O ewspaperNutlOOkThe American UniversiTy of BeiruT

vol. Xlii, no. 19 | TUesdAy, MArch 23, 2010 | The IndependenT sTudenT PublicaTion since 1949

Continued on page 4

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Movie review

11You think what you eat

Food

6editorial & OpinionCampus News

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wonderland

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entertainmentOut of the Box

10-1112 Joe kodeih

Ashrafieh 9Fea events

photo by Outlook staff

In the week preceding the much publicized cafete-ria sit-in, organized by

the usFC under the name united students for Cafete-ria, there was much specula-tion to what this movement would accomplish. the an-swers to these questions came on tuesday, March 16 at noon, where only a hand-ful of students gathered on the steps of the ada Doge Cafeteria to demand that it be given back to them as soon as possible.those sitting on the steps held a small banner with united students for Cafete-ria inscribed on it. they be-gan to chant several lines in arabic such as “Bedna nekol, juaaneen, akel Faqra mesh taybeen,” to show their dis-content with the current ca-tering service.Vp elias Ghanem, who was seated at the center of the crowd, used a megaphone to convey the usFC’s mes-

sage to the surrounding, which included provost ah-mad Dallal and associate Dean of student affairs ta-lal Nizameddine, as well as other members of the admin-

istration.Ghanem stressed upon the fact that the students were united in order to fight for their rights in having their cafeteria back. He added

that, “auB students have been thrown away while [the administrators] sit in their offices enjoying their time.”In response to all the rumors that have been circulating

around campus concerning the previous and current ca-terers, Ghanem said that “there is no link between the lawsuit against the old con-tractor and the beginning of the renovation here.”He also touched upon the “fic-tional stories that the stu-dents have been told,” while addressing the provost about the lack of the resources be-ing employed. If these are available, “it will take two months and our cafeteria will be ready for us.”Finally, and on the behalf of all auB students, the usFC imposed a 10 day limit upon the administration to employ these resources or else a sec-ond action will take place.In the meantime, several students were able to get in-side the building, to the awe of some of the audience mem-bers. amidst many cheers,

Cafeteria sit-In: students make their voices heard, adminis-tration given 10 days to acttala kardasNews executive

Carlos slim Helu, who recently as-sumed the position of

world’s wealthiest man, ad-dressed an eager audience on wednesday, March 17, at the Olayan school of Busi-ness’ Maamari auditorium in a lecture on “the New Civ-ilization of knowledge and technology.” As part of his first visit to lebanon, as well as appear-

ing on the political television talk show kalam el Nass, slim made another public appearance at auB before his departure to discuss is-sues relating to worldwide and local business and econ-omy. the astoundingly success-ful magnate examined the paradigms of primitive ag-ricultural society of our an-cestors, comparing them to those of the industrial world of today, and how economic systems have altered to ac-

commodate the difference. Himself the son of a lebanese emigrant, slim touched on the paucity of opportunities in the lebanese economy, advising that to avoid young lebanese leaving, they must be provided with good educa-tion and more job opportu-nities. alluding to himself, the Mexican-born slim re-assured that emigrants and

Carlos slim Helu Gives lecture in OsB Yasmine saabstaff writer

Continued on page 4photo by Qater al Nada Mohsen/Outlook

eDItOrIal & OpINION

You’ve all probably heard of the myth that college stu-dents barely have any money to get by. well, it’s not a myth as has been determined to me in the past two years.During the first week of the spring semester, I had to make a quick run to the auB Bookstore to by myself a note-book, because I had forgot-ten mine at home. around 15 minutes later, I emerged vic-torious since I had found one that was within the budget that one would allocate to a notebook. But that’s just one story of many, many stories that any one of us can experi-ence on a day to day basis.It’s not easy being financial-ly-conscious when you have an 8 am to 6pm day ahead of

you. It all begins with trans-portation. If you drive, you have to pay for parking. If you don’t, you have to pay for the bus or taxi. then you need that very essential cup of cof-fee, which can range from the affordable to the luxurious, depending on how exquisite your taste is.Of course breakfast, lunch, and a snack in between are all factors-unless you’re lucky to live somewhere nearby and are able to go home to eat.let’s not forget the incredibly expensive cell phone charges that every person in lebanon has to endure with. whether we wish to deny it or not, life without a phone is unbear-able in a country like leba-non. with the advent of the Blackberry, especially, which requires a separate subscrip-tion than a regular phone, that’s one extra charge we are better off without, at least in my opinion.that’s not counting all the separate, infrequent ex-penses like buying tickets to events, a night out with friends, gifts, and even sta-tionary. like in the story I

mentioned above, even the price of an a4 notebook is on the rise while everything about the economy is going through a downward spiral.the tuition and other fees re-quired to study at auB are alone mind-boggling. Only a handful attends without hav-ing some form of aid, schol-arship, or loans. add to that what an average student spends every day and you may get a sum that’s enough to feed an entire village of starving people in africa!Thus the ultimate resort: find a job. But it’s not easy finding a vacancy in a job that match-es your capabilities and your college schedule-while still beating out the competition. so eventually, you don’t work and rely on the meager sum you get from your parents- stretching out every single penny, hoping you don’t run out before the end of the week or month. the only form of as-surance that we can all count on is that at least everyone is going through the same thing, hoping for a windfall, as we are all poor, little col-lege students.

Op-edThe poor little college student

Tala Kardaseditorial

Mohamad Yahia Hamade editor-in-Chief

I put a lot of thought before joining a group on Facebook. I’m very critical at the poten-tial message I might be send-ing out to the world. Do I re-ally want people to think I’m still down in the dumps six-teen years after Mufasa from the lion king is dead? well, I slightly am, but that is not the point.while browsing my recent group invitations, the “when I was your age, this area used to be called the ‘west smok-ing area’” group caught my eye. even though I’m not a smoker, I was very dis-heartened after reading the group’s description and wall and eventually clicked the ‘join’ button.I have recently gathered from various credible sources is that the auB administration is not only limiting smoking areas, but is also considering an even more hardnosed al-ternative for the future. they are planning to ban smoking on campus altogether. this might decrease smoking, but several students, if not hun-dreds would just ignore the rule – much like what they already do. It is impossible and iniquitous to ban smok-ing on campus.I realize I am playing the dev-il’s advocate with my talk of fire and brimstone, but this editorial purpose is not to promote cigarettes or smok-ing. I know that most smok-

ers, and non-smokers, real-ize that smoking is a major problem with confounding health implications. It pro-vides no benefits to us, and causes more deaths than lion attacks. Yet people con-tinued to smoke.However, auB should real-ize that forcing students to quite cold turkey is not real-istic and nearly impossible. Nicotine is highly addictive as any smoker may attest to that. I recall reading a study done in Massachu-setts that smoking fell dras-tically among the poor, who are usually have the highest rates of smoking, after the state offered intervention plans and medications.I think offering students a smoking cessation program is a much better alterna-tive than segregating smok-ers from non-smokers in se-cluded areas. apartheid will not make things disappear, students will still be smok-ing and security guards will be cracking down the law on them. I know a lot of staff, students, faculty members, and even Outlookers who want to discontinue their maladaptive habit. Howev-er, as I aforementioned, the highly addictive nature of nicotine makes quitting im-possible. If such a smoking cessation program existed, it could potentially help them boot the habit before it boots them.students should not have to isolate themselves from the rest of the student body be-cause they enjoy lighting up. they are a part of auB’s campus, a small part albeit, but they are equally impor-tant. auB therefore should not adopt policies that dis-criminate against smokers, but should invest in ways to help them – and not just look out for non-smokers’ inter-ests.

