The Eye May 10, 2007

theeye Singapore American High School

by Amanda Tsao and Rhoda Severino exhausted SAS freshman Max SAS. Joint IASAS a gen- race, “Usually the schools gang up on Shaulis laid down on the track while his teammates and fellow competitors SAS,” she said. eral success with a congratulated each other. Seeing After ISM badminton player Shaulis was still on the ground, Rafael Laperal lost a close game few hiccups on the that teammate Adam Anderson and ISM to SAS badminton captain Wilson

Permit # MICA (P) 054/10/2007

runner Jimmy Go walked over to check on him and helped him up.

Meanwhile, at the ISM vs. SAS girls softball game, SAS spectators were jeering at the ISM batter, yelling at her to swing—always at the wrong time.

Spectators and competitors voiced different opinions on the sportsmanship during the competition.

“I love how when you’re starting a race and lining up with all these people you don’t know, and someone turns to you and wishes you good luck,” TAS runner Stella Fischl said.

“There’s a lot of that going on.”

Fellow TAS runner Tiffany Lin described an incident when the ISM team altered the TAS cheer by replacing “Tigers” with “Bearcats.” She said that cases of bad sportsmanship have been rare.

“I think it’s a pretty isolated situation,” she said.

Lin added that she did not notice any of the usual animosity towards

Exploring unlikely coincidences and unexpected reconnections. on pages 6 - 7

May 10, 2007/vol. 26 no no. 7

SAS hosts all third season sports for IASAS 25th anniversary

“Naga, naga, naga! Oy, oy, oy!”

“Eagles, Eagles, Eagles!”

Six IASAS teams chanted their school cheers all at once, trying to drown each other out while their mascots jumped and cheered along with them.

This competitive spirit began the opening ceremony in the high school gym for the 25th anniversary of IASAS. Executive Council President Jennifer Nockels and Vice-President Sneh Shah were the masters of ceremonies and invited representatives from all six schools to introduce their teams.

Nockels and Shah recognized six IASAS coaches who are former IASAS athletes. They also introduced Darden Eure, the chief softball umpire. Eure was an umpire at the first IASAS softball game in 1982.

Throughout the three-day tournament, the IASAS teams were seen at their best and worst in terms of sportsmanship.

After an intense 200-meter

Eye in Focus:

Hasan, he hugged his opponent, and then went up to the audience and clapped towards them to the left, right, and middle. Laperal turned to leave, but then he heard clapping behind him. He received a standing ovation.

Some who were present for the end of IASAS track felt embarrassed by the overwhelming emotion from the SAS girls track team who lost to the JIS team by one point.

“From that sobbing performance, I think we deserved less than silver because five-year-olds don’t participate in IASAS,” SAS spectator Stephen Harris said. “Not only that, but it’s become a sad tradition that the track team chooses not to stretch with all the other schools. What kind of a tradition is that? What a snobby thing to do.”

“I’m sorry, but what a way to end the 25th anniversary,” an anonymous ISB track runner said. “Crying because they got second. I really expected better; they’re our hosts. It

The JIS Dragon, ISM Bearcat,TAS Tiger,ISB Panther, SAS Eagle and ISKL Panther pump up the IASAS athletes during opening ceremonies. Photo by Judy Ridgway

wasn’t that they were crying, it was because I heard some girls saying ‘I’m going to kill TAS,’ and ‘all the schools ganged up on us.’ That’s really immature.”

SAS badminton player Winnie Tan described an incident when an ISKL badminton player screamed at a SAS badminton coach after he contested her call. The ISKL player eventually won the controversial point but lost the match.

During the ISM girls softball team’s warm-up, an ISM track athlete put on the Bearcat costume to support them. The JIS track team members responded by grabbing the mascot’s head and tossing it back and forth among themselves. They only returned the head after their coach talked to them.

Despite some unpleasant sportsmanship episodes, IASAS participants agreed that the tournament was a success.

“The atmosphere’s really good,” ISM softball player Yuhki Yamashita said. “I think it was a success.”

“It’s together so every school can support their own school,” fellow ISM softball player Giordan Almendras said. “We should have more IASASes like these.”

“If we suck in one event then we can transfer the support,” Yamashita agreed.

“I thought it was really good, the sportsmanship was really good,” JIS badminton captain Abhishek Pansari said. “The three sports together made it even more special.”

Pansari said that he was very proud of the way his team worked together.

“The determination of our boys showed,” he said. “Even though we finished fourth we almost made the finals.”

Despite this, Pansari said that the badminton finals were one of the highlights of IASAS. “Finals were the most amazing five games of badminton I’ve ever seen,” he said.

“It was good because I think we felt really unified,” TAS softball player Andrea Sands said.

Sands said that the setup of the SAS campus and the organization of the tournament helped teams support each other.

“It was convenient,” she said.

“Everything was really close together.

It was really well-organized.”

2 news

May 10, 2007

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the Eye

Colleges toughen up as applicant pool size increases

by Vicky Cheng Every student knows them, the colleges that are considered “easy.” But after some time, schools will “drop the axe” on one year’s applicant pool, making it virtually impossible for anyone of sub par caliber to gain admission.

It seems as though every college dropped the axe for the majority of Singapore American School’s class of 2007.

Each year’s class insists that their year is the most competitive and that college admissions were, for some reason, particularly tough on class of…whatever. It is true that with each successive year, competition is growing. The website collegeadmissioninfo.com attributes the increasing competition for spots in college to the baby boom for high school graduates of 2006-2008. The number of 17- to 18-year-olds is growing while the number of seats at top tier schools remains static.

There’s higher demand for any one spot available to freshmen.

Family legacy is counting for less and less as an admissions factor, even among the Ivy League schools where family legacy was, traditionally, a base reason as to why students were admitted. Many schools are also looking into making GPA, standardized test scores (SAT and ACT), extracurricular activities and recommendations the only deciding factors, not how early the application is sent in.

Applying early decision to a college is a policy used in college admission that indicates that college is the applicant’s top choice. The application must be sent in around

the end of October, as opposed to a regular decision applicant that need only be finished

by January.

Applying early decision sends the message to the college that their school is the only school an applicant wants to a t t e n d , and could generally make it less competitive to get in. However, if an early decision applicant is accepted, the enrollment is binding and his or her mind cannot be changed.

Harvard University, Princeton University and University of Virginia announced that during the 2007-2008 admissions round, they will no longer be accepting early decision applicants. Early decision was abolished among these schools because they felt it was biased towards students who were more financially able to be completely academically prepared by the end of their junior years. There were noticeable differences in early and regular decision acceptance rates.

The greatest difference in acceptance rates among the Ivy League schools according to admissionsconsultants. com was at Cornell University, with a 10.4 percent regular decision acceptance rate as opposed to a 36.6

percent early decision acceptance rate.

Boarding schools in the Ten Schools Admissions Organization are considered the Ivy League of prep schools. These schools (Choate, Deerfield, Hills, Hotchkiss, Lawrenceville, Loomis Chaffee, Andover, Exeter, St. Paul’s, Taft), all in the New England area, are historically affiliated with the Ivy League, making them “feeder schools.” These feeder schools receive large endowments from Ivy League universities to train a large amount of their students to be molded to exactly what each particularly university is looking for.

Amherst College, ranked second among liberal arts colleges according to the U.S. News & World Report, released a video of the admission process. It showed a table of admission officers looking at a transcript of an applicant.

“He got a B. Throw it out,” one admission officer said, and each admissions officer moved on to the next transcript.

T h e r e are several people who got extremely lucky during this admissions round. Senior Alvin Cheng was accepted into every college he applied to, and is planning on attending the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) in fall 2007 for a major in arts. He was one of twelve kids who applied to UCLA for fall 2007, and the only one admitted.

The UC system is becoming more and more difficult to gain admission to. In 2004, 11 out of 20 people were accepted to UCLA. In 2007, only 1 out of 12 people was accepted. UC Berkeley denied all ten applicants from SAS this year, but in 2001, it accepted 7 out of 25 applicants.

Applicants to the bigger state schools are skyrocketing. In 2006, the acceptance rate of SAS seniors to University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign (UIUC) was 100 percent.

All seven applicants to UIUC were admitted. This year, the number of applicants jumped from 7 to 28, and only 15 out of the 28 were admitted.

Senior Keri Dixon had the tough

choice of deciding between Ivy League school Cornell University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She was one of two students in all of Singapore to be offered admission to MIT for fall 2007.

