Thursday, November 8, 2012

Thursday, November 8, 2012 canada’s only daily student newspaper • founded 1906 volume 106, Issue 37

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London on timeTwo London residents develop new application for bus times.

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admin responds to Fearnall Campuses struggle with mental health

Ritchie Sham GAZETTE

SETTLE DOWN. University Students’ Council President Adam Fearnall addressed students as part of Western’s “Untold Story” on October 22.

alex CarmonaNEWS EdiTOr

In late October, University Stu-dents’ Council President Adam Fearnall gave a passionate speech to students addressing his con-cerns about the relationship between Western’s administra-tion and the USC. Fearnall cited, among other things, a climate of competition, rather than collabo-ration, between the two bodies when it comes to handling student needs and the USC’s lack of a sig-nificant voice at the university pol-icy-making table.

John Doerksen, vice-provost of academic programs and students for Western, said he was unaware of these issues prior to Fearnall taking to the stage.

“I wasn’t aware of any spe-cific concerns—they haven’t been brought to me in other venues,” he said.

Doerksen did not fully agree with Fearnall’s assessment of the relationship between the univer-sity and the USC.

“This is certainly an enormous priority for Western, and my sense of it is that we do work very closely with students, both with the stu-dent leadership in the USC and the Society of Graduate Students, and also with student senators. In fact, I would say that we do work together collaboratively.”

As an example, Doerksen raised the contentious issue of study space, or lack thereof, on campus.

“We heard concerns some years […] there wasn’t enough meet-ing space for students on campus. Now, any new construction has to have a certain proportion of com-mon space included in it—look at the newly renovated Astronomy and Physics building, with all the

space for students there, or at Ste-venson and Lawson Halls and so forth. There’s a real attempt on the part of the university to under-stand where are the student needs, and how can we best respond to them.”

Doerksen also stressed that the lack of specific concerns raised in Fearnall’s address prevents the university from taking any con-crete measures at this point. Fear-nall argued specific talking points are far less important than the overall message he was trying to

impart on students.“Western has a tendency to get

caught up in specifics and often forgets to have the philosophi-cal discussions necessary to build strong relationships. If we can’t agree on a philosophy of student-centred decision making, then we will have difficulty moving collec-tively towards the details,” he said.

Fearnall went on to lament the thought that the USC, and by ex-tension, students, currently have the level of negotiating power owed to them.

“We’re disappointed the uni-versity thinks students have a multi-million dollar voice on cam-pus. It worries us that administra-tion says they had not heard of the concerns raised at [last month’s address], because students have raised these issues for many years. This leads us to believe students must not be at the right discussion tables.”

That’s not to say the adminis-tration isn’t open to taking a criti-cal look at how they approach their relationship to student government.

“I’m not aware of specific is-sues of concern, or they haven’t been brought to my attention,” Doerksen said. But, at the same time, I want to signal that if stu-dents and their student leadership feels there is an area of concern, I want to be open to listening, and to finding a way to respond and to move forward in a collaborative way together.”

My sense of it is that we do work very closely with students, both with the student lead-ership in the USC and the Society of Graduate Students, and also with student senators.

—John doerksenVice-provost of academic programs

and students at Western

Iain BoekhoffGAZETTE STAFF

The mental health of post-second-ary students is gaining increased attention in Ontario. A report from the Focus on Mental Health con-ference, held in Toronto in May, highlights the difficulties students face, and the challenges universi-ties and colleges have in address-ing mental health issues.

“We want to make sure that all of our students have the programs and services that they need to be successful at our university,” Jim Weese, dean of health sciences at Western, said. “We’re trying to find out from students what their needs are, and trying to listen to them about the realities that they’re in-volved in.”

However, Alysha Li, president of the Ontario Undergraduate Stu-dent Alliance, said mental health is difficult because of the range of issues that are used under that definition.

“Right now it’s identified as one thing, [but] mental health is a va-riety of things, and the diversity of issues amongst mental health is hard to address,” Li said. “It’s hard to have a ‘one size fits all’ solution for all mental health issues—it doesn’t exist.”

Myuri Komaragiri, vice-pres-ident campus issues for the Uni-versity Students’ Council, agreed the broader issue of mental health needs to be examined.

“I think that it’s really impor-tant to look at mental health, not

at just depression or other reasons that students might go to Student Health, but wellness as a broader holistic concept,” Komaragiri said. “Peer support and building a com-munity around this can really sup-port students so they know how to respond when one of their peers comes to them and says their men-tal health isn’t what it used to be.”

Komaragiri explained Western has areas for improvement, espe-cially in the communication of ser-vices the university offers.

“If you’re a first-year, then you can go to three different places, so that’s really difficult,” Komaragiri said. “Down the road, I think there should be a centralized place for everything you need.”

Komaragiri expressed concerns over the wait times students face in getting an appointment for coun-selling and treatment.

