Volume XV, Issue Two
October 20, 2011
The Scripps Voice Inside...
Thrill the World: Zombies Dance for Humanity By Tori Mirsadjadi ‘12 Senior Copy Editor
Core I Diversity and Homogeneity Sparks Debate page 6
New Scripps Green Bikes Program Picks Up Speed page 3
Every year, people all over the world dress up as zombies and perform Michael Jackson’s iconic “Thriller” dance to raise funds for charity. This year, students all over Claremont have been learning the dance in preparation for joining this worldwide phenomenon. On Oct. 29, at 7:00 p.m., Claremont will join performers around the world in a record-breaking event. With the support of 5C students and the local community, Claremont’s “Thrill the World” event will take place on Jaqua Quad to raise funds for charity. Not only will the community convene on Scripps’s Jaqua Quad to do this charitable performance, but Scripps will thereby become the host putting Claremont on the map for participating in the largest simultaneous dance worldwide. Thrill the World is a world-wide phenomenon which combines flashmobstyle dance performance with charitable fundraising. Every year, 100 countries on 5 continents perform the Thriller dance at exactly the same moment. The organization behind the event was created and founded by Ines Markeljevic. Local Thrill the World events are organized by area Event Managers, who register on the Thrill the World website to help prepare for and participate in “Thrill Day.” On Thrill Day, the dance is performed at exactly the same moment by every registered group around the world. Each local event, according to the Thrill the World website, “is free to choose the charity of their choice and raise funds.” Claremont Event Manager Jenna Tico (‘12) has selected Women for Women International as the organization for which the Claremont Thrill the World
will be fundraising. Tico first became interested in Thrill the World through her involvement in a Santa Barbara dance class which donates its proceeds to charity. “For the first time in my dancing life, and perhaps ever, I was met with the powerful sense of community that arises when a group bands together over the common desire to make a difference,” said Tico. “We were no longer dancing only for ourselves, but for women all over the world.” Tico’s class also provided her with the opportunity to meet Women for Women International founder Zainab Salbi. Fueled by the feelings from her experience in Santa Barbara, Tico decided to bring that inspirational energy to Claremont. Tico decided that Thrill the World would be an ideal way to bring this energy to Claremont, calling the performance “the most bizarre of world records and fundraisers.” The performance on Jaqua Quad will be raising funds for Women for Women International. Tico’s dedication to this organization’s cause was solidified after meeting with Salbi this summer. Women for Women International helps women move toward economic self-sufficiency through a “year-long program of direct aid, rights education, job skills training and small business development,” according to their website.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF JENNA TICO
The organization supports female survivors of war and conflict, addressing immediate and long-term needs in an effort “to create a more just and peaceful world.” “This organization,” said Tico, “is deserving of our time, attention and love. As a graduating senior, it is my greatest hope that this event will set into motion a chain of annual gatherings that allow Scripps students to dance our way to a better future for women around the world, and for ourselves.” A Humanities major, Tico’s senior thesis has had her investigating “the unique capability of site-specific performance and flashmob.” She’s interested in challenging established ideas of what constitutes “dance” and “performance.” Tico hopes that Claremont’s Thrill the World event will open up categories of existence—“the everyday, the unexpected, every body, everybody”—to expand the community’s
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Three Arab Women Win Nobel Peace Prize By Hanna Baird-Herron ‘15 Contributing Writer
Scripps weighs in on the Eurotrash/HEO controversy page 5
Who Brought Back Scripps Afternoon Tea? page 12
On Oct. 7, the announcement was made that this year’s Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded to three women who have promoted democracy, gender equality and peace throughout the African and Arab worlds. The recipients were Yemeni democracy activist Tawakel Karman, Liberian activist Leymah Gbowee and Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. According to Norwegian Nobel Committee President Thorbjoern Jagland, the three women won the prize because of their “nonviolent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work.” Tawakel Karman, often known as “Yemen’s Iron Woman,” is the youngest person to ever win the Nobel Peace Prize. Karman is also the first Arab woman awarded the honor. A journalist and prominent member of the Yemeni Congregation for Reform, Karman started and remains the leader of the group “Women Journalists Without Chains.” The group promotes democracy, freedom of expression and other human rights. Karman has also been called the “Mother of the Revolution” for her prominent role in the Yemeni aspect of the Arab Spring, including the hand she had in organizing weekly protests. Karman has accomplished all this while raising three children. She dedicated her award to “all Yemenis who preferred to make their revolution peaceful by facing the snipers with flowers. [The award] is for the Yemeni women, for the peaceful protesters in Tunisia, Egypt and all of the Arab world.” Leymah Gbowee, a mother of six, is a peace activist whose organization of a peace movement helped to end the Second Li-
berian Civil War in 2003. The movement brought together thousands of Christian and Muslim women in Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia, who carried out nonviolent protests. With the movement, she also traveled to Ghana to attempt to conclude the stalled peace talks in Accra. Gbowee’s movement and her cofounding of the Women in Peacebuliding Network contributed to the successful election campaign of fellow Nobel Prize winner Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the president of Liberia and the first and only elected female African head of state. Sirleaf was born in Liberia but later moved to the United States, where she studied at the University of Colorado and Harvard University. She served as Minister of Finance under Liberian President William Tolbert from 1972 to 1973 and 1979 to 1980. Sirleaf was forced to flee Liberia in 1980 after a violent coup overthrew the government. She returned in 1985 to run for Vice President, but was forced into house arrest and fled to the United States again in 1986. Sirleaf returned to Liberia and successfully ran for president in 2005; she has been in power ever since. In her time as president, Sirleaf has built strong relations with the international community and has brought about an end to the horrible debt conditions in Liberia. Sirleaf is considered one of the best leaders in the world. The Nobel Peace Prize Committee’s decision to recognize these three women who have done so much for the world is an important symbolic occurrence. The committee is encouraging women around the world to stand up for their rights.
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