“It must be really random, but it helps that I’m a girl and that I’m Caucasian,” Dixon said.

Dixon finally made the choice to attend MIT. She did not favor Cornell more just because it was in the Ivy League.

“Also, at MIT, I can play Varsity softball because it’s Division 3.

Cornell is D1 softball so I probably wouldn’t be able to play Varsity,” Dixon said, naming another reason for her choice.

Division 1, 2, and 3 is the breakdown of levels of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association in the U.S, with D1 being the highest level.

Senior Jaidev Subaiah will be waiting another year before he must sit through the application process since he will be serving in the Singapore National Service after his 2007 graduation.

“The counselor keeps all my records, and I’ll come in next year and apply normally, and ask for a one year deferral,” Subaiah said.

Subaiah didn’t apply this year because the schools he wanted to apply to didn’t offer either a oneor two-year deferral. Asking for deferrals can make it tougher to gain acceptance.

The rates have been either very satisfying or very disappointing on the whole of the class of 2007.

Gandhi’s great-grandson pays visit to middle school

by Denise Hotta-Moung As Tushar Gandhi spoke about the expectations that people tend to have of him, a 10-ft-tall image of his great grandfather Mahatma Gandhi was projected on a screen behind him.

“People expect me to be a clone of my great grandfather. They don’t realize that I am a person with my own characteristics,” he said. “I think people try to look for him through me.”

Gandhi visited SAS from Mar. 21-22 where he spoke to social studies teacher Bill Rives’ class and at assemblies for the 2nd–8th graders.

“I think it’s important to talk to leaders of tomorrow rather than the leaders of today,” he said.

Gandhi travels the world speaking to people about the power of non-violence.

“If someone hits you on one cheek, you turn the other cheek,” he said, drawing on the same words that Mahatma Gandhi used in his day.

Applying his non-violence ideas to today, Gandhi spoke on

guard SAS, as it was an example of how the terrorists have forced us to change aspects of our lives.

“They have forced us to lead our lives the way they want us to,” he said.

“When I am made to change my life, that is my surrender to [their] violence.”

The expectation people tend to have of Gandhi is one of the challenges he faces. When he first began his movement promoting nonviolence, Gandhi realized the importance of not attempting to be an Gandhi poses wiith students and Middle School Principal Robert Godley after his speech to the seventh graders. exact replica of his great grandfather.

Photo by Beth Gribbon “You don’t have to be a 100% the war in Iraq, describing it as a bullets. [The war] is not making us follower if you can’t,” he said. failure mainly because it has forced safer at all,” he said.

“When you try to do it all, it becomes us to change the way we live.

Gandhi expressed his sadness at too difficult of an act to follow and “We cannot cure terrorism with the sight of the Gurkhas that now you give up on everything. You do

what you can.”

Gandhi said he also hoped that the arts avoided treating Mahatma Gandhi as a deity, as this prevented others from trying to follow in his path.

“He needs to not be put up on a pedestal, because people then think that he can’t be emulated,” he said.

Although Gandhi is faced with high expectations, he said that his situation is not one to complain about.

“For me, the privileges have far outweighed the challenges,” he said. “I have received honor, respect and love from people around the world.”

However, being a public figure has taken its toll on Gandhi in the past because of his demanding traveling schedule. Last year, Gandhi was unable to be with his family twice during emergency situations because he was traveling at the time.

“When that happens, you sometimes regret this lifestyle,” he said. “Sometimes, it becomes a bit taxing.”

news 3 Speakers chosen for senior commencement the Eye

by Nicole Schmitz Last October, Will Norris was approached by Student Council cosponsor Eric Burnett and the Senior Student Council to speak at this year’s graduation.

Initially, Norris was afraid that he was not a good enough speaker for the Senior Class event.

“I was so moved that I felt like I didn’t have a choice but to take the opportunity,” Norris said. “It means a lot to me that I made a personal connection with the Senior Class.”

An email over winter break invited students to audition as graduation speakers. Six to seven students responded to the memo and tried out. Senior Sean McCabe was selected among seven hopefuls to be a keynote speaker. Teacher Will Norris was invited to speak by the Senior Council last October.

Student Council President Sophie Green said that the senior council and sponsors tried to choose speakers that connect well with the class.

“We chose Sean because he had a serious tone but his funny nature came through,” Green said.

“We felt that [Norris] is one of those teachers that everyone knows and likes even if he’s one of those behind-the-scene teachers.”

Will Norris Living overseas is not a new experience for Will Norris. The son of a munitions expert, Norris, with his four brothers and four sisters, lived on army bases in Utah, Texas, Washington State and Germany.

Now in his sixth year at the

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May 10, 2007

and Trigonometry, Norris is currently a Student Council co-sponsor with Eric Burnett, and is also a coach for tennis, Boy’s Basketball Boys’ Softball, and assistant coach for Boys’ Varsity Soccer.

Norris enjoyed high school.

“I enjoyed high school,” Norris said.

“I loved my teachers.

It was a place to find yourself.”

Due to Norris’s heavy participation in athletics, the Texas Longhorns fan will replace Brian Combes as next year’s Athletic Director.

Sean McCabe Speaker, thespian, and anime voice-over – senior Sean McCabe wears many hats.

Norris catches up with a student in his classroom.

McCabe is in his Photo by Cat Ward sixth year at SAS but has also Singapore American School, Norris called the islands of the Philippines last taught in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. and Vanuatu, his home.

Though he is the youngest of He has taught math Algebra I and Geometry at the seventh-grade level three brothers to graduate from and then physical education courses SAS, teachers say that there are few like indoor sports, soccer, rugby, similarities, physical or otherwise, softball, field hockey, aerobics, between the three McCabes.

“I never let myself be defined by Fitness for the Body and Mind, safety and first aid, weight training my previous brothers’ experiences,” – both for two years. Now in high McCabe said.

He has had an impressive list of school, he has taught and tennis after extra-curricular activities: Master school.

Now in his second year in the high of Ceremonies and Pep Rallies, school, where he teaches Algebra II speaker at Student Activities and

Lilo and Stitch or Sméagol from Lord of the Rings.

“I love to try new things and devote my time to things I’m really passionate at,” McCabe said. “I’d like to think that I’m my own force of nature.”

He credits high school for giving him myriad opportunities for performing and public speaking, conscious that there may not be that many chances in the future.

“I think I’ll be remembered as ‘The kid with a blazer that never amounted to anything,’” McCabe joked. “Teachers may remember me as a ‘lovable slacker.’ I hope the kids on campus will remember me as ‘that personality on campus that did a lot of things... [and wore] that blazer.’”

He found current SAS McCabe strikes a pose while taking his senior portraits. students different from Photo provided by McCabe. those of previous years because they have less the “Star Appeal” Dinner held for Superintendent Bob Gross, SAS divided social groups.

“We’re an eclectic group Singer and Yulefest King. The senior has attended both Cultural with a diverse range of talents personalities,” he said. and IASAS MUN since his and sophomore year, winning medals in “Communities [of friends] branch Oral Interpretation, Extemporaneous out in different directions, based on hobbies rather than cliques. There Speaking, and Drama.

Outside of school, McCabe is is no sort of clique that you can’t fit paid to do Anime voiceovers for into.”

Studio Odex and specializes in voices of teenage males, British villains, and comical, commercial “bubble voices” like Stitch from

Speakers’ Corner draws Art teacher adopts baby crowds for big issues

by Nicole Schmitz Though recent Speakers’ Corners have had a dearth of students sharing their views on controversial topics, participation sharply increased when more than 60 students showed up to for the recent Speakers’ Corner about gun control, on March 27.

Peace Initiative Secretary Bryan Gamble credits this sudden increase in interest to the school shootings at Virginia Tech. “[Virginia Tech] had just happened.

With our previous Speakers’ Corners like Darfur, you needed to have previous knowledge to speak on the subject,” the junior said. “Everyone has an opinion about gun control.”

Senior Robbie Rathvon and junior Spencer Anderson were outspoken critics of gun control.

Both thought it violated Second Amendment rights.

“There were a lot more people who were pro-gun people than I thought there were at this school,” Gamble said.

A month earlier on March 22, only twenty or so students were scattered around a platform outside

the cafeteria when Peace Initiative hosted another Speakers’ Corner on the freedom of speech and right to assemble.

Though Speakers’ Corner is supposed to provide a forum for multiple perspectives, Peace Initiative sponsor Dr. Roopa Dewan said that students were reluctant to speak on this issue.

