Counterpoint THE WELLESLEY COLLEGE
SEPTEMBER 2010 VOL. 33
JOURNAL OF CAMPUS LIFE
/ ISSUE 1
HAVE AN IDEA?
WE’LL
RUN
WITH IT. TAKE PHOTOS. DRAW CARTOONS.
WRITE ARTICLES.
EDITORIAL STAFF Editors in Chief
HANNAH ALLEN ‘12 SARIKA NARULA ‘11
Managing Editor Copy Editor
Counterpoint The Wellesley College Journal of Campus Life September 2010 Volume 33 / Issue 1
CHRISTINA GOSSMANN ‘11 ANTHEA CHEUNG ‘12
Webmaster
ARTS & CULTURE
ALEXANDRA CAHILL ‘11
DESIGN STAFF Layout Editor Artistic Director
MYRIAM TAIBI ‘12 JEAN M. KIM ‘12
RACHEL SALMANOWITZ
5
Israel
JAMI-LIN WILLIAMS
8
The way they play it on the streets An innovative and effective approach to eliminating homelessness
BUSINESS STAFF Treasurer
ANNA COLL ‘12
STAFF WRITERS HANNAH ALLEN ‘12, ALEXANDRA CAHILL ‘11, ANTHEA CHEUNG ‘12, MARGARET VAN CLEVE ‘11, CHRISTINA GOSSMANN ‘11, SARIKA NARULA ’11, RACHEL SALMANOWITZ ‘12
SARIKA NARULA
11 Stopped in my tracks
CHASTITY DILIGENCE
13
Europe caught in an ash cloud The hugs, handshakes and high-fives of the online dating scene
P O L I T I C S
CONTRIBUTORS JULIA GALL ‘12, JEAN KIM ‘12, ANNA PRENDELLA ’11, KARIN ROBINSON ‘12, VICTORIA ROYAL ‘11, SHARON TAI ‘13, JAMI-LIN WILLIAMS ‘11
TRUSTEES
ALEXANDRA CAHILL
15 Go ahead lil mama
HANNAH ALLEN
17 Irritating iphones, blackberry bans
Mama Grizzlies rise up: the right side of feminism The unfolding struggle between governments and technology companies
MATT BURNS MIT ‘05, KRISTINA COSTA ‘09, BRIAN DUNAGAN MIT ‘03, KARA HADGE WC ‘08, EDWARD SUMMERS MIT ‘08
C A M PU S
SUBMISSIONS Counterpoint welcomes all submissions of articles and letters. Email submissions to counterpointmail@firstclass. wellesley.edu. Counterpoint encourages cooperation between writers and editors but reserves the right to edit all submissions for length and clarity.
MARGARET VAN CLEVE
20 She gets it
ANTHEA CHEUNG
21 Away from rents
Staff Photo / Rachel Salmanowitz
L I FE
Wellesley bonding over the summer Feeling disconnected
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OK counterpoint!
CHRISTINA GOSSMANN
4
RACHEL SALMANOWITZ
5
/etc Democracy
Feature Israel
counterpoint
3
DEMOCRACY
Freedom of expression? BY CHRISTINA GOSSMANN
T
he Danish Mohammed car- lications’ constant struggle for freedom of toon controversy in 2005 clearly expression that ultimately facilitated the showed that freedom of expression formation of this democracy. can lead to deep offense and long-lasting During apartheid, independent newspolitical consequences. Danish embassies papers operated underground or in coin Syria, Lebanon, and Iran were set on operation with international sources to fire, flags were desecreated and more than provide oppositional information to citi100 people were killed when police fired zens. One of such forefront apartheid criton protesting crowds. ics was the weekly publication the Mail Freedom of expression is not always & Guardian. The newspaper, founded in an easy concept to defend. Yet, it was 1985, was originally named the Weekly in its very first session in 1946 that the Mail and celebrates its 25th anniversary UN General Assembly adopted resolu- this year. tion 59(I): “Freedom of information is In 1991, the Weekly Mail, together a fundamental human right and … the with The Guardian in London, broke the touchstone of all the freedoms to which “Inkathagate” scandal. Police funds were the United Nations is consecrated.” The secretly used to block the African NaUN clearly argues that freedom of expres- tional Congress (ANC), the leading opsion, along with free access to information positional party at the time. As a conseand ideas, is essential for a functioning quence, the apartheid government under democracy. F.W. de Klerk was forced to reopen stalled South Africa, which has one of the talks with the ANC. It was freedom of exworld’s most progressive constitutions, is pression that enabled South Africa to have currently facing the greatest challenge to its first democratic elections in 1994. freedom of expression since the foundaThe political situation has changed tion of its democracy in 1994. A recently – democracy has been established – but introduced ‘Protection of Information the necessity for freedom of expression reBill’ and a proposed media appeals tri- mains. Since the end of apartheid, South bunal will legislate how the government African politics have been dominated by manages and classifies its information, if the ANC, first featuring legendary Nelson passed. Mandela, then Thabo Mbeki and now JaThere are several factors to consider to cob Zuma. The ANC received 65.9% of understand the importance of free speech the vote in the 2009 general election; the to South Africa in particular. South Africa main challenger, the Democratic Alliance is a quite young democracy (16 years) and (DA), received 16.66% - just to compare it was South African individuals’ and pub- some numbers. Many argue that South page 4 counter point / september 2010
Christina Gossmann ‘11 (cgossmann@ wellesley.edu) wished she were ubiased but adored interning with the Mail & Guardian this past summer.
Photo // mg.co.za
/ETC
Africa is really a one-party state. In a country where one party leads, access to information from non-political sources is crucial. In South Africa, this information is still provided by local publications, in particular newspapers. They continue functioning as political watchdogs. It is therefore not surprising that South African journalists were outraged by the proposed ‘Protection of Information Bill’ and media appeals tribunal that will not only allow the government to classify a broad range of material that is currently public, but also legitimize an up to 25year-imprisonment for any leakage or publication of information deemed classified by the government. The South African National Editors’ Forum said media restrictions proposed by the ANC threatened the “lifeblood” of the country’s democracy; one major newspaper even began printing notices alongside articles to inform readers that they would not be reading those stories if the proposed media laws were going to be passed. Most of those articles involve corruption or incompetence by top officials, a major issue in South African politics. There has also been international response to the proposed bill and tribunal. The Vienna-based International Press Institute (IPI), a global network of publishers, editors, and leading journalists, has sent an open letter to President Jacob Zuma, urging him to address the press freedom concerns. The General Council of the Bar of South Africa, legal advisory on South African law, predicted at the end of August that the Protection of Information Bill would not pass constitutional law because “a number of provisions are in conflict with the foundational values of the constitution.” The decision has not yet been made. Everyone is looking to the South African Parliament, thinking “What’s the verdict, ‘new’ South Africa?”
Israel
BY RACHEL SALMANOWITZ
I
My motivations for applying to this program were two-fold. On an academic level, I could not imagine a more edifying experience as a Religion major than to live and study in the city where Judaism, Christianity, and Islam inevitably intersect—where King Solomon commissioned the First Temple for the Jews, where Jesus preached and ultimately carried the cross to his crucifixion, and where the prophet was brought by the Buraq af-
ter the first part of his Night Journey. Intellectual pursuits aside, however, I was also on a mission to reconnect with and understand family members living in Jerusalem that I barely knew—an uncle and aunt and two adult cousins, who in turning to Ultra-Orthodox Judaism rather late in life, had alienated themselves from the other members of the wholly secular Salmanowitz family. From my father’s perspective, his
Staff Photo // Rachel Salmanowitz
n response to my email notifying him that I would be spending five weeks in Jerusalem, Israel and studying Jewish history as part of Harvard’s Summer Study Abroad program, my uncle, a resident of Jerusalem for the past ten years, wrote, “This will probably be one of the best—and eventually most troubling— experiences you will ever have.” In retrospect, this rather vague prediction turned out to be eerily accurate.
