parks, I perceived an uncanny feeling of emptiness. We were in what seemed to be paradise on Earth (one of the spots on our trip was aptly named the “Cradle of Life”), and the only humans I saw were western tourists in Range Rovers. I soon learned that the Maasai are not allowed in the reserves. Wouldn’t the native people be an important aspect of the landscape? After all, they have lived in harmony with the local wildlife for centuries.

Ecotourists visit the third world to see nature at its best, as it was before humans had their “corrosive” influence on it. The truth is, however, that this is not a realistic view of nature. While it is true that certain forms of human influence can be destructive to the environment, the indigenous people are often a harmless, if not integral, part of the ecosystem. The Maasai, for example, have cultural traits that have given them a sense of environmental harmony. For them, it is taboo to eat game meat and they do not fence off land as those from many other cultures do. They understand that the ecosystem relies on migrations, so they migrate with their cattle to avoid exhausting any one location of its resources. If anything, the

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Maasai are stewards of the land. So why are they not allowed to live on the reserves? This is because the ecotourism industry relies on the continuation of the “untouched nature” paradigm.

This is not to say that ecotourism is entirely a pure evil. “Ecotourism is neither black nor white,” says Dr. Joshua Lockyer, a cultural anthropologist and professor in the Department of Anthropology.

The importance of conservation should be mostly self-evident, and ecotourism also promotes a greater understanding and appreciation of how fragile our natural world is. My trip to Tanzania was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. I am only suggesting that we rethink our current view of ecotourism to include the native people. In this way, we can continue to explore other cultures and lands without exploiting them.

PREVENTING PAST MISTAKES:

Did the Israeli Defense Forces Justifiably Kill Civilians?

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by D e bora h L e wis Last December, Israeli Prime Minister Olmert issued the start of Operation Cast Lead (OCL)—which attempted to destroy Hamas rocket hideaways situated in the Gaza Strip. 1 Three weeks later, the conflict ended, but left 1,300 Palestinians dead: including 315 children. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) left behind corpses of entire families in the rubble of their former houses. Prime Minister Olmert defended his decision on December 27, 2008, by insisting that “the lives of Israelis are not forfeit, and Israel will not hesitate to respond to any acts of aggression against it.” Prime Minister Olmert here refers to the 80 rockets fired by Hamas into southern Israel, targeting civilian areas.The Palestinian-Israeli conflict involves an unfortunate, long history of civilian casualties on both sides, which can be justified by any number of previous deaths. The question becomes whether

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in this instance the IDF committed a war crime; are civilian deaths from Operation Cast Lead justifiable?

The International Criminal Court defines war crimes relating to civilians through the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Such conventions have been agreed upon by most nations including Israel so they should be judged based on their own standards. According to the Fourth Geneva Convention (GC), war crimes against civilians “[are] committed as part of a plan or policy or on a large scale [which includes]…violence to life, health and physical or mental well-being of persons, in particular murder.” However, the civilian deaths only form an accidental criterion for war crimes. The Nuremberg trials clarified this point by showing that civilian deaths only qualify as war crimes if they lack military justification. The trials recognized that militaries at war can justifiably target schools, houses, and the like assuming they pose a military threat.

The courts recognized that the Geneva Convention entailed that “such attacks only become war crimes if the extent of collateral damage to civilians and civilian interests resulting from the attack would be excessive compared to the military advantage gained from the attack.”6 Evidently, the OCL does not fulfill the sufficient condition of a war crime which tortures or kills civilians without a military

purpose. So the justifiability of the OCL requires two necessary criteria: (1) the targeted civilian buildings posed a military threat and (2) the civilian deaths were not preventable. Even though the IDF fulfilled the first criteria, failing to prevent avoidable civilian deaths makes them accountable for war crimes.

The IDF took the necessary precautions to accurately confirm that OCL targets were important Hamas military sites. The Israeli military extensively gathered information on Hamas for a year prior to OCL to accurately identify which civilian buildings hid military weapons. On December 27, 2008, the IDF air raided 170 target sites. The pilots reported “alpha hits” (i.e. direct target hits) on buildings; Hamas reported that many of these sites included military infrastructure including bases, training camps, and police academies. Less obvious hits involved civilian buildings such as schools in which Hamas hid military weapons. It is unfortunate that Hamas exploited these civilian locations, but the IDF justifiably chose these

The physical and mental harm committed is undeniable: ON TOP OF CIVILIAN CASUALTIES, 7,000 CIVILIANS WERE SERIOUSLY INJURED AND 4,000 HOUSES WERE DESTROYED.

locations as targets. The extent to which OCL incapacitated the Hamas government clearly shows how effectively the attacks worked from a military standpoint.

