The Tufts Daily - Friday, December 11, 2020

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Friday, December 11, 2020

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FALL 2020 FINAL EDITION Tisch College hosts post-election event titled ‘Election 2020: What happened? What’s next?’

by Zoe Kava

Contributing Writer

The Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life hosted a panel on Dec. 9 titled “Election 2020: What happened? What’s Next?” that featured representatives from Tisch College, The Fletcher School, the School of Medicine and the School of Arts and Sciences.

Un i ve r s i t y Pre s i d e n t Anthony Monaco delivered opening remarks and Tisch College Dean Alan Solomont moderated the event.

Solomont first asked the panel for their main takeaways from the 2020 election. Kei KawashimaGinsberg, director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tisch College, highlighted the role that young people played in this year’s election.

“Young people showed up in large numbers and made a really decisive choice towards Democratic candidates across the board,” she said.

Kawashima-Ginsberg also explained the importance of

communities that came together to ensure that everyone was able to vote and that everyone knew how to obtain a mail-in ballot.

“Over the summer and in the spring we were starting to see really, really challenging barriers to young people who want to participate, but face a lot of barriers,” she said. “Having [the information about how to vote by mail] communicated to young people and preparing earlier and earlier thanks to many activists and many organizations … was a really significant win.”

Brian Schaffner, Newhouse professor of civic studies and professor of political science, explained how the election results put the country’s divisions on display.

“We had another very close election,” he said. “What that actually reflects is that we’re still an extremely divided country … we’re very much divided on these issues of identity, and these issues of identity tend to override almost everything else.”

Solomont asked Amy Lischko, associate professor of public

health and community medicine at the School of Medicine, what the election results mean for health care.

“Even if the Democrats win [the runoff elections] in Georgia, there’s just not a mandate, I think, for big changes given what happened in the election,” she said. “It’s going to mean more incremental [changes] as opposed to some of these bigger ideas that President-elect Biden has talked about.” see PANEL, page 2

Fletcher School reverses rebrand, focuses on path to create another brand

Tisch College, Fletcher School host Sarah Chayes on International AntiCorruption Day

by Marianna Schantz

by Michael Weiskopf

Staff Writer

After backlash and controversy over The Fletcher School’s recent attempt at rebranding, Dean Rachel Kyte rolled back the changes and has committed to developing a new brand that involves student and alumni input.

The new developments included the changing of the name from “The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy” to “Fletcher, The Graduate School of Global Affairs,” the creation of a Master of Global Affairs degree and a new seal and website. Fletcher students and alum-

ni believe that there was a lack of transparency regarding the changes of the school.

“After listening to your feedback over the last two weeks, we have decided to revert to our old branding for a transitional period while we start down a new collaborative path. We will better hear your voices in the process of designing a new brand identity,” Kyte wrote in an email to the Fletcher community.

Despite some reverted changes, the Master of Global Affairs degree will remain in order to increase the applicant pool and see FLETCHER, page 3

Contributing Writer

The Fletcher School’s Corruption, Justice and Legitimacy Program and the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life hosted author and reporter Sarah Chayes for a lecture on corruption in the U.S. government. The event was held on Wednesday, Dec. 9, International Anti-Corruption Day. The conversation was moderated by Diana Chigas, professor of practice of international negotiation and conflict resolution, and Cheyanne Scharbatke-Church, professor of practice in human security. Both are co-directors

of the Corruption, Justice and Legitimacy Program.

Chayes has won awards for her reporting for NPR in several different countries and spent nearly a decade in Afghanistan. In 2010, she became special advisor to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. She then became a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where she researched corruption.

Chayes recently published a book, “On Corruption in America: And What Is at Stake,” in which she draws on the lessons she learned from other countries and applies them to the United States.

Chigas introduced Chayes, expressing her belief that the role

FEATURES / page 4

ARTS / page 6

OPINION / 9

Political impacts of youth activism

Holiday movie watchlist from the Arts Editors

Letter from the Editor in Chief: Looking back and giving thanks

of corruption in international relations is often overlooked.

“One of the problems I think we’ve seen is that we’ve tended to see corruption as a matter of a few bad apples, a few unethical greedy people who should be pursued and sort of put into jail and convicted,” Chigas said. “Corruption isn’t the exception. It actually is the system; it is governance.”

Scharbatke-Church then gave an introduction as well, providing an example of corruption in her home country of Canada involving Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“We have a prime minister that has had two official ethics see CORRUPTION, page 3 NEWS

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Friday, December 11, 2020

THE TUFTS DAILY Alex Viveros

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Representatives from university schools speak on election

Editor in Chief

EDITORIAL Rebecca Barker Hannah Harris Managing Editors Jake Freudberg Associate Editors Jilly Rolnick Alejandra Carrillo Maddie Aitken Jessica Blough Tom Guan Liza Harris Alex Janoff Matt McGovern Sara Renkert Sarah Sandlow Anton Shenk Carolina Espinal Sam Klugherz Alexander Thompson Alicia Zou

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Ryan Shaffer Executive Features Editor Sid Anand Features Editors Amelia Becker Jillian Collins Claire Fraise Evelyn McClure Kayla Butera Assistant Features Editor Megan Szostak Executive Arts Editor Devina Bhalla Arts Editors Ryan Eggers Steph Hoechst Tuna Margalit Chris Panella Yas Salon Elizabeth Sander Colette Smith Rebecca Tang Geoff Tobia Drew Weisberg Assistant Arts Editor Liz Shelbred Priya Padhye Paloma Delgado Amulya Mutnuri Mike Wilkinson Caroline Wolinsky Abhilasha Bhasin Eliza Dickson Sara Kessel Milli Lu Emily Nadler Grace Prendergast Faye Thijssen Sam Wilner Julia Baroni Carys Kong Annabel Nied Valeria Velasquez Juju Zweifach

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A Tufts student tracks the election results on Nov. 4.

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Sruthi Kocherlakota Executive Sports Editor Tim Chiang Sports Editors Matt Goguen Jeremy Goldstein Aiden Herrod Pranav Jain Ananda Kao Delaney Tantillo Arpan Barua Assistant Sports Editors Jacob Dreyer Henry Gorelik Ethan Ling Arnav Sacheti Alex Sharp Eric Spencer Austin Clementi Executive Investigative Editor Arlo Moore-Bloom Executive Audio Editor Anne Marie Burke Executive Photo Editors Nicole Garay Aidan Chang Staff Photographers Patrick Milewski Menqi Irina Wang Austen Money Executive Video Editor

PRODUCTION Kevin Zhang Production Director Rachel Hsin Executive Layout Editors Yanqing Huang Laura Mogannam Campbell Devlin Layout Editor Tys Sweeney Executive Graphics Editor Sam Farbman Graphic Designers Freya Gupta Helen He Kristina Marchand Calisa Sana Ethan Schreiber Ethan Steinberg Colton Wolk Brendan Hartnett Julian Perry Mariel Priven Kate Seklir Abigail Zielinski Mykhaylo Chumak Justin Yu Aedan Brown Elizabeth Kenneally Makenna Law Michelle Li Tiffany Namkoong

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PANEL

continued from page 1 Bhaskar Chakravorti, dean of global business at The Fletcher School, explained how a Biden administration will approach foreign policy. Chakravorti described Biden as the “ultimate committeeman.” “[Biden] tries to get people together in a room in order to find solutions to problems,” Chakravorti said. “I see that being perhaps almost a metaphor for foreign policy for Joe Biden as we look ahead.”