Hold your breath

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3

eDItOrIal & OpINIONOp-ed

usually I tend to have this ‘extraordinary-yet-not-so-

much-envied-for’ ability to see beyond the person in front of me, to read between the lines, and somehow manage to spit the truth right in your face with minimum casual-ties—OuCH! Yes, I was not intending to ‘spit the truth’ this time, but seriously peo-ple, you asked for it. allow me to explain. It just so happens that this past week, auB hosted, umm, how shall I put it? um, let’s say that it just so happens that a great ‘leba-nese’ figure has showered us with his oh so eventhough-I-am-a-gazillionaire-I-still-do-find-pride-in-being-some-how-lebanese-tear-indu-cin’-aw-evokin’-bloody-nos-talgic-somehow-humble-ish statements. Yes my be-loved, Carlos slim happens to be the newest member in the coolest club in town—the one which I like to refer

to as the ‘so-called-famous-lebanese-elsewhere Diaspo-ra’ club—along with Mika, Masari, shakira and the rest of the ‘fellas’. Ok, let me make it clear—I have noth-ing against slim. surpris-ingly, for a man in his ‘sky-high’ socioeconomic status, his statements are somehow ‘down to earth’. Once he told the media and I quote “when you live for others’ opinions, you are dead. I don’t want to live thinking about how I’ll be remembered”. On another occasion, when asked about his sudden wealth, he report-edly said, “the stock market goes up ... and down”, and noted that his fortune could quickly drop. at that point, I was like, whoa, for a rich guy, that’s like a pretty im-pressive thing to utter. Hon-estly, what really kills me is the lebanese themselves. On

Op-ed

we where in Genetics class last semester when came the killer query, “do you not think about death!?” asked Dr. Darwiche, current pro-fessor and researcher on the biology of cancer at the de-partment of Biology at auB. a deep voice welled within

me, “Yes.. yes, I do.” apop-tosis was the subject matter that day, the process of pro-grammed cell suicide exe-cuted in aims of saving the body from infection muta-tion, and disease. Just imag-ine what your body is capable of doing because of the mar-velous self-sacrifice of thou-sands of cells, tens of thou-sands of which have possibly sloughed off you by the time you reach the end of this sen-tence! It is by the consistent recycling of cells that new-er, more efficient ones can emerge, keeping the cycle of life in check and up to par. so we come to see, that life is propelled forward by death and so, if death cannot possi-bly be the end, could it very well be the beginning? Could death be that torrent of life; a

dried up well beneath which stratums of gushing water run hidden?the irony in it all, how we tend to our duties in broken prayer nonchalantly await-ing our time, until that time comes, when we magically convert into devout believ-ers. Hilarious! Death makes angels of us all. Yes, death is here and death is now; death is the here and now, look around, open up and you shall see. earthquakes, in Haiti, turkey, sidon, now Chili… let us rejoice our lives by setting our eyes on our death and prepare to re-ceive each breath of life. No, we may not be conscious of when our bells will toll, nor of when the three-ply cloth be cut for our shrouding, but we do know that it’s only a mat-

ter of time. a matter of super-sprinting seconds, before the clock strikes its final hour, just ask your grandparents, they will surely relate to this sojourn we have come to call life.let us discuss the matter in retrospect shall we? we can-not die, lest we be blessed with life, yet can we tru-ly live lest we be awestruck with death? what is this life we lead if we have nothing worth dying for? take so-crates, early Greek think-er and spokesman for exam-ple, he died for his values, the very act of valor that immor-talized his name. It goes to reason therefore, that partic-ularly in a deep appreciation of death, of our finiteness, can we find a sanctuary for life beaming with the inno-

Put your hands up for Lebanon…or maybe not! Maya Terro

Life in the Wake of Death

Rami Diab

March 10, 2010, Forbes re-ported that slim had over-taken Gates and Buffet as the world’s richest man, with a net worth of us$53.5 billion. I was like ‘good for him’. It’s good to have some-one other than Gates for a change, right? However, not everyone I knew felt the same way. In some ‘magical-ly contagious’ way, the rich ‘lebanese’ Mexican became the talk of town to the extent that you could feel every-one around you feeling two times prouder of being leba-nese more so now than before March 10. I wonder why? But we all know that that’s a rhe-torical question, right. But really folks, is he, um, leba-nese? like ‘really’ lebanese? last time I checked, some-where in the lebanese law, in order for you to be leba-nese you have to be like ‘born

in lebanon’ or at least ‘resid-ed in it for a period of 10 years or more’. But hey someone could always use the ‘you-can-be-lebanese-in-your-heart-you-know’ counterar-gument. Besides, ‘he does have the lebanese features’. Fine, I’ll let you have it folks. But Forbes most certainly will not. will it? according to Forbes, slim is Mexican. Yes, he was born in Mexico, raised there, studied there, married there, made a family there, and currently still resides there. I don’t see where ‘leb-anon’ enters the equation. Oh, yeah. right, his parents were lebanese. puh-leez, you can do better than that. which makes me wonder— what really makes some-one ‘lebanese-ish’? well, I’m way past my word-count, but somehow, I ‘know’ what my next op-ed will be about!

cent, untainted love for (not of) life and for the increase of life. aye, death makes angels of us all…

4

CaMpus NewsCafeteria sit-in

Continued from page 1

they proceeded to unfas-ten the green “under Con-struction” sign that had been hanging since the beginning of the past Fall semester and replace it with the same usFC banner that was seen earlier. when this had all finished, the old banner was wrapped up and given to pro-vost Dallal.this all took place in under 10 minutes; however the feeling of accomplishment amongst the students seemed to linger for a while.second year Mechanical en-gineering student Jonathan Dagher, who was one of those participating in the sit-in, said, “we really need a place to hang out. we are sick of go-ing to the library. pressure is always a good thing,” when asked about why he chose to attend.Computer science senior rami el Outa echoed Dagh-er’s comments, but when asked if the 10 day limit will lead to any constructive ac-tion, he replied, “It’s just a de-mand, nothing will happen in [those ten days]. we all need to collaborate though.” the action even induced pride in some students like Karim Badra who briefly passed by the area, yet felt

proud to be an auB student because the usFC were do-ing something.speaking on behalf of the usFC, treasuer Yehya Oueini noted that the whole action started because the council received many com-plaints concerning the cafe-teria. this was not only about the food but also about the so-cial aspect, as since the clo-sure of the smoking area near west Hall, auB feels emp-ty. He added that the usFC had talked to the provost and Dean Nizameddine on a previous occasion and they had promised that students would be involved in the pro-cess of the renovations. Ouei-ni concluded that this sit-in was effective because both students and administrators attended.On the other hand, Dallal had no comment on the ten day limit the usFC set. He un-derstands the justified frus-tration of the students, how-ever finds no sense in setting a limit as there are plans that must be looked it to. accord-ingly, a fully operating cafe-teria is not expected before summer.He then set the re-cord straight about the ru-mors. according to Dallal, the contract of the previ-