“It is concerning that if a stu-dent is waiting a few weeks for an appointment, it begs the question of what is happening to them in those few weeks,” Komaragiri said.

Li said she thinks the way for-ward for helping students is coop-eration between other universities in Ontario.

“What really needs to be ad-dressed in terms of mental health support is being able to share best practices between all the institu-tions,” Li said. “Being able to share your programming that worked, and what didn’t work, with each other so we don’t duplicate efforts and end up back at the starting point.”

Cameron Wilson GAZETTE

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2 • thegazette • Thursday, November 8, 2012

Crossword By Eugene sheffer

The Cryptoquip is a substitution cipher in which one letter stands for another. If you think that X equals O, it will equal O throughout the puzzle. Single letters, short words and words using an apostrophe give you clues to locating vowels. Solution is by trial and error.© 2002 by Kings Features Syndicate, Inc.

Caught on Camera

News Briefs

Student represents western at one young

world SummitKelly Lovell, a second-year science student at Western, is a prime ex-ample of the impact students can make in the global community. From October 17 to 22, Lovell rep-resented Canada at the One Young World Summit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, along with 1,200 delegates representing 180 coun-tries from around the globe.

The One Young World Summit is

the second largest youth gathering other than the Olympics, inviting the top leaders from around the world to address six main global issues through plenary sessions to collaborate on plans to implement in their prospective countries. The six main global issues addressed were sustainability, education, health, human rights, government and transparency.

“The essence of the [summit] was to give us the training, re-sources and inspiration, and then

come back to our home countries and implement actions and ini-tiatives to address global issues, and hopefully make headway on changing these issues,” Lovell explained.

According to Lovell, she is also the first scheduled speaker for the National We Day event in April 2013, which encourages youth to realize the impacts and the differ-ence they can make in the lives of others now.

“Youth can utilize the resources they have now to really make a substantial difference in their own community, or in society as a whole,” Lovell said.

Lovell was also an award recipi-ent of the Top 20 Under Twenty in Canada this past summer.

—Jacqueline Ting

Going to the bugsBrent Sinclair, a biology professor at Western, has received the 2012 C. Gordon Hewitt Award from the Entomological Society of Canada.

Sinclair’s research focuses on how well insects can survive in very cold temperatures, and is appli-cable to topics like climate change. Ironically, Sinclair doesn’t see him-self as an entomologist—instead, he views himself as a “physiologist who happens to work on insects.”

However, Sinclair hoped the award would raise his profile among entomologists in Canada, and will lead to new collaboration.

“[Insects] are the most diverse group of terrestrial animals, with all sorts of ways to solve all sorts of problems. We can learn a lot about the world just by learning how in-sects work,” Sinclair commented.

While currently on sabbatical in New Zealand, he will be returning to Western later this year.

—Pradeep Venkatesh


GAY OK. Students man the PrideWestern booth in the University Community Centre as part of PrideWeek’s efforts to engage students with the LGBTQ community on campus.

ATTENTION

STUDENTS USINGSERVICES FOR STUDENTS

WITH DISABILITIES We would like to remind you that you must meet with a counsellor at Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD), in the Student Development Centre, to arrange academic accommodation for your 2012 fall/winter courses.

If you have not yet requested accommodation for your courses, and you wish to use accommodation for December 2012 exams, you must meet with a counsellor by Thursday, November 15th. Accommodation for December 2012 exams cannot be arranged by SSD if requested after this date.

To book your appointment please call519-661-2147

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thegazette • Thursday, November 8, 2012 • 3

app keeps students mobile

Jesica HurstNEWS EdiTOr

Love London Transit Commission’s WebWatch feature, but hate how they don’t have a mobile version of it? There’s now an app for that.

Anthony Taylor, a third-year computer science student at West-ern, and Dan Martyn, a recent graduate of Western’s software en-gineering program, have teamed up to create a mobile version of WebWatch called London OnTime, which is now available to anyone who has an iPhone. The applica-tion let’s you know when your bus is going to arrive, right down to the minute.

“I had an idea for this a while ago when the LTC went on strike, and I started tossing it around with a couple of friends,” Taylor explained. “I was doing the Intro-duction to Programming course at Western and learning Java, and I decided to take a stab at the app in Android. I worked on it a bit, but the project dropped off.”

But Taylor didn’t stop there. In April, he sent an email to the un-dergraduate students in computer science and Martyn replied.

“We started throwing around a few ideas. I sent him the code and what my image was, and within a couple of hours I got a rough lay-out back from him,” Taylor said.

Since releasing the application in October, the team has been re-ceiving a lot of positive feedback.

“We kind of thought word of mouth was going to spread it a lot more than it actually did, but once Fanshawe and Western tweeted us out a few times, we instantly saw an increase in downloads,” Martyn said. “Having media put it out was also a big help, and as of yesterday we have 1,100 new users.”

