The Toronto Globalist An Undergraduate International Affairs Magazine
APRIL 2008
Volume III Issue 2
THE FUNNEL OF TRUTH media filtration and the public consciousness cyberspace, espionage, and information warfare
BROADCAST THYSELF the power of a five-minute clip
VIRTUAL ENGAGEMENT
the politics of new media in contemporary culture
The Toronto Globalist is a member of
G lobal21
Global21 is a network of student-run foreign affairs publications at premier universities around the world. Sciences-Po France 6,700 students Inducted 2006
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Each autonomous chapter produces three issues per year to be distributed on their campus, then translated into English for the website.
For the Annual Publication, each chapter contributes articles on the most pressing topic, to be translated into every represented language.
The Annual Publication is distributed to campuses, think tanks, and policymakers. Individual exchanges between chapters are facilitated.
www.global21online.org Global21 was formerly The Globalist Foundation
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CONTENTS
VOLUME III, issue 2 Features: New Media
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Inevitable Merger of News Forums Natalie Krajinovic The Funnel of Truth: Media Filtration and the Public Consciousness Alexander Lim
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Cyberspace, Espionage, and Information Warfare Nick Dalla Guarda
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The Internet and the American Electoral Process Ayushman Banerjee
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Broadcast Thyself: The Power of a 5-minute clip May Jeong You Can’t Fight in Here: The Cultural Significance of Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove Jonathan C. G. Bright the globalist photographic report
The Evolution of Mass Media: From Printing Press to Blogs Jonathan C. G. Bright, Alexander Lim & Laura Cook
Columns and other articles Letter FROM THE EDITOR The Oldest Profession’s Newest Trick
Michael Boyce
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regions in perspective
Israel and National SelfDetermination: A Double Standard
Josh Xiong
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regions in perspective
Israel/Palestine: The American Media Bias
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Blogging: ON the Periphery, but Under the Spotlight
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Going Global: Fight against Malaria Stronger than Ever
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The Writing on the Wall
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Christina Jabbour Jacqueline Chan
Farhana Rahman Farheen Shaikh
Global happenings april 2008
The lighter sidE
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ABOUT THE COVER
This photo by Alexandra Tkatcheva represents the disconnect of humans in an increasingly media-based society. Self-taught award winning photographer and University of Toronto student, Alexandra has participated in a number of photo exhibitions as well as having a solo exhibit in the Distillery district this past fall. Examples of her photos can be found at www.urtica.name.
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The Toronto Globalist Editorial Board EDITOR-IN-CHIEF and EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Alexander Lim
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF and EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
Jonathan C. G. Bright PUBLISHER
Sanam Goudarzi PUBLIC RELATIONS MANAGER
Colleen Fox
SENIOR EDITOR
Christina Jabbour
PRODUCTION EDITOR
Laura Cook
NEWS EDITOR
Anita Li
OPINIONS EDITOR
Eileen A. McCurdy
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
Farheen Shaikh
ASSOCIATE PRODUCTION EDITOR
Cari Mason
Dear Readers,
VOLUME III, issue 2
From podcasts to blogs to YouTube, New Media has transformed both the political and communications landscape of the 21st century. Today, the heightened use of the internet as a political tool has pervasively entrenched itself into the everyday norm. Politicians, recognizing the global influence of the internet, have turned to blogs, internet videos, and Facebook, harnessing the power which New Media has to offer. Elements of New Media, such as internet forums, blogs, and one-click publishing, have now empowered the average citizen into becoming the activist citizen. By writing about their experiences both at home and abroad (often in politically challenging environments), these individuals are contributing to a tremendous wealth of critical sociopolitical commentary, providing the springboard for increased discourse on the important global issues of the day. Please join us as we examine the Politics of New Media in Contemporary Culture in this latest issue. We begin this issue with an article by Natalie Krajinovic titled “Inevitable Merger of News Forums,” which examines the impact of the internet on traditional media empires. In our cover story, “The Funnel of Truth: Media Filtration and the Public Consciousness,” I will examine how the internet has dramatically transformed the informed individual into the active individual within the context of media filtration. Following that, we will shift gears and consider the impact of the Internet on the current U.S. Presidential elections in “The Internet and the American Electoral Process” by Ayushman Banerjee, and “Broadcast Thyself: Power of a 5-minute clip” by May Jeong. We will also feature an article by Nick Dalla Guarda titled “Cyberspace, Espionage, and Information Warfare.” Finally, we are pleased to present a photographic report, “The Evolution of Mass Media: From Printing Press to Blogs,” compiled and written by Jonathan C. G. Bright and myself. I hope you will enjoy this issue, and, as always, welcome any questions, comments, and feedback you may have. Interested readers are encouraged to contact us by emailing toronto.globalist@utoronto.ca. As out-going Executive Director and Editor-in-Chief, I would like to take a moment to introduce and congratulate Colleen Fox on her appointment as the next Executive Director and Editor-in-Chief. Colleen brings with her a strong interest in human rights, global health, and international development, as well as a wealth of perspective through her global travels. As an experienced and highly valued member of the Globalist team this past year, I am confident that The Toronto Globalist will continue to thrive under her leadership. In closing, I would like to thank all of our Editorial and Advisory Board members, past and present, for their commitment and support in making this publication possible year after year. Finally, a big thank you to you, our faithful reader, for being a part of this wonderful journey - as always, it has been a pleasure.
Yours truly,
Administrative Board ASSISTANT PUBLISHERS
Alexander Lim Executive Director and Editor-in-Chief The Toronto Globalist
Brunilda Cimo Natalie Krajinovic STAFF EDITOR
Cecile Ko
STAFF WRITER
Josh Xiong
ASSISTANT PRODUCTION EDITOR
Stephanie Tan
STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Alexandra Tkatcheva
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Advisory Board Donald Ainslie
Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Philosophy
Andrew Coyne
National Editor, Maclean’s Magazine
Marcel Danesi
Professor, Department of Anthropology
John Duncan
Director, Ethics Society & Law Program
Letters to the Editor Please send your comments, questions, and opinions to:
The Toronto Globalist 7 Hart House Circle Toronto, ON Canada, M5S 3H3 toronto.globalist@utoronto.ca www.global21online.org/toronto
For advertising and sponsorship opportunities, please email: toronto.globalist@utoronto.ca This magazine is published by students of the University of Toronto. The Toronto Globalist reserves the right to edit, modify, or exclude articles at its discretion. Views/opinions expressed within reflect those of the writer(s) only. The University of Toronto takes no responsibility for the contents.
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INEVITABLE MERGER OF NEWS FORUMS: CNN & VICE TACKLE THE INTERNET Natalie Krajinovic
Classic forms of news publications have been unsuccessful in hiding from the ever-present threat of online communications. No longer can media corporations sur vive without the inevitable expansion towards online branches. In using the internet to compile a stronger media base, corporations such as Turner Broadcasting and Vice have recognized their place in the evolution of news media. While both compete to appeal to their choice demographics, the looming struggle of abandoning a respectable level of corporate influence lingers. Demographic changes occur with the expansion towards internet bases, even though CNN is primarily televised and Vice is in print. While Turner Broadcasting’s major news outlet, CNN, has cultivated an image that focuses on serious world events, and American political and economic news, Vice is in the process of revamping its once-whimsical and youthful appearance so as to appeal to its maturing audience. Regardless of their social standing, both news outlets must compete and merge with a force so staggering that it has left many print and televised publications susceptible to public debauchery; the Internet. According to Turner Broadcasting’s statistical information regarding viewers for its television branch, CNN, it holds first place in “total day delivery of adults 18-49 and adults 25-54” during its 2007 third quarter. Turner Broadcasting’s diversification of media outlets has naturally led to a prioritized method of on-line reporting. Ranking first in 2006 for producing a “news and information site of online news”, CNN has attempted to capture a growing youth market that favours the easy accessibility of online media sources, as can be seen in online formats of entertainment sections. However, are large media corporations doing enough to appeal to a younger audience? Youth cultures are
undoubtedly a lucrative market, whose disposable incomes are an attractive aspect for companies. Yet, the impact that corporations, such as CNN, have on such a market is difficult to notice, especially when forced to compete with specific youth based media outlets. Popular magazines such as Vice have modified and expanded their unique, yet undeniably witty approach by incorporating online blogging, articles, photos and news into their social sphere. The magazine once primarily concerned with controversial content has begun to
like to view. The appeal of a video documentation such as the ‘Toxic Series’, which exposes masked environmental problems lurking in unsuspecting areas all around the world, is less demanding, when taunting the reader in the corner of the webpage is the alluring Do’s and Don’ts, which takes photographs of unsuspecting hopefuls and comments on their “do” or “don’t” factor. Much like Vice, CNN has cultivated an image that draws on a complex duality. CNN offers a contradictory, yet reasonable approach to their content. On their homepage, articles about upcoming presidential elections and financial crises reign superior. Yet, click the ‘Entertainment’ section, and readers will find easy access to Hollywood’s most shocking scandals. They even include direct links to gossip websites that stray from the conservative appearance of other sections of the CNN website. Such disparity exists as a result of CNN’s attempt to garner a larger audience. In the same stride that Turner Broadcasting diversifies its corporate assets, the diversification of a larger audience follows suit. Essentially, media empires are in a constant process of expansion using the internet as their primary mean. CNN and Vice are prime examples of the merger of any news form with the internet. While CNN focuses on televised outlets, Vice originally emphasized its print forms. The internet is expressed as a virtual access way, one that allows for online videos, photos, articles and easy public access and opinion to be promoted in news forms. Instantaneously, messages streak websites, forums for discussion can be held internationally and the reader is provided with news of the moment, regardless of location.
“Are large media corporations doing enough to appeal to a younger audience?”