However, destroying military buildings and killing citizens are two very different issues, and unnecessarily wrecking homes is yet another. Though the IDF can clearly justify the undercover-military targets of their attacks, we need to evaluate how exactly the attacks were carried out.

On December 27, many Israeli politicians appealed to the public’s pathos to try to excuse civilian deaths resulting from OCL. Prime Minister Olmert for instance stated that “Israel is not fighting against the Palestinian people, and the

targets attacked today were chosen with the intent of avoiding civilian casualties.”

Assuming this statement was accurate, the IDF must still be held accountable for the civilian deaths that did occur; these deaths need specific justifications which show that they had to occur in order to successfully carry out attacks on Hamas.

Minister of Foreign Affairs (FM) Livni similarly angled OCL as “the translation of our basic right to self defense. The

responsibility for harm to civilians lies with Hamas. Israel expects the support and understanding of the international community, as it confronts terror.”Her appeal to the international community however is logically contradictory. FM Livni assumes that the Hamas can be blamed for the Palestinians harmed in action; however, Israel agreed to the standards formed by the Fourth Geneva Conference which holds the attacking country accountable for civilian deaths that occur during military engagement.

President Peres’ own explanation was, “We cannot permit that Gaza will become a permanent base of threatening and even killing children and innocent people.” Israeli politicians clearly revert to explanations which justify why attacks ON E WO R L D Spring 2009

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Flechette shells explode mid-air to release thousands of sharp, metal darts.

“All we could see were nails… We were both thrown to the ground. She was bleeding from her head and chest.”

were called for and avoid the tough question of whether their military actions followed the international code of war to which they had agreed.

Despite the 119,409 tons of aid and 10,956,900 liters of fuel that have been delivered in aid to the Gaza Strip after the attack, the IDF failed to take necessary precautions.The physical and mental harm committed is undeniable: on top of civilian casualties, 7,000 civilians were seriously injured and 4,000 houses were destroyed. Some tactics that unnecessarily increased civilian harm included the use of white phosphorous.

A common weapon used on battlefields, white phosphorous causes serious burns and as a result has been outlawed in civilian areas as an “incendiary weapon.”

In the heavily populated Gaza Strip, the use of white phosphorous clearly caused harm to civilians. With the availability of more precise weapons, the use of white phosphorous was not only unprecedented, but was also an easily identifiable war crime.

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Similarly, the IDF also used Flechette shells on several occasions.

These Flechette shells explode mid-air to release thousands of sharp, metal darts which are about 4 cm thick. In one incident, one man, Muhammad, described how his 21-year-old wife Wafa, who was three months pregnant, was killed while walking in her backyard. He explained, “All we could see were nails…

We were both thrown to the ground. She was bleeding from her head and chest.”

Flechette shells qualify as incendiary weapons and clearly lack the attainable accuracy that could have prevented the deaths of innocent people like Wafa.

Regardless, the IDF has used Flechette

shells for years and continues to use this method unchecked.

The IDF also recklessly employed tank shells to unnecessarily kill civilians and destroy their homes. Former British Colonel Kemp in January explained, “It’s not just a matter of the IDF trying to prevent casualties, but it’s also war itself…Any military commander would tell that war is chaos. These things are unfortunate, but it’s just what happens when you go to war.” Such explanations warrant that unfortunate casualties occur as a result of the chaotic nature of war. This may be true in many situations, but looking closer at specific instances with tanks show that they were often irresponsibly employed in non-combative circumstances. For example, a civilian recently recounted sitting in his kitchen when an IDF tank shell fired through his house, destroying his house and killing his wife and four children.Many similar reports identified IDF tanks as targeting people in their

houses who approached their windows.

The repetition of tank firings into civilian homes shows that these actions did not result from a mistake. Moreover, Human Rights Watch military analysts explain that tank shells are “so accurate that they can be fired into a window from a distance of a mile”away. Therefore, the Israeli tanks were accurate enough to prevent these civilian deaths. Abusively employing tank shells to ruin entire houses which did not contain Hamas weapons clearly also qualifies as a war crime.

The Israeli government takes war crime accusations very seriously and prosecutes offenders within their courts.