“Students were intimidated.

People who usually do not attend were there,” Dr. Dewan said.

Gamble mentioned previous attempts to establish a few religious and political clubs such as “Lighthouse,” a Christian organization, or the Communist Club.

“Everyone should be allowed to be a member of anything they want to, but it needs some sort of restraint,” he said. “Where would we draw the boundary between the clubs?”

Junior Daksha Rajagopalan was disappointed when a Communist Club was prevented from forming during her freshman year. The Peace Initiative vice-president recalled that the clubs were not allowed

to advertise though the daily announcements or bulletin boards – only through word-of-mouth.

“They were not allowed normal privileges,” Rajagopalan said.

Senior Robbie Rathvon believed that not having a platform to discuss one’s views creates separation and alienation among groups.

“If you’re offended, then that’s your problem” Rathvon said. “People have a right to a secure and healthy environment, not a segregated one”.

Senior Nate Mahoney did not think there should be restrictions on clubs, “as long as they’re not overstepping certain boundaries.”

He said that a lack of discussion between clubs on key issues “makes the world what it is today.”

A new addition to the SAS community: art teacher Barbara Harvey has adopted an 11-month old baby girl, Anya Thilynne, from Hanoi,Vietnam.

“It’s been a blessing. The process could have been a lot more difficult,” she said.

Harvey started the adoption process on May 9th, 2006, her daughter’s birthday, and received Anya at the end of March 2007. Right now, Harvey is on leave, and will return next school year. In the meantime, her students are faring well.

“Actually fabulous. Her students are very selfmotivated. They are very talented,” said art teacher Cory Samson.

Samson was teaching Harvey’s classes in her stead, but Aaron Couch is now teaching them.

Reporting by Katrina DeVaney and photos by Cat Ward

“It cultivates a separate world,” Mahoney said.

Social studies teacher Michael Stagg talked about the freedom of speech within the school and the lack of the usual restrictions faced by public speakers in Singapore. He hoped that students would take the opportunity to voice their opinions more often.

“We have a Speakers’ Corner.

Not like out there,” Stagg gestured to the walls beyond the courtyard, “where there’s fifty policemen to one speaker.”

Regardless, students are still reluctant to speak up on sensitive issues despite the open environment of SAS. “We’re a safe school,” Dr. Dewan said. “No one wants to hurt anyone’s sensibilities while making a point.”

4 op / ed

May 10, 2007

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the Eye

staff editorial

American Addict

It’s addictive. It’s lethal. It’s violence.

Violence has now become a drug, one which American is hooked on. There are many factors which contribute to this drug. They include life-long poverty, hunger, joblessness, drug addiction, the readily availability of guns and the media.

“We are a society plagued by violence (both institutional and individual, both organized and random),” Arab American Institute President James J. Zogby said in his article, “Disturbing Trend in American Culture.” “Whether in the cartoons our children watch, in our most popular contemporary films and television programs, or in video games and much of our popular music – violence is everywhere with us.”

The media makes Americans generally indifferent towards violence.

“A populace incessantly bombarded with the images, sounds and emotions of shootings, bombings and rapes will become desensitized to such violent acts; or worse, learn to think of them as valid responses to life’s growing stresses,” Psychiatrist Charles Johnson said in “Making Connections: Media’s Role in our Culture of Violence.”

In the media, when the superhero is shot in the arm, he still manages to hang on to a speeding vehicle, to remain focused and calm and to kill his attackers. In real life, people bleed.

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation there are 250 million firearms in private hands and 5 million new guns are purchased each year. The National Sporting Goods Association said that most of the people who buy guns are 25- to 34- year-old men and earn between $35,000 and $50,000 annually.

Most of these people do not

eye he

t

need to kill animals for their survival.

Eleven year-old Andrew and thirteen year-old Mitchell Johnson grew up with guns. On March 24, 1998 the two boys set off the fire alarm at their school in Jonesboro, Arkansas. As the other children filed out of the school, the Johnson boys’ open fired.

Together the two boys had three rifles and seven pistols. In less than four minutes they killed elevenyear-old Brittheny Varner, twelve-year-olds Natalie Brooks, Stephanie Johnson, and Paige Ann Herring, and their young teacher Shannon Wright, who was shielding a student. The boys wounded ten other people, mostly children.

Not all violence ends in death. There are non-fatal fist fights between friends, hate crimes, rapes and domestic abuse cases. But what will happen in these situations now that the instinct of America is to reach for a gun?

It is now easier to react and receive instant gratification, now easier to hurt, now easier to kill.

The violence expressed through American culture also includes the military efforts of the Bush administration. Zogby describes this aspect of America as the violence we inflict with our foreign military adventures.

“A day after the Virginia Tech shootings, a professor from Baghdad called me,” Zogby said.

“He expressed his sorrow and told me that he understood the shock and sense of loss, the feelings of vulnerability and insecurity. ‘We have,’ he said, ‘the equivalent of three Virginia Techs every day in Baghdad.’”

Singapore American High School 40 Woodlands Street 41 Republic of Singapore 738547 Staff: (65) 6363-3404 x537 Adviser: (65) 6363-3404 x539 Fax: (65) 6363-6443 eye@sas.edu.sg

Editors-in-chief: Denise Hotta-Moung, Hot Cat Ward News editor: Sam Lloyd, Rhoda Severino American High School Op/EdSingapore editor: Amanda Tsao, 40 Woodlands Street 41Vicky Cheng Features editor: Denise Hotta-Moung Republic of Singapore 738547 (65)editor: 6363-3404 x537 DeVaney Eye InStaff: Focus Katrina Adviser: (65) 6363-3404 x539 A&E editor: Arunima Kochhar, Kathy Bordwell Fax: (65) 6363-6443 Sports editor: Barbara Lodwick, Megan Anderson eye@sas.edu.sg Reporters: Megan Anderson, Amber Bang, Kathy Bordwell, Alex Boothe, Vicky Cheng, Katrina DeVaney, Rohin Dewan, Jeff Hamilton, Denise HottaMoung, Arunima Kochhar, Michelle Lee, Sam Lloyd, Barbara Lodwick, Nicole Schmitz, Rhoda Severino, Ravi Shanmugam, Amanda Tsao, Cat Ward Adviser: Mark Clemens Assistant advisers: Judy Agusti & Sridevi Lakshmanan

The Eye is the student newspaper of the Singapore American School. All opinions stated within these pages are those of their respective writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Singapore American School, its board of governors, PTA, faculty or administration.

Comments and suggestions can be sent to the Eye via the Internet at eye@sas. edu.sg. At the authorʼs request, names can be withheld from publication.

Letters will be printed as completely as possible. The Eye reserves the right to edit letters for reasons of taste and space.

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TSAOISM

Unidentified Fluid Object

By Amanda Tsao

op / ed 5 Dangerous fashion becomes trend in bagwear the Eye

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May 10, 2007

supplies into these trendy shoulder bags. Claire Coleman of the Daily Mail believes that these seemingly innocent totes should come with a health warning. She calls the new fashion craze, “the rise of the killer bags”.

For centuries, women have been harming themselves for the sake of beauty and fashion.

Today’s tote was the 19th centuries’ corset or the outdated Chinese foot binding practice.

Along with high heels, totes are being called ‘dangerous fashion’.

The problem with these totes is their poor distribution of weight.

A major problem facing school boards in America is the issue of the increasing weight of textbooks and consequently, backpacks.

Backpacks have two straps, thus weight of the bag is evenly distributed across both shoulders.

With a tote or a shoulder bag, all the weight is carried on one shoulder, causing major health problems.

“The weight should be more evenly distributed,” said Tim Bowman, a physical therapist at

the Vaden Student Health Center’s Physical Therapy Department in a Stanford Daily article by Jessica Lin. “If the weight is completely on one side of the back and the strap keeps falling off, then people will keep shrugging their shoulder up.

The muscles on this side of the back will have to work harder to make up for the added pressure on the other side of the back.”

Tim Hutchful of the British Chiropractic association said that the problem with carrying a heavy bag is that while it may not cause you an injury at the time you carry it, over time it has a cumulative effect. He also believes that this is the cause of the increasing problems with back pain among women.

The fashionable bags adorned with the famous Louis Vuiton pattern, or those cute little Chanel totes are certainly not the healthiest book carrying choice. But then again, when have health risks ever stopped women from participating in the latest fashion trend.

“It’s the rise of the killer bags.”