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recognize the social responsibility that lies amidst its growth. One of its media branches, VBS TV, an online television format that streams Vice original content, projects its social purpose through the “...mix of domestic and international news...” in it’s video mission statement. Yet, Vice’s social alterations, have not simplified its intent, rather, the reader is forced to distinguish the provocative from the responsible. As VBS attempts to “...exploit every utopian vision [of the] internet...” to bring viewers interesting and rarely publicized new stories about social injustices, art and underground cultures to light, a duality exists among their content. Although Vice acts as a pond where readers can acquire their daily dose of informative rare news stories, a large number of “Vice-heads” tend to graze the provocative sections instead. Readers become distracted when they must decide which content they would
Natalie Krajinovic is a firstyear New College student specializing in English. the toronto globalist
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The Funnel of Truth: Media Filtration and the Public Consciousness Alexander Lim
In December 2006, Time Magazine declared its Person of the Year to be ‘You.’ Recognizing the profound impact of blogs and mega-hit sites such as Wikipedia, YouTube and MySpace, Lev Grossman from Time Magazine noted that the World Wide Web had become “a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter.” Without a doubt, the Internet has dramatically changed not only the manner in which events are presented and discussed
around the world, but also the way in which we perceive those events. It has seemingly facilitated the transformation of the informed individual into the active individual. Thus, we are no longer simply observers of events occurring on the global stage—we are also players, with a newfound role in shaping what we see, hear, and perceive. Twenty years ago, the media landscape was markedly different from what it is today. In what many have called the seminal discussion of media, Manufacturing Consent:
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The Political Economy of the Mass Media, MIT Professor Noam Chomsky presented his concept of the propaganda model. This model suggested that mass media functioned with business interests foremost in mind, resulting in an inherent bias in news reporting. Published in 1988, this book was written well before the rise of the Internet to a ubiquitous presence in the average North American household. With news being delivered primarily through print, radio, and television, an individual’s ability to shape
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media coverage was very limited. This gave mass media outlets the power to shape the analysis and discourse that was projected to their audiences; but, more importantly, it gave them the ability to select what was seen and heard by millions. Consequently, issues that were deemed more important by big media tended to capture the spotlight.
aspect of the campaigns of the presidential candidates. Sen. Barack Obama’s “Yes, We Can” and Sen. Hillary Clinton’s “3-am” video ads have reached iconic status, thanks to their wide distribution over the internet. But, perhaps no other event is more indicative of the power of the internet than the infamous “Macaca” incident of 2006. In the midterm Senatorial elections in Virginia Challenging the Status Quo From the Fringes into the Mainstream that year, Republican incumbent Sen. George Although the power of big media still On September 8th 2004, TV journalist Allen was running far ahead of his Democratic exists, we are now, arguably, more able than Dan Rather reported on CBS news show challenger Jim Webb. Then, in a seemingly ever to recognize the influence of large media 60 Minutes that six documents had recently innocuous campaign appearance, Allen corporations in what we hear, read, and see. surfaced that questioned President George referred to one of Webb’s Indian-American Over the past ten years, the development W. Bush’s past military record. Allegedly supporters—who was present at the event— of the Internet has set the stage for the rise dated from 1972, CBS aired the story despite as “Macaca”, saying, “Let’s give a welcome of the individual within media and news the fact that they had failed to authenticate to Macaca, here. Welcome to America reporting. According to the International these documents properly, claiming that and the real world of Virginia.” The video Telecommunication Union, there are over experts had in fact been consulted. Within of Allen’s racial slur quickly became viral, 22 million Canadians generating hundreds on the Internet today, “[The Internet] has seemingly facilitated the of thousands of hits representing over 68% of on YouTube within the country’s population. transformation of the informed individual into a matter of days. The Globally, there are over 1.3 online frenzy continued the active individual.” billion people accessing for weeks, as charges of the Internet. The numbers racism began to pile up. for blogs are just as impressive. According to hours of the broadcast, bloggers began to What had once been seen as a comfortable Technocrati, a popular blog search engine, challenge the documents, asserting that they win for Allen became a nail-bitingly close there were over 112 million blogs worldwide, were forgeries. The charges of forgery spread contest, and in the end, Allen lost the as of December 2007, with a stunning like wild fire throughout the blogosphere, election to Webb. Pundits widely credited 175,000 new blogs being added every day. mobilizing hundreds of Republicans and the stunning loss to the “Macaca” video. As the use of blogs rises exponentially, conservatives who called for Rather to step Frank Rich of the New York Times, called it individuals have quickly transformed what down. Eventually, caving to intense pressure, the “signature cultural event of the political was originally an online diary into a tool to CBS—despite defending the authenticity of year”, and cited the power of YouTube and provide news, ideas, and social commentary the documents for two weeks—apologized the internet in shaping political coverage. to a global audience. Online participants have to viewers and accepted Rather’s resignation, Recognizing the power of the internet, recognized the immense potential of blogs ending the distinguished reporter’s 24-yearmajor news sites such as CNN.com have and instant e-publishing and have begun career with CBS. The incident shook the signalled a greater acceptance of citizen using these tools en masse to serve their own media to its core, as it demonstrated the newjournalists, frequently inviting them to post goals and purposes. Today, blogs and sites found influence of bloggers and the internet. comments and submit videos. In this year’s such as YouTube are employed to promote Blogs also played an integral role in the presidential debates, for example, viewers causes, fight issues, lobby governments, 2004 U.S. Presidential campaigns. Former could now comment on the candidates’ report on events, and infuse new perspectives Democratic candidate Howard Dean’s responses in real time and share their into the global forum. Consequently, bloggers early surge in the campaign was attributed thoughts with others. Media outlets have now play a significant role in news reporting, mainly to his use of the blogging medium also solicited reporting from people ‘on the engaging in what is often termed ‘citizen’ or to raise money and reach out to voters. For ground’ in order to gain better access to ‘participatory’ journalism. This movement the first time, both the Democratic and difficult-to-cover regions or tap into topics has been so effective that we now see the Republican parties issued press credentials to and perspectives which are often underuse of blogs in everything from election independent citizen journalists covering their reported. Thus, what originally began as a campaigns to political protests. Through this leadership convention. And, the influence challenge by citizen reporters to traditional medium, participants are effectively able to of the internet in election campaigns has media to improve the rigour and scope of bypass the filter of big media and get their continued to grow. This year, more than any their reporting has now become an accepted independent account published with the other, a web presence in the form of YouTube practice in mainstream media. As Mary Lou possibility of international recognition. Not videos and blogs has formed a central Fulton, publisher of the Northwest Voice april 2008
only this, but many of these blogs also take it upon themselves the task of holding media accountable by checking facts, reporting on biases, and calling out inaccuracies in traditional media outlets. Ultimately, it was the prominent role of bloggers and citizen reporters which led Time Magazine to select ‘You’ as their 2006 Person of the Year.
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“Online participants have recognized the immense potential of blogs and instant epublishing and have begun using these tools en masse to serve their own goals and purposes.” (Bakersfield, California) notes, “instead of being the gatekeeper, telling people that what’s important to them ‘isn’t news,’ we’re just opening up the gates and letting people come on in… rather than having everything filtered through the views of a small group of reporters and editors.” Local reporters and citizens on the ground have played an increasingly valuable role in adding to the reporting done by mainstream media, especially in war zones, disaster zones, or regions of civil infighting, where communications and logistical access is often poor or nonexistent. On the global stage, when a significant story breaks, it is often difficult to get traditional reporters and journalists on the ground immediately, especially when there are high levels of violence, civil war, curfews and travel restrictions. Following the contentious elections in Kenya on December 27th, 2007, some of the first reports out of Kenya actually came from bloggers and tourists already on the ground. Similarly, when news of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination in Pakistan rocked the world on December 27th, 2007, it was actually amateur video clips taken from the scene that provided most of the fodder for news stations across the world. In disaster zones, bloggers and citizen reporters have played a crucial role in accurately reporting on the situation and often highlighting the plight of the victims. As freelance American journalist Mark Glaser wrote in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, it “brought forth a mature, multilayered online response that built on the sense of community after 9/11, the amateur video of the Southeast Asian tsunami disaster and July 7 London bombings, and the on-the-scene blogging of the Iraq War.” Undoubtedly, citizen reporters are often the best-equipped to provide the most accurate and immediate accounts of disaster
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allowed greater numbers of people to bypass traditional media filters. But how effective are individuals in helping to overcome traditional biases in media? And is there an objective, real story, getting out each and every time? While citizen journalism may be helping to uproot some of the more traditionallyentrenched media interests, there remains significant evidence to suggest that at least some degree of media bias is here to stay. A key example can be found in examining the coverage of the Iraq War. In October 2004, a study conducted by the medical journal The Lancet estimated that “the death toll associated with the invasion and occupation of Iraq is probably about 100,000 people and may be much higher.” According
regions, compared to foreign journalists who have to be parachuted into such regions. “Cyber-balkanization”? Ostensibly, the increased participation of greater numbers of people in shaping news coverage is something to be celebrated, as it marks the democratization of media. However, there are many whoquestiontheassumptionthat the internet actually strengthens democracy. Foremost among these is prominent legal scholar Cass Sunstein. In his 2001 book, Republic.com, Sunstein argued that the internet actually hurts democracy because it encourages people to segregate themselves into narrow interest groups and online communities where their own views and opinions are reflected back to them. Thus, a young liberal activist who spends all his time on liberal blogs may never actually Why Tuesday? (FLICKR) come across information that challenges his political views, and as a to Noam Chomsky, this time in Failed result, may continue to reinforce previously States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault held beliefs. While previously it was big on Democracy, international reactions media that filtered what people would to the report have differed significantly, see and read, it is now people themselves largely due to its treatment by mainstream who unwittingly act as their own filters, by media in various countries. In the U.K, shutting out opposing viewpoints. Using the the study was reported by the media as term “cyber-balkanization” to describe this a reflection of the true cost in lives of the phenomenon, Sunstein worries that the rise Iraq War, forcing the government to make of the internet will lead to greater polarization an embarrassing re-evaluation of its own and intolerance for divergent views. count of the casualties. However, despite several other figures which corroborated The Limits of the New Media the findings in the Lancet report, including Sunstein may take some solace in the fact a Swiss review of the study’s data, as well as that despite the many ways that the internet another study by Iraq Body Count, media has changed the landscape of the media, coverage in America was largely seen as its influence still has limits. Certainly, the playing down the legitimacy of the numbers. development of blogs and YouTube has
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On the political front, the media still has a stranglehold in shaping the discourse and analysis surrounding politicians. During Howard Dean’s failed presidential attempt in 2004, there was extensive coverage of his infamous “Dean Scream”—what some political pundits linked to the eventual demise of his campaign. The so-called scream was in fact a rallying cheer during Dean’s concession speech at the Iowa caucuses, and many who were present in the audience actually did not see it as a scream at all. Yet, that did not stop the media and cable news networks from showing the scene no less than 633 times in the four days after the primaries, according to an Associated Press story released shortly thereafter. This sparked an immediate
“For all its good, blogging and citizen journalism also has recognizable limitations with regard to conflicts with the law, accountability, anonymity, and the propagation of further media bias.”
