• Celebrating 90 years! •

UTHE UBYSSEY UBC’s official student newspaper is published Tuesdays and Fridays

March 3, 2009 | www.ubyssey.calosing bits of our thumbs since 1918 | volume xc, number 41

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EventsNewsCultureSportsPerspectivesLettersEditorialStreetersLetter-poemPoemCrosswordSudoku

Phi Gamma Delta flips their boy high into the air at Delta Gamma’s Anchorsplash. The UBC Greeks kicked off Greek Week at UBC with the annual event put on for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB). The event consisted of two parts with a survivor theme. First, a strictly competitive sec-tion in which each team competed in swimming events, including raft relays, collect the artifacts, and individual swim. The second part of the night was an in-water, synchronized skit put on by each Greek society. The Delta Gamma sorority estimates that it made over $2000. kellan higgins photo/the ubyssey

Greeks splash for charityby Samantha JungSenior News Writer

In preparation for this year’s AMS Block Party, UBC RCMP has put out a notice banning all other liquor-serving events on campus from April 7–9.

There are conflicting state-ments regarding the issue of special occasion licences (SOLs) in the past. RCMP Staff Sgt. Wendland says that the RCMP has enforced similar bans close to the dates of Block Party and the now-dead Arts County Fair (ACF) every year, and that the ban is due to the massive amounts of resources needed to police the events, most of which fall around April 8 this year.

“We have to bring in 35 outside [officers] to safely police this area for the Block Party,” Wendland said. “This comes at a price tag of $35,000, which we have to cover through our policing budget, and the organizers do not have to pay. We do not have the resources to cover off everyone’s last minute urge to have a large party around the last day of classes, hence why Arts County Fair and now Block

Party was created. It is a safe guard for everyone that wants to attend and for the community that we police.”

Jeremy McElroy, on behalf of the Radical Beer Faction (RBF), the pro-party AMS club on campus said that the club fully agrees with the ban on SOLs.

“While it might seem to be a little excessive to outright ban li-cences before and after, you have to realize that the campus RCMP are not just babysitters for drunks, they do have real police work to do,” McElroy said. “And when it takes weeks of planning and preparation on their behalf to help keep our Block Party safe, the RBF is more than happy to give them a break the day before and the day after.”

However, other RBF sources have said this is the first year that the three-day ban has been imposed.

Typically, an SOL request must be submitted ten days prior to the event in question. The appli-cants must include details on the amount of alcohol at the event, the time, place and number of people attending. U

Liquor licences banned

120CALORIESINSIDE PA

GE 6

by Samantha JungSenior News Writer

Newly elected AMS president Blake Frederick, along with other incoming and outgoing AMS exec-utives, is participating in a hunger strike to push the government for a national housing plan.

The group includes former president Michael Duncan and outgoing VP Administration Tristan Markle, as well as Ale Coates, vice-chair of the Student Administrative Commission. The students are only drinking juice and water.

The strike is part of the 2010 Homelessness Hunger Strike Re-lay. Am Johal, a board member for the Impact on Community Coali-tion, an independent watchdog or-ganization for the 2010 Olympics started the strike at the beginning of this year. Other participants include UBC professor Michael Byers, Megaphone Magazine and David Eby, executive director of BC Civil Liberties.

Frederick said participating in the strike is a personal descision, not an AMS initiative.

The strike is to “shame the gov-ernment into acting” on the prob-lem of homelessness. When the 2010 Olympics were announced in 2002, there were promises made to reduce homelessness in Vancouver. However, those com-mitments have not been met.

“I’m personally embarrassed to be living in a country with such high levels of homelessness,” Frederick said. He and Duncan hope that this will prompt other student unions across the Lower Mainland to take up the hunger strike.

Johal said that the strikers in-tend to make it into a trend across the country. The significance of UBC student action is that they’re “trying to build a broader public support,” Johal said.

“The issue of affordability is not only of the Downtown Eastside, but of people who are working full time and carrying student loans,” he said.

“The hunger strike is a sym-bolic gesture of resistance to raise awareness. This is a health and human rights issue.” U

—with files from Katarina Grgic

AMS execs go ‘on strike’

Your campus and ‘Hollywood north’ Page 3

ANGRY, ASIAN AND MALE

PAGE 6

2 | events march 3, 2009the ubyssey | www.ubyssey.ca

If you have an event, e-mail us at events@ubyssey.caEvents

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coordinating editor Kellan Higgins : coordinating@ubyssey.canews editors Stephanie Findlay & Justin McElroy : news@ubyssey.caculture editorTrevor Melanson : culture@ubyssey.casports editor Shun Endo : sports@ubyssey.cafeatures & perspectives editorJoe Rayment : features@ubyssey.caphoto editorGoh Iromoto : photos@ubyssey.caproduction manager Paul Bucci : production@ubyssey.cacopy editorCelestian Rince : copy@ubyssey.cavolunteer coordinatorKalyeena Makortoff : volunteers@ubyssey.cawebmasterAdam Leggett : webmaster@ubyssey.camultimedia editorTara Martellaro : multimedia@ubyssey.ca

UTHE UBYSSEY

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March 3rd, 2009volume xc, no 41

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Contributors

Ongoing

Action—Camera: Beijing Perfor-mance Photography • Examines the trajectory from the discreet underground performance art community centered in Beijing’s “East Village” in the early 1990s, to a current internationally recognized practice. • January 16, 2009 10:00am–Monday, April 20, 2009 11:00am. For further information please con-tact Naomi Sawada at naomi.sawada@ubc.ca, tel: (604) 822-3640, or fax: (604) 822-6689, or take a look at belkinartgallery.com/_email/_main_belkin/Ac-tion_Camera •

UBC Greek Week • The Panhel-lenic Council and the Inter-Fraternity Council are putting on a week long event for Greeks and UBC students alike. Events include, Delta Gamma Anchor Splash, Greek Letter Check & Guest Speaker, Staff Apprecia-tion & Greek Jepoardy, Greek BBQ Fundraiser, Greek Olympics, Can-Struction & Greek Olympic Finals, Awards Presentation Cer-emony will take place at Pride of Order of Omega. If you’ve ever wondering what the Greeks are all about come out and check out this events. • March 1–7, events all over campus. For more information check out the “UBC GREEK WEEK 2009!” Facebook group •

The Annual TEC Young Entre-preneurs Dinner • This is a net-working and informational event where students, entrepreneurs, investors and top company executives share insights and exchange thoughts on current and existing ventures. • Tuesday March 3, 2009, 5:30pm–9pm, Renaissance Vancouver Hotel

Harbourside, cost $20 (includes a full meal), Attire: Business For-mal, for more information visit www.tecubc.com •

Milk • Check out Sean Penn’s academy-award winning portray-al of gay rights activist and politi-cian Harvey Milk. By winning a seat in the San Franciso Board of Supervisors in 1977 Harvey Milk became the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the USA. This biopic traces Harvey Milk’s career from his 40th birthday until his death. • March 4pm–8pm, 9:30pm–11:00pm, Location: Norm Theatre, Cost: $4 general admission, $2 members •

Fair Trade Panel Discussion • What are the on-the-ground results of buying Fair Trade products? What might be the long-term effects of an increas-ing Fair Trade market? Sales of Fair Trade Certified products have been increasingly dramatically in recent years. This trend prom-ises to ensure a fair and stable standard of living for producers, while also holding potential for cooperatives and corporations getting involved in the Fair Trade movement. The panel will ex-plore the results of Fair Trade for all those involved, and where the movement might go in the fu-ture. • March 4 at 4pm in Norm Theatre, Hosted by Engineers without Borders, free •

Happy-Go-Lucky • This British comedy film tells the story of Pauline Cross, a cheerful and op-timistic teacher living and work-ing in North London. Pauline, or “Poppy” as she is nicknamed, catches the attention of two different men, a social worker and a driving instructor, and complications ensue • Wednes-day March 4, 6–8, 7pm–9pm. Location: Norm Theatre. Cost: $4 general admission, $2 members •

“Faith Without Fear” • Cel-ebrate International Women’s Day with a screening of “Faith Without Fear” a documentary by the Canadian journalist and hu-man rights activist Irshad Manji. The film will be introduced by the former Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia, Iona Cam-pagnolo. • March 5 at 7pm. Vancouver Planetarium Theatre. Admission for students is $8. Please RSVP by leaving a voice-mail at 604-781-3151. •