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counter point / september 2010
brother had grown up celebrating Chanukah and Christmas, had never been overtly religious, and had married a Catholic woman; yet, at some point when I was in elementary school, this same brother and his family suddenly began keeping Kosher stringently, carefully following the instructions of the Grand Rabbi, and moved from Geneva, Switzerland to the Holy Land. For a variety of reasons, mostly stemming from my father’s incomprehension of this transition and the fact that they lived thousands of miles away, I had had very little contact with this side of the family—excepting one family reunion in Vermont many moons ago that has been memorialized by a requisite family picture in which my sister and I sport matching cow-print dresses. At some point last year, it occurred to me that it would be a shame if my cousins’ enduring memory of me was as a six-year old with uneven bangs in a cow dress. So I found myself on my way to Israel in June, not sure of what to expect in terms of the mini-reunion with this family or the program or the country, but armed with my uncle’s foresight that the experience would at the very least be unlike any other thus far in my life. Just getting into the country turned out to be an experience in itself thanks to the Israeli airline, El Al, which is considered the “safest” airline to fly due to its intense security screening of each passenger. Having arrived in Geneva from London on my way to Tel Aviv, I underwent a tenminute private questioning while my bags were basically unpacked and each item inspected. Perhaps my questioning took a different tone than most: “Have you ever been to Israel?” “No.” “Do you speak Hebrew?” “No.” “Wait, with the last name Salmanowitz you have never been to Israel?” “No.” “Are you sure?” “Yup, I’m sure.” In the end, despite the confusion I apparently caused the El Al employee, I did manage to make it on the plane and into Israel with the added bonus of still having all the contents in my backpack, even the small bottle of Goslings’ Black Rum that has somehow made it through
countless domestic and international security checkpoints without question this summer. Jumping ahead a few weeks into my time in the “land of milk and honey,” I was convinced that this was indeed the “best” experience of my life. Beyond the fact that class did not start until four in the afternoon every day—hence the opportunity to experience the nightlife of Jerusalem on a regular basis with the possibility of still getting the reading done— the advertisements found in numerous newspapers and television commercials, promising that “You’ll love Israel from the first Shalom,” seemed to actually be right. I genuinely did “love” frequenting Jerusalem’s Jewish shouk or market for majoul dates and falafel, floating in the Dead Sea in view of Jordan, visiting major religious sites including the Western Wall, the Dome of the Rock, Bethlehem and the Ba’hai Temple, and simply exploring Jerusalem against the backdrop of the pale yellow “Jerusalem stone” that is uniform throughout the city. And, despite certain false allegations about my mother’s past (that apparently she had an ex-husband and child that neither she or my dad ever knew about), the familial component of the trip was also a success, as I can now say I know my cousins and their multitude of young children—I even have new family photos to show for it. Upon my return to the United States, however, it seemed obvious to everyone except me that I had wholeheartedly embraced the message of those governmentsponsored advertisements and in doing so, had failed to see them for what they really are—marketing techniques attempting to change and arguably gloss over Israel’s reputation as a country afflicted by ongoing violence due to its often antagonistic political policies. After a few weeks at home, when the euphoria of my experience in Israel had subsided, I realized that I had spent five weeks in Israel essentially oblivious to the entire Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Perhaps due to my course work that focused exclusively on Jewish history and Zionism and the time spent with Jew-
ish students in the program as well as my staunchly pro-Israel Jewish family members, I soon came to also view Israel as the rightful Jewish homeland. I was told to avoid wandering into East Jerusalem where the majority of the Arab population in Jerusalem resides, I rarely came into contact with anyone that was not of Jewish ancestry, and I most certainly did not converse with any Palestinians regarding their thoughts towards the conflict, the Jews’ claim to the land, or their experiences living in Israel. I returned home not just exclaiming my love for Israeli food and culture but also defending the Israeli state; in hindsight, I realize that I was almost word for word touting the Zionist rhetoric of Michael Buber and David Ben-Gurion. The purpose of this article is not to criticize those who support Israel, nor in any way do I feel comfortable or capable of stating my own opinion on the IsraeliPalestinian conflict at this point. Instead, I want to convey that what I ultimately found most “troubling” about my experience in Israel was myself. Almost inexplicably, I arrived in Israel and lost my ability to look at both sides of an argument; I unquestioningly accepted the pro-Israeli influences around me and basically hopped on board, all the while failing to truly consider what information or opinions I lacked. Although it may take me a long time and more words than I can fit into this article to rationalize what factors led me to this mentality, my trip to Israel unequivocally became a lesson in just how easily I can be influenced. Today my uncle sent me a message on Facebook in which he voiced his “hope that I am still looking forward to returning to Israel.” Someday, I do indeed hope to return to Israel—prepared to form my own opinions this time. Rachel Salmanowitz ‘12 (rsalmano@ wellesley.edu) is feeling so fly, like a G6.
counter point / september 2010
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ARTS & CULTURE
THE WAY THEY PLAY IT ON THE STREETS An innovative and effective approach to eliminating homelessness
W
eeks after the FIFA World Cup brought soccer enthusiasts to life, a smallish crowd gathered at the corner of 11th and H Streets in Northwest Washington, D.C. Two hundred street soccer players from 20 US cities and Russia paraded into the Washington Kastles Stadium to the beat of the page 8
all-female samba/reggae band Batala. District Mayor Adrian Fenty offered welcoming remarks and the crowd, led by members of the Barra Brava (an independent supporters’ group for DC United often referred to as the craziest fans in Major League Soccer for their drum circles and other antics), hooped and hollered as the
counter point / september 2010
first match began on the 22 by 16 meter court. As the sun made its descent, a palpable feeling of hope and excitement rose and showed itself in the smile on the face of every participant. Such was the start of the 2010 Street Soccer USA Cup. The annual SSUSA tournament, now in its fourth year, differs from the soccer
Photo // streetsoccerusa.org
BY JAMI-LIN WILLIAMS
that was broadcasted around the world from South Africa earlier this summer in several aspects. The court is about a fifth of the size of a standard soccer field, the net is 1.1 meters high, and only four players from each team (three outfield players and a goalkeeper) are on the court at any given time. The FIFA “Laws of the Game”, alternatively, call for 11 players from each team and a goal that is 2.34 meters high. Play is fast and dynamic and the tables can turn at any time; as announcer Joe Tripodo commented, “You’re never out of the game.” Instead of 90 minutes of regulation time, a street soccer match is over in two quick, seven-minute halves with only a one-minute halftime. If any match ends in a draw, a penalty shoot-out begins until one team leads by a goal. And one more thing: each of the players is or has been homeless in the last year. Street Soccer USA is a young nonprofit organization that uses soccer to show homeless individuals and asylumseekers the path off the street and, as crazy as it may sound, it works. Within a year, approximately 75% of participants have moved off the streets. Not only does Street Soccer build confidence and provide structure (each team practices three times per week, in addition to frequent local competitions), but it also changes the way the players, and more importantly, outsiders, view homelessness. I first learned about the tournament through my work this summer with Street Sense, a non-profit street newspaper in DC that offers economic opportunities to homeless individuals in the area. My first assignment with the paper was to cover the SSUSA tournament and “capture the spirit of the event”. Easy, I thought. The Kastles stadium is just a block or so away from the Street Sense office, so my plan was to head over after work on Friday night, check out the opening matches, talk to some players, then write some admiring piece about how carefree and hopeful it all was. By the time night began to fall and the crowd slowly dissembled, I was still stuck to my chair, rapt and pensive.