Sophmores Amanda Ho Sang and Ashley McClelland walk outside the cafeteria during third season IASAS sporting their trendy totes. Photo

by Megan Anderson

by Megan Anderson In the 70’s it was bellbottoms, in the 80’s it was legwarmers, and in the 90’s it was Doc Martins.

Today at SAS we have a whole new fashion trend that has taken the top spot on every girl’s ‘must buy’ list - the designer tote substituted as

a school bag. Whether it is fake or real, Prada or Louis Vuitton, large populations of female students cram their text books and school

Wiki-wanna-work?

If you’re lazy and you know it click your mouse.

SAS students do so every day to the tune of Facebook, Miniclip, YouTube, and more, but whatever sites we visit, the name of the game is the same: procrastination.

This in itself is nothing new. Those who neither have to work nor want to can always find ways to avoid it; wandering aimlessly through the internet is just the electronic equivalent of twiddling one’s thumbs.

Wikipedia is no exception. The reason for its widespread use is primarily its convenience and breadth; on few other sites could one instantly come up with anything from the history of extreme ironing to a comprehensive list of all 493 Pokémon, each with links to their own complete article. The problem with this? “Gotta read ‘em all!” The organization of all the Internet’s information just means that work can turn even more easily intoSam play when interesting link after interesting link leads to loss of productivity.

This problem is compounded by Wikipedia’s questionable reliability as a source of information.

You might not know that there are reliable alternatives that are at least as lazy-accessible as Wikipedia. Its co-founder Larry Sanger branched off and founded one of these, Citizendium.org, which is quite reliable in that you can rely on most

of the information being copied straight off of Wikipedia. However, some material is actually original and all content is actually monitored, so beware.

Another is Conservapedia.com, where one can rely on the truth being unabashedly twisted to suit the conservative viewpoint.

So they claim; some material may actually be “neutral,” so be on your guard.

The one online source we can trust nowadays, that we can rely upon exclusively, comes by the name of Uncyclopedia.

Uncylopedia.org, in its’ own words, is “the bestest damn thing in the world since pie.” How else would you find out the “Best Cities to Live in for Warlords”? or “how to install Linux on a dead badger”? Or that life has been variously defined as “the only known STD with a 100% fatality rate” or “an FPS with worse graphics”? In other words, you can be sure that everything you read on Uncyclopedia will be a lie. Thus Lloyd reliably false.

In all seriousness, Wikipedia is not a bad starting point. According to co-founder Jimmy Wales, 99% of erroneous or vandalistic edits on the most frequented pages are fixed within ten minutes of their submission. Yet on the majority of pages, accuracy is a gamble, so don’t be afraid to give up the mouse for a book, or at least to check the sources from whence Wikipedia is drawing its wisdom.

Sam Lloyd

we got m@il Teacher laments weak Eye coverage of CC Music To the Editor: While I appreciate the efforts of Eagle Eye’s reporters for the work they do under sometimes impossible deadlines, I do take issue with the article in the March 22 edition covering the music portion of the Music and Art Cultural Convention hosted by SAS. Three days of terrific musical talent from rigorously selected IASAS musicians under the direction of three world-class clinicians were marginalized to 30-minutes of a ‘Drums Alive’ activity, which was worthwhile in its own context, the peripheral IASAS coffee house, an hour’s jam session...again worthwhile in its own context, and a single curfew violation as a consequence of a poorly-made decision.

Having moonlighted in a previous generation as a reporter, writer and photographer for a small-town newspaper in northwestern Ohio for 13 years while teaching chemistry by day, I know there are essentials that need to be covered in any story...the who, the what, the when, the where. They were sorely missing in the report on the Cultural Convention music.

Where was mention of the variety of 168 superb solo and ensemble group adjudications in the strings, vocal, band and piano divisions? Where were indications of the visible support that musicians from each school gave to their own and to the representatives from the other IASAS schools? Where was mention of the unique opportunity for band members to be conducted in a wind symphony by none other than the composer of the symphony himself, the foremost contemporary composer of wind ensemble music in the world, Robert W. Smith...or, of the strings delegates to practice and perform complex works by Enesco and Wiren under the baton of Australian maestro Philip Green...or, of the vocal delegates to work for three days with world-renowned conductor Eugene Rogers? Where was mention of the excellence of musicianship in the Festival Showcase on Friday evening or the blockbuster performances of the Festival Chorus, Orchestra and Band on Saturday afternoon?

The Cultural Convention SAS hosted on March 8-10 was an uncompromisingly huge success with absolutely NO so-called ‘mishaps’. It was truly a remarkable festival of music and art, made possible by a committed team of a tireless Activities Director, SAS music and art teachers, their colleagues from the five other IASAS schools and 156 talented artists and musicians.

Michael Cox Chemistry Teacher MACC 2007 Cultural Convention Director

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Senior Xenia Stafford and Yannick Mivelaz met at the Overseas Family School in Singapore.

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Suwito with boyfriend Lars Maehler who she met at school at Beijing in 2006.

SAS alumna Karyn Suwito with Mivelaz who she went to school with in 4th grade at UWC. They now go to school together in Beijing.

Internet increases globalization at loss of privacy

by Ravindran Shanmugan I used to look forward to holidays as the one time I did not have to compete with my parents’ jobs for their attention.

Research In Motion’s (RIM) Blackberry changed that. An email sent from Denver can now reach countries from Brazil to Singapore to China in a matter of seconds, and my parents now keep this ubiquitous black device with them wherever they go.

A relaxing evening spent sprawling on the beach will never again be just that, but the Blackberry was just the latest step in a technological revolution that has engulfed the globe.

When Tommy Flowers’ research team built Colossus, the world’s first electronic computer, in 1943, Flowers hailed the achievement as a revolutionary breakthrough.

He had no idea how much of an understatement his effusive praise would turn out to be. Junior Jonathan Zaman can’t imagine a world without computers.

“Everything would be completely different” Zaman said, musing on what he would do without computer games, Sparknotes, and online music downloads.

Senior Sean Tang says he spends at least five hours on the computer on school days, highlighting a growing trend that has seen the Internet and the global connectivity that it brings become indispensable to teenagers all over the world. Tang uses online messenger services to communicate with his buddies in China, Australia, the U.S., and Canada.

Inter-continental friendships can be maintained as never before.

With the proliferation of Internet users every year, the world is shrinking as connections are multiply across continents.

The internet has also brought with it greater global awareness. “All forms of government ultimately are not going to succeed in trying to control or censor the Internet,” media mogul Rupert Murdoch said.

Pictures of the Sudanese genocide and human rights abuses in Tibet are instantly available to billions of people. News is free and access-easy. Repressive juntas like those in Myanmar and Uzbekistan can no longer rely on the immunity that isolation used to bring, as their citizens are increasingly able to access foreign news services and read unbiased information, realising how disadvantaged they are.

“Especially with the internet, if something happens everyone knows about it,” senior Corey Householder said.

Populations in democratic countries are increasingly forcing their leaders to sever ties with brutal dictators who had been important strategic allies, as when a domestic backlash forced George W. Bush to publicly condemn Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan in the aftermath of Karimov’s brutal quelling of the Ferghana valley uprisings in 2005. This led to the loss of an important strategic ally in Bush’s War on Terror, and history suggests that without domestic pressure, the condemnation might not have been made. Successive American presidents tolerated the Philippines’ Ferdinand Marcos and Generals Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha of Nigeria,

“The Internet is just a world passing around notes in a classroom.”

It’s a small world after all because it was politically expedient to do so.

With the global connectivity of the Internet, “politicians now get caught much less,” according to Householder.

“Nowadays, anyone who cannot speak English and is incapable of using the Internet is regarded as backward,” Saudi prince Alaweed bin Talal said. By connecting and educating multitudes spanning the globe, the Internet has drawn people closer together.

“Technology is an international language,” senior Patrick McNulty said.

Everyone who has used and experienced the power of the Internet, from Mariano Rajoy and George Bush to Tang, is connected.

“The Internet is the heart of this new civilization, and telecommunications are the nervous system,” Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu said.

As talk show host Jon Stewart said, “The internet is just a world passing around notes in a classroom.”

Facebook tool for reconnecting

by Cat Ward On an SAS student’s facebook wall, a fellow student wrote “It’s such a small world huh?” in response to their discovery that they had a mutual friend they met in different countries.

A new tool for connecting with old friends is the social networking website Facebook. Many of the devices on the website, including Mutual Friends, View Friends and the Search tool allow users to surf networks in order to reconnect with old friends.

