October 11, 2011

October 11, 2011 | VOL. XXVIII ISS. XI

A buffalo is an animal SINCE 1918

INSIDE THE

ARAB SPRING Last March, the Saudi military helped crush the Bahrain uprising. A UBC grad witnessed it all.

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RESURGENT

THE UBYSSEY BIRDS

INTERNET

Men’s team on the rise after missing playoffs the last two years.

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KILLED THE VIDEO STORE

BOOKSTORE

REBRANDS AND EXPANDS

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HOSTEL

BLUES

UBC’s commuter student hostel isn’t as inviting as you’d think

Videomatica closes its doors; will UBC host its collection?

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What’s on 11 TUE

This week, may we suggest...

Our Campus

One on one with the people who make UBC

UNA>>

UNA General Meeting: 5pm @ the Old Barn Community Centre

For all of you policyphiles interested in hearing the goings-on with our non-student neighbours in the UNA, come check out their general meeting. Some food will be provided, but it’s not as good as what’s provided at AMS Council meetings.

12 WED

FARM >>

13 THU

BALLET >>

UBC Farm Market: 11:30am @ UBC Bookstore Pick up some delicious organic produce, herbs and flowers outside the UBC Bookstore. Or UBC Central. Whatever it’s called now.

KAI JACOBSON/ THE UBYSSEY

Thomas Byers and Erica Frank were recently elected to the University Neighbourhood Association’s board of directors.

14 FRI

UBC Tennis Centre grand opening: 2pm Check out the grand opening of the UBC Tennis Centre.

“Festivities” are promised, as well as the possibility of trying out new equipment.

15 SAT

Frank & Beyer elected to UNA

TENNIS >>

Thomas Peters Contributor

Love Lies Bleeding Ballet: 8pm @ Queen Elizabeth Theatre It’s a ballet featuring the music of Sir Elton John. Like The Lion King, without the lions and the whole “African safari” thing.

PROTEST >> Occupy Vancouver: 10am @ Vancouver Art Gallery Feel like protesting? Don’t know what you want to protest? Well, you’re in the right place! Taking a page from Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Vancouver will be focused on anything and nothing.

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Got an event you’d like to see on this page? Send your event and your best pitch to printeditor@ubyssey.ca.

THE UBYSSEY

Two weeks ago, the University Neighbourhoods Association (UNA) held its election for their board of directors. The UNA is an organization that governs the residential neighborhood of UBC Vancouver, much like a city council would for a small town. As UBC does not have a municipal government, the UNA is the predominant lobbying body for residents on campus. Landscaping, parking, noise violations and pet issues are among the more common issues the board generally deals with; however, they also deal with issues of community development, utilities and student collaboration.

Thomas Beyer Among the newly elected directors is Thomas Beyer. “I ran because I heard a lot of people felt that they were not being represented properly,” he said. Beyer’s goals seem to reach far beyond

October 11, 2011, Volume XXXIII, Issue XI

EDITORIAL

Coordinating Editor Justin McElroy

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LEGAL

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Sudoku by Krazydad

his job description as a director.

Improvement in rapid transit to UBC is among his top goals during his term. “I would love to work with the students...to really accelerate the voice and the demand for...some sort of train system,” said Beyer.

Another main goal while serving the UNA is to get the residents’ voice formally recognized.

“Students might say, ‘Hey, I don’t want you to build condos on the bus loop,’ but [UBC] might decide [to do it] anyways. Students certainly have a voice but they don’t have to listen to the voice,” he said.

But Beyer believes that residents are receiving similar treatment.

“I want more formal recognition that those voices, especially of residents who paid good money for their condos, get recognized.”

Erica Frank UBC faculty member Erica Frank will be returning to serve on the UNA board this year. Frank has been on the board of directors for

the past four years and has been elected for her third two-year term.

Erica first moved to UBC from Atlanta six years ago, accepting a position as a Tier I Canada Research Chair in the School of Preventative Medicine and Population Health.

The decision to be a part of the UNA was not a difficult one for Frank. “I love being immersed in the community,” said Frank.

She said she has a significant focus in sustainability and has served as the sustainability chair for the UNA. Over the next two years—her last eligible term—she plans to support the UBC “living lab” initiative for experimentation with community-building. While she said she is thrilled to be in a place that supports these principles, she admits she has “been chastised by people for frankness” on issues of sustainability.

“I would like to be remembered as a co-creator of a bright, green campus,” said Frank. U

News

10.11.2011 |

3

Editors: Kalyeena Makortoff & Micki Cowan

GRAD STUDENTS >>

Graduate Student Society re-evaluating membership with AMS Tanner Bokor Contributor

The Graduate Student Society (GSS) of UBC is undergoing a strategic review of their membership with the AMS. According to GSS President Andrew Patterson, the AMS, as a predominantly undergraduate body, is not representing and adequately addressing the needs of graduate students. “Graduate students are by far the minority voice, which opens

serious questions about how well they are represented through these forums,” said Patterson.

The issue of financial and positional review has arisen roughly every three years since 2000.

“Do grad students have unique issues? Yes. Can the AMS do better at working with the GSS? Yes...Do I believe they should be an autonomous figure? No,” said AMS President Jeremy McElroy.

McElroy said that while the GSS has seven seats open for graduate

representation on AMS Council, only six positions are filled.

Proportionally, graduate students make up one of the largest voting bodies of the AMS. “The GSS could swing any vote they want with seven seats, so their argument is slightly self-defeating,” McElroy said.

Graduate students are also able to run for executive positions and can join any AMS committee. Former AMS President Bijan Ahmadian was himself a graduate student.

When asked about the implications of a GSS pull-out, McElroy stated, “I personally believe it would be detrimental to both organizations to pull out.” Patterson remains “very confident” that the GSS will choose to stay with the AMS. An issue that spurred the GSS membership re-evaluation was the AMS’s unwillingness to become a full member of the Canadian Association of Student Associations (CASA), a national organization of student unions that lobbies the federal government

on post-secondary issues. The AMS is currently an associate member of the organization.

While Patterson said that CASA is the best avenue to express GSS concerns on a federal lobbying level, AMS Council has rejected full membership.

“Irrespective of what happens, together we represent the voice and needs of students on campus...even more so if we are able to work out a better division of labour than we have now,” said Patterson. U

BOOKSTORE >>

COOKING>>

Micki Cowan

UBC chefs win gold medal at culinary competition

UBC Bookstore faces financial woes News Editor

After a seven per cent loss in sales since last year, the UBC Bookstore is saying it’s no longer good enough to sell just books.

“The Bookstore is under tremendous pressure because the book market is experiencing a double digit decline across North America,” said Pierre Ouilliet, UBC VP Finance.

“The UBC Bookstore is doing better than most...partly because we are focusing on affordability by offering cheaper used books and rental options, and partly because we are selling more computers, clothing and gifts.”

Debbie Harvie, the Bookstore’s managing director, said there are plans to integrate a convenience store and an outdoor coffee shop patio to increase revenues.

Already, the university has included retail from Bed, Bath & Beyond and Tom’s Shoes, and launched a book sales website that generated a million dollars in revenue in September.

The university understands the competition. At the September 20 Board of Governors (BoG) committee meeting, President Stephen Toope said, “It’s about how to attract as many people as possible to spend money at the Bookstore rather than Amazon or Chapters.”

However, Harvie said that the Bookstore doesn’t lose money until they have to pay a dividend to the university—a requirement of all UBC ancillaries. Last year, they paid $800,000, according to Harvie.