I came back for day two. It was one of those days in DC when the sun heats up the pollutants in the humid air to a toxic-feeling degree, making one feel as though one is breathing through a damp, hot washcloth. Still, I was not the only one who came out to see the games. I was struck not only by the number of attendees, but also by the many types of people in attendance; I saw groups of twentysomethings, couples of all ages, entire families, even a group of rowdy middleschool boys who got their five seconds of fame when a local news cameraman recorded them playing with noisemakers. The players themselves comprised an even more diverse demographic, hailing from all over the US and a number of foreign countries – visual evidence of the saying that “homelessness can happen to anyone.” I was surprised, also, to see a handful of women’s teams and a number of women playing on the rest of the teams, including a tough goalie from Charlotte. More pertinent to the game was the range of skill levels in evidence. Some games, I admit, were sloppy. Players would miss the ball on an easy shot, get tripped up on their own two feet, or fail to make plays. Other games, though, were intense and packed with skilled players passing the ball around the court with finesse. Though this was no feel-good, lovey-dovey event; the players were scrappy and treated their games with the same seriousness as FIFA stars with multi-million-dollar contracts. And it wasn’t a bunch of bums pushing each other around, either. In fact, the tournament itself seemed to allow the players to escape the narrow definition usually applied to them by stereotypes of homelessness. These were people and soccer players, nothing more and nothing less. This, I realized, is the beauty of Street Soccer USA; it allows homeless people to be people again and, most of all, to be seen as people again. We often think of homelessness as the result of bad choices and/or unfortunate circumstances – the failure of an individual to thrive. Lawrence Cann, SSUSA’s
founder, says instead that homelessness is the product of the breakdown of a community, resulting in isolation, marginalization and abuse (widely defined). In order to end homelessness, then, it is necessary to rebuild the community, giving each individual a sense both of purpose and belonging. Being homeless is no longer a solitary experience for the Street Soccer player, but one in which the individual is able to connect with other individuals and begin to feel human again. By changing the context of homelessness for its participants, as the organization’s website terms it, SSUSA allows them to make their way out of it. It’s not just that, either; SSUSA successfully combats homelessness by connecting its participants with the scattered resources already available to them. That’s one of the tricky things about being homeless – there is help out there (shelters, food pantries, counseling, free GED classes, etc.), but it’s really hard to find. SSUSA connects players with other organizations that can provide job training, pro-bono legal services and therapy. This way, homeless individuals can have all of their needs addressed in more of a onestop format instead of searching endlessly for the right resources. Street Soccer USA is already a success, as their turnover rate (now nearing the 80% mark) indicates, and it is likely to continue in that way because of another central component of its model: flexibility. Every six weeks, team leaders meet on a conference call to talk strategy. They discuss new ideas about such things as sustainability and programming, share techniques, and talk about which practices seem not to be working. This communication allows SSUSA to keep changing and updating itself and also keeps it organized – a pitfall for many institutions providing services to the homeless. Two days after the end of the tournament on August 3rd, 2010, Mayor Fenty (yes, the same Mayor Fenty who was present at the opening ceremony) pushed to have $4.3 million in federal money
counter point / september 2010
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riage in the District, the future is bleak for resources for homeless individuals everywhere. Street Soccer USA and organizations like it are already stepping up, but they will be crucial to social services if this trend continues. The SSUSA Cup tournament, though it is the pinnacle of street soccer in this country, is a transient thing. It lasts only three days before a winner emerges, the team to represent the USA at the Homeless World Cup is chosen, the encouraging posters around the stadium are torn down, and the players must return to their respective cities. After a week, hardly anyone remembers that the USA Cup was won by a team from Russia, or that more females came out to play than ever before. Hardly anyone, that is, except for the players. And therein lays the true secret to Street Soccer’s success; that fleeting joy and thrill that every player experiences, that one moment away from the harshness of life on the street. For about threequarters of the players, it’s the only time they’ll ever play in the tournament. “You don’t want to see [the players] next year,”
counter point / september 2010
Jami-Lin WIlliams’ ‘11 (jwillia2@wellesley. edu) face is on a billboard outside the stadium.
Photo // streetsoccerusa.org
moved from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), a federal program designed to bolster already existing programs dedicated to work, welfare and temporary financial assistance, to a summer employment program for young people. Although that sum would be enough to house 250 needy families for a year, Fenty planned to use the funds to add seven days onto a six-week employment program that has consistently run overbudget (this year by $4.1 million) since its creation. Fenty was blocked and the money was preserved for programs that work with homeless and needy families, but this problem is not likely to disappear. Helping the homeless is, generally speaking, a financial sinkhole for municipal governments and organizations that do so experience a host of struggles, from lack of funding to violence and manipulation on the part of the individuals they assist. With federal and municipal funds at risk even under the Fenty administration, which has completely overhauled public education, expanded health coverage for the uninsured and legalized same-sex mar-
said Andres Garvey, one of the directors of the event. “You want them to make it.” If a player does not return, that means that he or she no longer meets the qualifications to play in Street Soccer USA; he or she is no longer homeless. The FIFA World Cup may have been big and flashy, it may have been important to whole lot of people, and it may even have been a huge economic boost for South Africa, but the Street Soccer USA Cup was a meaningful, rewarding, life-changing experience for 100% of its participants. In September, teams from 64 nations will gather in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the 8th Annual Homeless World Cup, an event that draws a crowd of over 100,000 people and that, historically, has a positive impact on the host country. When the tournament was held in Cape Town in 2006, media coverage of the event led to the allocation of city funds for a street soccer program. Some players, like Portugal’s Tiago Manuel Dias Correia (aka Bèbè), who recently signed on with Manchester United for $11.5 million without ever having played a major league game, even go on to play soccer professionally. In Russia, where the first ever Homeless World Cup was held, issues of homelessness and exclusion were discussed openly in the media for perhaps the first time. Street Soccer USA is just one of the grassroots football projects associated with the Homeless World Cup, a network that reaches over 40,000 homeless players worldwide. Though funding for resources for the homeless constantly in danger in this country, and almost nonexistent in many others, SSUSA and its international counterparts are thriving. Street Soccer presents an effective, 21st-century model for eradicating homelessness, and it couldn’t come at a better time.