Mike Marsman, a London resi-dent and Western computer sci-ence graduate, recently down-loaded the application and has been using it ever since.

“The first time I actually used one of these apps was Rocket Radar in Toronto. It absolutely made me

want something like it in London,” Marsman said. “To be able to re-fresh the LTC website through a bookmark was one thing, but to actually have an app that showed it in real time was really cool to me.”

“I know the challenge is you’re only as strong as your weakest link, and the LTC website isn’t the stron-gest. It tends to go down a lot, so they may get some bad reviews be-cause of that, but that’s not really their fault,” Marsman added.

Although they only released the first version of the application a few weeks ago, Taylor and Martyn are already thinking about what updates they want to release in the next few versions, including direc-tions and full schedules. Martyn hopes users will also send in feed-back so they can have a better un-derstanding of what else to update.

“On our website there’s a con-tact form and we have been getting like one email every other day, but we encourage people to send in any new ideas they may have.”


mPP deb matthews declines leadership

aaron ZaltzmanNEWS EdiTOr

The ‘Will she? Won’t she?’ saga of Deb Matthews came to an an-ticlimactic end yesterday when the London MPP announced she would not be running for leader-ship of the Ontario Liberal party. Speculation had been swirling around Matthews since Premier Dalton McGuinty resigned last month.

“After much soul-searching, I’ve decided not to run for the leader-ship of the Ontario Liberal Party,” Matthews said in a press release. “While I have been truly gratified by the expressions of support, in the end I decided that I really want to continue doing what I am doing now.”

The alumnus and former pro-fessor at Western has been the Lib-eral MPP for London North Centre since 2003. In 2009, she was ap-pointed Ontario minister of health and long-term care.

“The question for me has always been ‘Where can I make the biggest difference?’” Matthews said. “And I think I can make the biggest differ-ence by staying where I am, driving the changes in health care that will ensure that our precious universal health care system will be there for

future generations.”Ontario ministers have been

dropping like flies since McGuinty called on prospective leaders to resign from their positions in ad-vance of the race. MPPs Sarah Pu-patello, Kathleen Wynne and Glen Murray have already thrown their hats into the contest.

Other potential candidates have declined and retired from politics, including London MPP Chris Bent-ley. Matthews has made it clear she will not be joining either group.

“I will, however, be proud to run in London North Centre in the next election,” Matthews said. “In the meantime, I’ll continue to focus all my energy on the work I’m doing as MPP and leading the transforma-tion of our health care system as minister of health.”

After much soul-searching, i’ve decided not to run for the lead-ership of the Ontario Liberal Party.

—deb MatthewsOntario minister of health and long-term care

rethinking the bubbleThe University Students’ Council has launched their ReThink Stu-dents campaign in hopes of col-lecting student feedback regard-ing their experiences as London residents. The campaign hopes to understand why 86 per cent of students leave London after graduation.

Alysha Li, vice-president uni-versity affairs for the USC, ex-plained these numbers are con-cerning and the USC believes that by gaining student feedback, they can better the connection students have with their city.

“It’s important because, in re-cent memory, we’ve never had a conversation with our students

on, ‘What do you think about Lon-don?’” she explained. “[We’re] try-ing to figure out what students be-lieve to be the best way to improve their quality of life so that we can make some suggestions to the City, and to Western too.”

Students can participate in the campaign by completing an online survey that addresses four main themes—livability, community, jobs and transportation. Students can also have their voices heard at several open forums held this month. Tonight, the first forum will look to discuss livability and com-munity issues. It will be held in the USC council chambers at 7 p.m.

—Kaitlyn McGrath

News Brief


Arts&Life thespianthursday“What do i know of man’s destiny? i could tell you more about radishes.”

—Samuel Beckett, irish playwright, poet and novelist.

royal wood turns new leaf with albummelissa maduriCONTriBUTOr

With the release of his seventh album, We Were Born To Glory, Canadian singer-songwriter Royal Wood departs from his signature ballads and delights with an un-expectedly energetic and high tempo tone. It’s pop-rock verging on the sublime. The 13-song col-lection is slick, sharp, bright and brash without stretching too far from that smoky, soulful tone that has come to define Wood’s sound.

“Everything with this record is new for me,” Wood explains, as he prepares to play at Aeolian Hall here in London. “There is a lot of new material that all seemed to be more energetic and hopeful, and sort of grounded in a far bet-ter place than when I made The Waiting.”

The Waiting, which earned Wood a Juno Award nomination for Songwriter of the Year in 2011, was a layered and vulnerable col-lection about love and loss. The album was poised and pure, with a sound and style that harkened back to legendary musicians of yesteryear.

The transition between The Waiting and We Were Born To Glory was not a conscious pro-

cess for Wood. “It’s not something manufactured. It’s not like you’re trying to write a hit or something silly like that.”