The discussion returned to the topic of the youth role in the election when Solomont asked Kawashima-Ginsberg to explain youth political engagement and its importance in the future.

“It’s really important to think about young people as partners, rather than levers … [It’s important to think] about young people as long term stakeholders, not just somebody who can elect a Democrat into the office in the next cycle or two,” KawashimaGinsberg said.

Schaffner discussed the inaccuracies in pre-election polling and what that means for the future of political polls.

“It’s useful to take a step back and just think about all the things that go into doing an election poll that make it so difficult,” Schaffner said. “It’s the one kind of polling that we do that we actually don’t know the population when we do the poll … we’re trying to do a poll of voters but people haven’t even necessarily voted yet.”

Schaffner cited the distrust of institutions like the news media as a possible cause of pre-election poll inaccuracies.

“When you have a candidate like Trump … that peddles a message of not trusting institutions, like the news media … it can potentially cause problems for pollsters,” he said. “Those individuals, those particular Trump supporters, may be less likely to answer polls, and it may make it more challenging for us.”

Solomont asked Chakravorti to discuss the implications of the 2020 election for international trade and foreign policy.

“The data economy, or the digital economy, has grown four times as fast as the overall American economy, so that

is the place to go if you are looking for economic recovery,” Chakravorti said. “It is enormously important for President-elect Biden and his team to wrap their arms around the digital economy and the implications for international business,” he said.

Returning to the topic of healthcare, Solomont asked Lischko how the pandemic will affect the healthcare policy debate.

“In the short term, we’re going to see a lot of focus on the pandemic, of course,” Lischko said. “There’s an opportunity, maybe, to use this pandemic, if you will, to maybe rebuild some of the public health infrastructure that is really sorely needed,” she said.

News

Friday, December 11, 2020 | News | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Chayes cautions leaders not to repeat history on International Anti-Corruption Day CORRUPTION

continued from page 1 violations … And yet it seems to have very little impact in terms of the electoral opinion of our prime minister,” she said. “So have we shifted our norms? Have we started to change what we expect of our leadership from the perspective of corruption?”

The discussion shifted to Chayes, who began her talk with an overview of her book. She explained how she used the skills she acquired abroad to analyze corruption at home.

“It was interesting … [to apply] the same sort of analytical framework to my own country that I had been both developing and applying to countries ranging from Afghanistan to Honduras to Nepal, to Serbia to South Korea,” Chayes said.

Chayes clarified her definition of systemic corruption, reiterating one of Chigas’ earlier points.

“That goes back to Diana’s highlight of the distinction between … corruption seen as an individual venal act of [a] bad apple, and corruption as a sort of operating system of sophisticated networks of money maximizers,” Chayes said. “I kept noticing that all these fragile and failing states were actually run by incredibly sophisticated and successful networks.”

Chayes then explained that in countries with systemic corruption, government institutions can often be hijacked by what she refers to as “kleptocratic networks.”

Chayes added that under corrupt governments, the judicial branch and military can often be

RACHEL HARTMAN / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

The Fletcher School is pictured on April 20, 2018. repurposed in order to serve the interests of the network. She also noted that institutions which cannot be repurposed, such as the legislature, are often rendered powerless so that they cannot interfere with the network. She then discussed the various tactics by which kleptocratic networks try to stop opposition.

“One is secrecy and obfuscation … Secondly … they inject people with the money drug …

And then the third really effective tactic is deploying and exacerbating identity divides,” she said.

Chayes found that one of the most corrupt periods in U.S. history lasted from approximately 1870 to 1935. The solution to the corruption back then, she cautioned, should not be repeated.

“What I had to conclude was that the only thing that shocked the world out of this kleptocratic syndrome … was a succession of

global calamities that started with World War I, the Depression and World War II,” Chayes said.

She explained the crises she considers to be responsible for the solution to corruption in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

“That means two world wars, two genocides, the use of the nuclear bomb, mass starvation in Europe, a pandemic that dwarfed the current one, and a global economic meltdown,” Chayes said.

“That’s what it took to generate the kind of kind of survivor solidarity ethos that we all do experience in times of crisis.”

She concluded her lecture with a call to action.

“We have to gather that feeling of shared solidarity across all of our divides [and] take on our kleptocratic networks in order to ward off the calamities that are otherwise bearing down on us,” Chayes said.

Some Fletcher alumni feel ignored in rebranding process

ASHA IYER / THE TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

The sign in The Fletcher School pictured on March 4, 2018.

FLETCHER

continued from page 1 to create a focused and interdisciplinary degree. The Master of Global Affairs can be completed in an accelerated time frame that would allow graduates to return to the workforce in 16 months, according to Academic Dean Kelly Sims Gallagher.

“We will offer the Master in Global Affairs, following its approval by both the Fletcher faculty and the Tufts Board of Trustees and we are pleased that applications are already coming in,” Kyte said.

Kyte mentioned that the student comment section on MyFletcher, the campus engage-

ment platform, remains open and available for student feedback on how the rebranding process can be improved and implemented.

According to Patrick Collins, executive director of media relations at Tufts, Fletcher has implemented strategies for increasing student engagement to create a new brand.

“Student small group engagement sessions with faculty members began the week of 12/7 as well as engagement with the Student Council. More formal engagement with students and all stakeholders will begin in January and continue for several months to define the school’s forward purpose, out of which a

new identity can be defined and designed,” Collins wrote in an email to the Daily.

However, Fletcher alumna Aziza Mohammed (F’12) shared her concerns about the rollback in an email to the Daily, noting that despite reverting to the old brand, the “Law and Diplomacy” part remains omitted from the school’s website and other media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. “The new proposed misnomer and logo are scattered throughout the school’s online presence. It feels like the rollback was disingenuous,” Mohammed wrote in an email to the Daily.

She also said that there has been almost no communication with the alumni on the new branding process, and that she authored a petition with hundreds of signatures but received no response when she wrote directly to the Tufts administration.

“Although the school’s degree offerings have expanded over time, the words law and diplomacy are an important part of its name … A nebulous, generic marketing term like global affairs erases important parts of the Fletcher School of Law and [Diplomacy’s] past, present and future,” Mohammed said.