ARTS & CULTURE
STOPPED IN MY TRACKS Europe caught in an ash cloud
BY SARIKA NARULA
9
Photo // mixbuzzers.com
:30 PM, Berlin Schoenefeld airport. At the time by which we were supposed to have landed in Geneva, my friend Naomi and I were still in Berlin, having not even boarded the plane. We had, however, managed to lose our patience and good will with the airline, EasyJet. EasyJet, one of the cheap airlines used often by students flying around Europe, was proving its worth—as cheap as the tickets we bought, the airline had not even bothered to formally announce a delay and we were kept in the dark as to why the hour and a half delay was necessary. That was Wednesday, April 14th, 2010. Fast forward two days to Friday the 16th,
when we got an inkling of how ridiculous the situation really would become. We were out shopping for a gift for our hosts—a friend’s parents who had generously let us stay with them, as Geneva is not very student-friendly. We had a flight scheduled the next day to take us back to Edinburgh, with finals beginning that Monday. It was a beautiful morning in Geneva. The blue, cloudless sky heralded a perfect spring morning, which was a welcome relief from the gray skies of Edinburgh to which we were returning. With such a wonderful start to the day, we were impervious to the thought that anything bad
was coming. My cell phone rang, and I saw a call from my mom. It was an odd time for her to call, but my mom’s main reason for calling was to see if we were ok “with all that ash in the sky.” I frowned into the phone. “What ash?” “Didn’t you know?” my mom continued. “There’s a volcano that erupted in Iceland and it’s spewing ash, which is travelling far across Europe. A lot of airspace in Europe has been closed, and they’re not letting planes enter or leave Britain. It’s been going on since Wednesday.” I stopped in my tracks. “No planes into Britain?” We hadn’t been watching the news since leaving Edinburgh. Suddenly something else clicked into place— this was the reason EasyJet had delayed our flight into Geneva. Realizing this, I became furious. If we had known that then, we could have done something. I relayed the situation to Naomi, who agreed that we better leave our task and run home to see what we could find out. We immediately checked our emails, where we saw that our flights tomorrow had been cancelled. We then spent the better part of the afternoon assessing the situation and combing the BBC website for updates. As everyone in Europe was finding out, the volcano Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland had started erupting on that Wednesday. We tried to examine all options, but every hour another European country was closing off its airspace. Though most of Britain had closed its airspace, northern England and western Scotland still had open airspace, but we didn’t manage to book anything that day and as it stood, we were stranded in Geneva for a while. Now, being stuck in Geneva with free accommodation shouldn’t have been stressful, but we had no return ticket and finals were due to start in two days. The next day, growing increasingly frustrated with the situation, we rather hastily booked flights to Copenhagen and from
counter point / september 2010
page 11
there to Manchester, England, from where we would have to catch a bus back to Edinburgh. It was annoying, but flying with EasyJet was still fairly cheap and we were promised full refunds on any cancelled flights, so for the time being we took deep breaths and tried to relax. Our new flights were scheduled for the 19th, the first day of finals. We emailed our professors and heads of department, and subsequently tried to enjoy that Saturday. It was again a beautiful, sunny day, and if you looked up at the clear sky you would never guess that Switzerland was closing its airspace because of thick volcanic ash drifting over Europe. Consequently, the next day we found out that our flights were, yet again, cancelled. Countries were closing off airspace for several days at a time, guessing at when they would reopen, so airlines were forced to cancel flights several days before they occurred. During those days Naomi and I religiously followed the news online, searching for the latest updates, but nothing looked very hopeful. There were even hints that the volcanic eruptions could continue for weeks, if not months (this was about the time I started worrying whether I would be able to return to the States at the end of May). We knew we had to find another way out of Switzerland. Thus began our epic struggle to find a route back to British soil. We selfishly hogged the computer in our hosts’ house, looking up every single possible land and sea transportation leaving Switzerland or entering the United Kingdom, often working backwards. It was the largest disruption in air transportation in Europe since World War II. Though it was incredibly stressful, it was also exciting to know that, in a sense, we were witnessing history. I felt like a character in a novel, maybe Phileas Fogg in Jules Vernes’s Around the World in Eighty Days—pressed for time and jumping through hoops in order to get home. There were options; the real
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problem was, trains and ferries were being booked by the second by others desperate to get home, and the ash situation was volatile. One day the BBC would report that a country would open its airspace, giving us faint hope, and the next day that same country would announce it was keeping its airspace closed for an additional five days. It was, to say the least, maddening. By Sunday we had lost our patience with all airlines, with online bookings and unreliable websites, and made the trek to the Geneva train station where hundreds of other stranded passengers were waiting in line to be helped. When it was our turn, we explained our situation to the lady behind the counter, who looked up any routes from Geneva to the U.K. She came back with a solution: tickets that would take us to London, with two stops in between—first in Paris, then in Lille, leaving Wednesday afternoon and reaching London that same night. It sounded almost too good to be true—we realized why when we saw the price. The total cost of the journey, not counting the coach we would have to book independently to Edinburgh, amounted to over $600 each. The main reason for the expense was the train from Paris to London—we had no other option but to travel first-class, and that was a pretty steep price. The sales lady told us we could cancel the tickets up until fifteen minutes before the journey, with a full refund, and it was the only way back we had found, so we winced and handed over our credit cards. That Wednesday, the last day of our European adventure, I found myself yearning for the gray skies of Britain, which we would finally reach after our 10-hour journey to London. We passed through France, went through the chunnel (the channel tunnel between France and England) first class, were offered complimentary glasses of champagne, and landed at King’s Cross, London. We navigated the tube to get to Victoria Sta-
counter point / september 2010
tion, where we boarded the last overnight coach leaving for Edinburgh. Until we boarded that coach, I did not realize how anxious I had been throughout. We had made all our connections and were back in Britain—no more messy transportation to figure out, and I would be given some leeway on my final exams. For such a pricey ticket, it’s natural to wonder, was it worth it? Should we have waited for something cheaper to turn up? You can be sure I asked myself that several times during those days in Switzerland. Especially as some airspace lifted that last day we spent in Switzerland. My answer, now, is a resounding yes. Of course it was expensive—but it was also the only surefire way out. Airspace was constantly shifting, the volcano was highly unpredictable, spewing more ash one day and less the next, and we had our exams to consider. At the very least, we managed to spend more time in Switzerland, an extra four days, and our grand Eurotrip ended with a bang—one that made international headlines and caused complete chaos in a continent known for its laidback lifestyle.
Sarika Narula ‘11 (snarula@wellesley.edu), wouldn’t even dream of messing with anything with such a name as Eyjafjallajökull.
ARTS & CULTURE
OK COUNTERPOINT ! The hugs, handshakes and high-fives of the online dating scene BY CHASTITY DILIGENCE
I
Staff Illustration // Jean M. Kim
dismount Peter Pan; he is walking towards me all tall, dark, clean-shaven, anxious, fantastic. I look at him. He looks at me. And for some reason, it crawls out from under the mental detritus of seven years of repression…my middleschool girls’ camp slumber-time send-off. “So. Hug, handshake, or a high-five?” Why am I here? It started with a hastily improvised “Hey there!” on the night before my second organic chemistry midterm, gradually progressing to conversations, phone calls, and carefully synthesized notions of shared experience that paradoxically preceded a face-to-face
meeting. Blame disenchantment with the social scene, in all its isolations and desperations. A general sense of fatigue surrounding the few feasible night routes to the social gatherings of Boston higher education. The rapidly diminishing patience for small talk screamed over a forest of Top 40 and socially awkward boys that, let’s face it, most of us wouldn’t have looked twice at in high school. We already technologically outsource our academic proceedings, our friendships, our entertainment, our “Community”— why not outsource our dating lives, too? So here I am, courtesy of OkCu-
pid, self-proclaimed “best dating site on Earth.” And now I need to propose a topic of conversation that is clever and irreverent enough to drag myself out from the hole that my last comment has unwittingly dug. We cross the right side of the Harvard Bridge and count the Smoots that pass underfoot. Three weeks and two dates later, I’ve managed to dig myself out of a variety of similarly deep conversational holes…and into his bedroom. The slow progression towards horizontal has only succeeded in making it more
counter point / september 2010
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and more noticeable how dismally his 6’3 contradicts my 5’5. A giggle threatens to efflux the depths of my larynx. I attempt to distract myself, glancing around at the navy-blue surroundings, the posterless wall. The duvet cover is a neutrally striped, vaguely boring in a manly sort of way, analog of most of the shirts in his closet. The threat becomes palpable. He pulls away with a brusque onslaught of “what? what?!” Gravity overrides willpower. I burst out laughing. The following morning, I apologize for my awkwardness. He apologizes for his frustration. Our correspondence ends. Back home, the familiar pink-bordered box flashes in the bottom right-hand corner of my screen. Hey there…looks like you’re a hot nerd. Hey there…looks like you’re a shirtless tool posing for a Myspace photo op. *** Pissoffery #1 (because this is Wellesley, where experience coexists with grievance): This exists: www.datingbrian.com. Now, if I started a web site asking the Internet to “crowdsource” my dating life so that I could go on 30 dates in 30 days with 30 guys, you’d just laugh. But apparently if a guy does it, girls are all over it. *** My next instant message is from a picture-less, profile-less young man who disarms me with uncapitalized spars on philosophy and science. We banter and exchange intellectual snobberies over the course of the next week. He’s confident, well-read, and two years over the acceptable dating range as defined by xkcd (girl’s age > ½ guy’s age + 7). We also exchanged photos. His academic leanings dissolve, and eventually heated intellectual discourse devolves into thwarting his best intentions to ask me out. I’m a paragon of reasonable excuses: I’m still underage, it’s kinda far from where I work, this week’s just wayyy page 14
too busy. He asks if I drive. Yes, this is an ability that I possess, just as an automobile is a resource that I do not possess. Is it okay then, he wonders in Verdana 12 point, to send his chaffeur [sic] to pick me up? Haha, I reply, assuming it’s a joke. Any 28-year-old in medical school who somehow still managed to have enough money left over to pay for a chauffeur would at least know how to spell or Google the word, right? Ten minutes and still no response later, I horrifyingly realize that it isn’t. The next morning, there is a missed IM waiting for me in my inbox: “ok, i better get going, good luck on this site!” Good luck, indeed. *** Pissoffery #2: Women thinking that guys think women who ask them out are “easy.” So if a guy were to ask you out, would you think that he’s easy, too? I know I would. /sarcasm. No! My ego would be the size of Kansas ± Minnesota, depending on the allure and the intrigue of the young man involved! And for that matter, if a guy were to think that about me, I wouldn’t want to date him anyway. *** If there’s anything that I’ve learned at my time at Wellesley, it’s that it pays to be aggressive. Sometimes. (Why, hello OKC meetup #1. I asked you out in Lorentz transformations, but your usage of the words “electron penetration” was entirely non-ironic.) Tonight hovers between a quantum state of banking and not banking. He found me advantageously depraved, in the limbo between the end of finals and the beginning of summer. I found him two weeks fresh from a breakup, on the prowl and on the rebound. We found each other reasonably attractive. Underlying causes and their questionable legitimacy aside, I am here. Wondering why, among other things, that there is a sink in his room.
