The Silhouette

Feed The Bus.

Campus food drive runs until Friday Mar. 19. Bring your non-perishables to the bus in front of the McMaster Museum of Art. See A3

www.thesil.ca

McMASTER UNIVERSITY'S STUDENT NEWSPAPER / THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2010

Est. 1930

1280 losses tally over $1.5M Management team let go following continued losses at campus bar JEFF GREEN

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

After undergoing a $400,000 face-lift, the McMaster Student Union (MSU) owned and operated campus bar, 1280, continues to sink. Sunday’s Student Representative Assembly (SRA) meeting highlighted that the bar is expected to lose $242,000 this year, bringing the total losses since opening in 2002 to nearly $1.5 million. This announcement came on the heels of a memo that was sent out to MSU full-time staff, outlining that the management team of 1280, “will be leaving the organization to pursue opportunities outside the MSU.” The staff changes are a new

move for the MSU, considering that manager Ismael Viegas was promoted following last year’s loss of $356,089.

Viegas declined to comment on the issue.

Leaving with Viegas will be head cook Don Jackson, and service manager LeRoy Douglas.

While Douglas will run out the end of his current contract, both Viegas and Jackson are expected to receive settlement packages, although no details were provided by the MSU. Since opening in 2002, 1280’s losses are estimated to total $1.5 million. For the past two years, the vice presidents (finance) of the MSU has maintained that the bar can make a profit.

Sources inside the MSU speculate that this was a move to save business manager John McGowan, who is ultimately responsible for the business operations of the union. The MSU has been under fire this year with poor management practices resulting in significant cost to the union. A recent government audit revealed that the MSU failed to pay provincial sales taxes on the health plan. The cost of the PST errors is presently over $503,000.

The MSU is appealing the PST audit, and vice president (finance) Andrew Caterine said that they will be getting “$15,000 to $20,000 back.” Those numbers are not final.

MSU Comptroller Maggie Gal-

lagher clarified that they are expecting the final PST statements to arrive in mid-April.

Speaking to 1280’s losses this year, Caterine highlighted that December and January have been extremely bad months for the bar, and that the average loss per month at 1280 is around $10,000. Currently, the bar has lost $150,000.

Caterine expects the loss to be under $200,000 – contrary to the $242,000 figure reported at SRA this past Sunday by the financial commissioner Daniel Boccaccio.

“We let the management staff go,” confirmed MSU president Vishal Tiwari about the 1280 team, “they didn’t leave on their own • PLEASE SEE MANAGER, A4

General Clear Out: General Assembly clears out after motion to dissolve Kin caucus is denied

VOLUME 80, NO. 24

CLA profs may be odd ones out SELMA AL-SAMARRAI SENIOR NEWS EDITOR

The lack of renewal for the contracts of at least two of the four Political Science professors under full-time Contractually Limited Appointments (CLA) has quickly ignited a political science student petition. Todd Alway, Greg Flynn, Andrew Lui and Govind Rao are the four CLA professors in the political science department facing possible contract conclusion as of the 20102011 academic year.

Some of the reasons provided for the expected lack of the annually renewed CLA contracts include budget changes, differing research priorities and funding restrictions that limit the ability of the political science department to provide professors with tenure-track positions.

Robert O’Brien, the professor and chair of the political science department, explained that he currently does not know how many CLA professors will be at the department in the next academic year.

“Right now I haven’t heard from [the Dean of Social Sciences] because she’s still going to the budget meeting with the University Budget Committee so the Budget Committee tells the dean how much money she can have in her budget and then the dean tells me what kind of teaching resources I have and whether I can spend it on sessionals or CLAs because CLAs are more expensive than sessionals,” explained O’Brien.

Tanya Kuzman-Cagna, a third year McMaster student and one of the newly elected members of the Student Representatives Assembly (SRA) humanities, expressed her opinion regarding the potential change in the political science department “This is a major disappointment to students who have benefited • PLEASE SEE TENURE, A4

CHRISTOPHER CHANG / SILHOUETTE STAFF

Leaders building leaders EWB referendum misses quorum Public Service internship opens up for McMaster students

LILY PANAMSKY

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

Third year McMaster students will be happy to hear that twenty internship opportunities in the federal government have emerged for the summer. McMaster University is one of two schools to take part of the “Leaders Building Leaders” public service leadership development internship.

The first of its kind in Canada, the internship was developed in collaboration with the federal government, the University of Waterloo, and McMaster University.

The internship is offered to students who will be entering their final year of study in September 2010. Students selected for the internship will be required to work for an agency during the summer and then to take a research credit course under the department of political science.

Employment services leader at McMaster Career Services Kim

Pedlar is very optimistic about the doors it will open for McMaster students. “There are so many people that are going to be retiring from the public service,” she said, “that they need to recruit new leaders. We could also offer our students the opportunity to go in and to perhaps gain experience in the summer, to join full time within a certain agency…the sky’s the limit, really.”

Specific summer work opportunities have not been announced yet. Gisela Oliveira, employment services coordinator at Career Services, explained, “The agencies are working together and seeing which agency needs summer students to work in these different projects. So once they have these agencies together, then I’ll know what kinds of positions, but right now, no one knows, not even the federal government. They’re pulling all of those resources together right now.”

Applications should be made • PLEASE SEE PUBLIC, A4

LILY PANAMSKY

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

The results for the 2010 Student Representative Assembly (SRA) elections are in.

The SRA is the governing body of the McMaster Student Union and consists of 31 undergraduate

students and four full-time Board of Directors members. SRA seats are based on representation by faculty population. There is one Arts and Science faculty seat, and there are three Commerce seats, five Engineering seats, two Health Sciences seats, four Humanities seats, two Kinesiology seats, two Nurs-

ing seats, six Science seats, and six Social Science seats. The SRA elections were held on Wednesday, Mar. 10 and Thursday, Mar. 11.

Going into the elections, the Arts and Science, Engineering, Kinesiology, and Nursing seats were all acclaimed, meaning the • PLEASE SEE SRA, A4

SRA winners by faculty Arts and Science David Campbell (acclaimed)

Health Science George Farjou Theresa Tang

Commerce Greg Lagerquist James Steels Ali Wadood

Humanities Jessie Bauman Tanya Cagna Matthew Dillon-Leitch Joe Finkle

Engineering Matt Wright (acclaimed) Andrew Toyr Oj (acclaimed) Adrian Burlacu (acclaimed) Michael Carriv (acclaimed)

Kinesiology Nashwa Khan (acclaimed) Social Science Hadi Behdad Amber DuBois

Jones Musara Alex Ramirez Huzaifa Saeed Hagop Terzian Nursing Monica Polania (acclaimed) Davey Taijen Hamada (acclaimed) Science Chris Adkins Richard Cioci Aspasia Manos John McIntyre Heather Fisher Andra Popescu

A2 • THE SILHOUETTE

THURSDAY, JANUARY 14, 2010

THE SILHOUETTE • A3

THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2010

Feed the Bus for Mac Bread Bin

Mac Bread Bin campaign runs at the same time as five Days for the Homeless

SAM COLBERT

SILHOUETTE STAFF

The Feed the Bus campaign, a campus food drive presented by Mac Bread Bin, is taking place this week from Mar. 15 to 19. A school bus has been parked in front of the Museum of Art since Monday morning, and students have been encouraged to give non-perishable food items and cash donations in an effort to fill the bus with food.

“It’s a great opportunity to give back to the community,” said Rebecca Ang, CoDirector of Mac Bread Bin. She explained that because students have busy schedules, it’s important to provide a convenient means for them to contribute to local food banks. In addition to the bus, which is decorated with signs to promote the event and recognize supporting McMaster organizations, dona-

tion drop boxes are situated in residences and other campus locations.

Mac Bread Bin, the campus food bank, is a McMaster Student Union (MSU) service. It was initiated to address student financial need as the matter relates to food and nutrition. In addition to providing food vouchers to those that require their services, the organization runs the Good Food Box program, which offers a box of fresh fruits and vegetables at a low cost, and provides students with recipes and information on healthy eating.

Bread Bin first introduced Feed the Bus six years ago. Similar events run through Bread Bin in the past include Trick or Eat and Skip a Meal, both of which were operated through the McMaster chapter of Meal Exchange, a national non-profit organization dedicated to hunger and poverty issues.

“There are families that have kids who

CHRISTOPHER CHANG / SILHOUETTE STAFF

don’t have lunches or dinners,” added Ang. “They may be skipping a couple meals, and this is definitely an opportunity to help them out.”

Feed the Bus is running concurrently with the Five Days for the Homeless campaign, for which a group of Commerce students is living homeless outside the Student Centre all week.

Donations, which can include youth clothing and school supplies like backpacks as well as food, are being collected for both events at the bus. All items will be given to local shelters, charities and food banks, including the Good Shepherd Centre, Neighbour to Neighbour and the Kyle Hoult Memorial Food Drive.

Wednesday featured an afternoon of live music outside the bus, where student musicians performed to raise awareness of the event. The bus will remain at McMaster open for donations until Friday at 4:00 p.m.

Reaching out to McMaster students Ronald McDonald House founds youth committee looking for student involvement

TYLER HAYWARD / LEVEL 34 GUNNERY SERGEANT

ADRIAN BUDHRAM SILHOUETTE STAFF

The Ronald McDonald House Youth Committee named, “Mac Helps the House,” was recently founded in hopes of getting youth more involved in raising funds and awareness for the Ronald McDonald House.

“The Committee meets about once a month to discuss ways of raising funds and awareness for the House in the school and local community, it’s quite a casual setting, and it’s not a huge time commitment,” explained Laura Faulkner, the development manager of the Ronald McDonald House, who is responsible for events and fundraising.

“Joining the committee is a great opportunity for students to make a difference in the community they serve, and for current volunteers to deepen their relationship with the House,” explained Faulkner. Students do not have to be a volunteer of the House to join the Youth Committee, and the responsibility

is not overwhelming.

“The Ronald McDonald House is a ‘home away from home’ for families whose children are receiving treatment in-area hospitals,” said Faulkner. Founded in 1993, the House is located just a block away from McMaster’s Children’s Hospital. It has 15 rooms to accommodate the families of critically ill children staying at the hospital, and provides its residents with amenities ranging from baked goods to laundry facilities. The House has also opened a Family Room on the third floor of the McMaster Children’s Hospital, where families may enjoy the comforts of the House without leaving their children’s side.

With the House undergoing expansion from 15 rooms to 40 rooms by next year, student involvement may play a significant role in ensuring a successful transition. “Obviously, joining the Youth Committee is one way to get involved, but there are also other ways,” suggested Faulkner.

Students may apply for volunteer pos-

itions at the Ronald McDonald House, and at the Family Room in the McMaster Children’s Hospital. The House also has a “Home for Dinner” program, for which students can offer to provide the families with dinner for a night. To volunteer or become a part of the Youth Committee, students are encouraged to contact the House directly to learn about how they can get involved.

McMaster students have contributed largely to the operation of the House. Over 150 volunteers help at the House and the Family Room, and Faulkner stated that, “most of our volunteers are students at McMaster, so we have a very close partnership with students and faculty”.

Mac Helps the House plans to begin actively raising funds and awareness for the Ronald McDonald House in the near future.

“We’re hoping to do a fundraising event before the year is up, and also plan to hold an event during Frosh Week, in the upcoming fall.”

Newsbites Compiled by Nicole Siena

Man marries pillow She’s soft. She smells good. She doesn’t give him headaches. She might just be his soul mate. But she is also a pillow.

Lee Jin-gyu fell for his “dakimakura”- a large, huggable pillow from Japan, often with a picture of a popular anime character on it. Lee’s pillow has an image of Fate Testarossa, from the “magical girl” anime series Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha.

The 28 year-old man wed the pillow in a special ceremony in front of a local priest - he even bought a wedding dress for the cushion. “He is completely obsessed with this pillow and takes it everywhere,” said one friend. Lee brings the pillow out to the park where he will go on rides with it, then take it out to eat. Lee isn’t the first person to have an unusual marriage. Similarly, another man from Japan married his virtual girlfriend, Nene Anegasaki, a character who only exists in the Nintendo DS game Love Plus, last November.

Cocaine found in plastic pineapples On Monday, Dutch police found $34 million worth of cocaine hidden in plastic pineapples that were scattered among a shipment of real fruit. The load was intercepted when fruit packagers unloaded a batch of pineapples and saw some unusual looking fruits in the containers. There were no immediate arrests following the discovery. It is unknown where the fake pineapples came from. Last month there was nine pounds of cocaine hidden in 20,000 long stem roses that were sent from Colombia to the Netherlands in time for Valentines Day. Women who claims she found a finger in Wendy’s chili is out of prison The woman who became well known in 2005 for planting a severed finger in a bowl of Wendy’s chili is out of prison.

Anna Ayala’s, 44, originally claimed that she found a finger in the bowl, but police later determined that she planted it there.

Ayala admitted to CBS affiliate KPIX-TV that she cooked the finger in a chili that she made at her home in Las Vegas, froze it for several months, and eventually drove to a Wendy’s location in San Jose, California, where she pretended to find the finger in her meal. Ayala’s initial claim was that Wendy’s was to blame for the finger, but after an investigation by local police, they found inconsistencies in her story. The finger was traced back to Brian Rossiter, a co-worker of Ayala’s husband. Rossiter testified in court that he lost his finger at work, and gave it to Ayala’s husband to settle a $100 bet. Her probation requires her to never set foot in the fast-food chain again.

Woman attempting to weigh more than 1000 lbs A New Jersey woman has announced that she is going to attempt to become one of the world’s heaviest women. Donna Simpson, 42, currently weighs about 600 pounds, but hopes to add another 400 within two years. Her new lifestyle will include eating 12,000 calories a day, and moving as little as possible. In order to accomplish this, she estimates that she will spend $750 a week on groceries, which is financed by her Web site, where fans can watch videos of her as she eats. Her boyfriend, Philippe, who she describes as a “real belly lover”, and who she met on a fat fetish chat room in 2006, was her initial inspiration to achieve the feat. The last known woman to exceed 1,000 pounds was Renee Scarfa, who died of weight-related heart problems in 2008, at age 42. Simpson has already taken the title for becoming the fattest women to ever give birth in 2007,with the help of 30 doctors, nurses, and medical assistants.

Women runs over husband twice A New Zealand man is recovering from injuries after being run over by his wife.

Twice. Sandy Telford ran over her husband when she backed down the driveway of their property. Not realizing what she had done, she drove her car forward, running him over again. “We are treating it as an accident,” said a police spokesman. Authorities said the husband suffered moderate head, chest and back injuries but was “conscious and talking” after the incident.

A4 • THE SILHOUETTE

THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2010

Making your work out work for you Interval training study explains a more efficient workout

General Assembly clears out after Kin motion

Event misses quorum, but grabs the attention of Kinesiology caucus SELMA AL-SAMARRAI SENIOR NEWS EDITOR

NICOLE SIENA

SILHOUETTE STAFF

According to a study from McMaster University, the body can get just as much benefit from short intensive bursts of exercise as it can from long training sessions.

Martin Gibala, professor and chair of the Department of Kinesiology, along with colleagues, conducted research where the training sessions last for 20 minutes, alternating one minute of high-intensity workout with a one-minute recovery.

The result is ten minutes of physical exertion and the results are comparable to high intensity, hour long training.

“Interval training does not have to be ‘all out’ in order to be effective and time-efficient,” said Gibala.

“All out” refers to working as hard as you can.

“People think that intervals are like that, you go ‘all out’, you run for your life. But you can still do intervals just not in an ‘all out’ manner,” said

Gibala. Although the training still may be physically demanding, it may be more achievable for the general public.

“Interval training can be applied to almost any type of cardio training,” said Gibala.

“Even if you have 15 minutes it can still be effective.”

With this interval training, there will be a remodeling of the muscles and less fatiguing in the muscles, which would lead to muscle growth. In general, this kind of muscle growth will not occur with high intensity activities.

Improved exercise performance and muscular adaptations should also reduce the risk of diseases such as Type 2 diabetes.

Previous studies at McMaster showed that low-volume high-intensity training consisting of 4-6 repeated intervals of 30 seconds “all out” cycling tests with four minute recovery was an effective stimulus for improving exercise performance, but

that it could result in extreme physical exertion.

“Before it was like that, intervals had to be ‘all out’-run for your life,” said Gibala. The current study was designed to involve lower-intensity intervals at a constant workload.

Gibala said that now “it doesn’t have to be ‘all out’ in order to be effective.”

Tests afterwards showed that there were stable changes in the volunteers after just six training sessions over 14 days.

“The main message of interval training is that it’s an efficient way to exercise, even if you only have 15 minutes,” said Gibala.

The adaptations are not specific to any machine, and can be applied to other types of exercise.

“Interval training isn’t [just] for athletes, a lot of people can benefit from it, even students, and can be adapted to people different starting levels of fitness,” said Gibala.

The McMaster Student Union’s annual General Assembly was held at the Burridge Gym on campus on Wednesday Mar. 17 from 4.30 to 6.30 p.m. According to the MSU Speaker, 306 individuals attended the event. The attendance was just over half of the three per cent required for quorum, which is an estimated 586 individuals and therefore no decisions made at the assembly were binding, making it an informal gathering of students. Instead, those in attendance voted by show of hands, to recommend motions to the Student Representative Assembly (SRA) who has the power to implement motions presented at the general assembly.

The agenda throughout the General Assembly included discussions regarding allowing campaign materials to be visible in MSU space, eliminating Kinesiology representation on the SRA, creating an MSU Vice-President Environment Position, having the MSU allocate a 35-cent student ancillary fee go to the Engineers Without Borders program and having a

smoke-free campus.

The General Assembly began with a speech by MSU President Vishal Tiwari who addressed some of the recent changes and problems encountered within the MSU including the PST audit and the inability of MSU presidents to implement too much change in the short term of the MSU presidency which changes annually.

The Second motion to eliminate the Kinesiology seat on the SRA under another faculty was proposed by Joe Finkle, one of the SRA Humanities members.

He explained at the assembly that, “since 2004 you have not had a contested election, chronic empty seats and all in all it seems that Kinesiology is a fairly inactive society on the MSU.” Approximately three-quarters of those in attendance were Kinesiology students who proceeded to leave the assembly after voting against the motion.

Advertising for the GA was conducted through the MSU website and posters around campus, which also offered a 15 per cent discount on appetizers at 1280 on St. Patrick’s Day.

Tenure-track profs may take place of 2 CLA jobs • CONT’D FROM A1 from learning from the expertise of the CLAs and who have developed positive working relationships with the CLAs over the past four years.”

O’Brien added that he has indicated to the Dean of Social Sciences his willingness to give up the claim over two CLAs in the department of political science in exchange for a tenure track position. “So the best case scenario is we get two CLAs next year and the worst case scenario is we get zero CLAs next year.”

“This is a general issue about the lack of permanent faculty to teach undergrad students and so whether we rely heavily on sessionals or we rely on CLAs that have to get renewed every year, it’s just been a growing pattern across the social sciences.

The way to deal with the University’s budget problems is to hire more casual faculty and I think it’s a huge problem for undergrad students.”

Michelle Bustamante, a fourth-year political science student currently completing a Seminar with Rao explained, “All of these professors who are in danger of losing their positions have contributed a wealth of knowledge and have made a positive lasting impression on each one of their students.

This puts many students at a disadvantage. On a larger scale, the loss of these professors is a clear indication that the Social Sciences are just one of the Faculties who are constantly facing budget cuts and that something needs to be done.”

SRA elections wrap up, Engineers Without Borders referendum misses quorum • CONT’D FROM A1 amount of students who ran to represent their faculty is the same or less than the amount of seats available. Two vacant positions remain—one in Engineering and one in Kinesiology.

The elections ballot also featured another sheet of paper that asked students whether they wanted a referendum to be held that would ask whether they should accept or reject a 35-cent increase in the student Ancillary Fee. The student Ancillary Fee is a part of a student’s supplementary fees that supports the Engineers Without Borders (EWB) program. Unfortunately, the referendum failed to reach quorum, the minimum number of voters needed to create legitimacy, as approximately 1950 ballots were needed and just over 1100 votes were cast.

Meaghan Langille, the newly elected Director of Recruitment and Visibility for Mac-EWB and one of the campaign managers for EWB, commented on the referendum’s failure to reach quorum: “Although quorum was unlikely to be met from the outset we ran a strong campaign and took this opportunity to inform our fellow students of the work that their contribution would support.”

“We talked to huge numbers of students and ran a very successful event in the student centre atrium on Thursday allowing students to ask questions and learn about our work,” she continued.

The next step that the EWB took was to propose the same 35cent increase to the student Ancillary Fee at the General Assembly on Wednesday, Mar. 17.

YULIN HU / THE SILHOUETTE

Managers let go Public Service Internship offered following another to students in their final year Two-year commitment a minimum year of losses • CONT’D FROM A1

• CONT’D FROM A1 accord… we appreciate all the help and commitment we’ve received from them to the bar, but we’re looking for something else, and unfortunately we had to let them go.”

Caterine expressed the difficulties of running a bar on campus, where the majority of residence students are under the drinking age. “it’s very difficult to run the student service aspect versus the running a business aspect. It’s been a unique experience.”

McGowan continues to have the full support of the Board of Dir-

ectors. “John McGowan, throughout his time here, has taken on more work than we should expect from a general manager… our faith in John McGowan has not been waivered at all,” said Caterine of the MSU current business manager. Tiwari echoed those sentiments.

Caterine pointed to John’s extensive knowledge of the organization as a whole, to his work to maintain birth control coverage in the MSU health plan, and to his work to keep a revenue stream from GO Transit the highest in the country.

through McMaster’s Online Student Career And Recruitment site (OSCAR). There are three components to the application: a CV, a cover letter, and a recommendation from a professor. Students must email Oliveira to obtain the recommendation letter and then they must send it back filled in. Applications are due Friday Mar. 19, although late submissions will also be looked at.

A list of competencies that agencies will be looking for is currently posted on OSCAR. Because students are not applying to

a specific agency, Oliveira stressed the importance of relating one’s background to the competencies.

Students are required to commit to work for the federal government for a minimum of two years after graduation, but Pedlar assured that they were not strictly “bound” to this commitment.

A presentation was given about the “Leaders Building Leaders” internship on Tuesday Mar. 17, which featured Peter George, president and vice-chancellor at McMaster; Peter Smith, associate vice-president (Academic); Omer

Boudreau, vice-president of Human Relations at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency; and Diana Denton, director of communication, leadership and social innovation at the University of Waterloo.