Wood cites his musical meta-morphosis as a reflection of his own life’s journey.

“I think it has to do with where I find myself in my life right now, just being in my 30s,” Wood says. “I’m certainly more secure as a human being and understand-ing my place. It’s a celebration of experience.”

Despite the evolution of Wood’s style, his knack for story-telling remains the same.

“I’m not just pulling out a book of rhymes,” Wood explains. “I am trying to say something and it is deeply personal.”

The passion for creativity, sto-rytelling and artistry has always

been burning inside of Wood. “My passion was definitely to be an artist and that’s what I was when I was born. I started writing and being creative right after.”

In his late teens, Wood enrolled at McGill University to study business, but dropped out of the program before completing his degree.

“My energy to thrive was some-place else,” Wood explains.

Without discounting the im-portance of a formal education, Wood encourages all aspiring mu-sicians to embrace their talent.

“I think the biggest thing hold-ing anyone back is the fear of failure,” Wood says. “But that’s in every profession. A person in the business program that won’t own their own business because of a fear of failing will end up working for someone else their whole life.”

“The only thing I would say to anyone who wants to be an art-ist is to face it and embrace life because you get one roll of the dice and we’re not going back,” he adds. “I really don’t think I’m going back. I’ve done what has brought me joy.”

Royal Wood will be perform-ing at Aeolian Hall, tonight. Doors open at 7 p.m.

i’m not just pulling out a book of rhymes. i am trying to say something and it is deeply personal.

— royal Wood

Samsara cycles past narratives and plotsross HamiltonGAZETTE STAFF

GGGGFSamsaraDirector: Ron FrickeStarring: Olivier de Sagazan

‘Samsara’ is a Sanskrit word rep-resenting the continuous cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth—the spiritual idea of constant renewal that many believe forms the basis of our existence. It’s a universal concept, spanning nature, culture and time itself, and it forms the focus of American director Ron Fricke’s spectacular documentary.

Taking its cue from Fricke’s previous feature, 1992’s Baraka, the appropriately titled Samsara takes a distinctive approach that forgoes dialogue, or indeed a nar-rative of any kind, and instead aims to convey its central themes through a powerful combination of images and sound alone. It’s an ambitious, unorthodox style of filmmaking but the result is a film that, despite its somewhat hap-hazard composition, manages to deliver a truly breathtaking audio-visual experience.

Filmed over five years and across 25 countries, Samsara aims to offer a panoramic view of the world, exquisitely showcasing a series of people and landscapes in a way that highlights their diver-sity, but also evokes an underlying unity. Not every scene is pleasant, and sequences like those depict-ing an Asian food processing plant are even upsetting, but they are all captured with an undeni-able finesse. Even a Ghanaian fu-

neral parlour, filled with coffins shaped like planes and shotguns, possesses its own morbid beauty.

The film does owe its striking visuals in part to the equipment used in its making. Fricke and producer Mark Magidson shot Samsara on 70mm film using a custom-built camera, before con-verting and editing the footage digitally, and the result is an ex-ceptionally arresting, high quality picture.

A lot has been said about the merits and faults of 3D as an im-mersive cinematic device, but Samsara presents a prime ex-ample of a film that offers an ab-sorbing, mesmerizing experience without the need for gimmickry and glasses. Its depth comes not from a cheap visual trick, but from the clarity of Fricke’s metic-

ulously framed tableaus, and the film’s wonderfully vivid, heavily saturated colour palette.

The other integral aspect to Samsara’s potency is its soundtrack, as each location is given its own aural identity by composers Michael Stearns, Lisa Gerrard and Marcello de Fran-cisci. Hushed vocals give way to bright synthesizers and thumping bursts of percussion. It’s a credit to the musicians the eclectic score consistently works, providing an enchantingly ambient accompa-niment to Fricke’s visuals.

Delightful as its sensory ele-ments may be, Samsara can also feel somewhat directionless. Fricke’s desire for an impassive, ambiguous approach to his sub-jects is understandable, but the film suffers from a lack of mean-

ing as a result, and it can come across as superficial. There are lengthy sequences that don’t hang together particularly well, and some transitions between shots are conspicuously disjointed, giv-ing the impression of a National Geographic highlight reel at times—albeit a profoundly stun-ning one.

This is ultimately a minor com-plaint though, and it seems harsh to criticize narrative and meaning in a film that specifically discards both. What Samsara offers is an audiovisual master class, and in this respect it’s an unqualified success. It might not be for ev-eryone, but Fricke’s film is consis-tently gorgeous, often transcen-dent and it’s difficult to think of another movie quite as cinemati-cally captivating.