ous caterers was terminated based upon the feedback of students. the former service then stripped the building of all facilities, leaving nothing for the new services to work with. Faced with this situa-tion, auB followed the nor-mal procedure and asked for bids from prospective cater-ers. they were open to any possibility, as long as it met the specifications and stan-dards set. In the end, sev-en companies applied with the general consensus go-ing to Faqra catering. since

mits required ready, demo-lition work will begin, com-plying with the law and internal standards. “every-one is poised and ready, but we’re not sure if we’ll meet this ultimatum,” he said in conclusion.this may not be the perfect answer that the students are looking for, however. For now, the entire auB com-munity must wait patient-ly for the administration’s next step and what the us-FC’s next step is when the ten days run out.

they presented a large pro-posal and in order for every-thing to be done profession-ally, time is required. In the meantime, they started pro-viding through the mobile kitchen between ada Dodge and west Hall as well as in OsB and Hostler Center.Dallal had some positive news to share though, as a design draft for the cafeteria was drawn up as of late last week. they intend to show it to students to get their com-ment and as soon as they are able to get the building per-

“education.” slim repeat-edly underlined the imper-ativeness of education, af-firming, “Better education means better jobs and vari-ety of jobs,” and that “a coun-try with better education is better-equipped to compete.” the immediacy of the situ-ation, he believes, is some-thing that cannot be ignored, claiming that poverty is “no longer a social or moral issue but now a need for the econ-omy.”During the lecture, protes-tors assembled outside the

slim speaks to auB students and faculty

auditorium carrying pictures of argentinian revolution-ary Ché Guevara and ban-ners in spanish and arabic condemning capitalism. One banner read “From Mexico to lebanon, the underpriv-ileged are the same every-where” while another, “Down with capitalist terrorism.” the dissenters eventually left from the scene.apart from deliberating on trade and commerce, Car-los slim also imparted many words of wisdom and person-al prerogatives onto aspiring

business entrepreneurs as well as the average individu-al, such as that one should be truly passionate about what they do. Finally, drawing on his im-pressive 70 years, he reflect-ed that although life is long, it travels quickly, and that as “we leave this life with noth-ing” we must be sure to ac-complish as much as we can while it lasts. as concerns Carlos slim Helu, we can be sure that he lives by his own motto, as he has certainly ac-complished much.

their children “maintain the root and culture” of their an-cestral home. also regarding local matters, the notorious issues of unre-liable electrical power sup-ply, frustratingly inefficient broadband, and excessively costly expenses charged by telecommunication compa-nies. slim, who obtained the private ownership of telmex (the primary telecommunica-tions provider for several lat-in american countries) from the Mexican government, suggested that the same oc-cur in lebanon. He recom-

mended that, among other widely needed but faulty ser-vices, “electric power should be open to privatization.” the option of hydroelectricity was also put forth. Concerning the prospect of personal local investments (which seemed to be of key in-terest to most present), the tycoon loosely intimated that speculations in lebanon are a possibility, provided that the national peace persists. as for the increasing pover-ty afflicting the region and world at large, the main idea continually stressed on was

Continued from page 1

photo by Outlook staff

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CaMpus News

Hizbullah lecture

Investigation: Cafeteria sit-in - Do we care?Is Faqra Catering much worse than its predecessor?

One of the most adver-tised events that oc-curred last week was

the Cafeteria sit-in orga-nized by the usFC, which only lasted around ten min-utes and attracted far less students than expected. this was a great opportunity to in-terview students who where around at that time about this matter. the main ques-tion behind this investigation was: Do students really care about the cafeteria? Yet, this question opened many doors to other issues related to the cafeteria and Faqra Cater-ing- the current service.Biology junior abeer Mah-fouz described the sit-in as useless. “we’ve managed to survive without the cafe-teria,” she said. “there are much more important is-sues for the usFC to protest about. these include the de-creasing number of printers in Jafet library, the huge in-crease in internet fees, and HIp coverage which is very useless.” Biology senior elia el Haber also believes that there are other priorities. “Of course there are more impor-tant issues to protest about, like the recent increase in tu-

ition fees and decrease in on-campus shuttle timings. But even the matters that inter-est most of the student body, such as the cafeteria, attract-ed very few protesters and for little time. we were there at 12.20 pm and sadly, we were the only ones standing. a sit-in should have a more strik-ing position, especially if it involves the whole student body.”education senior Nadine Ghaith was there during the cafeteria sit-in. she de-scribed the scene as a “hero-ic act of nothingness. taking down the green ‘under Con-struction’ banner was like taking down the statue of an unpopular political lead-er.” she explained that the sit-in will not make a differ-ence, especially that it was very short-lived. In accor-dance with that, psychology sophomore lojine kamel be-lieves that “the cafeteria sit-in, though admirable, was pointless. In the end, it’s not the students but the admin-istration who decides and one day of protesting won’t make them move any faster.”Business senior sahar Mak-ki demonstrated utter disap-

proval of the cafeteria’s con-dition, whether in the past or present. “It doesn’t mat-ter that there is no cafeteria because it definitely won’t be up to par.” she continued to express her disapprov-al of Faqra Catering, their branches (OsB, Hostler), and their quality.third year Graphic Design student Nadine Chehade said, “last year, I used to grab something to eat from the main cafeteria since it was almost always on my way from a class to another. Now that it is closed, I can’t replace it with Hostler which is never on my way, nor with that of engineering, which is currently also closed for ren-ovations.” Moreover, she de-scribes the current cafeteria as a “bus/truck that is out of place, out of context, even if it is there just temporarly. It always makes me lose my ap-petite and I end up getting food from outside auB.”Food science graduate stu-dent loulwa kalash actual-ly agrees with the concept of the sit-in. “there’s nothing to lose but there is a lot to win if we got our voices heard,” she said. “For me, its one of my

priorities since I care about my food and where to eat ev-eryday. Health is very im-portant and food is basical-ly an issue that determines your health state.” Yet, she complains about the Hostler branch since its always so crowded. “It has a very inef-ficient spacing if we consider the wide space surrounding it. It’s just a waste on archi-tecture but no efficient space to accommodate students, staff, and faculty.” In addition to the reasons mentioned above, many stu-dents are hesitant about the presentation and qual-ity of the food in all branch-es. Kalash confirms this by saying that she doesn’t like how they display their food. “It makes me uncomfortable and hesitant if I want to eat [from them]. I mean its not a closed environment.” Biol-ogy senior elie Fares agrees by saying, “I have never tried their plat-du-jour because I basically don’t think it looks good.” He continues to say that “Faqra catering, in com-parison to usM, is utter rub-bish. You cannot even begin to compare the quality of ser-vice between the two: sal-

ad bars, better payment ser-vices, more food diversity, friendlier-looking employ-ees, etc...” el Haber also be-lieves that the older cater-ing system was much better. “the new Faqra system has less variety, less availabili-ty, no freshness, and they are not cheap at all comparing to the quality they are serving,” she said.Fares also complained about the supply of food being pro-duced each day. “Food runs out really fast and you don’t have a constant supply of food coming in, so if it’s over and there’s nothing else you want to - or can eat - around, you’re screwed.” In conclusion, it is very no-ticeable that most of the stu-dents are not satisfied with the current condition of the cafeteria. the closure of the main cafeteria might not have affected all the stu-dents, however they are all dissatisfied with Faqra Ca-tering’s food diversity, quali-ty, and hygiene. “Graduating without a decent cafeteria is rather depressing,” says Fares.