Fair Trade Breakfast • It’s back! You know the drill - Fair Trade Banana-Chocolate Chip pan-cakes, 3 for $2. Bring your own plate and cutlery. • March 5 at 8am in Kaiser Foyer, Hosted by Engineers without Borders •

Imagine Your Arts Major: What Can I Do with My Major? • Wondering what you are going to do with your BA? Come to this workshop and learn about the career possibilities open to you and the influence your choice of major has on your career prospects. Explore insider information for different career choices, from the day-to-day tasks of a certain job to advice on getting entry level positions, and what associations or organi-zations you should join. • March 5 at 12–1pm, location: Irving K Barber, Lillooet Room, register online at secure.students.ubc.ca/workshops/careers.cfm •

Imagine Your Arts Major Go Global: Taking Your Major Global • Imagine waking up for class in Australia or Denmark, or going on a volunteer placement to Africa a co-op placement in Singapore. Come to this ses-sion to learn about Go Global opportunities and how you can participate. • March 5, 5pm–6pm. Location: Irving K. Barber, Lillooet Room, register online at secure.students.ubc.ca/work-shops/careers.cfm •

Verdi: Falstaff • The UBC School of Music presents Verdi: Falstaff. Featuring the UBC Opera En-semble and the UBC Symphony Orchestra. In Italian with English subtitles. • Wed, March 5–Sat, March 7, 8pm–11pm, Sun, March 8, 3pm–6pm, Location: Chan Centre. Cost: $15 for students, $25 for adults. Tickets

available at the Chan Centre and through Ticketmaster •

Movie Night • Screening of fair trade film “Black Gold” at 7pm in Wood 5. Drinks and discus-sion to follow at Mahoney and Sons. • March 5, 7pm in Wood 5, Hosted by Engineers Without Borders •

Imagine Your Arts Major Go Global: Taking Your Major Global • Imagine waking up for class in Australia or Denmark, or going on a volunteer placement to Africa or a co-op placement in Singapore. Come to this session to learn about Go Global op-portunities and how you can par-ticipate. • March 6, 12pm–1pm. Location: Irving K Barber, Lillooet Room, register online at secure.students.ubc.ca/workshops/careers.cfm •

Kellan Higgins realized the Ubyssey’s office was causing him to be Vitamin D deprived regardless of how much Vitamin Water he drinks because of the lack of sunlight in the of-fice. He convinced Samantha Jung, Ian Turner, and Shawn Li to round up a mass mob of squirrels to build a new Ubys-sey greenhouse on the grassy knoll. Zoe Siegel and Alicia Woodside scrounged around for scrap building materials (to keep costs low) while Trevor Melanson and Goh Iromoto cleared the land for Trevor Record to lay the foundation with the help of Keegan Bursaw and Sulman Umar. To keep the protesting students from disrupting the construction, Here-ward Langley, Crystal Tai, Jorge Amigo, Teegan (please tell us your last name), and Henry Lebard used their super ninja skills and tazers to guard the site. Belinda Li consulted on the project to make sure the building was as sustainable as possible. While shopping for plants for the office, she ran into Kathy Yan Li and Katarina Grgic, who were looking for a present for Justin McElroy. Just then, Stephanie Find-lay passed by and broke the news that Gerald Deo made fabulous brownies and Paul Bucci ate all of them. Back at the construction site, Celestian Rince and Shun Endo super-vised puppies as they installed the final glass panes while Kalyeena Makortoff and Adam Leggett recruited kittens to pack up the old office. Llamas ssssfollowed Tara Martellaro’s commands to move everything to the new greenhouse. Kyrstin Bain then organized a sweet greenhouse warming party with Bengal tigers as honourary guests.

March 4

March 5

March 3

March 6

1ST PLACE winning a prize of $75 is “The Way Back” by Jill Von Sprecken. This story was not in the print version of our paper, but you can read it online at a later date. 2ND PLACE winning a prize of $50 is “Overtures” by Taylor Basso.3RD PLACE winning a prize of $25 is “Twenty-seven years, Thirty-six Days” by Arielle Indiana Furneaux.HONOURABLE MENTION goes to Nafiza Azad for “Paranthas and Promenades.”

Please contact Celestian Rince at copy@ubyssey.ca to claim your prize.

The judges of the 2009 Ubyssey Literary Competition:

GISELE BAXTER Originally from Nova Scotia, Gisele Baxter did her BA at Mount Saint Vincent and her MA and PhD at Dalhousie. She did postdoctoral research at East Anglia (UK) and McGill, and has taught sessionally at UBC since 1997. Her areas of in-terest include popular culture, the gothic influence, children’s literature, and near-future dystopias. She writes fiction in her spare time.MICHELLE MILLER Born and raised in Ontario, Michelle is trying to get used to life on the west coast, which is easy in the sun and impossible in the rain. Michelle Miller is a queer-feminist writer of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Michelle attends the MFA pro-gram in Creative Writing at UBC and is currently the fiction edi-tor for PRISM international.

Winners of the 2009 Ubyssey Literary Competition

news | 3march 3, 2009 the ubyssey | www.ubyssey.ca

by Sophie RaiderNews Writer

We may have appeared ostensi-bly to bristle at the encroach-ment of our campus by (presum-ably) snobbish Hollywood pro-duction crews—geez, they are so in the way. Totally made me late to class.

But really, whenever pos-sible, we exploited the event. We boasted to our friends at other universities, crowded the bar-ricades hoping to catch glimpses of Hugh Jackman, snapped pic-tures to post on Facebook and perhaps even showed up outside Buchanan Tower at 2am, stirred by vague rumors that they would be filming an explosion scene.

The affairs of the X-Men Origins: Wolverine shoot on East Mall late last month were cer-tainly something to talk about. Then again, at UBC we are not unaccustomed to seeing film crews and sets around campus. Last year there were 46 separate productions shot on university grounds.

Considering that British Columbia typically hosts over 200 major film and television productions (excluding commer-cials) in a year, UBC commands nearly 15 per cent of film shoots. Our campus is a hot venue.

“UBC has always been a very valuable asset,” affirmed Su-san Croome, British Columbia film commissioner. The Film Commission, which in 2008 celebrated its 30th year showcas-ing our province as a motion picture production destination, often recommends UBC to in-ternational filmmakers. Croome praised the campus as unique and cited a history of valuable experiences that drives foreign producers to return.

In regards to Wolverine she crooned, “We felt very happy to have Hugh Jackman back here.” Every other X-Men movie featur-ing Jackman has filmed scenes in BC; and all but the first have shot at UBC.

Producers keen to film on our campus inquire with UBC Business Development, which charges location fees of $2500 per shoot day and $1250 per prep or wrap day, as well as vari-ous operating fees.

In 2008 commercial film pro-duction at UBC brought in more than $200,000 in location fees alone.

A portion of these revenues serves to sustain UBC’s own film program. The departments of Film Studies and Film Produc-tion divide the funds to purchase films to screen, projectors, equip-ment, supplies, and services.

“The majority of the funding for our equipment comes from these location rental revenues,” said Sharon McGowan, associate head of Film Production. “With-out them we would not be able to do many of the things we do.”

McGowan stressed that while a UBC student pays the same tuition for a philosophy lecture course as for a film production class, the costs to provide the film course are significantly higher. The livelihood of UBC’s film program depends on cam-pus commercial production. As bonus, it is blessed by the net-working opportunities that these productions beget.

“The producer of The Matrix, Erwin Stoff, was here last year with The Day the Earth Stood Still, she explained. “He came into a class to speak to Creative Writing and Film students—he contacted me to offer to do this—and he talked about how nice it was to meet the students and get to know people from the campus.”

Once or twice per term, grant-ing schedules and conditions co-incide, film students are allowed to visit a set. McGowan claimed that these firsthand observations have been great successes.

In addition to The Day the Earth Stood Still, productions shot on-campus last year includ-ed the upcoming comedy, The Tooth Fairy, featuring Dwayne (the Rock) Johnson and Ashley Judd, as well as Harper’s Island, the new CBS horror series airing April 9.

Arlene Chan, marketing man-ager of UBC Business Develop-ment, processes all campus production requests. They range from the scantly-budgeted stu-dent feature to the multi-billion dollar blockbuster hopeful (student films have their fees waived).

Chan approves those that are deemed to be without adverse ef-fect to the university or its repu-tation and minimally disruptive to university life. Her office notifies departments affected, which also receive a slice of the revenues.