Tirtha Dhar, an assistant professor of marketing at the Sauder School of Business, said that the Bookstore will need to adapt if it

MARC ANDRE GESSAROLI/THE UBYSSEY

Scott MacDonald Contributor

The UBC Bookstore has brought in an array of products to keep itself afloat.

wants to stay afloat and agreed with Harvie’s expansion initiatives.

“The landscape is changing for college bookstores and they need to change so that they can compete in the market.

“The idea that they don’t want to just sell books is a good idea. In another five or ten years there won’t be books in the classroom.”

Bring in the machines Placing U-Pass dispensing machines in the Bookstore is another opportunity to increase sales.

Students visit the Bookstore once a month to pick up their U-Pass, rather than just once or twice per year to pick up course materials.

The new U-Pass machines are in the Bookstore exclusively and Harvie said there just weren’t other viable options elsewhere at the time.

At the September BoG committee meeting, Harvie said that the dispensing machines did fit plans to increase customer frequency.

“Secretly, as a retailer, I was delighted. We will be tracking sales because if we can add even one chocolate bar to those coming through, it’ll be good.”

UBC Central: “more than just a bookstore” Retail expansion plans have hit some roadblocks. Earlier this summer, the Bookstore faced a

JESSICA LI/THE UBYSSEY

backlash against plans to rename the store “UBC Central.”

Harvie said the name change was a strategic move to try and position themselves as a place that offers many services and products aside from books alone. But UBC professor Kim Snowden started a petition against the name change in July.

“It’s important to have something that’s recognizable as a symbol, as the libraries are... for intellectual conversation and community.”

But Harvie defended the name change proposal, saying it’s her job to make sure the Bookstore continues to thrive and support the university. U

News briefs Times Higher Education university rankings lifts UBC to 22nd UBC’s ranking jumped to 22nd place from 30th along with several other Canadian universities on the Times Higher Education World University rankings.

The rankings account for disciplines ranging from arts and humanities to sciences, as well as indicators such as research, teaching and international education. Other Canadian universities that have moved closer to the top include U of T and McGill, while some, including SFU, slipped down the list.

UBC was ranked number one in North America for international education.

UBC prof develops natural gas diesel engine

UBC sponsors Billion Dollar Green Challenge

UBC professor Phil Hill was awarded the 2011 Encana Principal Award for his discovery of high-pressure direct injection technology, which allows diesel engines to cut smog-forming emissions by 27 per cent.

The award, valued at $100,000, was given by the Ernest C. Manning Awards Foundation. Hill’s technology was first conceived in the 1980s at UBC’s department of mechanical engineering.

“As a university particularly concerned with sustainability and environmental issues, UBC is proud of this recognition of Professor Hill’s work,” said UBC President Stephen Toope in response to the award.

UBC, alongside 33 other institutions such as Harvard and Stanford, has committed $65 million towards the Billion Dollar Green Challenge, an initiative that hopes to create $1 billion in total investments towards energy efficiency upgrades.

The Billion Dollar Green Challenge launches publicly on October 11 at the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education conference in Pittsburgh.

With more than 2500 participants, the conference is the largest gathering to date on higher education sustainability.

International Council for Science elects first Canadian president George McBean is the first Canadian elected to be president of the International Council for Science.

McBean received his PhD in physics from UBC and is currently a geography and political science professor at the University of Western Ontario. McBean has recieved both the Order of Ontario and Order of Canada.

Founded in 1931, the International Council for Science is a non-governmental group dedicated to international cooperation to advance science. McBean will replace current president Yuan Tseh Lee in October 2014. U

Every year, a competition is held by the Canadian College and University Food Service Association (CCUFSA) for chefs working at post-secondary schools around the country.

This year, the CCUFSA Culinary Competition was held in St John’s, Newfoundland and, once again, Team UBC won the gold medal for their meal.

“We have entered this competition four times and every time we’ve walked away with the gold,” said executive chef Piyush Sahay, who is head of the UBC Food Services Team and has been working at UBC for over eight years. The team is comprised of Sahay, Sage Bistro chef Andy Chan, pastry chef Copin Sastrawidjaya and Kevin Dueck as catering support.

Four teams enter the CCUFSA Culinary Competition, where they create a theme-based appetizer, main dish and dessert to serve to the 150-200 delegates at the conference.

“The theme was kind of like ‘Canada Day on the Prairies,’” said Sahay. Their winning dishes included pickerel for the appetizer, buffalo for the main and chocolate with mixed fruit for dessert.

Sahay said the team had to be aware of a number of criteria. “Is it pretty enough, is it functional, is it something that can be easily eaten?

Those kind of things are what they take into observation. After that the biggest thing is taste,” said Sahay.

Additionally, judges look at how unique and interesting the dishes are, and how well they bring together unusual flavours.

When Sahay and his team aren’t winning competitions, you can find them overseeing meals made at both the Vanier and Totem cafeterias. U

4 | News | 10.11.2011 ANIMAL RESEARCH >>

STOP UBC Animal Research expands across Canada

Arshy Mann Managing Editor, Web

A UBC activist group is taking their campaign to end animal experimentation national.

STOP UBC Animal Research (STOP), an animal rights group that started at the University of British Columbia’s Vancouver campus, has begun working with other groups with similar goals at institutions across Canada.

“We started out concerned about the animals at UBC, and the more we learned about this issue, the more...[we felt] there was an urgent need to reform the way that animal research is done in Canada,” said STOP spokesperson Brian Vincent.

In the long term, STOP hopes for an end to animal testing across Canada; in the short term, they advocate for more transparency in the animal testing that is currently practiced.

For the past year, STOP has brought attention to animal experimentation at UBC, receiving coverage from both local and national media, as well as public responses from UBC President Stephen Toope. Their campaigns resulted in UBC sparing the lives of seven endangered sea turtles and four rhesus monkeys, all of which were slated for death.

Earlier this year, STOP joined dozens of other organizations to create the Canadian Coalition Against Animal Research and Experimentation, which included a number of nascent groups targeting institutions such as the University

of Toronto, Dalhousie University, the University of Alberta, York University and the University of Victoria.

“We realized that there were little pockets of concerned citizens across Canada who were concerned about animal research going on in their communities, but they felt helpless,” said Vincent. “We’re talking about sometimes two or three people.”

The group’s first action was to send a letter to the Canadian Council of Animal Care (CCAC), an organization which oversees animal research in Canada. The letter asked the CCAC to phase out animal testing, but in the meantime, to institute American-style reforms to make animal experimentation more transparent in Canada.

However, the CCAC responded by arguing that Canada’s animal testing laws are stringent and that animal testing in research has been declining since 1975, despite a three-fold federal funding increase for research in that same time period.

“This provides long-term evidence for the effectiveness of the CCAC system of oversight, which has operated in the majority of the Canadian scientific community during the same time period, for the past three decades,” wrote Clément Gauthier, the executive director of CCAC.

STOP moves east Vincent has already begun working with some of the groups at other universities.

“We will be providing training

MICHAEL THIBAULT/THE UBYSSEY

STOP UBC’s activism has inspired a number of similar groups to spring up across Canada.

for people across the country from STOP UBC Animal Research, so I’ll be traveling to places [and] probably the first place is Toronto. I’ve already done two Skype training sessions with them, because they’re the most active and up and running.”

Paul York, the coordinator of STOP U of T Animal Research, said that despite the fact that his group has been around for three years, they changed their name when they saw how successful Vincent’s group was. They used to be called Stop Animal Experimentation at the University of Toronto.