Perhaps some first hand accounts have been skewed by the media or witnesses out of hatred or fear. However, Israeli war crime accusations must be strictly evaluated under the International Criminal Court conventions, which Israel

agrees to uphold. Certain civilian deaths are unavoidable in a war where innocent people are used as human shields.

Regardless of Hamas’s transgressions, however, the IDF must still be held accountable to the standards to which they agreed. This requires a serious evaluation of tactics: incendiary weapons, especially ones that lack precision, cannot be acceptably used in civilian areas. Likewise, accurate weapons like tank shells cannot be justifiably used to kill civilians and then excused as a consequence of war.

Hamas has committed many blatant war crimes arguably much worse than the IDF; however, Hamas’ terrorist actions do not excuse the IDF for killing Palestinians whose deaths could have been prevented.

After all, the Israeli military spent a year identifying which locations contained Hamas hideaways; some of that time could have been used to train troops to properly use more accurate weapons. Troops could have been trained to properly evacuate as many citizens as possible prior to air raiding civilian areas.

Besides recent UN accusations of IDF war crimes, this issue is vital to the creation of a stable peace in the Gaza Strip. Prime Minister Olmert threatened Hamas that “should the rocket fire continue, we will respond in a serious, painful, strong and

uncompromising way.” The repeating war between Hamas and Israel clearly stems from religious and pragmatic differences which provide each side justifications for their attacks. However, the war also stems from the hatred embedded in each generation of civilians as their friends and families are unnecessarily killed. While there will probably always be tension between Israelis and Palestinians, if the IDF takes necessary precautions to avoid war crimes involving civilians, they will reduce the number of people who hate the Israeli government. Each innocent Palestinian protected is a step towards peace.

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GOLD

by No ah Ro th

the untold story

where it comes from in seven steps...

Most of the world’s gold enters the market in Switzerland where producers and gold traders meet and smelt their gold into Swiss certified bars exchangeable at spot price nearly anywhere on the planet. Most of the gold comes from large industrialized mines in Western and Southern Africa, Asia, and North America, but not all is derived from such national, coporate origins. Nearly a fifth comes from bush mines–small mines in developing nations that yield gold or other resources with no regulatory standards– and other unchecked methods of production that often work child laborers in extremely harsh conditions.

7 diamond rings

6 certified bars

5 Geneva brokers

On his knees, a man presents to the love of his life a white gold ring from Tiffany’s or Harry Winston. In preparation for asking the most important question of his life, he spent many excruciating hours looking for the pefect ring. As he made his decision, he was assured that the diamond was conflictfree and Kimberley Process certified.

To reassure him that he was investing his money in a completely legitimate and authentic investment, the jeweler perhaps told him that the beautiful gold band for the ring was made by from Swiss certified bars. But what does this certification actually mean in terms of the gold’s origins?

The jeweler probably received the gold from a multinational corporation like Credit Swiss or UBS. Such major gold smelters buy their gold from large gold trading companies based primarily in Geneva, whose brokers acquire gold from different sources around the world.

........................................................

Gold buyers in Geneva are not held responsible for how their gold is mined because they can simply deny knowledge or not ask for a description of production. In an interview with The International Herald Tribune, Ba denied accusations claiming, “We don’t live in the bush, so we have nothing to do with child labor.”

But mercury poisoning can cause a vast array of life-threatening or life-altering conditions for adults, let alone a small child. Some problems that arise from continuous exposure to mercury include sensory impairment, loss of teeth, increased heart rate, kidney

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photo by Eckhard Pecher

4 chunks of gold

3 bags of flakes

2 small gold flakes

1 bags of dirt

Some of these gold buyers in Geneva such as Decafin SA or The Monetary Institute bought the gold from African gold traders from sources that include bush mines that utilize child laborers. Abou Ba, one the of few African gold traders with the connections and capital to bring bush mine gold to the world market, transfers gold from Mali to Geneva on a regular basis.

Abou Ba and other large big-city traders receive their many kilos of gold from the largest domestic traders in Mali or other Western African nations, who purchase from traders in smaller regional cities and towns. These traders have a rough life by American standards, trekking from bush mine to bush mine on motorcycles to collect minimal amounts of gold at each stop.

At the bush mine, the trader buys gold flakes from the mine foreman who pieces together his monthly stash. The foreman tends to employ young boys willing to work for meager wages, in order to help their families’ income by searching for gold flakes for the foreman to hand over to traders.