Those curious about upcom-ing productions can look to the Business Development website which, Chan insisted, will soon be up-to-date.

And what of the economic crisis? American films and tele-vision comprise roughly three-quarters of BC production. As of yet, the languishing economy has not seen a decline in the business.

“We’re very fortunate,” Croome said. “We’re actually seeing a lot of interest for film production in 2009.”

Vancouver’s production in-dustry ranks third-largest in North America and has expand-ed rapidly to meet pre- and post-production needs.

As with the choice of UBC for the Wolverine re-shoot, Croome reasoned, “During uncertain times producers want to go to a tried and true location.”

Chan alluded to other major productions scheduled to film at UBC this spring. However, she declined to offer specifics, citing years past when the paparazzi have materialized on campus, disturbing the peace of produc-ers and students alike.

For now, we can be grateful that Wolverine does not premiere until after final exams, that is, May 1. Afterward we can indulge in that action-thriller-fantasy that only Hollywood (and the cold, dark cement façade of Buchanan Tower) can produce. U

Hollywood North on campusUBC trusted home of Wolverine, Battlestar Galactica, Smallville

goh irohmoto photo illustration/the ubyssey

TELEVISION SHOWS:Battlestar Galactica (2004 to 2008)

1987The StepfatherTerry O’Quinn

2001AntitrustRyan Phillippe, Rachael Leigh Cook

2004The Butterfly EffectAshton Kutcher, Amy Smart

200788 MinutesAl Pacino

2008PassengersAnne Hathaway, Patrick Wilson

2009 (IN POST PRODUCTION, TO BE RELEASED IN MAY)X-Men Origins: WolverineHugh Jackman, Ryan Reynolds

UPCOMING MOVIES ON CAMPUS:MARCH 4-5

7am–10pm Chan Centre for the Performing Arts

MARCH 6

7am–10pm Chan Centre for the Performing Arts7am–10pm Liu Institute for Global Issues

Production will prepare the Chan Centre from 7am–7pm, March 2–3, with wrap Mar 9–10.

WHO DO I CONTACT?Contact the Film Industry Liaison Officer, at 604-837-1951 or the Marketing Manager, UBC Business Development at 604-822-6555.

American films comprise roughly three-quarters of BC production.As of yet, the languishing economy has not seen a decline in the business.

A SELECTION OF FILMS AT UBC:

4 | news march 3, 2009the ubyssey | www.ubyssey.ca

by Zoe SiegelNews Staff

How much coffee do you drink? To most university students a cup of java is part of the usual morning routine. Less thought about are the impacts their cof-fee habit has on developing countries. Engineers Without Borders (EWB) is hosting the week-long event Coffee To End Poverty to raise awareness of fair trade and to encourage students to be more aware of the products they buy.

“There are lots of myths about fair trade out there and we are trying to break down the stereo-types,” said Sara Mohammad Pour, EWB director of outreach.

Fair trade products guarantee fair prices and safe working con-ditions for the farmers. Coffee is a well known fair trade product, but there is also cocoa, sugar, tea, flowers and many others. Certified Fair Trade Products are marked with the black-and-white Transfair Canada Logo. Products

with this logo have been pur-chased under completely fair trade conditions.

“It’s about choice, we want to make students aware of their choices,” stated Annelies Tjebbes, director of communications.

The week began with out-reach events at coffee shops on campus, including Salt Spring Coffee, the Boulevard, AMS food service restaurants and at Place Vanier and Totem Park residences.

According to Tjebbes, “there is attitude and behavior change. UBC has assisted with the be-havior change of the students by selling all fair trade coffee, but many students are unaware that that is what they are drink-ing. It’s about taking owner-ship over actions because they realize fair trade is making a difference.”

On Wednesday there will be a fair trade panel in the Norm Theatre and many experts who have first hand experi-ence working with fair trade

organizations will present their views and opinions about fair trade. Thursday there will be a pancake breakfast where fair trade chocolate chip banana pancakes and coffee will be served. During the evening they will show Black Gold, a film about impoverished Ethiopian coffee, focusing on one man’s fight for a fair price.

This is the third year that EWB has run Coffee To End Pov-erty, but the first year they have put on events like the speaker panel and the film.

The week will conclude with EWB Day on Saturday where EWB members will go out to local grocery stores including Safeway, Stongs and IGA Mar-ketplace and hand out flyers promoting fair trade. EWB Day is a nationwide event so all oth-er EWB chapters will be doing the same thing across Canada.

“This year there will be some-thing for everyone,” said Justine Clift, EWB Fair Trade Project organizer. U

by Ian TurnerNews Staff

Speakeasy, an AMS service that pro-vides information, peer counselling and crisis support to the UBC stu-dents and community is not being taken advantage of by UBC students, despite the service being free. The heads of the organization believe it is indicative of a stigma against counselling existing on campus.

Nick Nagy, one of the two co-heads of Speakeasy is on the front-line fighting the stigma. He offered two reasons for why this stigma exists.“It’s more a stigma against not being able to control one’s emo-tions by themselves. In Western society specifically we view having emotions as a weak thing,” he said.

“The stigma is not against counsel-lors, it’s against the people who ac-tually have to go there or syaing they need to go. No one wants to seem weak or need help.”

Additionally, Nagy said, “There still is a large stigma against the concept of someone having a men-tal illness.”

Fatou Wurie, the other Speakeasy co-head, spoke about the service’s initiatives. Currently they are tak-ing the traditional route of post-ers, classroom talks, and word of mouth. She added that breaking this barrier is difficult because the “stigma depends on your background, on your religious be-liefs—it depends on how you just perceive life.”

“We try to make sure our vol-unteers are exposed to issues of diversity, types of sexuality, reli-gions and cultures so that they are not coming in blinded and think all have the same mentality or ap-proach towards counseling.”

Speakeasy is composed of ap-proximately 80 volunteers, and the two co-heads on a salary. The organization previously operated

an information booth in the SUB’s main concourse.

Wurie noted that the service was not clear to people to associ-ate the information desk that ex-ists downstairs in the SUB with the one in the main concourse. “That is a problem at Speakeasy we are constantly running into,” she admitted. Efforts are under-way to link the information booth more tightly with Speakeasy’s goal: providing peer-support services.

Peer-support service, as vol-unteer Mark McLean put it, is to “listen to what the student’s prob-lems are,” and that “we try and help them figure out what they should do” without offering any advice.

“I think if more people were aware of peer-support there would not be as much of a stigma because frankly it is just people coming into talk,” he said.

Nagy added that “As more peo-ple become aware of the impor-tance of maintaining good mental health the stigma will slowly wear away.” U

EUS campaigns to raise fair trade awareness

AMS service fights counselling stigma

Attempt to change student behavior during week-long event

Students are not taking advantage of Speakeasy counselling

A Speakeasy representative providing information in their office in the SUB basement. shawn li photo/the ubyssey

Go to www.ubyssey.ca to get all of your campus news.

No one wants to seem weak or need help.

—Nick Nagy, Speakeasy co-head

news | 5march 3, 2009 the ubyssey | www.ubyssey.ca

by Ian TurnerNews Staff

Digital Tattoo, a UBC awareness campaign, is striving to educate students about their online iden-tity and the impact it will have on future careers.

“People have often done youthful indiscretions that they have had to live down and the Internet is just a new place that these could be recorded,” said Sheryl Adams, an administrator at Digital Tattoo. “Your youth-ful indiscretion can be emailed around the world in a nanosec-ond. In the olden days you could leave your past behind, not so much any more.”

“Students’ online identity can impact a student’s job search both positively and negatively. And we feel that a lot of students do not understand how employ-ers can use social networking in the hiring process,” said Carol Naylor, manager at UBC Career Education. At career conferences Naylor has learned that many re-cruiters are actively looking on-line for applicant information. She defined an online identity

as what your online activity says about you as a person. “People will make assumptions about you based on the impressions you leave,” she said later.

Digital Tattoo routinely holds booths at on-campus events that have high attendance rates, Imag-ine Day being an example. Career Services does not have an official stance regarding students’ online activity. Both Adams and Naylor stated that students are largely unaware of their own ability to control their public image on the web, an example being Face-book’s privacy settings. Naylor expanded upon this point say-ing many students did not know that their own photos could be accessed by employers through others’ Facebook accounts.