counter point / september 2010
“Hold that thought.” He gets up, opens iTunes, and soon, the sound of rain is emanating from his desktop computer. I engineered this encounter; Mother Nature’s monthly gift instituted its reasonable limits. Or so I thought. It isn’t ten minutes before his fingers stray below. “Can I just take it out?” If you have to ask, the answer is usually no. Memorial Day afternoon is tinged with wind and Canadian smoke. I negotiate the 364.4 Smoots back to Boston. *** Pissoffery #3: Men thinking that MIT beaver ring = I’ll show you my beaver. Or that “Hi, I’m Alex. I’m from Harvard” is under any circumstances an acceptable pick-up line. *** Why am I here? At the end of three pissofferies and shameless social anecdotes, I mean. And this question that I keep repeating in the hope that it will derive meaning and thematic content from this article. I want you to secretly agree, wondering who might the mystery woman be that gave voice to your burning, furtively constructed intuitions. I want you to author livid posts on what was Community with subject lines that adequately convey just how offended you are at my lewd audacity and shamelessly self-congratulatory vernacular. Above all, I want you to realize the extent to which these last two sentences thoroughly contradict one another. I’m only trying to start a dialogue that teaches me a little bit more about myself, all of y’all, and the world. And so I smile, shrug, and rise to meet the next possible link in my chain of conquests. At least he’s over 5’9. Chastity Diligence ‘12 (???@wellesley.edu), is a tall order. And you ordered a Venti, snap.
POLITICS
GO AHEAD LIL MAMA Mama Grizzlies rise up: the right side of feminism BY ALEXANDRA CAHILL
T
Photo // photoshopofhorrors.blogspot.com
his could very well be the ‘Year of the Conservative Woman.’ So opined the pundits and news analysts in early June, when conservative female candidates came out on top in primary elections. Former corporate executives, Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina, won Republican nominations for governor and the U.S. Senate in California respectively. Fiorina – who is locked in a dead heat with Senate stalwart Barbara Boxer – is a member of the so-called “mama grizzlies”: conservative female candidates endorsed by former Alaska governor Sarah Palin. Fellow “grizzly,” gubernatorial South Carolina candidate Nikki Haley, moved on from the June primaries to win a runoff election for the Republican nomination. Tea Party candidate Sharron Angle defeated Sue Lowden for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Nevada. She will go up against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in November. The list goes on: Kristi Noem won the Republican nomination for the U.S. House of Representatives in South Dakota. Former attorney general Kelly Ayotte is the front-runner for the U.S. Senate Republican nomination in New Hampshire. And former WWE chief executive and multi-millionaire Linda McMahon is self-financing her Senate campaign in Connecticut. The collective trend of conservative female victories throughout the summer led to the inevitable debate over what the news meant for feminism. Were these female politicians feminists? Can conserva-
tism be reconciled with feminism? Fueling the fire of this debate was none other than Sarah Palin herself. Less than a month earlier, at a speaking engagement for the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List in May, the former governor told audience members that they were responsible for “an emerging, conservative, feminist identity” and called for a “pro-woman sis-
terhood.” “I kinda feel a connection to that tough, gun totin’ pioneer feminism,” Palin said. “For far too long, when people heard the word feminist, they thought of the faculty lounge and some East Coast women’s college. And no offense to them, they have their opinion and their voice and God bless ‘em, that’s great, but that’s
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not the only voice of women in America.” Predictably, Palin’s words prompted an immediate backlash from feminists. Jessica Valenti, editor of Feministing. com, lambasted Palin for adopting the feminist label. “Palin’s ‘feminism’ isn’t just co-opting the language of the feminist movement,” she wrote in the Washington Post. “It’s deliberately misrepresenting real feminism to distract from the fact that she supports policies that limit women’s rights.” A Slate.com article by Amanda Marcotte took a similar tone, labeling Palin as “the latest incarnation of a long and noble line of feminist anti-feminists.” Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of North America said of Palin: “There’s nothing there. I don’t think Sarah Palin is going to change the national scene on choice or on feminism. Her rallying cry is pretty empty if she’s against women’s rights.” Speaking of the female victories on Good Morning America June 10, editor of the Daily Beast Tina Brown said, “it almost feels like all these women winning is a blow to feminism.” There is a trend here. The speakers criticizing Palin are all women; all identify as liberal. Their criticism flows from the same vein of thought; namely, that pro-life women cannot be feminists. It is somewhat ironic, that a movement based in the pursuit of equal opportunity for women has evolved so decisively. Today, “feminism” is so often strictly defined within the context of abortion, making it an inherently exclusive and polarizing term. Even Palin’s call for a “pro-woman sisterhood” succumbs to this one-dimensional view. Perhaps feminism has come to be defined in such decisive terms because of the growth of women in positions of power. But the exclusivity of feminism – as an identity where women are able to pick and choose whether or not other women belong – is a call to reconsider our working definition of the term and to ponder
page 16
whether the term has lost all relevance. Palin released an official “Mama Grizzlies” video montage in early June. It’s a clear visual representation of the emerging brand of conservative womanhood. The “Mama Grizzlies” are not just mothers; they are politically aware and independent women with conservative values. “This year will be remembered as the year when common-sense conservative women get things done,” Palin begins. “All across the country, women are standing up and speaking out for common-sense solutions. These policies coming out of D.C. right now, this fundamental transformation of America – a lot of women who are very concerned about their kids’ futures say, ‘We don’t like this fundamental transformation, and we’re going to do something about it.” A July 16 Gallup poll showed Palin was the most favorably rated contender for the 2012 presidential election. Her 76 percent favorability rating ranked her above Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, and Bobby Jindal. As of mid-August, Palin was 10-5 in endorsement wins during primary season. She must be doing something right. The political savvy of Palin’s messaging campaign is compelling – and as the chorus of strong female conservative voices grows, critics on the feminist left risk being drowned out. In her Washington Post opinion piece, Valenti defined feminism as “a structural analysis of a world that oppresses women, an ideology based on the notion that patriarchy exists and that it needs to end.” The problem with Valenti’s approach, as columnist Cathy Young points out, is that it subsists on a repressive social structure. Such a philosophy “suggests that feminism has an interest in portraying women as oppressed to perpetuate itself.” Consider, then, the appeal of those on the other side of the spectrum – the doctrine emerging from Palin and her conservative female counterparts – that feminism is a celebration of motherhood and female strength.