The presentation was designed to give inquiring students more information about the internship. A Question and Answer period was held at the end of the presentation.

Students are encouraged to keep checking OSCAR, as any further information gained by Career Services will be posted on the website.

THE SILHOUETTE • A5

THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 2010

The most significant problems that students will face in Ontario are that the economic recovery is not quick, but it is progressing at a modest pace, noted Scarth.”

Summer job hunting in trying economic times

PAIGE FABER / FEATURES EDITOR

T

he hunt for summer jobs is on, and while Ontario is slowing pulling itself out of a recession, students may feel the sting in the student job market this summer. William Scarth, the Chair of the Department of Economics talks about the current economic situation, and offers some hope for students searching for jobs. Gina Robinson, the Director of Student Services talks about some resources available for students to help them in their search for jobs and volunteer experience.

If you are looking for international jobs or volunteering, Marcos Costa, the manager for International Student Services shares some information and resources about travelling abroad.

Scarth said that, “the worst of the recession is now behind us, and this has been seen in the monthly Labour Forces Survey.” Over the past few months, the number of jobs have increased, and the national unemployment rate has come down from its high at the peak of the recession, says Scarth; the number has come down about one-half of a percentage point. Scarth says that this is good news for students searching for summer jobs.

The most significant problem that students will face in Ontario is that the economic recovery is not quick, but it is progressing at a modest pace, noted Scarth. Problem areas that Scarth noted are the manufacturing industry, largely because Canada, especially Ontario, is very dependent on the United States that is still suffering from the real estate crisis and not recovering as quickly as Canada.

Scarth summarized, “bottom line: things are getting better, but the pace is slower than we’d like, and students will still find the job market somewhat challenging this summer.” Overall, Scarth said that even though the recovery is slow, it is still recovery and that is good news rather than bad news.

Robinson noted that in economically difficult times, there are still a large number of summer job opportunities available, especially in the seasonal sectors such as parks and recreation, construction, food services industry, summer camps, and retail. Because the market is slower, however, the competition for jobs will be steeper for students. Robinson suggests that students keep an open mind for all jobs, even though they may not be directly linked to their area of study or their career goals. Robinson reminds, “Career paths are not a straight linear path. Therefore, where you start out is not where you are going to end up…so explore all options and try out opportunities.”

Networking and looking at job banks and job postings are some of the best ways to get in contact with good summer jobs.

There also have been many opportunities for international work and volunteer experiences.

Costa said that students are encouraged to do their own research and to be diligent in making informed decisions when travelling abroad.

Career Services has been linked with the “Big Guide Online,” which is a site that has volunteer and internship listings, explained Costa. There are opportunities in teaching, law, engineering, international development, and health. This site includes directories from private sector firms in Canada and the USA as well as the Canadian and US governments and NGOs and the United Nations. In addition, there are work and study abroad programs that students can contact.

Costa does note that when interested in working and studying abroad students need to be diligent about their safety like, taking out travel insurance and checking up on the organization that they have joined.

Doing thorough research and asking the right questions of the organizat i o n are key, explained

Costa. Costa says that it is best to talk to someone near you in person who has worked with the organization. Costa said that if it is a reputable organization, then they will be willing to give you alumni contact information of people who have been with their organization in the past. Other things to ask about are how long they have had volunteered for, are they attached to an NGO and if so, which one, will there be extra costs after arrival, what insurance you will get, what job will you be performing, and if there is an at home orientation day. These things can help to insure your safety while you travel and work.

There are resources available for students through MacAbroad and through Career Services. If you are looking for jobs, there are many resources that are available through the Career Services website and centre. Career Services offers help with summer job searches, resume writing labs, mock interview roundtables and interview streaming. As well, you can book individual appointment and there are drop-in hours. Last week there was an “Opportunities Expo” that hosted many government and private sector employers as well as a resume critique clinic.

Robinson suggests looking for jobs as early as possible. She says that it allows you to have all the opportunities possible, and not to miss any dates or application deadlines. There are different sectors and services that hire at different times, so looking early will allow you to have the more choice and to apply to more jobs.

Robinson stressed, “if you are determined to find a job, you will.”

AVA DIDEBAN / MULTIMEDIA EDITOR

A6 • THE SILHOUETTE

THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2010

EDITORIAL McMaster University’s Student Newspaper

The Silhouette TheSil.ca Editorial Board Executive Editor Jeff Green Managing Editor Bahram Dideban Senior News Editor Selma Al-Samarrai Assistant News Editor Lily Panamsky Features Editor Paige Faber Opinions Editor Peter Goffin Sports Editor Brian Decker Assistant Sports Editor David Koots Insideout Editor Lindsay Jolivet Assistant Insideout Phyllis Tsang Photo Editor Will van Engen Staff Photographer Terry Shan Multimedia Editor Ava Dideban Production Editor Katherine Marsden Web Editor Jason Lamb Health Editor Sarah Levitt Distribution Coordinator Jonathon Fairclough Business Editor Simon Granat Business Editor Santino Marinucci Ad Manager Sandro Giordano

Senior Andy Editor Grace Evans Music Editor Corrigan Hammond Entertainment Editor Myles Herod

Silhouette Staff

Fraser Caldwell, Ben Orr, Sam Colbert, Joey Coleman, Kevin Elliott, Noah Nemoy, Julie Compton, Jenifer Bacher, Michael Hewak, Christopher Chang, Lauren Jewett, Jacqueline Flaggiello, Natasha Pirani, Amanda Fracz, Aaron Joo, Katherine Snider-McNair, Farhang Ghajar, Ben Small, Jemma Wolfe, Michael Hewak, Dan Hawie, Josh Parsons, Roxanne Hathway Baxter, Catherine Brasch, Trevor Roach, Remek Debski

Contact Us Volume 80 2009-10 • McMaster University Student Centre, Room B110 McMaster University 1280 Main Street West Hamilton, ON L8S 4S4 • Fax: (905) 529–3208 • E–Mail: thesil@thesil.ca • Production Office: (905) 525-9140, extension 27117 • Advertising: (905) 525-9140, extension 27557 • 10,000 circulation • Published by the McMaster Students Union

Write to us

Opinions: Up to 600 words Letters: 100 to 300 words Submit via email by 5:00 p.m. the Monday before publication.

Legal The Silhouette welcomes letters to the editor in person at MUSC B110, or by email at thesil@thesil.ca. Please include name, address, and telephone number for verification only.

We reserve the right to edit, condense, or reject letters and opinion articles. Opinions expressed in The Silhouette are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the editorial board, the publishers, university officals, or Ricter Web Printing Ltd.The Silhouette is an editorially autonomous newspaper published by the McMaster Students Union.

The Silhouette board of publications acts as an intermediary between the editorial board, the McMaster community, and the McMaster Students Union. Grievances regarding The Silhouette may be forwarded in writing to: McMaster Students Union, McMaster University Student Centre, Room 201, L8S 4S4, Attn:The Silhouette Board of Publications.The board will consider all submissions and make recommendations accordingly.

thesil@thesil.ca

executive editor: extension 22052

Save our CLAs Contractually Limited Appointment Professors know the risk when then sign up for the job. They know that they are walking a fine line of employment from year to year. And the decision to ditch up to 2 political science CLA positions to “cash in” on a tenure track professor may seem like a good move on paper, but as every student knows, there is more to university than what’s on paper, and the University isn’t listening.

The four CLA professors in question (Todd Alway, Greg Flynn, Andrew Lui, and Govind Rao) were nominated for MSU teaching awards. This is perhaps one of the few venues that students get a chance to scream to the university “These are the people are making university a better experience!”

A tenured professor is of more value to the university as a whole, as are the people that make the name for the university.

These are the people that can work free of political pull, and concentrate on their work and their teaching.

It would be a boost to the department of political science to have another tenured professor, but if it comes at the loss of a professor that has had such an overwhelmingly positive impact on students, you have to question the timing.

Can’t they wait for another year or two? Running with the current CLA’s could be a good thing, until the University can find funding to keep the popular professors until a time when they can offer a more serious long-term plan.

The students have shared their voice.They have screamed it through teaching awards, petitions and their growing numbers on Facebook. Is the university listening? Are their hands tied at this point?

Surely there must be a solution that could keep the professors while moving the department forward. Their current move would only set the university back a step. And at this point, how many more steps back can Mac’s political science department go?

•Jeff Green

Under the bus In what is becoming an annual event, campus bar 1280 is expecting another 6-figure loss. The management team has been let go as a result, but considering the unsightly year that the MSU has faced, that may not be enough. The MSU’s business manager, John McGowan, appears to have thrown the 1280 management team under the bus to save face, but will this be enough?

Taken together, 2009/2010 saw a bright beginning with the revamp of Quarters into 1280. The bar, still in its infancy under the name of 1280, has yet to get rolling, but the forecast is bleak at best. Then, the MSU was hit with a $503,000 bill for missed PST payments. The reasoning? No one was given that job in the shuffle when McGowan became business manager in 2002.

The result? $98,000 in interest payments right out of students’ pockets.

MSU Presidents and Vice Presidents have changed, and so has much of the support staff. The two mainstays for the $1.5 million in losses for the bar 1280 has been the 1280 management team and John McGowan.

It’s a lot to take in. It’s a lot to put on one guy’s shoulders.

That being said, if you ever oversaw $1.5 million of losses, would you still have a job on Monday?

Hurry, the next bus comes in 10 minutes.

•Jeff Green

Letter:

CLA Professors Leanne Perera came into my Political Theory class to speak about the termination for 4 CLA professors, two of which i know personally.

Professor Alway and Professor Flynn are 2 of the most inspiring professors who truly bring politics to a new level. Their hard work and dedication is appreciated by the vast majority of students who have the privilege to sit in one of their classes.

After hearing about the possibility of their termination in class, I think I heard about 100 people gasp as they began to hear the names being called. I’m an avid reader of the Sil and believe that this news-

paper should promote a feature dedicated to the 4 CLA Professors on the chopping block. I understand that the university is a business, and business is business. But when you threaten to terminate some of the most favourited professors from our classrooms, that is a threat to the very education of every political science student and the faculty as a whole. The termination of anyone of these four professors would ultimately signal a slap in the face to students who enjoy their teaching.

Thank you for your time, Daniel Pirrone

Worth Repeating:

Simon Fraser gears up for NCAA David Dyck — The Peak BURNABY, B.C. (CUP) — Simon Fraser University is getting closer to being ready to compete in the NCAA — and getting a quality assessment along the way.

The school is in the process of becoming accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU), an independent U.S. post-secondary quality assurance organization — a step that is necessary for membership in the NCAA, but will also assess the academic quality of SFU. The NWCCU currently oversees the quality of education of 162 institutions in the American northwestern states of Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington. SFU would be among the first Canadian institutions to join the list, and would be the first major post-secondary research institution in the country to receive U.S. accreditation. Capilano University in North Vancouver is also seeking accreditation by the NWCCU. Canada has no such national accreditation organization. Most universities assess quality on a departmental basis, said Glynn Nicholls, the accreditation project manager for SFU. At Simon Fraser, academic departments are reviewed every seven years through self-study and then external review.

“The problem with this is that it doesn’t ever look at the institution broadly,” Nicholls said. “We’re looking at independent little departments. What we see in this accreditation process is virtually the same process but at a broader institutional level. The reviewers will come and look at administrative systems, look at the way we do planning, look at what our stu-

dents are thinking, what our staff are thinking, what our faculty are thinking, and looking at the broader view.”

Just as in departmental reviews, the NWCCU requires the university as a whole to produce a selfstudy; this is currently the stage of accreditation where SFU stands.

This is expected to take about 18 months, said Nicholls, after which SFU will be visited by several reviewers from American institutions, chosen by the NWCCU based on what SFU says that its focuses are. Capilano University has passed this stage, and is considered a “candidate,” whereas Simon Fraser is currently considered an “applicant.”

After annual reports, given for three to four years, show that standards have been upheld, a candidate university can be considered fully accredited.

Nicholls isn’t worried about SFU passing the review.

“We’re a good university, we have the credentials, we have the facilities, we have the staff, we have good students, so there should be no problem.”

The university anticipates that this will enhance SFU’s image on an international level.

“A globally-recognized guarantee of quality will increase SFU’s profile abroad and help us attract the best international students,” said Jon Driver, vice-president academic at SFU, in a release.

“We have to remain competitive, and this will allow us to say, ‘You want to go to Washington State, or you want to go to Portland? SFU is in the same league.’ If we weren’t, we could say that we’re a good Canadian university, but we don’t have a comparative story to give them,” Nicholls said.

Want a job?

If you’re looking to be the Managing Editor of the Silhouette for the 2010/11 year, please send a resume and cover letter to thesil@thesil.ca.

• Applications are due by Wednesday March 24, 2010.

• You can also drop off a hard copy to MUSC b110.

• All other editorial positions open up for the 2010/11 year March 25.

Corrections The Silhouette makes every effort to be accurate. If you discover a mistake, please notify us via e-mail at thesil@thesil.ca with the subject “corrections.” We will include the correction in the following issue of the Silhouette.

to the general headache today. to jon s. from us. to quarters for all the meals over this year. to sunny days and green beer. to the beginning of the patio season. break out your patio lanterns.

to people who bring up old arguments and waste other people’s time. to the general headache wednesday. to c. m. on myspace. who has a myspace? to jon s. from himself. to the whiskey shits. now that’s irish.

Overheard at McMaster...

Anatomy 1A03/1Y03 Guy: *asking a long series of questions about ideal timing for sperm viability* Dr. Parise: “Are you strategizing?”

THE SILHOUETTE • A7

THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2010

OPINIONS

production office: extension 27117

opinions@thesil.ca

The McMaster dollar drain

AVA DIDEBAN / MULTIMEDIA EDITOR

As the institution readjusts its academic budget yet again, students are forced to endure the rearrangement of their programs and modify their expectations of the university.

Peter Goffin OPINIONS EDITOR

Money and students: it’s the eternal campus struggle. We work weekends and summers, we take out loans, we go begging to our parents. We have the overall demeanor of slot machine jockeys, trying to strike the jackpot.

But what happens when students’ wallets are full and the university’s are not? Well, friend, we here at McMaster are finding out.

Over the past two years, budget cuts have led to the reduction in size of the English program and its eventual combination with the slashed-to-ribbons Cultural Studies department. And even after

being blended into one big happy academic clump, the number of courses doesn’t equal that of other departments.

Art History is now on its way out, despite the vehement protests of staff and students alike.

And speaking of on-the-way-out, it now seems that several very popular, but untenured Political Science profs have been earmarked to receive their walking papers at the end of this academic year. And it’s all thanks, at least in part, to budget cuts by the institution.

And it all starts to wear on a person, like the drip-drip-dripdrip-drip of Chinese water torture. Bit by bit, drop by drop, our vaunted academic institution is

being stripped away, along with our resolve. Hear that plunking sound.

That’s one more drop on our already soaked-sore heads.

And what does that mean? Well right now it doesn’t necessarily mean a ton. It is, however, one hell of a source of important rage and frustration, not that we students needed another one.

But we’ll see the true effects of the of-late budget cuts further down the road. One day, some years from now, we’ll find out the hard way what a degree from Mac means in the real world. Mac, the suddenly bare-bones school. Mac, the medical school with the two or three arts classes hanging precariously on.

When I was applying to university as a fresh-faced and seriousminded grade 12, Mac was some kind of Mecca. It had everything.

And sure it was famous for the medical school and the engineering program, but it was just as wellappreciated for the arts. I signed myself up for a four-year hitch in a Bachelor of Arts program. The understanding was that McMaster carried the reputation that students, parents, and prospective employers would always love. We still do have that reputation, it just might be slipping away.

But take what little solace you can in this: some day, McMaster’s board of directors is going to find that you can only cut so much away

from a foundation before the entire structure collapses. Some day that sterling reputation of a well-funded interdisciplinary school will tarnish and people will recognize that the old gray lady we call our alma mater is not what she once was.And when the good vibes dry up, so will the interest in applying to work or study here. And when that happens, the research grants will stop coming in.

So it’s up to the institution.

We’ve paid our tuition. Our end of the money situation is taken care of. Now let the institution do the same. Not just for the students’ sake, but its own.

Editor’s note: For more on the release of CLA professors cuts, see A9.

Change your attitudes, fellow atheists Being dismissive of religious groups only undercuts the movement Kevin Elliott OPINION

As an atheist, I suppose my relationship with Campus for Christ is inherently antagonistic. Their whole existence is predicated on a belief I myself vehemently reject.

Many atheists I know at McMaster even find the existence of a religious group on campus problematic, even troubling.

Encounters and interactions with Campus for Christ volunteers, through events, promotions, and advertisements, no matter how incidental, innocent, or inadvertent, leave a sour taste in the mouths of many of my atheist colleagues.

Although I’m not going to pretend to defend every method that Campus for Christ employs (they can be overbearing at times), the overreaction on the part of the general atheist community that I’ve mostly encountered recently is on the verge of being pathetic and, depending on the circumstances, even hypocritical.

This isn’t an attack on any antireligious school club or organization, or anyone associated with any such club (keep up the good work, by the way!), but rather I’m just fed up with the general attitude of righteousness and moral and intellectual superiority that many selfproclaimed atheists display.

How dare those inferior brutes try to convert me by invading my personal space every time I walk through the Student Centre to promote their bake sales and their guest lectures! They are a plague on this campus! Shuuut up.

Obviously I am exaggerating slightly, but I think I’ve made my point.

Many of these pseudo-intellectual “atheists” will even take pride in pontificating to each other after the fact about how they handled such interactions: “So, I snidely scoffed that I was an atheist and crumpled up their flyer in my hand.”

“That is hilarious! Way to show them off!”

“Yeah, you’re a bunch of shit

disturbers alright.

If you’re approached by a more or less amiable Campus for Christ volunteer who is inviting you to some sort of religious event, well,

thing ever happened. Doing the latter is perfectly acceptable for the more apathetic atheist, but doing the former is actually smart if you think about.

Do you really want to be an informed, intellectual atheist? Your best bet is to actually open up and If all you want to do maintain lines of dialogue; maybe is complain about even show up and participate to how Campus for these guest lectures and forums that are sponsored by Campus for Christ goes around Christ. ‘flaunting’ their At least that way you’ll have a nuanced knowledge and underreligion... and you standing of the very thing you’re do so by flaunting criticizing. your own atheism, If all you want to do is complain about how Campus for Christ goes then you’re giving around “flaunting” their religion atheism a bad (which, admittedly, they sometimes name.” do) and, significantly, you do so by flaunting your own atheism, then you’re giving atheism a bad name. here’s a novel concept: engage them Thanks, by the way. in a respectful discussion and maybe And if your argument is largely even seriously inquire about said focused on chalk outlines adverevent. Either that or politely decline tising various religious events that and walk away, forgetting the whole one often sees scattered around

campus, I got news for you: it’s just fucking chalk.

Recently, I was encountered by a group passing out free cookies to students who were studying in the library. “Are these for donations for something?” I asked. “No, we’re just giving cookies to students who are studying hard, because it’s a stressful time of year for all of us, so we’re just trying to help.” Attached to the cookies was a note with a biblical passage.

I’m not sure if they were associated with Campus for Christ; regardless, those girls who gave me the cookies were incredibly sweet and generous.

Sadly, I know of some atheists who likely would rudely complain, and then they’d concoct some “satirical” revenge scheme to pass out cookies with anti-religious messages attached, because it’d be “totally subversive and funny.”

If the accompanying biblical passage would offend you, then you need a big lesson in not giving a shit.

Stop acting like a child.

A8 • THE SILHOUETTE

THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2010

The CASA question gets withdrawn

VP(education) changes horses in mid-stream on membership issue Joey Coleman OPINION

The questions surrounding the resignation of Arati Sharma as national director of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA) are swirling and McMaster’s at the centre of the whirlwind. Of particular note is that two of the key players in this drama are former McMaster students.

Arati Sharma was VicePresident (Education) of the McMaster Students Union last year and was able to propel herself to the top of CASA in large part by

bringing the MSU back into the national student lobbying organization. Chris Martin is the current Vice-President (Education) and has been a cheerleader for CASA throughout his term.

Suddenly, though, Martin is highly critical of CASA and has started exploring the removal of McMaster from the organization.

At Sunday’s SRA meeting, Martin told the assembly that he was extremely concerned about problems within CASA and that he felt it was necessary for the MSU to evaluate its membership was an eye to potentially leaving the organiza-

tion. In the same speech, Martin announced that Sharma was resigning from the organization. This left a clear impression that Sharma’s resignation was directly connected to the problems that the Martin now sees the MSU having with CASA. Considering that tens of thousands of dollars have already been spent on CASA, Martin must clarify exactly what is occurring with student money. After flying across Canada and enjoying CASA conferences on the student dime, Martin owes students a clear communication of exactly what CASA is all about.

In politics, appearances are often worse than reality. Right now, it appears that the MSU’s membership in CASA may be driven more by the ambitions of full-time MSU politicians than by the merits of being part of a national student organization. The fact that Martin announced Sharma’s resignation to the SRA - prior to the CASA membership being informed – at the same time as he was stating that the organization is severely flawed raises legitimate questions.The simplest of these questions is, “What’s going on?” Instead of answering questions, Martin has decided to

hide behind the statement that this is a human resources issue in an e-mail response to the Silhouette.

By not addressing the whirlwind that has engulfed the MSU Vice-Presidency (Education), Martin is allowing questions about the use of student money to fester and concerns to grow. The appearance of recent events may be worse than the reality, but nobody knows for sure except for Sharma and Martin.

It’s time for both of them to communicate with the student body and explain what’s happening with CASA and the tens of thousands of dollars sunk into it.

DO YOU HAVE A SECOND TO TALK? Look, I don’t ask for much. I’ve been in this job for two years and I’m graduating soon. It would be doing me a real solid if you would write in with some articles. I’d thank you in person. Or, if you’d rather, I’d stay away from you. Whatever’s a better incentive. Just... come on. Come on.

Sincerely, Peter Goffin Opinions Editor

opinions@thesil.ca SECTION MEETINGS EVERY TUESDAY AT 11:30 IN MUSC B110

THE SILHOUETTE • A9

THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2010

Please save our CLA professors

Feedback What should the university be spending more money on

SILHOUETTE FILE PHOTO

Continued cuts to the faculty could lead to Mac becoming an academic wasteland.