Liana Popa, Digital Tattoo’s coordinator, said that Facebook is but one way to excavate an individual’s online identity. She cited Xobni, an outlook applica-tion, that locates the sender’s on-line social networking accounts and shows the account’s display photo(s) alongside the email, which may include a resumé.

Coupled with students’ igno-rance about their online identi-ties is a belief that damaging on-line information can be removed from the web. Naylor dismissed that notion, saying that once any-thing has been posted on the web it is likely to be etched on the In-ternet. Adams seconded this say-ing it would be “a wise person” who let that general rule guide their actions.

When asked what students should post online, Adams said, “Is it something you want you mom to see? Because your mom will probably be able to see it soon.” U

by Alicia WoodsideNews Writer

Uneasy about the economy and how it may affect your job prospects? The following article serves as a useful compass, out-lining advice in how to find the best job in today’s economy, from the viewpoint of a suc-cessful job-seeking student, and that of experienced director of UBC Career Services, Howie Outerbridge.

Top five job-search strategies:1. Stay on top of trends:

Clearly, some sectors are affect-ed more severely than others. Howie advises to really look into the larger trends to determine the best areas for future work opportunities. It’s as straightfor-ward as reading the newspaper on a regular basis. He advises the Working section of The Van-couver Sun, which “is basically a snapshot of everything going on in BC and Canada.” It is readily available online. While students may find fewer opportunities this year in oil and gas, invest-ment banking, or working with the big auto producers, they can direct their sights to numerous emerging opportunities. Simply glancing at the proposed federal budget gives students ideas for opportunities in several areas,

such as construction and infra-structure, or home renovations businesses. Students can also anticipate many opportunities in BC’s service industry during the lead-up to the Olympic Games.

In other trends, Howie pre-dicts Obama’s lead in develop-ing green energies to provide a future surge in opportunities worth exploring for students. The large aging population translates to opportunities in the health care sector, as well as in the provision of medical and health-related products and services. In addition, it means unprecedented levels of attrition for the government as the aging workforce begins to accelerate. Branches such as the Public Ser-vice Commission and Canadian Security Intelligence Service are expecting huge staffing needs.

Government related postings on Career Services’ job board ex-perienced a jump of 28 per cent between November 2007 and No-vember 2008, while all other sec-tors experienced little change, or a decline. Howie advises reading the ‘Working’ section of the Sat-urday Vancouver Sun for a great place to start generating ideas

2. Self Initiate! It’s often re-peated that over 80 per cent of jobs aren’t even advertised. As a result, job search attempts that

consist only of applying to post-ings can severely limit success. It can be difficult, even impossible, to convey your skills and personal-ity on paper alone. The best jobs are found by networking. When an employer meets a potential hire in-person and outside of a typical hiring environment, they will be able to assess things that cannot come across on paper, such as enthusiasm, attitude, and interpersonal skills. Great ways to create these opportunities are through cold-calling companies you’d like to work for and setting up informational meetings. Don’t be shy, the worst they can say is, “No thank-you.”

Other great tactics are to use well-connected faculty and UBC staff. Pay a visit to a professor from your field, or to a staff member from Career Services, as employ-ers are frequently contacting UBC in search of a qualified candidate they can recommend. In addition, these knowledgeable sources can direct you to the best places to seek opportunities. If job boards do see a decrease in postings this year, the increased competition is reason enough to seek more cre-ative job search strategies.

3. Create a network team: If you were to agree to share con-tacts with a few of your trusted friends and classmates, you

would far sooner come across the ideal work opportunity, or the contact to make that job a reality. As a result of sharing networks and actively commu-nicating opportunities to one an-other, these trusted contacts act as teammates in your job search, always on the lookout for some-thing or someone that may be helpful to you. The beauty of this strategy is that your teammates know you well and care for your success, so they can pass on ideal opportunities. Build your aggregate network attending events and building relation-ships with people you feel you can learn from.

4. Use those resources: Did you know that there are six ca-reer fairs happening in term two, or that UBC Career Services has a fantastic, loaded job board online? What about the Work Study program, or the one-on-one peer support program that is being introduced by Career Services to help students more personally in their career prepa-ration? In the event of fewer jobs being available this spring, your chances of success come down to the number of opportunities you apply to, as well as the quality of your cover letter, resumé, and interviewing skills. The peer ca-reer support will provide much-

needed one-on-one guidance on all aspects of the career search. Career Services will also be ex-panding its Work Study oppor-tunities to the summer, which offer part-time work for students at rates of $15-$20 per hour in their field of interest. Sign up for a bi-weekly update about all Ca-reer Services resources on their Facebook group.

5. Be flexible! It’s evident that some areas are adversely affect-ed by the economy, and it may be that your dream job is one of those areas. A common message from career experts is to be more flexible in times of economic un-certainty. If the job you land this spring isn’t the ideal one you envisioned, ensure your future success by getting the most you possibly can from the job. There are always transferable skills to be developed that can aid you in your ideal career down the road.

Linda Gully, director of the Business Career Centre at the Sauder School of Business, states that “students can normally choose their industry, their posi-tion, or the company.” Her mes-sage is to be thankful for an op-portunity that satisfies goals in one of these three dimensions, and not to expect to land a job right away with all three perfect circumstances. U

Online identity destroys job opportunities

Recession-proof job-search strategies

Once upon a time you could leave your past behind, not anymore

goh iromoto photo illustration/the ubyssey

Surviving the recessionColumnist Alicia Woodside gives you the downlow on how to job-search during hard economic times

We feel that a lot of students do not understand how employers can use social networking in the hiring process.

—Carol Naylor, manager at UBC Career Education

March 3, 2009 | Page 6CCulture Editor: Trevor Melanson | E-mail: culture@ubyssey.ca

by Arielle Indiana FurneauxCulture Writer

Playing the time machine game can be an instructive exercise. Pick one object from our society, and predict what archaeologists from the future would conclude about our culture based on that artifact. The future archaeolo-gist would have good reason to conclude that UBC students, circa 2009, were terribly mal-nourished. Maybe food had lost its nutritional value after some agricultural disaster. Perhaps the digestive tract had warped to prohibit digestion of solids. In any case, the prevalence of VitaminWater would suggest that something big had hap-pened to upset our relationship with food.

VitaminWater dispensers have sprung up far and wide on UBC’s campus, beckoning the uninitiated with candy-coloured bottles and the beguiling sug-gestion: “Try it.” Flavours are tailored to meet specific bodily needs, bearing succinct names like “Defense” and “Revive.” VitaminWater’s cachet has been cemented by a nod on Gossip Girl, where an anxious teen re-quests a bottle of “Focus” to help get her through a party. Clever.

UBC students are embracing the trend. Law student Xiaodi Jin told me he gravitated to the drink “because it looked healthy, efficient and clean.” Coca-Cola is obviously doing something right, having bought VitaminWater-creator Glaceau in 2007.

It’s no secret that advertis-ers capitalize on inventing new problems for us to treat. My eyelashes aren’t thick enough, so I should buy some volumiz-ing mascara. Your manhood isn’t big enough, so you should order yourself a bigger one.

These branded deficiencies are particularly insidious when they pertain to our health. We can usually talk ourselves out of the idea that un-enhanced eyelashes are the end of the world. Claims about health can be harder to shake off. For one, they seem more serious. Also, we may not have the scientific know-how to assess them critically.

Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food, bemoans the growing trend of treating food as combinations of nutri-ents as opposed to nourishing meals. Instead of buying a tub of yogurt, consumers buy health products like Yoplait Source, whose cartons trill about “8 es-sentials” like bacterial cultures and vitamin A. Yogurt of the bygone era was certainly nutri-tious, but wasn’t presented as a health elixir.

Consumers now scoop up ce-reals, orange juice and milk for-tified with vitamins. The same trend has permeated the most basic sustenance we can give our bodies: water. Instead of relying on water as an intuitive form of hydration, we have boosted the meager liquid’s prestige with the addition of minerals, vita-mins and flavours.

VitaminWater does contain its fair share of vitamins. My bottle of “Defense” (bought for research purposes, I assure you) contains vitamin B3, pantothenic acid, vi-tamin B6, vitamin C, zinc and vi-tamin B12. These vitamins and minerals are tellingly referred to as “medicinal ingredients,” reinforcing Michael Pollan’s “food-as-nutrients” lament. And the amount of vitamins isn’t negligible, either. “Defense” con-tains 1.5 micrograms of vitamin B12. For comparison: one large fast food taco contains 1.6 micro-grams. The daily recommended intake is 6.0 micrograms.