Mohammad Hijazistaff writer

Heather Jaberstaff writer

On March 19th, auB was treated to a lecture by pspa professor Bashir saade. Held in west Hall, received a large turnout as well as an ample amount of feedback from the variety of students and fac-ulty who attended. the lec-ture, titled “Hizbullah and the politics of remember-ing” covered the topic of the “performative” dimensions of Hizbullah. saade focused on the ritual and textual actions of Hizbullah, rather than at-tempt to moralize the entity or take a certain stance on ei-

ther side.saade opened the discussion by explaining that he was not “categorizing” Hizbul-lah, as the “political science approach” tends to do. In-stead, he was “more interest-ed in looking in intellectual spheres.” according to saade, it is important to study Hiz-bullah “because Hizbullah knows it is being studied, ob-served, and categorized.”a certain vagueness is also associated with Hizbullah, as the entity is constantly studied and thus categorized by the political science world. when this happens, the pop-ulation may have an inac-

curate or incomplete idea of the subject matter. “when we extrapolate on it, we end up having these vague no-tions.” taking the concept of Jihad, for example, saade stated “if someone says I’m waging Jihad, that means whatever that means for him at that moment in time...ev-erybody interprets things on his own.”another aspect of Hizbul-lah that plays a large role in its existence is its focus on the concept of remember-ing the past. taking the rit-ual of ashura into account, saade stated that he initial-ly “grew really skeptical be-

cause I dont think something that happens only once a year can really mobilize people,” but that it is capitalized on as a remembering ceremony to “push certain discourse.” saade referred to this cere-mony, as well as the memo-ries of the martyrs as “a re-current feature of how people find themselves linked.” He stated that “this remember-ing was a catalyst for action...when you remember, you don’t just remember a name, you remember a way of doing things.”saade concluded the discus-sion, rising awareness to the danger in studying the po-

litical entity. “writing on Hizbullah is a very danger-ous thing to do and I regret having chosen it as a topic,” saade jokingly said, induc-ing the laughs in the audi-ence. still, saade’s informa-tion was helpful to much of the audience. esraa Haidar, faculty of the school of Busi-ness found the lecture en-lightening, saying “he point-ed out a different perspective and focused on internal is-sues which not everyone has access to.”

photo by Outlook staff

6

CaMpus NewsYou think what you eat?Maya terrostaff writer

tuesday March 16th marked the 33rd mem-ory to the assassina-

tion of the eminent Druze leader kamal Joumblat. to mark the occasion the com-munication club set up an ex-hibition of this great man’s pictures, quotes and books. the books were provided by Dar el Takadomi, the official printing house of the progres-sive socialist party and will gain 60% of the profit made by selling these books; the re-maining 40% will go as fund-ing for the club. the publish-

ing house provided the club with about 27 titles by ka-mal Joumblat and three cop-ies of each title. later in the evening a lecture by NDu professor Dr. sawsan Najj-ar was held to highlight the most significant moments in his life, and the legacy he left behind. “Doubt is the path to faith” will sum up kamal Joumb-lat’s fascination with philoso-phy and his long quest for the truth, a quest out of which the progressive socialist party (psp) was born back in

1949, significantly, on Labor Day of that year. I say sig-nificantly because the PSP tends towards the less fortu-nate and a very strong work ethic. the psp of course lives on, 33 years after the assas-sination of its founder and we still honor and celebrate this man and his mission. But we remember him most-ly as a symbol of a certain po-litical and religious sect and rarely do we credit him for his literary work.kamal, the philosopher and the thinker has been hiding behind ka-

mal the political figure. The man who sought wisdom in France and India and every-where else he travelled in-troduced stability (as minis-ter of interior) and a better chance for the lower class-es by i.e. forcing the govern-ment to buy fruits and vege-tables from local farmers in Mount lebanon.although he came from the very well es-tablished Joumblat family, an only son amongst two sis-ters and heir to a long histo-ry in politics, spoiled and suf-focated with care, he moved

towards the lower classes, he did things single handedly and helped those in need, he looked after those who made up the bottom classes in so-ciety and even animals re-ceived his special care.Many inspirational anec-dotes have been reported and repeated from the Moukhtara palace and those who worked for or knew this man; all of them pay tribute to his no-ble quest for equality in leb-anon as we pay tribute today to his vision of lebanon, a vi-sion yet to materialize.

remembering kamal Joumblat: a tributeNadine Ghaithstaff writer’s

every aspect of our uni-versity life is impor-tant. when it comes to

nutrition, there seems to be a lot of confusion towards what really makes one type of food nutritious and others not as much. with this in mind, and after the success of its ear-lier event “Fit-a-thon,” the auB wellness program or-ganized a workshop entitled “You think what You eat” on wednesday, March17 in the New women’s Dormito-ry which aimed at spread-ing awareness amongst auB students on how students can adopt healthier lifestyles. the workshop, facilitat-ed by the Dietary Depart-ment at auBMC & the Fac-ulty of agriculture & Food sciences (FaFs), was a great substitute for lectures. Dr. Farah Naja (FaFs) and Ms. abir Barhoumi (Dietary De-partment), both of which are members of the Committee on university wellness, were behind the idea of the work-shop. the Committee on uni-versity wellness is basically a multi-disciplinary commit-tee and includes members from various departments. the basic mission of this com-mittee is to integrate activi-ties that impact the health and well-being of the auB

community at large, with an emphasis on the active staff, faculty, and students within auB. the program is currently un-der the jurisdiction of the university Health services. according to Dina Mahmas-sani, one of the organizers of this event, ‘’the activity was the seventh event being or-ganized this year by the auB wellness program and was open to all auB students, free of charge, as are all ac-tivities organized by the pro-gram.’’ Despite the stressful exam period, some 20 par-ticipants showed up. accord-ing to Mahmassani, rais-ing the issue of nutrition for students “especially during stress times is important […] particularly for those living on campus, given their limit-ed food venue options. I hope that we would have more stu-dents attending, enjoying, and benefiting from all the activities offered by the auB wellness program.’’ when asked about why the workshop took place in one of the women’s dormitory and not in west Hall, where workshops and lectures usu-ally take place, Mahmassani noted that students living in dorms are more prone to diffi-culties of finding healthy nu-