Users can add friends if they see A common feature in Facebook, ‘Mutual Friends,’ shows which acquaintances users someone they are friends with on have in common. Graphic from facebook.com another person’s profile or friends

list.

Senior Crystal Clower said that since she used to go to the Taipei American School she has friends on her facebook who still go there and she adds people that her mutual friends have on their page.

Friends can also be added if a user has a name in mind and searches through different networks.

“A friend of mine that I’ve known since I was four, I found her on Facebook,” Clower said. “Now we talk all the time.”

Clower first became friends with the person in Illinois as Clower’s aunt “used to babysit her so we used to hang out a lot.”

Senior Kezia Callahan, along with many others, has had a similar experience.

“I found my friend from kindergarten on facebook,” she said. “I was just bored one day and was thinking about people from my old school and his name popped through.”

Callahan now messages back and forth with her friend through facebook and has talked with him about possibly seeing him in the summer.

Facebook’s ability to reconnect old friends and allow users to find people who, for example, are going to the same college, is a unique

service. With the hustle and bustle of every day life in the m o d e r n w o r l d , Facebook serves to slow it down and allow users to connect with people who without facebook they would not take the time to communicate with.

“It’s not mandatory communication because if you don’t want to reconnect with that person then you can reject them,” Clower said.

the Eye

Maehler and Vlad Hird went to Dulwich College together in Phuket, Thailand for three years.

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Hird and senior Vicky Cheng went to summer school together in 2006 at the Beijing Language and Cultural University in Beijing, China.

Senior Denise HottaMoung and Cheng in spring of 2007. The two friends met in 9th grade at SAS.

Six deg-Rives of

separation

by Jeff Hamilton As high school librarian Gary Dwor-Frecaut browsed the shelves of a small bookstore in downtown Washington D.C. in 1990, a dusty pile of travel guides from the 1840s caught his well-trained eye. Perhaps it was the rarity of finding such books, or the well-preserved condition of the books, or maybe it was the words “W.C. Rives, Cobham V.A.,” that were stamped on the inside cover that compelled DworFrecaut to purchase the books.

Several weeks ago, DworFrecaut, or “Mr. Gary” as he is known to many, and a fellow antique book enthusiast dug up some of Dwor-Frecaut’s old guides. As Dwor-Frecaut skimmed the pages of the books he had purchased eighteen years earlier, the name plate on the inside cover that read “Rives,”

once again caught his eye. Dwor-Frecaut made the connection between the nineteenth century tourist Rives who owned the books and his great-great nephew and a colleague of DworFrecaut, social studies teacher Bill Rives.

According to Bill Rives, his relative was born in 1825 in a small town outside Charlottesville, Virginia called Cobham, where Bill Rives also

by Amber Bang I have often discovered that two people I have met from two completely different places and times happen to know each other as well. One night I was talking about comics with my friend who goes to SAS, and he mentioned that a guy he knew back home in Greenwich, Connecticut named John Hon was a big fan of Calvin and Hobbes. I briefly mentioned that I knew a guy named Jon Hon from fourth grade summer school, and my friend responded that Jon was the kind of guy who would attend summer school. I told him to wait while I went to get my address book, which I take with me every summer.

Under Jon Hon was listed an email address related to Calvin and Hobbes and a phone number. I told my friend the area code, which, it turns out, is the area code for his town; the next three digits correspond to the phone numbers on his street.

Junior Terence Einhorn and senior Abhinav Kaul discovered that they both knew OFS senior Mark Von Perridon through different

circumstances.

“I met Mark at a block party at my apartment when I first moved here,” Einhorn said. “And then a week after we met, we went out, and since he was new too he only knew Abhinav, who had gone to school with him in Holland.”

This sort of occurrence may be familiar to those who have heard of the Six Degrees of Separation theory. This theory was due in large part to Stanley Milgram’s Small World project.

Milgram, a social psychologist, created an experiment in 1967 to test the hypothesis that individuals of any large social network would be connected to each other through chains of acquaintances.

In this experiment, he sent packages to Omaha, Nebraska and Wichita, Kansas explaining the project to the receivers. The names of two target people located in Boston were listed, along with their addresses and occupations. The receivers were asked to send the package to a person they knew on a first name basis who would most likely know the target person. This would continue on until the package reached one of the target people in Boston. At the conclusion of the experiment, the average length of the chains was calculated to be approximately 5.5 to six people.

Despite the many criticisms of this experiment, many believe it to be true and even applicable to the global scene.

In the international school community, it is common to discover that one student knows

hundred dollars. But Dwor-Frecaut, a historian by trade, is not interested in the possible financial gains that the antique travel guides provide. For him, the books provide a more scholarly reward.

“They are glimpses into a past world,” DworFrecaut said. “[They are] great tools if you want to write a novel.”

Folded between the pages of the travel books were maps from different countries, receipts for alcohol from a private concierge, and even a card signed by the Governor General giving permission to W.C. Rives and company to visit the lighthouse in Gibraltar.

“It’s like being in a time machine,” DworFrecaut said.

“It’s quite uncanny,” Bill Rives said.

“What long odds.”

This is not the first encounter Bill Rives has had dealing with his great-great uncle.

Bill Rives inherited a Purdy Shotgun from the man with all the accessories and even an intact “Purdy” label, an occurrence that Rives shows Dwor-Frecaut a page of history. Rives said is very unusual. To make matters more interesting, both Bill and William Rives Photo by Mark Clemens. share the same name. The C in “W.C.” stands grew up. The nineteenth-century W.C. for Cabal which is also the middle name of Bill Rives spent the early part of his life in France Rives. where his father was the ambassador. In the Both Dwor-Frecaut and Bill Rives agree that guidebooks there are accounts of his travels the experience shows just how small the world to Grenada and Malaga in 1851. W.C. Rives can be at times. attended graduate school at The University of “It’s a small world,” Dwor-Frecaut said. “You Virginia in 1845 and Harvard Law School in buy books in Washington and 18 years later on 1847. the other side of the world you open them up and Dwor-Frecaut paid 20 cents for each book you realize they belonged to a relative of one of (five in total), a set that might now fetch several your colleagues.”

International students evidence of small world

another through a friend in another country or through having previously attended the same school. Since many companies have centers around the world, some students’ parents have moved from the same small town in the United States to come to Singapore.

There are even connections that date back to day care. Junior Justin Hill met former SAS student Alex Frost at a daycare center in Texas.

“Our dads work for rival oil companies, so they know each other,” Hill said. “Our moms are friends, so when I moved here my mom told me that I used to play with Alex when we were little.”

Seniors Abhinav Kaul and Julia Knight were in the same first and second grade class in Bronxville, New York. Seniors Brandon McArthur, Steven Costello, Gaby Loscalzo, junior Zack Moilanen and sophomore Samantha Tierney all attended Riverwood Middle School in Texas.

Most common are students who have attended other international schools with each other before attending SAS. Aside from schools in the IASAS circle, schools such as the American School in Japan, Hong Kong International School and the International School in Beijing support a network of many students who have and currently attend SAS. Countless stories circulate within the international community of connections that exist between all of us – evidence that the world is shrinking as modes of communication are increasing.

Hotta-Moung and Julie Stevenson in Tokyo, Japan in fall of 2002.

The two went to school together at ASIJ from grades 5-7.

Stevenson and Zahra Shah in Bradenton, Florida in fall of 2006. The girls were roommates at the IMG sports boarding school together at IMG.

Senior Xenia Stafford and Shah met in 2000 through mutual friends from the Overseas Family School and Tanglin School.

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Home IASAS brings talk of missing class

by Rohin Dewan A large number of students, both athletes, participants, and volunteers, took time out of classes to attend the IASAS Cultural Convention and the twenty-fifth IASAS anniversary.

While the majority of teachers are supportive of extracurricular activities, there are some teachers that are not in support of such events and are hesitant to excuse a student from their classes.

Japanese teacher Eric Schreiber, said he is lenient in excusing a student from class for extracurricular events but has some concerns.

“If I have planned a long-term, group project, I’m reluctant to let a student participate if it means letting group members down,” he said.

“Also, if a student has had a lot of absences, I’m reluctant to give them the okay.”

The majority of teachers said they are concerned about the well being of other students. Absent students makes it hard for teachers to introduce new material.

“It depends on how many students are absent,” Schreiber said.

“If a fourth of the class or more is missing, I can’t very well go over new material.”

