NEWS: Anti-depressants number one reason to use ASEQ?
Curiosity delivers. Vol. 24 Issue 17
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OPINION: Campus bar hopelessly battles against big city.
SPORTS: Find out what makes engineers sweep so soundly.
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Tuesday, January 18. 2005
P U B L I S H E D BY T H E S T U D E N T S ' S O C I E T Y OF M C G I L L U N I V E R S I T Y
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GENEVIEVE JENKINS Thursday night, when Arab and Jewish students held hands and danced in circles to "extempo jam" music of both cultures, vio lence between the two groups seemed unthinkable. As the crowd mingled, different sides of the spectrum became indistinguish able, and the room was beaming a collec tive smile. Bright-eyed young men and women gathered for a purpose—to support the creation of a literary dialogue between the two cultures in Yalla: Reflections on the Middle East. The Yalla launch party kicked off with speeches, songs, and readings from sever al Jews and Arabs. In their first-ever collab oration, Hillel McGill and the Arab Students' Association sponsored the event. The night was pointedly non-political, and focused on the fact that Yalla is the first liter ary journal in North America to foster com munication between Arabs and Jews. The journal has six editors, three Arab and three Jewish, assignations which had nothing to do with religious faith. Yalla is the voice of a younger genera tion. Whereas the older segment of Jewish and Arab societies seems hesitant to encour age acceptance of other viewpoints, the writers featured in Yalla—aged 18 to 3 0 -
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are trying to start a real conversation. Dalia Rotstein, one of the Jewish edi tors and the founder of the project, voiced her dismay at the lack of support from older Jews and Arabs in Montreal and Canada. "The older communities, who unfortu nately hold the purse strings, are close-mind ed and very entrenched in their ideology," said Rotstein. She said the editors feel that this close mindedness is the reason they have been left grasping for the stray dollar to make Yalla work. The hope that younger Arabs and Jews have for peace was made clear in the words of a song performed at the Yalla opening: "We are not afraid to see the other side." In Yalla, the two sides mirror one another and face off across a gap of pain and misunderstanding, all the while try ing to close that chasm with written words. David Allouba, an Arab Yalla editor, spoke of the significance of a literary jour nal as opposed to traditional conversation groups. "It's time that we strip away the veneer of justification that has covered over the problems," he said. "We have created a new potential form of communication between Arabs and Jews that will hopefully See JOURNAL, page 2
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featurE15 I want my mommy, er... monkey! This week, Features jumps head first into those lonesome homesick feelings that we all experience from time to time. We take a look at the logic behind that longing pang and some fun ways to forget about your worries by acting like a kid.
Expand your culinary horizons. Put down those student guidebooks, and rely on the Tribune's survey of the best feasting options around town. Move over, New York, because Montreal has some of the finest gourmet establishments this side of the Atlantic. Ha. See page 16.
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Sat , Jan. 22 & Sun., Jan. 23 Martlet Hockey host A U S Universities Martlet G a m e Tim es: Fri., @ 7:3 0 v s St-FX, S a t., @ 3:30 pm v s Dal, S u n ., @ 1 pm v s St-M ary’s
Sat. Jan. 22 & Sun., Jan. 23 Redmen Volleyball host AUS Interlock (LoveHaio R e d m e n G a m e T im es: S a t., 12 p m v s M em orial & 7 p m v s M oncton, S u n ., 12 p m v s Dal & 5 p m v s UNB