Noah Nemoy OPINION

As a fourth-year student with little more than a month left before graduation you become rather reflective about your time at McMaster. You look back on your educational experiences and the professors who made it special. In many cases the professor was a lot more influential than any textbook, and I can truthfully say I’ve learnt more from an engaging professor who gave me C’s than several aloof ones who gave me straight A’s. It was the professors who truly defined my experience at McMaster and they will be amongst the ones who I will miss the most when I leave. And this is why it pains me to hear that some of them might be forced to leave McMaster after this semester as well.

At the moment four Political Science CLA (Contractually Limited Appointment) professors, Todd Alway, Greg Flynn, Andrew Lui, and Govind Rao have their jobs threatened due to budget cuts. The Political Science Department has cut a deal which would allow for two CLA positions to be cashed in for a tenure track position. While the tenure track position allows a professor the opportunity to gain job security and better pay, at its expense two CLA Professors will be fired. For these professors it means they either have to leave McMaster or end up in sessional jobs, which are lower paying and have far fewer benefits and job security. For students it means fewer courses and larger class sizes. I’m pretty sure that everyone in the Political Science department has been taught by at least one of these four profes-

sors, and that the vast majority of their students have good things to say about them.

Every year at McMaster class sizes are getting larger in both the social science and humanities faculties. Every year we flip through the course calendar and there’s less course options to choose from.

Every year long standing professors are fired or vote with their feet and leave for universities offering better opportunities while new professors with less experience, pay, and job security take their place. During my third year I had four of my seven courses taught by professors who were hired that year, and four of my six professors either left McMaster or were demoted to sessional jobs.

I once asked a professor if he would recommend becoming a professor at Mac as a future career to students. He told me not to bother.

Just 10 years ago most humanities and social science professors either had tenure or had a good opportunity to get tenure, but now the opposite is true. While the administration blames the recession on much of their current fiscal wows, there sure as hell wasn’t a recession spanning the entire decade.

But while the social science and humanities faculties have been wilting away McMaster seems to have had the money to afford a brand new Engineering building and athletics stadium. Perhaps they could have shelled out a million dollars to save Art History. Or I am missing something?

While social science has the same number of students as engineering, they get twice the funding per capita. It seems rather unfair that social science and humanities students have to subsidize the

building projects of other faculties while we can’t even afford to keep our professors. Despite the recession, $40 million is going to a medical research and public health facility at Innovation Park.A fraction of that money could easily solve the Political Science budget problem.

But while we can all blame the administration at the end of the day, we students have to look at ourselves. I, like countless others, spent my four years at Mac just focusing on my grades and ignoring this systemic decline in the quality of my education.

I remember during MSU elections seeing candidates for Social Science and Humanities dodge questions about the funding imbalance and faculty cutbacks with, “That’s not an issue I’m concerned with at the moment”. Perhaps if we had made some noise the administration would have listened.

But with this move against the CLA’s, it looks like the administration has finally gone too far. For the first time in four years I see SRA members actually willing to fight against this issue. For the first time in four years I see students forming a coherent group against this funding imbalance.

It is time that Humanities and Social Science students stop sitting in silence and voice their grievances.

So join groups that want to take action. Bother your SRA representatives to do their job and fight for your interests.

Talk to your professors and ask them what you can do to help.

Because I’ve seen a terrible decline over these four years and I can’t even begin to imagine how bad things will get after another four years of student apathy.

“Better access to parking.”

Migiwa Mori

“More computers.”

Shereen Shamshoon

?

“Renovation of the buildings and better internet connection.”

Mariam Yousif

“Promoting social issues.”

Mo Amir

Compiled by Will van Engen and Christopher Chang

Write for the Silhouette Contact thesil@thesil.ca or come to the office in MUSC B110

A10 • THE SILHOUETTE

THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2010

Keep print journalism going Look up, buck up Cassandra Jeffery SILHOUETTE STAFF

I have a bone to pick with the rapid increase of technology and the vast advancements of globalization: the combinations of both concepts are creating an intense struggle in the world of journalism. I would love to have a potential career in journalism. Perhaps as a reporter, news anchor, or work in the field of communications. However, that dream has slowly withered away since the invention of the Internet.

Journalism used to be straight forward. Find an eager individual who has the capacity to cover the daily news and hopefully you’ll end up with someone who can turn even the most dull news stories into something worth reading.

This was a time when news sales were up, community interaction was a daily occurrence, and talent would pull you up the ladder of success.

Now we have computers, Facebook, iPhones, Blackberry’s and any other form of current technology to provide fast, efficient, mostly reliable news which has now become virtually at your fingertips. So, what happens to the reporters, the freelance journalists, and the photographers who have been left in the dust with only the prehistoric pen and paper?

I am not suggesting that advancements in technology have failed to better our society as the Internet is a key component to our everyday lives providing a vast resource of knowledge. But, I do believe our notion of reality and what qualifies as news has been skewed from the decline of print news, televised news, and radio broadcasted news, as opposed to the increase of digital and web-based news information.

The invention of the printing press was a landmark in the news world, as mass distribution of information was now easily assessable.

Following this era, the invention of the radio and the discovery of radio frequency allowed for many to listen to the daily occurrences.

Journalists were still important assets to the industry, but now radio stations required broadcast-

Dillon Li

isn’t exactly a day maker.

It’s strange when a person ends up in some sort of predicaI think we all look down too much. ment they instinctively look down.

No, seriously, we do. We should Like each problem carries mass and only look down when it is com- weighs down your head. pletely necessary. Events such as I think the mind automatically tying a loose shoe lace, picking up associates certain actions to emosomething you dropped and pos- tions, for example, smiling would sibly checking the time are the only mean happiness, a kiss would mean times when a person should be love, and a drop kick to the face looking down. would register as dislike. So it would Any other times, especially be natural to assume that looking when you’re a tightdown would mean rope walker, looking sadness, or vulnerdown is unneces- Looking down can ability. sary and should be It makes sense avoided at all costs. make you fall off too, even when you Looking down for the metaphorical aren’t sad, when long periods of time you look down you high ropes and can make you fall don’t feel as hot as send you crash- you were looking off the metaphorical high ropes and send ing down to the straight, or up, or you crashing down ground, leaving you side-ways or diagonto the ground, out ally upward. to mope in your for the count, leaving Being sad all the you to mope around time is stupid and own misery.” in your own pool should never be of blood, sweat and encouraged. Theremisery. So start not looking down. fore, looking down should never be This epiphany came to me one done either. By looking down our bright blue sunny afternoon while brain registers ourselves to be sad on my way to Mac. “Wow it’s the and makes us sad. So the best way most beautiful day this year,” I to cure ourselves is to trick our thought, as I waited outside of the brain, and look up, look forward. By bus shelter for the first time in looking forward the brain will then what felt like millennia, fully embra- register ourselves to be awesome cing that special spring-wind-and- and will make us awesome. Though summer-heat combo that you only sadness can be complex and can get a few times throughout this take many unnamed units of time season. to cure, one of the simplest ways The bus arrived, I flashed a grin to feel a bit better is to never look to the bus driver, showed my bus down. pass and took a seat where the sun So look forward, upward, sidewas shining. ways - any direction where your At this point there were rain- feet aren’t in your sights. Don’t let bows and candy floss in my head. those heavy thoughts get to you, “I’m pumped today, and a lot of tough it out and lift your head up people should be too,” I thought to with all your might! Even when you myself. But as I looked around the drop something try to keep looking bus, I realized the feelings around forward and pick it up! When you me were completely the opposite. want to check the time take your Everyone had an upside down smile, watch off and hold it up to your sulking to the ground. I was naïve face! Even when someone is pushto think that something as simple as ing your head down, make sure that ideal climate conditions could make your eyes are looking forward.Try it somebody happy.There are so many for a day, I can guarantee that you’ll problems that a person can be faced feel at least a bit lighter than you with in their lifetime that weather usually would.

SILHOUETTE INTERN

SILHOUETTE FILE PHOTO

The traditional newspaper is at risk of falling victim to new technology. ers to inform the people of what was happening in the world of news.

Even with the development of televised news segments, more journalistic and communication orientated jobs were required.

Thus, the world of news was expeditiously expanding and becoming highly competitive. With each new advancement of technology the importance of news in print format became less valuable. In reference to Marshall McLuhan who theorized that the “medium is the message” (the medium being the item in which we as a society are receiving our information) alters the way we engage and absorb information. His best example would be how the television as a medium changes the way we use our senses to gather information.

From this concept, I can see why our society is more engaged to news in a televised format as opposed to print. However, has McLuhan’s theory of television being the ultimate medium changed with the invention and vast use of the Internet?

The Internet is such a powerful tool. Virtually everything we want is at the click of a button from clothes to the latest news coverage.

Well, this is good for us as university students and most members of society, but what about those who write for a living. Not only journal-

ists, but authors who have spent countless dedicated hours writing a novel, only for the context to be leaked on to the Internet. Multiple newspaper corporations have recently declared bankruptcy because of the decline in sales and if they do by some chance stay afloat it’s probably because some other large corporation as bought them out.

Who needs to waste three dollars on a newspaper when the internet is free? Besides, walking to the corner store is so much effort, it’s a lot easier to just Google it.

Since when has the word “Google” become a verb anyways?

The news industry has become such a competitive environment as compared to the past. By the time a reporter gets the news coverage, writes the column, and has the issue printed the story has been all over web for days. I am not completely disagreeing that the Internet is a beneficial invention for our society, although I fear my dreams of journalistic endeavours will be completely diminished with the constant use and development of new technology. Instead of paying the extra 50 bucks on your phone bill for Internet use on your BlackBerry, pay the three bucks for a newspaper and submerge yourself in the world of news while supporting the journalists who work hard to compose an interesting piece of material.

THE SILHOUETTE • A11

THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2010

The de-evolution of “douche bag” Peter Goffin OPINIONS EDITOR

Whatever happened to “douche bag”, the little unpleasantry that could? From virtual obscurity to expletive-of-the-moment in under a decade. You’ve come a long way baby. And that’s exactly the problem. “Douche bag” ain’t what it used to be. It’s changed.

The first time I heard the words “douche bag” I was 13. A kid came to school and told everybody about this thing you could call people that was really disgusting. And when we figured out just what a douche bag was, it was even better. “You do what with it? Oh my god that’s hilarious.” And that was it. I didn’t hear it again for months. But it stuck with me. I knew it had power. The first time I used “douche bag”, the words I mean, was a year later. I was 14.

“You, you douche bag!” Everyone

was really impressed. And probably a little scared too. “A what? You called him what?” It did have power, in practice as well as in theory.

Pretty soon “douche bag” was my go-to curse. I could sling “douche bag” from a distance of twenty paces and nearly knock a guy over. It was a punch in the guts, a five-ton weight to drop on somebody. And still, I never heard “douche bag” anywhere else. It was the perfect little insult. Douche bag. It was mysterious. Douche bag.

It was bizarre. Douche bag. It was obscure. Douche bag. It had such a great sound. Deep and earthy. The hard “d” and long “oo”. The explosion of the word “bag”, sudden and harsh. Boom! Wow. But of course the rest of the world caught on. How could they not? I started hearing “douche bag” in movies and on late-night TV. And I was so happy for it at first. Finally

my favourite hateful bit of the English language was getting its due.

But then “douche bag” started making its way into prime time.

Now you can hear “douche bag” or (shudder) “douche” on network sitcoms all across the regular TV schedule.

Civilized, decent society has appropriated what used to be one of the meanest, foulest terms I knew.

And they’ve diluted it.They’ve taken it away from its roots.“Douche bag” has been gentrified. People from good neighbourhoods like the eight p.m. Thursday timeslot on NBC use it now. And that’s the death notice for anything that ever once was dirty or risqué or tough.

They’ve even given douche bag a clear euphemistic definition. Call someone a douche bag now and it means that they are a scummy, selfimportant kind of guy who can’t be trusted.

When did this happen?

“Douche bag” wasn’t supposed to mean anything. “Douche bag” was “douche bag”. It meant “douche bag”. It meant that the person you referred to as a “douche bag” was comparable to an inanimate device of personal female hygiene. You don’t easily recover from visualizing yourself in that way. Of course, it didn’t really make sense, but that was the point. It was absurd, it was strange, it was unsavoury. That’s where the shock and insult lay.

So that’s it. “Douche bag” has been ruined. It’s just a plain old everyday word now. It’s not strictly polite. It’s still not to be used as a greeting at someone’s christening or anything. But it’s not the offensive poison it used to be.And I think that’s sad.

But there is something to take away from this all. If “douche bag” could become gentrified, then

are any words or terms safe? And should they be? “Douche bag” wasn’t the worst but it was pretty offensive. And we’ve made it into a buzzword and kind of a hollow jokey insult. Could we do the same with other words? Could we do the same with “cunt”? What about “faggot”? Couldn’t we take every slur and make it into nothing, just from sheer overuse?

We do so much to build up words and their meanings and so easily we tear them down again with something as simple as saying them several times. It should give pause to anyone who’s ever feared a word, ever tried to censor. It should give hope to anyone ever hurt by a word. In the end, it’s just a word, and words are potent and words have a lot of potential to help and to harm but, above all, words are easily manipulated. They’re ours to do with what we like.

Campus health in need of a checkup

Medical service should focus on student convenience and privacy Samantha Sibanda OPINION

Over my years here at McMaster, I’ve seen several aspects of the school improve: an impressive new gym and stadium, longer library hours, a re-branded Quarters (now known as 1280), classroom renovations. The list goes on.

Much to my disappointment, the Campus Health Centre has not been a part of this progression.

As I graduate from this school in a month, I’d like to challenge the appropriate officials to improve this service that is supposedly intended to help students. I’m sure I speak on behalf of countless McMaster students when I say that the Campus Health Centre is sometimes more of a disservice than an actual service.

While the staff at the Campus Health Centre are generally friendly and accommodating, the process one has to go through to interact with these staff members in the first place is tedious and uncomfortable to say the least. To begin with, one has to set an appointment. Understandably, this creates efficiency, but in a similar vein, it defeats the pur-

pose of having a health centre on campus.

One would assume that the clinic is on campus for convenience and easy access for students. Having to set an appointment every time one requires to see a doctor seems contradictory. Perhaps the Campus Health Centre should have walk-in hours everyday over a reasonably long period of time to cater for students who need a quick, convenient visit.

After being put on hold for at least five minutes when calling to make an appointment, it’s not uncommon to be told that the next available appointment is days, or even weeks away. Once again, where is the notion of convenience or student accessibility in all of this?

Whose convenience are we going by now – the patient or the clinic?

Perhaps there should be someone designated to respond to phone calls (apart from the receptionists) to ensure less waiting time over the phone. Even better would be the possibility of setting appointments online! I assume appointments are set by priority of the ailment, hence sometimes not being able to get an appointment for weeks sometimes.

If walk-in hours were introduced, then a huge portion of the non-priority appointments would be eliminated. That way, it would be easier to get an appointment earlier.

For those who make it past the unreasonably inconvenient appointment setting process, the experience in the waiting room is yet another obstacle to overcome.

The Campus Health Centre has an impressive variety of interesting pamphlets, as well as free condoms to encourage student awareness and accessibility to information.

However, the way the waiting room is set up compromises privacy for those who wish to pick up the information pamphlets and condoms.

Many times I have seen fellow students in the waiting room eyeing the pamphlets or condoms, and I feel embarrassed for them because in some cases it is obvious that they want these items, but are just too self-conscious to get them. These resources should be placed in such a way that students feel free to reach out and use them.

It is time for the Campus Health Centre to step up and start addressing student needs. After all, it’s a service for students, is it not? Campus Health is much appreciated but it could be better.

TERRY SHAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

A12 • THE SILHOUETTE

SpeculatoR The Hamilton

Thursday, March 18, 2010

THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2010

INSIDE THE SPECULATOR Karl Colchak goes undercover at the Paul Reubens Memorial Gentlemen’s Theatre: “So that’s what a raincoat with a hole in it looks like.”

F Clean all over and under. I used bleach.

The Hamilton Speculator presents:

The Perineum Dialogues

Let your taint’s voice ring out loud Ever since my debilitating stilt walking accident, I never thought that I would be able to look at my Gooch the same way ever again. The wounds were so great that it hurt my heart as much as it hurt my perineum. In order to overcome this soul crushing event I enrolled myself in a 12-step program for empowering disabled Gooch victims. I truly feel that I have made progress in overcoming the deformity of my Gooch and I can confidently admire it once again.

- Kenny “Stiltwalker” Richards I’ve never seen my… my perineum. It’s not something that you’re supposed to see, is it? I mean, well, you’ve never seen yours, have you?

- Sal “Meatball” Marinara

If my perineum could get dressed, it would wear an itsy, bitsy, teeny weeny, yellow polka dot bikini. And a big floppy hat.

- Julian Sheisskopf I never had a good perineum self-image. At school the other kids called me tubby taint. I felt like a joke, always asking myself, “Does my gooch look fat in these jeans”. And that wasn’t fair to me. It wasn’t fair to my perineum. But all it took was a little self-reflection, and a lot of mirror reflection (and some surprising flexibility) to convince me that my perineum is beautiful. And it is. My perineum is unique, my perineum is special. My perineum is me. Hello world, this is my gooch, and I like it. And I like myself.

- Buck Horowitz

It happened one night. Everything was fine. We were having fun and all – I was on all fours – but then he thrust one too many times and it…it tore a little. There was blood, but not too much. You know what they always say; it’s all fun and games until somebody gets their perineum torn.

- Anonymous, by popular demand I’m reclaiming the word. Taint. I really love it. Taint. Just listen to it, the “t,” the tasty “t,” and “a,” ah-mazing “aaay,” and the “innnnnn,” the long, slow, whining “innnnnnn.” Now “taaaaiiin,” coming to a close with a sharp “tuh” “taaaaiinnnnn-tuh.” Taint! Say it with me now, taint, taint, taint!

Taint! Taint!

- Ginger Forrest

Size definitely linked to temperature In birds, you perv. Go apologize to your mom. Scratch that. I’ll call your mom.

SERGE VENIER SPECULATOR

According to a recently completed study, as the temperature gets warmer, our songbirds get smaller.

The results, which are based on the findings of 486,000 measurements taken between 1961 and 2007, show that most birds have already decreased in mass and wingspan by upwards of one per cent.

Unfortunately for those of us living near deciduous forests in Canada and the North-Eastern United States, rose-breasted grosbeaks have been especially hard hit, shrinking by an average of four point three per cent.

When asked about the extensive sample size and detailed wing measurements, head ornithologist Robin Gulliver replied “I didn’t want my life to be like this…”

Experts at the Michael Degroote Institute for Accumulating Useless Information, which sponsored the study, have also found a compelling relationship between increasing global temperatures and decreasing bird masses. Extensive research will be required to prove such a link, but in the meantime, it is expected that bird will be the word for environmental lobby groups at the United Nations’ upcoming 2010 Cancun Climate Conference.

These findings, while groundbreaking, are not universally applicable throughout the animal kingdom.

Although studies in this area are few, there have thus far been no findings to indicate that a warmer climate will impact mammalian growth in any way. In fact, a recent series of coldwater tests seem to indicate that when exposed to water at any temperature below 82 degrees Fahrenheit, a male mammal’s shrinkage will be considerable.

A before and after comparison of Cedric the Cardinal, to scale.

“What Did You Learn This Week, Timmy?”

“I learned that the urges come in waves.”

Disclaimer: Stories printed in The Hamilton Speculator are fact. Any resemblance to persons real or dead is likely intentional and done out of spite. Opinions expressed are those of The Speculator and if you disagree with them you are wrong. And stupid. Possibly ugly as well.

THE SILHOUETTE • B1

THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2010

INSIDEOUT

CIS Basketball Tournament a success at McMaster this past weekend.

production office: extension 27117

e-mail: insideout@thesil.ca

A culture from many Third Culture Kids are pioneering the Global Frontier

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY BAHRAM DIDEBAN / MANAGING EDITOR AND TYLER HAYWARD / THE SILHOUETTE

First Year McMaster Student Linh Tran’s parents are Vietnamese, but she grew up in Moscow, Russia. She feels that her culture is a valuable mix of both cultures.

“There’s no, ‘Where does the African start’ and ‘When does the Western start.’ It’s a bit of both intermingled and I feel that I take the best of both worlds.”

MANORI RAVINDRAN SILHOUETTE STAFF

“So, where are you from?”

Most people barely blink at the question. If you are likely to reply, “Oh, from here,” here is usually somewhere in Canada. The question is not a big deal and you do not give it a second thought.

There are others, however, who dread being asked where they are from.

They will meet your unassuming gaze with a pensive look, pursed lips, and furrowed brows. Deep in thought, they take their time replying, only to eke out an indecisive, “Um, all over.” They are called Third Culture Kids.

Sociologist Dr. Ruth Useem coined the term “Third Culture Kid” (TCK) during a year in India with her children.

She noticed that the children who accompanied their parents to different cultures often integrated elements of their birth culture with the new culture in which they were immersed in, ultimately creating a “third” culture – a unique identity all their own.

TCKs grow up outside of their parents’ culture, spending periods of their

life in different countries, or even several places within one country. Oftentimes, they are the children of military personnel, businesspeople, missionaries, or government workers – all of whom were stationed overseas and took their families with them or started families abroad.

Through their travels, TCKs develop ties to many cultures instead of claiming ownership over just one in particular. In the end, these cross-cultural experiences result in a worldly outlook that permeates most facets of their lives, not to mention making a question like “Where are you from?” inexplicably complicated.

Just ask Linh Tran. Tran is a firstyear commerce student. Before coming to McMaster for her degree, she feared she would not know how to respond when Canadians asked her where she was from. Tran’s parents are Vietnamese but moved to Russia for university. Tran herself was born in Moscow and lived there until recently moving to Canada for school. When she encounters the question at McMaster, she tends to say, “I’m Vietnamese, but I’m from Moscow.”

Nonetheless, she admits that most people are surprised and confused by her back-

ground.

Claiming ownership over many cultures has resulted in a hybrid identity for most TCKs. They may be one culture ethnically, but their exposure to others manifests itself in a complex sense of self. When asked to figure her identity into a cultural pie chart, Linh Tran explained that 60 per cent would be Vietnamese, 25 percent Russian, and the rest would likely be Canadian. However, she added, “Everywhere I feel myself as a foreigner because I am different.”

Ismael Traore, a Master’s student in sociology, perceives his identity differently. Born in Burkina Faso, Africa, Traore traveled extensively throughout the continent before going to England for school between the ages of nine and fifteen. Eventually, he decided to come to Canada to complete his Bachelor’s degree.

Traore viewed his hybridity as a positive trait. “There’s no, ‘Where does the African start’ and ‘When does the Western start.’ It’s a little bit of both intermingled and I feel that I take the best of both worlds.”