tritious food at all times than other students. Nutrition sophomore and dorm resident Nadine abi Younis welcomed the idea but was a bit disappointed. “I was very shocked the dorms girls did not show as much inter-est as I thought they would. If they had known exactly what the workshop was about or if it were better marketed, they would have shown more in-terest,” she noted. the people that did show up, however, did seem to find it useful and interesting. Naja was able to convey valuable information related to what

makes really determines whether a certain line of food is nutritious or not. surpris-ingly, and according to Naja, there is no such thing as free cholesterol bananas and nuts because vegetables and fruits do not have any cholester-ol in them; hence, students should be careful of this fact and not be fooled by what the food companies and accord-ingly tend to take things for granted. During the workshop, stu-dents were divided into teams with student floaters from Dr. Naja’s NFsC 221 class helping around the partici-

pants at the tables during the activities according to one of the participants, Mounia Ba-rakat, who is majoring in Food science and Manage-ment, “this event was very beneficial and useful to most of the attendees […] thanks to Dr. Farah Naja. It high-lighted and discussed several issues concerning food label-ing, dieting, and many more. we left with a better under-standing of the nutritional values, which in turn made us better judges to wheth-er the food we’re eating is healthy or not.”

photo by Maya terro/Outlook

7

CaMpus News

what’s a picture? the click of a button?public ad-

ministration undergraduate saaddine el kurdi, will make you think again. kurdi con-ducted his lecture entitled “Basic photography for Dai-ly life” on thursday, March 18 to enlighten interested students about the art of tak-ing pictures and to help make their everyday picture a little more special. the lecture was a beginner’s tutorial on gen-eral skills and recommenda-tions in photography. although still an undergrad, kurdi has taken several workshops on photography and works as a freelancer for various local magazines and websites, armed with all this, as well as his own readings on the matter he presented his audience with what every amateur photographer must know. In his lecture, kurdi dis-cussed the advantages and

disadvantages of the more natural film versus the more practical digital (DsCr) pho-tography. He also introduced the different types of camera lenses (normal, zoom, fishey, telephoto, macro) and dif-ferent genres of photogra-phy (artistic, monochromat-ic, macro, nature, panoramic, portraits, architecture) and proceeded to explain that each situation (depending on how much light is present) requires us to set the camera to specific settings.IsO on an slr camera for ex-ample, which has to do with the camera’s sensitivity to light, is set low for bright settings and higher as the amount of light present de-creases, the higher the IsO on your cam however the lesser the quality of the pic-ture. He referred a lot to the “noise” in a picture- this oc-curs when you view a picture that feels irritable due to bad quality/ too highly defined

colors in it. setting the IsO low (except in cases where it’s dark) will reduce this noise in your pictures.He also discussed shutter speed and aperture. the for-mer is set according to how much movement/ or lack of motion the picture allows and the latter has to do with how much focus/ blur you want or where you want to fo-cus in the picture you are tak-ing. Note that the lower the

shutter speed, the harder it is to provide a steady photo; at some point a tripod will be necessary and although cam-eras will usually adjust on their own, kurdi advises that man made judgments are better than machine made ones. Finally, kurdi engaged the audience with a slide show of pictures he had taken at different times in different places and tested whether

Your Picture Taking Redefined: A Lecture on Basicphotography

they could diagnose the prob-lem/ mistake in the capture. It was a fun exercise to rees-tablish what we had learned throughout the lecture and the pictures were interest-ing. along with the use-ful tips, the most important thing one could take in from kurdi’s lecture is to always remember that every picture tells a story, if your photo has no story then it is meaning-less.

under the patron-age of His excellen-cy Mr. Najib Mikati,

the auB armenian students Fund committee, held its fourth annual gala dinner on Friday, March 19 at Inter-Continental phoenicia Bei-rut. Initiated in 2004 by the lebanese armenian Heri-tage Club (laHC) in auB, the armenian students Fund (asF) aims at provid-ing needy and qualified Ar-menian students with more opportunities to pursue their education at auB. the com-bined work of the commit-tee’s eleven members with

the Office of Development and external affairs and the Office of Student Affairs has already fruited into grant-ing scholarship awards to ar-menian students at auB in 2008-2009.after both lebanese and ar-menian national anthems were played, the president of the laHC, Mr. Vahan Boy-adjian, welcomed the guests in his opening speech. He de-scribed the pleasure of giv-ing as a human virtue and ig-norance as violent element. In his speech, Mr. Nareg Demirjian, chair of the asF committee, praised all those

Giving for a better generation: the armenian students Fund holds its 4th annual gala dinnerroupen Ohannessianstaff writer

who helped in accomplish-ing the asF’s vision, a chal-lenge which seemed impossi-ble 5 years ago. In his word, the provost of auB, Dr. ah-mad Dallal, admired the en-ergy and the will of all stu-dents who took part in asF’s committee throughout its 5 years, values that auB en-courages in its graduates. Finally, His excellency Mr. Najib Mikati expressed his pleasure to be part of a mis-sion that aims at creating a better generation through help in education.after the opening speeches, the guests of honors and the

asF committee cut the cake and everyone took their seats to enjoy the delicious meals of InterContinental phoeni-cia, while listening to seta & edy with their classics of the 80’s. after the vocal perfor-mance, a video presentation introduced the asF and the laHC and its activities to the guests. the presentation stressed on the importance of armenian students’ presence at auB, which dates to1890, and on the hope of continuing this higher education with the help of asF. Next was shant lojikian with his accordion after which a painting by Gu-

vder was put on auction. Fi-nally, violinist Habib alberto and the lebanese band lati-no loco created a joyful mood and entertained the guests till midnight.the armenian students Fund has raised $300,000 in the last five years, and a scholarship award was al-ready granted in the aca-demic year 2008-09. a second award will soon be granted while the committee contin-ues its vital mission for a bet-ter generation.

Nadine Ghaithstaff writer’s

photo by saad el kurdi

CaMpus News8

thursday, March 18. west Hall, auditorium a, where great minds

come to share their experi-ences and successes to the top, with the occasional car-icaturing of well known polit-ical figures. Famous political cartoonist for the econo-mist magazine, kevin (kal) kallaugher visited auB on thursday, March 18 and in-troduced the audience to the history or cartoons, their ef-fects on politics, and how he came to be.Cartoons: the first doodle of history. “Cartoons capture history,” kallaugher said. “It distills the complex mo-ments in a single nugget.” traditional cartoons started

over 300 years ago. the car-toons in the states 150 years ago were very important and more effective. Now, there are more media everywhere and the cartoons have be-come “a little speck,” barely remembered.kallaugher started “cartoon-ing” when he was six years old. then one day in school, he drew a cartoon of his mu-sic teacher singing with her eyes closed. It was passed around class and he “became a star.” But when the teach-er saw the picture, she told “never draw cartoons like that again.” and he’s been drawing cartoons ever since.In later years, he began car-icaturing on the streets, now

he has drawn over 7,000 car-toons and 120 cover cartoons for the economist. His car-toons now are about politi-cians, he says that he is a journalist, columnist, car-toonist, and a satirist.“satires are best used when it gives voice to the powerless to the powerful.” a good way to get people interested in the world today and politics at large is to entertain them in a funny cartoon while send-ing the message across. “Car-toons should make you think, not laugh.”kallaugher claims to be an editorial cartoonist. He is cartoonist because he draws cartoons and he is an editor because it is serious work.