FiLE PhOTO

Naira Ahmed GAZETTE

Courtesy of royalwood.ca

Saturday, November 17, 2012 VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES ARE YOU:

• Available to contribute your time for the day November 17, 2012 • Interested in meeting prospective students and their families • Involved in campus activities • Enthusiastic and positive about your Western experience • Articulate, pleasant and responsible

TO APPLY: • Review the volunteer posting details on the Career Central website

www.westerncareercentral.ca • Email your completed application information to [email protected]

OR pick up a hardcopy application outside Undergraduate Recruitment in the Western Student Services Building – Room 3115

• Drop your completed application off to Undergraduate Recruitment in the Western Student Services Building – Room 3115 DEADLINE: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2012 Please note that you must attend one of the following MANDATORY orientation sessions: November 12th at 4:30pm OR November 13th at 11:30am OR 4:30 pm. If selected as a volunteer, location of the sessions will be sent to you via email.

121106

FALL PREVIEW DAY FALL PREVIEW DAY


Editor’s Picks > The essentials for your week

ON TV

Last Man Standing

if you went into withdrawal when the United States presidential election ended this week, you may be able to get back a bit of the excitement with the season premiere of Last Man Standing. The show, starring Tim Allen—who has starred in ABC comedies before—begins its second season tomorrow with an episode entitled “Voting.” Mandy, played by Molly Ephraim, is voting for the first time and other central characters attempt to influence who she supports. Because the episode will air after the results, the show may be bittersweet for anyone heavily invested in the American election.

ON dVd

Ruby Sparks

if you think writing a six-page essay is tough, try imagining the pressure that comes with writing a whole person into existence. That’s what Calvin, played by Paul dano, must deal with when the struggling novelist creates a fictional character named ruby Sparks who comes to life. dano has remained relatively under the radar in his career until recently, with roles in Cowboys & Aliens, Looper and of course, Ruby Sparks. Writer Zoe Kazan also takes another step into the major movie limelight as she plays the title character, taking a break from writing the stories, instead playing a girl who is created by one.

iN ThEATrES

Skyfall

if Adele’s song for Skyfall has been on constant replay in your music library, you now have the chance to pause the song and go see the film in theatres. daniel Craig returns to his role as James Bond, and in the film, the agent becomes the only ally M (Judi dench) has when M16 comes under attack. Though M plans to relocate the agency, others question her competence while attempting to usurp her position. Also, a mysterious new villain emerges with a diabolical plan at hand, and Bond must once again save the day... for the 23rd time.

ON diSC

Calvin Harris – 18 Months

Calvin harris has certainly kept busy, and with the release of 18 Months, he is sure to be around a lot longer than that. As the third studio album from the Scottish recording artist, 18 Months includes a number of already hit songs including “Bounce”—the album’s first single, “Feel So Close,” “Let’s Go” and “Sweet Nothing.” The 15 tracks will certainly fill dance floors and make radio stations happy, not to mention all the collaborators on the album who will be glad to see their work come to fruition.

ON ThE ChArTS

Nicki minaj – “Freedom”

in preparation to re-release her second studio album, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, Nicki Minaj shares exactly how she feels in “Freedom.” The track was initially meant to be a follow-up to “The Boys,” but after dismal results in the charts from “The Boys,” “Freedom” took its place as the lead single. Lyrically, the track still has the classic confrontational sound that has made Nicki Minaj a force to acknowledge while at the same time takes a reflective approach to her life and her time in the spotlight. in many ways, fans can consider “Freedom” as a sequel to Nicki’s earlier track “Moment 4 Life.”

GGGFFBrother OctopusTentacle TraumaOak Apple Records

When Brother Octopus gets into character, he doesn’t let go. As he leaves the ocean floor, he reaches out to a lost tambourine master, Lady Friend, his band mate.

Brother Octopus and Lady

Friend join forces to deliver Ten-tacle Trauma under the band name Brother Octopus. This is the second album for the Edmonton band and is set for a November 27 release. With a unique style of mixing folk, electronic and rock, the pair seems to focus on a va-riety of sounds while also paying close attention to word choice. At first listen, the lyrics seem almost random, but they complement fun variation in the instrumentals.

Tentacle Trauma begins with an eerie introduction, reminding the listener of the ocean’s depths. Brother Octopus prides them-selves in creating interesting and unexpected lyrics—like in the al-bum’s second song, “Recreational Zoo.” All six songs have distinct sounds ranging from softer melo-dies to upbeat raps.

—Claire Moss

Going Gaga on binaries

on disc

GGHFFJ. Jack HalberstamGaga Feminism: Sex, Gender, and the End of NormalBeacon Press

J. Jack Halberstam’s latest book, Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender, and the End of Normal, explores gender, normality and marriage with varying degrees of success. In Zizek-like fashion, it was published soon after Halberstam’s earlier theory work—and the fact that “this book was written in some-thing of a frenzy” becomes readily apparent.