4 Friday, December 11, 2020

Features

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Young people shift national politics through activism, community organizing

NICOLE GARAY / THE TUFTS DAILY

The Tufts Cannon is pictured on Sept. 24. The cannon was painted with a message encouraging people to vote in the 2020 presidential election.

by Saya Ameli Hajebi Contributing Writer

Young people’s votes in key states across the nation helped President-elect Joe Biden’s campaign secure a winning majority this November. The Center of Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement shows an increase of almost 10% in youth turnout across the country. Young people — defined as those between 18–29 years old — made up 14%, 15% and 21% of the voting populations in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia respectively, and their overwhelming support for Biden helped secure his victory by a razor-thin margin.

This newly engaged wave of young voters did not become invested in national politics overnight. Some young leaders have been inspired to do a lot more than cast their ballots. They have rolled up their sleeves and decided to take direct action.

Over the past few years, many local and national youth-led organizations have been working non-stop to build political power leading up to the elec-

tion. The New Hampshire Youth Movement, which was founded soon after the 2016 presidential election, has been working with college campuses in New Hampshire to register students to vote while increasing awareness for issues that young people care about.

“A lot of ways that campaigns traditionally reach out to voters, like phone banking and canvassing, don’t necessarily reach students,” Ella McDonald, a regional organizer with the New Hampshire Youth Movement, and a junior at Tufts University, said.

“Students, or young people in general, are often registering to vote for the first time,” McDonald said. “We’re moving a lot, we don’t have an address nailed down where campaigns can reach us, and that has resulted in students not being reached by traditional methods.”

Unhindered by the lacking connection between young voters and traditional campaign messaging, McDonald and her friends began reaching out to young people in different ways.

“We went to college campuses to get students to pledge to vote,” she said. “When it was safe, we did some in-person, socially distant canvassing on campuses and organized relationally.”

The COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult for McDonald and her team to pursue in-person organizing. However, they found other methods of outreach to engage young voters.

“We got a list of every single community college [student] in NH and their phone numbers,” she said. “Only a third of them were registered to vote already, but we were able to deliver messaging that was real and resonated with a lot of young people,” McDonald said.

In the 2016 presidential election, Hilary Clinton won New Hampshire by less than 3000 votes. According to McDonald, this made the impact that New Hampshire Youth Movement organizers had on each young voter they registered that much more powerful.

New Hampshire Youth Movement, alongside many other locally-focused organizations across the country, is fueled

by young people increasing their political engagement. Another youth-led organization making headlines for shaking the foundations of the political establishment this election cycle is the Sunrise Movement, which focuses their efforts at a national level.

While the central goal of the Sunrise Movement is to fight climate change and create millions of jobs in the process, the movement has recently focused on the 2020 presidential election. The Sunrise Movement organizes national sitins, rallies and protests to highlight the inequality exacerbated by the climate crisis. The movement also pressures politicians to pursue sustainable policies such as the Green New Deal.

“Sunrise’s theory of change calls for pressuring the system from the inside and outside,” Dan Zackin, a senior at Tufts University, said. Zackin helps recruit members for Sunrise Tufts. “That means electing Green New Deal champions who will advance our agenda on the floor of the statehouse and congress, and protesting to pressure politicians into passing legislation.”

In order to amplify youth voices across the country, Sunrise activists worked with both local candidates running for office and presidential candidates with progressive platforms to support their election to office.

“This election cycle we hosted and attended phone banks for down-ballot candidates in MA and around the country and showing up in solidarity with other movements for change,” Zackin said.

Earlier this year, Sunrise conducted an election poll with members to decide which presidential candidate they would endorse. “Agreement between Sunrisers is as close to unanimous as you can get,” Sara Singh, co-leader of the Sunrise Boston media team, said.

“76% of all Sunrisers around the United States said that they supported Bernie Sanders because his ideas were the boldest,” she said. “So we endorsed him. And we made sure that the Green New Deal was included in national television debates.

When Sanders later dropped out of the race, Sunrise shifted its focus to phone banking, sending mass texts and relational organizing to elect Joe Biden to office.”

Working with Sunrise has inspired Singh to do even more than volunteer for Sunrise and vote for progressive candidates; it has inspired her to run for office.

“It was this frustration with short-term thinking at the highest levels of power that convinced me to run for office after grad school, to participate in policy design from a deep ecology perspective,” she said.

Zackin draws energy from the knowledge that his efforts with Sunrise Tufts are making a difference. “We saw our impact most in local elections like the MA democratic primary where our endorsed candidate Erika Uyterhoeven won her election,” Zackin said.

One thing is clear: young people are rising up. They are getting more involved with politics, starting with the higher voter turnout rates in this election and extending beyond that into a world of highly motivated students who are volunteering and organizing others to shift political will.

TRASHING ONE EGG WASTES 55 GALLONS OF WATER

F e at u r e s

Friday, December 11, 2020 | Features | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Fletcher students cover pandemic’s effect on global affairs in ‘TwentyTwenty’ podcast

by Olivia Tan and Julia Greco Contributing Writers

With the emergence of podcasts as an effective, enjoyable way to get a message across, the thought of creating your own has probably crossed your mind once or twice. But what is the process really like? It’s more than just recording what you have to say and posting it online; podcasts require immense effort, time and dedication to tell informative stories in a way that resonates with others. Now, imagine creating your own podcast during a pandemic, about the pandemic and its impact on foreign policy.

That is just what the creators of TwentyTwenty set out to do, and their work communicates a message that allows us to shift our perspectives to something bigger than just our own quarantine experiences.

Elizabeth Dykstra-McCarthy, a student at The Fletcher School seeking a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy with an environmental policy focus, as well as the executive producer and host of the podcast, first got the idea for Fletcher TwentyTwenty during lockdown.

“I was having a conversation with a friend during lockdown about what we felt the biggest global challenges were and we started outlining [them].

Those have been the episodes,” Dykstra-McCarthy said.

After asking Max Klaver, a fellow Fletcher student seeking a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy with a focus on global political economy and Latin American politics, for suggestions, he introduced her to Foreign Brief, a geopolitical risk analysis organization, to help start the podcast. Klaver is now associate producer of the podcast.

The goal for producers Dykstra-McCarthy and Klaver was to break down the impact of the pandemic on global trends and other challenges around the world that may often be for-

VIA FOREIGN BRIEF

The cover of the “TwentyTwenty” podcast is pictured. gotten. According to Klaver, the name comes not only from the year the COVID-19 pandemic overwhelmed the United States, but also from trends that have always existed.

“These issues have been around for decades generally, rather than just this year. The pandemic has accelerated them, and so it’s more of a catalyst turning point rather than something that just happened this year,” Dykstra-McCarthy said. “The pandemic alone is really just one facet of many other ways in which the world has changed.”

Some of the relevant topics discussed include authoritarian governments’ attempts to consolidate power throughout lockdown, themes of corruption and exploitation, fiscal responses

and debt crises, cybersecurity in this period of virtualization and more. The podcast aims to not only bring awareness to these issues, but also provoke listeners to think about what they can learn from this pandemic and how they can move forward.

“I want people to not only take away what kind of short, medium, and long-term implications that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on all this myriad of issues, but also thinking of things in a critical way beyond purely speculating,” Klaver said. “This is a really critical juncture in history … we also need to accept that the pre-pandemic world is over and not coming back. It is only when we recognize that, that we can move forward and make actual progress on so many of

these issues talked about in the podcast series.”