The boys find flakes in bags of leftover dirt that the foreman purchases from larger bush mines. Other than their eyes and possibly a small shovel, the only aid the boys have to find the flakes is mercury, which bonds to gold and forms a spherical orb encapsulating any nearby flake. This makes it easier for the miners to spot the flakes, but causes major health problems for the miners and their families.

.................................and what that means dysfunction, brain damage, and death. Slowly poisoning children through their continuous exposure to mercury while they search for minute amounts of gold may not be as glamorous as thinking about armed guards with captured or kidnapped prisoners of war sifting the rivers for diamonds in a conflict zone, but people need to know that the shiny metal is not as golden as it may appear. While the export of gold provides Western African countries with an increased source of jobs and income, the lasting effects of mercury poisoning on the children of the region will have greater negative effects on the region’s overall prosperity.

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“Afghan Girl”

by H a n a Sc h u s te r

This is an illustration based on one of National Geographic’s famous cover photos “Afghan Girl,” photographed by Steve McCurry, published in the June 1985 issue. The girl, named Sharbat Gula, was photographed at 12 years of age in a refugee camp on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border during the bloody war between Afghanistan and the Soviet Union. Both of her parents were killed in a Soviet air raid. The photo became famous for the pain and courage in her piercing pale green eyes, and came to symbolize the worldwide refugee plight.

Her anonymity inspired me to illustrate the photo; Sharbat Gula was not identified until 17 years after the photo was taken, when she was rediscovered and the world learned her story. I hoped to portray all the emotions of the original photo in a simple black-and-white illustration.

Ultimately, I wanted to capture her story and expression in just her eyes, which is why I chose to hide the rest of her face.

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A Nation within Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota

a Nation

by Jo e y S tr om be rg w i t h photos by Ra ina H al l In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. In 1493, he enslaved, hunted, and murdered thousands of Taino—inhabitants of the island of Hispaniola, the location of present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The historical exploitation of the first Americans has long been suppressed, and their present struggles are unknown to a surprising majority of the country. The U.S. has been built atop a history of conquering, betrayal, and violence; in large part, we’ve become the most prosperous country on earth by stealing from others. What does this mean in the context of our optimistic

ideals and principles? What does this say about the nation we’ve become?

• • • • • South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is larger than our two smallest states combined. If it were a country, its inhabitants would have the lowest life expectancy in the Western hemisphere. It is a pocket of the developing world hidden away in the belly of America. The Oglala Lakota Sioux tribe have endured a history of persecution at the hands of the federal government, repeatedly forced to sign treaties stripping away their homelands.

For example, after being promised the sacred Black Hills in the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty, the discovery of gold in the area led to our government reneging on its promise

and forcing the tribe to an even smaller area. Meanwhile, federal representatives attempted to exterminate the thousands of bison roaming the plains, in part because the herds constituted the Lakota’s essential food source. The infamous 1890 Massacre at Wounded Knee—in which nearly 400 unarmed men, women, and children were murdered by U.S. cavalry while being driven off their land—is just a small sample of the misery and suffering that the reservation has experienced due to westward expansion.

Hundreds of years later, the tribe still waits for many of the benefits (education, healthcare, and housing) promised in exchange for their ancestral territories. In some ways, their plight is another typical act of humanity’s characteristic play, repeated

across centuries and locations: conquerors advance, steal the land, and the indigenous suffer greatly. In other ways, though, the situation of the Lakota is starkly unique. Their hardship has scarcely abated; it occurs right here and right now.

Pine Ridge’s list of despairing statistics is practically endless: roughly half of its households live below the poverty line, per capita income hovers around $6,000 a year, and by some estimates, alcoholism affects the majority of the adult population. The area has barely been studied, and many of the Lakota are understandably reluctant to share information with the government. The 2000 census undercounted the population by at least 50%—such estimates vary greatly, but in the nation’s most employed state (South Dakota has just 3.3% unemployment), the reservation’s unemployment rate is at least 35% and may be as high as 85%. Pine Ridge also includes two of the four poorest towns in America.