much on the line for the media to ignore important issues while they obsess about Hillary’s hairdo or Barack’s baritone… is it in the country’s best interests that voters received far more information about Hillary’s laugh than Obama’s legislative record? Is it good for our nation that more attention is paid to the differences in their speaking style than their health care plans?” The claims of media bias have gone both ways. Obama supporters have pointed to several events which they claim show a bias against their candidate: the Obama/Osama mix-up, the questions raised against Obama’s patriotism and not wearing the flag lapel, and diminishing Obama’s primary victories as less significant than Clinton’s by noting that they are unimportant states or caucuses, among many other examples. To add to the U.S. Coast Guard (Wikipedia Commons) foray of purportedly mixed intentions, the media has played an enormous role in infusing race into the debate over whether there was a media bias debate—an issue which neither candidate against Dean. Subsequently, CNN issued a particularly wanted to tackle, but each was public apology stating that they had perhaps forced to confront nonetheless. Suggestions overplayed the particular video clip of Dean. of racial divisions were further entrenched by In the current presidential campaign, the media after intense coverage of criticism supporters of both Barack Obama and of statements made by former President Hillary Clinton have traded accusations of Bill Clinton, as well as intense scrutiny paid media bias with regard to the coverage of the to Obama’s association with his former other candidate. Walter Shorenstein, founder Pastor, Jeremiah Wright. This is indicative of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the of the power that mainstream media still Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard has, with regard to shaping the direction of University, wrote in a March 2007 memo political campaigns and public discourse. that biased campaign coverage contributed For all its good, blogging and citizen to Obama’s victories in the preceding eleven journalism also has recognizable primaries and caucuses. Citing several studies limitations with regard to conflicts with showing more favourable press coverage for the law, accountability, anonymity, and the Obama, Shorenstein wrote that “there is too propagation of further media bias. After all,
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citizen bloggers are not without their own biases and agendas and thus a certain degree of bias is unavoidable. Since bloggers and citizen journalists can often publish content without publicly disclosing who they are, many media experts have questioned the credibility of such sources. Also, there are numerous legal questions which have yet to be fully sorted out, including the concern over potential violations of copyright laws, as well as whether bloggers should legally be recognized as reporters, in recognition of the fact that bloggers have in fact broken several high profile news stories over the past several years. Given the impact of the Internet on traditional media, we are presented with the stark image of how much influence individuals actually hold. While the common belief is that the empowered citizenry in today’s society can overcome the influence of big media, there is ample evidence demonstrating that this is not entirely the case. Although media coverage includes the blogging power of the average person, the effect is not as immense as we may think. We have only begun to peel back the layers of influence, and have yet to overcome the dominant force of the filtration mechanism employed by big media and their corporate interests. At least for the foreseeable future, we can be relatively certain that traditional mass media will still play a prominent role in pushing the direction of the public thought, despite an erosion of such influence by the use of new media technologies and the power of citizen journalists.
Alexander Lim is a fourthyear New College student jointly majoring in Ethics, Society & Law and Biological Anthropology.
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The Oldest Profession’s Newest Trick Michael Boyce
Norma Jean Almodovar is a selfdescribed activist, but she isn’t selling tickets for a Darfur benefit concert or raising awareness about global climate change. Almodovar represents the International Sex Worker Foundation for Art, Culture, and Education (ISWFACE), an organization run exclusively by current and former prostitutes. ISWFACE seeks to convince the general public that prostitutes are active members of society, in ways different from their traditional role. talented sculptor, Almodovar showcases her art at many ISWFACE events, like the biennial Sex Worker Film and Art Festival in San Francisco. Other ISWFACE prostitutes in the festival perform in concerts or comedy routines. If the idea of sculpting, singing, joke-telling prostitutes comes as a surprise, then Almodovar has achieved her goal: “We aim to use these events to put the general public in non-threatening positions such as art shows, film festivals, and cultural events,” Almodovar told The Yale Globalist. She wants the general public to “see prostitution in ways different than how the religious right and radical left feminists portray us.” ISWFACE is a prostitution union, and not the only one of its kind. Like most unions, prostitution unions advocate for their members’ basic rights and living conditions. Unlike most unions, however, they must overcome accusations of depravity, immorality, and lawlessness. The task is not an easy one, especially considering that prostitutes and politicians have never made good bedfellows. More than anything else, the politics of prostitution is largely about staying as apolitical as possible. Going against the tide The movement began during World War II in Honolulu, where soldiers anxiously awaited battle and the gender ratio was 500 men to every woman. Business looked as good as ever for the world’s oldest profession While prostitution was officially illegal, the infamous Hotel Street district, through which 30,000 servicemen passed each day, became a place where 8,000 men were
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serviced each night. The army, fearful of falling morale, tacitly condoned the Hotel Street brothels and pressured local police to leave them alone. Yet, when the local police nevertheless began to crack down on the brothels, the prostitutes did something unprecedented—they went on strike. It was an immediate success, since the prostitutes exploited the enormous demand for their services to guarantee that they could work freely. The army, desperate to preserve morale, stepped in and negotiated with the local police to relax their enforcement. The Honolulu prostitutes also established an important precedent. Instead of aligning themselves with any political party or ideology, they only sought to protect their own liberty and improve their own standard of living. This model was repeated throughout the world, most often led by ex-prostitute Margo St. James, who founded a prostitution union called C.O.Y.O.T.E., or Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics, in 1973. C.O.Y.O.T.E.’s creation was spurred in large part by the feminist left’s political rejection of prostitution. Feminist theory holds that prostitution is little more than sexual slavery—women, who in general own less property and make less income than men, are forced to sell their bodies for sex in order to survive under the capitalist system. C.O.Y.O.T.E. rejected that position (and accordingly, feminist activists have adamantly opposed it and other prostitution unions), contending that sex workers were little different than other workers, and that the industry should be decriminalized and regulated. Despite the challenges posed by the feminists, C.O.Y.O.T.E. remained surprisingly apolitical and confined itself largely to public relations. Occasionally, it would also support the creation and organization of international prostitution unions. It held a Hookers Masquerade in
which rich donors mingled with masked prostitutes. It also organized a concert called the “Ladies of the Evening at the Improv,” in which prostitutes and porn stars showed off their artistic skills and performed comedy routines. Ron Jeremy was even said to have played piano for one
event. C.O.Y.O.T.E. also contributed to the World Whores charter, which outlined the principles that serve as the basis for many international prostitution unions These apolitical acts were not designed to change the laws as much as they were designed to change perceptions. C.O.Y.O.T.E.’s actions helped spur the creation of countless state and local prostitution unions and sex worker advocacy groups, as well as international heavyweight NGOs such as the International Prostitutes’ Collective. Today there are major april 2008
exchange article prostitution unions in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and the United States. In the U.S. alone there are 14 major unions operating on either the national, state, or local level. While the public may not widely support prostitution unions, through the actions of C.O.Y.O.T.E. the sex worker community certainly does. The Political Balancing Act Since C.O.Y.O.T.E. was founded, prostitution unions have only taken political stances when presented with
New Zealand’s sex worker community She told the Globalist that her organization was threatened by American feminist Melissa Farley, founder of the U.S.-based organization Prostitution Research and Education. The group is known for its extreme anti-union positions. ISWFACE’s Almodovar, for instance, claimed that Farley and her group have “taken information they have gathered completely out of context in order to fit their personal agenda.” In the early 1990s, Farley set her sights on New Zealand. “When Farley heard about us, she came to New Zealand and started lobbying legislators to change the laws,” Healy said. This was problematic for the NZPC: “When you are a small country you don’t want to be seen as going against the tide.” In response, Healy’s organization adopted a far more political bent by maintaining contact with important federal legislators Yet the NZPC stills maintains it apolitical roots. “We do not tie ourselves to any political organization,” Healy said, “The organization comprises people who have many political affiliations.”
A Matter of Survival C.O.Y.O.T.E. is now largely defunct, and its advocacy efforts are replaced by organizations with less overt aims at combating society’s stigma against prostitutes and prostitution. Norma Jean Almodovar, in addition to being the head of ISWFACE, runs the largest remaining C.O.Y.O.T.E. branch in Los Angeles. She keeps it going for the few members who remember the ALEXANDRA TKATCHEVA organizationfromitslate1980sheyday. Almodovar throws her passion into ISWFACE, hoping her active opposition. Generally the prostitute efforts there can finally and permanently union’s apolitical nature discourages destigmatize prostitution. The organization most strong opposition to it, but there often holds art festivals and conferences at are rare exceptions, as when opposition California State University at Northride. emanates from powerful U.S. political forces. Speaking of prostitution, she said, “The Catherine Healy knows how powerful word originally meant beloved one.” She those forces can be. She is the National added, “And it wasn’t until the Christian Coordinator of the New Zealand Prostitutes religion corrupted the concept that it became Collective (NZPC), which was founded a pejorative description of a woman who in 1987 with largely apolitical goals. Its would not and could not be ‘tamed.’” primary role was to help New Zealand’s The idea of de-stigmatizing prostitution— government maintain the health levels of originating with C.O.Y.O.T.E. in 1970s—still april 2008
defines the union movement today. Many efforts aim at empowerment, and one example is $pread magazine. Officially for sex workers and the sex industry, the magazine provides the sex worker community with a single source of news in touch with their lives and concerns. $pread’s executive editor, Eliyanna Kaiser, told the Globalist of the importance of her magazine to the lives of its readers. “Sex workers tend to be isolated, so $pread creates a dialogue between people who do the same work and then decrease isolation.” In a manner characteristic of the entire movement, “the editors do not take a position, it is important for sex workers to have a forum to speak for themselves.” To de-stigmatize prostitution, the prostitution union movement has settled on an effective formula: remain apolitical. Kaiser put it simply, “We can’t afford to be crazy sectarians. When a group is so hopelessly disenfranchised, remaining apolitical is a matter of survival.” Kaiser also commented that for the first time “other journalists have noticed the work we’ve done and come to us as an authority while generally destigmatizing the industry.” Remaining apolitical means that friends will be made much more readily than enemies, and, with as few enemies as possible, prostitution unions hope they can slowly combat stigma and preserve their longevity. If they are ever to move on to wider advocacy measures, they will do so only when they have a stable foundation on which to build. Will that ever happen? The NZPC is a case in point. It was able to take a more political stance once it was legitimized by government support. This can serve as a simple and effective model for any marginal advocacy group. Other marginalized movements, such as those which hope to legalize drugs, support illegal immigrants, or enfranchise minority sexualities, would be wise to understand why prostitution unions remain apolitical. Thus far, it has been the prostitutes’ most successful trick.