Bringing a podcast of this magnitude to fruition is no easy feat. According to the producers, creating an episode requires a lot of work. After choosing a topic and its angle, they meet with a team of researchers who start compiling information, formulating questions and searching for potential interviewees. Once an interviewee has been selected, an interview is recorded over Zoom. From the interview, a more coherent script with an introduction, transitions, and a conclusion is developed. The recordings are then edited and condensed to craft a stronger narrative. After several rounds of reviewing and editing, the episode is published. While the

process is labor-intensive, the team has seen improvements in efficiency.

“This has been a solid six months of work for eight episodes,” Dykstra-McCarthy said.

“We’ve gotten so much better during the process and we can now turn episodes out in two to three weeks in a way that we couldn’t at the beginning.”

The TwentyTwenty Fletcher team continues to work tirelessly to relay a plethora of complex events so viewers of any background can widen their perspectives on the pandemic.

This thought-provoking podcast is something that any individual can listen to and learn something from.

“As a not-IR person who mostly thinks of the pandemic in a limited scope … it’s super interesting to hear people talk about the nuanced ways in which the pandemic has quite literally affected every single aspect of our lives and the lives of people everywhere around the world,” Rachel Carp, a studio assistant for the podcast, said.

“You realize how much damage this pandemic has done on a global scale.”

While it may not be easy to hear about all of the ways in which this pandemic has changed our way of life, the producers provide a sense of hope for the future that can often be lost during these times. They hope that the podcast will be an engaging, informative experience that allows others to think about an event of this scale in a more positive light by focusing on tangible solutions.

“Hand in hand with that is that we have the tools at our disposal to solve these kinds of problems,” Dykstra-McCarthy said. “We have the capability, it’s simply the political will. And we touch on that in almost every episode, which is that these things exist, they’re out there.

It’s simply the way we use them that will change the foreseeable future.”

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ARTS & POP CULTURE

tuftsdaily.com

Friday, December 11, 2020

Holiday season must-watches

by Megan Szostak, Christopher Panella, Stephanie Hoechst, Elizabeth Sander, Colette Smith, Devina Bhalla, Drew Weisberg and Ryan Eggers

Executive Arts Editor and Arts Editors

While the holiday season is going to look a little different this year, your ability to watch classic holiday films from the safety of your residence prevails. Here’s what the Arts & Pop Culture editors have to say about their favorite holiday movies: “Fantasia” (1940) Hear me out: it’s cold outside, the tree is decorated and there’s a toasty fire in the hearth.

You’re wrapped in a warm blanket and have fuzzy socks on.

Maybe there’s hot cocoa or cider — up to you! All cozy, you decide to watch something nostalgic. There are plenty of films to choose from, but you’ve already laughed at “Elf” (2003) and done your best “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” (2000) impressions.

What you need now is a film that’s just simple plots and immaculate vibes. A few key things come to mind — beautiful animation, gorgeous classical music and Mickey Mouse in a big, blue hat.

While not a traditional holiday choice, “Fantasia” is the perfect film for your evening. The iconic Disney production sets animated stories to various classical music pieces — think Paul Dukas’ “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” (1897) and Modest Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain” (1867). Each portion of the program is animated and colored to develop its music’s mood, which means you’ll get to experience a variety of emotions. Some favorites include the seasonal dances in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker Suite” (1892) and the comedic ballet of the ostriches and alligators in Amilcare Ponchielli’s “Dance of the Hours” (1876). But few things top the chaos and drama of Chernabog in “Night on Bald Mountain.” It’ll transport you to different worlds, where you’ll hum while enjoying splendid stories.

“White Christmas” (1954) Shrouded in snow, Transatlantic accents, rousing musical theatre numbers and Christmas cheer, “White Christmas” is a must-watch this holiday season. Featuring the talents of Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and VeraEllen, this timeless holiday classic follows the story of performance duo Bob Wallace (Crosby) and Phil Davis (Kaye), both World War II veterans, in their rise to stardom and budding “friendships” with sister-act Betty Haynes (Clooney) and Judy Haynes (VeraEllen). The quartet elects to spend the winter months at a failing Vermont inn (which happens to be run by Wallace and Davis’ former commanding general), where they look forward to experiencing a white Christmas up

ANNABEL NIED / THE TUFTS DAILY

Top holiday movies chosen by Arts Editors are pictured in a cartoon. north. As Judy puts it, “Vermont should be beautiful this time of year … all that snow!” Thanks for that observation, Judy. With nostalgic humor and a bevy of equally nostalgic songs composed by the noteworthy Irving Berlin, “White Christmas” is as much a Christmas classic as it is a little bit of history. The film was also Paramount’s first to be released in VistaVision, a then-state-of-theart high-resolution film format that defined Paramount’s releases for the latter half of the 1950s.

“A Charlie Brown Christmas” (1965) How many other films on this list deal with anxieties about the commercialization of Christmas?

Okay, but how many of them also have Snoopy and a Vince Guaraldi soundtrack that absolutely slaps?

“A Charlie Brown Christmas,” while only twenty-five minutes long, doesn’t sacrifice depth for its short, perfectly-snackable

length. It’s the kind of movie you put on in the background of making cookies you saw on Pinterest, the kind of movie that then wraps you in a hug as said cookies inevitably come out looking nothing like the picture.

While Snoopy’s dance on the piano, Linus’ “meaning of Christmas” speech and that pathetic Christmas tree that falls over are classic moments from the special, honestly, Lucy is the queen we all need and no one can convince me otherwise.

I will die on this hill. This girl always says what she thinks, she’s got her own psychiatric stand where she rattles off phobias like a boss, her “I’ve been kissed by a dog” outburst is hilarious and when asked what she wants for Christmas, she responds that while she always gets toys or a bike or something, what she really wants is “real estate.” What more could you ask for from a Christmas special?

“Home Alone” (1990) When you think of iconic Christmas movie characters, Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) from “Home Alone” must be at the top of the list.

His devilish and brilliant antics have captured the hearts of audiences for 30 years and there are no signs that his charm will wear off any time soon. Like all great Christmas movies, Kevin defeats the burglars and good trumps evil, which is all anyone can really ask for in the feel-good time of the holidays.

“Home Alone” has something for everyone in the family with humor that will entertain audiences of all ages. If you are getting a little tired of the original scenes, Culkin reenacted some of the most iconic ones from the film. This just stands to show the timeless nature of the movie, since people are still getting Culkin to reenact scenes. A final reason that “Home Alone” is the

best Christmas movie of all time is that Kevin’s mother is played

by Catherine O’Hara. The fact that the eventual Moira Rose, of “Schitt’s Creek” (2015–2020) fame, is featured surely warrants some bonus points.

“Home Alone 2: Lost in New York” (1992) Don’t allow the charlatans to deceive you, “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York” is, without a doubt, the superior “Home Alone” film.