• PLEASE SEE TCK, B5

Sweater- Grandfather’s. “True vintage. Cost: priceless.”

Belt-Club Monaco- $28 Shoes- Value village- $10 Leotards- Organic cotton- $30 Scarf- Borrowed from a friend Coat- The Bay- $160

Favourite singer Charlotte Gainsbourg

Jacqueline 3rd Year Flaggiello Communications

ThreadCount

Favourite quote “Fashion is a form of uglyiness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months" -Oscar Wilde What do you look for in a signficant other?

“Taste and solitude.”

Describe your personal style. “Hm...a sophisticated bohemian.”

WILL VAN ENGEN / PHOTO EDITOR AND TERRY SHAN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

B2 • THE SILHOUETTE

SEX&THE STEEL CITY

THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2010

The truth about sex advice columns

volunteer meeting 1p.m. Every Monday @ MUSC B110

PETER GOFFIN OPINIONS EDITOR

Spring has suddenly sprung itself upon us. And that means that warm weather, bared shoulders, and rabbit-like urges are just around the green-grassed corner up ahead there. And hey, in this high season of extracurricular activity, you too can meet and date and please all the potential partners you want. All you have to do is read the advice in yonder gender-specific lifestyle magazine.

Well that’s great, isn’t it? It’s just what we’ve always needed. All the tips and trick plays that nobody’s ever heard, compiled very generously by the kind people at GQ. Or Esquire. One of those magazines produced by men for men, the ones with women on the cover. Or the ones for women by women, which also have women on the cover. Like Cosmo.

Of course then what you’re basically getting is a guide to the opposite sex written by someone who is not of the opposite sex. Or by celebrity members of the opposite sex who would likely never have anything to do with you. Because trust me, even if the cover model of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue says she wants a guy who doesn’t exercise or bathe daily, she still doesn’t mean you.

I’ve never understood it.

Having guys tell you about women I mean. And yet there’s a whole swath of these advice columns in magazines and on-line. You know, the ones with titles like “50 Sexy Secrets About What Women Like.”

Gee whiz, really? It sounds perfect until you realize the catch-22 that anyone who has access to a real live woman can probably just ask her what she wants or likes and anyone who doesn’t have a woman around probably isn’t going to need to know what they like any time in the immediate future. So even if the

Write for InsideOut

TYLER HAYWARD / SILHOUETTE STAFF

Ladies, just because they’re hot, it doesn’t mean they have good advice. advice really was valid, the whole process is rendered obsolete by merely being verbal around a girl, as daunting as that may sound.

That pretty much embodies the entire problematic nature of the sex and relationship advice industry. It presupposes that your partner or potential partners can’t be asked what they would like or what they might want, that they have to be observed and studied by experts who then translate their findings to the rest of us. Like the way Jane Goodall studies chimpanzees. Makes no sense.

So let me put you at ease and save you the newsstand price of a Maxim: if you need a magazine to tell you to hold doors open, chew

with your mouth closed, offer to pick up the cheque, walk her to her door, then fella, you don’t have to worry about those sex secrets. Or about how to act on a second date.

It’s just not going to come up.

This is all to say that you there, reading that sex advice column, are a bit of a rube. But all is not hopeless, fair rube. Go forth unto the world and act the way you normally would. Be decent. Be polite. Make small talk. And if you want to know something about the person you are interested in, ask them. Because do you know what I’ve heard women and men really, really like? Honest conversations that involve two mature adults.

THE SILHOUETTE • B3

THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2010

Yoga takes yet another form

Namaste or na-mutt-ste? outline the principles and moves are readily available in the market.

Critics have said that doga trivAnyone who lived through the ializes a serious spiritual activity 1980s or 1990s with a television that has been practiced for thouset has been exposed to an exten- sands of years. To have dozens of sive repertoire of bizarre exercise canines barking throughout a class fads like the thighmaster, Dr. Ho’s seems rather absurd and distracting. muscle stimulator and the ab swing. While a yogic principle might inThe widespread and commercial clude greater spiritual connection success of yoga has boomed in the with all forms of life, doga is not past decade, probably boasting the necessarily the way to go about most sustained interest, and defying expressing it. Furthermore, since assumptions that it would dwindle doga is not an officially recognized in popularity as another short-lived form of yoga and instructors are not formally accredited, standards and exercise trend.

However, in time, going to definitions of what is included are the gym for aqua-fit got boring. vague.

Basic yoga classes can be exWeeks of strippercise strip aerpensive. Hot yoga obics, hosted by is more expensive Carmen Electra on to enroll in because video, became tireWe started years the cost of mainsome and repetitive. ago and people taining desert-like Turbo Jam claimed facility temperto give you a rock said, ‘Hey let’s atures is higher. At hard body but in a make things more $15-$25 per class, few short weeks it efficient’ and they doga sessions are became rather dull.

For young urban really didn’t care. truly pushing the price of bonding professionals who are inkling for a Only in the past five with your pet.

Fad or not, doga new fitness hobby years or so have we is gaining popuand pet owners with built this.” larity. And it’s difrestless dogs, there ficult to consider is good news: now this the first evil in you can bring your the business of yoga. What about canine to doga.

“Doga,” is a relatively new the epidemic of Lululemon tramp form of yoga that originated in stamps that are plastered onto the Manhattan studios. This new trend waistbands of black stretch pants incorporates traditional yoga poses everywhere? Or the plethora of with the participant’s dog. Forget accessories—blocks, straps, bags, getting a greyhound to run with, mats, crops, tanks, bras, candles or taking your beagle out for dig- - that commercialize this spiritging adventures in the vast woods ual practice? How about the Wii Fit yoga program that is dependof rural farmlands.

The benefits of doga are sup- ent upon the use of software and posedly mutual for both the pet electronic accessories, arguably the and the owner. For the dog, gentle furthest thing from spirituality and massage, stretching, and sustained meditation? Doga might seem like poses teach obedience and may a desperate attempt to capitalize on provide physiological benefits, the boredom of upper-middle-class such as improved digestion. And pet owners, but it’s hardly the first.

For many pet owners, dogs in for dog owners, doga provides the standard benefits of yoga, as well as particular are a routine way of enthe opportunity to bond with their gaging in recreational activity bedog. Through shared poses, owners cause of their demands for a walk, achieve a deeper connection and the fun of tossing a frisbee at the park, or jogging through trails. But partnership with their pet.

In some poses, the dog is the perhapd doga is taking things just a focal figure, with assistance from little too far.

Then again, as the gentrified the owner. In others, the dog provides support or adds extra weight, boutiques and immense supersimplifying a move or intensify- stores for pets demonstrate, we can ing a stretch. For instance, lying hardly take the cost of pet owneron your back while balancing your ship rationally anymore. Maybe it’s Shih Tzu on an outstretched leg. time to check Fido into the spaw Doga DVDs and doga books that (dog spa).

JULIE COMPTON THE SILHOUETTE

A different way to learn FreeSkool is making school creative

PHOTO C / O CHELSEA WATTS

LINDSAY JOLIVET INSIDEOUT EDITOR

In a few weeks, thousands of overworked university students will be leaving their last lectures with the tune of Alice Cooper’s liberating tune in their head.

However, in one of our city’s many hidden spaces a new philosophy about education is budding. The organizers of Hamilton FreeSkool hope to prevent their students from cheering “School’s out for summer.” The five organizers of this small organization will be the first to agree that Canada’s education system is oppressive.

The observation isn’t new, but their solution certainly is.

Hamilton FreeSkool, founded just over a year ago, is a gathering space for individuals to discuss their views and learn in unconventional but creative ways. This month, they feature a workshop titled “Spring Reveille” on Mar. 27 that will include a potluck and a series of tentatively planned workshops. Among the possible workshops are a discussion of rights in the workplace and an introduction to poi, a type of performance involving swinging suspended balls in artistic patterns.

The founding of FreeSkool began with Students for a Renegade Society (SRS), an OPIRG working group at McMaster. A few other groups joined the cause and with little money, it developed into what it is now.

Other classes offered during this first school year have included one on the board game “GO,” several languages such as Span-

ish, French and Russian, tree identification and erotic movement.

One of the five organizers, Amy Vegan, felt these classes addressed “unmet needs in our community… by providing free and safe places for people to learn about various topics.”

More interesting than their eclectic variety of courses are FreeSkool’s values. Vegan shed some light on how this group’s anarchist philosophy operates in practice and how they hope, in time, it will bloom into something bigger. “FreeSkool is based on egalitarian, consensus and antioppression values and radical inclusivity.”

The principles of the organization challenge the mainstream education system, which they believe are “discriminatory and oppressive.” Vegan’s main example was the high expense of post-secondary education. “Only a fraction of the population can afford to attend university,” she noted. Even with OSAP and other loans, cost is a big deterrent for those already under the poverty line.

Furthermore, she argued that many subjects fail to address marginalized topics such as women’s history and the history of the working class. “Finally,” said she, “most students are indifferent and complacent about their learning… they participate very little in the learning process.”

FreeSkool challenges the traditional model by encouraging students to shape their own learning.

“People are free to come and go as they please without the pressures of money and an authoritar-

ian teacher. Instead, facilitators are there to help the class run smoothly and share knowledge they may have on a topic.” Currently the organizers’ goals are fairly modest.

Promotion, searching for teachers and venues, and simply keeping FreeSkool on its feet consumes most of their time. Nonetheless, Vegan had nothing but positive comments about their efforts thus far.

When asked if they have faced many problems funding the free service she responded with an enthusiastic “Not yet!” adding, “FreeSkool has been well-supported by the community, and most classes and events have had very little overhead.”

When it comes to spreading their message, these ambitious organizers have no limits. They want to include absolutely everyone.

“Everyone should be comfortable attending a FreeSkool class or event regardless of their political beliefs (or lack thereof),” Vegan explained.

On a bigger scale, Vegan maintained that their ideas are applicable outside of their casual environment. “The values that FreeSkool is based on can be a model for society at large, if we, as a society, will let them.

Hopefully by participating in FreeSkool, the community will become more comfortable with these ideas and apply them elsewhere.”

To those involved, FreeSkool is much more than a group of individuals sharing ideas. It’s a movement towards a more open and inclusive society.

SILHOUETTE FILE PHOTO

‘Doga’ uses positions with your dog to benefit you both.

B4 • THE SILHOUETTE

THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2010

Mac students for humanity

Seven days and twenty-five students under one roof

McMaster students spent reading week in South Carolina to build a home for a struggling family.

AYDA ASKARI THE SILHOUETTE

It was the first Saturday of reading week and I was at the student center. Duffle bag in hand, pillow clenched tight, I sat there waiting but not alone. There were twentyfour others with me. Twenty-four other McMaster students with duffle bags, and pillows, and perhaps some eye bags. There we were waiting for a bus—a bus that once boarded would take us on a 20-hour long trip to Charleston, South Carolina.

This year, I joined the Habitat for Humanity team and more specifically, the Sea Island Habitat for Humanity Build trip. The experience has been nothing short of life changing, at the risk of sounding

cliché. Perhaps it is the trip aspect; getting away from school and going somewhere new. Or the giving back, the warm fuzzy feeling associated with any good deed. It could even be the prestige of learning new things like hammering nails, raising truces, using power tools, but whatever it is, it’s powerful.

The twenty-five McMaster students from across different faculties that participated came from a variety of groups but found themselves united under one roof as they learned the art of home building.

Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit organization that strives to help families under financial restrictions to qualify for affordable homes. More importantly, the organization promotes the idea of reducing barriers for those in need

rather than simply providing free homes. This incentive goes past the immediacy of the physical home itself and brings about a feeling of community associated with all habitat homes built.

The seven day South Carolina Build Trip, as the name suggests, centered on volunteer building.

Students were divided into teams and allocated to specific sites where they would help with anything and everything, from cutting pieces of wood to digging foundation sites.

But however different the jobs were in proximity to one another, all played into the progression of the week.

I was amazed at the changes I noticed within the first few days.

Our houses developed from a simple framework to closets, walls,

AYDA ASKARI / SILHOUETTE STAFF

and a full deck. Ideally, the typical workday ran from about 9:00AM to 4:00PM with the remains of the evening left for leisure and group activities.

However, work hours were irrelevant on this unique volunteer trip. Our South Carolina experience surpassed the limits of traditional volunteering. Whether trip members were interacting with locals or exploring the neighbouring area of Charleston, where we stayed, there was a heart-warming sense of appreciation for the united cause.

I returned to the center of campus on Feb. 21 with a few sore limbs, a pile of dirty clothes, and a looming sense of anticipation for next year, when I could do it all over again.

FashionWatch

Spring fashion as bright as the sun NICOLE PAJAK THE SILHOUETTE

My love affair with accessories is slightly sick. Perhaps my obsession started with raiding my mother’s jewelry drawers, or my introduction to the always-adorned Rachel Zoe. Nevertheless, whether it is a wide, waist cinching belt, bejeweled cocktail ring, or a classic pair of pearl earrings, I find it imperative to accessorize everyday. Thus, I bring to you the accessory trends of Spring/Summer 2010, in hopes that you too will feel inspired to embellish your outfits.

To all the shoe-a-holics and non-addicts alike, this season has a shoe to fit every foot.

Clogs: The clog trend exploded on the scene with Chanel’s Spring 2010 pastoral themed show. However, this time around the look is much more modern and farm from any Germanic inspiration. Instead, these shoes are given an updated edge with studded embellishments.

Athletic: The sport-inspired shoe is not about a fabulous pair of runners. Instead, this footwear trend is all about the open toe sandal, with mesh and buckle accents. And yes, wearing socks with these sandals are the hottest thing to do this season Tribal: Tribal-inspired sandals are this seasons answer to last season’s popular gladiator look. These sandals follow much of the same outlines of the gladiator, but are updated with beading, feathers, and braids.

Natural and Nude: Wooden heels matched with nude tones or natural-looking materials create a very minimalist look in this trend.

Not only do these shoes look clean and effortless, matched with a higher heel they will make any woman’s legs look like they belong to a 6’ model.

The handbag is an essential piece of fashion to any woman’s closet, as well as daily life. While some choose to change up their bag weekly, others hold onto one for a go-to essential. Here are some of the bag trends seen on the Spring 2010 runways for those interested in updating their indispensable accessory.

Cross Body: I feel like this is going to be the “it” bag of the season. With its long straps and smaller pouch, the cross body bag is the renunciation of the slouchy, over-sized bag. Not only does it transfer from day to night quite easily, it is a convenient piece to all those on the go.

Tie-Dye: It seems many designers were ‘dazed and confused’ while turning out this trend, but a lot of runways saw the return of tie-dye t-shirts, dresses and handbags. This homage to 70s culture is actually a fun trend for the spring when done right. When trying out this trend think of classic shapes; like a hobo or clutch and pair with bright, bold colors.

Straw: Take a walk on the boardwalk this spring with the straw handbag. This trend can add a sense of whimsy to any summer outfit and easily transition from a family function to a night out with the girls.

Holey-Moley: The perforated bag lends its inspiration from the sportswear theme of designers like Proenza Schuler and Alexander Wang. Usually seen in slouchy silhouettes, this is every over-sized

bag lovers dream. Whether worn in a nude shade or classic black, the perforated bag is easily the everyday bag to run around town in.

The finishing touch to any ensemble is the perfect piece of jewellery.

This season, the looks are wideranging and elaborate.

Lucite: This is single-handled the hottest trend for jewelry this spring and summer. Plastic bangles and clear bobble necklaces were the biggest pieces on many runways. A great advantage to this trend is that it’s easy to wear. Not only will it go with just about everything, its a great outlet for people to be more adventurous. The Lucite look is not so in your face, or intrusive. So if you have not yet tried out a statement necklace opt for one in this trend.

Statement Earring: This is not to say the statement necklace is no longer fashionable. However, trying a pair of shoulder-dusting earrings is a fun way to update your wardrobe. Whether it be through a great hoop or pair of chandelier earrings, this trend will look great dressed up or down.

Pearls: When you see pearls you think Chanel and when you see pearls you think chic. In my mind this trend is never unfashionable.

However, there was a huge rise of costume jewelry on the runways, whether it was a grouping of pearl necklaces or bracelets in honour of Audrey Hepburn.

Chains and Charms: Chainlinks have had a huge revival on the runways for the past couple of seasons.

While this look usually gives off an air of punk rock, this season coupled with incorporated charms Smell the flowers, springtime is here with brand new accessories. it is given a whole new look.

TERRY SHAN / SILHOUETTE PHOTOGRAPHER

THE SILHOUETTE • B5

THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2010

Lifestyle TidBits Geeks save cell phones The people at GeekSquad.com have rehashed an old method of absorbing liquid to help people save their wet cell phones.

If you’ve recently gone swimming with your phone, you might find it helpful. Their guide branches into two options after you remove the battery: soak the device in a sealed container of rice overnight or take the silica packet from a package of beef jerky and do the same. We win this time, Rogers!

Russian Chat Roulette The newly popular chat site, Chat Roulette, was developed in Russia last November and has since become a somewhat guilty pastime for many. The site randomly connects users’ webcams to other webcams around the world. Those unconcerned about their safety have certainly found hilarity in mocking others’ sometimes lewd behaviour on camera.

TCKs weigh in on culture From confusion to appreciation, having several cultures changes social experience • CONT’D FROM B1 There are many reasons a TCK might move to Canada. For some, it is simply because their parents were relocated. Others were drawn to the social climate and educational opportunities. Jones Musara, a fourth-year social sciences student, moved to Canada in 2008, leaving his home in Zimbabwe behind. “I feel like within the Canadian context I’ve been given more avenues to say what I feel.”

Musara appreciates the freedoms and rights available to Canadians and believes they will influence his future in politics: “I do believe that, down the line, I’m going to integrate those aspects in how basic rights like that will impact people in Zimbabwe.”

Perhaps it is unsurprising that most TCKs hope to integrate lessons learned as global citizens into their future plans. While Musara looks forward to a political career, Tran hopes to use her knowledge of five languages to distinguish herself in the business world. After considering the similarities between the countries he has visited, Ismael Traore will pursue a PhD in sociology.

Due to this nomadic lifestyle and out of sheer necessity, TCKs must be sociable and friendly, allowing them to blend into whatever surrounding they happen to be in. According to TCKWorld, an online forum for TCKs, ninety per cent of the community reports being able to understand other cultures and people better than the average person.

Alvin Keng feels similarly about the benefits of his upbringing.

Keng is a third-year Health Sciences

student who is ethnically Chinese but was born and spent many years in the Philippines before moving to Vancouver. “It does help in that I’m able to relate to a wider variety of experiences. I find that I’m a lot more adventurous with food and with learning other languages.”

Of course, there are disadvantages to any cross-cultural experience. May Khaing was born in Burma and lived there for ten years before moving to Singapore for a

“I’ve come to realize that...it’s given me different perspectives on things and I’ve come to accept the fact that I’ll probably never be truly Canadian or truly Sri Lankan.” decade. Now a fourth-year Commerce student, Khaing remembered finding it difficult to adjust to liberal Canadian attitudes towards drinking and dating. “If you come from a conservative [culture] to a more open one, it is a little hard to adjust to it, like sometimes you just raise your eyebrows at things that are not really acceptable back at home.”

Piyumi Galappatti, a secondyear Arts and Sciences student born in Sri Lanka, has her share of cross-cultural confusion. Galappatti claimed her Canadian friends often misunderstood the extreme politeness characteristic of many Sri Lankans. “There are certain trad-

itions, like if you’re offered a gift, you politely refuse first, unless they insist on it, and I guess I’ve come into some conflict using that same method with my friends here...because they’re not used to it.”

Although many TCKs confess that being born and raised in one place is a luxury they occasionally wish for themselves, the benefits of their cultural knowledge seem to outweigh the costs. Alvin Keng stated, “I like the fact that it makes me unique. And to have that story makes me very appreciative of the struggles and hardships that my family has gone through. It’s a story that I’m proud of and is a part of my identity today.”

Galappatti also held no regrets about her background. “I’ve come to realize that...it’s given me different perspectives on things and I’ve come to accept the fact that I’ll probably never be truly Canadian or truly Sri Lankan. But it’s interesting to have the two cultural identities and see the way they manifest themselves in my life.”

In a world increasingly marked by dissolving borders, facilitated communication, and travel, Third Culture Kids are becoming less of a cultural oddity and more of the status quo.

Although TCKs occasionally feel out of sync with their peers, many at McMaster are grateful for the beelines their families have made around the world and look forward to bright futures. In the end, they may not be able to give you a straight answer when asked where they are from, but if global citizenship is the way of the future, they could be one step ahead of the game.

B6 • THE SILHOUETTE

THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2010

Interactive

Crossword

Sudoku

Across 1- 71% is under water 6- Slovenly person 10- Fruit-filled pie 14- ___ luck!

15- Farm structure 16- Hydrox rival 17- Sports card name 18- Revenuers, for short 19- Highest point 20- Dejection 23- Spreads out 27- Muse of lyric poetry 28- Asian sea 29- Admonition 34- Bottom line 36- Chili con ___ 37- Horned viper 40- Like afterschool activities 43- Coloring material 44- Rate

By Sandy Chase / CUP Graphics Bureau Chief 45- Valuable collection Crossword puzzles provided by BestCrosswords.com 46- Boring (http://www.bestcrosswords.com). Used with permission.

48- Departs 49- “______ by any other name…”

53- Recompense 55- Remove carbon dioxide 7- Lame movement 38- Rescued from 8- Bread spread 39- Squeeze 60- Italian wine city 9- Beethoven’s birthplace 41- Automobile 61- Dash 10- Hard drinker 42- Exhort 62- Baffled 11- Concert venue 47- Sun ___-sen 67- Turned right 12- Hit back, perhaps 49- Maxim 68- Inter ___ 13- Capital of Japan 50- Adjust to zero 69- Film composer Stevens 21- Computer key 51- Eight singers 70- Bluesy James 22- Discover 52- You ___ mouthful!

71- Move suddenly 23- Satisfied 54- Repasts 72- “Peter and the Wolf” bird 24- Agent 56- Glass ornament 25- Starbucks order 57- Earthen pot Down 26- Banned apple spray 58- Neet rival 1- Mischievous person 59- Med school subj.

30- Sharp 2- “You’ve got mail” co.

63- Beverage commonly 31- Miscellany 3- Hwy. drunk in England 32- Diamond flaw?

4- Half a fly 64- Bro’s counterpart 33- Black bird 5- Sturdy 65- Biblical verb ending 35- Pantry 6- Grounded fleet 66- Eureka!