Although the drink contains a substantial amount of vitamins, its high sugar content may over-whelm any health benefits. Each bottle contains 39 grams of sugar (roughly two tablespoons), and 125 calories—just shy of the 140 in a can of Coca Cola. Of course, each bottle officially contains three servings. But re-ally, who drinks just a third of a bottle of water?

You might suggest that the presence of vitamins outweighs the sugar content of Vitamin-Water. Certainly, a vitamin-deficient third world denizen would benefit from the infusion of vitamins in a bottle of Vita-minWater. But North Americans generally aren’t suffering from scurvy or beriberi. According to Scienceline, the only vitamin of which Americans consume less than half their recommended daily amount is Vitamin E, which happens to be fat-soluble. In other words, in order to properly absorb the Vitamin E in a bottle of VitaminWater, you would have to time your drink to coincide with a meal. Further-more, Vitamin E is only found in four of VitaminWater’s thirteen varieties.

After their discovery in 1919 by biochemist Casimir Funk, vitamins became a big hit with the middle class. Amusingly, these were the very people who didn’t need them. The up-per crust could afford enough nutrition to avoid deficiency diseases like scurvy. Little has changed in nearly a century. VitaminWater plays right to the Kitsilano mindset. Here is a group of wealthy, trendy people eager to jump on the latest health bandwagon. If you can afford a $2.25 bottle of cunning marketing and sugar, you prob-ably don’t need those incidental vitamins. U

by Trevor RecordCulture Staff

I thought that Hot Hot Heat was pretty popular at some point, but I guess things have gone downhill for them. Last Thurs-day they played a free concert at the Pit. They were promoting Corona beer, which was still not the cheapest beverage avail-able at the bar, but all it takes is a few people deciding to buy that stuff for the rest of their lives for it to be worthwhile to the company’s marketing team.

The Pit, which had been painted up like a tropical trol-lop, had reasonably high atten-dance, but considering there was a free concert going on you might have expected a moderate lineup. Once the doors opened at 8pm, everyone that wanted to get in did, which places the show behind Pit Night for atten-dance. All this seems to contra-dict their MySpace page, which claims two sold-out shows at the Commodore in April (ah, but there they are opening for Bloc Party).

Maybe it was a carefully

calculated move on the part of the Corona marketing team to make sure we were all getting sort of sauced, but the show didn’t start until a few hours after doors had opened.

The openers were Vancou-ver’s Bend Sinister; I ques-tioned if they named them-selves after the Fall album or the Nabokov novel it took its name from. Despite their namesake, they didn’t do anything too musically crazy, playing basically solid rock music (with a few exceptions). They started things off with a terrible cover of “A Day in the Life,” and finished with a pass-able cover of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing,” which many of the partially-inebriated crowd were disposed to scream along with. In between they sounded sort of prog-rockish, and at mo-ments like Queen.

Hot Hot Heat got started even later, but the crowd’s reaction was explosive. Although I hate to admit it, things did indeed get fairly hot. About half of the dance floor was either dancing or trying desperately not to get

knocked onto their asses. For a while, we were getting into punk concert territory. Hot Hot Heat played an hour set, con-sisting of many of their earlier songs. They followed up with a single encore. Then Pit security

kicked all of our sorry asses out.

Maybe it was just the beer, but the show was good. The last time I saw Hot Hot Heat play (at the Croatian Cultural Centre back in 2003), the Walkmen and

the Organ opened for them, both of whom played a better set. I guess they’ve gone from being a sort of crummy breakout band, to being a competent, estab-lished band whose popularity is waning. Damn, I feel old. U

VitaminWater: The hipper, sexier broccoli

Hot Hot Heat for a drunk drunk Pit

Hot Hot Heat had nearly everyone on the dance floor dancing—or falling over. hereward longley photo/the ubyssey

VITAMINWATER>>120 CALORIES>>39 GRAMS OF SUGAR

COCA COLA>>140 CALORIES>>39 GRAMS OF SUGAR

culture | 7march 3, 2009 the ubyssey | www.ubyssey.ca

by Crystal TaiCulture Writer

A week ago, I sat down with self-described “former Angry Asian Man” Mark Lee. For those of you non-angry Asians and non-Asians alike, “angry Asian man” is a term that’s been coined for Asian men who feel subjugated and invisible within Western society. Feelings of neglect may arise from their perceived lack of political visibility, media ex-posure and Asian role models. There are also the stereotypes that have accompanied Asians in North America.

Mark Lee is a fourth-genera-tion Chinese-Canadian, speaks English at home with his mom and dad, and grew up in the Vancouver suburbs where he watched hockey and G.I. Joe. For Mark, the bulk of his angst started when he realized society looked upon Asian men as sex-less computer programmers, possessing little machismo and zero social skills. Mark’s reality didn’t help his outlook

on Asian men either: “I had low self-esteem, I was chubby and I always put women on a pedestal.”

Dating always seemed very one sided for Mark. It was al-ways a white guy and an Asian girl, he said. But rarely would one see a white girl with an Asian guy. Mark became curi-ous and started poking around online to see if there were any correlations or theories behind his observations.

“It was winter break, I was 17, reading stuff online,” he said. He found Asian-American so-cial awareness websites such as Asian Nation and Angry Asian Man. “That’s when it all started to make sense. I wouldn’t have attributed [all the setbacks I felt that Asian men had] to race before,” he said. “I didn’t real-ize other people had the same theories.”

Ultimately, it was anti-Asian racism that “really got to” Mark. “I read about some incidents on the campus at Stanford Univer-sity,” he said. There had been racist graffiti on the Ivy League campus, “racist graffiti that was very misogynistic about Asian women,” he said. “I’m not sure if these ideas might have been acted upon, but they were com-bined with [notions] of raping Asian women.” Such racism ex-isting in a so-called “PC” cream-of-the-crop intellectual facility enraged Mark.

Online was also where Mark learned about the origins of the stereotype of the sexless Asian man. Some of these no-tions are based from historical misconceptions he said. “In a frontier country, such as Can-ada, there were few women,” he said. “Chinese workers were presented with very little op-portunity to do regular work. A few that were lucky became merchants, others did what they could,” Mark said, refer-ring to the domestic labour

that Chinese-Canadians took on. “They didn’t have a lot of options,” so many of them did domestic labour, while others opened shop within the indus-try such as laundromats, Chi-nese restaurants, tailor shops and the like.

“I think racial dynamics [are indicative] of the differ-ent threats different groups represent to the [mainstream] society,” Mark said. “Different people are blamed for different issues.” Historically, Asian-Canadians have presented an economic threat. “Do they fear that we’re smarter? That we’ll take over?” All in all, Mark at-tributes the stereotypes to his-torical fact, as well as many of the misconceptions that have perpetually plagued Asians in the West.

But the worst part of it, ac-cording to Mark, is the role of the Angry Asian Man himself. Despite the fact that they are af-fected by Western stereotypes, these angry Asian men also tend to bring it upon themselves. “They harbour misogyny, blam-ing Asian women for leaving ‘us’ for white men,” said Mark. “But really, it’s just the anger of getting no women!”

He plans to put the spotlight on the Asian male commu-nity in his upcoming workshop, “Asian Man, Take a Stand! Re-framing the Angry Asian Man Experience.” He says it will be a group experience where Asians and non-Asians alike can chat together about social stig-mas surrounding Asian men. Mark’s workshop happens on March 5, 1–2:30pm in room 214, SUB building. U

The workshop is one of many, which will take place at the Asian Canadian Cultural Or-ganization’s annual Unconfer-ence, March 5 and 6. For more information check out www.ubcacco.com or look up ACCO on Facebook.

Angry Asian manDealing with persecution and acquiring confidence

To some, it seems it’s always white guys with Asian girls rather than otherwise. shawn li photo illustration/the ubyssey

They harbour misogyny, blaming Asian women for leav-ing ‘us’ for white men, but really, it’s just the an-ger of getting no women!

—Mark Lee

CULTURE@UBYSSEY.CAWRITE FOR CULTURE

8 | culture march 3, 2009the ubyssey | www.ubyssey.ca

by Jorge AmigoCulture Writer

Like many of my generation, I used to be a video game addict. From Mario to Contra, from Fi-nal Fantasy to Grand Theft Auto, my addiction touched every genre and console. However, people change and I stopped gaming about four years ago. This meant that I was left com-pletely untouched by the wave of Guitar Hero madness that has swept over the world—until now.