While some may call the sequel “a retread” or “the same movie twice,” to them I would say “yes, and I love it.” The sequel is essentially a carbon copy of the first but takes the “‘Saw’ for children” premise up to eleven as a young boy continuously tortures Oscarwinning actor Joe Pesci in a montage of traps so devious that they not only outdo the first, but they inspire fear in children and adult viewers alike. see HOLIDAY, page 7

A&P

Friday, December 11, 2020 | Arts & Pop Culture | THE TUFTS DAILY

What to watch: Holiday edition HOLIDAY

continued from page 6 In all seriousness, the film is very much a formulaic sequel, but the fun that every actor, from Pesci to a delightfully hammy Tim Curry, are all clearly having with the cartoonish premise really carries what very well could have been a yawner of a sequel. While not as novel as the original, it is worth a watch if your family has finally grown tired of the first.

“The Muppet Christmas Carol” (1992) Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” (1843) has been adapted plenty of times — the story of the ghosts who visit Ebenezer Scrooge on Christmas Eve exists in theater, live-action films, animated films and television. It’s perhaps one of the most famous holiday works ever. And that makes perfect sense. The idea of a cold-hearted man being changed into a Christmas-lover is an embodiment of the holidays as a time of jolliness and giving.

But no adaptation has matched the hilarity and absurdity of “The Muppet Christmas Carol.” One might call it a touchstone in “The Muppets” franchise — the crown jewel, if you will. Narrated

by Gonzo and Rizzo, the film’s Scrooge (Michael Caine) interacts with all of our beloved Muppets as he changes into a fan of the holiday season. The Muppet casting is pretty incredible. Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy portray Bob and Emily Cratchit. Fozzie Bear is Fozziwig (a brilliant play on Dickens’ Mr. Fezziwig).

Beaker is there and is hilarious. It’s the Muppets being the Muppets. You can’t go wrong with this one.

“Love Actually” (2003) In such a hard year, it is necessary to make time for “Love Actually” this holiday season. The film’s distinct type of chaos complements 2020’s chaos quite well. The movie follows the lives and love crusades of eight different couples, all in the frantic month before Christmas. Loosely yet wonderfully tied together, viewers pop in and out of each storyline, watching as the plots interact and their attachment to the characters grows. Its incredibly stacked cast includes Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth, Kiera Knightley and even a few scenes with Rowan Atkinson.

Completely bizarre yet perfectly designed, you get scenes of groovy Hugh Grant dancing through an empty house as Prime Minister, Colin Firth’s Portuguese housekeeper jumping into a lake to save pages of his manuscript and a children’s Christmas play of Jesus’ birth featuring an octopus and lobster, all with the backdrop of a washed-up rock star’s themed cover

of “Love is All Around” (1994). Its lyrics, “I feel it in my fingers/I feel it in my toes/ Christmas is all around me/and so the feeling grows,” live rent-free in my head and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The film’s layered plot doesn’t take itself too seriously, allowing every scene to bring smiles and joy. And if joy is what you’re craving to add to your life this year, take two hours and sixteen minutes out of your day and feed your soul with this bizarrely perfect concoction of a holiday film.

“Elf” (2003) Before becoming a Marvel Cinematic Universe mainstay and creating the pop culture hit “The Mandalorian” (2019-), director Jon Favreau took a crack at something a little different: a Christmas movie.

The resulting 97 minutes became one of the most beloved holiday films in history. “Elf” stars human Will Ferrell as Buddy, who was adopted at birth by Santa and raised to be one of his elves. Upon finding out who his biological dad is, he enters the real world for the first time as a Will Ferrell-sized adult.

Additionally, there’s a bit of a love intrigue with Zooey Deschanel’s Jovie.

What’s not to love?

It isn’t anything groundbreaking — most of the New York Christmas scenes will likely blur in your head with the countless other holiday films set in the Big Apple. But between Ferrell’s just silly enough performance, the heartwarming characters we meet and the constant hilarity along the way, “Elf” is cemented in both Christmas and comedy film history.

“The Polar Express” (2004) “The Polar Express” is distinctly remembered for a few reasons: it’s one of the most celebrated holiday films of all time, it was a pioneer in motion-capture technology and it was absolute nightmare fuel for the children who watched it.

I mean, what was this movie? Yeah, Tom Hanks had some of the best vocal performances of his career, and yeah, the architecture of the train was created masterfully. But that random rugged fellow who kept helping the main character?

The scenes of the two riding on top of the train? It also kind of becomes a musical halfway through? And Tinashe was the motion capture model for the protagonist’s friend on the train? Yeah, I don’t know what’s going on here either.

At the end of the day, it’s a holiday classic that will surely live on cable for as long as cable exists. It’s an experience that is worth having, and, in that sense, it’s a must-watch. Just don’t think too hard about what is actually going on.

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Florence Almeda Livestreamed and Quarantined “Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale” (2007) If you ever changed the channel to Cartoon Network at a random afternoon hour while home for winter break, you’ve probably already seen “Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale.” It’s simply one of the cat-and-mouse duo’s best performances.

Following Jerry and his nephew Tuffy as they explore a magical winter wonderland where toys come to life, the film is partially adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann’s “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” (1816).

And yes, it includes excerpts of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s gleeful and robust score.

What works so well about “A Nutcracker Tale” is that it can be enjoyed by multiple generations of audiences.

Grandpa can watch from the recliner, Grandma’s able to look up and laugh while she knits, Mom and Dad can enjoy the cartoon while checking the turkey in the oven and younger siblings can use their toys to reenact the scenes once it’s over. Everyone’s happy!

“Office Christmas Party” (2016) What makes “Office Christmas Party” special? Absolutely nothing. I won’t begin to convince you that this is the best holiday movie on our list (my votes are for “Love Actually” and “Elf”) but it certainly deserves a mention. From the makers of “Blades of Glory” (2007) and “The Hangover” trilogy (2009-2013), “Office Christmas Party” will probably shock you.

Plus, it’s impossible to watch this film without secretly hoping for a stunt like this to be pulled at your own office. The party which the title refers to is one of the best on-screen holiday gatherings and is certain to bring about fond memories of off-limits celebrations of years past.

This party has everything. It features an eggnog luge, water coolers filled with a variety of hard alcohol, a live-action nativity scene, a slushy slip and slide and even snowmen sumo wrestling costumes.

Then there are the odd, but somehow likable, characters: Jennifer Aniston as the Scrooge, Kate McKinnon as the multi-denominational holiday sweater-wearing, parrot-loving HR rep, Jason Bateman as the recently divorced and witty manager and T.J. Miller as a trust-fund kid who invests his time in improving his employees’ social calendars. There are broken ribs, photocopying of body-parts and an exhausting amount of tinsel, but it’s a fun watch nonetheless. I’ll warn you, the end is cliché (and doesn’t really make sense), but with Pitbull’s “Time of Our Lives” (2014) as the closing song, what more could you expect? Happy viewing!