Michael Boyce is an undergraduate student at Yale University and a contributing writer for The Yale Globalist.
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april 2008
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Cyberspace, Espionage, and Information Warfare Nick Dalla Guarda
The Internet, as the catalyst for the new media, is transforming the world. As Marshall McLuhan aptly put it, the world has become a “global village” where one nation’s rebellion is of worldwide concern. Information already transformed the societies of the past and fuelled events like the French Revolution of 1789; today despotic governments like Myanmar’s (who shut down its nation’s internet for a few days in October during the series of protests sparked by Buddhist monks) know it’s not as easy to ban the internet as it is to burn a book. Many countries like China, Syria, and Iran are trying to repress free speech through blanket censorship laws and filters imposed online. Yet free speech and democracy are not the only contested fields which have been revolutionized by the internet. As nations, governments, and economies grow increasingly dependant on the internet to share information, hackers have learned to exploit network weaknesses in order to steal money and information or simply disable important websites. Realizing the internets strategic importance, nations have begun investing in what can be called “information warfare” or the militarization of cyberspace. Armies communicating in the field have always known the importance of information integrity, and now that espionage can be committed online, government agencies and corporations worldwide are constantly on guard against intrusion. A perfect example april 2008
was in 2003 when a number of coordinated cyber attacks were launched against various U.S computer networks, ranging from NASA to Lockheed Martin. The attacks were traced back to China, but the Chinese government denied any involvement in the high-profile espionage. More recently, in April 2007, various Estonian government ministries, party websites, banks, and media outlets came under attack from Russian hackers. This event was allegedly sparked by the Estonian decision to relocate a Soviet-era memorial and war graves in Tallinn. NATO and European Commission investigations have found no links to the Russian government, who deny any connection. Withmoreandmoredependence on the internet, corporate and state espionage has moved into the realm of cyberspace. In response to this shift in the nature of espionage and warfare, the U.S Military is investing heavily in protecting its own networks and treating the internet as hostile territory. U.S Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne stated last September “Tell the nation that the age of cyberwarfare is here,” and his statement can be seen in the U.S government’s creation of a new “Cyber Command” – with a future budget of more than $2 billion for the first year. The “Cyber Command”, currently active although still without its own headquarters, protects civilian networks (like the vital ones on Wall Street) from attack; while in the future, offensively it could jam enemy radar and penetrate its command centres. The possibilities available for misinformation have massive tactical implications. According to Maj. Gen. William Lord, leader of the “Cyber
Command”, it could mean “…being able to change the enemy’s behavior without a kinetic application. Weapons of mass disruption.” Another more tangible example of the international race to control such network capabilities could be seen on February 22 when the U.S military publicly shot down a defunct spy satellite with a missile. U.S authorities cited concerns that the satellite’s fuel tank could re-enter earth intact and pollute the atmosphere with toxic gas, while Chinese authorities claimed it was a blatant attempt to test U.S arms supremacy in outer space. The reverse of this happened last year when the Chinese military shot down one of their own satellites and elicited accusations of hostility from the U.S government. Although part of the space arms race against which countries worldwide (except the U.S) have been calling for an international treaty, the event is part of a broader issue regarding the militarization of cyber-space and global information. Many commentators and academics are worried about the consequences of a new arms race towards supremacy in information warfare. University of Toronto Political Science Professor Ronald J. Deibert stated “I think the Canadian government could take a leading role in saying the internet is a resource, much like our natural environment, that is critical for our future and is being depleted and degraded.” To end the militarization of cyberspace, Professor Deibert commented “I think it’s a great opportunity for the Canadian government to step up to the plate, and say ‘globally, we need to do something’…because Canada is behind.”
Nick Dalla Guarda is a second-year New College student jointly majoring in Political Science and European Studies, with a minor in Sociology. photo by ALEX INDIGO
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regions in perspective
Israel and National SelfDetermination: A Double Standard Josh Xiong
Today’s critical discourse on Israel, especially on the political fringes, is a mixture of paranoid conspiracy and character assassination. While most mainstream debate is centered around the sustainability of the occupation and the possibility of a twostate solution, the radical side takes issue with Israel’s very existence. The concept of a Jewish state – the very founding purpose of Israel – is the focus of attack, which is embodied in the charge that Zionism is equal to racism. In an age in which political correctness and multiculturalism reign supreme, this assertion has gained growing popularity, to the point that it has become insinuated into the mainstream. Perhaps the saying is correct that if you repeat a falsehood a million times, it becomes a truth. For either there is nothing racist about a state founded for Jews, or there is something acceptably racist about the modern nation-state system itself. Taken at face value, it is simple to see why those with more cosmopolitan attitudes towards race or religion can deem a Jewish state racist. The controversial 1950 Law of Return, which established Israel as a state welcome to Jews around the world, is often singled out as a document of western, ethnic exclusion. But additional evidence makes this belief groundless. If we are discussing the issue on racial grounds, then Jews do not descend from one particular ethnic group. Most people are already aware that the Jewish Diaspora heralds from much of Eastern
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Europe and Russia, but it also includes such non-western countries as Algeria, Morroco, Tunisia, Ethiopia, Brazil, and Argentina. A law that makes such a diverse group of people welcome for immigration is anything but ethnically exclusive. Israel’s immigration demography flows more or less along those lines. In 2006, India, Ethiopia, Brazil, and Argentina were in the leading ten countries in terms of emigration to Israel. Absent of credible evidence amounting to ethnic exclusion, one should ask why this charge continues to persist. In a postCold War world that has seen countless ethnic minority groups achieve national self-determination, it is curious to see so many single out Israel’s national identity as fundamentally different or suspect. To this point, a suggestion may be prudent. According to the Dictionary of the History of Ideas, “A nation is a form of self-defined cultural and social community,” and given their cultural unity and shared Zionist attachments to the Israeli ‘homeland’, it may be wise to think of Jews as fitting that description. If we recognize the existence of a “Jewish nation,” the logical conclusion is to attribute to them the same rights to national self-determination that the UN legally provides for all self-proclaimed groups. But even if the “Jewish nation” were more ethnically exclusive, Zionism’s critics would still have a problem on their hands. This is because of the current expanse of legally
recognized nation-states, most are founded on some kind of ethnic commonality. My home country of China, which is home to nearly a quarter of the world’s population, is more or less ethnically homogenous (though it has its share of minorities) and is founded on the common Chinese ethnic and linguistic foundation. Emigrants abroad are still classified as ethnically “Chinese,” identical to the state itself. In fact, countries that justify themselves on more liberal, ethnically neutral identities are the rarity, and are in many ways the product of very recent trends in human history. It is a truth that is widely accepted as the natural outcome of social forces, at least for the time being, and one that we even embrace at times, as illustrated in the case of recent ethnic Albanian partial success in attaining statehood recognition. Zionism’s critics must either reject this mainstream strand of thinking, or confess to their own hypocrisy. The former is unlikely, because those who are at the forefront of the Zionism-equals-racism charge are also often sympathizers of the Palestinian cause. Unless they invoke the minority “one-state solution,” which seeks to produce a 21st century utopia of social, racial, and religious blindness, most will still tout the need for international recognition of a separate state for the Palestinian people. Indeed, this may be a worthy cause for a stateless nation, but using Double Standard CONTINUED ON PAGE 21 april 2008
regions in perspective
Israel/Palestine: The American Media Bias Christina Jabbour
We all know that the media has an incredibly powerful role in shaping our views on both domestic and international issues. Perhaps this is even more pronounced with respect to the latter because our own access to information is restricted, with the media providing the only window to many of the world’s conflicts. This window has the capacity to mold public perception not only by what it shows, but by what it neglects to show. What sort of light has the media, more specifically the American media, shone on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict? It has been 60 years since the state of Israel was created in the land of Palestine, a time when 78% of Palestinian land was expropriated for the Jewish state, and around 800, 000 Palestinians were forcibly expelled from their homes. The majority of descendants of those Palestinians are now refugees residing under occupation in the West Bank and Gaza. But it is as though today’s media has forgotten the injustices that took place in 1948 and 1967. Rather than asking hard questions about the consequences of past actions, the media carefully construes the conflict as an antagonism between two historical ethnic rivals. This of course, is a superficial explanation, but it is one that is easier to swallow. Hard questions are also never asked about the motivations that lie behind suicide bombings. Although terrible and inexcusable, these acts of desperation are april 2008
portrayed as unsubstantiated acts of war. Significant attention is justifiably given to the victims, but what about the story on the other side? Why does the media never ask what propels one to take lives in such a way? Perhaps a look at the conditions in refugee camps, the destructive effects of Israeli settlements, home demolitions, roadblocks, the security wall, restricted access to hospitals and schools, and military raids experienced by the Palestinians on a regular basis would help put things in perspective. Perhaps, when judgments are being passed on the methods of Palestinian resistance, it would be prudent to take into account an assessment of such things as the physiological effects of the occupation on children. These factors are systematically downplayed in the media, resulting in the demonization, or at the very least, a grave misunderstanding of the Palestinian people and their plight. Any acts of resistance against the occupation displayed by Palestinians are dubbed as terrorism, while excessive force by the Israeli military against Palestinian civilians is seldom criticized. Speaking about the media portrayal of the suicide bombings, Amira Hass, an Israeli journalist for Ha’aretz says, “You see the blood, you see the agony of the families. This is what the world sees, but one cannot take it out of the general context, and the context is of an Israeli occupation which is it seems not to be so brutal but it’s very brutal,