counter point / september 2010
Conservative women are woefully underrepresented in the U.S. Congress and in state government. Of the 17 women in the U.S. Senate, four are Republican. Of the 76 women in the House of Representatives, 17 are Republican. There are three female Republican governors. But the tides are turning. The conservative women campaigning nation-wide are former corporate executives and state legislators. Even Palin has undergone a major re-branding transformation since the 2008 presidential campaign. No longer the victim of the “lame-stream” media, Palin has formed a coherent message and wields the influence of her devout followers and the financial might of her political action committee, SarahPAC. What makes the “mama grizzly” rallying cry is so effective politically is that Palin is by no means the singular spokeswoman for the movement. The collective success of Fiorina, Whitman, Hayley, and others speaks for itself – this is a movement focused on empowering women to pursue free-market solutions over big government and to engage in wide-ranging policy discussions. It will become more difficult for the feminist left to discredit a movement motivated by broad-based conservative values that is not confined to the polarizing issue of abortion. The political climate is just right for a conservative female resurgence. This is just the swift kick of relevancy feminism so desperately needs. Alexandra Cahill ’11 (acahill@wellesley. edu) rolls with the Mama Grizzlies.
POLITICS
IRRITATING IPHONES, BLACKBERRY BANS
The unfolding struggle between governments and technology companies
T Photo // uncrate.com
hese days it seems like everyone and their grandmother has a smart phone. As pervasive as they are however, this summer many popular smart phones received criticism not only by individual users, but also from governments of entire countries. Throughout August the governments of Saudi Arabia, China, India, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Lebanon were at the center of this debate, arguing that security is too tight within various smartphone networks. Their most prominent
opponent is Research In Motion, Inc., the telecommunication company based in Waterloo, Canada and developer of the BlackBerry device and network. These conflicts come just after RIM (Research In Motion, the developer of the BlackBerry smartphone) introduced its latest product, the BlackBerry Torch 9800 along with its recent ad campaign, targeting leagues of “everyday” BlackBerry users, rather than the individuals in the corporate world, upon which the BlackBerry image has previously been built.
RIM is also confronting this problem in countries where its business is relatively new and has been experiencing a boom in recent years. For example, BlackBerry has around 750,000 customers in Saudi Arabia and the UAE has about a half a million users. The number of users is continuously increasing and while it is now considered a “must-have” in the Saudi business world, there is no shortage of private users as well. RIM’s standards for security are very high. This is the major problem the gov-
counter point / september 2010
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Photo // uncrate.com
BY HANNAH ALLEN
ernments of these countries see with the communicate to one another malicious devices. RIM uses a process known as plans of attack. The UAE is arguably in encryption, a practice by which informa- need of increased security measures to be tion in plain text form is transformed us- taken, given the two high-profile politiing an algorithm to make it unreadable to cal assassinations that have recently taken anyone except those possessing the ‘key’ place in its commercial capital, and its stato that information. When proper en- tus as an international transportation hub, cryption takes place, the message is said but many claim this measure is meant to to have been encrypted “end-to-end” and halt the progression of free speech within cannot be read by RIM or any third party, the country. UAE authorities have repeatincluding governments. edly dismissed these claims, citing that There are two types of information rival smartphones, such as Apple’s iPhone transmitted by the BlackBerry network will continue to operate as usual. service: corporate emails, which have high Early this August the US Secretary of levels of encryption and proprietary tech- State Hilary Clinton weighed in on the nology; and consumer emails, which can debate in an attempt to resolve the disbe decoded by local wireless phone com- pute. Many in the US agree the BlackBerpanies. The service is provided to corpora- ry issue is not just a trade dispute, not just tions and is called an “enterprise solution.” a question of business, but it is ultimately The company states that it “was designed about Internet freedom and freedom in to preclude RIM, or any third party, from general, which has become a key issue in reading encrypted information under any US foreign policy under Secretary Clincircumstances since RIM does not store ton. Clinton says there are rightful conor have access to the encrypted data.” The cerns about the service, but maintains the nature of this intense privacy has instilled right to free use and access. fear in governments worldwide, who are India is yet another country that was not happy that the information still has forced to set an ultimatum for RIM to to pass through RIM network servers in comply with its security demands, rethe UK and Canada before it reaches its questing to have access to certain aspects rightful recipient on their BlackBerry de- of the BlackBerry network during times vice. Many are asking not only for access of emergency. Fears of attacks based upon to the information, but also to have proxy information transmitted with BlackBerservers built in their own home countries, ry devices has increased since the 2008 instead of relying on the ones in Canada Mumbai terrorist attacks. It recently and the UK. stated that RIM has until August 31st to Since at least July 2009 the UAE has work something out with the Indian govstruggled with the RIM-provided Black- ernment. Agencies of the Indian governBerry service. It was just last summer ment have declared that this is just part of when the government attempted to install what is referred to as their “Interception spyware that could intercept private data Rule,” by which each local communicaonto its citizens’ BlackBerrys. RIM did tion provider must abide. One operator not support such interventions and is not working at one of these providers recently likely to do so in the future, saying that estimated that the Indian industry collecthe installation of such software on such tively receives thousands of surveillance a large scale would lead to the collapse of requests per year from government intelthe BlackBerry market. ligence agencies in relation to everything More recently, after the halt in negoti- from customs fraud to money laundering ations between the country and RIM, the and terrorism. UAE has declared it would restrict some The outlook for the BlackBerry busiBlackBerry service starting October 11th. ness in India is good, however, and after The government, in not being allowed ac- one mere day of negotiations between the cess to the information that is transmit- two parties, on August 13th RIM was able ted using the BlackBerry services, claims to state formally that it is “optimistic” it makes it easier for potential terrorists to about the future of BlackBerry in India, page 18 counter point / september 2010
though the country had given them until the end of August to work out a plan. So far they have already made services such as BlackBerry Internet, voice calls and texting available to be monitored by security agencies upon request. RIM’s only condition for releasing such access to the government and abiding by strict security measures is that they won’t abide to any standards to which their competitors are not held. RIM also stated that it does not cut special deals for specific countries. The only country to have officially halted BlackBerry services entirely has been the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Services were temporarily halted for four hours on the 6th of August. Since the Saudi government and RIM have been in negotiations with one another, BlackBerry messenger services will be allowed to continue because some of its regulatory requirements have been satisfied, says the country’s Communication and Information Technology Commission (CITC), though the commission did not specify what the regulatory requirements exactly were. The two parties are said to be in continued discussion to further complete the remainder of the regulatory demands of the kingdom. However, though much is not known about the final plan for Saudi Arabia, there are now plans to place a BlackBerry server inside the country, which will allow regulatory officials in the government to monitor messages and alleviate fears that the system would be used for criminal purposes. This would allow what are often highly encrypted messages to be read by the government, rendering the encryption methods RIM has utilized for years irrelevant to the Saudi government. The company is said to be in negotiations with other countries, which may result in similar outcomes including China and Russia. The worry is now that RIM will enter into even more negotiations with other countries, resulting in the company giving more and more rights away to governments. However, the market for BlackBerrys in the Middle East has been in a boom over the past years. RIM recognizes this and will do anything in its power to keep that up.