I

Glass Animals

t’s inevitable that shows with a lot of hype will fall short in some way or another. At least, that’s how I felt about Glass Animals’ “Live In The Internet” livestream. To be fair, I didn’t actually watch the full performance, as I could only find a few clips online after the original streamed in October. However, from reading discussion posts online, it seems that others shared a similar disappointment for a few reasons.

In the weeks leading up to the performance, Dave Bayley, the lead singer of Glass Animals, was advertising the event on the band’s YouTube and Instagram pages, promising an explosive, multi-media show with guest artists, props and special effects.

Moreover, the show was ticketed, which heightened the expectations even further.

Naturally, I was excited. Though Glass Animals has always been on my radar, my friends and I became fans after the release of their most recent album, “Dreamland” (2020). I was not surprised when the UK-psych pop band made it on our Spotify Wrapped summaries this year. Perhaps it was my own expectations that set me up for disappointment, but even after watching just a few minutes of “Heat Waves” in the only full video readily available online after the performance, I could tell that the show would not do their music justice.

The first thing I noticed was the echoey reverb effect used on Bayley’s voice that highlighted the fact that he was slightly out of tune, and emphasized the emptiness of the large concert venue in which they were performing. It appeared that the band was on a classic concert stage, but with an electronic backdrop filled with the screens of their fans on Zoom. The imaginativeness of this setup was impressive.

In execution, however, it was pretty awkward. After some rumination, I believe this stems from the fact that it’s never exactly clear who Bayley’s audience is. Sometimes he would sing into the camera, while other times he ignored the camera completely, gesturing at an invisible crowd. Not once did he interact with his bandmates, who stood rather stiffly in the shadows of fake palm trees placed on either side of the stage. Close to the end of the song, Dave points and sings at the virtual fans behind him and even below him, which, to me, felt the most unnatural.

While watching this, I found myself returning to Sigmund Freud’s concept of the “uncanny,” which is loosely defined as something that feels familiar but is ever so slightly off that it becomes unsettling. Glass Animals clearly wanted this show to mimic the feeling of being at an actual concert.

Unfortunately, fans reported their stream crashing midway through, which not only shattered any semblance of this being a “real” concert, but also added to the existing uncanniness of the show.

I appreciate their desire to recreate an experience that is missed by many, but after watching so many livestreams these past few months, I’ve learned that the most successful ones are not necessarily those that recreate a pre-pandemic concert experience. By now, we all know that there is no way to replicate the feeling of being in a crowd of sweaty, dancing people. Rather, I find myself craving intimate, stripped-down concerts more. I appreciate Glass Animals’ ambition with “Live In The Internet,” but they missed the mark in a way that made me miss in-person concerts even more than I already do.

Florence Almeda is a junior studying music and community health. Florence can be reached at florence.almeda@gmail.com

Friday, December 11, 2020 | Fun & Games | THE TUFTS DAILY

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F& G

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LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Alex: “I bet Megan ate her twin in the womb.”

Ethan: “That would be a move.”

Fun & Games

SUDOKU

LINDA C. BLACK ASTROLOGY

Sagittarius (Nov. 22–Dec. 21) Indulge in your favorite relaxing rituals.

Peaceful privacy brings out your creativity.

Sort, clean and organize space for upcoming projects. Coordinate, schedule and plan.

SEARCHING FOR HEADLINES...

Difficulty Level: Realizing that today’s the last day of the semester

Thursday’s Solutions

CROSSWORD

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Opinion

9 Friday, December 11, 2020

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR IN CHIEF

Thank you, Tufts Daily Just over one year ago, I started my journey as a member of the Managing Board of The Tufts Daily.

At the time, I had just finished my tenure as the Executive Sports Editor of the Daily, and I was nervously looking forward to taking the next steps as a journalist.

The world has changed a lot since then. Over the past several months, our community has been impacted by the immense challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this, time and time again, we’ve seen the Tufts community lead with empathy and understanding.

If the past year has taught us anything, it’s that we’ve all been reminded of the importance of stepping back and counting our blessings when we are able to. On my last day as Editor in Chief of The Tufts Daily, I’d like to share this letter in the hopes of counting mine.

Thank you to the entirety of The Tufts Daily staff for your hard work this semester. It has been an honor getting the chance to work with all of you, and your talent and drive have inspired me every day.

To our News section, thank you for continuing to commit yourselves to reporting on the truth. At the onset of the COVID19 pandemic, your coverage was instrumental in recording Tufts’ response to the changing situa-

tion. As the year progressed, your continuing updates helped inform our community when it mattered most. For those of you who joined us this semester, thank you for sticking with it; seeing you be promoted from Contributing Writers to Staff Writers has made me so proud, and I’m excited to see where your journeys at the Daily take you.

To our Features section, thank you for your creativity and for presenting excellent, in-depth reporting. In particular, your stories surrounding the 2020 election, as well as those profiling the work of members of the Tufts community, have encapsulated the spirit of our school. Many of your stories have brought me hope on the hardest days, and for that, I am grateful.

To our Arts section, thank you for giving our community the best recommendations about what to watch (and what not to watch) during our time indoors. You’ve mastered the challenge of describing hours and hours of entertainment in the form of print, a talent that I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying throughout the year.

To our Editorial Board, thank you for speaking out about the issues on our campus that matter. To members of the Tufts community, I encourage you to exercise your First Amendment right to free speech by

submitting an Op-Ed or a Letter to the Editor to the Opinion section.

Open discussion is the cornerstone of our democracy, and the Daily stands by those values.

To our Sports section, thank you for bringing to life the section that brought me into the Daily. Your adjustment toward covering professional sports, as well as giving a voice to athletes who were not able to participate in their fall and winter season, has been incredibly thorough. Your love for the sports world shines through on the page, and I hope that you continue exploring the world of sports journalism.

To our Photo section, thank you for capturing this moment in history through engaging, thoughtful photojournalism. Your various photo spreads demonstrated the talent of your section, and the Daily is lucky to have you.

To our Audio, Video, Layout, Graphics, Copy, Social Media and Outreach sections, thank you for showcasing your skills as producers, designers, editors and leaders.

Without you, there would be no paper; your work has allowed our content to be accessible to a larger audience, and you should all be incredibly proud.

Finally, I would like to personally thank each member of the 80th Managing Board for leading by my side this semester. Rebecca,

Hannah, Jake, Jilly, Kevin and Robert, you have each become some of my closest friends, and you are all entirely deserving of all the credit for this semester. The Daily would not be what it is without you, and I would not be the journalist I am without you.

Rebecca, thank you for your thoughtfulness in ensuring that our coverage is as intentional and inclusive as it is factual. Your work in I&I has been instrumental, and I’m excited to see the direction you take the paper in the future.

Hannah, thank you for your drive and passion that has allowed you to hold our reporting to the highest levels of credibility. Growing alongside you has been an honor, and I know that you will continue to inform the community in your next role as Executive Audio Producer.