37- Crazy as ___

Jumblyjumble

4

3

6

7

3

9 6 8

1 2

5

4 9

2 4 8

3

6

8

5 7 9

1 7

4 1 2 5

3 9 6 3

3

1 8

7 9

5 3 6

4 1 7

5 8 2 7 4 1

9 7 8

5 1

6 3

1

4 3

6 8

9

2

6 2

8 3 1 5 9

Solutions

The solution to last week’s sudoku and crossword

Breadbin

Dill potatoes St. Patrick’s day scramble ISUINGSEN (__) __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

NUDILB __ __ (__) __ __ __

HRKMAOSC __ __ __ __ (__) __ __ __

EERGN __ __ (__) __ __

NRPELCEUHA __ (__) __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

VOLREC __ __ __ __ (__) __

CLIETC __ (__) __ __ __ __

NBWOAI(R) (__) __ __ __ __ __ __

ARDNILE __ __ __ __ __ (__) __

Don’t Drink Too Much… __ __ __ __ __

__ __ __ __

KATHERINE MARSDEN / PRODUCTION EDITOR

Potatoes are a great option for a quick and simple side dish for many entrees. Their mild flavour is a blank canvas for an assortment of spices to provide the perfect complement for practically any main dish. Ever heard of this common saying: “Food that tastes good usually isn’t good for you?” Potatoes can taste good and have high nutritional value. They contain a number of vitamins and minerals vital to human nutrition, though they’re mostly known for their starch content. This is our third recipe for potatoes (if you’ve been counting). Why do we love them so much? They’re delicious, easy to make, nutritious, easily accessible, and relatively inexpensive – perfect for the student diet!

Ingredients 1 large potato 1 tsp olive oil (or butter) 1 tsp dill Recipe Wash potatoes (and/or peel them).

Chop them into even, bite-sized pieces.

Boil the potato pieces in a large pot of salted water (1 tablespoon of salt for ever litre of water).

Drain and toss with remaining ingredients in a bowl.

Bake at 450ºF for 10 minutes, or until golden brown.

Enjoy!

THE SILHOUETTE • B7

THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2010

SPORTS CIS final 8 a success for McMaster

production office: extension 27117

sports@thesil.ca

SFU takes gold stateside

DAVID KOOTS

ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

I’m not really a basketball fan; I never played it growing up and I only really became a casual fan in my second year of University. So it came as a big surprise to me when this past weekend I all of a sudden became a diehard fan and watched games all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

In my defence, it was pretty hard to resist the infectious spirit that was so very abundant in Burridge Gym this past weekend.

Eight of Canada’s best women’s basketball teams came together and put on a heck of a show on the way to crowing Simon Fraser as National Champs.

From Friday’s deafening crowd at the McMaster-SFU game, to Sunday’s crowd of Marauder players past and present cheering on Mac transfer and Saskatchewan star Lindsay DeGroot, the tournament was filled with amazing moments.

While it would have been nice to have broken Canada West’s hold on the Bronze Baby, fans of Ontario basketball could still go home happy having seen Canada’s undeniable two top teams go head-tohead in a game that felt much closer than the score would indicate.

A lot of credit goes to McMaster’s Athletics and Recreation, who did an amazing job in hosting the event and promoting the fun and exciting atmosphere all weekend long.

My only complaint would be the pounding rain, which may have kept some of the casual fans away, suggesting AthRec dropped the ball in that they did not ensure perfect weather for the weekend...but I guess I can let that slide.

In all seriousness though, what saddens me the most is that McMaster will not be hosting another CIS Championship until 2012 when the women’s volleyball final comes to town, at which point I will have graduated from University. But if this weekend is any indication, the tournament in 2012 will turn out to be a blast.

A tribute to varsity athletes

PHOTO C/O RICHARD ZAZULAK

Back to back: The Simon Fraser Clan defeated the Windsor Lancers in the Burridge Gym this weekend for their second straight national title. Check B9 for a photo spread of the weekend’s action.

The Clan’s win was obvious- guard Lindsay DeGroot, who spent CIS medal in women’s basketball. ly the biggest storyline from the three seasons here at McMaster, “[My McMaster friends] have BRIAN DECKER weekend, even if any casual ob- leading the Marauders to two OUA supported me even being in SaskaSPORTS EDITOR The better team won. As a matter server could have predicted the titles. DeGroot’s team fell to the toon, and for me to come back home of fact, the better team won every result months ago. But to reduce a Lancers in the semifinal round, but and play with them in the stands They wake up early, hitting the gym game in the CIS Women’s Final national championship to just one the guard was able to end her career is just awesome,” said the guard, before class to get that extra ounce 8 basketball tournament, which game, one winner and one storyline not only on her old home floor, but who had her own personal cheerof strength. They fight tooth and ended with – surprise – a victory would simply be wrong. A national on a winning note, as the Huskies ing section in the stands comprising nail in games, struggling might- for the top-seeded Simon Fraser championship is the culmination of won the Bronze medal game over of former teammates and coaches ily for that extra chance at victory. Clan. There were zero upsets on the a year’s hard work from some of the Regina Cougars. from her Marauder days.

They come together as strangers, championship side of the bracket, the country’s best athletes, and the “It’s not the colour medal we One of those supporters was unite as teammates and become and the closest margin of victory Final 8 is a great chance to take it all came here to get, but it’s still my current McMaster guard Taylor close as family. And with the sound for the whole tournament was an in. fairytale ending, and I couldn’t ask Smith, who was also finishing her of a whistle or buzzer, it’s all over.

11-point win in the Bronze Medal For many around the McMaster for a better way to finish my career,” career this weekend. By virtue of This is the life of a varsity ath- game. community, the biggest storyline in- said DeGroot after the game, which hosting the tournament, Smith and lete, the only role in sports where an But while the tournament was volved the return of Saskatchewan saw Saskatchewan win its first-ever • PLEASE SEE NATIONALS, B10 athlete’s career is abruptly cut short no March Madness, there was no when they are just reaching their shortage of interesting storylines, prime. It’s a life of commitment personal drama and above all, exand hard work, most of which often cellent basketball to be seen at the goes unnoticed by casual observers Burridge Gym last weekend. and wiseguys looking for a laugh.

The Clan won in what was of Indeed, the varsity athlete is course their final CIS game, with often the butt end of a cheap joke, the school moving over to the signifying someone who gets NCAA next year. After downing through school by their athletic the feisty but overmatched Mcability and the occasional wink Master Marauders in the first round and nod from school officials. And and taking down last year’s Silver while there is occasionally truth to Medalist Regina Cougars in the this sentiment, no doubt coming second, Simon Fraser met up with from south of the border where the Windsor Lancers in the final in future pro athletes are the big men a match up many predicted in the on campus, the real story of your national title game. everyday student-athlete is one of Credit the Lancers for playing perseverance, personal sacrifice and an excellent game. Head Coach building bonds that last a lifetime.

Chantal Vallee and the Lancers “When else can you say you threw everything they had at the know what underwear a friend Clan. But the stateside-bound school is wearing on a daily basis, what proved why it has held the country’s they eat for dinner every Satur- preeminent women’s basketball day? Every little idiosyncrasy that program for a whole decade. They you would never think of, you get found ways to adjust, recovered to know because you’re together from mistakes and simply brought a so long,” says Kate Hole, a for- stronger effort in their 77-58 victory • PLEASE SEE ATHLETES, B10 in the championship game.

Rebecca Rewi and McMaster gave the Simon Fraser Clan a run, but came up short in a 94-76 loss.

BRIAN DECKER SPORTS EDITOR

PHOTO C/O RICHARD ZAZULAK

B8 • THE SILHOUETTE

THURSDAY, JANUARY 28, 2010

THE SILHOUETTE • B9

THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2010

Simon Fraser’s Katie Miyazaki, the CIS defensive player of the year, shows her offensive side in the final against Windsor.

SFU would win the game 77-56 to claim the national title for the second consecutive year.

CHRISTOPHER CHANG / SILHOUETTE STAFF

Snapshots from the championship

The Simon Fraser Clan proved they are once again the basketball queens of Canada, winning their second consecutive CIS Championship before they move to the NCAA next year.Take a look at the sights from the three days of action that took place at McMaster’s Burridge Gym this past weekend.

The University of Regina Cougars fell 78-67 in the bronze medal game against their provincial rivals from the University of Saskatchewan.

CHRISTOPHER CHANG / SILHOUETTE STAFF

PHOTO C/O RICHARD ZAZULAK

JEFF GREEN / EXECUTIVE EDITOR

The Huskies’ Jill Humbert watches as the ball gets away from her in Saskatchewan’s 82-60 loss to Windsor.

JEFF GREEN / EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Left: Former Mac star Lindsay DeGroot had 19 points and 12 rebounds in the Huskies 70-54 win over the Cape Breton Capers. Right: Marauder fifth year players Taylor Smith and Lisa Marie Iavarone embrace after McMaster’s 66-58 loss to Laval. The game marks the last in both players’ CIS careers.

JEFF GREEN / EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Above: Chanelle St-Amour of the Laval Rouge et Or finished the tournament tied with MarieMichelle as Laval’s leading scorer with 31 points in three game.

The victorious Simon Fraser Clan line up to receive their gold medals after defeating the Windsor Lancers.

JEFF GREEN / EXECUTIVE EDITOR

B10 • THE SILHOUETTE

THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2010

Nationals full of story lines • CONT’D FROM B7 the Marauders received a bye into the tournament, and a chance to face the juggernaut Clan in the tournament’s first round.

And while knocking off Simon Fraser was a longshot that was never really a possibility, the Marauders came out with an impressive performance that delighted and entertained the massive hometown crowd, the volume of which is probably still causing echoes to reverberate through the bowels of the Ivor Wynne Centre. The final score, 94-76, suggests a lop-sided win and an easy night for the favourites.

But an easy victory it was not for the Clan, who led by just three points over the pesky Marauders midway through the third quarter before pulling away in the fourth.

McMaster put up a massive 27-point second quarter on the British Columbians, and their 76-point total and 49.3 per cent shooting percentage were the highest of any SFU opponent this season.

“I’m very proud of [the Marauders]. I’m proud of their effort, and think they gave Simon Fraser as good a game as anybody’s given them this year,” said McMaster Head Coach Theresa Burns after the game.

Rookie Nicole Rosenkranz had a massive game scoring 19 points, while Smith did what she does best in dishing out a game-high seven assists. But it was the depth and persistence, as well as the referees perhaps, which won the game for the Clan, who got to the free throw line 33 times to McMaster’s four.

The game was just one of many which showcased the increasing quality of women’s basketball in Canada, with the final game being broadcast on TSN2. Each game had its share of moments that impressed the fans and followers, even sparking the occasional impressed outburst of ‘wow!’ from the usually subdued press row.

Simon Fraser’s win represents the 19th consecutive national title for a Canada West team. It’s a West-East non-rivalry that has showcased a severely one-sided battle for nearly two decades. And yet, the final game

showed that there might finally be some juice coming to future championships.

The championship game represented not only East vs. West, but also youth vs. experience with the young Lancers taking on the battle-tested Clan. Moving to the NCAA next year, where there are only four seasons of eligibility, the Clan will graduate seven players this season. The Lancers will graduate just one.

With a young core, including CIS Rookie of the Year Jessica Clemencon, the Lancers look like they will be the team to beat at next year’s final. They played an excellent final game and didn’t get a good result out of it, but one of the overwhelming themes from the game was that this could very well be the next CIS dynasty team.

There were endless storylines last weekend that could make their own story, and certainly more than could fit in these pages alone. Last weekend was full of storylines, drama and action, and as far as CIS championships go, it’s something people around here will remember for a long time.

JEFF GREEN / EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Windsor guard Shavaun Reaney goes up against the Simon Fraser defence in Sunday’s CIS Championship game.

Athletes and family alike • CONT’D FROM B7 ward with the Simon Fraser Clan women’s basketball team, who won CIS Gold at McMaster last weekend.

Hole’s comments ring true to the commitment one has to take in order to be part of a successful team. It’s a struggle at times and glorious at others, but regardless of whether they succeed or fail, teams grow together on and off the field.

“Every year there were 12 girls on the team who became my sisters, and those girls will be a part of my family forever,” says McMaster point guard Taylor Smith, whose illustrious five-year career ended on Saturday with a loss in the CIS tournament’s consolation round.

It’s hard to imagine building a relationship with your best friends for four or five years and having it suddenly end when the season is over. To have to move on from your sport when you’ve just reached your ability to play your best seems somehow wrong and profoundly sad.

But although these accomplishments, struggles and relationships may not be what define these athletes to other people, they are the moments and memories that mean more than anything in the world to varsity athletes..

For their adult lives, it’s character enrichment, a personal development more valuable than anything one can learn from a textbook.

Lindsay DeGroot, a former McMaster guard and CIS star who is now studying at the University of Saskatchewan, says her experience as a player has been the most valuable part of her time at University.

“I made friendships that will last a lifetime, and when you can combine that with successful basketball seasons, nothing really compares.”

On paper, it seems like an unfair deal. You have to wake up at the wee hours of the morning to practice, and work into the ungodly hours of the night to keep up with school. You suffer from aches and pains, and you struggle for something few people will ever notice.

But if you ask any varsity athlete who has committed themselves to their team, they’ll tell you the complete opposite story. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime, and even when it’s over, what they get out of it is something they’ll never, ever forget.

THE SILHOUETTE • B11

THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2010

Men’s VOLLEYball

TRACK AND FIELD

Calgary claims CIS gold Women win bronze FRASER CALDWELL SILHOUETTE STAFF

The CIS national men’s volleyball tournament was dominated by the representatives of Canada West, as many had expected beforehand.

What no one would have anticipated, however, was that it would be the sixth-seeded Calgary Dinos who would snatch the top prize. Producing considerable upsets in each of their three matches, the Dinos completed their Cinderella run by upending the Trinity Western Spartans in four sets (25-22, 25-21, 23-25, 27-25) to claim the title.

Calgary’s journey began against the third-ranked Dalhousie Tigers, a team that on paper was superior to the Dinos. For the first two sets of their epic encounter, it looked as if everything was to go to plan, as the Tigers jumped out to a two-set lead entering the third.

However, Calgary would have none of this, and began their colossal comeback by clinching the third by a score of 25-20. From here, the Dinos would not look back, taking two more close frames from the Tigers to close out a stunning come from behind victory.

In the semi-finals, the Dinos had an even tougher team to contend with, in the form of the Alberta Golden Bears, the number two seed and two-time defending national champions. After storming out of the gates to claim the first set against their provincial rivals, Calgary lost ground when Alberta raised their game to clinch the second and third.

Once again, the Dinos demonstrated their resolve in the face of adversity, clawing back to edge the Golden Bears in the fourth, before coming from behind to once again win a five set thriller. While the Calgary players congregated in sheer ecstasy, Alberta could only look on in disbelief as their banner season was cut disappointingly short.

The final saw the Dinos encounter the Trinity Western Spartans, who had advanced to the penultimate game after demolishing Queen’s, and clinching a five set victory of their own against the number one team in the country from Laval.

Calgary would be at its best on Sunday, toppling the Spartans in four sets to seal the university’s first national championship since 1993.

The Dinos were led by the attacking heroics of Graham Vigrass, who

notched 16 kills in the victory and was later named as the tournament MVP. While the Spartans will rue their loss in this year’s tournament, they can take solace in the fact that they will get another chance on home turf next season. Trinity Western will host the 2011 CIS tournament, and will be able to return their full team from this campaign, as they have no graduating seniors.

Where the Dinos and Spartans can undoubtedly term their efforts as successful, the Laval Rouge et Or will be most disappointed by their showing in Kamloops. The Quebec side, which was touted as the premier squad in the country, was edged out by the youthful Spartans in the semi-finals, before being shut out by Alberta for the bronze medal.

The sole bright spot for the tournament’s Eastern representatives was the achievement of the OUA champion Queen’s Gaels.

The Kingston club rebounded from an opening round thumping at the hands of the Spartans to demolish the Montreal Carabins before claiming fifth place with a five set victory over the hosts from Thompson Rivers.

BEN ORR

SILHOUETTE STAFF

After capturing the bronze medal in February at the OUA Championships, the McMaster women’s 4x800m relay team did not disappoint at the CIS Championships in Windsor this past weekend.

The team of Lisa Giles, Jillian Wyman, Sarah Haliburton and Katie Anderson claimed the bronze medal in a time of 9:05.78. The Windsor Lancers captured gold with a winning time of 8:58.40 and the Guelph Gryphons clocked an 8:59.98 to win silver. What was most remarkable about the third place finish was that Mac beat out McGill by 0.01 seconds, an unbelievably small time difference in a 3200m race.

The Marauders are considered a young team on the rise, comprised of a first year, two second years and a third year student. Anderson also placed eighth in the 1500m.

Sarah Giovannetti placed 10th in the 3000m race, running to a time of 10:14.76. Also running well on the day was the relay team of Dana Hislop, Morgan Van Mierlo, Kim Volterman and Jessica Tat, who finished 11th in the 4x400m race.

Giovannetti and Anderson were the only Marauder athletes to run individual events at Nationals, and in total only nine athletes competed, with all of them being female. This may seem to be a disappointment after last year, when 15 athletes made the trip and Mac had entries in nine events, but the women’s bronze medal should cement this year as a success.

A medal at a CIS event is an outstanding accomplishment. In the 2009-2010 academic year, McMaster has only won five total CIS medals, with two silver medals won two weekends ago by Marauder wrestlers Ryan Blake and Dusan Milakara, a silver won by swimmer Sarah Taylor, as well as a bronze medal won by the women’s cross country team, a team largely comprised of the 4x800m runners (only Lisa Giles was not a member).

For the second consecutive year, the Windsor Lancers captured the overall women’s title, doing it on their home track. The Windsor men were not so fortunate, losing the title to Guelph by a single point on the final race of the day. McMaster finished with a total of seven points, good enough for 19th place.

B12 • THE SILHOUETTE

THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2010

HEALTH

production office: extension 27117

in partnership with SHEC

Red wine’s tannins have health benefits MATT WILUSZ, TANYA BABEL, AND MATT ANDALORO THE SILHOUETTE

The French, notorious wine drinkers and cheese eaters, have always been at the butt end of pompous upper class slights due to their cultured ways, but in terms of cardiovascular disease it appears they have the market cornered. Sipping a glass of chilled merlot may seem to be something done only at a fancy restaurant, but if North Americans of all ages are interested in capitalizing on the vast health benefits that red wine provides, they might have to change their ways.

When comparing the French and North American populations, it has been observed that the French have a similar frequency of smokers, higher average levels of cholesterol and blood pressure, exercise less, and consume four times the amount of butter. Yet, the average French person is much healthier than the average North American.

Despite all of these unhealthy habits, only nine per cent of French adults suffer from obesity whereas in North America, that value is 31 per cent.

This phenomenon, dubbed the ‘French Paradox’, was originally thought to be due to the Mediterranean diet rich in fruits and vegetables, but is now thought to be caused by the French’s cultural consumption of red wine. French people, being some of the world’s top producers

and consumers of wine, consume roughly five to seven drinks per week. French adults average about 64 litres per year, well ahead of the North American adults, who consume a measly 13 litres per year.

The astounding benefits of wine are limited to red wine, as the factors that provide its characteristic red colour are also responsible for providing the health advantages.

These factors are known as tannins, or polyphenols, and are present in the skin of grapes, which are left on the grapes during the fermentation process of red wine synthesis. The most prominent polyphenol in red wine is resveratrol, and although polyphenols are found in a variety of other fruits and vegetables, the fermented tannins in red wine are the most effective at preventing plaque build-up in the arteries of the heart. Accumulating plaque in your arteries causes cardiovascular disease (CDV), thus drinking red wine prevents illnesses like heart attacks.

Nearly all dark, red wines—like cabernet, zinfandel, shiraz, pinot noir, and merlot—contain polyphenols. To reveal another health benefit of polyphenols, a research team led by Dr. Giulio Maria Pasinetti gave cabernet sauvignon, in amounts equivalent to one fiveounce glass per day, to a set of mice that displayed symptoms of early onset Alzheimer’s disease. Results showed that the wine-drinking mice had a significantly faster capability of exiting the test mazes as com-

JONATHON FAIRCLOUGH / SILHOUETTE STAFF

Red wine can reduce incidences of cardiovascular disease and memory loss. Cheers to your health! pared to the control group. Red wine, then, appears to have a connection to reduced memory loss. In another study, polyphenol-fed mice that consumed an equivalent of one litre of tannins per day showed an 87 percent lower risk of prostate tumour development. Both studies indicate that incorporating moderate red wine consumption into a diet can promote a healthy lifestyle.

Indulging in fad diets and

false supplementation due to complacency and a general want for convenience seems to lead North Americans down paths that are not only detrimental to their health, but are relatively useless. The new trend North Americans should begin embracing is one that is much more natural and comes at a fraction of the price. The good news is that the wine trend seems to be gaining momentum; since 2000, red wine sales

are up by 130 percent compared to only a 33 percent increase for white wine.

So fill your glass, and have a drink with friends. Red wine complements food like red meat, cheese, and pasta so start incorporating it into your meals. By upping your intake of red wine (though not excessively) you will be reducing your risk of cardiac disease and improving your memories.

Don’t forget your prescription drugs Plan to protect your health as you make arrangements for your next big trip JESSICA LYDIATE

SILHOUETTE STAFF

JONATHON FAIRCLOUGH / SILHOUETTE STAFF

Plane ticket? Check. Passport? Check.Vaccinations? Make sure you check.

Summertime means warmth, relaxation, and, for some lucky students, exciting adventures in foreign countries. Before embarking on your travels, it is important to determine which vaccinations and medications they will need before leaving the country and traveling to an exotic location. Health Canada recommends visiting a health care provider or a travel health clinic at least six weeks before your departure date.

There are a number of things you should consider about your destination that will help you determine its health risks. The country’s geographic location and climate, the duration of your stay, the type of accommodations you will be residing in, and the health requirements to enter the country are all factors to make note of. The World Health Organization website has disease distribution maps for many infectious diseases and these can help you identify the health risks in the area you are traveling to.

The Health Canada website also lists all travel advisories and warnings to keep you notified about any hazardous regions. Do some investigation to gauge what types of risks you may encounter in your travels and what type of information your health care provider may wish to discuss with you at your travel clinic appointment.