Cartoons will always target someone because you can’t please everyone.steps to making a cartoon: First, you have to have infor-mation, second, you look for ideas (about what is impor-tant, not what is funny), then you sketch your ideas, and fi-nally you apply the ink which could take about three hours.However, cartoons face a new crisis: the Internet! people no longer read newspapers and magazines! they go the in-ternet! But cartoonists can adapt. they create their car-toons into animation.kallaugher made a Broad-way show of the 2008 Obama McCain debate which showed two days before the elections

Humorous politics

using motion capture, the same device used to make avatar. You can look these up on youtube.com.Cartoons are really freedom of expression with the price or responsibility. “I am 100% in favor of everything that’s right and 100% against ev-erything that’s wrong. But no party is ever completely right.”towards the end, kallaugher began to draw politicians and handing them out to the au-dience.when it was over, he taught the audience how to roughly caricature president Obama.

Deedee el Jilanistaff writer

Dr. peter scoles, Vice pres-ident for assessment pro-grams of the National Boards of Medical examiners, who happened to be visiting auB’s Faculty of Medicine at the time, gave two Ques-tion and answer sessions to Medical students on Mon-day, March 8. The first was private, and only included a handful of Medicine IV stu-dents, while the second one was open to all Medical stu-dents in lebanon. these ses-sions were organized by the lebanese Medical students’ International Committee’s (leMsIC) standing Com-mittee on Medical education (sCOMe).the united states Medi-cal licensing examination (usMle) is sponsored by the Federation of state Medical Boards (FsMB) and the Na-tional Board of Medical ex-aminers (NBMe). all Medi-cal Doctors need to pass this exam to be able to practice in

the united states.During the private Q&a, Medicine IV students showed concern about some aspects of the exam itself and the em-phasis placed on it, as well as how very few Medicine IV (6 or 7 out of 80) students are done with both step 1 and step 2 (usMle is a multi-step exam) in time for res-idency program matching. they suggested that appro-priate time in the curriculum be allocated for them to study for their exams. Scoles first answered all ex-am-related questions and then noted that giving stu-dents time to study for the steps may not be part of their institution’s mission. He then added that not even all Med-ical school in the states do what the students request. He suggested, however, that changes to the exam, which will happen sometime in the near future, may decrease

the need for study cram time.Next came the open Q&a, which took place in an un-usually packed Issam Fares Hall. Dr. ramzi sabra, assis-tant Dean for Medical educa-tion, introduced scoles. Be-fore he could start the talk, however, Medicine II stu-dent and sCOMe secretary Ibrahim Bou Gheida took the podium. He thanked all sCOMe members for their work efficiency and the Ad-ministration, represented by sabra and Dr. samir atweh, associate Dean for under-graduate Medical education. Bou Gheida then present-ed scoles with a plaque as a thank you for his attendance and enthusiasm.scoles greeted the audience and asked by a show of hands how many were terrified of taking step 1, which light-ened the mood and creat-ed a friendly atmosphere in the hall. He first noted that

usMle is a measure of “min-imum competence in Basic sciences, Clinical Medicine, application of Clinical Medi-cine, and it is has a score, for good or for bad.” It was not designed to be used as a the mark for selection program for post graduate training, as It has great precision in dis-tinguishing between pass/fail but not between higher scores. this is the reality of the situation, though.He then mentioned some changes that will happen to the exam in the next 5 years. For one, step 2, which is con-cerned with Clinical Medi-cine will contain some basic sciences as well. However, the basic sciences informa-tion tested will not be based on memorization as is the case in step 1.scoles also presented statis-tics about the how Interna-tional Medical Graduates fare score-wise and accep-

Dr. peter scoles addresses Medical students’ concerns

tance wise. He kept noting that these statistics don’t ap-ply to us: auB medical stu-dents’ scores match those of u.s. Medical students in highly regarded Medical schools. we also have a much higher acceptance percent-age to residency programs, which he estimated to be around 75%.When the floor was opened to questions, Dr. scoles was gracious enough to answer each and every question, even if they were more per-sonal than general. “[scoles] even stayed past lecture time for half an hour or more talk-ing to us students and trying to help us,” said Medicine I student Bouchra tawk. the talk was a success and left all parties more informed and prepared to face the chal-lenges lying ahead.

wajiha Jurdi kheirstaff writer

9

CaMpus News

last week, the Biology student society (Bss) picked up its climate

change awareness campaign where it last left off. as prom-ised, the Bss held a movie screening of the Day after tomorrow on Monday March 18, at the Charles Hostler student Center (CHsC) au-ditorium between the late hours of 6 and 8 pm. Just pre-ceding the movie showing was a short presentation por-traying the contemporary is-sue of global warming, its mechanism, major threats, and finally some down to

earth, practical solutions for the common citizen. a short five or so minute video was then relayed highlighting the main ideas discussed with particular emphasis on the considerable role of mankind concerning the onset of glob-al climatic disorder and thus the near-total annihilation of human and animal wildlife. the Hollywood blockbust-er starring Dennis Quaid as Jack Hall playing a certified climatologist who predicts the coming of a new ice age is shunned by representatives of the american legislative

body, mainly the Vice pres-ident of the united states of america, who seems to be more preoccupied with the country’s sensitive econo-my. soon enough, Jack’s pre-dictions begin to manifest in full bloom, only much earlier than expected. Beginning with the disso-ciation of massive polar gla-ciers from the North pole and leading up to events that dev-astate los angeles and the better part of the Northern america with unforeseen ice baths, rapid drops in temper-ature, and menacing winds

of blistering cold, thereby throwing the world some two hundred centuries (20,000 years) back into a period of glacial maximum with little hope to survive. One could recognize the film primarily as an eye opener to the devastating effects of fa-tal and wholly destructive weather, that is to say, the Day after tomorrow serves as visible testimony to the impossible made possible, dauntingly illustrating the consequences of unbeatable world climate facts in com-bination with a modest rush

Bss rallys for a safer climate

of science fiction, and a tint of imagination, leaving its viewers to ponder the future of a rapidly advancing world – or is it? the movie night concluded with a colorful reception con-stituting a generous display of juices amidst a diverse as-sortment of chocolate cook-ies and butter biscuits where the spectators, hopefully, emerged with a more empa-thetic sentiment towards the climatic fate of mankind’s one and only home – planet earth.