Lady Gaga seems born to be a

symbol for feminism. Embraced for her wild image and caring, pro-sex-uality, anti-capitalist views, Gaga is a product of the very systems Hal-berstam intends to dismantle. Which came first, the capital or the care? Is Gaga an appropriate symbol for fight-ing against the one per cent when the one per cent is the reason Gaga is a Lady and not a Mother Teresa?

The book follows the theory-writ-ing scheme of using jargon—every few page contains a haphazard para-graph that tediously defines “Gaga feminism.” The play of language seems to be more for its own sake than for insight. Headline-grabbing and paradoxical phrases like “preg-nant men” and “creative anarchy” disrupt the author’s believability, not the reader’s beliefs.

Halberstam sets up more binaries than she deconstructs by opposing sex with comfort, and change with stability. She argues for the destruc-tion of gender norms and male-fe-male binaries, but is annoyed with the film The Kids Are All Right be-cause it doesn’t make enough of a gender distinction between the butch husband and the femme wife.

In the second half of the book, her pop references are focused, dissect-ing the conventional chick flick and demonstrating their repetition of a

failing social myth. She compares the end scene of pornography, the male orgasm, with the end scene of the rom-com, the wedding, or female orgasm.

While Halberstam’s critiques of gender and normality cite personal, anecdotal evidence and are repeat-edly undercut, her critique of mar-riage is concise and grounded. She stresses gays should not fight to be married, but instead should fight for the end of marriage as a political institution.

Perhaps the best proposition the book offers is a new way to foster communication, responsibility and generosity by replacing marriage with wider “plus-one” units. For example, people should have the option to ex-tend their healthcare benefits to the old lady who housesits for them. Why not value forged connection as much as blood connection?

Despite a lackluster concluding manifesto that wanders into an over-extended analogy of HBO’s The Wire, overall, Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender, and the End of Normal will make you question your ideas of gender, normality and especially marriage. Whether you agree or disagree, you’ll examine your deep-seated beliefs, which is never a bad thing.

—Nathan Tebokkel

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i was always a junk food person, still am.

—dolly Parton, American country singer

Humiliation not proper form of punishment

Society functions because we have laws that—in theory—no one is above. You break a law, you suffer the consequences. And that’s how it should be, obviously. However, what consequences are suitable for specific offences is a grey area.

Take a recent example I came across in my online perusal of various news sites. I found an article on the Globe and Mail’s website about a Cleveland woman who continuously not only passed a school bus, but did so by driving on the sidewalk. You don’t need me to point out this is extremely foolish, not to mention dangerous.

The judge slapped her with a fine and a 30-day license suspension—much too little, in my opinion. However, it was the added punishment that has me scratching my head.

For two mornings in the week following her sentence, the woman was required to stand at a busy intersection wearing a sign reading, “Only an idiot drives on the sidewalk to avoid a school bus.”

What?Using embarrassment as punishment? Isn’t that

sort of medieval? Granted, I can see the thought process behind it—this woman will be so mortified that people will see her standing there that she’ll never break another law again. And yes, perhaps it will work like that for some people. But let’s be real here—this woman was stupid enough to drive on a sidewalk to avoid waiting a few minutes. It’s not like she didn’t know she was breaking a bunch of rules and was super embarrassed when she found out—she intentionally and knowingly broke those laws. I hardly think this added ‘punishment’ would do much.

This isn’t even the first example of this sort of punishment I’ve seen. A while back, a bunch of photos went viral of young teenagers, and even children, being forced by their parents to wear signs admitting to doing something wrong. One example that jumps to mind is a young boy who had to wear a sign reading something like “I think it’s cool to smoke pot. I’m an idiot.”

Once again—what?When did this become okay? I’m not a parent,

but I hardly think the best way to reinforce a rule is to publicly humiliate your child. I am someone’s kid, and at one point I was a youngster, and let me tell you—I don’t know about all of you, but if I made a mistake and my parents forced me to wear a sign in public denouncing myself, I would have loathed them for it. Also—this isn’t an article about cyber-bullying, but forcing children or young teens to humiliate themselves is basically inviting taunting and teasing, don’t you think?

What happened to grounding, or confiscating of electronics? Hell, I’d take a spanking over a sign-of-shame—especially in the age of viral videos.

—Cam Parkes

Your anonymous letters to life.

dear Life, Why can’t i seem to get out of the Western bubble even though i’m actually from London?

dear Life, Why aren’t there any bus stop signs at Weldon Library and Alumni hall? People just show up and buses just stop.

dear Life, Nothing kills how suave you can look in a suit like wearing a backpack over it.

Submit your letters to life at www.westerngazette.ca /dearlife.

Junk food regulations create sticky situation

To the Editor:In regards to “Freedom of Speech on Campus” (November 5, 2012), I suggest that the author does not know what free speech actually is.

