SILENCEOF THE LAMBS

I really didn't wnnt to be u serial writer who only sings one song, but in light of the information contained in an article in lhe Abbotsford News (Saturday, November 24th, 2001), I feel that l haven't got a choice. Consider this a 'sounding of the alarm;" the Liberal Government is attacking those programs that we, as Canadiuns. have been disillusioned inlo thinking would always exist. For those of you who haven't had the time to read a paper outside of your current curriculum, I'll enlighten you with a quote from 1he article to which I am referring: "The provincial government is reviewing social service programs and will decide which to cut in the coming months'', the article goes on 10 list potential candidate programs for the cutbacks. among them are support programs for families. immigranls and disabled people. as well as victim's services. youth social service and criminal rreventativl.! prognirns. and. of all things. Legal Aid.

Not wanting to jump I\) any conclu~ions, I made II few phone calls only 10 discover thill the government's review of core programs has been linked to financial cutbacks nf a t'rightcning 30%. The potenti,11iinract of this is unfathomable at this point. It i • projectctJ that we may see a rctllrn lo the institutionalization of those physically disabled members of our society due to a lack of available funds lo maintain their assisted living in group-homes. The New Beginnings program operated at Abbotsford Scni~)rSecondary School, which is elemental in helping Abbotsford teen mothers obtain lheir secondary education. will potentially be affected by cutbacks. What about the Outreach programs for troubled youth'! What about an individual's right to a lawyer? ("If you cannot afford one, one will be appointed fur you?") Keeping this in mind. the News arti• clc quoted Mr. Gordon Hogg, MCF Minister, as saying the ministry will protect "the need of the most vulnerable in our society". Tu this I would like to ask the Minister: if the people who use the e programs arc nut already some "of the 1110s1 vulnerable in our society", then who are?? Are 1hesepeople to be the sacrificial lambs at lhe altar of the alrnighry ·economy god''!

I was told by an individual in the know that these dct:isionli will bc made over the course of lhe next few wecb, and the offi• cinl announcemcnt(sl will be made in the New Year. But in the interim, what. if .inylhing, can we do us student~'?I would think thut al least one of you reading thb is angry enough to raise your voice, and the article did stute that th~ general public would be consulted prior to the government implementing the cutbacks. There is a public meeting being held at the Seven Oaks Alliance Church in the community room on Wednesday, December 5th at 7pm for those who arc interested in protecting the support programs currently in place for the disabled (I trust that the UCFV Disability Resource Center knows of this?). lt is the only public meeting that I am aware of at this moment, although there are rurnors that others arc in the process of being organized; at that, my only suggestion is to watch the local papers for more information. In January, following the announcements of the cutbacks, I plan on pursuing how wi;, as a comn1unity, are going to be affected by the reduction or elimination of community services in the Fraser Valley. In the rnec1n1irne,enjoy your holiday before the government finds u way to eliminate it due to financial restructuring.

Regards.

Cassandra (hope I don·1 offentl unybody)

lt was with great excitement that I picked up the latest edition of The Cascade (Vol. 9 - Issue I0) as 1 was looking forWHrd to seeing Amnci$ty lntemtttional being repre:sente<lonce again. My cxciltmcnt soon turnc<l to anger and disappointment as l read the captions that had been added to the pictures provided for the interview. Those captions were never approved by Don Wright or myself and are disrespectful in every way to Amnesty International, the work we embttrk upon and not least of all, the individuals whose pictures the captions were attached to.

How can you place ''l'm sad because now I can't work for the GAP" beside "Respect My Rights''? You and the staff of The Cascade have completely disrc. spected any rights or dignity that woman has. Diu you even read her story before you placed that caption'? That woman had her husband and children murdered and afterwards was brutally raped and beaten before having her hands removed as 'punishment' and you degrade her dignity by place a disgraceful caption below her.

This is not only disrespectful and degrading to that woman but also to Amnesty International and all those who work hard 10 achieve awareness of human rights violations worldwide. The Cascade is circulated among students, faculty and the public, and the representation y<iu have given of Amnesty 1ntcmational deserves an apology, both public and person.ii.

The Cascade is also suppose to repre ent UCFV and the stu<lent bo<ly. however I think you will find that the con ten I of The Cascade is far from an accurate represe11tation of the thoughts, feelings. or ideologies of lhe majority of the student body. UCFV should be ashamed to have its name attached to such a disrespec(ful newspaper.

Amnesty International will no longer be running any articles in the Cascade unle. s it proves itself to be a paper worthy of such content, ~tsit did under previous editors and staff.

Just so everybody knows, I put Ihose captions 1111derrhe pictures and no, I didn '1cle,arthem with anybody. 1'111 sorry for not clearing /he captions with anybody ar Amnesty. I really .1·/wuldhllve. Let me at lea.vtexplain why I put them therP.in the first place.