it really makes peoples’ lives unbearable. ” The media tends to overlook underlying causes of the conflict, perhaps because probing further would point the finger at those fighting hard to avoid responsibility. As the occupying power in the West Bank and Gaza strip, Israel is obliged to follow international law, but its frequent violations are seldom noted. The finger is also rarely pointed at the US, the world’s superpower, which is in many ways responsible for perpetuating the conflict. A simple survey of annual US aid to Israel is enough to raise eyebrows. News coverage of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict depicts it as balanced from both the military and casualty perspective. However, this portrayal of the situation is a grave misrepresentation of the facts. While the Palestinians have locally produced shortrange rockets, and quantities of longerrange smuggled rockets, Israel is a regional superpower with a fleet of F-16 Jets that is second in size only to the US, as well as close to 4,000 tanks and a standing army. The extent of casualties experienced by both sides is also drastically unequal. According to B’tselem, the Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the occupied territories, between 2000 and 2008, 4,604 Palestinians were killed by Israeli security forces, while 1,033 Israelis were killed by Palestinians. These statistics remain largely under the radar because Israeli deaths receive Media Bias CONTINUED ON PAGE 21 the toronto globalist
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opinion
The Internet and the American Electoral Process Ayushman Banerjee
Comedian Stephen Colbert’s October which culminated in the writer’s strike. Now consolidating strong support across the 2007 announcement to run for president of however, the strike is over and, with the Web, as well as evolving into the Democratic the United States or, at least, as the ‘favourite implementation of short online commercials, Party’s frontrunner, refutes such an idea. son’ of South Carolina, sparked a significant a certain degree of profit and implicit Given such contradictory examples, it degree of interest in the mainstream news control is returned to the corporations. seems futile to attempt a formulization media. Speculations, polls, and questions While the entertainment sector reorients in linking the new medium with having regarding the degree to which his candidacy itself to a level of stability, the political arena a direct impact on election outcomes; would trivialize the American electoral has yet to find parity with the Internet. however, there are significant observations process caught a page or two in the papers The New York Times’ Matt Bai recently worth addressing. Youtube.com, and other and a few minutes of air-time on television reported that Howard Dean, the former search engines, are giving candidates new and radio. Moreover, on the internet, Democratic presidential candidate, had methods to advertise themselves and their thousands of people from the ‘blogosphere,’ strong online fundraising during the initial causes. Furthermore, candidates’ own social networking websites, and other online stages of his 2004 presidential campaign. websites, along with independent ones have support groups rallied around the new Bai proceeded to explain that the mistake of proved to be valuable sources of fundraising. candidate. In fact, the mainstream media Dean’s campaign was the attempt to direct Each of the above candidates had a healthy focused on this trend of support more than the online component of his campaign proportion of support from an educated the validity of Colbert’s candidacy. Despite from the top-down, rather than allowing youth – the dominant demographic of the online enthusiasm, it to take its own form. the Democratic Party Conversely, he attributes With the increasing convergence of different in South Carolina Ron Paul’s online technologies, it is possible that the anomalous ultimately rejected success to independent medium- the Internet- might also end up his candidacy by contributors who were a 13-3 vote. It is authenticating the authorities, rather than critically struck by his simple antiarguable that this war and anti-spending analyzing them. rejection undermined message. Similarly, the already Obama’s substantiated farcical populist rhetoric rhetoric of ‘hope and change’ has been equally, Web users. This is a logical connection, and plaguing the Democratic Party. if not more, appealing. In his case, the Internet potentially useful for identifying a more But perhaps the comedian’s mocking is serving as a particularly strong component concrete relation between the Web and the approach of the electoral process does not of his campaign’s grassroots movement. electoral process. However, online organizers adequately contextualize the Web’s role in In essence then, it seems as though enable large investments to be made through electoral politics. At any rate, it certainly paints the Internet – the ‘revolutionary’ means the Internet for other strong contenders, a uniquely ambiguous picture of its impact of communication – strikes a chord with such as Hillary Clinton and John McCain. on the process, at least, at the superficial level. candidates who possess a similarly anomalous Since supporters of these candidatesHowever, some more examples might help personality or cause. Although Democratic particularly McCain- are generally older and deconstruct this dichotomy to conceptualize candidates fare better online, Ron Paul’s less ‘Internet savvy’, it is clear that the ‘virtual the influence of the Internet over electoral example shows that the trend transcends influence’ is not limited to a specific group. campaigns. Republican candidate Ron Paul, party lines. While Obama’s online advertising In fact, there seems to be a conflict for example, has essentially been forgotten through his campaign alludes to Dean’s over ‘rights’ to power and possession, an by the mainstream media because of the attempts of online manipulation, the millions issue that is not restricted to the political meager number of votes his campaign has of online donations and endorsements from process per se. The music industry’s been able to garner. However, by the ordinary citizens serve as counterbalancing desperate attempts to save profits lost to end of November 2007, Youtube.com means of empowerment and reciprocity. ‘illegal’ downloading through programs reported that Paul had the highest number of It is precisely this sort of participatory like Napster, illustrate the breadth of the subscribers on the website by a wide margin. democracy that is shaking up the foundations dilemma. Today, technology has developed This relationship seems to reinforce the of an archaic political system. At the same beyond music and into downloading and notion that there is a ‘disconnect’ between time, it is important to note that such virtual streaming videos. The struggle to save profits the Internet and national electoral results. gatherings and networks are not always subsequently expanded to producers of However, Barack Obama’s success in the hub of ‘enlightened thought’; trivial everything from talk shows to soap operas,
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opinion bickering and insults can become the norm. Furthermore, a 2005 study by Lada Adamic (HP Labs) and Natalie Glance (Intelliseek Applied Research Center) regarding political blogging in the 2004 election showed minimal levels of interaction between conservative and liberal blogs, with a sparse number of ‘moderate’ blogs. Those nascent trends seem alive today. However, petty arguments, partisan politics and ‘cherry-picking’ information should not be viewed negatively,
determine electoral outcomes. Perhaps such persistent attempts of control are a reaction to the ambiguities generated by the Web’s uncompromising egalitarianism. That is, for these two candidates, negative publicity has accompanied the positive through the new medium, whereas ‘deviant’ candidates have not experienced this trend at a significant level. Analysis of the mainstream media can explain the ‘old guards’ struggle too. News networks, like CNN, continually
DAVID SHANKBONE (Wikipedia Commons)
but rather as an opportunity to manipulate this eclecticism into a constructive rationale. The relative lack of success for Clinton and, more so, McCain with the Web suggests that the changing medium diverges from ‘older’ candidates. However, perpetual investment in it reflects the campaigns’ adamancy to systematize what has already been described as futile; a means to april 2008
attempt to reinvent themselves through technological developments, such as the ‘Hi-Def’ experience; yet the quality of news and analysis has barely improved. However, with partial incorporation of the Web into the mainstream- seen through references to developments and comments in blogs and social networks- the ‘peoples’’ view adds a new dimension to news
coverage. Similarly, American print media has amalgamated itself online by posting their articles and adding their own blogs. Implicitly then, a greater sense of egalitarianism seems to be permeating the mainstream. However, one must not forget that the so-called ‘mainstream’ during the Vietnam War was essentially a new form of media. Television coverage of the war had served as a strong catalyst for ending it. Yet today its unquestioning passivity, at least on main network channels, seems to dominate. With the increasing convergence of different technologies, it is possible that the anomalous medium- the Internetmight also end up authenticating the authorities, rather than critically analyzing them. After all, the anecdotal tone of blogs in the mainstream trivializes their otherwise insightful potential. With sites such as Facebook.com rapidly growing and subsequently being bureaucratized further into an inanimate corporation, the vicious circle that Max Weber had once envisioned seems to hold today. The New York Times’ Adam Nagourney quoted Markos Moulitsas, the founder of The Daily KOS, America’s biggest blogsite, in early 2006, “…by 2008, the blogs are going to be so institutionalized, it’s not going to be funny.” In fact, we have now seen reactionary tendencies on the part of the Congress to particularly ‘subversive’ online activity such as Moveon. org’s ‘General Betrayus’ advertisement. In essence, the underpinning relation between the influence of the Internet and the electoral process lies in the variable of novelty. That is, the new medium, precisely because of its atypical nature, gravitates towards the candidates that provide positive developments, away from the status quo. By no means should such assertions be taken lightly. On the contrary, such a change is formulated because of the Web’s organic nature where any attempts of institutionalization will be rigorously neutralized by a truly democratic rebuttal.
Ayushman Banerjee is a third-year New College student jointly majoring in Sociology and Urban Studies, with a minor in History. the toronto globalist
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opinion
Broadcast Thyself: ThE Power of a 5-minute clip May Jeong
An outstanding entry occupies my ‘to do’ list. Alongside ‘drop off dry cleaning,’ and ‘apply to summer internships,’ reads ‘pick a presidential candidate.’ Reference to the Warner-Lieberman Bill, endorsed by John McCain, triggers my teetering towards the right. The romantic notion of a first female president lures me over the Clinton threshold. But there was a moment in time – a whole 5 minutes – when I was completely and utterly enamoured of, and subsequently brought
death of social interaction as we know it. My unease with all things interwebrelated lived on. The apprehension stems not only from the fear of carpel tunnel syndrome, but also from the loss of a certain charm to the old world inevitabilities of not knowing. I was afraid of losing the mysteries of the world to a media company that feasts on voyeurism and narcissism. When one is struck with a bad case of ‘that song from that movie,’ or cannot remember where the poverty line begins, or what the working budget of the United Nations is, or the name of the character George
The “Yes We Can” video caught me off guard. I was struck by the immediacy of the message, the directness of the target, and the rawness with which I, as a viewer, had been exposed to the message. The most beautiful scene is that of people fighting for what they believe in. As far as Obama’s presidential biddings were concerned, YouTube had wholeheartedly aided in this endeavour. In the past, noble pursuits of social change have founded outlets and venues in other mediums, such as protests, rallies, petitions, and fire place gatherings or pub night heated debates. In an era where Facebook ranks the most ‘in’ thing in college – a tie with beer and sex – YouTube has become
In an era where Facebook ranks the most ‘in’ thing in college – a tie with beer and sex – YouTube has become for today what the pep rallies and the mass protests of the past were for our parents. Clooney played in the ER, one now often skips the conversation bit and makes a bee-line to the nearest Google outlet. My biggest fear, the death of conversation and community, seemed to becoming an every imminent reality. YouTube helped me rid myself of this scare. It proved to me that a different form of community is possible, and that an alternate means of bonding is establishing itself as the new norm. YouTube prides itself in being a business model that promotes mass collaboration and the use of information technology. While this may be no substitute for the agony of not knowing, or the bliss of ignorance, it has certainly succeeded in uniting the public – whether it be under a common political cause, or a fixation of a certain on-going joke.