Jake, thank you for taking the initiative in launching our daily and weekly newsletters, as well as teaching a new generation of reporters during our trainings throughout the semester. We’ve come a long way since being Assistant Sports Editors together, and I’m excited to collaborate once again.

Jilly, thank you for engaging our network of Daily members and alumni during a time when we needed it the most. Your work in designing the alumni board will benefit the Daily for generations,

and we owe it to you for this service.

Kevin, thank you for putting forward your best work every day in our paper’s layout. Along with our layout team, you’ve set the standard for what a front page should look like, and I look forward to the day that we will be able to see it every day in print.

Robert, thank you for ensuring the Daily’s financial survival in the midst of this pandemic. Your longterm goals toward improving the paper will continue to allow us to grow, and your solutions to get there have set the stage for years to come.

To our readers, I appreciate your taking the time to read The Tufts Daily this year. Your voices, perspectives, feedback and engagement are vital in our mission as a newspaper for the Tufts community.

When we departed campus in the spring, the Managing Board wrote about how our community would continue to “spread peace and light to all corners of the world.” Since then, the Tufts community has done just that. As the world continues to change in the upcoming months, I am confident that the next Managing Board of the Daily will continue to serve in telling your stories.

Pax et Lux, Alex Viveros Editor in Chief, Fall 2020

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Fletcher School administration needs to embrace the school’s storied legacy to ensure its future Dear Editor, I write with regards to the November 2020 rebranding of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy that saw the virtual elimination of “Law and Diplomacy” from the name, and the school’s subsequent commitment to reverse that widely-criticized change.

The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy has a nearly 90-year history as a preeminent institution for the training of international affairs public servants, including diplomats. As a career public servant and diplomat myself, I have found my training at Fletcher in history, economics, law and diplomacy to be an ongoing source of personal and professional strength and pleasure. I have been honored to be part of the rich legacy of diplomacy embodied and promoted by the institution and its graduates. Diplomacy as a

professional discipline, subject of academic inquiry and facet of the school’s identity is not something to be discarded in a rebranding. My own career choices notwithstanding, “diplomacy” in the school’s name should not be read so narrowly as to imply that Fletcher graduates can only — or should only — pursue careers in the diplomatic services.

That the current administration should so casually disregard Fletcher’s history, legacy and purpose leaves me with no confidence that the administration has an adequate understanding of the institution and appreciation of its mission. That the administration would undertake these changes with a decided lack of transparency and virtually no consultation with stakeholders calls into question its ability to steward the institu-

tion. Furthermore, that Dean Kyte should promise to roll back the rebranding in a statement to students and alumni while the school continues to make little mention of the full name, “The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy,” on the website begs the question of whether or not the administration is dealing with the community in good faith.

I call on Tufts University and the Fletcher Board of Advisors to embrace the full name, “The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy,” and to seek a new dean.

Richard Pearson Fletcher MALD ’09 Richard Pearson is a 2009 MALD graduate of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and resides in metro Boston.

Richard can be reached at pearsonra@hotmail.com.

The Tufts Daily is a nonprofit, independent newspaper, published Monday through Friday during the academic year, and distributed free to the Tufts community.

The content of letters, advertisements, signed columns, cartoons and graphics does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Tufts Daily editorial board.

EDITORIALS Editorials represent the position of The Tufts Daily. Individual editors are not necessarily responsible for, or in agreement with, the policies and editorials of The Tufts Daily.

OP-EDS The Op-Ed section of The Tufts Daily, an open forum for campus editorial commentary, is printed Monday through Thursday. The Daily welcomes submissions from all members of the Tufts community; the opinions expressed in the Op-Ed section do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Daily itself. Opinion articles on campus, national and international issues should be 600 to 1,200 words in length and submitted to opinion@tuftsdaily.com. The editors reserve the right to edit letters for clarity, space and length. All material is subject to editorial discretion and is not guaranteed to appear in the Daily. Authors must submit their telephone numbers and day-of availability for editing questions.

ADVERTISING All advertising copy is subject to the approval of the Editor in Chief, Executive Board and Business Director.

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THE TUFTS DAILY | Sports | Friday, December 11, 2020

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Lost Little Magician: How Jürgen Klopp swindled Barcelona, part 2

by Jeremy Goldstein Sports Editor

Great promise, disappointment, optimism and the gradual overinflation of value sum up the Philippe Coutinho saga from before his final season at Liverpool FC, as I described in Part 1 of this story. But how does this overinflation match the state of inertia Coutinho currently finds himself in today?

June 2017: Top 4 Finish (Transfer Value: Roughly £72 million) Following a fantastic performance in a 6–1 home thumping of Watford FC on Nov. 6, 2016 and a wonderful outside-the-box signature curler against rival Argentina for Brazil four days later, Coutinho was untouchable. A six-week ankle ailment at the end of the month may have halted momentum, but more importantly, it froze the image of Coutinho as Liverpool’s main architect. A 4–3 embarrassing away collapse to AFC Bournemouth in his absence heightened such claims. The January transfer window came and went with Coutinho not only returning to fitness at the end of the month but signing a new five-year contract with Liverpool. Coach Jürgen Klopp reiterated, “We never had any ideas or plans or any talks about him leaving.”

A disappointing eight-game stretch from his return against Manchester United in a 1–1 result on Jan. 15 to a twin-result against Manchester City on March 19 saw Coutinho score one goal; now, the shift for Liverpool squarely changed from a league title push to a top-four one. However, he had nine goal involvements in the final 10 games, including a sensational solo weave against Everton FC and a divine free kick in the topfour deciding finale against Middlesbrough FC. 13 goals and seven assists — a slight overperformance against a combined xG+xG around 15, but an NPxG90+xA90 tally of 0.60 is the highest of his career and was enhanced by Liverpool’s mirage appearance of a title challenge and worldie-worthy goal after worldie-of-a-goal, usually his trademark right-footed farpost curler from the left wing.

September 2017: Barca offers flying in (Transfer Value: Roughly £90 million) But more importantly in Coutinho’s pursuit of Barcelona was Neymar’s record €222 million transfer to Paris Saint-Germain FC on Aug. 4, just two weeks after Liverpool rejected a £72 million offer from the Catalonian club.

The wheels were in motion for a transfer, but Liverpool would appear to have had all of the leverage.

Until Coutinho handed in his transfer request a week later … and a subsequent £90 million Barcelona bid was rejected. The ownership company Fenway Sports Group came out with a swift statement following the

bid, “The club’s definitive stance is that no offers for Philippe will be considered and he will remain a member of Liverpool Football Club when the summer (transfer) window closes.”

Barcelona saw a further £114 million offer rejected a week later, and stopped just short of offering £138 million five days later. Instead, they pivoted to the €105 million transfer for French starlet Ousmane Dembele to fill the Neymarsized hole on the wing.

New Year’s Day, 2018: Mixed emotions (Transfer Fee: Roughly £108 million) After appearing on Liverpool’s preseason tour in late July and reporting to Brazilian interna-

tional duty in late August, the little magician was conspicuously absent from the Liverpool matchday squad. Back problems mysteriously disappeared after the transfer window closed.