Two week ago, I volunteered to give a guitar lesson to inner-city kids from an Eastside el-ementary school in Vancouver. I spent about two days prepar-ing for the lesson, thinking of simple chord progressions to teach them, or easy riffs to keep them entertained. Memories of my first guitar lessons flashed through my mind and I thought about teaching them an easy Beatles song to get them excit-ed about learning a full song in a single class (“Obla di obla da” was obviously the first choice). But one thing I never thought about was studying the songs from Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock.

As I walked into the class and introduced myself to the group of fifth graders, I tried to begin a conversation about their taste in music. A teacher

has to find some common cultural referents, so I tried namedropping some bands, to no avail. The kids stared back at me as if I were speaking in tongues. I namedropped some more, even began to play the intro of “Wish You Were Here,” but the result was the same. I stopped and realized that I was staring down into a deep and authentic generational gap.

Then a hand shot up in the air. It was a twelve year old with an awesome mohawk that made me, with my knit scarf, look like a Backstreet Boy. He looked me in the eyes and deliv-ered the magic words: “Dude, don’t you know any songs from the new Guitar Hero?” Sudden-ly, the whole class was talking about the songs, and of the lev-els, and if Slash was the hardest to beat, or if Jimi Hendrix was faster. I was taken by surprise, shocked. It suddenly dawned on me that the musical tastes of a whole new generation are being shaped by the playlists from Guitar Hero. Elementary kids everywhere are connecting with long-gone music legends through the coloured buttons of their plastic guitars. This, more than anything, more than its re-cord breaking sales, is the true success of the game.

And, of course, as the lesson proceeded, I did not mention the Beatles song. U

Guitar heroesVideo game introduces kids to musical legends

Rocking out with a guitar—and star power. goh iromoto photo/the ubyssey

CULTURE MEETINGS: WEDNESDAYS @ 4PMGENERAL MEETINGS: WEDNESDAYS @ NOON

COME, LEARN, JOIN, PARTICIPATEWWW.UBYSSEY.CA

March 3, 2009 | Page 9SSports Editor: Shun Endo | E-mail: sports@ubyssey.ca

by Henry LebardSports Staff

The UBC men’s basketball team had two things standing between them and a third straight Canada West Championship: a Friday night game against the Brandon University Bobcats, and a Sat-urday night matchup with the University of Calgary Dinos. The T-Birds needed to win on successive nights at War Memorial Gym, but fell short in the gold medal game against Calgary 80–76 after breez-ing through Brandon 92–71.

Brandon did not prove to be much competition for the home squad as UBC set out to an early 21 point halftime lead, which they would not relinquish despite 29 points from Bobcats first-team conference all-star guard Dany Charlery. The Bobcats made just 27.3 per cent of their shots from the field in the first half compared to the T-Birds’ 58.8 per cent.

Thunderbird guard Chris Dyck, in his fifth year, led the team with 24 points (18 coming in the first half) and eight assists. Starting guard Josh Whyte played just 15 minutes for UBC due to early foul trouble and scored only two points, but 18 points off the bench from Brent Malish allowed head coach Kevin Hanson to rest Whyte for the following night versus Calgary.

“He would be a starter on most teams in the conference, and he is the best sixth man I have ever had,” said Hanson about Malish. “When he comes in he can really score because he is good inside and outside, and he is a very tough match-up for everybody.”

Without Whyte running the point guard position for the Birds, Dyck, a transfer from the Univer-sity of Manitoba, took his place.

“We ended up playing Chris at point guard a bit in the first half just to make sure the ball was in his hands,” said Hanson. “In the second half they did a good job de-fensively, but we also didn’t find him in our offence. But other guys started scoring, and when you can put up 92 points there’s not much wrong with your offence.”

Before UBC’s dismantling of Brandon, Calgary did much the same to the Trinity Western Uni-versity Spartans, who won the Bronze medal game Saturday against Brandon. Calgary beat TWU 96–65 with 57 of their 96 points coming from Robbie Sihota and Henry Bekkering, which wor-ried Hanson Friday night when he learned who his team’s opponents would be the following night.

“That was one of the best games I’ve seen Calgary play in a long time,” said Hanson of Calgary’s dominating performance over TWU. “They have size, they have athletes, they have shooters and they will probably want a little bit of revenge for what happened last year at their place, so I think it’s going to be a great basketball game and both teams are going to be really well prepared.”

In Saturday’s game, the T-Birds allowed the Dinos to get off to a quick first quarter lead after a dunk by Dino forward Dominyc Coward on a fast break as the first quarter expired. The Calgary

bench was pumped up after the buzzer-beating play and took their momentum into the second quarter. Starting guard Blain Labranche fell awkwardly in the first quarter injuring his left foot, and did not return.

UBC surrendered 12 unan-swered points to Calgary in the second quarter to allow them to jump out to a 36–20 lead that would turn into a 48–32 Dino lead by halftime. “They came out more like men and we came out more like boys,” Hanson said of his team’s poor play to open the game.

Down by 12 points to start the fourth quarter, Hanson brought in, for the first time in the game, speedy first-year guard Akeem Pierre to help his team play a high-pressure, full court defence in order to try and create turnovers. It paid dividends, as the T-Birds managed a 17–4 run to tie the game with 3:54 left to play after being down by as many as 21. It was thanks in part to a series of three-pointers by Whyte, Dyck, and Malish.

From that moment on to the 1:33 mark, the teams held each other scoreless. That was until

Sihota (15 points, 11 rebounds) drained a clutch jumper from the elbow to put his team up 76-74 thanks to a vital offensive rebound by teammate Henry Bekkering (22 points) who assisted the play, and whose brother and teammate Ross Bekkering had 17 points and 14 rebounds.

With a 77-74 lead and 40 seconds remaining, Whyte (21 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists) stole the ball at mid-court from Dino guard Andy Rachon and finished the play with two points to cut the Calgary lead to one.

But on the Dinos’ next posses-sion, Sihota struck again. With the shot clock winding down, he ob-tained the ball at the top of the key and nailed a fading three-pointer to put his team up 80–76 for good.

“I kept telling the guys ‘We don’t have to just hold on. Keep going and playing hard,’ but I think our guys did tighten up a little bit,” said Calgary coach Dan Vanhoo-ren. “Our expectation wasn’t to come in here and get out to the kind of lead we did. We expected it to be quite a battle and UBC is a great basketball team. We knew they were going to come back. We had that lead way too early and we

froze up a bit on offence down the stretch. But it was nice to see us loosen up and have Robbie hit that big shot at the end.”

It wasn’t all negatives for the Birds, though, as the hard-fought battle allowed them to prove to themselves that they could mount furious comebacks in nervy situ-ations. They failed from the free-throw line however, making just 12 of 25 foul shots, which could have made the difference between victory and defeat.

“It’s a great time to be playing our best basketball,” said Vanhoo-ren. “Our turnovers are down and we are passing the ball well and shooting well. When we are doing that, we are a really tough basket-ball team, and we proved that to-night. UBC is a great team and they deserve to be ranked number two, if not number one, in the nation, and they are going to be a heck of a team to deal with at nationals.”

“I thought we made a great comeback,” said Hanson who, after the game, was awarded the Canada West Coach of the Year Award. “The guys put so much effort and energy into it. We did run out of gas a little bit late in the fourth there when we needed it but these types of games are great to go through. To show our guys that we are able to come back in a game like that was important.”

UBC and Calgary will be the only two teams to represent Can-ada West in the national champi-onships, which begin March 13 at Carleton University. Dyck, one of three T-Birds captains, finished the game with 23 points, six re-bounds and four assists and is more than ready for the challenge of the national championships. “Taking a loss like this, we’re go-ing to work hard and just get back at it,” said Dyck. “We’re going to be hungrier than ever.” U

Calgary outlasts UBC in thriller T-Birds lose in heartbreaker, but still make CIS Championships

LEFT Josh Whyte leaps for a layup during the Canada West Finals. keegan bursaw photo/the ubyssey. RIGHT Fans cheer on the players while enjoying beer. BELOW Crazy P cheers. goh iromoto photos/the ubyssey

The guys put so much effort and energy into it. We did run out of gas a

little bit late in the fourth there when we needed it but these types of games are great to go through.