Math and science courses usually have more in-class work than homework; while English, modern languages, and social studies teachers generally assign students the same amount of work in and out of class. “[Student absences] add more work and time commitments for me

[due to make up work.] Absences can only hinder a student’s learning, especially in my class because I have them do a lot of in-class work instead of assigning heavy homework loads,” said a science teacher who wished to remain unnamed.

Math and science teacher Ian Page agreed with Schreiber.

“Most times I would allow a student to be excused for extracurricular activities. There are occasions where certain students who are in danger of failing are strongly discouraged not to miss class,” he said.

In general, teachers hesitate to say “yes” to sponsored activities if a student has poor grades or excessive absences.

“I would suppose that most teachers follow the same general principles within reason,” Page said.

Teachers for the most part do not believe in favoritism. They do not favor sports over music or volunteer work, and vice versa.

“I will excuse students for any school-supported activity; no matter the genre,” a science teacher said.

“I am more prone to excuse [a] student for sports and music, where the student is part of a team over volunteering time at a certain event,” Page said. “If the [student] is volunteering their time for events (such as Athletic Council volunteers), then usually they can arrange their schedule so that they don’t miss the classes in which they are struggling with.”

Page said that his attitude is usually dependent on the student’s quality of grades and number of absences.

“If a student is doing well in my class, then I don’t have a problem with them missing class,” Page said.

“However, if they are struggling to get a pass in the class, then a student likely needs to rethink their priorities.”

Sophomore Nora Hanagan, a three-season varsity athlete, often struggles when returning to school from IASAS. “Sometimes it’s really hard to make up the work,” Hanagan said. “That, or I have to take a test or quiz right when I get back.”

Teachers understand the need to miss class for extracurricular activities.

English teacher Troy Blacklaws is liberal in allowing students to miss his class and has no policy for students to miss his class. “ S o m e teachers may have no feelings.

Others may see every moment in the classroom at their feet [as] holy time,” he said.

A planned absence form for teachers to sign prior to IASAS participation is given to all major participants. But it is not necessary to have a planned absense form if you are a spectator - it just depends on your teacher.

Bad seating hampers students experience

by Ravindran Shanmugam The Oxford English Dictionary defines chair as “a separate seat for one person with a back and four legs.” Comfort is “a state of physical ease and freedom from pain or constraint.” Different as they are, chair and comfort are not incompatible—something our school seems to have overlooked.

The chairs in classrooms just do not work for me. In fact, it has got to the point where I catch myself wondering which is worse—the class or the chair. Unfortunately, this reasoning failed to placate an irate teacher who caught me dreaming

of the sofa at home; amply padded and inviting, it is more pleasant to contemplate than any number of Neanderthal men, quadratic equations and English vocabulary words.

Neanderthal men are boring enough by themselves, but how can a student seriously be expected to even feign interest when he has to deal with his tailbone rubbing against unpadded plastic? The teacher in question, despite a manic devotion to logic, didn’t bring her deductive powers to bear here, and did not deign to see the obvious point.

I tried explaining to her that not

all SAS students have the same build.

As one who errs on the smaller side, I cannot even avail myself of what little support the back of the chair offers, since I have to lean forward if I am to have use of my desk. Often, I long to break the metal link that binds my hard desk to my harder chair, and pull that plastic seat in a bit further.

Even this further explanation did not save me, and I was told to wait until I got home to take my nap.

Teachers wonder why kids prefer studying in the computer labs.

Admittedly, it may have something to do with the computer games and messenger service every self-

respecting teenager has on his account, but even more importantly, the chairs are so liberating. That whirl on the comfortable seat does wonders for a sore tailbone, and a wavering attention span.

Revolutionary as this idea is, you might well get better concentration if you do not divide your attention between an aching tailbone and a monotonous lesson. Maybe we should have “a separate seat with four legs” that does not preclude a “state of physical ease.” Or maybe, as this teacher told me, I just don’t have enough padding…

Computer Lab H403

Science room H203

Senior Nora Yin sit in MIchael Stagg’s classroom, H323

Science room H203

Some students make their own arrangments. Publications Lab. Photos by Cat Ward

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Dancers hard work reflected in new showcase

by Kathy Bordwell Chaos and bustle surrounded a table covered in costumes as dancers called out sizes and designs. The week before showcase, the dancers felt the pressure that went into pulling off the spectacular night.

Leotards are passed and shirts fitted as someone utters a fitting phrase to this scene: “Welcome to the world of dance...”

For their first theme-based showcase, the dancers are being split into two large groups with different themes- Smile and Winter, where they will be a part of different dances. Though some dancers will be seen in both, the two halfhour dances are not thematically connected.

Dance teacher Tracy Van der Linden said the reason for this change was that this year’s Dance Performance class is the biggest there’s been with 20 students.

As they rehearse for the April 27 and 28 Dance Showcase, the choreographers and dancers are starting to feel the heat.

“Some dances aren’t finished yet,” choreographer Devi Wulandari said. “ We just changed a dance, the entire song and themes so we’re starting from scratch. I hope that we pull it off.”

For Winter’s other choreographer, senior Jessica Lin, the most difficult part was their theme.

“This is the first year [showcase] is theme based,” Lin said. “It’s hard to keep a theme with a wide range of styles; its hard sticking to the theme and making sure it works.”

Wulandari agrees that choosing a theme is difficult, but only one of the things among picking songs,

Students perform ‘thug’ smile, a dance choreograhed by junior Esha Parikh. Photo by Mark Clemens

picking costumes, and picking the right choreography.

“We will have two scenes, one in the street and one in a café,” Wulandari said. “It’s the essence of winter. Other than using props, like a scarf, and scenery we use movements like isolation.” She demonstrated making an X across her torso with her arms to show how they will portray winter.

“We go over i-Tunes and find music with no lyrics.”

“We have to put together costuming,” Lin said. “It’s mostly what we already have. We talk to Ms. Silverman and Ms. Van der

Above: Sophomore Ahilya Kaul gracefully jumps in the air during the Dance Troupe performance. Right: Junior Esther Lukman jumps in unison during the dance ‘Come On.’ Below: Junior Esther Lukman, junior Evenlyn Toh and junior Calli Scheidt perform durng ‘Welcome to the Black Parade.’

Sophomore Jelita Adams dances in ‘My Love’ in the Smile section of showcase. Photo by Cat Ward

Linden about our ideas and see what we have.”

Both agree on the difficulties in rehearsal. In order to make the group rehearsals easier, each dancer is given a label, like “air,” “wind,” or even “Prada” so that it’s easier to call a few dancers at a time to rehearsal.

“We cannot go over formation when people are talking while we’re teaching,” Wulandari said.

“It defines who meets when to rehearse.”

Practice times for winter are Monday and Wednesday, while practice for Smile is held on Tuesday and Thursday.

Part of the difficulties in practice come not only from the amount of time put in, more than four hours a week, but making sure each group goes together for the dance.

“There are four dances [in Winter] and it’s harder to

coordinate,” Lin said. “Winter has a total of forty dancers; it’s hard to keep track of attendance. This year we were forced to be more flexible.”

Wulandari agrees that the number of dancers needs to be balanced on stage.

“We’ll use lighting so it will focus on one scene of a street, and another for the café,” she said.

Though they have to start part of their choreography from scratch, the two dancers look to the positives of showcase.

“Some [dances] are far along,” Lin said. “Costumes are set, the music is all done. 60-70 percent of Showcase is done. It will be done by the [date].”

“The seniors are busier than most,” Van der Linden said, “but it’ll come together.”

Sophomore Bella Lee performs during the ‘Winter’ portion of the showcase. Photo by Cat Ward

Freshman Cheng Yen Ng, junior Emily Woodfield, sophomore Ashley McClelland, Freshman Heather Morris and junior Abby Murray strike a pose during the Smile section of showcase.

Photos by Cat Ward

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Arabian Nights Magic carpet ride drops students off at prom

A belly dancer entertains students at the 2007 prom at the Fullerton. Photo by. Burnaby

by Amanda Tsao Students gathered around as a belly dancer gyrated in the center of a circle, joining in every now and then.

No, the setting was not a sketchy house party, it was Prom. This year’s prom was themed Arabian Nights, held at the Fullerton hotel on Apr. 14. Despite the $40,000 rumors, the actual cost was $23,000 and was paid entirely by the Junior Class council

treasury, not by any parents.

Noteable aspects of prom included belly dancers, an instant slideshow of photographs projected onto a wall, black light stamps instead of tickets, and Arabian styled hats for Prom Royalty.