ALEXANDRA TKATCHEVA
over to a single presidential candidate, and had almost called the case to a close. The infatuation was over Senator Barack Obama, and the medium employed was none other than the famed YouTube video, “Yes We Can.” I have always been suspicious of both Obama and of YouTube’s ostensible added value. The eloquent speeches and the suave politico-maneuvering of the forty-something senator from Illinois was not enough to address my concerns over his lack of experience and my suspicions of empty promises. The video sharing website, available in twelve languages, and worth US$1.65 billion, which supposedly strives for “networking, sharing, and peering,” was also not enough to rid my fear of the
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for today what the pep rallies and the mass protests of the past were for our parents. YouTube’s success comes from none other than its viewers. It succeeded in offering an immediate outlet for interested viewers, and this positive feedback cycle has helped YouTube become a web forum with a sub culture of its own. As long as the desire to broadcast lives on, so will YouTube. And as long as there are viewers and presenters, stories and dialogues and conversations will continue to govern the day. As for the presidential candidate, I am still undecided, and am available for discussion.
May Jeong is a third-year Trinity College student jointly majoring in Political Science and Environmental Policy. april 2008
news
Blogging: On the Periphery, but Under the Spotlight Jacqueline Chan
The average individual can now blog, and potentially be promoted to star status—this fact is particularly true in relation to the fashion industry. In February 2008, Madonna and Gucci cohosted the Malawi and UNICEF Benefit. Susanna Lau stepped on the same red carpet as a host of A-List Hollywood celebrities including Jennifer Lopez, Katie Holmes, Tom Cruise, and Drew Barrymore. Lau is an outsider to the fashion industry; her day job is digital advertising.
andyp uk (FLICKR)
Yet StyleBubble, her blog, has attracted interviews from fellow blogs such as The Business of Fashion, magazines like i-D, and newspaper publications such as The South China Morning Post. And then came her invitation to the UNICEF Benefit event. “Blogging has only really fuelled my passion further because I’m so eager to blog about something I’ve bought, something I’ve tried, something I’ve encountered; and I now have thousands of readers to share that with,” Lau explains. The fashion industry has become more accommodating to bloggers recently. According to Page Six, a source close to Anna Wintour revealed that the US Vogue editor deemed blogs garish. That was last year. This year, Style.com, also known as the online home of Vogue, has launched its own blog called Style File (StyleBubble, of course, is linked). It has also enlisted Scott Schuman, a street-style blogger, to document the fashion week scenes. Industry insiders now require outsider information to remain au courant. april 2008
Wintour, however, is not being hypocritical with regard to US Vogue’s recent usage of blogs. Style File is not a blog in functionality; it is a news feature feed that possesses the “up-to-the-instant” trait of blogs. The nature of the fashion industry, that is what Lau calls “the constant changing states” and “the different facets” of fashion, allows her to update her blog as often as several daily. Other industry insiders are making use of the blogging phenomenon as well. The New York Times has enlisted Cathy Horyn, the Times Fashion Critic, to blog about her latest insights on the runway. The Telegraph has award winning fashion director Hilary Alexander manage its fashion blog in addition to consistently churning out articles during fashion weeks. “The blog has sort of made me known to some parts of the fashion industry but I still wouldn’t say I’m completely in it,” Lau says. “I never set out as a blogger to get into the ‘inside.’” Ultimately, she sees herself “on the periphery.” The blog maintains Lau’s integrity; she makes the final decision as to whether certain information gets posted. “I may have a dialogue with PR [public relations] people, but I’m not obligated to write about anything unless I genuinely like it, and feel it reflects what Style Bubble is all about,” she explains. When asked whether she feels that blogs are a powerful emerging medium to the future of fashion, she maintains a conservative stance “simply because it’s too hard to predict.” Indeed, the audiences are too diverse. Street Style blogger Scott Schuman from The Sartorialist will be profiled in the issue of Fantastic Man. A budding independent internet publication, Fashion156.com, calls itself the “new fashion webzine” and features fashion outsiders who are successful bloggers. Lau is a contributor to the “insider” section of the webzine. On the other hand, the mainstream audience—that is the celebrity obsessed—would prefer another “outsider” blog instead. In the bloggers’ world, the terms “insider” and “outsider” lose their relevance when used carelessly. Outsiders are quickly being
elevated to insider status depending on who their intended audience is. The result is confusion, which in turn, makes it unclear as to how much influence blogs really possess. So it seems valid when Lau claims that “…there are only a few select bloggers that have that sort of exposure and I don’t even class myself as particularly influential.” Industry insiders reach out to blogger communities for liaisons. The ready readership becomes a convenient marketing tool. Yet Lau has never set out to step into the insider’s world through the blogging medium. Imran Ahmed, the blog owner of The Business of Fashion, contributed an article to The Financial Times. The article reports the effect of the growing influence of bloggers. Alexander McQueen and Louis Vuitton have started working with bloggers, and the latter is in the planning stages of creating its own online community. The reason behind the initiative is the trusted relationships that can form through blogging, and the quick and honest feedback bloggers can provide brands. While the article illustrates the hesitation exhibited by luxury brands to jump aboard the blogging (or any other e-community) bandwagon, it also suggests that the fashion industry is veering towards a new direction. There is a clear vision, and the sales figures will attest to it. The message is subtle but tantalizing: consumers will dictate marketing, and it will be more effective than promoting a sheep mentality. Lau says, “Brands will be treating select bloggers in a different way so long as they continue to be seen as a way of generating free advertising but after that, who knows!” Lau is realistic, but the business gurus behind the fashion industry are both realistic and ambitious. Blogging can promote both the brands and their sales above star status.
Jacqueline Chan is a second-year New College student specializing in Commerce, with a major in English. the toronto globalist
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news
Going Global: Fight against Malaria Stronger than Ever Farhana Rahman
After seven years of fighting malaria through commitment, dialogue, and action, Africa Malaria Day is going global. On 25 April 2008, members of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership--the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and World Bank--will join forces with dedicated volunteers, communities, and organizations worldwide to celebrate the first World Malaria Day. At the Sixtieth World Health Assembly in May 2007, the WHO’s 192 Member States proposed to develop a globally celebrated day “to provide education and understanding of malaria as a global scourge.” Existing in the shadow of more prominent diseases such as HIV and AIDS, many are unaware of this devastating and life-threatening disease. World Malaria Day will attempt to raise greater awareness of the significant threats malaria poses to millions of people around the world. Every year, the mosquito-borne transmittable disease claims the lives of more than a million people, while infecting over 500 million. Although the disease affects all corners of the globe, approximately 90 percent of deaths occur in Sub-Saharan Africa, of which victims are predominantly young children below the age of five. People who lack the protective immunity required to fight against possible malaria exposure often face the greatest risks. According to the WHO’s Global Malaria Programme, “infants are vulnerable to malaria from approximately three months of age when immunity acquired from the mother starts to wane.” Once infected, children often experience
significant cognitive and behavioural impairments including severe brain damage. Pregnant women are also among those who face high risks of malaria infection. During pregnancy, malaria poses great risks to both mother and baby, particularly risks such as anaemia, which results in insufficient supply of oxygen to the body’s tissues. The WHO estimates that more than half of all children infected by
disease. Several organizations advocating the use of bed-nets, donate millions of dollars to purchase thousands of bed-nets. One such organization, Spread the Net, uses the catchphrase “One net. 10 bucks. Save Lives.” in order to promote greater involvement in the initiative to eradicate malaria. Included among the list of international initiatives against malaria is the social networking website Facebook, which advocates against the devastating disease through a group called “One Million Faces Against Malaria.” The group, which currently has over eleven thousand members, lists “Top Ten Ways To Fight Malaria On Facebook” in an effort to trigger member involvement in the battle against malaria. Some of the initiatives proposed by the group provide members with the options of “donat[ing] money to purchase a bed-net,” creating a fundraising event, or simply spreading the word by inviting other members to join. One of the key benefits of this initiative is the website’s ability to reach thousands of people worldwide, further enhancing efforts to create much-needed global awareness of the disease. As evident from the current actions of political leaders, international organizations, and global citizens coupled with continuing campaigns for greater awareness through World Malaria Day, it is clear that the fight againstmalariaisnowstrongerthaneverbefore.
Every year, the mosquitoborne transmittable disease claims the lives of more than a million people, while infecting over 500 million.
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malaria often die because of severe malarial anaemia. The increased risk of widespread malarial infections demands the need for both international aid and action--crucial now more than ever--particularly as the disease is both curable and preventable. A few global efforts to battle the growing outbreaks of malaria are already underway. Recently, on his visit to Tanzania, U.S. President George W. Bush announced the development of a bed-net campaign aimed towards distributing millions of bed-nets to malaria-struck victims in Tanzania. The President said, “This ambitious nationwide program will provide enough nets to protect every child between the ages of one and five in Tanzania.” While it may seem like a simple approach to fighting malaria, insecticide-treated bed-nets prove most effective in reducing transmission of the
Farhana Rahman is a firstyear New College student jointly specializing in International Relations and Peace & Conflict Studies. april 2008
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film review
You Can’t Fight In Here: The Cultural Significance of Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove Jonathan C. G. Bright
COLUMBIA PICTURES
“What could be more absurd than the very idea of two mega-powers willing to wipe out all human life because of an accident?” asks Stanley Kubrick, referring to the premise upon which his film Dr. Strangelove is based. Out of this very question, Kubrick produced a satire that suggests that if a ‘nuclear deterrent’ destroys all life on Earth, it is hard to say exactly what it has deterred. Beyond this striking political statement is an equally striking visual and verbal mélange of the absurd; Dr. Strangelove presents to the audience a circus-esque state of affairs in which the participants never really seem to realize how completely ludicrous their situation is. The story surrounds the mentally unstable Jack D. Ripper, a US Air Force general who orders a first strike nuclear attack on the Soviet Union. The story then follows the President of the United States – Merkin Muffley – his advisors, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, a Royal Air Force officer, as they try to recall the bombers to prevent a nuclear apocalypse. Equally important in the story is the role played by the crew of one B-52 as they attempt to deliver their payload. The story intercuts among three locales, each related to the above groups of people: first, Burpleson Air Force Base, where Mandrake and General Ripper are based ; second, the Pentagon War Room, where US leaders, including Muffley, U.S.A.F. General Buck Turgidson – played by George C. Scott – and ex-Nazi scientist Dr. Strangelove convene to
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discuss the situation; and third, Major T.J. Kong’s B-52 bomber where he and his crew – never fully aware of the actual situation – stubbornly attempt to complete their mission. Why was Dr. Strangelove so successful? It is, at face value, a strange comedic blend involving very dark overtones yet with a remarkable amount of seemingly puerile sexual humour. Is there something more to the film? Does it address important social questions and concerns? In many ways, Dr. Strangelove embodies both a silly sexuality – given that most of the main characters have names that play on sexual themes – and a serious concern with issues of military and political importance. In particular, the film addresses the absurdity of the notion of mutually assured destruction through an examination
For instance, it would appear that General Ripper’s apparent sexual frustration led to his need to lash out in a particularly violent manner, a connection made even more intriguing given the ways in which the use of nuclear weapons and the military in general are portrayed in the film. The opening scene, which shows a B-52 bomber ‘mating’ in mid-air with a tanker has overtly sexual overtones, including the camera angle used and the phallic nature of the fuel tube. The penultimate scene shows Major Kong riding a huge bomb – a potent swollen phallic symbol – between his legs. Kong is flailing the bomb with his hat like a rodeo cowboy atop a bucking bronco, howling wildly, as both he and the bomb malevolently descend toward the target and the bomb detonates in a climactic flash.