He returned with stunners in consecutive matches against Leicester City FC and Newcastle United FC, both signature lowxG curlers from outside-the-box from the left. But the story of the Liverpool season parallels the last one, and a boom-or-bust side found each game following one of three results. In the first, Liverpool smash the opposition (e.g., a 5–1 away win at Brighton & Hove Albion FC in which Coutinho had three goal contributions). In the second outcome,

COURTESY WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

Jürgen Klopp is pictured.

a late defensive collapse negates a clinical attacking showing (e.g., an embarrassing 3–3 draw to Sevilla in the Champions League, which was the swan song of Alberto Moreno, a good friend of Coutinho’s). Or finally, third, a failure to beat a low block (e.g., an embarrassing 0–0 home draw to bottom-feeders West Bromwich Albion FC).

Coutinho was given the captain’s armband three times during this stretch, including a record 7–0 win against Spartak Moscow where the Brazilian scored a hat-trick and Liverpool clinched top spot in their Champions League group.

Optimism around a 5–0 smashing against Swansea City AFC on Dec. 26 was quickly quashed by a leaked Nike advertisement featuring Coutinho’s name on the back of a Barcelona jersey four days later. Another mysterious injury, this time on the player’s hamstring, sidelined Coutinho from the match on Jan. 1.

Jan. 6, 2018: Transfer (Transfer Value: Roughly £105– £142 million) On Jan. 6, the transfer fee was announced at initially £105 million with add-ons potentially elevating the total to £142 million.

In just six months, Liverpool’s firm position, coupled with the telegraphed intentions of both Barcelona and Coutinho, ended up nearly doubling Coutinho’s price.

The tale has gone in opposite directions for both clubs since then.

Liverpool notably invested the Coutinho funds into Virgil van Dijk and Alisson Becker, making two consecutive Champions League finals, winning one final while overcoming Coutinho’s Barcelona in the 2019 semifinal with a 4–0 Anfield comeback win and conquering the 2019–20 Premier League.

Coutinho became a fringe player at Barcelona, was loaned to Bayern Munich for the ‘19–’20 season and scored two goals against his parent club in an 8–2 Champions League quarterfinal smashing. He returned to the club this summer to find himself in and out of the starting lineup.

The lesson: Jürgen Klopp probably knew Coutinho was inevitably leaving since the fall of 2016, but stuck to a plan that left him looking like a genius.

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Sports

11 Friday, December 11, 2020

Caring changes communities with Crossover Basketball

COURTESY UNSPLASH

A basketball hoop is pictured.

by Arnav Sacheti

Assistant Sports Editor

In India, national pride and international respect is everything. That is what drives its single biggest basketball goal: to find the first Indian-bred athlete who can make a legitimate NBA impact. While basketball in India is extremely popular, it has consistently come up short in the sprint to find the once-in-a-generation player.

Boston-area resident and former chemistry teacher Shaun Jayachandran, however, believes in running a marathon instead of a sprint, and says that India’s biggest basketball goal should be something entirely different.

“In India, there’s a lot of focus around becoming a professional and getting paid. And so people are so worried about that top bandwidth that a lot of the love and purpose of the game gets lost,” Jayachandran said.

The desire to resurrect that love and purpose is part of the reason why Jayachandran founded an international non-profit organization called Crossover Basketball and Scholars Academy in 2012. Based in Chennai, India, the organization offers a free two-week summer camp for Chennai-area kids. In this camp, the kids are not only

given the opportunity to learn and play basketball, but they are also given valuable educational and social tools in an engaging and community-driven environment. In 2012, there were only 45 kids, but in recent summers, that number has skyrocketed to close to 500.

The ability to give kids a fun and stimulating environment in which they can grow intellectually and socially is ultimately what Crossover’s main mission is. Crossover hopes that by giving these kids the tools they need, they can be more motivated to achieve more while potentially breaking out of generational poverty cycles.

According to Crossover, 62% of Indian students drop out of school at some point and 76% of students don’t attend college after school. These high rates are what Crossover and Jayachandran are attempting to lower — and they have been remarkably successful. Of all the students that have gone through Crossover, only 15% of them ended up dropping out of school.

One might ask though, why basketball? And how does a combination of two completely different disciplines in basketball and education have this type of effect? Jayachandran’s parents had the same questions.

“My parents, first of all, thought I was nuts for starting it, right? They’re like, this makes no sense. You’re taking basketball to India to impact education and poverty. None of this makes sense,” Jayanchandran said.

Ultimately, it is all about changing the mindset of the kids and their families. In the process, as a bonus, he was able to change his parents’ mindset too.

One of the keys of the program is that at least half of the participants are girls. Many boys grow up exclusively playing soccer and cricket, whereas girls usually do not. Basketball gives a level playing field to both genders because they both have little experience.

“This is one of the few times in life, you’re both going to start from the exact same footing,” Jayachandran said. “And we’re not just teaching hoops, and teaching leadership, but our focus is on gender equity as well.”

Giving girls this level playing field is powerful because throughout their lives, they are sometimes told that they can’t achieve as much as boys.

Through Crossover, they are given the same importance and the same tools as boys, and that goes a long way for their self-confidence and their motivation to continue their education.

Moreover, the boys in the program can see that the girls are able to learn at the same pace as them, and it breeds a mindset that they should be treating women and girls with respect, and the effect on girls has been astounding.

“Of the 1200 girls that have gone through Crossover, we haven’t had a single girl report having to have go to child marriage or get pregnant,” Jayachandran said.

Jayachandran noted that this is especially impressive given the high national rates of young marriages and pregnancies in India.

The statistic shows that girls who have gone through Crossover and their families often value education more than quick marriages, just by receiving this confidence.

This idea of dignity and respect isn’t just seen in the statistics. During one of the summers, when the Crossover kids were asked who their most favorite and influential basketball coach was, they overwhelmingly answered with Jayachandran’s dad.

“This was really strange because my dad doesn’t play basketball, nor does he do any coaching. My dad checks the kids in when he volunteers. He asks, ‘What’s your name? How are you?’,” Jayachandran said.

For the first time in their life, the kids met someone who actually cared about them and their stories. They saw someone who cared about their future and remembered them, giving them a sense of importance and dignity they didn’t have before.

Although Crossover promotes basketball, it is unlikely to find the first Indian NBA superstar.

Instead of creating one shortlived national pride-inducing enigma, it is slowly but surely creating hundreds of future leaders who will be able to achieve something for themselves and their communities.

“I’m not selling you a magic bullet, right? We’re selling you the 15 year dream, we’re selling you the 20 year dream here.

And that makes sense to people like, okay, I put into work, here’s what’s gonna happen,” Jayachandran said.

That is the true power of basketball and of sport. Although India should still want to find its NBA star, it should not be the main goal. Crossover and Jayachandran are working hard to change that goal, and at the same time, to improvinge outcomes for children in a country that has the world’s highest youth population. The possibilities are endless, and it starts with caring.