rami Diabstaff writer

the Faculty of engineer-ing and architecture hosted the monologue

act Joe kdeih on tuesday, March 16. kdeih performed his latest work, entitled “Ashrafieh,” in a fully packed Issam Fares auditorium.The event was first planned to be held in the Bathish au-ditorium (capacity of 240 people), but due to the over-whelming response, organiz-ers made the decision to up-size in order to double the capacity.the act sold out, and stu-dents as well many auB fac-ulty and staff members got to enjoy an hour and a half of spot-on, stinging sarcasm with all the proceeds going to financing the upcoming an-nual Fea rally paper.kdeih started his mono-logue by setting the scene at the present day Ashrafieh area, where the old histori-cal neighborhoods are being replaced by major malls and where the citizens are get-ting more and more detached from their old traditions and

values.the chronicles of lost identi-ty are told and highlighted by the stories of five stereo-typed Ashrafieh housewives throughout five acts. An in-terlude precedes each chap-ter, where the performer de-scribes the neighborhood and house he grew up in as he sips up the symbolic, traditional cup of coffee.the performer touches on the issues of adultery, ma-terialism, and detachment from the past, in the current Ashrafieh society. He skill-fully controls his movements and alters his voice and facial expressions to exaggerate and paint a somewhat funny picture of a stigmatic reality, defined by excessive plastic surgery, flagrant appearanc-es, and blatant shallowness, which are all uncharacteris-tic of the Ashrafieh the actor grew up in.those who have watched Joe kdeih’s previous work “Hay-et l Jagal Soh’be,” will find in “Ashrafieh” a somewhat re-current type of sarcasm and

definitely a fresh breath of criticism, as the performer remorselessly attacks what, in his opinion, is a decadence in today’s society, where cheating on one’s spouse and even heritage have become quite in vogue.If one has to compare kdeih’s current piece to his previ-ous ones, a clear pattern of “theatre making” emerges. so whoever’s seeking to en-joy the shock value of a new structure and mise-en-scene, he certainly will not find it here. But as the actor puts it “I don’t get what so wrong about talking about the things that are going wrong in our society without getting too intellectual” (in response to some criticism about his plays lacking intellectual-ism), he alluded in the mid-dle of his performance.Other competing plays did not make it untouched by the performer’s criticism nei-ther. He mockingly referred to them as being as un-in-tellectual and in a way a lot shallower, since they do not

address issues as “socially” fundamental and are not as aware of their environment as his perhaps.In sum, “Ashrafieh in AUB” (as the organizers referred to) was indeed a huge success for Fea. the audience got to enjoy a sad portrait painted

Ashrafieh comes to AUB

in bright colors of witticism and sarcasm, and Joe kdeih proved again his abilities to deliver as a funny one man act, no matter how tragic his addressed topic might be.

elie el khourystaff writer

photo from Facebook.com

10

eNtertaINMeNt

lifehouse is an american alternative rock band orig-inating from los angeles. they grabbed the attention of the music scene in 2001 with their hit single “Hang-ing by a Moment” from their record-breaking multi-platinum debut album “No Name Face.” Their first sin-gle was able to claim a Bill-board Music award for Hot 100 single of the Year and beat alicia keys and Janet Jackson for the #1 single in 2001. Currently, this band in-cludes Jason wade (lead vo-calist and guitarist, rick wooltenhulme (drums, per-cussions), Bruce soderberg (bass guitarist), and Ben Carey (guitarist). they have sold over fifteen million al-bums and singles worldwide to date.another song from there de-but album which has became famous is “everything.” this song was featured on the premiere and season one finale of “Smallville,” the tV show that tells the story of Clark kent, aka su-perman. this began a long-standing affair between the band and the series, as life-house would go on to have seven songs played during the series’ first four seasons, ending with a live perfor-mance in the fourth-season prom episode.

their second album, “stan-ley Climbfall”, saw the light in 2002. Its singles, “spin” and “take me”, were suc-cessful, yet, the whole al-bum was overshadowed by the success of their first al-bum.their third album was epon-ymous. Its first single, “You and me” was released in January 2005, although it was written five years be-fore. the song was a huge success for the band, espe-cially that it stayed for 66 weeks on the us Billboard Hot 100. this song has also appeared on “smallville” and songs from this album were featured in eight oth-er shows including “Grey’s anatomy” and “scrubs.” Other recommended songs from this album are “Come Back Down”, “Blind”, “un-done,” and “all in all”.their fourth album, enti-tled “who we are”, was re-leased in June 2007. this al-bum “rocks a little harder” than previous albums, ac-cording to the band. From this album, the songs that were most famous are “First time”, “whatever it takes”, and “Broken.”Their fifth album was re-cently released on March 2nd, 2010 after several de-lays. this album is entitled “smoke and Mirrors” and debuted at #6 on the Bill-

board top 200 chart. songs worth listening to from this album are “Had enough” featuring Chris Daughtry, “Halfway Gone” and “From where You are.” this album

Band review Lifehouse Mohammad Hijazi

particularly shows that af-ter ten years of producing music, this band has become more mature. Most songs of lifehouse will entertain alternative rock

lovers, and some will leave you obsessing over them. If you like the music of Nickle-back, One republic, and the Fray, the music of this band is for you.

suDOku

suDOku

photo from Facebook.com

11

when news broke out that tim Burton would be the di-rector of the newest alice in wonderland remake/sequel, fans everywhere had some-thing to look forward to, as well as something to possibly fear. adaptations of classics are always risky to take on, but there was no doubt that Burton possessed the origi-nality or imagination to cre-ate something unique. For-tunately, Burton’s talent as a wacky, twisted director paid off, producing an array of new and old characters in a visually impressive film.the movie, a sequel to the original Disney version, picks up fourteen years after Alice’s first trip to Wonder-land, the world that she has come to believe is part of her dreams. alice is about to re-ceive a proposal of marriage from a rather unappealing suitor when she spots the white rabbit and chases af-ter him, falling once again down the rabbit hole. after passing the first test by tak-ing “potions that make you grow” and “cakes that make you shrink”, alice walks through the door and steps into wonderland.Viewers are greeted by many

of the old characters of al-ice in wonderland, includ-ing the hookah smoking Blue Caterpillar, the Mad Hatter, tweedle Dee and tweedle Dum, and of course, the Cheshire Cat, a lot less creepy than the Disney ver-sion, and a bit more lovable. tweedle Dee and tweedle Dum, played by Matt lucas, provided the movie with a co-medic lightness, while the red Queen, played by Hel-ena Bonham Carter (wife of tim Burton), gave the movie a darker, more eerie feel with her constant need to behead people and place their de-capitated heads in the moat around her castle. Carter was a perfect fit for the Red Queen; viewers are able to feel her anger and also des-peration to maintain rule of and fear from her subjects.another gem in the movie was Johnny Depp’s portray-al of the Mad Hatter. while some criticized his antics, his new spin on the beloved character gave another di-mension to the Disney ver-sion’s Hatter, as well as the one in lewis Carroll’s novel. Colored contacts were used on Depp to show the Hat-ter’s changing mood at dif-

ferent points in the film, giv-ing the character a bizarre and deranged, yet very Bur-ton - as well as Carroll - look.In Burton’s film, the view-er is able to see another side of the Hatter, his emotional side, as well as his, well, mad side.Mia wasikowska gave a re-freshing performance as al-ice; she even had the fresh, innocent look that Carroll’s novel’s depicted. while her role may have been over-shadowed by some of the more prominent characters, her potential is not to be for-gotten. anne Hathaway, however, who played the white Queen, did not give the most impressive perfor-mance. Her portrayal came across as more weird and off than what she should have been going for, something a bit more whimsical.all in all, Burton’s alice in wonderland was a treat; the 3D effect was an additional bonus to this larger-than-life story. the whimsical charac-ters, scenery and vivid col-or all transport the viewer to another world, something that all great movies should do.