Mr. Smith refers many times in his article to the fact that certain types of speech are “regressive/ignorant” and that these are “[without] any value.” However, we must remember that free speech is completely and utterly point-less without protecting speech that we do not agree with. Frankly, if everybody agrees with a statement, free speech isn’t necessary for it. Free speech is to protect those ideas that people do not like. What Mr. Smith seems to be sug-gesting is exactly the opposite. As long as ideas do not rock the boat, and as long he agrees with them, sure, let’s allow them. That’s not free speech.

Mr. Smith ends his article by stat-ing that speech that infringes on the freedoms of others ceases to be of any value. I would like to ask him exactly how speech can infringe on freedom of others? The author seems to be im-plying that racially or sex-based speech somehow infringes on others freedom. If I state that a certain race is backwards and retarded, how does this at all do that?

There is no such thing as a freedom to not be offended—as much as Mr. Smith may wish there were. By living in a free society you acknowledge this and live with it. The minute that you start categorizing certain speech as useless, simply because you disagree, is the minute that free speech loses its value altogether.

— Kyle MacleanIvey I

Free speech

thisdayinhistory

Back in the great year of 1972, the UWO chess club was constantly showing strong performances and making headlines. Edward durrant and Peter Murray, the two best players in the club, had just finished a tournament with matching scores of 5.5/7—good for a tie for third.

This tournament included over 700 competitors, which further showcased Western’s dominance at this once immensely popular sport.

ryan HurlbutOPiNiONS EdiTOr

With Canadian obesity rates at a stag-geringly high number, there have been many proposals to tax or regu-late junk food in order to increase overall health.

Junk food taxes have been imple-mented to some degree of success in Denmark, but have shown to only be effective at fairly high rates. Even with these taxes in place, people are easily able to fatten up regular meals with untaxed items like butter.

While taxes have the ability to boost the funds of the government, they still lack the ability to put an easy stop to obesity—cigarette taxes were put in place well into the decline in smoking.

Other proposals have discussed the creation of a system that rates certain foods as unhealthy, and plas-ters this information on the package in the same way diseased lungs deco-rate packages of cigarettes.

While these systems both have their merits, they seem to exist in a binary where foods are on oppo-site ends of the spectrum in terms of healthiness. In reality, there is no clear divide between junk food and healthy food, as many processed items teeter on the edge.

Currently, the only real mentions of healthy food occur in academic studies, and the claims of the prod-uct itself. While Lays may want you to believe that frying in sunflower oil makes a chip healthy, you’re still con-suming mass amounts of sodium and fat.

Whether or not a tax is imple-mented, we need a thorough system that eliminates the idea of a divide between healthy and unhealthy. We need to be able to embrace the fact some foods are middling, and stay away from a system that allows a food only slightly healthier than the cutoff rate to receive a full passing grade.

To me, the solution is to create a system combining a full-scale grad-ing method with a colour-coded logo allowing the customer to easily un-derstand what they are about to eat.

In the same way that we grade the chance of forest fires, we can create a set of colours enabling the consumer to easily identify the foods deemed healthy or unhealthy—but that’s not all.

In combination with this, we can use the percentage system—already highly integrated into our culture—to thoroughly evaluate each product.

In this way, a customer is able to ignore foods with a bad colour code completely, then individually ex-amine other foods to get an idea of whether or not they should buy them.

For example, if a failing food re-ceives a grade of 40 per cent or less and the lowest colour symbol, a food with a healthier colour code and a grade of 41 per cent is able to create anxiety in the shopper, rather than lumping it in with every other food within that tier.

This system could also work with a weighted tax targeting foods in the lower tiers—creating a situation where consumers are easily informed regarding what they are buying, and simultaneously persuaded to buy healthier.

A simple crest on the corner of processed foods can easily educate consumers, and while it may not stop people from buying bad food, it helps them make an informed choice.

rySpace

Letter to the Editor

From the desk of the managing editor


Sportsrundown >> The Mustangs fell 3–1 to the Guelph Gryphons in the 2012 FhC-CiS women’s field hockey championship bronze medal match on Sunday > Jessica Craw-ford had the loan goal for the Mustangs in the loss.

tweet of the weekWoke up exhausted from learning. hahaha. Thanks u American hosers 4 the political class last night. Now i put u all through stache class #MO

At least Toronto Maple Leafs forward Colby Armstrong (@armdog) is staying sharp during the NhL’s lockout

Western to host championship for sixth time in history

Nation’s best prepare for CIS championship

ryan SternSPOrTS EdiTOr

The nation’s best collegiate long distance runners will be con-verging in London, Ontario this weekend, as the Mustangs cross-country team will be hosting the Canadian Interuniversity Sport cross-country championship. The event is one of the premier events in the country, attracting some of the best competition in the nation.

At the site of the yearly Western international event on the Thames Valley Golf Course, the Mustangs will be hosting the national event for the sixth time since 1986. With most of the field having run on this same course earlier in the year during Western’s yearly tourna-ment, the advantage will be limited to sleeping at home.

