TNR - 1.21.10

Page 1

THE INdependent student newspaper at the university of cincinnati

Vol. CXXVV Issue 37

thursday , jan . 21, 2010 book of eli Post-apocalyptic action film is not actually a book. page 3

yancy is the man Men’s basketball player Yancy Gates takes the spotlight. page 6

staff ed The United States should take steps to transfer Haitian students to American schools. page 4

Student groups pool resources for earthquake aid ariel cheung the news record

In light of the recent tragedy that struck Haiti, University of Cincinnati students are finding ways to help those in need. From student organizations to individuals who want to make a difference, the UC community is coming together. The College Republicans will collect donations in front of Tangeman University Center From Tuesday, Jan. 19, through Friday, Jan. 22. “We noticed no one else was doing anything on campus, so we decided to take action,” said Haleigh Jones, a second-year Spanish student and director for recruitment of College Republicans. “We’ve had some people make very generous contributions for college students,” Jones said. “And a lot of people have given us their change, which adds up quickly.” The College Republicans teamed up with Matthew 25 Ministries, a disaster aid and

humanitarian relief organization that has worked with Haiti for more than 10 years and is based in Blue Ash. “Now we need to show the people of Haiti that they haven’t been forgotten,” said Joodi Archer, the development director and public relations coordinator for Matthew 25 Ministries. Others are capitalizing on events that were already planned as a way to jump-start relief efforts. David Oliveira Jr. and Wally Vega conceived special College Nights at The Mad Frog after an impromptu discussion. “It was kind of spur-of-the-moment,” said Vega, a UC graduate. “We said, ‘Why don’t we just tell people to bring clothes, since they’re coming anyway?’” The two spent 30 minutes before the event sending text messages to friends and asking for donations. As a result, they collected nine baskets of clothing. “So then we said, since that was so quick, why don’t we make a video about it, go at it

a little bit harder and see what we can do,” Vega said. The two hosted a second College Night Wednesday, Jan. 20, at The Mad Frog. They plan to donate 30 percent of what they collected. “Our generation has always been the generation of instant gratification,” Vega said. “Most of the college people now haven’t been a part of something like this. This is the first time they can really help out the people in need.” The Hoxworth Blood Center has also played a role in helping Haiti. “We just decided it was timely,” said Alecia Lipton, Hoxworth community relations manager. Hoxworth raised $705 with 141 donors Friday, Jan. 15. “It’s inspiring to me to see all of the students who do care,” Jones said. “And when I find people who don’t care, I view it as my responsibility and personal challenge to make them care.”

eamon queeny | the News Record

working for haiti Kaitie Baxter collects donations with the help of friends for the Haiti catastrophe. They raised $272 as of Wednesday, Jan. 20. weather forecast

Professors shaken by loss

THURSDAY

Local Haitian scholars attempt to cope after losing family, friends

46°

amanda woodruff the news record

kareem elgazzar | The NEws Record

professor jana braziel The UC professor waits to hear from her friends living in Port-au-Prince after she last saw them in December.

38°

Two professors in the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences are working hard to demonstrate methods of helping Haiti, a country they know very well. As one of the most impoverished countries in the world, Haiti is suffering from more than last Tuesday’s earthquake. “What strikes me the most as a Haitian is not that the earthquake itself could have been avoided, but that the gravity of the effects of the earthquake could have been avoided if previous aid had offered long-term solutions for Haiti,” said Myriam Chancy, a Haitian scholar and professor. The tremendous amounts of loss could have been avoided if past responses to emergency situations in Haiti, and its increasing instability, had been responded to with long-term solutions designed with Haitians, Chancy said. Jana Evans Braziel, a Haitian literary scholar and associate professor of English, recently returned from Port-au-Prince after attending the Ghetto Biennale art exhibit in December. Her close friend, 18-year-old Alex Louis, was one of many friends she left behind. Louis contacted Braziel and confirmed his safety. “In his e-mail to me, Alex wrote: ‘Port-au-Prince no longer exists,’” Braziel said. “Words fail me.” Chancy, a Haitian scholar, novelist and recent addition to the university, empathizes with Braziel’s anxiety. As a native of Haiti, Chancy is only beginning to process the loss. “We call it collective and personal patrimony,” Chancy said. The cultural history, the buildings and streets are collective losses for those affected while the sentiments connected to those places are personal and the context of loss varies per individual. Trying to describe what it feels like as a Haitian is as if it were the White House that collapsed, Chancy said. “These places that are tied to your earliest memories – you try to tell people this is where I’m from,” Chancy said. The earthquake that shook Haiti Tuesday, Jan. 12, measured 7.0 on the Richter scale. As the people barely got to their feet, an aftershock rumbled on Wednesday, Jan. 20, recorded at 5.9, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The epicenter of the quake was only 35 miles West of Port-au-Prince. “At this point, it’s like waves,” Chancy said. “Now it is in the phase when people are dying because of the effects.” Relatives who were lost to the natural disaster cannot have a proper funeral or burial. Chancy created a Web site with memorials dedicated to her loved ones. Casual acquaintances are also missed, including Chancy’s friend Myriam Merlet. Merlet, a Haitian feminist leader and chief of staff of the Haitian Ministry, died underneath the rubble left behind by the Jan. 12 earthquake. Although she sent text messages alerting people of her location, the rescuers arrived too late, Chancy said. Family members and friends in the United States anxiously follow Twitter updates from those in Haiti, breaking news releases and other media outlets. “I stayed wired to the Internet almost 24/7, barely eating,” Braziel said. “I realize that the hell I’m living is a luxury.” see haiti | page 2