The reservation has a severe housing shortage, as convoluted land ownership policies and a lack of capital make it nearly impossible to secure a loan and build a home. Furthermore, 39% of existing homes lack electricity, 33% are without running water or sewage capabilities, and roughly 60% are infested with black mold, which can be lethal for occupants. Every winter, residents are found dead in their homes from hypothermia, as many are unable to afford fuel for heat. A genetic predisposition to diabetes contributes to a rate that is 800% greater than the national average. Suicide rates are astronomically high, especially among teens. The extreme amounts of death and disease mean that the majority of children are brought up by their grandparents; stories of 10 or 15 growing up in a single double-wide trailer are standard. Driven by desperation,

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gang warfare runs rampant—many road signs are covered with graffiti and bullet holes—and police response to emergency 911 calls may take an hour or more. Packs of starving dogs roam the reservation. About 3,500 square miles in size, Pine Ridge has one hospital, no banks, and no clothing stores. Most residents complain of deeply rooted corruption in the tribal government. There is very little in the way of jobs, prospects, or opportunity for a decent life on the reservation.

But Pine Ridge is a land of contrasts. Mixed along with poverty and despair are a stunning landscape, a unique culture, and many strong individuals who continue to hope for a better life. While at the reservation, I met a middle-aged couple named Frank and Martha Tall Elk. In the town of Wanblee, Frank pointed out a building that looked about two thirds the size of a trailer home. It turned out that he had grown up there with roughly 12 other children: a mix of siblings, cousins, and other family members. They had lived atop dirt floors and fetched water from a pump down the road.

Recently, Frank and Martha had discovered black mold growing in their house, and were forced to move out. A doctor told Martha it had infected her vocal cords; she subsequently was unable to take medication for her other ailments because it would facilitate growth of the mold. Still, after a lifetime of unimaginable hardship, the Tall Elks hadn’t succumbed to depression or alcoholism—they spoke in optimistic tones about their love for each other and their hope for a better future on the reservation.

Pine Ridge features remarkable beauty—snowy prairie, dotted with herds of bison, rolls for miles in every direction underneath an absurdly expansive sky. Razor-sharp buttes tower over vast stretches

of desert. Its people have noble traditions: Lakota spirituality, rituals, and heroic figures such as Crazy Horse and Chief Red Cloud invoke pride throughout the reservation today. The Oglala Lakota College works to ensure that their unique language survives into the future, while providing a small amount of professional jobs and vocational training on the reservation. A handful of non-profits, schools, museums, and a college also struggle to bring change against the tide of despair that floods the reservation.

•

•

•

•

•

It was with the organization Re-member—an outreach project that gives volunteers exposure to the Lakota culture and history, while building wheelchair ramps, bunk beds, and working on home rehabilitation for those in need—that I worked for a week this March, as part of a Campus Y Alternative Spring Break trip. The time I spent there, both in handling power tools and listening to tribal elders, was massively rewarding, shocking, and invigorating. However, in many ways, it left me with more questions than answers. What is at the root of the tribe’s current poverty? Who is to blame? Can the localized and immediate support I helped provide make any durable difference in the larger picture? What policies need to be changed, what reform must come to the tribal government, and what is the essential problem on Pine Ridge?

To some, it seems that the Lakota’s enduring poverty is a land ownership issue. Since surrounding non-reservation counties have similar population densities, and are largely supported by agriculture (rather than an substantial industrial manufacturing base or other source of jobs), one would think that the extensively cultivated reservation should support its inhabitants similarly. However, 60%

of land is held in a federal trust and leased to non-Indians, and of the $33 million in gross agricultural revenues received in 2002, less than a third went to members of the tribe. In fact, 20 individuals lease over 46% of the land. A paternalistic and exploitative history of land policy is to blame.

Following the 1887 Dawes Act, each tribal family was allotted a 160-acre plot of land for a 25-year period, owned in trust by the federal government. The remainder was auctioned off cheaply to non-Indians. Later, the vast majority of lands on reservations—any that the government deemed “incompetently” managed—reverted back to federal use, rather than being passed on to the allotment’s rightful heirs. Any interest or profit derived from these properties— from mineral or timber extraction, agriculture, or grazing—was theoretically diverted into a fund designed to benefit tribal healthcare and education. However, this did not reliably occur, and in 1996, a class-action lawsuit was brought on behalf of the Oglala Lakota tribe, suing the government for $27 billion. A recent decision, which has been appealed, awarded the tribe over $450 million. Policies have since been reformed, and the rents from federally leased trust lands are now purportedly paid to specific tribal residents. However, due to severe fractionation over time and government leasing rates that are far under market value, most receive only pennies on the dollar for the use of their lands. Surveys indicate that over 70% would prefer to own their lands outright, rather than have them held and leased out by the federal government.