“We run on the course every year,” Bob Vigars, cross-country coach, said. “If they can handle [running in front of their friends and family], they do have an ad-vantage sleeping in their own bed and running on their own race course. It is more of an advantage than not, but it does open the door for choking.”

Coming into the tournament as one of the university’s most suc-cessful teams in its long history—with 11 CIS titles—the Mustangs have hopes of reaching the po-dium this weekend, specifically on the women’s side. Ranking fourth in the nation with 66.4 vote points in the weekly CIS ranking, the women’s team will have the best shot to reach the podium in a star-studded weekend.

“For my women’s team, I would be in heaven if we can get to the po-dium,” Vigars said. “It is a really, re-ally star-studded field, and the top schools in cross country can com-pete with division one schools, un-like in basketball and football.”

As for the men’s team, the hope is to compete with the high level of competition, and to show the school and the city proud. Having finished sixth in the Ontario Uni-versity Athletics championships, they hope everything will mesh against the stiffer competition.

“We were as high as seven, but we are currently not ranked in the top 10,” Vigars said. “With 18 teams in the competition, our hope is to get into the top 10. We have a good team, but all of the top 10 teams are really good.”

At the championships—unlike other races during the year—each team is permitted a maximum of

seven people, of which only five of the times count. As a sport that relies heavily on the entirety of the team finishing well, this weekend should test the Mustangs’ ability as a cohesive unit. A few poor perfor-mances could put the Mustangs’ goals out of reach.

“Your fifth guy’s time counts, no matter how shitty his time is,” Vigars said. “I could have the best runner in the country, but if my fifth guy has a lousy time, we are screwed.”

With 26 teams competing from across the country, the competi-tion will include runners that have both competed, and will compete,

for Canada in the Olympics.As one of the most success-

ful teams to don the purple and white in the school’s illustrious history, the cross-country team has a chance to add another stripe to their record book. The level of competition will make it difficult, but anything can happen in a na-tional event.

“You just hope everyone can hit on all cylinders, and that has been our problem,” Vigars said. “We have rarely had a chance where all of our top athletes have had a good competition at the same meet. Now is the time where you have to be clicking on all cylinders.”

Your fifth guy’s time counts, no matter how shitty his time is. i could have the best runner in the country, but if my fifth guy has a lousy time, we are screwed.

—Bob Vigars Mustangs cross-country coach

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Jason SinukoffSPOrTS EdiTOr

The Mustangs women’s basketball team will be back in action this weekend, when they take on the Ottawa Gee-Gees and the Carleton Ravens at home on Friday and Sat-urday, respectively.

After the Windsor Lancers cut their season short in the Ontario University Athletics semifinals last year, the purple and white will be looking for a quick 2–0 start to the season in order to improve upon their 12–12 record from last year.

However, these wins won’t come easy, as both the Gee-Gees and the Ravens are incredibly tal-ented teams that pose a significant threat to the Mustangs.

“Ottawa has been ranked just outside of the top 10 right now, and they were a top 10 team last year. They are a very good team,” Brian Cheng, Mustangs head coach, said. “Carleton is a very good team. They are defensive-minded, they rebound the ball tre-mendously well, well-coached and they are ranked in the top 10.”

One of the reasons the Gee-Gees will be tough to overcome is because of the lack of knowledge the Mustangs have of their starting lineup.

“The challenge for us when preparing for Ottawa is that we have only seen three-fifths of their lineup. Two of their best players haven’t been playing for them in the pre-season,” Cheng said. “So

it is hard to gauge where they are at this year, because the team we are going to play [is a team] we will be playing for the first time on Friday.”

If the Mustangs are to be victo-rious and get the quick 2–0 start to the season, Cheng knows he’ll need some help from his leaders.

“I think we have good leaders in Jenny Vaughan and Laura Dally,” Cheng said. “For a group like us, everyone is going to have to do a little bit of leading, in the sense that you don’t have to be a captain to lead.”

Leadership is not a problem for the Mustangs, but with some vet-erans departing and recruits arriv-ing, the team still has some work to do in order to be successful.

“I think we are still gelling. By

no means are we a polished prod-uct, but having said that, the ma-jority of the teams out there will be doing the same thing,” Cheng said.

“If we are ready to play national championship games, then we should be there and we wouldn’t need to practice anymore. We

are striving to be a little bit bet-ter each and every day out, and I think we have been doing that,” he concluded.

The challenge for us when preparing for Ottawa is that we have only seen three-fifths of their line-up. Two of their best players haven’t been playing for them in the pre-season.

—Brian ChengMustangs head coach

Naira Ahmed GAZETTE

Tough challenges versus Ottawa and Carleton begin season

women’s basketball squad looks for strong start

Nyssa Kuwahara GAZETTE

Documents

Thursday, November 8, 2012