Some common pre-travel recommendations are updating routine vaccinations if there are some you are missing or that are overdue. Depending on where you are traveling, vaccinations like hepatitis, typhoid, meningitis, Japanese encephalitis, yellow fever, or European tickbourne encephalitis may be recommended.

If you are traveling to an area with malaria risk, anti-malarial medication will likely be recommended, as well as risk reduction strategies like wearing mosquito repellent. Another good source of information available at travel clinics is contact information for health care providers in the country you are going to in case you experience health problems.

The most common health complaint among Canadian travelers is diarrhea. Consuming water that is less clean than what most Canadians are used to drinking at home often causes diarrhea. When traveling, Health Canada recommends drinking bottled water or purified water and avoiding foods prepared with local water unless it is boiled or cooked. Try to avoid fruits and vegetables rinsed in unpurified water, or peel and cook them before consumption. Do not eat raw meats or seafood. If you do have the misfortune of getting diarrhea while traveling be sure to drink lots of water and ingest electrolytes to avoid dehydration.

Pre-existing medical condi-

tions need to be planned for when traveling. Health Canada suggests organizing an adequate supply of any prescription medications you require and to carry them in clearly marked prescription containers accompanied by a doctor’s note.

Furthermore, consider bringing over-the-counter medications that you feel you may need, like allergy medications, head ache medications, anti-septic creams for cuts, or even the morning after pill. These drugs may not be readily available where you are traveling.

Simple health precautions are also important to remember when traveling. Remember to wear sunscreen, as being sun burned is always unpleasant and especially annoying when traveling. Bring lotion from home because the type you require or the SPF level you need may not be available overseas, or may be more expensive.

It is also important to be prepared if you think you might be sexually active while traveling. Bring your own supply of condoms so that you are not tempted to have unprotected sex.

Before going off on big, exciting adventures, plan for your travel health needs to ensure a smooth trip. Visit a health care provider to make sure you are preparing adequately for your destination.

Being prepared will help you avoid stress while traveling and following health precautions will help you to avoid illness.

THE SILHOUETTE • C1

THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2010

BUSINESS

production office: extension 27117

business@thesil.ca

DeGroote takes on the world How does our business school stack up to international competition?

CHRISTOPHER CHANG / SILHOUETTE STAFF

Simon Granat Business Editor

The DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University is getting a facelift, courtesy of a few generous donations. The furious boon in infrastructure is an attempt to improve the business school’s international reputation.

Currently, the Ron Joyce MBA School is being built in Burlington. Further, construction of the McMaster Innovation Park is also almost complete.

People assume that the tidal wave of construction has brought a better business program to the McMaster shore. McMaster may be improving, but they still lag behind some of Canada’s best business schools.

DeGroote’s MBA program was ranked number 50 in North America by QS a company that ranks undergraduate and graduate schools. The Rotman School at the University of Toronto was ranked number 30. McGill’s Desautels Faculty of Management was ranked 31.

QS evaluates universities based on numerous criteria from teaching methodology to average base salary graduates received for that year. QS reported that DeGroote grads earn an average of $65,525 USD base salary.

The bedrock of DeGroote’s program is the school’s MBA co-op program.

DeGroote is one of 3 Ontario Universities with such a program. Co-op programs boast that they provide students with work experience, while having the benefit of still being in school. Many schools with such programs insist that students not only have a greater range of skills when they graduate, but get their foot in the door as well.

90 per cent of graduates are hired within three months of graduating the program, reported QS.

#1

Harvard University

Inside this issue:

#19

Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western

#30

Rotman School of Business, University of Toronto

However, while DeGroote’s ranking might not be best in Canada, construction of the new MBA school may make it a contender in the future, “for the DeGroote school in particular I think that we will have reached the company of the very best schools in the world by then. We are at the cusp of greatness,” said Paul Bates, Dean of the DeGroote school of business.

The construction is just the beginning of what Bates calls, “an ambitious game plan.”

When the $20 million plus, Ron Joyce MBA School opens in September this year, DeGroote’s master’s program will be moved.

The school will bolster its co-op program with state of the art wireless communications and audio and visual technology.

If the new school may increase DeGroote’s international standing. “The Ron Joyce Centre was specifically designed to enhance their learning experience with flexible spaces that can be configured for a variety of uses,” said Bates.

PhD and undergraduate programs will remain on the Hamilton Campus.

There are no immediate plans to change the undergraduate program. However Bates believes in time, these programs could be expanded also. “I could see us having specialized undergrad programs as well.”

The McMaster Innovation Park is will also add to the business school’s repertoire. The Innovation Park will primarily be a research facility. However, programs such as Pre-Inc will strengthen the business program.

Pre-Inc is a program that lends office space and expert advice to McMaster students who are looking to start a business venture. Innovative programs like Pre-Inc could help McMaster foster the next Research in Motion.

The DeGroote school of business may currently hold a average ranking, but with their aggressive expansion plans the future looks bright.

#31

Desaultes School of Management, McGill

#50

DeGroote School of Business, McMaster

#59

University of Victoria, Faculty of Business

Five days for the Homeless

An interview with Dean Bates

File your best tax return

Students tough it out for a week to raise donations and awareness for homelessness charity, C2

DeGroote Dean talks about the business school’s future and the up and coming MBA school, C3

Check out these tips to make sure that you get the most out of your tax return this year, C4

#60

York University

C2 • THE SILHOUETTE

THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2010

around the globe China China may be forced to share the same fate as the United States with the possibility of a government bailout for some of their banks on the horizon. The stimulus will bail out the banks that made loans for local-government projects under the stimulus program in 2008. Officials have reported that they will place limits on frivolous lending that saw over funding of local projects. Officials believe that over 20 per cent of borrowers will default on their investment vehicles in China in 2011.

India Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), the world’s biggest network equipment manufacturer, plans to increase the number of jobs in its Indian operations. The growth is due to increased revenue within the company. Cisco plans on increasing the number of jobs in the country from 6,000 to 10,000.

The company is also looking to boost its overseas revenue by investing more into the Asian-Pacific region in order to tap the increasing demand from emerging markets.

United States It seems that after the initial hype over Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPad sales have cooled down. When the product first debuted sales of were over 25,000 units per hour. Since then, sales have dropped considerably to 30,000 per weekday. Analysts attribute the change in sales to consumer excitement.

European Union The United States and the European Union are working together to help reduce the risk of derivative trading in the global market.

The European Commission, the EU’s top regulatory agent will discuss the possibility of banning purely speculative credit default swaps. They also plan to regulate EU private equity and hedge funds following a draft law proposed last year to come into place.

Italy Bulgari (LSE: BUL.MI) the third largest jeweler faced the most losses within the company in the past 8 years, having a $18.6 million loss in the fourth quarter. This is due to restructuring within the company and a reduced demand for their perfumes and watches. In addition to this their sales have dropped 5.1 per cent to 297 million Euros.

CHRISOPHER CHANG/SILHOUETTE STAFF

Financial loss isn’t just for investors, students can feel the pressure in their everyday lives.

Raising awareness through adversity Simon Granat Business Editor

Hamilton is one of the most poverty stricken cities in Canada. Within our city limits, 18.1 per cent of the population was living below the low income cut off in 2005. In the same year, 26,112 children were living in poverty.

That is approximately 25 per cent of all children in Hamilton, stated the Social Planning and Research Council of Hamilton in a 2009 report.

The report noted that the child poverty rate in Hamilton remained unchanged between 2000 and 2005.

The event, Five Days for the Homeless is trying to do something about that. “Homelessness is one of the most local issues of poverty and suffering that we have and that we can experience. And it’s the easiest one for us to do something about,” said Greg Morris organizer of Five Days for the Homeless at McMaster University.

This is the third year McMaster has held the event. Students from the DeGroote School of Business will give up their roofs, income, and live off donations of food and drink through for five days. Their goal is to try and raise donations and awareness for homelessness in Hamilton.

The event will be held between March

15 through to March 19 in the courtyard in between Mills Memorial Library and the Student Centre.

For organizers of the event, raising awareness is not limited to their five days outside. “Raising awareness means that, we’re only out here for five days and what we want to do is make an impact on the community, so it is something that they’ll think about in a part of their mind all year round,” said Greg Morris, organizer of McMaster’s Five Days for the Homeless event.

Last year the event raised $7,500 in cash as well as assorted donations of clothing and school supplies.

This year, the event aims to raise the same amount. Organizers were concerned that the economic recession would impact the prospective of increasing their goal.

“Obviously it has been an interesting year economically, so we wanted to have somewhat of a conservative goal. We’ll call it $10,000. So about $7,500 in donations, and the rest made up for in food and clothing,” Morris said.

This year, all proceeds will go to the Good Shepherd.

Some have criticised the event for not being extreme enough to raise awareness.

Morris disagrees, “it is certainly not the

coldest time of the year here right now. This time last year we experienced -25C. This is a national program that is being run simultaneously at 20 universities. So we have to sacrifice some things and take the time that works the best for everyone.”

“It’s not about how cold it is or whether these guys are suffering, it’s about whether or not they’re out the whole time, showing that they’re devoted to their community,” said Morris.

Briana Petersen is a volunteer who will be spending her five days sleeping outside.

“I want to help raise awareness because it’s for an awesome cause,” she said.

Helping to reduce homelessness outweighs the physical hardships volunteers face. “It’s a little tough sleeping on the concrete. I woke up at 6:30 this morning because it was so cold, from the dampness,” Petersen said.

“It’s super-hard sleeping, but it’s good company.”

Cash donations can be made directly to volunteers during the event.

The event will be taking door to door clothing and school supply donations on Thursday throughout the Westdale area.

Five Days for the Homeless was started in 2005 at the University of Alberta.

Have-not country could hurt global economy

Omar Masud The Silhouette

Over the past couple of weeks Athens has received a lot of media attention. This is thanks to the remarkable success of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics as well as the country’s ballooning deficit. The state of Greece’s books has become so bad that they are now at a bursting point.

According to Reuters, Greece’s current deficit stands at 12.7 per cent of its GDP, which is an astonishing four times the 3 per cent limit set by the European Union.

In total, Greece owes investors close to 300 billion Euros or 112.6 per cent of its annual GDP. Even though most of us would like to be-

Raging bull

To quote the words of the immortal Peter Griffin, “you know what really grinds my gears?” For me, it would defiantly be how telecom giants are able to charge Canadians unfair prices for cell phone service. This happens because there is a serious lack of competition between providers in Canada.

In the proposed federal budget, Tony Clement, Minister of Industry, announced the telecommunication satellite industry would be deregulated to allow foreign investment.

The news effectively dropped the jaws of telecommunications execs from sea to shining sea.

While this change is enough to make you feel nice and warm inside, do not expect major changes in the wireless industry any time soon. While there has been an increase in competition with new Canadian based carriers being introduced into the market such as Wind Mobile, there are still issues surrounding foreign companies coming in and setting up shop.

These issues are focused on the current restrictions around foreign ownership within Canadian telecommunications. This is perpetuated by the idea that companies must ensure that there is still steady Canadian ownership within the industry. However, given the fact that we now live in the Internet age where we have access to downloadable content and cloud based telecommunications like Skype this seems like an unreasonable and outdated regulation.

According to the Canadian Telecommunications Act, in Canada foreign companies are only allowed to own a maximum 46.7 per cent of any telecommunications company. So let’s say that, even if a major telecommunications firm like AT&T wanted to come in and buy out Rogers or Bell, currently they would only be able to acquire a 46.7 per cent stake.

lieve that this is a domestic issue their financial woes may pose a global problem.

The on-going problem in Greece is just the tip of what could become the iceberg a global sovereign debt crisis. The deeply interconnected nature of the financial markets makes Canada vulnerable to government defaults, regardless of where it is in the world they happen.

According to Barclays estimates, banks operating in the Euro Zone own over 95 per cent of Greek bonds. Hence, a default by Greece would result in several bank failures within the European Union. This could collapse the financial system throughout the Europe. If this were to happen, the Canadian economy would feel it.

• PLEASE SEE GREEK, C4

Essentially, this would be low enough to not allow any foreign company to have a controlling stake, not much of an incentive to invest if you tell me.

Even with the deregulation on foreign ownership in the sector, Canada is not considered a large market. To companies like Microsoft, Canada is classified as a state, not a country. Even with a deregulated industry, Canada’s market is so small that it may not be worth it for foreign companies to invest here.

Despite all of this, I still commend the steps being taken in parliament to open up the telecom market in Canada, however I believe that without relaxing the current regulatory rules as I said above, not much difference will be seen by the Canadian public in terms of lowered fees or plans.

Unless deregulation gives Bell, Rogers and other major companies a reason to be scared, the incentive to be competitive will not make its way onto our bills. Deregulation will not make any difference at all.

Let’s face it, small start ups like Wind Mobile do not pose a threat to the giant companies. It is the massive companies like AT&T and Sprint that are double and triple the size of Bell and Rogers that will either change our bills or make deregulation happen.

The disintegration of this long held monopoly has been a long time coming, especially for its customers who are taken to the cleaners day in and day out.

Hopefully the steps taken by Ottawa weaken the large telecoms and allow more foreign competition. Maybe it will give us more options when chosing a carrier or at the very least make our plans cheaper.

However until then, we will just have to bite our lip and pick the best of the worst.

•Santino Marinucci

THE SILHOUETTE • C3

THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2010

executive silhouettes

Looking into the future

the water cooler

Compiled by Santino Marinucci

Volvo needs reviving after Ford Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. The group that currently owns Swedish carmaker Volvo (NASDAQ: VOLV) formerly owned by Ford Motor Co (NYSE: F) may need over $1.4 billion in financing in order to revive the cars brand and help it expand into the Chinese market. Geely and Ford are still working on an acquisition agreement that will transfer ownership from Ford to Geely. This investment will be necessary for car development, marketing, production and distribution for the coming year.

Google refuses to censor searches Google (NYSE: GOOG) has made a bold move surrounding the controversial issue on the censorship of its search content within China.

The tech company has announced that they are 99.9 per cent sure that they will disband its Chinese search engine. This comes after a long dispute between Google and the Far East surrounding talks of an uncensored search engine as a possibility for their Chinese operations.

Twittering @anywhere

PHOTO COURTESY OF DEGROOTE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

Paul Bates is the Dean of Business. He is at the helm of DeGroote’s expansion.

Dean Paul Bates grasps DeGroote’s future

Popular social networking outlet Twitter has recently announced that they will be releasing a new platform which will make the social networking tool visible to everyone on the web. The program is called @anywhere and it links web content to Twitter accounts, allowing users to follow without leaving the website. Essentially you can tweet wherever and whenever you want.

Canada’s jobless rate falls and employment soars

Simon Granat: How did you get to where you are today?

Paul Bates: I spent close to thirty years in the investment industry and as that came to an end, which was the end of 2001 beginning of 2002, the company that I was responsible for was acquired by one of the large banks. I was 51. I was very privileged to become appointed as a commissioner with the Ontario Securities Commission. I joined a couple of for profit boards and I also joined a couple of not for profit boards.

I approached a colleague of mine at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. It turned out that they were looking for a couple of people to go up and teach specific courses in their MBA program.

At first, they were expecting me to teach a course in corporate finance. In the end they had me teach a class on strategy. At first I thought I was going to do sort of one class a year. I ended up doing six classes a year, including summer school. I thoroughly enjoyed it and students enjoyed it too. In fact I got two outstanding teacher awards while I was at Rotman. That really opened a door for me into fully understanding what the academy is all about. The opportunity came for me to present my credentials at McMaster when they were doing a search.

SG: Have you had any mentors or defining moments that have influenced you?

PB: I have always, and continue to do so; and its one of the things that I recommend to everybody, that they have. The first kind of mentor that I could remember was in high school.

I was probably going down the wrong path when I was in my early teens. My art teacher asked me to stay behind after class. He spread a big piece of paper on the ground and put some paint beside it and said to me, “I think you need to paint something”. I looked at him as if he had two heads.

Anyway, as it turned out I started to paint.

The funny kind of epilogue to the story is that I was lousy as a painter but it taught me that

there were ways to express myself that were different from the ways that I was doing.

You need to have people who will tell you that you’re not doing the right thing. You can’t have mentors that just say, “you’re fine”. It’s the same thing here, at school, I need to surround myself with smart people who will tell me that they think I’m being wrongheaded on an issue.

SG: Do you think you foster that atmosphere here at McMaster?

PB: I think that I have partially. I certainly have enjoyed a tremendous interaction with students. I’ve probably, without exaggeration, been approached by students one-on-one to give them career advice or help them deal with a dilemma, maybe about a thousand times. I’ve also been called out into the business community in my role as Dean of the school, to meet with a group. I wouldn’t say I have achieved it perfectly. And I’d hope that in the next four years of my second term that I’ll get that agenda moved forward more as well.

But I think that people who I interact with have come to have trust in the relationship, and that’s very gratifying.

SG: Why are McMaster University and the DeGroote School of Business unique and what makes them special to you personally?

PB: We have an incredibly engaged student body here. The student led events, programs, contests, activities, are just incredible and so pervasive. Not just internally, they engage with the community.

I have not been to a school, where there’s as much going on as there is going on here.

What’s good about DeGroote is that there’s no attitude. We’re working people here. There are no airs or graces that you may find in other places. So people are grounded, they know that there’s work to be done and they do the work.

And I kind of like that.

SG: Where do you see the University and the school of business going in the next ten to fif-

Bear:

MannKind

(NASDAQ: MKND) The FDA does not like MannKind, the biotechnology firm not the human race.

MannKind develops and commercializes pharmaceuticals to treat cancer and diabetes.

The FDA requested, “more information” on the powdered insulin in the product, Afrezza.

Investors don’t like it when their company could potentially be unsafe. Share prices fell around 25 per cent upon the FDA’s call.

MannKind may be doomed. Many analysts have changed the stock’s rating to “underperform” targeting it around $2 or $3. The current share price sits around $7.89.

teen years?

PB: That’s a long way; I think that Mac is on the road to becoming what I would call a regional university. I think that the relationship with Mohawk will grow. I see kinds of global interaction, we are working together with colleges in health sciences that will partner our medical school, and our business school with partners in the Netherlands.

Our campus in Burlington, fifteen years from now won’t just be a school of business that has a presence in Burlington. There will be other faculties that have a presence in Burlington.

So I see this regionalisation, this very solid interaction between the college system and the university. For the DeGroote School in particular I think that we will have reached the company of the very best schools in the world by then. We are at the cusp of greatness.

SG: What are employers looking for when they hire students?

PB: They’re looking for people who will show up for work on time [laughs]. Maybe a little late, but a little bit early. They’re looking for people who have what I would call adaptive capacity. The ability to understand what’s required of them and augment their skills and their approaches almost on the fly. You know, people who are adept with the numbers and can do a lot of the analytic work and who are also humanists, who have a strong sense of language, a strong sense of the arts a strong sense of community and how communities grow and evolve. Very broad skills.

SG: Is there anything else you’d like to say to McMaster students?

PB: Yeah, I’d like to say to them, I’m proud to know them. I meet a diversity of students from all across the university. It is a privilege for me to interact with them and get to know them. I take huge vicarious pride watching you grow, learn and succeed. I’m very proud to be here with them.

Bull:

Garmin Ltd.

(NASDAQ: GRMN) China isn’t the only one fighting Google these days. Maker of GPS hardware, Garmin (famed for the funnily named, Garmin Nuvi) has signed a deal with 3D imager, Intermap Technologies. The deal will produce 3D GPS systems.

Think N64 3D, not Avatar. Investors liked the move, boosting share prices up as high as 18 per cent. With this move Garmin wants to take a bite out of Google’s free mapping technology. Digital imaging aside, I still want a mapping technology with a serious name.

It’s a good time to be living in the great white north. Unemployment rates have dropped by 0.1 per cent, from 8.3 per cent to 8.2 per cent.

Economists reported that there were 20,900 new jobs created in February across Canada. Most of these jobs were found in goods producing sectors and manufacturing. These two sectors contributed 17,800 jobs.

The rest were in the service industry, which hired 3,100 people. Since the news the Loonie has reached a 99-cent high compared to the USD. Cirque du Soleil fails to impress Quebec based entertainment company Cirque du Soleil dove into some hot water surrounding its newest experiment “Banana Shpeel” a new production which shy’s away from its highly successful 25 year old formula of extreme acrobatics. This new production encompasses new aspects of Broadway into its shows as Cirque moves to expand its brand into conventional theatre. Recent showings of this spectacle have received lukewarm reviews. It will become clear in the next few weeks with the revamping of the show to see if it catches on with the public.

Siemens plant in Hamilton closes Yet another manufacturing plant in the City of Hamilton has closed.

Siemens, the gas-turbine manufacturing plant has been shut down permanently and cost Hamiltonians 550 jobs. The gas-turbine division has been relocated to Charlotte N.C. where the company has received numerous incentives including tax breaks to expand their facilities south of the border. 200 service workers in the Seimens’ office building were not affected by this move.

C4 • THE SILHOUETTE

THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2010

YOUR MONEY

Milking the tax man for all he’s got

FROM THE GOULD TRADING FLOOR

What economic downturn?

Mac investment keeps it in the black this year RYAN MARTIN

GOULD TRADING FLOOR

RYAN JANSSEN / SILHOUETTE STAFF

Many students miss out on tax returns that they are eligible for.

SIMON GRANAT BUSINESS EDITOR

‘Tis that time of the year again. A time for reflection. A time where we look back on our previous year’s employment. And after glancing at our T4 statements, and think to ourselves, “I only made how much?!”

Yes sir, it is tax time yet again.

While the taxman may signal doom and gloom to those lucky enough to earn something, this is not so for students.

For us tax time means that we will receive a refund of at least some of the income tax we have paid throughout the year. Plus, there are many deductions students are eligible for.

Perhaps the most well known deduction is tuition. Students enrolled in an institution recognized under the Income Tax Act and a student’s registration history will receive a T2202A. If you were wondering, yes, McMaster is certified. T2202A’s are currently available via MUGSI. The T2202A allows students to claim tuition and textbook amounts. As students, we must use this form to reduce our tax owing to $0, or as close to that as possible. If you have reduced your tax owing, but it was less than your tuition, you can carry the difference forward to deduct it from another year’s taxes.

We are also eligible to claim money for textbooks. Full time students can claim up to $65 per month while they are in school.

Part time students can claim up to $20 per month when they are

in school. This is a fixed amount.

The downside to this is that it wont matter if your books cost more than that.

The upside? ‘Borrowing’ your friend’s textbooks just made you money.

Any scholarships earned from a post secondary institution may be deducted from your income, depending on certain qualifications.

The program must qualify for the education amount.