It would seem that land ownership is indeed the some part of the long-term solution for Pine Ridge, and some not-for-profit groups are working towards it. Village Earth’s project on the reservation seeks to encourage indigenous land recovery, through policy reform and providing micro-loans to local entrepreneurs. Perhaps, one day,

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the Lakota will be able to use their land, generate income from agriculture, and the services, businesses, and other resources currently lacking will follow.

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In light of the monumental struggles of the Lakota, and the deeply rooted nature of their problem, small-scale efforts by groups like Re-member might appear futile. If the present source of the Lakota’s misery is the fact that they do not truly own and cannot use their land, what good does it do building bunk beds for impoverished children? Though this sort of on-the-ground humanitarian work will never solve the world’s troubles, I believe that it does accomplish something tangible and meaningful in the meantime: without Remember, a significantly greater amount of kids would be sleeping on the ground tonight. Without the wheelchair ramps, some larger number of disabled people would risk accident attempting to leave and enter their homes. Though it is tempting to be overwhelmed by the big picture of Pine Ridge, and as a result, shun hands-on aid and other miniscule steps towards improvement, we ought not to forget about the individuals that currently live under the regime of poverty and can be immediately helped by our actions.

Further questions about the efficacy and value of service and humanitarian relief remain. Most salient is the criticism that handouts do more harm than good, that supporting others only makes them unable to support themselves, and that, though dire

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circumstances may force them to seek help, receiving it robs them of their dignity. It must be difficult to see a cheerful group of white college students install bunk beds for your children when you can’t afford them yourself. By giving charity, performing service, and making ourselves feel good, maybe we’re further damaging the psyche of those who have suffered so much already.

I don’t have a certain answer to this question, and I struggle with it to this day. But it may be related to an idea that the director of Re-member’s described, that it’s essential to realize that the Lakota’s struggle is our struggle. We shouldn’t go help because it’s a virtuous act of charity, but because accepting a world where an entire people live nearby without adequate housing, healthcare, or opportunity constitutes an acute failure on our part. Perhaps, after establishing comfortable and prosperous lives in a nation built in part on a history of wrongs, we have some obligation to set things right. Maybe the true measure of our society’s success isn’t the height of our pinnacles of achievement and affluence, but the depths of our most glaring atrocities. Homelessness is virtually nonexistent on the reservation, because the tribe believes that they are responsible for taking in anyone without a place to stay; they universally choose overcrowding rather than letting the needy freeze outside. It may be time to recognize that our responsibilities ought to extend similarly. Thirteen children growing up in an unheated trailer doesn’t just say something about their situation, it says something important about ours. As the Lakota say after each prayer, Mitakuye Oyasin—we are all related.

STUDENT GROUP

mission

Our purpose is to empower each other with the shared experience of practicing sustainable urban agriculture. The garden is a place where Washington University and the surrounding community can reconnect with and care for the land. Through the work and joy of growing food, we hope to inspire responsible food practices and to provide local produce in our community.

details

founded: fall 2007 members: 40 active, 200 on the mailing list land: approximately 7840 feet with 17 raised beds crops: carrots, collards, corn, cpinach, peppers, peas, tomatoes & more work days: Saturdays during the academic year, Summer varies contact: theburningkumquat@gmail.com

locally grown, locally sold

During the school year, produce is sold directly to students and to Bon Apetit dining services. In the summer, when the bulk of the harvest comes in, students load up bicycle trailers and ride to the North City Farmer’s Market to sell their fruits & veggies. Burninq Kumquat is committed to selling in North City because there is a real scarcity of options for residents looking to obtain fresh food.

camp kumquat

THE INAUGURAL SUMMER! Camp Kumquat is a chance for kids who do not normally have acess to fresh, organic produce to learn how to grow their own food. The goal is to empower the participants to be more independent and self-sufficient, while fostering a sense of self and community.

kum-what?

Legend has it that an ancient dragon was flying over the city of Saint Louis. As he took his last breath and his ancient wings flexed for the last time, he lowered himself to the ground. He found solace in a tiny plot of fertile land just before he died. When his body disintegrated, all that was left was his heart—a burning kumquat.

(A kumquat is a small, delicious fruit with an edible peal found in China.

According to farmer Jen Swanson, “It’s tangy and delicious.”)

The Burning Kumquat came out of wanting to have a better understanding of how my actions affect the world…[I saw] how a lot of the food we eat isn’t really good for us and is exploiting nature...I wanted to start [the farm] so I would know how to grow my own food and would be able to get outside that exploitative system...

And also there’s just a joy that comes from watching things grow that you planted, then eating them. That whole circle of life thing is really great.