FRIDAY

43 /36 SATURDAY

50 /45 SUNDAY

50 /40 MONDAY

42 /33 index

1 News 3 Entertainment 4 Opinion 5 Classifieds 6 Sports In memory of R. Lindner

Former Iranian prisoner calls for action david schuler the news record

Iranian-American public intellectual Haleh Esfandiari provided insight into the complex relations between the United States and Iran Tuesday, Jan. 19, at Xavier University’s Cintas Center. Esfandiari, who was born in Tehran and has dual citizenship in Iran and the United States, focused her presentation titled: “My Prison, My Home: One Woman’s Story of Captivity in Iran” on her memoir of the same name as well as current Iran-U.S. relations. As a 67-year-old woman, she was held in Iran and imprisoned in solitary confinement at Evin Prison for 105 days in 2007. Her story began Dec. 31, 2006 when, following one of her frequent visits to her elderly mother in Iran, the taxi carrying her to the airport was forced off of the highway by another vehicle. Three men descended on the taxi and threatened Esfandiari, stealing her belongings including both her Iranian and American passports. In the months that followed, Esfandiari was trapped in Iran as she fought through a tangled mess of bureaucratic red tape in an

effort to replace her stolen documents. She was arrested on charges of “endangering national security.” Esfandiari is employed by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars as the Director of its Middle East Program. Iran’s Intelligence Ministry used her work there to subvert the Iranian government. Following a more than three-month period of interrogation, the Iranian authorities released Esfandiari on bail. Esfandiari felt she was caught up in the brewing animosity and mistrust between Iran and the U.S. “Thirty years of silence [between Iran and the United States] did not accomplish anything,” she said. “On one hand, there is a need for engagement and on the other hand, a need to condemn the human rights violations on the ground.” Some critics say President Barack Obama does not have much to show in the way of results, but Esfandiari remains patient. “One year is not enough time to fix everything—[Obama] does not have a magic wand,” Esfandiari said. Esfandiari believes these types of actions created an atmosphere of paranoia amongst certain elements in Iran’s government and contributed to

courtesy of haleh esfandiari

iranian-american author Haleh Esfandiari spoke of her time a s a prisoner in Iran. the conditions, which led to her arrest and the arrest of others in similar situations. As three American hikers remain imprisoned in Iran facing espionage charges, tensions between the United States and Iran continue to run high. “Iran is in the midst of a very deep crisis,” warned Esfandiari. “It is impossible to predict how this crisis will play out.”

online @ www.newsrecord.org photo slideshow Check out a slideshow of Wednesday’s men’s basketball victory against University of South Florida.

% %

tnr poll What are you doing to support Haiti, if you are doing anything at all?

newsrecordnews@gmail.com | 513.556.5908

Richard Edward Lindner, a well-known businessman and philanthropist, died Saturday, Jan. 16, at his home in Indian Hill. He was 88. Lindner was born Sept. 14, 1921, in Dayton to parents Clara Ann Serrer and Carl H. Lindner Sr. His older brothers were Carl Jr. and Robert; also had a younger sister, Dorothy. While the Lindner name is known synonymously throughout the region with United Dairy Farmers convenience stores as well as American Financial Group, Richard Lindner was also famous for being the operator of the Thriftway grocery store chains and charity work. Lindner’s business skills were sown when he was a junior high student at Amity School in Deer Park. It was during this time that he and his siblings helped their parents by delivering milk bottles to homes. The lobby in downtown’s Aronoff Center for the Arts is named after him and the University of Cincinnati’s own Richard E. Lindner Varsity Village is another reminder of his $10 million donation for its construction. He also contributed to the Richard E. Lindner Dining Room at the Shoemaker Center. “Richard E. Lindner was a tremendous friend to the University of Cincinnati and to many organizations throughout the Cincinnati community,” said UC President Greg Williams. “His visionary gift to athletics helped to transform our athletic program and put the university on the national stage.” Lindner became president of Thriftway Inc. after buying out his brothers in 1963 and due to a sponsorship by his company, Cincinnati’s ATP tennis tournament became a highly regarded event. In 2008, Lindner’s contributions to the see lindner | page 2

TNR all the time Now flip through the full issue online. Subscribe to The News Record Web site and RSS. If that’s not enough, follow us on Twitter @NewsRecord_UC.


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.