Why was Dr. Strangelove so successful? It is, at face value, a strange comedic blend involving very dark overtones yet with a remarkable amount of seemingly puerile sexual humour. of topics like technology, deeply-rooted ideology, and survivability – it is perhaps the best of many films to have attempted such politically-charged subject matter. To begin, one of the most striking elements of Dr. Strangelove is the remarkable absence of women from almost the entire film. There is exactly one woman in the film – General Turgidson’s secretary – and she appears not in an office, but in a small bedroom with twin beds and a sun lamp, wearing a bikini swimsuit. The implication of this scene, once General Turgidson appears clad in his bathing trunks, is that the two are physically intimate. That the only scene with a woman primarily emphases her sexuality is an interesting concept when contrasted with the other sexual themes inherent in the film.
Amidst this masculine sexual imagery is the ineptitude of America’s leaders as they grapple with both their inability to recall the bombers sent by General Ripper to attack the Soviet Union and the consequences of this rapidly dawning reality: that the system designed to prevent such eventualities is likely to be the cause of them. President Muffley’s diplomatic negotiations with the Russian President are frighteningly similar to an adult speaking with a very young child, and General Turgidson never seems able to provide a reasonable solution to the problems at hand. It is in this inability that the film addresses the issue of technology. Just as the computer HAL 9000 in 2001 serves the space mission by attacking the astronauts, the U.S. nuclear deterrent and the Russian april 2008
film review ‘doomsday machine’ function exactly as they are intended, and destroy life on earth. The ‘doomsday machine’ is a hypothetical salted hydrogen bomb that, because of the inclusion of cobalt in its tamper, would produce an intensely radioactive cloud – similar to that alluded to in the film On The Beach (1951) – that would eventually kill all animal and plant life on Earth. It is this ineptitude on the part of the completely male cast of characters to overcome the technology that they developed that drives the comedy of this film. As film critic Roger Ebert says, “…people trying to be funny are never as funny as people trying to be serious and failing. A man wearing a funny hat is not funny. But a man who doesn’t know he’s wearing a funny hat…ah, now you’ve got something…” None of the characters in the film realize that they are wearing funny hats, especially the character after whom the film is named. Dr. Strangelove, who really only appears in the latter half of the film, is an ex-Nazi political strategist who now serves as one of US President Muffley’s advisors. His main contribution to the film is his proposition concerning the survivability of the inevitable nuclear holocaust – his plan is to use mineshafts as a series of underground bunker cities where people will live for one hundred years and, if it were up to Strangelove, would produce a superior race of people through carefully crafted eugenics based on the people allowed into the mineshafts in the first place. The film ends with Strangelove gleefully realizing this goal of racial perfection that he was unable to achieve with Hitler – perhaps part of the reason why the movie is subtitled “Or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb.” It appears that this absurd survival tactic, taken seriously by most of the Presidential advisors and received with fervent enthusiasm by some, is a more general commentary on the purposeless nature of Mutually Assured Destruction: survival tactics should be unnecessary if the notion of mutually assured destruction worked but, because it is a preposterous and dangerous idea, in the event that it did not work – or, as in Dr. Strangelove, actively worked against the countries involved – survival tactics seem meaningless at best and, in the worst case, impossible in the face of such devastation. But how did this film connect with American society in the 1960s? Fears about survivability began to be replaced during april 2008
the 1960s with political activism both against nuclear weapons specifically and military brinkmanship and warmongering in general. Dr. Strangelove addresses these concerns and does so while highlighting the strategic and tactical absurdity of the prevailing military ideology of the day: mutually assured destruction. There is one idea in Dr. Strangelove, however, that I find particularly compelling and that I have not seen addressed very often at all: the idea that, with all its bluster, the overt masculinity of the American political and military establishment is part of the problem. To return for a moment to the one scene involving a woman, the viewer sees General Turgidson’s secretary who, while on the surface appears very subservient, is actually the only character in the film who both thinks on her feet and makes rational decisions by herself. In covering for the General she engages in a telephone conversation that shows her as an inventive and intelligent woman; later on in the film, we see General Turgidson answer his phone and respond to his secretary who we can only assume is being both headstrong and self-assured – qualities that none of the male characters can claim to have along with rationality and intelligence. While this assessment is vulnerable to criticism, I contend that there was a reason why Kubrick only included one woman in the film, and that reason was to highlight the absurdity of both the strategy and the inherent masculinity of mutually assured destruction, and to perhaps suggest that feminine intelligence and selfassuredness would not be bad qualities for the establishment to look to. Perhaps, even 40 years later, the lessons and ideas inherent in this film – one of Kubrick’s most masterful creations – are as resonant and relevant as ever.
Jonathan C.G. Bright is a fourth-year University College student jointly specializing in Political Science and History. Double Standard CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12
their own moral logic, a group of culturally unified Arabs and Muslims attaining statehood would be considered ‘racist.’ And so a double standard exists in modern debate. On one hand, after enduring
pogroms, ghettoization, and ethnic cleansing, an entire nation of people are denied by critics their right to self-determination, and hardly anybody bothers to address this injustice. On the other, an entire international system of modern statehood founded on the rights of nations to seek their own homes is accepted by much of the world. It would certainly be intellectually lazy to call any critic of the Israeli state anti-Semitic. But this double standard does provoke one to ask, sadly, whether there is a hint of anti-Semitism in this singling out of an entire Jewish nation’s self-determination for scrutiny and criticism.
Joshua Xiong is a secondyear University College student specializing in International Relations, with a minor in Economics. Media Bias CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13
receive significantly more attention by outlets such as CNN and the New York Times. What lies behind the skewed media bias? The propaganda model, a theory developed by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky in Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, may be able to answer some questions. The model attempts to explain systemic media bias. Five filters are postulated as the determinants of news coverage: medium ownership, sources of funding, sourcing, negative responses to a media statement or program, and anticommunist ideology. This model is worth exploring for those interested in sharpening their critical perspective on the media. Those seeking information about international conflicts, such as the Israeli/ Palestinian conflict, should take what the American media portrays with a grain of salt, and put extra effort into uncovering the often untold story. This can be achieved by looking at more independent international media outlets made so accessible by today’s electronic community.
Christina Jabbour is a fourthyear Trinity College student jointly majoring in Ethics, Society & Law and Political Science. the toronto globalist
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news
The Writing on the Wall Farheen Shaikh There are many ways to describe urban city centers. Urban city centers usually the comprise masses of populations of varying socio-economic statuses, and of different cultural, religious and educational backgrounds. Additionally, communities often consist of different age groups and there exist real challenges within these age groups – challenges that are very much in line with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Actualization, which, in summary, states that individuals aim for fulfillment in life. For young adults, it could mean establishing a role, or an identity. This is especially true for urban centers, where spatial luxury is often not warranted and the only guarantee lies in the solace that you are not alone; there are many, many others like you, who live in the same busy, stressful and fixated realm of everyday life. Thus, it can be said then that many fall through the “social loop”. When individuals fail to meet the established expectations for a certain condition, they are most often pushed into reform or towards some sort of change. However, when change is unlikely and reform bears no success, these individuals are pretty much left on their own and this can sometimes lead to rebellion from expected norms or behaviours. Graffiti art is an example of an art form that is often associated with rebels and non-conformists. It is largely expressed in urban city centers where the divide between class and social affluence is sharp; there is a large division between the “have-nots” and “have-lots”. Keeping this social class divide in mind, the emergence of graffiti art as a political and social movement and as a public display of rebellion can be understood. Sociologists have long argued that the foundations of graffiti art stems from a sub-culture that is often at the base of the social-economical ladder. Additionally, this group of people also has limited education and opportunities for success. They may also
come from troubled personal lives, broken homes or abusive childhoods. In essence, this group of individuals collectively represents the “social outcasts” in the population. For these artists, the urban city areas are a graffiti playground: densely populated, busy, central, accessible and diverse. Most of these artists grow up in these areas largely because urban cities tend to have the highest incidence of lower-class or marginal communities. These areas also tend to have a large number of individuals that have fallen through the system- high school drop outs, youth offenders, gang involvement and substance abusers. The
and hip-hop: communicating important messages and themes through words, but with graffiti, this expression is mediated through alleyways and concrete walls. Furthermore, graffiti artists themselves are proud of their craft and their talent and stress that their intention is not to harm or destroy. They do not stand by the actions of others who imitate their acts without cause and reason- the graffiti art subculture community recognizes the negative stamp that has been branded on them and asserts that they have no direct association with that, nor are they responsible for it. There are many who abuse the sanctions of being a graffiti artist and vandalize private property for “kicks” or amusement. Graffiti artists frown upon such behaviour and state that a true graffiti artist is only the means to gain the art’s true ends: awareness, recognition and advance social change. The popularity of the graffiti art sub-culture in urban cities is an indication of the parallels that these places experience in terms of composition and problems. While it may appear that graffiti art is the undertaking of a group of people motivated by the same force of action, graffiti artists comprise of a mosaic of factors and experiences, and each can bring a different element to the big picture. Graffiti art sees a large following of youth- mostly young men of ages fourteen onwards. The impact that being a graffiti artist can have on a young adult is significantthrough their art, they can feel a sense of ‘belonging’ or ‘appreciation’ or as a means of channeling their frustrations with society and their disappointments or their struggles. Seen in a different light, graffiti art can in actuality help create a positive environment for marginalized youth and young adults. Additionally, graffiti art can be used as a tool towards reform for many youth; creation of support programs
Supporters of graffiti art equate it with rap and hiphop: communicating important messages and themes through words, but with graffiti, this expression is mediated through alleyways and concrete walls.