Many students thought that the slideshow was nice as it allowed for students to see those people who they missed in person.

“That was really cool,” senior Amelia Newlin said. “It was cool to see people if you hadn’t seen them already.”

Newlin said that she would have rather received a prom ticket to keep as a keepsake, although the black light stamps were convinient.

There was also a canopied stage under which several school bands played including the Ska Band, and

Peter Vaz’s band. However, some musicians were concerned about the tight scheduling, complaining for lack of time.

“I still think it wasn’t enough time to prepare, but it was better than the original schedule,” senior Nick Soderberg said.

Instead of a DJ hired outside of school, Junior Nick Ali-Shaw was hired. Being part of a DJ organization in Trinidad, Redemption Sounds, AliShaw has been a DJ for four years.

He had previously been asked to DJ at some Boat Quay clubs, but refused due to his hectic Junior year. At prom Ali-Shaw played only one-eighth of the songs scheduled to be played.

“Most of my crucial time was devoted to playing when the musicians didn’t want to play because there weren’t any crowds at their scheduled time. Five bands are way too many bands, it should have been restricted to just three,” Ali-Shaw said.

Another concern was prom gifts.

Initially, the Junior council had ordered non-functional hookahs as gifts for ornamental purposes only.

However there had been a mix-up in the order, and the instructions that came with each hookah not only gave instructions on how to assemble it, but how to use it as well. This mistake was only discovered at around 1:00

AM when students began to leave.

“Ms. Griffin was taking it out and reading the instructions which showed how to use the hookah. Mr. Niehart found out at the same time, so they were the ones to let us know,” Junior Council sponsor Andrew Hallam said. “We ordered this as ornamental, we were told it was ornamental and it arrived at last minute so we didn’t get a chance to see it but we trusted that it was ornamental. It was an innocent mistake.”

The Junior Council was then instructed by their sponsors to stop giving out the hookahs, and instead getting a list of the students who did not receive one, to be reimbursed five dollars instead.

“It was pretty funny,” Newlin said.

“It’s going to top all prom gifts.”

Although Newlin heard that some students used the hookahs during after parties, she did not personally know anyone who did.

Many students such as Brian Riady, who sent an email to the Junior Class council, were pleased with the overall result.

“I was stunned,” Riady said in his e-mail. “I’ve now been to three proms and I’m quite confident saying that this year’s was the best.”

Tarantino and Rodriquez team up to bring back horror By. Arunima Kochhar Put together two eccentric filmmakers, a selection of old 70’s grindhouse films and a variety of daring actors and you’ve got the biggest exploitation movie; a double feature called Grindhouse.

Directors Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriquez combined their talents to create a double feature horror flick. “Grindhouse” is the collision of two movies, Plant Terror staring Rose McGowan and Josh Brolin and Death Proof staring Kurt Russell and Rosario Dawson. These along with actors like Bruce Willis and Naveen Andrews come alive on the screen as sadistic murderers or as heroes fighting drug infested zombies. Tarantino himself cameos as a rapist in part one of the double feature; “Plant Terror.”

In the first flick, a deadly gas is released in a small Texas town. This drug spreads like a disease and turns the townspeople into zombies. In the second feature, “Death Proof,” a stunt man targets women whom he kills with his “death proof” stunt car.

In between each flick and throughout the movies themselves, Rodriguez and Tarantino created fake trailers to pay tribute to their inspirational 70’s slasher films.

These trailers feature the true gore and violence of popular movies such as “Dragstrip Girl” and “Rock All Night” during that time.

The first trailer, “Machete,” starts off Planet Terror with an insight into the life of a criminal betrayed by

COMING SOON TO A DRIVE-IN NEAR YOU

his friends. The blood and violence gives viewers an easier transition into the series of violent deaths that occur within the first ten minutes of “Planet Terror.”

In between the two flicks, a series of three trailers make the transition into “Death Proof” easier. “Werewolf Woman of the S.S,” “Don’t” and “Thanksgiving” replicate the intensity and gruesomeness that Rodriquez feels has been lost for too long. The intentionally aged look of these trailers and the film gives viewers a flashback into the 70’s splatter films of grindhouse theaters.

At the opening of the film on April 6, ticket sales were significantly lower than expected though the movie and directors received positive critic reviews. Producers felt that the length of the movie may have been the problem and have planned to release them as individual 90 minute movies across America and in other parts of the world. An extended version of Tarantino’s Death Proof will be screened for competition in several categories at the Cannes Film Festival this year.

This tribute to 70’s splatter films has received positive critical reviews and has had competition in the box office against other powerful flicks.

The gore and violence depicted in this movie give an intentionally antique look into 70’s feature horror movies.

Both Rodriguez and Tarantino intend on keeping grindhouse films alive as the DVD adaptation of Machete is expected to release by the end of the summer.

the Eye

❁

May 10, 2007

sports 11

Boys grab tenth gold, girls get silver by one point

Senior track co-captain Adam Anderson sprints to the finish line in the 100-meter dash.

Photo by Megan Anderson

by Michelle Lee The weekend of the 25th IASAS anniversary was a platform for more than just sports. For the Eagle athletes it was the event of a lifetime.

For the SAS boys Track and Field Team the success in this round of competition was the 10th year of winning tradition, equaling that of the girls’ prior run of gold medals.

After the upsetting 4x400 relay, coach Jim Baker told the girls “You’ve just got to start over.”

One was a bittersweet number for the girls’ track team. One was the number that separated the Champions from the runners up. One second was the amount of time that kept them from the number one position in the last race of the tournament.

The long-standing tradition of rivalry that exists between the two schools was clear—as the Jakarta International School (JIS) and SAS remain the only schools on the IASAS championship plaque.

“Of all the schools, losing to JIS was less disappointing because they have been our toughest competition year after year. They’re the only other school on the IASAS plaque, and they do deserve it,” sophomore Nora Hanagan said. “We just weren’t completely confident going into IASAS because we knew there was tough competition in all the schools this year.”

The four-year captain from the Jakarta International school, Amelia Clarke, won six gold medals alone, gaining 42 points for her team—40 percent of her team’s total points.

The SAS girls team was said to have trouble recovering from losses of last year’s record-setting seniors.

“The girls team was young and inexperienced,” veteran coach Jim Baker said. “The loss of time [due to the interruptions during the season] in learning new events like jumping, throwing and hurdles made it difficult for their success.”

Though inexperienced, sophomore Sam Tierney had a successful tournament, coming in second place in three of her individual events, placing right behind Clarke in the 400-meter dash and 400-meter hurdles. She came in .34 seconds behind a senior ISM athlete in the 100-meter hurdles. She gained a total of 15 individual points for the Eagles. Tierney and Hanagan were two members of the 4x400 meter relay team that came second to a talented TAS relay team who came first by a mere .94 seconds.

Hanagan came second to strong TAS runner, Cindy Yim in the 800meter run, and placed fourth in the 400-meter hurdles. Tolley St. Clair and Elisabeth Stocking were the other two members of that last event.

Even though the girls were upset, they too had successful weekends, as St. Clair placed third in the 100meter and the 200-meter dash, and Stocking individually placed sixth and seventh in the 400-meter dash and 400-meter hurdles respectively.

Stocking was also part of the 4x100-meter relay team who placed second.

“At the [Bangkok] exchange that we won, we hadn’t seen the best talent of the TAS relay teams.

They consistently came in first, and as hard as we tried, they were always one step in front of us,” Hanagan said.

The same exchange in Bangkok a few weeks into the season was a daunting reality check for the boys team, as the boys lost to the hosting ISB Panthers by 18 points.

“After losing to Bangkok on their turf we knew that we had to step it up and do the same thing at IASAS—win at home, in order to win with a vengeance,” senior captain Gonzo Carral said.

When the first day of the IASAS tournament came around it went almost uninterrupted by the bad weather that had plagued the third season athletes throughout the season.

The day held up until the late afternoon when light showers wet the track.

The pressure felt by the Eagle track athletes was not due to the expectation of winning their 10th and 11th consecutive gold medals, but the desire to win for the home crowd.

S e n i o r captains Carral and Adam Anderson were victorious in many of their events, with Carral placing first in Discus and Shot put, and second in the Javelin.

Anderson placed first in the 200meter dash, 2nd in the 400-meter dash and 3rd in the 100-meter dash.

“Sam Lloyd really stepped up.