“Because of the work of Brian and others there, we decided to use the

same name and even the same logo,” he said.

York, however, said that his group has a different style of activism than the UBC branch.

“The mood is a little bit different in Toronto than it is in Vancouver. I don’t know if people are a little more conservative here or something, [but] it’s very hard to organize demonstrations,” he said.

“So we’re pursuing the educational route. That’s not to say we’re against the colourful stuff. I think that what Brian is doing is great and I think that it’s fantastic. But honestly at this point our group doesn’t have the momentum to do that.”

York went on to say that his group has spent a good portion of the year setting up informational tables on campus outside of research facilities, as well as organizing lectures on the moral and scientific arguments against animal research.

Despite their smaller size, STOP U of T has had more luck in one area than its UBC counterpart has.

York said that his group successfully filed a Freedom of Information request with the university regarding the testing that’s done at U of T, for which they actually received information, something UBC has never given up.

“Normally they black out things like that, but we’re very lucky that we got this report, and it indicates what the species are and how they’re used,” he said.

York said that they found that over 200 experiments were done in the top two levels of invasiveness.

“And this was on pretty much every kind of species. Hummingbird, monkey, newt, rat, mice, you name it.”

According to Vincent, when they filed a similar request at UBC, they got back a 70 page document, 60 pages of which were completely redacted.

Besides the successful request, STOP U of T Animal Research has yet to receive any sort of official response from the university.

“We call it a wall of silence. They won’t engage with us. The only way they’ll ever engage with us is if there’s actually press,” he said.

“They don’t want to talk to us.” U

Culture

10.11.2011 |

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Editor: Ginny Monaco

VIDEOMATICA >>

UBC hopes to acquire now-orphaned video collection

Videomatica closure leaves some 35,000 rare and out of print films without a home Ginny Monaco Culture Editor

For Brian Bosworth, “it’s almost like there’s been a death in the family.”

Bosworth and his business partner Graham Peat own Videomatica, the 3000 square foot film haven at 1855 West 4th Avenue. For 28 years, Videomatica has brought Vancouver the best selection of foreign, classic and lesser-known films, many of which are out of print. Facing a decline in sales and ever-climbing rent prices, the store has been forced to close its doors for good.

Since its opening, Videomatica has been the go-to place for obscure and hard-to-find titles. “Way back in 1983, the films we wanted to see weren’t available in video stores in Vancouver,” said Bosworth.

Once they had the idea for the store, the duo “begged, borrowed and stole money and bought the best 400 movies we could buy.”

Over the years, those 400 original films turned into a 35,000 plus piece collection, catering to a wide range of demographics and tastes.

A few years ago, Bosworth and Peat noted a definite downturn in sales and rentals that persisted and worsened. There is little doubt that the internet has had much to do with that trend. The ease of accessing online downloads has created “the expectation…in the public that everything is available or that everything should be available and it should be near free,” said Bosworth.

“I suspect the whole notion of going out to buy or rent a DVD is probably close to dead already,” mused Martin Kinch, a UBC creative writing instructor who teaches an introductory screenplay course. “Rentals, at a place

ALEKSANDAR/FLICKR

The fate of Videomatica’s iconic Hitchcock sign is another contentious issue.

like Videomatica, probably mean there are films for us to look at, to study, to enjoy that are not likely to be available as video downloads, or legal video downloads,” he said.

Technological advances also endangers the number of films available on a particular medium.

“Less and less attention gets paid to the smaller, more independent film,” said Kinch. “Each time we move from one way of accessing film to another, the actual library decreases.”

Videomatica is hardly the first video store to call it quits in recent

months, and it will hardly be the last. In February, “for lease” signs appeared in the windows of Main Street’s Happy Bats Cinema, accompanied by a note from the owners assuring customers that this was not the end of the store, just a relocation.

Just over a month later, the owners updated the Happy Bats website with the message, “So, we really are closed. And that’s it.” They gave a final thank you to their customers, saying, “We will miss you. Keep supporting independent video stores and businesses as long as you can.

They really are what make a neighbourhood what it is.”

For Bosworth, Videomatica is a relic of a bygone era in Kitsalano.

“It’s becoming more like Robson Street. Clothing stores, diaper shops and yoga shops.

“We’re actually thinking of opening up a shop called Yogamatica,” he joked.

With commercial rents along West 4th reaching as much as $50 per square foot, it’s increasingly difficult for independent businesses to stay profitable. “Within three blocks of our store there’s tons of rental vacancies for commercial space,” said Bosworth. The 30 per cent rent increase Videomatica was facing was “not feasible” for the owners, said Bosworth, but “there were many straws on this camel’s back.”

Though they expected the store to be closed by the end of summer, the Videomatica owners have yet to set an official date. “It’s sooner rather than later,” said Bosworth.

The fate of the collection is their biggest concern right now. “It’s our little baby that we built… Everyone wants to keep it together as a collection, but nobody has the money.”

Bosworth and Peat are currently in negotiations with post-secondary institutions—UBC included—to facilitate a purchase of the collection.

“The exciting thing is that the institutions we’re talking to, they don’t want to just aquire it and stick it away,” said Bosworth. “They’re interested in…preserving those elements that can’t be replicated. They want to preserve it and save it for future generations.”

UBC has yet to release an official statement regarding this issue, but Jerry Wasserman, head of the department of theatre and film, said in an email, “The Videomatica negotiations are at a delicate point

right now. We’re hoping to be able to make a…public statement sometime next week.”

For Kinch, having the Videomatica collection available to UBC students would be a great resource. “To go back and have the knowledge of where that comes from is really, really helpful in terms of your ability to write a film,” he said.

“Any time you get your hands on a film you haven’t seen before, it’s a plus. You may well see something that inspires you. You may well see something you think is absolute crap, but that’s not bad either.”

To help facilitate the purchase process, Videomatica has launched a donation campaign whereby people can select and save individual titles from the collection. The response to the campaign has been overwhelmingly positive. “It gives people a way to help, which is what they want to do,” said Bosworth. “It’s like when there is a death in the family, somebody brings a casserole over. It makes them feel better.”

The current leader in number of titles saved is UBC astronomy professor Jaymie Matthews. The 20 films he has chosen to save reflect his love of science fiction, a genre that fed his burgeoning love of astronomy and astrophysics growing up. “When 2001: A Space Odyssey came out, I was 10 years old and I just was totally swept up with that… films like that had a big inspirational role for me,” he said.

The Videomatica website has a list of current donors, each of whom list a reason for their choice to save a particular title. For Matthews, the donation is a “thank you” to the store and its staff. He added, “We are, in some sense, helping to preserve that element of Vancouver’s passion for film.” U

VIFF Reviews Target Scott MacDonald Staff Writer

A science fiction film about a group of rich, eccentric people seeking permanent youth, Target had real promise. Set in the near future, the film follows the group’s journey to the “target”—an enormous hole with concentrated cosmic radiation that is rumoured to cause eternal youth—and the curious events that take place after they reach it.

The plot has real promise, but the movie itself falls far short of the mark. It is a gruellingly long movie—over two and a half hours— and after the first 45 minutes, it degrades into a series of graphic sexual encounters between various members of the group.

This is presumably to convey the passion that one experiences when given eternal youth, but it takes away from what was an initially interesting plot and leaves the viewer hoping for the movie to end.

Towards the end of the film, the plot becomes so convoluted and nonsensical that it is impossible to follow. What could have been a phenomenal film should have been put in the hands of a better director and a better crew of writers.

However, the film isn’t entirely terrible. It is partially redeemed by the stunning futuristic landscapes

and the portrayal of technology in this time.