Moving expenses may also be eligible for deduction. If you have moved over 40 km for a summer job, you may be eligible to claim transportation or gas, accommodation and meals during your move.

You may also be able to claim temporary housing for the first fifteen days after your move.

As a student, you may also be eligible to make tax free withdrawals from your RRSP, if you use the money to pay for your education. You may not withdraw any more than $10,000 in one year, or $20,000 in four years. The amount must be paid back within 60 days on the fifth year after the withdrawal.

If you have unused tax credits, you may be eligible to transfer up to $5,000 to a parent, grandparent or spouse. Keep this in mind; it may give you some extra brownie points the next time you need to borrow a few bones to go out.

When in doubt, check out the Canada Revenue Agency online at www.cra-arc.gc.ca, or drop into a tax service company such as HR Block to get the deed done.

With files from HR Block

The MAC Investment Club is an education oriented investment program, where students are given the opportunity to learn the basics of the financial markets through their own-pooled funds. The goal of profiting while teaching members on investing strategies has led to its membership drastically increasing this year.

Through a sector-diversified portfolio, the MAC Investment Club (MACIC) has balanced inconsistencies in the market and achieved a successful end result, showing a continuous profit, despite some dramatic shifts in consumer confidence and lagging commodity prices.

The club and its members have experienced the highs and lows of volatile markets. Some of their holdings have underperformed, while others have continued their strong earnings reports and dividend cash flows. The club’s strategy of holding growth as well as income stocks in the group portfolio reduced the diversifiable risk

in the fund while at the same time produced a more definitive revenue stream.

Meanwhile, the active investing style of the club has given students more control over the portfolio and the unique ability to monitor up-todate performance of the fund and its individual holdings. With the availability of research tools including McMaster University’s Allen H. Gould Trading Floor, students have first-hand access to a wide range of resources, including Bloomberg Professional and Thomson Reuters’ software.

The MAC Investment Club’s strategy of using stop-loss targets minimizes calculated risk while educating members on risk awareness and the importance of diversifying within the market.

The club is led by President and CEO, James Forsyth, a fourth year Commerce student, who believes the club, “performed extremely well this year achieving returns of almost 6 per cent over six months, doubling that of last year’s”.

Forsyth has faith in the club’s continued success in the future. “I am very proud of our talented fund

managers and associates and I have no doubt that the MACIC will continue its financial successes in the future.”

Senior Trader, Paul Zogala has also been pleased with the club’s wealth, “myself and the other members of the executive team are not only pleased with yet another year of positive returns, but with the active involvement of club members.

More than half our members attended at least one educational workshop.” Looking forward, the club’s members are confident in the club’s future prospects, and are excited to see our newly selected executive team take the reigns and continue to grow Canada’s fastest growing student run investment club.

Andrew Vrana, MACIC CFO, is bearish on the club’s sudden growth, “it’s important to remember that for all its successes, the club is still only in its beginnings.

With so much accomplished already, it’s going to be exciting to see how just how far the executive can take it next year. The future is wide open.”

Gould Trading Floor Market Outlook

THE ORGANIZATION, of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)’s oil production quotas will come under review at a regular meeting in Vienna on Wednesday, Mar. 17th.

Despite crude oil hovering above $80 a barrel, no immediate change in production levels is anticipated. Analysts expect oil demand to recover later in the year as consumption in developing countries grows.

CHRIS DODD, head of the United States’ Senate banking committee, is set to unveil a long-awaited proposal on the regulatory reform of America’s financial services industry on Monday Mar. 15th. The new bill is likely to insist on central clearing for more overthe-counter derivatives as well as propose setting up a new body to seize control of and wind-down financial institutions which show signs of breeding systemic failure.

Greek finances could spell global trouble •CONT’D FROM C2 Over the past several decades governments have accumulated record levels of debt which will be increasingly hard to service. As debt levels rise, the risk of a default increases. This could prompt investors to look for a higher rate of return on their investments, forcing them to invest in risk prone offerings.

According to Bloomberg, “the extra yield [investors] demand to hold Greek 10-year debt rather than German equivalents has reached a record of 396 basis points”. This makes it more expensive for Greece to meet its interest payments and harder for it to come out of its deficit.

A similar problem exists in

Ontario where according to CIBC, “every percentage point rise in rates adds $500-million in annual interest costs.” A rise in interest rates, would make it harder for the government to balance its books.

Another fact that might come as a surprise to most people is that deficit and debt figures reported only represent amounts owed by the federal government; it does not include debt carried at provincial and municipal levels. Once local debt is added onto national figures, total debt far exceeds manageable levels of debt.

CIBC economist Warren Lovely describes this situation as “a ticking time bomb that we have very little time to diffuse.”

In simple words, to avert a crisis that can potentially exceed the Great Depression, tough decisions have to made starting today by governments and individuals.

Greece has already cut down its annual budget by $4.8 billion dollars, Portugal has followed suit and announced measures to cut its deficit down to 2.8 per cent of GDP from 8.3 per cent.

Even right here at home, Quebec has announced plans to hike sales tax by one percentage point starting January 2011.

Considering what’s at stake here a lot more needs to be done in order to tame a crisis that has been brewing for decades due to neglect and poor fiscal planning.

Students ride the pine in economic recovery REMEK DEBSKI SIL ANALYST

Unemployment dropped another 0.1 percentage points the week of Mar. 8 to 12 in Canada. With 21,000 newly employed the current unemployment rate is 8.2 per cent.

The driving factor for February was an increase in full-time workers – where 60,000 people found work. The majority of those jobs were that of public sector employees.

Other increases were seen in accommodation and food services, building, and other support services; manufacturing; health care and social assistance; and natural resources. Additionally, many of the gains were seen in men 55 and over. The men 55 and over age group saw a drop in unemployment by 0.6 percentage points to 7.1 per cent with the increase of 26,000 jobs.

Statistics Canada attributes much of this growth to a significant portion of the working population entering the 55 and over group.

Little change was seen in unemployment for the youth (24 and under) age group. Further, the losses that were seen for February were all in part-time employment. Attributing to the job losses were the retail and wholesale trade sector; the finance, insurance, real estate and leasing sector, and other services sector.

The lowest unemployment in Canada was found is Saskatchewan. With 4,100 newly employed the provinces unemployment rate sits at 4.3 per cent. Ontario, currently sitting at 9.1 per cent, saw little change in February. The province has seen a growth of 1.4 per cent since May 2009.

Other news for the week was statistics on foreign control in the Canadian economy for 2007. However, Canada continues to give up its assets in manufacturing and oil and gas. The 10.6 per cent increase contributed to the 9.9 per cent overall increase of foreign interest in Canadian firms.

The largest share of foreign control is in

manufacturing. Foreign interest in this sector sits at 52.8 per cent compared to 46.8 per cent in 2006.

The US dominated this asset control – 54.7 per cent of foreign interest was that of the US. The majority of these interests were in motor vehicles and parts; wood and paper, and primary metals.

The majority of the foreign interest decline was from Germany. 2.1 per cent was dropped, but consequently picked up by US interests.

Finally, Canadian international merchandise trade statistics were released. Canada posted a $799 million trade surplus as exports increased 0.5 per cent and imports dropped 1.7 per cent.

The major exports were metals and alloys (8.4 per cent) and chemicals, plastics, and fertilizers (8.9 per cent).

Also, 9.0 per cent growth was in seen in consumer goods such as apparel, footwear, toys, medical and pharmaceutical products.

synth pop • rap music • brasstronaut the ghost writer • the vagina monologues • tv without cable

index

D2 • the silhouette’s art + culture magazine

thursday, march 18, 2010

Senior Editor: Grace Evans Entertainment Editor: Myles Herod Music Editor: Corrigan Hammond Contributors: Catherine Brasch, Michael Clemens, Jordan Collver, Julie Compton, Harrison Cruikshank, Kevin Elliott, Roxanne Hathway-Baxter, Dan Hawie, Michael Hewak, Chris Hoy, Derek Hung, Aaron Joo , Noah Nemoy, Josh Parsons, Trevor Roach, Ben Small, Katharine Snider-McNair, Jemma Wolfe Cover: Tyler Hayward

this week

your parents drank us under the table on st. patricks day... write for andy. musc b110.

The Bounty Hunter Fri - Sat: 6:30, 9:10 She’s Out of My League Fri - Sat: 6:15, 8:50 Diary of a Wimpy Kid Fri - Sat: 6:50, 9:20 Green Zone Fri - Sat: 6:30, 9:20 Festivals Ancaster 2010 Film Fest The Last Station (Apr. 12) Mon: 7:15

jan.16-may.9 dec.5-april.11

Jackson Square Cinema

Liquid of Rain and Rivers Art Gallery of Hamilton 123 King St., Hamilton 905-577-6610 info@artgalleryofhamilton. com

jan.16-may.9

Young Rivals The Casbah 9:00 p.m.

She’s Out of My League Fri - Sat: 6:45, 9:30

Posing Beauty Art Gallery of Hamilton 123 King St., Hamilton 905-577-6610 info@artgalleryofhamilton. com

Ritual Evidence Art Gallery of Hamilton 123 King St., Hamilton 905-577-6610 info@artgalleryofhamilton. com

theatre mar.10-mar.28

The Flatliners The Casbah 9:00 p.m.

Alice in Wonderland Fri - Sat: 7:45, 10:00

Doubt: A Parable

By Marcia Kash Theatre Aquarius 190 King William St. 1-800-465-7529 boxoffice@theatreaquarius

Impromptu Splendor Theatre Aquarius 190 King William St. 1-800-465-7529 boxoffice@theatreaquarius

andy’s pick now

Samuel James This Aint Hollywood 9:00 p.m.

opening

Gordon Lightfoot Hamilton Place Theatre 8:00 p.m.

ancaster

Jason Collett Absinthe 9:00 p.m.

Silvercity Ancaster

Repo Men Fri - Sat: 7:30, 10:40

jackson

Coco et Co The Casbah 9:00 p.m.

The Bounty Hunter The Runaways Repo Men

The Bounty Hunter Fri - Sat: 7:10, 10:10

festivals

mar.27 mar.30 apr. 1

Said The Whale The Casbah 8:00 p.m.

apr. 1

mar.27

Brasstronaut The Casbah 9:00 p.m.

apr.

mar.26

Death Point Absinthe 9:00 p.m.

apr. 10

mar.26

Sons of Butcher The Casbah 9:00 p.m.

Buddy Guy Hamilton Place Theatre 7:30 p.m.

apr. 12

mar.26

Dragonette Hamilton Place Studio 8:00 p.m.

Poirier Absinthe 9:00 p.m.

apr.14

mar.25

Peter Jackson Absinthe 9:00 p.m.

Poirier Absinthe 9:00 p.m.

apr.21

mar.23

Carrie Underwood Copps Coliseum 7:30 p.m.

mar.27

Jully Black Hamilton Place Theatre 8:00 p.m.

Two Hour Traffic The Casbah 8:00 p.m.

apr. 21

Abandon All Ships The Casbah 9:00 p.m.

Carol Welsman Lincoln Alexander Center 9:00 p.m.

may.1

mar.19 mar.19

Oscar Lopez Hamilton Place Theatre 8:00 p.m.

mar. 20 mar. 19

Dala The Pearl Factory 8:00 p.m.

art

film

music

mar.16-mar.27

in the hammer

green beer. vaginas and perineums. spring weather. mint chocolate chip ice cream. making decisions and feeling good about them. car accidents where you don’t get hurt. cadbury cream eggs.

look for the special insert next week in The Silhouette, March 25th

andy’s 100 mile music issue local band profiles, interviews with owen pallatt and blue rodeo, local band photographers, the open house arts collective, the hamilton music scene

column

thursday, march 18, 2010

f.u.b.a.r.

when that decade began there had been a dozen plus independently operating, large record labels. Record labels editorial column like Stax Records and corrigan hammond Columbia Records offered their acts the sort of artistic It’s time to rethink what it means freedom that we would expect to be an ‘indie’ record label. from contemporary labels like Arts Particularly when ‘indie’ refers & Crafts. An important part of to a DIY approach to music their business model was releasing making, indie-pendent of the non-commercial music or, in the professionalism that is associated vernacular of the industry, prestige with mainstream music production. recordings.

This idea in the music industry For most record labels, dates back to the early 1980s. And prestige recordings were an like most thirty-year-old pop-culture important artist-development concepts, it is badly in need of a strategy. The theory was (and still is) reconsideration. that most bands with a record deal When the idea of the indie- wouldn’t necessarily break a profit label first emerged, it was basically a on their first two or three records. catch all term used to differentiate However, by diligently promoting small record labels from the music these bands on their early records industry’s six major ones (Warner, they could gradually be cultivated EMI, Universal, Sony, BMG and into profitable acts with large PolyGram). At the end of the 1970s enough album sales to recoup their those six companies had essentially earlier losses. formed a cartel which controlled However, by the mideither the copyrights or distribution 1970’s something happened to the rights to almost every single piece of music industry. This can best be western music that existed outside summed up in two syllables: coof the public domain. This was an caine. Under the tenor of cokedalarming historical anomaly, since, up record bosses, like infamous

Columbia records chief Walter Yetnikoff, became as much known for the music that they released as the erratic behaviour of its executives. The inevitable result was that the almost the entire North American and British music industries were either bought up by or absorbed into the ‘big six’ record labels – producing a professional music culture by the 1980s that was much more profit driven and less artist-friendly than before.

Indie record labels began to emerge in the early-1980s as a reaction to this new production and distribution model. Essentially they sought to produce anticommercial music and distribute it through anti-commercial means.

By the end of the decade dozens of these labels existed.

As companies like Universal and Sony began to cherry pick the rosters of indie labels like SubPop or Matador, being an indie band began to signify a certain degree of hipster cred. Indie bands had put out their share of money bleeding records, and by signing with a major label, it was time for them to become profitable. And therefore very few indie labels ever actually made a profit. Which was

the big tickle compiled by michlle ng

“someone with great taste in music.”

april hibbard

& christopher chang

“someone who follows trends.”

jason skenderis

the silhouette’s art + culture magazine • D3 fine, because money wasn’t the point of being an indie label – music appreciation was.

This model made sense until about eight years ago, when the music industry, in the wake of another two-syllable anomaly (Napster), basically began to implode upon itself. By 2004 the ‘big six’ had shrunk down to the ‘big four,’ none of whom have shown any real inclination to actually make money in the past few years.

But while the four remaining major labels have been bleeding money for the past half decade, smaller indie labels, like Toronto based Arts & Crafts records and American indie giant Matador, have been quietly growing.

The result is that these businesses have begun to exude the sort of influence over trends in music that were the former domain of the major labels during the 1980s and 1990s. Just consider the fact that when the Seattle music scene exploded into the mainstream nearly twenty years ago, the major six spent the early-1990s engaged in a perpetual bidding war to sign almost every band in the state. In 2005 though when the Montreal scene broke in a similar fashion,

the major labels were virtually absent – leaving it to small record firms to export the sounds of the city to a global market.

Suddenly the indie labels that had been historically minor players in the music industry found themselves exercising major influence over the distribution and production of popular music.

Indie no longer existed on the peripheries.

As a result labels like Saddle Creek or Arts & Crafts are beginning to behave more and more like Capital Records, Motown or Stax did during the early-1970s – marketing and producing their own international-superstars, like Feist or Bright Eyes.

At what point then, does an indie label cease to be an indie label? It’s unfair to compare the business model of a company like New West Records (home to Steve Earle and Corb Lund) with more traditional DIY indie-label. Maybe we could call these companies “minor labels?”

After all, when Steve Earle or The Arcade Fire put out a new record, the only indie thing about it is that it isn’t being released through a major label

q: what is a hipster?

“trendy, colourful,

american apparel.” julia ostrowski

“just a label. a poser.” michael xavikubik

“tight pants.” patches o’hoolihan

synth pop rocks

D4 • the silhouette’s art + culture magazine

music

Synth-pop can be described as a genre of pop music in which the synthesizer (a type of keyboard-like instrument), rather than say the electric guitar or reed bank accordion, is the dominant instrument. It started as part of the New Wave movement of the 1970’s and early 1980’s. Back then bands like Kraftwerk, Pet Shop Boys, Duran Duran, OMD, and Depeche Mode pioneered the genre of electronic music, combining catchy melodies, repetitive rhythms, and minimalistic instrumentation. However, twenty-first century acts like MGMT and Bikini have recently brought the genre back into the forefront of popular music. Perhaps one of the most stand out artists of this newly reclaimed genre is the Canadian singer Lights.

Lights has really modernized and updated synth-pop, using synthesizers to create advanced, new sounds that would have been unimaginable ten or fifteen years ago. Most importantly her music is DIY. She writes and records her own material in her bedroom studio. Lights seems to infuse her music with an extra special something, pushing the synth-pop genre to its breaking point, seeming to create a sound within the genre that is uniquely her own.

The Canadian native describes her style as “intergalactic-electro”. In trying to create sounds, she describes it as “having been plucked from Saturn’s rings or a meteor belt”. The synth sounds that Lights creates are softened to complement her uplifting lyrics and unique singing voice. Her music exerts the right balance between instrumentation and vocals ratio, allowing her voice to shine through without being over shadowed by the music.

Other Canadian bands that belong

thursday, march 18, 2010

to the synth-pop genre such as Stereos approach the use of synthesizers and autotune in a different way, to put it politely. Their music shows the negative side of overusing audio processing. Many critics have suggested that they merely repackage the worn late 1990’s boy band format, simply reproducing generic pop songs in a mediocre fashion.

Lights however gives the synthpop genre a deeper voice – emphasising the importance of smart lyrics as much as she does smart music. The result is a powerhouse of emotion. Maybe the difference lies in her writing style. Lights believes that every good song can be stripped down to the bare basics. She begins with the acoustic guitar and then layers sounds from the synthesizer onto the track.

Lights’ music can be seen by some as a revitalization of the mainstream Canadian music scene. While many years were filled with Nickleback and countless wannabe to American pop star imitations, Lights’ approach to creating music is refreshing but she also remains true to the synth-pop roots, as she chooses to perform on stage with a keytar. Not only has Lights helped revitalize the synth-pop scene in Canada, she has also brought something that has been missing from pop music in general: an ability to wear her heart on her songs. Her influences may be a testament to her new creative approach to the 1970’s genre, as she is influenced by Phil Collins and Abba.

She must be doing something right because at the age of twenty-two she has already managed to score a Juno for best new artist, while also beating her current high score in World of Warcraft 2.

•Catherine Brasch

thursday, march 18, 2010

music

the silhouette’s art + culture magazine • D5

L.A. county blues

snoop dog pays homage to his west coast heroes

To outsiders, hip-hop culture often seems like a homogenous blob of misogyny and conspicuous consumption. However, when you examine the various artists and various locales that have birthed the music, distinct cultures within the genre itself start to appear. And no hip-hop culture has been as colourful as west coast gangsta rap. On his new disc, The Westcoast Blueprint, Snoop Dog pays homage to both major artists and the distinct sounds of west coast gangsta rap. In the aftermath of Jay Z (the Brooklynbased self-proclaimed hip-hop CEO) megahit third instalment of The Blueprint, Snoop is demanding that the west coast, not the east be given its long overdue props.

Like any form of new music, it was woven into each community’s pre existing music scene. In the West coast’s case, this primarily was California’s vibrant funk scene. During the late-1980s, each rap song coming out of that area followed the funk theme of building a song out of a community of noise. If you were to break each song down to its core, you would see that west coast rap songs are rather plain instrumentally. They were often very basic beats: a bass guitar and a drum playing simple grooves. But this all served a purpose.

The music wasn’t built upon the standard musical approach of having chords change as the song progresses. Instead a central rhythm was created to showcase the lyrics.

From 1985-1990, songs like EazyE’s “Eazy-Duz-It” (1988) and King T’s “Act A Fool” (1988) simply act as a platform for the lyricist’s talent and more importantly, rawness. Rap from Los Angeles, especially from the economically depressed suburbs of Compton, pushed rap lyrics to a whole new edge. Rappers like Eazy-E openly discussed drug dealing and pimping – something that had always been hinted at but never brazenly talked about. And while it could be seen as boasting it also forced discussion. African American poverty had rarely been discussed in such a forceful tone.

As the 90’s started, advancements in production meant that the job of producer became a far more demanding task. The act of sampling and interpolation became far larger aspects of rap production.

At forefront of this change was Dr. Dre, a part time rapper, full time producer.

Dr. Dre took the act of sampling (reappropriating existing songs) in completely different directions. While east coast rappers’ samples had very few touches

of their own, Dre, who had been taught a few tricks by Public Enemy’s production crew during the early-1980s, would instead have his own musicians replay the songs with different instruments or in different octaves. This new method coupled with a growing appreciation of funk music lead to the creation of G-Funk (gangster funk).

The Dre produced “Alwayz into Somethin,’” off his group NWA’s final release in 1991, is seen by many as the product of these new techniques. Brassy funk tunes are replayed with slight hitch while more complex rhymes lay on top of it.

This growth, while not coming to end, does end up slowing down in the late 90’s and once again the CD’s selection of songs reflects that. Though the songs included are good (The Evil that Men Do by Rass Kass is an underrated classic) they hint at the problems that lay beneath: saturation and fragmentation. With the success of NWA and then the rise of mega star Tupac Shakur, rap took rock’s place as music’s source for Brash entertainers. This lead to a huge rise in the number of rappers as record companies allocated more and more money to sign alleged new stars. This glut of rappers did nothing but hurt the quality of

the rap being made. After Tupac’s death, it became more and more apparent that there wasn’t anyone to replace him. The gangsta rap that had made the west coast so popular soon lost its edge. With this came market fragmentation. People’s taste had diversified; they simply didn’t want another gangbanger telling them about drug dealing. This created new pockets in LA where alternative rappers such as Del Tha Funkee Homosapien thrived.

By the new millennium though, the gangsta rap that put the west coast on the map simply doesn’t carry the same weight.

The music consumer palate is much more varied than it once was. In the end, Snoop’s West Coast Blueprint doesn’t just serve as a history lesson but also as a reminder of how corporate greed can often destroy the very thing it values. There’s a reason that the disc, which is divided into three sections (1985 to 1990, 1990 to 1995, 1995 to 2000), doesn’t have a 2000 to 2010 section. Snoop, an artist of more depth than he’s often given credit for, is warning the generation that came after him to pay their respects to the past, and above all, to keep it real.