This agreement on the Saudi front could help ease the similar tensions in other countries such as the UAE, which claims it will halt BlackBerry services in early October. Despite marked progress, on the whole, communications between RIM and any given government have been ridden with confusion and miscommunications. Both sides are at fault for this. First of all, the governments of these countries are requesting such access because they think the governments of the United States and other industrialized democracies have already been granted similar rights. Many officials speculate that this is correct, and though “rumors that various deals have been struck around the world,” Leslie Harris, chief executive of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a Washington-based firm, says, as of yet it is unclear what those deals are. Neither RIM nor the governments in question will comment on this issue. However, in the US, law-enforcement agencies are said to have an advantage over their overseas counterparts because email services that are most popular (Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo) are based in the US, so the government may see messages in unencrypted form even if they are sent from a BlackBerry. RIM is equally confusing, saying that, though it will not compromise the integrity of its security system, it also complies with regulatory requirements all around the world. One notable accusation came from the Co-Chief Executive of RIM Mike Lazaridis, who accused the governments of not understanding the Internet and not being tech-savvy enough to properly debate the issue. Middle Eastern and Asian countries are not the only ones having trouble with RIM. However, the German government has cited the exact opposite problem and has banned the use of BlackBerrys for federal employees, declaring that the service lacks adequate encryption for employees. The “enterprise solution” is available to enterprise servers, computer systems that provide services across a network, whether that be private individuals within an organization or public users on the Internet, but is apparently insufficient for German
federal employees and although the Ger- Office for Information Security (BSI), man government has strongly recom- based in Bonn, Germany has found that mended its employees not to use such de- Apple’s iOS also has a major security flaw vices last year, it has only recently banned that might be exploited through PDF their usage. In replacement of these devic- files. They recently released a statement es the government has recommended the warning of potentially serious security Simko 2, made by T-Systems, not only problems in several versions of Apple’s because it is a German product, but also iPhone (iOS3.1.2-4.0.1), iPad (iOS 3.2because it is a safe one. 3.2.1) and iPod touch (3.1.2-4.0) devices. Encrypting data protects it while in So far the company has acknowledged transit, but it is often challenging, the that it is aware of the problem, and claims German government claims, as the code to be looking into it, but has yet to declare may be broken with a single slip-up in when they will fix it. The German agency the algorithm. The BlackBerry network has stated that the problem seems to ocdoes not encrypt messages that are sent cur sometimes when “opening a manipubetween the BlackBerry Internet Service lated website or a PDF file,” which “could and your BlackBerry device. In fact, the allow criminals to spy on passwords, phoBlackBerry Internet Service is the lowest- tos, text messages, e-mails and even listen level, consumer-grade BlackBerry service into phone conversations,” and though that the company offers. Therefore, if the agency has acknowledged that there these messages are not encrypted in any has been no reported attacks as of yet, manner, they may be intercepted or cop- they maintain that “it has to be expected ied along the way by a third party. In order that hackers will soon use the weak spots for properly safe encryption to take place, for attacks.” They have also declared that the message must be encrypted from its this should have been predicted by Apple, source and only decrypted once it reaches as analysts have been saying for a while its destination. An email sent to a Black- now that the weakest link of the iPhone is Berry account travels through unsecure its browser, mobile Safari. networks and therefore has the possibility Now that the news has been broken on to be copied or intercepted multiple occa- this flaw, experts are expecting “some sort sions even by RIM, though the company of an iPhone worm” within a week. The denies having this ability. security flaw was announced on the new Thus far, encryption standards have “jailbreaking” website, JailbreakMe.com, not been made to support every device which allows iPhone, iPad and iPod touch and every platform. As an individual, to users to run software that is not Applesend an encrypted email that not even authorized on the devices. Though Apple the individual email carriers may have ac- certainly does not approve of these “jailcess to takes heavy coordination ahead of breaking” methods, it is not clear yet how time. For example, one may use the Pretty the vulnerability will be exploited and to Good Privacy (PGP) program, available what extent. for the public to download that will enThis entire debate echoes one that took crypt individual’s private messages. RIM’s place in the United States in the 1990s, other solution encrypts the messages end- when the government sought to ban the to-end, but forces both the message recip- use of strong encryption methods. The ient and sender to exchange keys, some- government ultimately lost, due to strong thing that would be very cumbersome on pressure from technology companies and a usage scale as large as a government’s. privacy advocates, but so far it seems like Without going through this trouble, there the technology side will not be winning is no other feasible solution, but even this this battle any time soon. technology has flaws, as some have cited that RIM may have the ability to hack Hannah Allen’s (hallen2@wellesley.edu) out into their users’ encryption keys. the country but the blueberry still connect. In addition to the BlackBerry services, another German company, The Federal counter point / september 2010 page 19
CAMPUS LIFE
SHE GETS IT Wellesley bonding over the summer B Y M A RG A R E T VA N C L E V E
S
ince when do you want a break from and classmates at Wellesley, but what livWellesley? ing with many other people has made me We’ve all had those moments. realize is how much I embody Wellesley, Those brief seconds when we feel as and how much I identify with others like though we can no longer take it. We can’t me. I have certainly met people and entolerate any more complaints about grade joyed their company, but I’ve been unable deflation, excessively long p-sets, or the to see them eye-to-eye the way I can with inedible dining hall food. We’ve all got- my sisters. There’s a certain je ne sais quoi ten frustrated with our roommates, our which Wellesley women embody that I’ve friends, our lab partners. Sometimes we been unable to discover elsewhere. After grow frustrated, exhausted, and simply being away from Wellesley, encountering weary of life at Wellesley. We take the any sort of Wellesley reunion feels natural, Senate bus into Boston and wander New- and the reunification occurs easily withbury St. for the afternoon; we do home- out any thought or effort. Our love is inwork in the Wellesley Free Library to es- stantly rekindled, and nothing can ever cape the insanity that descends upon the quite compare! So quickly can we fall into Clapp during midterms and finals. We a conversation that spans the annoying drive to neighboring areas to visit non- campus wide changes to Prop 8 reversal affiliated friends at other schools. De- in California to Drake’s new album, that spite the challenges we face in our isolated sometimes I question why I would ever wooded campus, there is an attachment bother with people from other schools. that forms among students at Wellesley, I have never met a more interesting, and it was this summer that I encountered thoughtful, or amazing group of people and experienced this remarkable strong- than the women I’ve gotten to know in hold of sisterhood. my short time at this school. People who What my three years at our college unapologetically follow celebrity news have taught me is just how strong this as closely as they follow Supreme Court bond we all feel from our affiliation with trials. People who openly explain how Wellesley is. This summer I’ve been liv- they have to put off marriage so they can ing in Boston, and although I’ve had a achieve all their goals before they’re tied rather palpable lack of Wellesley women down, people who can converse on just surrounding me, those who I have seen about anything and never feel ashamed and been with have reminded me of the for being bookworms or passionate about unmistakable connection we share. their academic interests. All of this and This summer I lived with a large num- the ability to put together a great outfit ber of college students from MIT and and hit the bars like any other ‘normal’ other schools. I thought my housemates college students. and I would grow close, since, during When I see a fellow student or alum my experience at college, I grew close to outside of Wellesley, I feel an instant bond those with whom I was living. I would because she ‘gets it.’ I don’t have to go form deep bonds with my housemates through the whole harangue on the all like those I have created with my peers women’s experience. I don’t feel the need page 20 counter point / september 2010