Flying Fish Sebastian Yoh Chern Contributor

The scenic landscapes of Sri Lanka provide a breathtaking backdrop to a strenuous practice in patience.

Flying Fish is director Sanjeewa Pushpakumara’s first feature film, and it shows. Pushpakumara uses dialogue sparingly, relying on images to tell the story, which consists of three individual plots that share themes of sexual and socio-political tension.

Dialogue is minimal and used out of necessity, and the plot suffers because of it. The three plotlines run parallel, intersecting at various points. Scenes jump between telling the stories of a family dealing with extortion, an unplanned teenage pregnancy and a newly widowed, sexually deprived mother and her son.

It’s difficult to determine which story is being told and to distinguish which character belongs to which plot line. Without a narrative pull, the characters and their stories are often lost amongst each other and the film is hard to follow.

Characters fornicate amongst ruins and vibrant foliage, and the

Despite problems with the script, Flying Fish is a beautiful thing to look at.

grime of the city contrasts the dynamic colours of Sri Lankan life.

However, the length and banality of some scenes grows tiresome as the film progresses.

Ultimately, Pushpakumara shows promise as a writer-director—but Flying Fish leaves the audience with the sense that there is a much greater story to be told. The racial tension between the Tamil and Sinhalese is intriguing but barely grazed, and many of the characters feel under-developed.

Fortunately, what Flying Fish lacks in plot, it makes up for in

COURTESY OF VIFF

beautiful cinematography—and it has plenty of that.

Bone Wind Fire Rhys Edwards Contributor

Bone Wind Fire is a short Canadian documentary about three famous female Modernist painters: Georgia O’Keefe, Frida Kahlo and Emily Carr.

This is actually the clearest thing that can be said about the film, as it is otherwise difficult to ascertain

what audiences are supposed to take from it. The pastiche of generic landscapes, strewn with elementary re-enactments and zoom-ins on some of the artists’ more famous works, imply a sentimental examination of the qualities that supposedly unite these brilliant artists.

They certainly are similar in some respects; each was a strong, independent woman who was criticized for her modernity before eventually achieving eminent artistic importance.

However, the short narrative oversteps itself by bracketing the women together. Though Carr and Keefe did share a profound interest in nature, they had wildly different methodologies; meanwhile, Kahlo had little affiliation with naturalism altogether. Yet the film avoids discussing the qualities that so profoundly differentiated these women in the first place.

More problematically, by linking the artists in such a simplistic way, the film inadvertently undermines their real significance. By casting them under the heading “strong woman artist,” the audience is left only with an abstract, essentialistic account of their lives.

This characterization unfortunately reinforces an understanding of the artists based on their sex, rather than the ramifications of their work. U

6 | Features | 10.11.2011

A bloody spring in Bahrain

MAHMOOD AL-YOUSIF/ FLICKR

Last March, the government of a key US ally brutally put down a pro-democratic revolt. Fatima Al-Samak, a recent UBC grad, was stationed there as a reporter.

By Fatima Al-Samak Contributor

W

hen I walked across the stage in the Chan Centre to receive my degree in May of 2010, I never could have imagined that I would soon be standing in the middle of the Pearl Roundabout in Bahrain, in front of a crowd of revolutionaries, talking to a camera which broadcasted my words to millions of viewers around the world.

But in a strange series of events that now feel more like a dream, I found myself working as a news correspondent from Manama in the peak of the Arab Spring and in one of its most controversial revolutions.

On February 14, Bahrainis went to the streets demanding pro-democratic political and social reforms. When the regime responded with gunfire and killed several citizens, the demands escalated and the demonstrators called for regime change. A month later, troops from Saudi Arabia entered the country to assist Bahrain in crushing the uprising.

The protest came on the heels of uprisings in Tunisa and Egypt that had successfully overthrown dictators who had been in power for decades. The Bahraini revolutionaries explicitly invoked these protests as their inspiration.

In Egypt, Tahrir Square was the focal point of the protests. In Bahrain, protesters rallied around the Pearl Roundabout, a traffic circle with a huge monument in the centre. The monument had six curved sails reaching up to the sky and hoisting a pearl in the middle. In March the monument was demolished by the government, the sails left lying shattered on the ground.

And I was there to witness it all.

When I graduated, I thought I was going to be heading for a job in a cubicle somewhere, like a character from The Office. Well, it was in an office where my journey to Bahrain started, so I wasn’t too far off.

“Don’t kill me while I’m sleeping…”

In January 2011, I was visiting my family and friends in Kuwait when I was given the opportunity to meet Hussain Jamal, a prominent Kuwaiti journalist, who agreed to train me and possibly even hire me as a reporter. It was a great opportunity.

A month later, I was sitting in his office when a colleague sat down to have tea. As I was looking at the different pictures on his desk, Jamal turned to me and said, “Would you like to go?”

“To where?” I asked, taken by surprise.

“To Bahrain. They’re looking for a correspondent.” He was referring to the Al-Iraqia Satellite Channel, a news network from Iraq.

I couldn’t hide my excitement, but I asked

anyway: “Am I ready?”

His answer wasn’t very reassuring, but it was decisive: “Sure, why not?” And with these words, I was on a plane the next day going to Bahrain.

When I arrived on February 28, there were few journalists who were allowed into the country. The government was not giving visas to freelancers and only a carefully selected number of networks were given permission to report from Bahrain. Al-Iraqia wasn’t one of those networks, so I entered the country on the basis of visiting my aunt.

The Pearl Roundabout was a fascination to me even before I landed in Bahrain. It was built in 1982. The six sails were meant to represent the countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. The pearl symbolized the unity between the countries, and commemorated Bahrain’s long history of pearl fishing.

people were killed that night.

One of those four, Ali Al-Moemin, was an accomplished engineering student in the University of Bahrain. I interviewed his father, and he told me that Ali’s last Facebook status was, “My life is a sacrifice to my country.”

He left to help the injured protesters in the Roundabout, and never returned home.

I later saw a picture of a man who slept in the Roundabout after the protesters regained control over it. He slept while holding up a sign that said, “Don’t kill me while I’m sleeping, please wake me up first.” Bahraini humour is one thing I loved about Bahrainis. Even during the most difficult situations, they still found time for humour and embraced life whether it was bitter or sweet.

On February 19, Bahrainis came back to the Roundabout, where tanks were positioned.

Seeing the persistence of the people, the king ordered the Bahraini army, filled with mercenaries from Sunni countries all over the Middle East, to retreat and allow the protesters to regain control of the Roundabout.

An unjust kingdom

FATIMA AL-SAMAK/THE UBYSSEY

The writer stands in front of the Pearl Roundabout, the focal point of the Febuary uprising in Bahrain.

The Roundabout was the meeting place of the protesters. They had set up a large stage and filled the area with hundreds of tents in which people camped out until their demands were met. I walked alongside doctors, lawyers, teachers, human rights activists, religious clerks, famous athletes, students, politicians, artists, journalists and just ordinary Bahraini people.

When the revolution started on February 14, Bahrainis from all over the country came out to the Roundabout to make a statement about the regime’s failure to protect and represent its citizens. The world witnessed the regime’s brutality on February 17, when tanks and soldiers attacked the Roundabout at 3am without giving any warning or allowing the protesters to leave the area. Many were injured, and four

For over 200 years, Bahrain has been a Shia majority country governed by a Sunni minority. About 70 per cent of Bahrain’s population of 525,000 is Shia, but it is run by the Al-Khalifas, a Sunni monarchy.