As people who five in the Jirsr world, we have a tenden• cy to ignore everyone else. Amnesty l11IemaIiona/has done an excellentjob of highlighting the oppression //wt occurs in 1hebrowner parts of the world. Weas con.wmers rend no/ to reafi~·ethat the things we bu.)\be it the:gas in our cars to the clothes on our bllck to rhe ,1·hocson ottr.{eet, come from some of these terribly oppressiveregimes. Some of the cnimtries rhat value h11111anlife the least, 11mablyIndonesia, The Sudan. Chlna and India, serve as major sources vf cheap labour for companies like the GAP and Nike. The ''rasreless"captions were an artempt 10 highlight the co11nectio11between these people and sI11derllswho are the target market of these companies. I am sorr)' 1ha1 you guys 1ho11ghtrhat I was trying to make.fun of Amnesty In1ernario11al, I wasn't.

If I intended to shame anybody ilt the anicle. ii 1vnuld be the people who btty rheseproducts, not 1hepeople who make them.

Your co111men1 is interestin~ when you say thar the Cascade docs 1101represe,uthe views vf the whole stu• dent body. There are very few people out 1here111/io wan.t10 get involved in the goings on at our ramp11s. Youguys at Amnesry know that Just c,s well as I do. I am trying ro get more writers and more opinions in this paper evay issue so alrhough we may nor r<1presentthe Piews of the more apathetic swdenrs on campus, we are trying to repre.1·e111everyone.

I know that you guys are pissed m /Iii! and I can total/)' 1111dersta1u/ if you don 'r wall/ 10 submit a11ymore articles. Weare less of a paper wi1/w111 them. ~f'yo/1(eally wan/ to Rei the word out. and can so111ehow he per• .1·11aded to writefor us again. then I pm>nisenot to add anything to your s1uf/'without your approval in 1/ie future.

Dear James:

Thank you for t,1king the time to respond in length to the idiotic dia• tribe from "Cassandra."

Obviously this wornan dPCSn't appreciate art, or the fact that T 'n' A isn't just for guys. While she sits with her closed-minded friends (who, she says, are clones of her· self}, to discuss things like the "sexist Cascade," perhaps she should consider her own sexist attitudes.

Women don't do ALL the shop· ping, and while women who are partnered with men generally tend to do more of the domestic type chores, it doesn't give them "higher buying power," because women in the work force still make less money than men, und women who are dependent on men for "buying power'' truly have none.

Women are not the "mature'' population of the school, but they do make up just over 50% of Canadian university Mudent populations.

Not all women have ''families,'' in lhe sense c,rhaving financial/domestic obligations with a partner and/or children. There's a lot of women who dnn't cook. ei,;ceptas n function that sometimes precedes eating, and don't give a rat's ass about whatever recipe$ she might want 10 share.

(Perhaps she can send them to tbe Ladies' Home fournul'?)

Nobody reu<lsthe CascaJc for the articles! Some people line their bird cages with it. some luuk u! the pie• tures. ,llld the rest flip right to the letters lo the E<litur, lo have a laugh nt thi! latest silly sml who has unwit• tingly volunteere<l to have their ideas dissected or otherwise crucified by the Editor. (What run! Glad to be a part of it!)

I du agree with Cassandra that a column about living on a budget, whether it's ubout /\hopping. cooking 'cheap' mculs, or recycling living room furniture into a cozy home for your pitt bull, is a good idea.

I'm glad to see she doesn't claim to 'own' rhat idea, though. because I'm sure she'd never find a way of working in the lesbia11mu<l wrestling.

Keep up the good work.

J. Maydn

Dear Mr. Clark,

It is with mild amusement that J write to you in response to the whole 'sexist Cascade' fiasco. First and foremost. rll admit that 1,1111 responsible for the writing of the letter which lrns int1dvertently, I trust, been suh• milled to you as a leuer to the editor. when in fa<.:tit was nothing more than an excerpt from a private email between myself and one of your writers.

l am perfectly aware that there are some ethical issues surrounding the submission of written works for publication without the author's knowledge and consent, but considering the nature of the medium I am willing to let that slide: this time. Por the record, Mr. Clark, you were aware of the letter's submission long before I ever was, and it is my understanding that you dedicated a good portion of your Friday evening (November 16th) composing a response 10 it. Your writer, whom I will refrain from naming for moral reasons of my own. informed me on the Sunday (Novemberl8th) that a letter other th.in what I had specifically penned for print had also been presented by your writer to you. At the time, l had nClrecall of the letter itself, and out of curiosity J wandered in to the Cascade office on the Monday (November 19th) to investigate. It was then that I discovered what kind of impact words have when they find an unintended audience. Apparently the letter has created quite a 0ap amongst your staffers. as evidenced by the reaction of those who were there at the time. In the spirit of being 'n good sport' about the whole sit· uation, and consi<lering that you were only twenty-four hours from going lo prinl, I <lecidcd l(l let the matter go. To have demanded the )et1er's retraction nt that time could have very well caused you personal an<l a<.:a• de111ichardship; I, too, am a full,timc student and can sympathize with one's time being at a premium.