to defend my decision to attend a school and how I’ve survived without men. Nor do I have to explain how neither my academic experience nor social life have lacked any normalcy or richness despite the obvious absence of Y chromosomes on campus. When I see another Wellesley woman, I have the pleasure of skipping that digression, in fact, we often celebrate the fact that we did indeed attend an all women’s college, and there are occasionally complaints about people who refuse to understand or accept our experience as ‘normal’ yet alone positive. Despite the frustrations that those initial explanations might engender, I kind of enjoy having to defend my school, our unique experience sets us apart from the norm. As mainstream as Wellesley might be, it still holds a place as an unusual institution mainly because it is all women, but that single sex experience attracts fascinating and amazing people. Maybe I’m lucky because I’ve managed to unearth the many gems at school, or maybe people from Wellesley really are that interesting and multifaceted, but whatever it is, the connection I feel with my Wellesley peers has reminded me of the incredible experience we are offered here at this remarkable institution. I remember itching to go home for Thanksgiving during my first semester at school, and how much I missed my friends from home, how much I identified with them. As the semesters wore on, I felt a much stronger connection with those I went to school with rather than those with whom I grew up. After three years, I have realized that Wellesley has grown into me, just as I have grown into it. I’ve watched my friends grow into themselves here, people have come in with boyfriends and now are in the running for BDOC, people have come in as pre-med majors and have become WGST majors, Wellesley has given its students room to explore their lives and interests. Wasn’t our famous Democratic presidential candidate once president of the College Republicans? At a place like Wellesley that sort of transformation is made possible. As I enter my final year at this place I have grown to call home, I feel bitter-
sweet. Looking back on my first three years, I’m so grateful for what I’ve seen, how I’ve grown, who I’ve met, and what I’ve achieved. Still, there is a slight pang of regret for what I did not do, what I didn’t join, who I didn’t meet until later and the paper on which I didn’t spend more time. I’m excited to embark on my final year, and am looking forward to making the most of my experience, academically and
socially. I implore those incoming firstyears to challenge themselves, do what seems scary, because I assure you, its not as terrifying as you think, and you’ll be glad you challenged yourself in hindsight. I encourage everyone to make the most of your experience here, four years is not a lot of time, and it will be over before we know it. The only consolation I feel as I look towards graduation is that I can
still find alumnae 10, 20, 50 years from now, and we will still have that remarkable connection only Wellesley women have among each other. Congratulations to Margaret Van Cleve ‘11 (mvanclev@wellesley.edu), who won counselor of the month at Camp Wellelsey!
CAMPUS LIFE
AWAY FROM RENTS Feeling disconnected BY ANTHEA CHEUNG
Staff Illustration // Jean M. Kim
A
t what point do you stop considering your parent’s home as your own? For many, college is not only a place of learning, but also an opportunity for self-exploration and independence. Some time during the past two years, “home” stopped being home; I had somehow made an ad hoc home out of
Wellesley, with a makeshift family com- home as mine, formerly small differences prising my closest friends. Perhaps this between my family and I seemed to grow was out of the necessity of living so far vastly. In high school, I shot the requisite away from home - with its high demands teenager’s eye roll at my parents whenever and workload, Wellesley is not exactly a I disagreed with them. Like most other place where one can afford to be homesick kids, I was embarrassed by my family’s all the time. quirks and eccentricities. But what I used Once I stopped thinking of my parents’ to consider merely eccentric attitudes and counter point / september 2010 page 21
actions became downright ridiculous and alien to me. Ridiculous and alien was exactly how I felt one July evening as I sat in the backseat of a car, pretending to be earnest whilst my mom said a prayer out loud. My mom and sister had taken a two-week long vacation to visit me in Boston, and were returning to Beijing the next morning. I had been preparing to get out of the car after saying goodbye, but just as I was about to leave, my mom interjected, “Okay then, let’s bow our heads and make a prayer. God will help us with our lives.” I didn’t have anything against prayers, but I had never dared to tell my mom that I had started identifying as atheist a few years ago. This awkward interaction just about summed up the prevailing disconnect between her actions and my thoughts: she, well-meaning, offers instruction and words of advice, and I grudgingly pretend to agree with her. I had spent most of the previous two weeks, quite immaturely, I must admit, trying to spend the least amount of time possible with my mother. What little time I did spend with her, was spent shopping, letting her fuss over me and making small talk on things that had happened back home since I last visited. Those were all activities I found tiring and not particularly engaging, not least because I have felt increasingly disconnected from my parents. The trip was the result of my mom’s aim to spend more time with me and being closer to me, but it paradoxically put a strain on our relations, which manifested itself in a heated dinner discussion one night. In her efforts to bond with me, she insisted that I call home at least once every other day. Panicked, I strongly protested the stipulation, bargaining for a weekly call instead. The crux of the disagreement was that she felt I had an obligation as the daughter to keep my parents updated on my goings-on, while I felt that we did not have much shared experience for worthwhile conversation. Thus, I was once again reminded of our differences in so many areas: in religion, in our page 22
life experiences, and in our conceptions of family obligations. I dared not venture into our political differences, as it would surely result in an argument “that could only end in tears and Nutella,” as a friend liked to say. I am aware, of course, that there are many objections one could raise to my attitudes. Of course you feel disconnected from your parents, you may say, if you don’t even share your thoughts and experience with them. Or you may point out that they may have gone through the same thing when they were younger. You could even be indignant at my ingratitude: your parents fed you, clothed you, taught you, and loved you, and this is how you repay them? Maybe I am egotistic, apathetic, near-sighted, ungrateful and fitting of every other criticism commonly directed at college students. But while I may be self-absorbed, what is the value of forced communication with someone if it all boils down to a mere sense of obligation toward them? After my mom and sister returned home, my familial relationships remained at a standstill, as I stayed in the Boston area to finish up the summer research program in which I participated. When the program finally ended, I reluctantly took a plane to my hometown Toronto to visit my relatives, where my parents were also going to meet me. I dreaded meeting my mom again after our strained parting in Boston. But family disputes were set aside temporarily as I sat down for dinner with my parents, my grandmother, and my uncle’s family. It was a rare occasion for all of us to be sitting at the same table. Then, like a scene from a morbidly dark comedy on dysfunctional families, the conversation turns to... where my grandmother would like to be laid to rest. There were options, more options than I had ever considered: she could be buried in Canada, where she was currently living; she could be cremated and have the ashes stored in a crematorium in Hong Kong next to grandfather; or she could move my grandfather’s ashes to his hometown in China, and have hers placed next to
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his. There were many considerations, all related to family unity. For one thing, my grandmother would ideally want to be laid to rest next to my grandfather. At the same time my grandmother’s children were most probably going to be buried in Canada. However, both my grandparents were born in China and had a connection to their home country, even though they moved to Hong Kong over half a century ago. No one was exempt from the discussion- even I, at the tender age of 20, was half-seriously asked where I would most likely be buried. Whether I liked it or not, my family members considered family ties to be bonds that held you together for life. No matter how old, how strong, and how independent I grew, I would still be tied to my family. Even as my mom and her siblings fussed over my grandma’s plans, how much did they really have in common with their mother? They probably don’t share the same values and beliefs, the same attitudes and perspectives toward life. Nor can I imagine that they recount their deep thoughts and feelings to her, as my mom expects me to do to her. Nevertheless, about a week after my arrival in Toronto, my grandmother finally decided to stay in Canada, and she went with my mother to a nearby cemetery to pick out a spot. So maybe we don’t need to constantly feel close to our families all the time. We all have our own worries and individual lives; in the end, my family comes together in times of need. Maybe it’s out of obligation or out of love, but all we really need is to have someone to take care of us when we’re sick, and someone to help us pick out a prime location for our graves. What’s Anthea Cheung’s (acheung@wellesley.edu) age again?
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