—Thunderbirds Head Coach

Kevin Hanson

10 | sports march 3, 2009the ubyssey | www.ubyssey.ca

The women’s volleyball team competed in the CIS championships this past weekend and won their second consecutive crown in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Although finishing third in the Canada West regular season, the Birds bounced back to claim the Canada West championship and went on to beat Calgary at the CIS Cham-pionship finals.

With pressure on their back and playing far away from home, the Birds were initially not the top favourite in the tournament as they were seeded second after Montreal. The Calgary Dinos had the mo-mentum going into the final by beating Montreal in the semifinals, but fell short in front of the defending champions. The final was a hard fought match with a score of 25-20, 22-25, 29-27, 20-25, 15-9. The Birds have now established their position after suffering a 30-year drought prior to the crown they achieved last year.

photo courtesy of chris burgland

The Sledge Hockey Cup was held from Feburary 24–March 1 in the Thunderbird Arena at UBC. Team Canada prevailed 2–1 in a shoot-out against the US in the finals. jon horn photos/the ubyssey

Back 2 Back!

Canada dominant in sledge hockey

Agenda : Wednesday, March 41. Women’s Supplement2. Colours Supplement3. Staff restructuring vote 4. Kate’s fundraiser5. Motivational staff meeting date6. Mary Lynn seminar7. Discuss where 6 went8. Mary Lynn seminar9. Ubyssey board election update

• Note: The meeting will start precisely at 12:05. Be there.

advertisement | 11march 3, 2009 the ubyssey | www.ubyssey.ca

March 3, 2009 | Page 12OOpinion If you’d like to submit a letter, please contact feedback@ubyssey.ca

THE AFRICA AWARENESS INITIATIVE’S RESPONSE TO “CANADIAN LIFESTYLE IS NOT FOR EVERYONE”

Canada is a multicultural country that has embraced the peoples of many nations. The diversity of cultures within most Canadian cities is one of the most colourful in the world.

However, when many cultures come together the hardest part is finding the balance between embracing their newfound global solidarity and remaining in-tune with their customs. The Africa Awareness Initiative (AAI) at UBC is one of the many clubs that focus on bridging the gap between two unique ways of life.

Students at UBC have found in the Africa Awareness Initiative a place that facilitates intelligent discussion and understanding of the relationship between African culture and their own cultures. The continued dedication of AAI to increasing the positive perception of Africa’s cultural, economic and political state among other things has largely led to the implementation of

the African studies minor and will hopefully be a key factor in the establishment of the African studies major.

It was on this basis that the executive members of the Africa Awareness initiative agreed to an interview by a Ubyssey writer in the hopes of highlighting their goals and the plight of the Afri-can student at UBC. However, upon release, the article did not convey what was meant during the interview and consequently a lot of misconceptions have been formed about the focus of the Afri-ca Awareness Initiative, its mem-bers and the continent as a whole. We hope to dispel those now.

The AAI team and its members respect the position of The Ubys-sey and have faith in the integrity of the writer. We, however, dis-pute the idea that the club believes that “Canadian lifestyle is not for everyone.” One of the main aims of the club is to bring together peo-ples of many distinctive cultures and allow them to find common ground in their passion for Africa.

There are differences be-tween the “Canadian lifestyle” and that of Africans, but these

differences are what make each culture unique and none can be undermined in favour of anoth-er. Many African students can attest to the warmth that they have received within UBC and the impact it has had on their lives. The promotion of global citizenship by UBC is fully em-braced by the Africa Awareness Initiative team and its mem-bers, and has inspired them to push for equal representation of the African continent.

The continued dedication of the AAI team to increasing the knowledge of African economic affairs, among other things, has resulted in the African Dream Launch, which was held on February 26 at the Liu Institute. The guest speaker during the launch was Dzingai Mutumbuka, who is the chair of the Association of Develop-ment of Education in Africa and the former sector manager of human development at the World Bank. This was a won-derful opportunity for all who are interested in learning more about African education poli-cies based on African leader-ship and developmental issues in Africa.

The dream of the Africa Awareness Initiative is to pro-mote inquiring, knowledge-able and open-minded global citizens, and we hope that The Ubyssey will embrace our hope for the future. U

Africa Awareness unites diverse cultures

Letters PerspectivesIN RESPONSE TO SPHR’S ‘IS-RAEL APARTHEID WEEK’:One has to wonder what is going through the minds of the UBC Solidarity for Palestinian Hu-man Rights’ (SPHR) executives as they prepare to unveil another inflammatory “Israel Apartheid Week” from Mar. 2–6 2009 on our beautiful campus.

Is the sole goal of SPHR to blatantly offend and infuriate Is-rael’s supporters at UBC, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, by using cheap propaganda tactics in an attempt to equate democratic Israel with a formerly repres-sive and outdated South African system? One need only ask one of Israel’s estimated 127,000 citi-zens of Ethiopian extraction such as my friend and former Israel Defence Forces comrade-in-arms Mekonen Gevermadhin to dispel this vicious lie of discrimination existing in Israel any more than in other democratic countries.

I am puzzled as to why SPHR would dedicate a week of their time to Israel-bashing, when they could gain so much more support for their cause (yes, even among members of UBC’s Israel Aware-ness Club) by portraying a mod-erate, peace-focused, message. It certainly would not hurt SPHR’s image if they were to attempt to transmit more positive aspects of Arab culture to the larger campus community instead of constantly

railing against Israel.I understand that many UBC

students find it challenging to ac-cept the representation of Arabs as peace-loving people when im-ages of PLO hijackings, Hamas suicide bombings, Hezbollah rocket attacks, and above all the 9/11 Saudi terrorist attacks that brought down the twin towers in New York, remain fresh in their minds. But, why not give it a try? Why continue to stoke the flames of the fire?

I believe strongly that a week hosted by SPHR dedicated to Jewish-Arab co-existence in the Middle East would have a far greater effect on this campus than the continued vilification and demonization of the Jewish-Zionist homeland which I whole-heartedly support. U

—Freeman PoritzHistory Honours 4

UBC Israel Awareness Club Treasurer 2008-2009

Freeman Poritz served as an infantry soldier and in the foreign relations bureau of the Israel De-fence Forces from 2004–2007

If you wish to to submit a letter it must be no longer than 350

words. Your identity will be con-firmed by phone or by ID from

the office. People may email us at feedback@ubyssey.ca

“There are differences between the ‘Canadian lifestyle’ and that of Africans,

but these differences are what make each culture unique and none can be

undermined in favour of another”

Editor: Joe Rayment

“You...write...letter.”—last words of former letters editor

write a letter feedback@ubyssey.ca

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March 3, 2009 | Page 14

Letters

Streeters

EEditorial If you’d like to submit a letter, please contact feedback@ubyssey.ca

Alek Hrycailco BASC 1

Do you use vitamin supplements?

Alex Stevens Science 3

Ammar BakhurjiEngineering 1

Brian Wong Science 2

Caitlin MacDonell Commerce 3

—Coordinated by Tara Martellaro & Alicia Woodside

“No...I prob-ably should take calcium...I haven’t really looked into it, but I feel like my diet is sufficient for my vitamin needs.”

“Yes, definitely supplements for sure...I take lots of supplements: vitamin pills, fish oil pills, anti-in-flammatory, liver pills...vitamin supplements are key because you can’t get all the nutrients from regular food.”

“We need vitamins every day in our lives, and sometimes we don’t get vitamins due to our studies. We don’t have time to cook, we don’t have time to eat.”

“Nope, not re-ally. I don’t take them at all...They’re expen-sive, and so far I’m doing good without them.”

“I take calcium, a couple forms of vitamin D—other than that I don’t generally take them personally. I do think they are a good idea though for the average person.”

by Trevor Melanson

We have come to the following conclusion: pants are overrated. At least, that’s what many of us were thinking following the highly successful and PDAtastic No Pants Party held in the SUB on Friday. It was spearheaded by the fun-loving Radical Beer Faction, who have done a bang-up job in holding the occasional party that helps to make this campus a fun place to be on a Friday night. What they haven’t had as much success with is changing the culture on campus that allows a hyperbolic slogan like “War on Fun” to have some merit.

Changes could be coming though. For a number of years, the officer who developed the worst rapport with students on cam-pus was Constable Rob Worsley, who never met an exuberant party he didn’t want to end. But last semester, he was granted a requested transfer out of UBC. We’ve been told the reason was that he felt he had lost the trust of students on campus to effectively do his job. His replacement, Charlotte Peters, has, by all accounts, been a significant improvement.