TEDWARD ERKER, co-founder of burning kumquat

JEN SWANSON, co-founder of camp kumquat:

It’s a community that inspires students to take initiative.

That’s why I love it.

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It feels reallyhonest honestwork. work.

It feels likelike really

TEDWARD ERKER, co-founder of burning kumquat: TEDWARD ERKER, co-founder of burning kumquat:

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STUDENT GROUP

Clean Coal noun: a marketing term invented by the coal industry to distract us from coal’s dirty roots M e l i s s a Le gge

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In a press conference last December

, Chancellor Wrighton launched a new research initiative on our campus, the Consortium for Clean Coal Utilization, and made clear his intention for Washington University to become the national hub for “clean coal” research. With this announcement, and with the embrace of the name “clean coal,” our university placed itself square in the middle of a nation-wide battle over the portrayal of our nation’s dirtiest and most-widely used energy source.

With the struggle to combat climate change in full force, the use of coal in coal-fired power plants has come under increasing scrutiny as one of the largest sources of climate change-causing carbon dioxide emissions. In response, proponents of coal use have started to search for ways to burn coal with reduced carbon emissions—or at least appearing to do so. For this, they have invented the term “clean

“We may see the construction of a coal-fired power plant on university property.”

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coal.” “Clean coal” as it has been used most recently in marketing campaigns refers to the technology of carbon capture and storage (CCS), which researchers hope will allow us to capture carbon dioxide as it is produced in the coal burning process and store it in geological formations underground. CCS, if it works, could allow us to charge our laptops and cell phones with fewer qualms about our planet heating up. This is why several scientists here at Wash U have elected to spend their time studying CCS, and this is why, we have been informed, we may see the construction of a “clean coal”–fired power plant on university property.

But CCS, which involves removing all the CO2 only at the very end of the coal process, will never be enough to clean coal. “Clean coal” is beyond an oxymoron; it’s a myth. The life cycle of coal will always begin dirty, even if a bunch of TV commercials tell us otherwise. Just ask the residents of the Appalachian Mountains, who are left to deal with the dirty effects of coal extraction every day. As long as it is common practice to blow the tops of mountains to get at the coal underneath, dump all the debris into nearby streams and valleys, and allow toxic slurries from the “washing” of extracted coal to pile up in mountaintop impoundments, it is very, very clear that coal can never be “clean.”

When I first learned about mountaintop removal coal mining in an environmental studies class a couple of years ago, I was left in disbelief. I thought back to a road trip I had taken with my dad through West Virginia when I was 14 years old. The Appalachian landscape impressed me with its gentle mountains stretching on forever. It was overwhelming in its greenness, its valley towns dwarfed by the endless expanse of rolling forests. The thought of someone turning this sylvan landscape into a rocky desert, a bastardized Utah, struck me as sacrilegious. And all in the name of extracting coal in the cheapest way possible? Unthinkable.

Yet every day, Appalachia’s mountains are emptied of their coal

Photos (left to right): 1) Most of the coal from mountatintop removal mines is used to generate electricity. In the US, 51% of electricity comes

from coal burned in power plants like this one, though a small percentage of national coal supplies come from mountaintop removal. 2) Smoke rises as

mining companies burn the nearby forest in preparation for expanding this mountain top removal mine. State and federal agencies estimate that over 700,000 acres of land in West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee have been impacted by mountain top removal (MTR) coal mining. 3) Sludge dams like this one pose a large risk

to communities near mountain top removal coal mines. They often leak toxic coal sludge into groundwater, and sometimes fail, dumping thousands of gallons of coal sludge into the valleys below them. (Below) An aerial view shows a bleak landscape created by MTR coal mining. Coal from MTR mines in this area near Rawl, West Virginia, has been burned in power plants in the St. Louis region.

by trainloads and truckloads, leaving behind wasted landscapes and devastated communities. And these communities are plagued by their disappearing mountains in more ways than just an ugly view. Wells run dry or become polluted by leaky impoundments of toxic sludge, a byproduct of the coal mining processes. High rates of cancer and other diseases caused by environmental toxins are concentrated around these mining sites.

Blasting releases dangerous debris, like the 1,000 pound boulder that crushed a sleeping 3-year-old boy in his bedroom in 2004. The complete removal of all vegetation from these mountains causes disastrous and frequent flooding in nearby communities. This is how slurry pits can fail—sometimes with disastrous results. In Kingston, TN, for example, over a million gallons of toxic sludge flowed out over the city from a neighboring sludge impoundment, covering the ground with up to six feet of sludge last December.