• Siavosh Moshiri

feature

D6 • the silhouette’s art + culture magazine

Natalya Tuharyna

Harjot Atwal in “The Vagina Workshop”

Hayley Bulmer in “The Little Coochi Snorcher that Could”

Ashley Devenny in “Reclaming Cunt”

a history of the vagina monologues “It doesn’t matter how many times you say the word, it never sounds like a word you want to say.” If you’ve ever had a hard time pronouncing the word “vagina,” if it ever made you blush or stutter, sitting through The Vagina Monologues will cure that quickly.

The Vagina Monologues is a play written by Eve Ensler in 1996. In response to the emotional neglect of the vagina, the monologues attempt to combat silence and open up a dialogue about the region “down there.” The subject matter always relates to the vagina, either through love, sex, rape, menstruation, mutilation, birth, orgasm, body image or masturbation. While some monologues are painful, others are exuberant and joyful, and cite the vagina as the empowering embodiment of women’s sexuality and identity.

Playwright Ensler explained her fascination with vaginas in a 2000 interview with Women.com: “I was drawn to vaginas because of my own personal history, because of sexuality, because women’s empowerment is deeply connected to their sexuality. And, I’m obsessed with women being violated and raped, and with incest. All of these things are deeply connected to our vaginas.”

The interesting thing about The Vagina Monologues is that it is comprised of

over 200 interviews with women of all ages, ethnicities and sexual orientations. Ensler talked to these women about their vaginas, and found that while at first women were reluctant to talk, once they got going they wouldn’t stop. Ensler thinks this is because “no one’s ever given them the opportunity to talk. Any time we open the door to a place where we have a lot of feelings or thoughts or stories, we react enthusiastically. The story of your vagina is the story of your life, and women want to talk about their lives.”

One of the monologues, “Coochi Snorcher,” is about the empowerment that a fourteen-year-old girl finds through her seduction by an older woman. The monologue has been criticized as glorifying pedophilia, to which Ensler replies, “The piece is controversial. It’s not politically correct. And I assume people are going to have responses to it. I interviewed women, and I told their stories. I didn’t make them up. People are going to have problems with people’s stories.”

Monologues range from the lighthearted to the deeply traumatic and upsetting. In “My Vagina was my Village” a young woman recounts her experience in the Bosnian rape camps in the early 1990s. In “Reclaiming Cunt” a woman

Melissa Morlacchetti in “My Vagina is Angry”

thursday, march 18, 2010 • D7

Sandra Duffy in “Hair”

twat, cunt, pussy

Elizabeth Cripps in “The Woman who liked to make Vaginas Happy”

Marya Folinsbee in “My Vagina was my Village”

Jenn Helsdon in “I was there in the room” PHOTOS BY TYLER HAYWARD, MICHELLE NG, CHRISTOPHER CHANG, JEFF TAM

mcmaster’s the vagina monologues

reclaims the word “cunt” enthusiastically, while in “Because He Liked to Look at It,” a woman relates the way a vagina-loving man changes her mind from thinking of her vagina as ugly. “My Angry Vagina” features a woman ranting about tampons, douches and gynecologist tools. The concluding monologue is Ensler’s personal experience witnessing the birth of her grandchild.

In addition to penning the monologues, Ensler also founded V-Day in 1998 as a movement to stop violence against women.

The idea behind the play is to stop the silence, and Enlser believes that it has been effective in helping women to take back their vaginas and to view this part of their body as empowering. She said, “One of the reasons I do this is that every night women leave that theater changed. I’ve had so many women come up to me after the show and say, “I am so happy to have a vagina. I did not feel this way when I came into the theater.” And look at how often the word “vagina” is used now. And how easily it’s used. I think things have changed a lot.”

•Grace Evans

“I was worried about vaginas. I was worried what we think about vaginas. And I was even more worried that we don’t think about them.

I was worried about my own vagina. It needed a context, a community, a culture of other vaginas. There is so much darkness and secrecy surround them, like the Bermuda triangle, nobody ever reports back from there.”

The Vagina Monologues Directed by: Hayley Bulmer Produced by: Harjot Atwal The combined efforts of OPIRG and the QSCC have brought The Vagina Monologues to McMaster for V Day 2010. Directed by Hayley Bulmer and produced by Harjot Atwal, the production features an amazing cast and a balanced selection of monologues that challenges audience’s to step out their comfort zones and laugh about their anxieties.

Christy Todd, Melissa Fernandes and Violetta Nikol speak before and between monologues with different facts and introductions. The play uses humour and lighthearted play between acts to counteract the often painful and serious subject matter.

Sandra Duffy performs “Hair,” flatly stating that “you must love hair to love a vagina.” Duffy’s performance is tough and confrontational, as well as humourous.

Jessica Perkins performs “The Flood,” the story of an eighty-year-old woman, who thought of her vagina as “the place you don’t want to go.” Her performance is cute, sassy and fun, despite the deeply personal and painful alienation of the body her character has experienced.

Anna Kulikov is expressive and joyful

in “Because he liked to look at it,” where she related a positive experience with a man who enjoyed the visual appearance of her vagina so much it forced to revise her self-denigrating opinions. Kulikov is excited and loud, the erotic neurotic as she tells her empowering story of self-discovery.

Harjot Atwal’s accent in “The vagina workshop” was so convincing that I later asked members of the cast if she naturally had one or not. She spoke to the audience as though she was an excited, knowledgeable friend, anxious in her newfound knowledge to share it with her friends. Atwal made eye contact with audience members, and as a result she maintained the intimate feeling of a private conversation.

The most touching and poignant monologue was performed by the quietly heartbreaking Marya Folinsbee in “My vagina was my village.” Her performance was striking, as she moved through happy memories “my vagina singing all girl songs, all goat bell ringing songs, all wild autumn field songs” with closed eyes and wistful smiles, before she choked out painful recollections: “not since the soldiers put a long, thick rifle inside of me. So cold, the steel rod canceling my heart.”

Melissa Morlacchetti in “My vagina is angry” was aggressively confrontational as

she rants about unfriendly vagina apparatuses.

Morliacchetti was sassy and full of attitude as she paced the stage and waved her finger back and forth.

Hayley Bulmer in “The little coochi snorcher that could” spoke in an excellent Southern accent as she related the story of her innocent exploration of her own sexuality with an older woman, and the positive repercussions it had for her. Bulmer is convincingly naïve but also self-assured.

One of the most energetic monologues is Ashley Devenny in “Reclaiming Cunt.” Devenny was cute, but also sensual as she gyrates and annunciates in order to express her character’s complete ecstacy with the word “cunt.”

In “The woman who liked to make vaginas happy” Elizabeth Cripps was entertaining and neurotic in her confessional monologue in which she gives an unforgettable performance of various moans, including the “elegant moan,” the “Roman Catholic moan,” and the “surprise triple orgasm moan.” Cripps was very funny and unafraid to writhe around on the floor making alarmingly convincing sounds.

Jenn Helsdon performs playwright’s Elsner’s own monologue, “I was there in the room.” Helson’s performance is quiet and

introspective, as she relates the unpleasant aspects and the beauty of childbirth.

The only time I was confused was during a group performance of the story of Marta, a woman kidnapped by soldiers in the Congo, who was imprisoned for two years during which Marta was abused and raped, and eventually made pregnant. The production chose to break the monologue up and have multiple actresses perform sections, divided into rules. While the message eventually came across, I think that the monologue would have been more powerful if one actress had performed it.

The lighting and music between acts nicely complements the transitions, especially since there are so many by virtue of the play consisting of monologues. With a colour scheme of all black and red wardrobes, the costumes are eye catching and nicely unified.

With an amazing and dedicated cast, The Vagina Monologues manages to nicely balance trauma narratives and joyful stories of self-discovery, keeping the performance both educational, humourous and touching.

You can catch The Vagina Monologues in Robinson Memorial Theatre on Thursday, Mar. 18th at 2 p.m., and Friday Mar. 19th at 8 p.m.

•Grace Evans

D8 • the silhouette’s art + culture magazine

television

thursday, march 18, 2010

pirate tv

andy explores your cable alternatives Since I moved to the 905 in late 2006, I have had no cable TV, and have never been happier. I still follow certain television series (Lost, The Office, and The Simpsons), but I have no need for cable whatsoever; we have high-speed Internet.

There are five major options for non-subscribers to watch TV. One is to get a set of bunny ears, which work better now with the advent of broadcast digital TV, but are still temperamental. The experience of finding the ideal signal spot harkens back to a simpler time, where TV watching was a technical experiment as well as entertainment.

Another option is to buy a television series on DVD form. But, because of the high price, this is usually only worthwhile for series with high production values (Lost, 24, Sopranos). Besides, DVD isn’t a very convenient medium for many students in comparison to external hard drives. Not to mention the fact that you can’t stay current on the latest episodes; most seasons of television series aren’t released on DVD until the following fall.

The other options all involve the Internet. First we have so-called “legal TV,” which is provided by most Canadian TV companies through their websites, like CTV. ca. All though many networks offer free programming, this isn’t necessarily an ideal way to keep up with “who’s

on and who’s off the island.” The main catch is that the networks might take a series off the site at any time. And of course that you use bandwidth each time you watch them.

Another similar option is to use of a proxy server to access foreign TV websites. For example one can see some NBC shows through CTV, but you cannot stream TV from American sites because of Internet restrictions. A US proxy server fools the site to thinking you are local, and you can get the service. So that’s a good option, if you have the technical knowhow to pull it off.

But beware; proxy servers are not usually a free service.

The final option, and by far the most popular on campus, is to use so-called “illegal” torrent download sites like isohunt, EZTV or Pirate Bay. The major advantage of this option is selection and permanence. Once you have the download, it’s yours.

If CTV changes its broadcasting rules, you’d be SOL, but if you download the show, these changes do not affect you. People often use these files as currency, and swapping files with friends is safer and faster than downloading. We’ve all heard this is destroying the industry, but they were making the same argument about cassette tapes and VHS in the 1980s.

The one area where cable is still valuable is for live events or sports broadcasts, but more and more, programs are shifting to an online format. For example, having cable TV on 9/11 was certainly a bonus.

However, CTV’s recent online Olympic coverage was webcast in HD quality, with control options that were essentially free TIVO. I had debated getting cable for the Olympics, but their web coverage was the nail in the coffin. Unless there is a significant backslide, I doubt I’ll ever buy cable again. My living room has a LCD hooked up to a PC, which gives me TV, video games and movies, all wrapped up in one box. While I still follow shows, one thing I never do anymore is channel hopping—sitting there flipping through channels, looking for something to watch. Every viewing experience is a deliberate choice that is usually commercial free.

Is downloading a show any different that taping it? I leave it up to you to consider the moral and ethical dilemmas (corporations are people too?), but I suggest that with the Hammer’s significant crack problem, local police have far more pressing matters than harassing students for downloading American TV. •Eric Williams

thursday, march 18, 2010

under the radar moebio moebio.com

off the web

While I don’t necessarily understand some of the interactive art exhibits on moebio.com, they strangely fascinate me.

From fragmented movable images of faces, to pixilated maps of eye on springfield the world’s roads, this site is both strange and eyeonspringfield.tumblr.com intriguing. But make sure you don’t log on A collection of stills from seasons 1 through when you’re tight for time – you’ll be drawn 9 of The Simpsons, perfect for nerds who in and hypnotized by this moebio.com. reminisce about the days when the show was Seriously.

•Corrigan Hammond still funny.

•Katharine Snider-McNair

the silhouette’s art + culture magazine • D9

soggy cheerio blog soggycheerio.com

11 points llpoints.com

Alright, here’s the deal. That hipster blog we feature last week, no longer on the cutting edge.

Seriously.

It’s expired. But it’s not all bad.

There’s a new cool blog, soggycheerio.com.

And it promises to keep you abreast to today’s fast-pace world of hip. This site is an excellent site for those of you who want to keep on keepin’ up.

•Corrigan Hammond

Top ten lists are for cowards, apparently.

Comedian Sam Greenspan has compiled a plethora of top eleven lists on topics ranging from the worst dates of his life to hilarious strip club names.

Whether you’re reading about useless signs, things people don’t count as sex or terrible sports salaries, you’ll laugh out loud, scout’s honour. Just don’t read it with any Andy editors, they might start to cry.

•Roxanne Hathway-Baxter

D10 • the silhouette’s art + culture magazine

music

thursday, march 18, 2010

brasstronaut take flight Vancouver’s Brasstronaut are musically different from the recent batch of Canadian indie music acts that we’ve seen emerge in the past few years. While their début EP, 2008’s Old World Lies, drew a number of Bright Eyes comparisons – with the edition of four new permanent members to their line up during the drawn out recording process for its follow up disc, Brasstronaut’s sound has undergone a significant and exciting transformation. The most striking feature of Mt. Chimaera, which was officially released on Mar. 2 following more than nine months of recording is that the songs weave between jazz album, a soul disc and a traditionally thoughtful indie-rock record.

Mt. Chimaera is the sort of artistic leap that few artists experience between a first EP and a début record. It’s a musical transformation that can probably best be compared to the growth that The Arcade Fire exhibited between their self-titled EP in 2003 and 2004’s critically acclaimed full-length release Funeral.

Brasstronaut began working on the album as part of Banff’s Artist In Residence program. As lead singer and pianist Edo Van Breemen explained to me “For the new album, we tried to record it and finish it in Banff.” At the end of their residency there, the group tacked on seven days of recording time at the facilities built in studios. “We kind of thought we were going to score a whole album at the end of it,” Van Breemen.

“But I think that we didn’t really know what we wanted as far as production goes. We were playing all the songs that we had intended to record there in a certain way, but I think when it actually came down to going into the studio we didn’t really know what we wanted. So we ended up coming out of that with something that we didn’t want to put out, and we didn’t put out. We spent another nine months working on it,” he continued.

“When we started touring as a four piece, right after Banff, we realized that what we wanted to do was have extra players in the band,” he told me. “We just felt like the four of us couldn’t manifest the songs that we has envisioned. But when we got back to Vancouver, we played a show at the Biltmore with a bunch of these

people that had recorded on the EP and even some friends from the Banff centre, and I think that started forming a more clear vision of how we were going to record the album,” he continued. It was this addition to the group’s line up that many critics have cited as being the source of the new disc’s excitement.

“The new album also has deeper production value because you’re not hearing just the standard piano—like we added guitars all over the place, sporadically. We just tried to make the songs as instrumentally interesting as possible,” Van Breemen told me – in an effort to explain away some of the jazz and soul music comparisons that Mt. Chimaera has received.

“We’re not a jazz band,” he told me, half laughing. “That’s the biggest misnomer, it’s the thing that dogs us the most,” Van Breemen explained. “[Our music is] absolutely not jazz, its pop. It’s experimental pop music, and I think it’s much more in the vein of an indie-rock band or something like that than it is [jazz]. … But I think that’s what makes it interesting and gives it a unique sound is that everybody is having a little bit of whatever their influence is,” he continued.

“And then you’re talking about R&B, something like Hart’s trumpet has a sort of R&B groove. It has like this drum beat. We were listening to some D’Angelo even, and saying, ‘ok, let’s try and make a beat that sounds like this.’ So, it’s trying not to overwhelm one voice with another and just trying to bring the song out, versus some sort of cliché or some sort of gimmicky thing—that says, ‘ok this is a jazz-indie band,’ which is the worst title that we’ve received,” he laughed. “It’s just people like to categorize things, and it’s easy to do that.”

With the group slated to play Pop Montreal’s curate spot at the influential South By Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas, it is likely that a number of other critics will be attempting to classify Brasstronaut in the near future. You can catch them at The Casbah on Mar. 27.

•Corrigan Hammond

thursday, march 18, 2010

in stereo

the silhouette’s art + culture magazine • D11

featured review Soil and “Pimp” Sessions 6

HHHH

6 is the new record from Soil and “Pimp” Sessions, the Japanese death jazz phenomena.

With it comes your classic Soil and “Pimp” Sessions style of Coltrane and Reed infused with fits of chaos.

Contrary to past connotations of the word “death” being fixed in front of a genre, this is music that is for the final joyous party before that giant meteor arrives and obliterates the earth. What’s new in here is the addition of featuring artists, notably the likes of Jamie Cullum, top jazzer in the UK. The album overall is a bit more organized yet a little toned down from past works, but still continues to deliver the right jolts to your brain to send your head jerking to the beat of the drums and abrupt rhythm changes. Tracks such as “Pop Korn” and “Papa’s got a brand new Pigbag” are the true monsters in the song list. Each being funky, body twisting good time grooves. Any jazz fan should check this out.

•Dillon Li

Corrine Bailey Rae The Sea

Robbie Williams Reality Killed the Video Star

Surfer Blood Astro Coast

HHH

HHH

HHHH

If you want a refreshing female singer to listen to, Corrine Bailey Rae is your answer. On her latest CD, The Sea, Rae continues to produce a hybrid jazz, pop, and soul sound with a hint of grooviness.

Corrine’s voice is so delicate it gives some of her songs a hauntingly beautiful quality.

While her voice is light and lovely, many of the songs are dark. This sombre mood may have been an inspired by her husband’s recent death of a suspected drug overdose.

While the dark songs are entrenched with emotion, by the end, gloominess turns into hope, as Corrine’s beautiful vocals lift her sadness from the trenches. The mournful emotion of the songs are offset with fun and breezy tracks such as “Paris Nights, New York Mornings.”

•Catherine Brasch

Robbie Williams’ 2009 album Reality Killed the Video Star offers listeners a lot of musical diversity, innovatively drawing on several different influences from the choral singing and religious overtones in “Bodies” to the fifties doo-wop harmonies in “You know me”. The cowbell, horns, piano and electric guitar all fused together with lyrics showing Robbie trying to pick up women on “Do you mind” seemed a little desperate. The song “Last days of disco” ventures in the opposite direction, with a techno feel that unfortunately fell short as well, sounding like it should be played in an H&M change-room. That being said, most of the lyrics on this album were quite clever and the last song, “Morning sun reprise” made the album feel like a nicely contained piece of work.

•Amy Graziani

Florida’s Surfer Blood is a difficult band to pin down. On one hand they bring you back to a world before Weezer released Ratitude (or anything after Pinkerton for that matter). In other instances they kick out upbeat reverb-drenched surf rock, only to wring it out in favour of a lo-fi indie rock fuzz. Full of strong hooks multiplied by solid, well thought out guitar lines, Astro Coast meanders from urgent vocal melodies to lonely, contemplative lulls to even an afro-beat rhythm. This may all seem like Surfer Blood suffer from a lack of a cohesive sound, seemingly scavenging from a variety of 90’s alt-rock influences to form a loose and lazy rock album. However, it is quite the opposite, as beneath this mess is an unbridled, unfocused energy that lend to a sense of immediacy and honest youthfulness that shine through every strum and every breath on this record.

•Chris Hoy

D12 • the silhouette’s art + culture magazine

counterfeit chronicle legendary filmmaker recaptures some of his old magic

film The Ghost Writer Directed by: Roman Polanski Starring: Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan

 The Ghost Writer is the latest film by the talented and controversial director Roman Polanski.

Primarly known for crafting such masterpieces as Chinatown and The Pianist he is also infamous because of ongoing attempts by the United States to extradite him from Europe pertaining to a statutory rape incident. His first film since the 2005 remake of Oliver Twist, The Ghost Writer is an adaptation of Robert Harris’s 2007 thriller novel The Ghost. Although it falls short of Polanski’s masterpieces in some respects, it is better than the average Hollywood political thriller, filled tense moments and masterful set pieces only Polanski could concieve.

An unnamed author (Ewan McGregor), gets the opportunity of a lifetime to ghostwrite the autobiography of former British Prime Minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan), after the accidental drowning of his predecessor. Once arriving at Lang’s high security Cape Cod compound, The Ghost tries to conceptulize the first draft of his memoirs, yet increasingly becomes entangled in intrigue. A scandal brakes out accusing Lang of allowing the extraordinary rendition of British citizens. Confronted by political protestors and called to face the International Criminal Court for war crimes, The Ghost tries to write the autobiography, dealing with the interference of Lang’s security conscious secretary/mistress Amelia Bly (Kim Catrall), as well as the advances from Lang’s jaded wife and political advisor Ruth (Olivia Williams). When The Ghost discovers that his processor’s death looks less like an accident, he relaizes Lang’s life may be less truthful then once believed.

In many ways The Ghost Writer departs from Polanski’s past works. Unlike his written collabration on Chinatown or adopting autobiographies such as The Pianist, this is his first adaptation from a novel. He does an excellent job at executing a suspense, and unlike action movies, relies on the psychological effect of The Ghost’s various encounters with mysterious indivduals. In an age when most thrillers all have stars who miracously have combat training, it’s refreshing to see a more realistic everyman running for his life. However,

thursday, march 18, 2010

while Polanski does a good adaptation, he stays too loyal to some of the more unbelievable source material. The prospect of Adam Lang, who is clearly a Tony Blair stand in, having his compound besieged by hundreds of activist protestors, and threatened by a war crimes trail, seems to be more wishful thinking from Harris than something that could happen in reality.

But to Polanski’s credit, there was no way the film could have worked if those plot elements were removed. He does to an excellent job in directing the weaving web of lies. Additionally, by focusing a considerable amount of the film on the securitization of Lang’s compound and entourage, he is able to make a unique statement on the securitization of our society over the past decade. With that said, there is a minor criticism when it comes to the film’s production element. Given its $45 million budget, an incredibly poor job was done photoshoping Pierce Brosnan into pictures throughout the film. While the movie is supposed to maintain a serious tone, this is element comes across as amateur and almost comical.

The acting was great across the board, despite most actors having come from low points of their carers. McGregor particularly stood out as the everyman writer thrust into a confusing and dangerous situation. As an accomplished and talented actor it was nice to see him escape a recent string of poor films such as Angels and Demons.

Brosnan is excellent as the charming yet aloof, pretty boy ex-Prime Minister. While Lang was clearly supposed to be Tony Blair, Brosnan plays the character with his own original and unique personality, instead of immitating mannerisms.

With a string of flops since his postJames Bond career, Ghost Writer gives Brosnan another chance to show his acting skill. He’s very convincing here. Kim Catrall of Sex in the City fame is in her first major screen role outside of the franchise and does well as the nitpicky personal secretary to Lang. Olivia Williams fell off the radar since her late 90s starring roles in The Sixth Sense and Rushmore but is fabulous as the bitter, intellectual wife of the ex-PM. Overall The Ghost Writer is a taut thriller. While it does have its flaws in its plot, it is in a class of its own when compared to modern political thrillers such as Body of Lies and State of Play. As long as you don’t walk in expecting to see a seminal Polanski film, you’ll be pleasntly suprised.

•Noah Nemoy