Ten years ago, a “National Action Charter” was proposed by the Emir of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa. The referendum promised various democratic reforms if Bahrainis accepted him as a king. At the time, the offer seemed too good to refuse, and Bahrainis passed the referendum with 98.4 per cent in favour. The prince became a king, a parliament was put in place and Bahrainis celebrated.

The date was February 14, 2001, which is why protesters picked that date a decade later.

Before long, Bahrainis became aware of the tricks the cunning new king was trying to pull. He started encouraging Sunni immigration to Bahrain and thousands flooded into the country from countries such as Jordan, India, Bengal, Syria and Pakistan. By some estimates, 60,000 Sunnis have been offered citizenship in the past decade. The king was trying to skew the demographics of Bahrain so that Shias no longer constituted a majority.

Shias with university degrees now take work as security guards or truck drivers. I know a man who holds a master’s degree and is working at a gas station. This isn’t a general economic problem that affects all Bahrainis equally; the problem is that less-qualified Sunni foreigners took their jobs.

Yet this revolution was not a sectarian one;

Sunnis were protesting as well. I still remember the video of a young Bahraini who walked up to a tank on February 17 and yelled, “My mother is Sunni and my father is Shia. I want freedom.”

Another problem was Bahrain’s limited decmoracy. Elected members of the lower house only hold restricted powers. The upper house, which is appointed by the royal family, has absolute power over the lower house. In addition, the king appoints all ministers and his brother, Shaikh Khalifa, has been the prime minister of Bahrain since 1971—even longer than Ghaddafi was in power in Libya.

Bahrainis also wanted the release of all political prisoners who were falsely accused of violent crimes they did not commit. These prisoners numbered in the hundreds even before the revolution began, and have since skyrocketed.

The violence escalates When the revolution began, it seemed that it might succeed without bloodshed. But slowly the Bahraini regime escalated its response to the protesters.

First, they attacked protesters with tear gas.

Then they used rubber bullets. When both failed, they resorted to using their police cars to run over protesters and even opened gunfire. Yet Bahraini protesters remained peaceful and didn’t abandon the revolution.

On March 11, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates arrived to meet with the king. Bahrain is home to the US navy’s fifth fleet, and is also home to thousands of British expatriates.

Some people in our office were hopeful.

They thought that the US supported democracy for Bahrain and was now asking the royal family to step down. Others were less optimistic.

At one point we covered a demonstration outside the US embassy in Manama. A group of representatives came out to meet the demonstrations. I approached one of them and asked her what the US’s policy towards Bahrain was. “The US is a close ally to the Kingdom of Bahrain and its royal family and we would like to cherish this friendship. And we also support the will of the people and respect their right to self-determination and their freedom of expression.”

When I pointed out that this seemed like a contradiction since the people are calling for the royal family to step down and the royal family responded by opening fire on the protesters, she repeated the above sentence—as if I didn’t hear it the first time.

The day after the visit by Secretary Gates, the state television network announced that

10.11.2011 | Features | 7

MAHMOOD AL-YOUSIF/ FLICKR

the Saudi army has crossed the border to crack down on the protesters and put an end to the revolution. The outcome was catastrophic.

AL JAZEERA/ FLICKR

Women protesters demand the release of political dissidents from Bahraini prisons.

A revolution crushed My last report was recorded on what Bahrainis call the “Kobri,” an overpass that looks down on the Pearl Roundabout.

As the cameraman was taking shots of the revolutionary blockades, a loud male voice announced through the microphone from the stage set up in the Pearl Roundabout: “Attention all revolutionaries: the Saudi army has crossed the border and may arrive to Pearl Roundabout within a few hours. We request the ladies and children to leave the area. I repeat, ladies and children, leave the area.”

I ignored the announcement and continued interviewing people on the overpass. But the men were reluctant. They looked at me and then at the cameraman, who hadn’t heard the announcement.

After a few minutes, they came up and kindly requested that I leave because it was

unsafe. I told them I was fine, but they insisted. When they realized that I was determined to stay, they walked towards the cameraman and ordered him to take me back to the office.

That’s when I relented. I looked at the pearl in the middle of the Roundabout one last time, and left.

I woke up on March 13 to the sounds of prayers coming from the local mosque. It was about 7am. I went to the window to listen carefully to the prayer. It was the prayer of “Tawasul,” which is recited by Muslims at the most desperate moments.

My heart sank. I immediately went to my laptop, opened it and waited for it to load.

Hands shaking, I clicked onto the revolution’s main Facebook page and read the most recent update: “Pearl Roundabout is attacked.”

After that, each update was worse than the one before it. Tents were burned. Men and women were shot at, and many were arrested.

Military helicopters were firing at protesters from above.

As if that wasn’t enough, the Saudi army had entered the village of Sitra and attacked civilians. Tanks ran over people, soldiers beat women and children and riot police entered homes.

And then the disturbing image of Ahmad Al-Farhan’s body came out. He was an activist from Sitra who was shot in the head by police.

That was when I finally broke down. I couldn’t bear to look at the screen, but I couldn’t take my eyes off of it either. I felt confused. Is this real? Is this happening here? The video of his head split open and doctors and nurses horrified and screaming answered my questions.

The monument at the Pearl Roundabout was destroyed two days later because it brought “bad memories” to the Bahraini prime minister. In a cruel irony, the monument built for Gulf unity was taken down by Gulf governments united against their citizens.

Leaving Bahrain After a week of waiting out the situation, I received a phone call from the Canadian embassy in Riyadh asking for my information. My

uncle had contacted them from Kuwait and explained my situation. He asked them to help me leave Bahrain.

I wasn’t happy. I asked both my uncle and the embassy representative if it was necessary for me to leave. They both answered the same: “Yes, ma’am.”

Leaving Bahrain, I was slightly numb and extremely unhappy. I had wanted to remain and watch firsthand how the revolution played out. I wanted it to have an ending similar to Tunisia or Egypt.

The night before my flight, I packed my clothes and some souvenirs my aunt forced me to buy for my family. All I wanted to pack were the shirts I bought from the Roundabout. But my aunt’s husband, a Bahraini, was too worried to let us pack anything that had the scent of the revolution. Police were arresting people at checkpoints if they found anything that showed sympathy with the protesters.

But when her husband wasn’t around, my aunt and I packed a large Bahraini flag with the Pearl Roundabout shirts and hid them very well between my clothes. We then hid my flash memory card, which contained many pictures of the Roundabout as well as the reports I had written.

We left the house the next morning to find that Bahrain had become an occupied territory. Saudi tanks had set up checkpoints everywhere and controlled traffic.

At the airport, I bid an emotional farewell to my aunt and entered through the gate. An official stopped me, took my passport and asked me to step aside and come with him. I walked behind him, trying my best to keep my nerves under control.

As I waited outside his office while he checked my passport, I noticed a Bahraini woman with two sons, the elder one about 19 years old. She held her black dress close to her face and kept one hand on her elder son as if afraid that if she let go, he would be sucked into a black hole. When the official came out, he asked her a few questions, then approached and spoke to me in English.

“How long have you been here?”

“About three weeks,” I answered.

AL JAZEERA/ FLICKR

A young girl looks on as protesters approach the Pearl Roundabout.

“Do you work in Kuwait?”

“No, I’m visiting family.”

A short pause, then, “Okay, thank you and enjoy your trip.” I exhaled with relief and boarded the plane. An hour later I was back in Kuwait.