Mr.Clark, i am sure you are an intelligent fellow and can see the obvi ous differences in the way this letter is cu111ptisedand the previous one, which should lend credence to the fo<.:tthat you were not the intended recipient of it. Further, I am s<in1ewhatoffended that the letter itself was erL1ppc<lin such a way as 10 slant my words to make it ar,pear to be an attack on the Cascade, when, in fact, it was not originally composed Iha! way. and yes, I du have the originals. I 1w1far as your response to my let• ter. you defy all rules of logict1I argumentation by resorting to a fallacious cornposition. As a professional writer, arc not red herring and ad homo• II r 11 • 1 1 t.~ L ') nytn ,a .ic1esvc1JClll11you.

Conversely, if you were awnre of the circumstances of the letter's submi sion and decided le) publish it anyway, I would question your integrity as aprofessional, but, in good faith, I ,m1 wurking under the assumption thctt you had not been cnlightcnc<l. Otherwise, this letter-lo-the-editor would possessan entirely different tom;. At the moment, though, J ;1111 willing to discount the whole situation as a 'caltimity of errors'. Chalk one up to experience, shall we say?

Regards.

Cassandra Priam

Dear Ct1.,~.w11dra, I thought t/uu si11ceyoltr letter reacts to a situation that /, in p(li'f, ct1used, I wr)lt/t,lresportd10 it lliyse(f beforepClssing011 your co11c<:ms /o James.

First of all, your writing style does not appear 10clta11gesip,11/ficanrly betweenY<11.Irpetsona/ e•mails, fetters 10the edi101;your 'se.1is1cascade' piece, w1.dyour L.ibeml editorial. So it 1vas1101obvious 10 111eby your writing style that one <i rhe ab1m• wtIs not writtenfor wint. Since everythihg 1hatwe 't•e printed with your 11a111e011it has bt.:t!IIsigned and sub111i11ed, we assttmedtha1eve,yrhing 1ve·vc rercived from you is for prim (why else would you sil(n your s1.1b111issio11.~ wi1ha 11,1·eud(my111 _?)

To whom it may concern.

Thank you for tearing down our posters advertising the East Indian Student Association meeting. Wc worked hard posting our noli<.:cs across campus. They were Facilily approved. Hopefully all inlercst(.'d students read them before you <le<.:idcto tear them down by removing them before our· meeting- you saved us the task of recycling them. lf our posters are re1110vedagain there will be action taken. beware.

By ElSA (Enst Indian Student Assoc1a1ion)

Secondly. we a/ the Cascade,krww what it's like /o have our words 111anip11/atedcmd/)rinted without pa111issirm.mzd we 1vo1tld11e11aa//eIII1II to do this to r111ieo11eelse. That's why we ''•///ailedyou 011Swida_\'and showedy(Jf, (111/'/cw issue 011 the Monday befort ir weI11lo the 11ri11ters10 crJnjir111your !iulmzission. /f _,.·011had a problem wilh rite ';;e.Iist cascade' /l'tter bl'l11gpriwed, why didn't you say soI1Ietllill8lo u.1·1he11?

Lastly, on cI11/()re11erso1wfnorc:.Cas,1·(111c/ra. I really /1,o,r~flttltat ill sllb• 111iI1iitg1hw le1te1;you were sharin,~a vo/icl npi11ir>11wliich yo11are c'm11• pfetely entitled to have, voice, and pri111,j11stas .la/lll!S is entitled to ftis defcnsit·e 1111e:-) {( I fwd know11or .f11spectc:dii wa.1·J1tsrforI11e10 read. I ~i'Ouldnor have even passed iron 10.fames,/(!/ alone s11b111irred ii as n l.c/ter w the Edito1; So I take full respm1sibilityfor yo11rfeller e11di11M1111 in his /11.mds. I c:un11otspeakfor James and do not taAeNspo11sibilio•.fr11 his reply in any way, but I Cl.~.wreyo11that pri11tinMyour le11erwitltoi11 your permisslrm wns rr1111plerely1.mi11te1t1iu11t1fand 1he re.1·1tftrl a 111i,\'lltt• derstanr/ingnn 111_,· par/. I apoloKizefor wry stress or cr>11c1•mtltat this had causedyou.

Beth Keffeher UCFV CASCADE