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hands behind graffiti art are stigmatized in society to depict a troubled, distraught, filled-with-rage individual who turns to vandalism in order to avenge the society and the rules that the society is built on. Advocates for graffiti art, however, argue that it is a form of expression; that it is art without words but consists of a strong voice, voicing the thoughts, opinions and problems of a generation that is misunderstood. The essence of graffiti art in its entirety is not to mock the society or to be a menace; instead, it is to promote and depict the struggles that these artists feel in their communities or with respect to their place in society. Examples of these struggles can be racial discrimination or profiling, abuse, lack of respect, stigmatization from being in a low social stratum, issues about being a visible minority, and even a lack of occupational or career-related opportunities. Supporters of graffiti art equate it with rap
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Alexandra Tkatcheva
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and creative outlets can help re-integrate societal values, reform techniques and opportunities of change for the youth- while honing and extending their artistic talents. april 2008
Farheen Shaikh is a fourth-year New College student specializing in Human Biology.
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global happenings
Global happenings as the more radical political right has so insidiously claimed for the past four years.”
Socialists Win in Spain Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has won his second federal parliamentary election in Spain as leader of the Socialist Party. On March 9th, the Socialists added seven more seats to their total in parliament, though they failed to capture a desired majority in the lower house. Zapatero is now looking to form an electoral coalition of sorts so as to rule with a governing majority. The election marks as a consolidation for Zapatero, whom many have doubted as the truly deserving winner of the 2004 elections. The victory was complicated by the fact that Islamist terrorists had struck civilians in Madrid in a highly organized train bombing operation that killed 191 civilians days before the election. The People’s Party, PP, was largely expected to win re-election under the leadership of Jose Maria Asnar, but was handily defeated at the polls on electionday. Some have speculated that the reversal of electoral fortunes was primarily due to voters’ shock and attribution of blame to PP. This election witnessed few incidents of terrorism, except for the murder of one Socialist town counselor in the Basque town of Mondragón by Basque terrorist group ETA. Left-leaning newspaper El Pais states that “this victory was not an accident or a parenthesis nor a result of the bombings,
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Party of Lincoln Chooses Nominee The U.S. presidential election has gained ever growing attention this year as two of the Democratic Party’s most controversial minority symbols battle it out for the nomination. While most of the country and international observers have been focused on the electoral stalemate Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton have produced in their contest, the Republican Party has already settled on its de-facto nominee. Although the nominating convention won’t be held until the summer, John McCain has won the vast majority of the party’s delegates to secure the party’s support. His closest rival, Mike Huckabee, bowed out of the race after failing to capture a victory in either the Texas or Ohio primaries in March. Huckabee has thrown his support behind McCain in good form, respecting his party affiliations. This will prove to be useful for McCain, who needs Huckabee’s ability to rally evangelical social conservatives so as to ensure the Republican base comes out to vote in the general election. President Bush has already announced his endorsement of McCain when he had the senator over at the White House for lunch. Some question the effectiveness of the sitting president’s support at a time when approval ratings are noticeably low. More Conflict in Israel and Gaza Israeli soldiers and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been trading violent vollies at one another for the duration of February this year. It is said that the Palestinians opened the first fire, with a more than usual round of Qassam rockets launched at the Israeli town of Sderot, which is located near the border with the Gaza Strip. A counter-attack was triggered by
one death and many injuries in Sderot, as Israeli soldiers entered into the Gaza Strip. Such violence is simply one in a long line of conflicts between the two sides since alleged terrorist group Hamas was elected in as the Palestinian Authority and former ruling party Fatah was banished to its West Bank stronghold. Israel has long held punitive economic sanctions on the Palestinians, and in 2006 intervened in the Gaza Strip in response to extensive rocket attacks. A noticeable development in this year’s attacks came in the form of 20 Iranian made Katyusha rockets launched by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip. Katyusha rockets are widely seen as a staple of the Hezbollah terrorist arsenal, as was showcased in 2006 in its war with Israel, and has rarely been used by the Palestinians until now. Katyusha rockets are significantly lethal due to the enormous amounts of schrapnel that fly into surrounding are a s af te r the initial explosion. Manley Says Afghanistan Effort Inadequate John Manley and Derek Burney, who are the members of Canada’s appointed independent panel on Afghanistan, have made their recommendations earlier in 2008 that Canada should extend its
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global happenings
mission in Afghanistan until 2011. At the same time, the two have stressed that the current international commitment to the mission has been inadequate. They claim the insurgency that has begun to increase in momentum began in large part due to western neglect for the basic security and order needs of the Afghani people. Manley and Burney have stressed that NATO should come up with more troops and equipment to ensure a more successful mission in the future. Canadian
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has taken the same line as Manley and Burney in his arguments in parliament over extending the mission until 2011. Harper has also pressed NATO and ISAF, the International Security Assistance Force, to step up its commitment with an additional 1,000 troops and more transport helicopters. He has used the threat of a Canadian withdrawal from the mission as leverage in the case that other NATO countries do not act on such recommendations. Insurgent Attacks in Iraq Lower and Steady New statistics presented by David M. Walker, top official of the U.S. Government Accountability Office, have shown that insurgent attacks in Iraq have been lower since the U.S. implemented its troop increase, or what is commonly known as the ‘Surge’. The attacks have dropped from 180 a day in June 2007 to 60 a day in January 2008. However, Walker also reports that the decrease in attacks has reached a plateau, showing stubbornly constant attacks figures since November 2007. In the wake of considerations within congress and the White House to draw down American troops in Iraq back to pre-surge levels, Walker has warned that the gains that have been made are not irreversible and that there is still a long way to go before
april 2008
consolidated stability and security has been reach. “While security has improved in Iraq, a permissive security environment has yet to be achieved,” Walker said. Authors of the surge strategy have warned that troop withdrawals would be counterproductive, given the fact that increased security is based on the ability of the American military to hold and rebuild captured insurgent strongholds with enough troops. The U.S. has also faced difficulties in execution and transparency in its mission in Iraq, as recent GAO findings have shown that thousands of weapons and equipment that were intended for the effort in Iraq have gone missing. Photos by (L to R): Meyshanworld (Flickr), Alexander Lim, samlustgarten (Flickr)
Joshua Xiong is a secondyear University College student specializing in International Relations, with a minor in Economics. the toronto globalist
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the lighter side
market capitalism. Perhaps the economist of doing it the conventional way, Hajji said Networking for Altruism would like nothing more than to pass on he wanted to literally “pop” the question. Facebook, the social networking site both his memory through the profit of others. The original idea he came up with was to loved and hated by many, is now moving put the ring inside a silver helium balloon, into the realm of civil society. New York Bear Steals Honey which he would pop after he proposed. non-profit Takes All Types is aiming to use The Trumpet of the Swan, an E.B. White But right after Hajji had left the ring Facebook to identify blood types among its children’s novel detailing the adventures of shop the balloon in his hand blew away. users. By creating a network of blood donors a mute Swan whose father steals a trumpet Hajji chased the balloon for two hours in his who openly state their blood types, Takes car, driving frantically All Types hopes to across London before coordinate donations giving up. Adding more efficiently by insult to injury, his targeting demand girlfriend is apparently geographically. Users not impressed. who have opted into the system will be sent Bubble vs Fizz? emergency e-mail There has been or text alerts when a long understood their blood type is correlation between in high demand, or economic booms, when the area they characterized by live in is under duress tolerable oil prices, and for blood donations. the sale of champagne. The organization’s It is speculated that managers have because champagne is observed a keen a drink for celebrating interest from local the good times, sales New York blood banks usually grow hot who want to capitalize when the economy on this new resource they’ve provided. Alexandra Tkatcheva is doing well, and perform coldly when oil prices are too high. Invisible Hand Real in order to give his son a ‘voice’, is recalled This is certainly the case in the “staglation” Estate in a recent Macedonian court action. A years of the 1970s, or the internet bubble Adam Smith, the late father of modern bear was convicted of theft and damage for bust around 2000, when global Champagne free-market and classical economics, would stealing honey from a beekeeper, who tried sales went down significantly. But a recent surely be happy that his last possessions to ward off the attacks on his beehives with Economist statistical analysis shows both are now being distributed to the public Serbian Ceca folk music and flashing lights. high record Champagne sales and high through free market means. Edinburgh The beekeeper says he used a generator record oil prices, indicating perhaps a break City Council has recently put the house to keep the bear distracted, but once the from the old relationship. This is remarkable where Smith resided for the last 12 years machine broke down the attacks resumed. given the fairly poor economic performance of his life on the market for sale to all Because the bear has no owner, it was in recent months, especially after the buyers. The house is priced at around defended by the state. The case, which subprime mortgage crisis and potential 700,000 pounds, or 1.4 million dollars. took a year decide, was ruled in favor of the recession brewing in the United States. It is interesting that the city hasn’t made owner. Now the state must pay the beekeeper much fanfare over the new development, 140,000 denars, or $3,500 U.S. One wonders, despite Smith’s fame in England. His though, why after the case authorities grave, which was only recently cleaned, have no knowledge of the whereabouts had been neglected for a long time and of the bear. Other beekeepers beware. was placed in a very obscure location. The Economists speculates that this may Joshua Xiong is a secondRing Lost in Balloon be consistent though, since Smith “has year University College London bloke Lefkos Hajji, 28, may just long been appropriated by right-wingers student specializing in have the worst luck at the moment. Hajji and anathema in left-leaning Scotland.” had bought a 6,000 pound diamond ring to Of course, it would make sense to Smith International Relations, with propose to his girlfriend, Leanne. But instead that his commemoration is through free a minor in Economics.
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the toronto globalist
april 2008
Thank you to The University of Toronto Student Union The New College Student Council Professor Donald Ainslie Professor Derek Allen for their support.
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