A week later I read an article that was published in the Toronto Star about a Canadian citizen, Naser Al Raas, who had disappeared from the Bahrain airport two days prior to my flight. His Canadian passport was taken and he was tortured in Bahraini prisons for a month.

In June, he was charged in a military court with kidnapping a policeman. He continues to protest his innocence while awaiting trial.

After I left, the situation worsened. Bahraini officials became more brutal in their attacks and arrested people in their homes, workplaces, schools, the University of Bahrain and random checkpoints. Opposition newspapers were shut down. My aunt’s husband was arrested in his workplace, and one of my colleagues was arrested in his father-in-law’s house while my supervisor turned himself in after his wife was taken hostage.

Yet the Bahraini prisons also became a symbol of the success of the Bahraini revolution.

One blogger noted, “Thank God those arrested from our revolution are doctors, lawyers, human rights activists, scholars, teachers, writers and bloggers. It shows our revolution was carried out by educated people.” U

Sports

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Editor: Drake Fenton

T-Bird Standings Football Calgary Sask.

UBC Manitoba Regina Alberta

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Bird Droppings Men’s soccer UBC defeated crosstown rival Trinity Western University 1-0 on Friday night. The lone goal of the night came when midfielder Sean Haley headed in a Tyson Keam free kick at the 13 minute mark. The competition between the top two teams in the Canada West (CW) proved fierce as six total cards were handed out, and UBC head coach Mike Mosher was ejected from the game for disputing a carding.

Women’s soccer UBC had two clean sheets this weekend, defeating the University of Fraser Valley 3-0 on Friday night and defeating the University of Victoria 1-0 Saturday night. UBC striker Janine Frazao continued her scoring tear, notching her eigth goal of the season Saturday. She now leads the CW in scoring.

Women’s basketball The ‘Birds had their first exhibition game of the season, defeating the Mount Royal University Cougars 67-46 on Thursday night. UBC outmuscled and outplayed Mount Royal the entire night. Fourth-year forward Leigh Stansfield led UBC in scoring with a career-high 16 points. The Cougars did little to help their cause by shooting a horrendous 1-18 from beyond the 3 point line.

To read full game recaps and view highlights, visit www. ubyssey.ca/sports.

GEOFF LISTER/THE UBYSSEY

UBC’s Max Grassi flies through the air after taking a shot in Saturday’s 4-3 victory over the University of Calgary. UBC lost 5-4 in a shootout Friday night.

Hockey team proving the critics wrong Snap Shots Alison Mah This year, the UBC Thunderbirds men’s hockey team was voted to finish last in a pre-season coach’s poll.

This is especially disconcerting considering that the Canada West conference, instead of sending its top four teams to the playoffs as it has the past two years, will revert to sending its top six this season. UBC is, in every sense, the odd man out.

“The players know [about the poll]. It’s all over the Internet,” said UBC head coach Milan Dragicevic.

“That’s not a big deal for us, it just gives us motivation. Because we are young, we have to go out and prove our worth and earn respect from the other teams.”

UBC’s road to respect began this weekend with a season-opening double header against the Calgary Dinos at Doug Mitchell Arena. On Friday, it was the Dinos who found an extra offensive push as they eked out a 5-4 shootout victory over the Thunderbirds and their struggling special teams play.

The next night, however, Calgary was slowed down by the strong goaltending of Jordan White and a re-energized UBC squad. On the back of two power play tallies, the Thunderbirds rode to a 4-3 win and grabbed three out of a possible four points from the Dinos this weekend.

The difference in games was one of structure and consistency; where UBC lacked organization Friday night, they refocused and stuck to their assignments for a full 60 minutes on Saturday.

“We had a little success on Friday, we had more success on Saturday,” said Dragicevic. “It’s easy for the guys to buy in when they see success and results. Each guy has a role and

each guy is told that role. Our guys paid attention to details tonight: getting pucks off the glass, blocking shots and good goaltending.”

This year, it’s clear that UBC won’t be able to rely solely on the offence of Justin McCrae (10-13-23) and Max Grassi (8-12-20)­­—their top two point earners last season and the only two UBC players to finish in the top 20 for scoring—if they want to improve on the previous season’s standing. UBC finished their 2010-11 campaign sixth in goals scored (76) and fifth in goals against (101) for a differential of -25, second to last in the conference.

But they showed signs of life in the third period Friday night. A simplified dump-and-chase game plan galvanized the UBC offence for

a few chances down the wing and scoring a beautiful goal while plummeting backwards to the ice.

Saturday’s game showed a marked improvement in terms of intelligent execution and consistency. Carrying over from Friday’s third period, UBC mimicked their chip-and-chase efforts to create chances and score goals, including a sharp wrist shot in the slot by Jordan Inglis and a nifty curl and drag move by Scott Wasden to put the Thunderbirds up 2-1 and 3-1, respectively. Other goals came from Cole Wilson, who went high glove on Jacob DeSerres to put UBC up ahead 1-0, and McCrae, who potted the fourth ‘Birds goal in a scramble in front.

If it’s too early to judge just how the season will unravel offensively,

KAI JACOBSON/ THE UBYSSEY

UBC scored four goals each game this weekend. Last season they averaged 2.8 goals per game.

three goals in under three minutes, even if they failed to score shortly after on a five on three power play that would have put the game out of reach. New recruit Michael Wilgosh was particularly noticeable, creating

UBC has a right to feel confident in net. The first of a two-goalie tandem, Steven Stanford played well for the Thunderbirds Friday night—especially in overtime—despite giving up four goals in the game, two of which

were tipped and one which was sent through heavy traffic. On the other hand, White was dominant on Saturday, stopping 30 out of 33 shots and making a handful of timely saves when his team was getting badly outshot in the first.

It’s expected that White and Stanford will alternate netminding duties throughout the season, which is a change from the year before, considering White played every game for the Thunderbirds and led the conference in minutes logged.

But as evidenced by the weekend, the problems for UBC aren’t expected to be in goal; the larger question mark lies on the other side of the rink. If offence was such a struggle last year, might the pattern hold true for this season’s roster? Eight goals in two games is an encouraging statistic, but will mean little if the Thunderbirds can’t match that offensive pace on a consistent basis.

Yet, already, UBC’s gritty team identity seems more definite and cohesive than last season’s. Perhaps the new recruits are injecting life into an old system—or perhaps that well-tested system has worked just fine, and all it needed was the proper players to buy into it.

Perhaps there are changes on the horizon.

“We wanted to bring in guys that were leaders on their hockey teams,” said Dragicevic. “They’re hungry, they’ve bought in to what we’re doing, and it shows on the ice. They’re watching the older guys practice and how they prepare, and I think it makes a big difference.”

UBC hasn’t made the playoffs since 2008-09. In their case, seven isn’t a lucky number, nor one that predestines their conference seeding; it’s an incentive. If the majority of the other teams expect them to sputter and fail, well, that’s their opinion. The Thunderbirds plan to take that motivation and run with it. U

10.11.2011 | Games | 9

Crossword

(CUP) — Puzzles provided by BestCrosswords.com. Used with permission.

Lookit! A staff advertisement!