But a far greater, and potentially far more important de-velopment is currently underway. Staff Sgt. Dan Wendland is set to be transferred out of UBC later this year. Who’s that 99.8 per cent of you ask? Well, he was the first officer of his rank to come to UBC in 2005. He revamped the rules around granting special occasion licenses on campus (ie: passes to serve liquor), and has strictly, and we mean strictly, enforced them. Many in the know point to his Javertesque devotion to the law as the reason that scores of faculty and club events have been cancelled or significantly curtailed in recent years. In an interview with The Tyee, he disparaged the events held to raise culture and raise funds for clubs as “weekly beer gardens, daily beer gardens, drunkfests, whatever [students] want to call them,” and have said students “don’t own this place out here.” So yeah, he’s sort of a big deal. And his departure creates a gi-ant opportunity to re-open fundamental debates about the role of the RCMP, with the RCMP.

Now obviously, a new staff sergeant does not make a resolu-tion to the War on Fun. It doesn’t change the simple fact that there are way too few officers policing this campus, and that the Vancouver Police Force is much better suited than the RCMP to deal with this area. But it’s a start. So, while we’d like to wish Sgt. Wendland the best in his future endeavours, we’d also hope that the AMS and the UBC administration take steps to work with his replacement in ensuring that the RCMP aren’t, in Stephen Toope’s words, “purveyors of prohibition.” And even if you waited until you were out of the SUB and in your bed before you took your pants off Friday, isn’t that something we can all agree on? U

Do you know why laws and rules exist? They exist for us. They exist to make our lives better. They exist so I can’t go outside and start fights in the street, because we have decided that we’d rather not have to fight someone just to get to work. They exist so that companies can’t dump toxic waste into the water supply to preserve their bottom line (Hi Erin Brockovich!), because we’ve decided that it’s more important for us to have water that isn’t poisonous than for a company to save a few bucks. They exist so you can cross the street without getting run over by an oncoming semi, because we’ve decided that we want to cross the street without being hit by traffic. Laws pro-tect society as we know it where morality falls short.

Rules start to lose their value when people follow them blind-ly simply because they are the rules. They are meant to serve a greater good. The minute they no longer fulfill that function, it is justified and proper to freely ignore that rule. Rules serve the people, people do not serve the rules. In other words, let’s say we want to break a rule. Ask the question: would break-ing this rule cause any harm (harm defined as negative or unwanted consequences)? If the answer is no, then feel free to throw that rule out the window.

A good example for this is that jaywalking (i.e. crossing the street anywhere other than a crosswalk) is against the rules. Why is it against the rules? Because we decided that pedestrian safety is a good thing. And we at The Ubyssey agree that a rule against jaywalking is a good rule. However, if there is no traf-fic, then it is perfectly fine to ignore that rule and cross the street.

In fact, if we blindly follow the rules, more harm may come than good, as we will not be evaluating our actions. We live in a democratic society where debate on laws is technically public—constant thought about the effectiveness of a law is necessary.

This applies on campus as well. It is your right to question whether a rule works anymore, and, more importantly, respect-fully disobey it. U

Bye-bye Wendland

Rules are meant to be questioned

March 3, 1992AMS orders EUS to pay $15,000 because of a racist, sexist, and homophobic EUS-lettre published in 1990.

This day in Ubyssey history

Dear fellow Koreans,

Shut the fuck up.I don’t want to hearhow you’d love to tapthat white chick’s ass,ride her on her all fours,make a white horseout of her.

Nor do I want to see howyou revel in the factshe is ordering herfried rice and veggiesunaware of foreign

degradation,standing just a meter awayfrom you—hardlyfar enough.

—Minwook BaeEnglish 3

If you wish to to submit a letter it must be no longer than 350

words. Your identity will be con-firmed by phone or by ID from

the office. People may email us at feedback@ubyssey.ca

THE UBYSSEY PRESENTS: INTERNET WOES

For those of you that have not noticed, there has been no new content put on our website for quite some time now. This is due to issues that we are having while switching servers. Now, we know that we have been promising new web content ev-ery day, and it’s been made—but not posted. Our webmaster tells us that it’s because the tubes are broken and leaking somewhere in the dry Texas desert. We’ve been keeping in contact with him through satellite phone as he traverses that rugged terrain with a very super-duper leak detection device made especially for finding excess Internet de-posits in typically dry areas, such as Texas.

The device doesn’t work so well in wet climates, as the Inter-net will dissociate in water, leav-ing porn and LOLcat deposits in

the soil. These will confuse the detector, giving constant false positives. This was the initial reason for switching over our servers, at least according to our webmaster, who knows a lot more about this sort of thing then the rest of us. Hell, as far as we know, it’s magic.

So, hopefully we will find the source of the leak soon and stop it up with large amounts of sili-cone and excess internet com-ments. Then the natural flow will be restored and you can read great Ubyssey content with only minor interruptions, usually from our own pipe trolls. We’re looking at you, Clayton Burns.

Love,The Ubyssey

games & a poem | 15march 3, 2009 the ubyssey | www.ubyssey.ca

ACROSS1. The “Australian drop-bear”6. Type of tea10. Herring-like fish14. A venomous snake15. Surrealist Salvador16. Designer Chanel17. Alias19. Still mooing20. High school subject, similar to Chem or Econ21. Underwater shocker22. One who gets a goal24. Consult26. Sheet of paper27. Provoke29. Furniture that lines the wall33. Perfect score on a scale of attrac-tiveness34. “Do you see what I’m trying to __ __?”36. Part of the animal or fruit that is eaten37. Jason’s ship39. The 1852 publisher of the Thesau-rus of English Words and Phrases 41. Not here42. A small island44. An eagleís nest46. American icon, with 66a47. Captain Malcolm __, of Firefly49. Sultan’s abode51. “Well, I guess...”52. A wooden prop53. Tumbler56. Opposite of WSW57. Examine60. Margarine61. Conclusive argument64. Highly excited65. White-tailed Eagle66. American icon, with 46a67. A lot68. Raise69. Lacy potholder

DOWN1. German philosopher of the Critique of Pure Reason2. Smell3. Appreciatively4. Account book5. I am, we __6. Time waster7. To be “born in the __”8. Tree from certain Plath poem9. Type of vehicle that burns heavy oil10. “King’s Evil” disease11. Dramatic frost12. Winnie’s wood had a hundred of

these13. Perhaps the opposite of 6d18. Eye slang23. Baby elephant25. Stale air, slang26. By and by27. Step28. Laconic29. “The __ of sin”30. Journalism wire service31. Abraham’s son, of Genesis32. Homonymic herb35. Lackey38. The art of wine making40. A waitress’s favourite patron43. “Puff the dragon”45. Piece of corn48. Pantry50. Someone from South or Central American, maybe52. Scornful smile53. Soapy froth54. One __, two algae55. Philosopher __ Trotsky

56. Sicilian volcano58. Buy and __59. Basketball three-pointer62. Shakespeare’s before63. To slander, or throw __

FRIDAY’S ANSWERS

Crossword by Kyrstin BainSeldom do I finish what I start,Books, literature, associations, and Eros, all in part,Fortitude, astuteness, and forbearance I lack,All that and desire, passion, and regret, courtesy of you, now I pack.

That inveigling smile which shall remain ensconced forever,Spouting a perennial fountain of tranquility, prurience, and pleasure,Relying on the incandescence of that beam when a journey I embark,Thy will steer me through intricacies when outlook is dark,Your eyes, mammaries, and glowing beauty all mesmerize;That initial rainy night shall remain a life-long gratifying surprise.

Hand in hand we strolled momentarily,Brimming with lust, frolicked boisterously,He clutched onto you with his firm embrace;Nourishing his soul, you absorbed him with grace,Barring that, he is abyssal in his approbation and regard for she,For the inspiration and ingenuity bequeathed on the anarchist he.

With ardor and resolve, I will pledge to commit this:Compose much more of such for you, beauteous bliss,O Heather, don’t be unsettled by my fervor and expansive hold,Cherish, stay firm, and deliberate, for your name implies bold.

For once, I will finish what I start,Books, literature, associations, and Eros, all part by part.

—Sulman Umar

A POEM FOR A CHANGE: AE CONSUMMATION

Looking to scare yourself this Friday the 13th? Come to the Black Box Theatre, party with The Ubyssey and be frightened at how much our editors can drink...

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