He had it in him to go all out against the toughest competition in all the hard races,” Carral said. “We were all humbled by his efforts.”

Lloyd came first in both of the 800 and 1500-meter runs, and the senior captain headed 1st and 2nd place 4x800 and 4x400-meter relay teams. Lloyd was a major part of the Eagles’ success, having been involved in events—individual or group—that earned the Eagles 32 of 112 total points.

Top: Freshman Amber Jack competes in long jump. Above: The girls medley relay team holds hands for the daunting walk to the starting line. (from left to right) Sam Tierney, Tolley St.Clair, Sara Denoma, Erin Morris. Photos by Megan Anderson

Badminton fights after first day

Senior Marcus Bech eyes the shuttle cock during IASAS. Photo by Megan Anderson

by Jeff Hamilton Shuttle cocks were in full flight and rackets were in full swing when IASAS badminton came to eagle country and the boys and girls of the SAS badminton team took fifth and sixth place respectively.

The Eagles entered the tournament with a good chance of bringing home a medal, but tough losses on the first day of the tournament placed both teams at an immediate disadvantage.

“We all knew we [the boys team] had a team that could take silver,” senior and first doubles player Daniel Tsukuda said. “Because of our losses on Thursday against Bangkok and Jakarta, we could not make the finals.”

The matches against Jakarta International School and International School of Bangkok saw the Eagle boys go down with a score of 3-2 against each school.

With a tough first day that

ultimately made placing impossible, one could be forgiven for thinking that the boys in blue might give up, but the Eagle boys came back on days two and three to pull off some impressive victories against the likes of the International School of Kuala Lumpur (ISKL), the team which eventually placed second, showing just how strong the team was this year.

“We played extremely well, but the results do not show it all,” junior Jack Pitfield said. “We beat the team that came in second and we won games that were close.”

The Eagle girls suffered from a relatively inexperienced team, which proved the deciding factor in a game against ISKL in which the girls lost 4-1.

“We were surprised in the KL game, which decided who would play in the consolation game,” senior Marissa Leow said.

Leow also said that the

underclassmen showed a lot of potential and could be a valuable asset in the years to come.

“The underclassmen played really well,” she said. “If they stay with badminton they will do well.”

The big surprise came when the SAS fans came in droves to support both the girls and boys teams. The crowd was loud at times, a little too loud said Tskukuda, who was quick to add that he still enjoyed all the support. “[It was] a bit distracting, but I liked it anyway,” he said.

Stats TRACK GIRLS Gold - JIS - 106 pts.

Silver - SAS - 105 pts.

Bronze - TAS - 98 pts.

BOYS Gold - SAS - 112 pts.

Silver - JIS - 85 pts.

Bronze - ISM - 82 pts.

BADMINTON BOYS TAS - Gold ISKL - Silver ISB - Bronze

Junior Carissa Tang awaits her opponents serve on the second day of IASAS. Photo

by Cat Ward.

GIRLS TAS - Gold ISB - Silver JIS - Bronze

12 sports

May 10, 2007

❁

the Eye

Eagle softball celebrates silver anniversary with

by Barbara Lodwick This year’s softball IASAS made heroes out of seniors and gave the crowds an exciting event. This is the third year in a row the boys have won gold, and the second for the girls.

SAS girls started the tournament against the International School of Kuala Lumpur (ISKL). With some slow innings and little excitement, the Eagles came out on top winning 7-0. The next opponent came in the form of the Jakarta International School (JIS) Dragons for the Thursday evening game. Due to rain and lightning the game was pushed back and they got to play under the lights.

“I love playing under the lights, it gives the game more excitement and has more meaning for me,” junior Alex Shaulis said.

The Dragons gave the Eagles a scare and it was not until Freshman Natalie Muller hit a game saving double to drive in two runs that the Eagles could claim victory with a score of 9-8.

Friday morning started with the International School of Manila (ISM) Bearcats. The Eagles played consistently and with offensive force they grabbed their third win 16-4.

The International School of Bangkok (ISB) Panthers gave SAS some trouble in the recent exchange and the Eagles knew they had to play tough.

“Going into the ISB game we knew that in order for us to be in the championship for sure, we had to win,” senior captain Keri Dixon said.

The game started slowly for the Eagles and they were down 10-3 until the bottom of the sixth. The Eagles went on a hitting spree and finally got close setting the score 108. With two outs junior Alex Boothe hit a fly ball over the right fielder’s head, rounding the bases for a three-

run homer. The crowd went wild and the Eagles clenched victory 11-10.

Saturday morning the Eagles faced a sleepy Taipei American School (TAS) team. The Tigers were the unknown in the tournament as the Eagles never saw them throughout the season. With the Tigers not performing past expectations the Eagles grabbed the victory, and went through undefeated 9-1.

The championship game was one for the books when the Dragons and Eagles faced off in the championship for the second year in a row. Determined not to lose again the Dragons hit well, and had the Eagles by the neck for six and a half innings. Down by one going into the bottom of the seventh with two outs, sophomore Erica Padgett headed up to bat. In what many think a crazy move, JIS intentionally walked Padgett and Dixon stepped up to the plate. With bases loaded Dixon hit a line drive to short center field, one run in. Boothe, who was on second, rounded third, ignoring the coaches yells to stop, slid into home, winning the game. Dixon’s hit sealed the tie, and Boothe’s aggressive base running sealed the victory. The Eagles grabbed the repeat championship 5-4.

DOUBLE GOLD

Junior Brandon Mulder up to bat as Andrew Schollaert and Hendra Morshall look on.. Photo by Martha Began

Boys’ continue gold tradition

The boys’season was inconvenienced by injuries to power hitters sophomore Ian Gillis and senior captain Brandon McArthur. “[McArthur’s injury] mainly hurt our line-up, but our outfield was still good,” junior Brandon Mulder said.

The Eagles kicked off the tournament against TAS. The Tigers, despite being past champions presented a weak team and the Eagles won the game 18-3.

That evening the boy’s faced a strong ISKL team. The runners-up from last year made the Eagles work for a victory. The game ended 3-2 Eagles.

Friday morning the Eagles faced the Dragons. The Eagle’s came out swinging for the fences and handed JIS defeat 11-3.

That evening the boys played the Bearcats in what should have been a

The girls’ softball team huddles up to congratulate junior Alex Boothe on her hit that clenched a 11-10 victory over the ISB Panthers. Photo by Megan Anderson

victory. Errors on the field and a lack of power hitting kept the Eagles down for seven straight innings. ISM came out with a win 4-0.

“In 210 games that I have coached at SAS, I have never not scored a run,” coach Will Norris said.

Saturday morning started against a strong ISB team. The Eagles stayed with the Panthers

The boys’ softball team celebrates their third consecutive gold. Photo by Megan Anderson

throughout the game, but could not grab a win. In their second loss of the tournament, the Panthers won 8-7.

For the second time that day the Eagles and the ISB Panthers went head to head on the field, but this time for the gold medal. The Panthers cocky attitude gave the other teams a reason to cheer for SAS and also gave the home team a higher incentive to win 9-1.

WHOA, that’s AWKWARD

IASAS awkward hierarchy

by Barbara Lodwick

awkward turtle Knowing that the person you are being housed by has a past as a known stalker. This houser requests females every time, and after they leave, finds out their phone numbers and e-mail addresses... not from the girls themselves. Awkward Turtle.

awkward blowfish A touch rugby player was walking upstairs to go to bed and as she opened the door she found her female houser and her boyfriend making out on the bed she was supposed to sleep in that night. Awkward blowfish.

holy awkward A rugby player had gotten out of the shower and was changing into his shirt when he looked in the mirror and in the reflection he saw the female houser watching him. She said, “Nice,” and walked away. HOLY awkward.

holy awkward turtle Two volleyball players from rival schools were “dating” when after an incident on spring break they broke up. The girl had already requested to house him and when he showed up at her house for IASAS, it was a Holy Awkward Turtle.

Softball GIRLS Gold- SAS Silver- JIS Bronze- ISB BOYS Gold- SAS Silver- ISB Bronze- ISKL All Tournament Players: Jeff Kreutter Russ Kreutter Mitch Samson Clay Crawford Keri Dixon Michelle Lee Alex Boothe Barbara Lodwick

holy awkward blowfish A female volleyball player was being housed, and at night the coaches called. She asked the parents where to put the phone, and they told her to put it in their room. She and a teammate cracked the door and saw the 8th grade son pleasuring himself.

HOLY AWKWARD BLOWFISH!