COME BY THE UBYSSEY OFFICE

SUB 24, FOLLOW THE SIGNS

U

Across

Down

1— Effluent system 6— Boyfriend 10— “Believe” singer 14— Singer Lopez 15— Tombstone lawman 16— Composer Schifrin 17— Naive 20— Fuzzy buzzer 21— Florence’s _ ___Vecchio 22— Neighborhoods 23— Garden pest 24— Hail, to Caesar 25— Extremely tender 32— Fleet 33— Distribute cards 34— Singer Shannon 35— Type of gun 36— Inexpensive 38— Atlantic mackerel 39— Convert into leather 40— Oz creator 41— Somewhat 42— Comprehensible 46— Obtain, slangily 47— Adjutant 48— Sound of a bagpipe 51— Located 53— Singer Torme 56— Think about 59— Greek temple 60— Pulitzer winner James 61— Paris end 62— Epic narrative poem 63— Roseanne, once 64— Fool

1— Stump 2— Fish—eating eagle 3— Learned 4— Brian of Roxy Music 5— Made little waves 6— Entities 7— 3:00 8— Commedia dell’ 9— News letters 10— Dry red table wine 11— Detest 12— Zeno’s home 13— Fishing gear 18— It may be happy 19— Trivial objection 23— Whirl 24— Quickly, quickly 25— Old Nick 26— Flip over 27— Accumulation of fluids 28— PBS benefactor 29— Model 30— Piece of poetry 31— “The Time Machine” race 32— Queue after Q 36— Dramatic troupe 37— Humble dwelling 38— Raise to third power 40— Edible European flatfish 41— Libyan chief of state since 1969 43— Exit 44— Jaw 45— Mon !

48— Cosecant’s reciprocal 49— Sack starter 50— Langston Hughes poem 51— Nintendo rival 52— Bakery worker 53— Prefix for small 54—Pinza of “South Pacific” 55—For fear that 57—Test area 58­— Cover

Opinion

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Editor: Brian Platt

How the Bookstore’s purpose went astray Editor’s Notebook Justin McElroy UBC Bookstore, 20 years later

VIRGINIE MÉNARD/THE UBYSSEY

The Last Word Parting shots and snap judgments on today’s issues Stop getting distracted by “Vive le GSS libre!”

The Graduate Student Society (GSS) is again threatening to leave the AMS—sorry, to do a “strategic review of their membership.” The spectre of the GSS separating has been raised at least four times in the past ten years. We’re getting a little tired of this game.

Instead of spending so much time deliberating whether or not to leave, the GSS should try doing what members of a diverse legislative body are supposed to do: lobby other AMS councillors behind the scenes and work together as a bloc to try to swing votes in a GSSfavoured way. If the GSS wanted to exert their power more effectively within the AMS, they could do so by getting organized ahead of time.

But we’ve never seen the GSS do this, including during the apparently all-important debate over whether the AMS should take out full membership in the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations. In lieu of actual lobbying, the GSS representatives just told AMS Council that they may need to separate if full membership wasn’t taken out.

We admit that the “do it our way or we’ll leave!” approach is successful in getting extra favours thrown your way, as Quebec has shown at the federal level for the past two decades. But it’s lazy, and it’s not going to gain you any favours among other constituencies. And just like Quebec, the GSS would actually be much less influential by going their own way. Stop adopting the temper tantrum tactics of separatists, and focus on getting yourself politically organized within the AMS.

Victoria chickens out on freedom of information The provincial government recently introduced Bill 3, a bill that will make various amendments to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA).

The amendments are based on recommendations proposed by a special committee of the

legislature. However, as lawyer Eileen Vanderburgh has pointed out, the special committee’s recommendation that corporations controlled by public bodies should be included under FIPPA was not included in Bill 3.

As a feature we ran last month explained, both UBC and SFU have been waging court battles to prevent corporations they own from being subject to freedom of information requests. We don’t know whether the universities put pressure on the government to not include that recommendation in Bill 3, but we’d be surprised if they didn’t. After digging themselves in legally, the last thing they want is for politicians to make all that work irrelevant.

At any rate, it looks like we are going to have to wait for years of court cases and appeals until we have a final answer on this issue.

That’s disappointing.

New UBC ranking means global focus will continue Get used to hearing the number 22, because it’s UBC’s ranking in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. It’s the highest ranking the university has ever achieved in a fancy global list like this, so they’re understandably pleased.

That being said, there are multiple lists like this that come out every year, and UBC still ranks between 30 and 60 in most of them. And a fixation on rankings has doomed many schools to chase metrics that will give them a rankings bump (and greater publicity) rather than the immediate needs of current students.

One thing to take note of in this ranking, though: UBC ranked first in North America for international engagement, mostly because UBC has been making that a priority for the last two decades. It’s an acknowledgement of the work the university has done in engaging the rest of the world over the last 20 years. And it’s a sign that it will continue to be a priority going forward.

UNA director discovers that universities are noisy places Two weeks ago, Thomas Beyer was elected to the board of directors of the University Neighbourhoods Association (UNA). Ordinarily, we wouldn’t comment on the internal affairs of the group that represents the non-student population on campus, but Beyer’s election campaign caught our attention.

For the past two months, Beyer has been railing against the lack of an enforceable noise bylaw. He’s upset about the amount of noise on campus late at night and believes that the bylaw the UNA discussed last year should be passed. He also feels, based on recent comments, that he lives in something less than a democracy—to which we say: well, duh.

In any event, his election brings up an interesting showdown: will the UNA attempt to control noise on campus? And when the inevitable happens, and the law proves unenforceable, what will the UNA’s reaction be?

Jokes about job prospects for Arts students aside...

If you’re one of UBC’s 12,000 Arts students and you wandered through the Careers Days booths last week, you probably noticed a few things missing. While the selection for students majoring in business, engineering or the sciences was abundant (they had stands for everything from Clearly Contacts to Potash mining agencies), the pickings were slim for Arts students who would like to do something other than just head to grad school. This felt more like an advertising fair for large corporations than an opportunity for students to explore post-graduation options.

If it’s going to be a meaningful event for the whole student body, Careers Days should give us a lot more variation than what we saw this year. If this was representative of the life we can expect as successful graduates of UBC, it’s pretty damn depressing. U

The problem the UBC Bookstore is facing is the same problem any bookstore faces in North America.

It’s convenient and cheaper to get books from just about anywhere other than a giant store with long lines and high overhead. Add in a tech-savvy and cost-conscious demographic, and it spells doom.

The Bookstore knows this all too well. That’s why they’ve drastically increased their computer department. And put themselves in a place where they’re the exclusive distributor of U-Passes. And tried to change the name of the Bookstore to something more, ahem, central to the UBC experience. They are losing book revenue and trying to adjust.

But the reason a university bookstore exists is not, fundamentally, to make money.

Stop laughing.

The reason a university bookstore exists is to ensure that students can have access to the information they need to pass their classes in the most efficient manner possible.

Please, stop sniggering. I have a point here.

See, if the Bookstore were connected to UBC’s larger thinking and philosophy, more closely connected to the Centre for Learning, Teaching and Technology, it would be on the forefront of connecting students to digital resources.

Students could, for example, line up at kiosks to purchase cheap paperless versions of custom coursepacks.

There would be many other such

innovations, thought up by people smarter than me.

But the Bookstore has instead been made an ancillary service, the same as on-campus housing, food, parking, athletics and recreation.

An ancillary is a self-sustaining department that must contribute a certain amount of money back to the university, called a dividend.

Operating as an ancillary means the Bookstore is constrained by its need to make money. So the “solution” to declining book sales has resulted in more space devoted to computers and retail options, while the real solution is one UBC is unable to make. The university can’t directly interfere with an ancillary’s business operations without a great deal of headache, so the Bookstore is kept at arm’s length.

Ancillaries have created a situation where many of the ways UBC interacts with students are supervised by people who operate virtual monopolies and care first about their bottom line, rather than the key goals of the university. This is why, despite the best efforts of Student Services and a host of other well-meaning departments, some see UBC as a bunch of money-leeching cheapskates.