Movie review Alice in Wonderland Heather Jaber

photo from Facebook.com

eNtertaINMeNt

The mini outdoors – AUB lower campus students ‘over-nighting’ anew

there’s a saying down in auB’s lower campus that goes something like this: “If you’re a Chemistry, a Biolo-gy, or a physics major, then God have mercy on your soul. If you’re in engineer-ing, then God rest your soul in peace.” as one might in-fer from the aforementioned, ever since the lower campus, more specifically the stu-dents down in the science de-partments, have existed, it has always been associated with the terms “overnight,” rarely “over party,” if ever. to some auBites, the mere idea of a party of some sort taking place on lower cam-pus is simply a “nonexistent” one. However, a group of

chemistry students wanted to change this fact by throw-ing not just a party, but a mini outdoors.everyone looks forward to the annual auB Outdoors event, where music lovers, social aficionado,s and peo-ple just looking for some food - can mingle in harmony. this Friday, March 19, how-ever, auB was treated to a sort of “mini-outdoors” if you will, arranged by the Chem-istry student society in col-laboration with the physics student society. the event was advertised all over cam-pus, promising food, drink, and most alluringly, live mu-sic. at 6pm students from ev-ery faculty in auB began to

arrive, drawn by the sounds of the rehearsing band. sit-uated at lower campus, di-rectly in front of the Biolo-gy building, students set up tables and food and games, all of them excited for the in-coming, long awaited for fes-tival. a crowd steadily began to pour in and the band, en-livened by the ever-grow-ing crowd, played on. the live concert featured the lo-cal band plugged with two of its members being Chem-istry majors followed by DJ Batrouni. Delicious home-made delicacies, drinks, and refreshments were placed on stands for students to buy. “I really was surprised when I heard that the Chemistry

students are doing a gig. so I came to see it for myself. the music is awesome and the food is just delicious,” says Business sophomore lama. the highlight of the evening might have occurred just past nine when a score of rugby league players, hav-ing finished practice, ambled in while the DJ was playing. rousing what little crowd remained, the athletes par-tied out the reminder of the night, ending the entire event on a high note. accord-ing to Biology sophomore Dania Machlab, “It was nice to see science students min-gling with other majors and having fun. we should have these things more often!”

Despite the fact that the event was the first of its kind and the fact that the timing, it being on a Friday night, was really not that “planed out,” all in all, no one can deny that the whole event could be labelled as pretty successful. “the physics and Chemistry students were very hospitable and I had a good time!” said Business se-nior tarek lel. In the end, at least, no one could deny the fact that on that particular night, physics and Chem-istry students were “over-nighting” but nowhere close to auB’s Jafet library or sci-ence Medical library (sMl).

lojine kamel and Maya terro

photo from Facebook.com

12

we all know what a nightmare is and we have all woken up in the middle of the night because of these terrible dreams. Nightmares are defined as feelings of terror and extreme anxiety that of-ten disrupt the sleeping and wakes the person up. Nightmares are also sometimes associated with anxiety and trauma.why do such nightmares occur? Most are a reaction to stress of some fear. Frequent occurrence of nightmares becomes a disorder when it impairs functioning in the social and occupational areas in life. In this case this is referred to as Nightmare DisorderNightmares usually begin before age 10 and are usually normal unless they interfere with sleep and development Nightmares are more common in girls and may continue into adulthood.If one is experiencing severe stress one should talk to friends- talking about what is on your mind is very effective. It is also important for one to follow a regular exercise routine and this will allow one to fall asleep faster, experiencing deeper sleep, and waking up better. relaxation therapy has also shown to be effective.some tips include:

1. avoid long-term use of tranquilizers, and avoid caffeine and other stimulants.2. set a schedule for sleeping3. exercise4. relax before bed5. sleep until sunlight6. Don’t lie in bed awake7. Control room temperature8. see a doctor if your sleeping problem continue

psyched Out

In the its latest issue, the Journal of the american Medical association skimmed through the lat-est research done on aspirin so as to conclude that the ‘aspirin’ therapy is not for everyone—in-deed, while some might benefit, others might not. Still others, may be harmed from its use, if any-thing.according to one of the studies published in the american Journal of Medicine, researchers re-ported that regular use of aspirin—at least twice per week—increased the risk of suffering hear-ing loss in men by as much as 12 %. Moreover, for those younger than 50, the percentage nearly doubled to reach a 33 %. In the same study, it was also shown that the use of other non-steroi-dal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) or acetaminophen also increased the risk of hearing loss. Further on this matter, is a study published by the journal BMC Medicine which found that ear-lier studies showed a large benefit in men taking aspirin to reduce the rates of fatal heart attack, but women did not receive the same advantage. Despite this fact, in a 2008 issue of the journal Cancer, it was reported that among regular aspirin users (particularly men who used aspirin and other NSAIDs), 10% of these showed lower levels of prostate-specific antigens which was later as-sociated, at times, with hindering the detection of prostate cancer.although studies have shown that indeed taking aspirin was associated with the prevention of a first heart attack, a study published in 2008 in the British Medical Journal suggests that such a therapy fails in the case of diabetics—aspirin provides zero protection against heart attacks in people with diabetes. people with diabetes are at least twice as likely to develop heart disease or have a stroke as the general public. In fact, diabetics taking aspirin are not less likely to experi-ence an attack than those taking a placebo. according to another study from the same journal, nearly 30% of people with cardiovascular disease who took prescribed aspirin were resistant to its effects—this “aspirin resistance” made such patients four times as likely as those for whom aspi-rin had an effect to have a heart attack, stroke, or die.according to the review, further associated ‘bad’ effects with regular aspirin intake included bleeding and stomach problems. aspirin is a blood thinner i.e. it makes the blood’s platelets less sticky. Because of this, the drug makes blood less likely to clot –-this is especially risky if bleed-ing occurs in the brain, which at times can be fatal. Further on, people taking aspirin or other NsaIDs are at higher risk of gastrointestinal bleeding and stomach ulcers—particularly with long-term use of the drug.

Heads up on Health

Out OF tHe BOxRita Obeid

The Aspirin Therapy—one therapy does not fit all

Maya Terro

NightmaresMaroun kisrwani

Cleo Cacoulidis

antonios Francis

Mohamad Yahia Hamade

Marwan Jaafar

Mariam el ali

tala kardasrasha salem

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rachid akiki

salim Batlouni

rawan abu salmanMohamad al MedwarFouad BadaouiFatima BuhilaigahMoussa Chalahabraham Daniel Hajjarrami DiabYasmine FansaNadine GhaithMaryam HoballahMhd Izzat HusriehHeather Jaberwajiha Jurdi kheirlojine kamelelie el khourytimmy Malkounrita Obeidroupen OhannessianYasmine saabwally saadsandra sawayaMaya terroIlija trojanovictarek tutunjiMohammad el-Jabiemile Zankoul

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