All of this environmental damage has been done in the name of eliminating coal jobs. You don’t need as many coal miners as you used to when you just eliminate the mountain top and scoop all the coal out.

You just need a lot more dynamite. The Appalachian coal regions have seen a steady decline in employment even as they have seen coal production ramping up. These coal counties face some of the highest poverty rates of the entire country, which of course makes it difficult to resist the mountaintop removal juggernaut. Clearly, the coal industry has not been kind to these communities.

If you think you have no connection to mountaintop removal coal mining, think again. Our local power provider, Ameren UE, operates a power plant in St. Charles County, the Sioux power plant, which has been known to burn coal from the mines near Black Mountain, Virginia, where the boy was killed by that boulder five years ago. It has also purchased coal from the mines near Rawl, West Virginia, where wells violate standards for arsenic, lead, iron, aluminum, beryllium, ON E WO R L D Spring 2009

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Aerial view of mining site: here, mining companies have removed all trace of the forest that once covered this mountain, as well as a good portion of the mountain itself.

The thought of someone turning this sylvan landscape into a rocky desert, a bastardized Utah, struck me as sacrilegious. photos and captions by Kent Kessinger. More works at www.kentkessinger.com

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barium, manganese and selenium. Even hundreds of miles away, in St. Louis, Missouri, we are part of the mountain top removal system.

Policymakers are beginning to reign in this dirty practice. After years of looking the other way, the EPA announced on March 24th that they would suspend permits for mountaintop removal coal mines in order to investigate its effects on streams and wetlands. Some states are going even further: Georgia and North Carolina both have bills on the floor in their state legislatures banning the use of mountaintop removal coal in the power plants of their states.

With this legislation, these states are beginning to recognize the fact that coal can never, ever be “clean.” When its extraction causes such extreme environmental devastation in the mountains of Appalachia, simply removing the carbon dioxide at the end of the process isn’t going to be enough to “clean” it up. “Clean coal” does not and cannot exist. Our own Consortium for Clean Coal Utilization, by connecting the Washington University name with such a contested term, clearly has political implications beyond our role as a research institution. We are on the wrong side of this battle over coal’s public image.

Furthermore, considering coal’s environmental costs, it is clear that carbon capture and sequestration could only ever be an interim solution. It would be much more inspiring to me if our university had chosen to be the nation’s hub for research in true solutions— solutions in renewable energy. To echo Henry Robertson, vice-chair of the Missouri Sierra Club, the best way to sequester carbon is to leave it in the ground and look instead to renewable power and energy conservation to power our future.

what now?

resources for the inspired

You can start by going to the website for Citizens for Modern Transit, http://www. cmt-stl.org/, or by joinging student group Green Action on campus. To strengthen your background knowledge, many aspects of the article on the Metro was supported with statistics from stltoday.com

read up on Israel and Palestine

get involved with public transit “Another ‘Painful’ Gaza War on the Horizon?” Press TV Bell, Bethany. “Who Can Probe Gaza war crime claims?”

Dahli. “Operation Cast Lead” Jewlicious.

“Israel strikes back against Hamas terror infrastructure in Gaza” Israeli Diplomatic Network Katz, Yaakov. “A Year’s Intel Gathering Yields ‘Alpha Hits’” Israel JPost.

Kafala, Tarik. “What is a War Crime?” BBC News.

Kemp, Richard. “Gaza Conflict: Israel Continues offensive Despite UN Resolution” BBC News Maqbool, Aleem. “Gaza Case Studies: Weapon Use” Montell, Jessica. “An Israeli View: Ensuring accountability” Palestinian-Israeli Crossfire.

Pike, John. “Operation Cast Lead.” Military.

Tavernise, Sabrina. “U.N. Warns of Refugee Crisis in Gaza Strip.” The New York Times.

“Humanitarian Aid Continues under rocket and mortar fire” Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“War Crimes” American Radio Works Justice on Trial

S upport the spread of social justice issues Proceeds from OneWorld’s annual fundraiser with As You Wish Imports vendors both supports fair trade workers from Guatemala and helps the OneWorld staff print magazines and spread the word on social justice issues. Beautiful jewelry, scarves, and more make perfect presents for a beautiful cause. Keep an eye out for our fundraiser this coming fall!

As You Wish Imports

fair trade

sale

September 21-25, Danforth University Center

HOPE. DREAM. REMEBER.

social justice