When UBC was under the threat of constant budget cuts from a social credit government in the mid-80s, converting non-academic departments to ancillaries made sense.

They were forced to sink or swim on their own merits. And while trying to put that genie back in the bottle is probably inadvisable at this point, a little more oversight may not be a bad thing. What’s best for the Bookstore may not be what’s best for UBC. It’s time for the university to realize this. U

Toope on Access Copyright: “The opposite of good faith negotiations” Letters I do not misunderstand Access Copyright’s position, as Ms. Cavan suggests in her recent letter to The Ubyssey on September 29, 2011.

Under the previous photocopying license with Access Copyright, the universities paid a fee of $3.38/ student plus per-page fees based on the actual amount of copying undertaken under the agreement.

Access Copyright is now seeking a tariff that will cost $45/student with no per-page fee. The universities have sought to link the fee they pay to the actual amount of material that they copy under the tariff (i.e. that they haven’t already paid for under another licence). Access Copyright has remained unyielding in its quest to charge a flat fee without regard to what the universities are already paying to rights-holders

through other channels and without regard to the actual volume of copying at the university.

Access Copyright did not provide the universities with a meaningful proposal to begin with and then ended the negotiation before it effectively started by seeking the imposition of a mandatory tariff.

The tariff, if approved, would result in a 1300 per cent increase in the per student cost and would force universities to open their secure communications networks records and systems to Access Copyright to enable them to monitor faculty members, staff, and students. Access Copyright’s approach has been the opposite of good faith negotiations.

—Stephen J. Toope UBC President and Vice Chancellor Send your letters to feedback@ubyssey.ca

Scene

09.29.2011 |

11

Pictures and words on your university experience

STEVE JOBS >>

The insufferable Apple groupies

Jobs was no stranger to the unsavoury corporate practices decried by his devotees Editor’s Notebook Brian Platt “Are you serious?”

That was my reaction late Wednesday afternoon when editors in the office started buzzing about how we had to make a last-minute change to the paper to pay tribute to Steve Jobs, the just-deceased multi-billionaire former CEO of one of the most profitable corporations in the world. Apple’s only current competitors on the stock market are oil companies like Exxon Mobil.

We put it to a vote, and my side lost.

“You’re just being a contrarian!” one of our editors literally yelled at me. He then went on to check Twitter on his iPhone, surf the web on one of the ten Apple computers in the Ubyssey office, and later watch a movie on the personal Mac he has in his bedroom. He’d shit in an iToilet, if it existed.

To be clear, I don’t have any special antipathy toward Jobs. I think Apple products are pretty cool, though I’ve never owned one—mostly because of the price tag. I also recognize that Apple has revolutionized many aspects of computers and gadgets. I also think Apple products look neat. I also think they work well.

But whoopty-doo. The world

is full of brilliant innovators, and though it’s fine to pay tribute to their lives when they pass on, it’s creepy and weird for a student newspaper to get all misty-eyed over a very aggressive and successful businessman. If you haven’t seen it, our editorial comic in Thursday’s issue was a Mac computer shedding tears.

As Andrew Potter has sharply pointed out, Jobs was the most successful brand marketer of our generation. All the progressive, “authentic,” creative class anticonformist types go nuts for Apple, even though Apple is the most conformist tech company out there.

If you have one Apple product, you better start buying them all, because no other product is going to work with it. Did I mention how expensive Apple products are?

Don’t bother asking about Jobs’ or Apple’s philanthropic contributions: they don’t exist. Apple’s use of patents against its competitors is a massive drain on open competition and innovation. Want to design an app for an Apple product? Only if Apple employees review and approve it. Does somebody suspect you have an Apple prototype phone in your house? Apple security guards will show up at your door and raid the place. No seriously, they will actually do that.

And again, I don’t single out Jobs for these things. He has done what you have to do in order to accumulate a net worth of $8.3 billion. But look at what gets said about other

Fans of Steve Jobs leave tributes outside an Apple store in Manhattan.

enormously wealthy corporations and then look at what those same people will say about Apple and Jobs. If this isn’t a double standard, I don’t know what is.

Enough with the Apple fetishism. Stop fawning over Jobs as if he were some sort of revolutionary artist; he was a very smart and cunning businessman, possibly even a genius in that regard. Salute him for that, and then move on.

Oh, one last thing. I suppose some of you will accuse me of setting up and knocking down a straw man, so here’s a sampling of the

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comments I’ve seen on Twitter and Facebook streams in the wake of Jobs’ death:

“I don’t know what to say yet, so I’m just going to wear a black turtleneck and jeans tomorrow.”

“i love my mac and each time i turn on my mac from now on i will think of the creator of Apple.”

“Tonight I am ashamed to be a Windows user. Remember Steve Jobs and his civilizational contributions.”

“The future seemed less intimidating when Steve Jobs was around.”

“Imagine a Steve Jobs in the auto industry, in health care, in energy, even in government. We would have a different country.”

“Look at your ipod, ipad, iphone, mac. Now imagine life without them. RIP Steve Jobs.”

“Our era’s Ford, Disney, Einstein.”

U

12 | Culture | 10.11.2011 COMMUTER STUDENTS >>

One night in the commuter student hostel $30 gets you a place to crash and absolutely nothing else

Mike Dickson Contributor

The UBC commuter hostel is tucked away in the recesses of the east wing of the Walter Gage residences. It might be one of campus’s best-kept secrets, for reasons that went unexplained until this writer stayed there for one night.

Then the explanation was easy.

It’s boring. Really, really boring.

It’s a place for the tens of thousands of UBC commuter students to rest their heads on a pillow for the night, instead of waiting in long lines for overcrowded buses to get to a 9am class.

The units are small and cozy, but a little eerie as well. A decent

Hostel stats

8 $30 2 0

The number of rooms in the commuter student hostel The cost to stay for one night number of nights one can book in a seven day period number of hostel bars

As the heavy, card reader door swings shut, you feel a bit like Tim Robbins in Shawshank Redemption. single bed and a solid desk are complemented by an inexplicably large closet. But as the heavy, card-reader door swings shut, you feel a bit like Tim Robbins in Shawshank Redemption.

Socializing is non-existent; in the ten-some hours I was there, an Education PhD student named Steven was the only soul I laid eyes on. Sleeping there was comfortable, but comparable to sleeping in the bowels of Koerner Library.

At $30 a night, it’s right on the edge of the cost-benefit analysis every commuter student conducts when deciding if cutting X hours of travel time is worth the money.

Steven, who commutes from North Vancouver, likes the convenience but it’s almost too close to call.

“When I first looked at it I thought it was 20 a night, but 30 is right at the limit of what I’d pay overnight in terms of the hassle,” Steven said.

Students at UBC often speak of a disconnect on campus as the realms of commuting and campusbased students collide. Few places

The rooms in the commuter student hostel have that homey Shining feel to them.

symbolize this gap better than the commuter hostel.

The common area is not unlike what you’d find in Vanier or any other university residence. What is uncommon is the Shining-like feel to it. Although seven of the eight rooms were filled, until the

receptionist said otherwise, I thought I was the only one in the hostel.

“It’s pretty quiet,” Steven said, “and it’s nice for taking the edge off the physical toll that transit can take on you.”

It’s an excellent place to get

MARC-ANDRE GESSAROLI /THE UBYSSEY

work done; even the crickets were too nervous to make a sound. But the strange situation of silent commuters living together for a night or two in a university dorm makes for a hostel in name, but definitely not in spirit. U