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Editors

Contents

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Timothy Noetzel

7 December 2007

MANAGING EDITORS Lydia Hall Mara Sacks Olivia Saucier EDITORIAL EDITOR Peter Shaeffer NEWS EDITOR Duncan Pickard OPINION EDITOR Daniel Rosen ARTS AND EXCURSIONS EDITORS Josephine Chow Eliza Walters CAMPUS EDITOR Molly Posner ART DIRECTOR Natalie Polito

Volume CXV, Issue 8 The Observer, Since 1895 www.TuftsObserver.org

News 2 Editor’s Notes: The Secret Life of Somerville, by Duncan Pickard 3 Hazing on the Hill: Still a problem?, by Juliana Slocum 6 Immigration: Somerville. How An Illegal Community in Our Host City Can Shed Light on the National Debate, by Samuel W. duPont 10 The Man Behind the Music: A Harvard Square Performer Describes Life on the Platform, by Molly Posner Opinion 14 Just Sleep on it, by Ryan Stolp 16 The Madness Over Marijuana, by Seth Stein 21 What Walt Gets Right, by Zachary Witlin Arts and Excursions 24 The Boston Ballet’s Land of Sweets: 40 Years of The Nutcracker,

by Natalie Polito

PHOTO EDITOR Erin Baldassari ASSISTANT EDITORS Joshua Aschheim Julie Lonergan EDITOR EMERITUS Michael Skocay

Staff

Samuel W. duPont Jonah Gold Sarah Leenen Kate Schimmer Seth Stein Ryan Stolp Olivia Teytelbaum

Contributors Erik Doughty Hui Lim Juliana Slocum Ryan Yannalfo Michael Yarsky Benjamin Taylor Zachary Witlin

25 26 28 30

One Woman, Leaving Nothing Behind, by Benjamin Taylor Sounds and Tastes: The Digital Revolution, by Jonah Gold Find Your Center at Spontaneous Celebrations, by Hui Lim Cause for “Celebration” at the Middle East, by Ryan Yannalfo

Poetry and Prose 33 Movements, by Michael Yarsky 34 Snowed In, by Erik Doughty 35 Soul Seeks Sky, by Erik Doughty In Every Issue 13 Ticker Tape, by Kate Schimmer 22 Editorial 23 Interruptions, by Olivia Teytelbaum 36 Campus COVER IMAGE: NICK DYNAN

DIANA BARGER

PARTING SHOT: CYNTHIA MCMURRY

Artists and Photographers Diana Barger Julia Bourque Nick Dynan

Samuel W. duPont Timothy Fitzsimmons Jenny Hong

Trey Kirk Cynthia McMurry

EDITOR’S NOTE

The Secret Life of Somerville

I

n The Secret Life of Bees, the character May Boatwright is hypersensitive to other people’s misfortune. She constructs a wailing wall in her backyard where she places slips of paper on which she has written caring wishes in an attempt to rid her mind of everyone else’s emotions. The plight of others consumes and eventually kills her.

Here at Tufts, it is easy to take for granted what happens in the real world.

It’s the antithesis of May’s problem, but it is equally damaging. We call 02155 our zip code, but how much do we know about the community attached to that number?

The Tisch College tries to get at the heart of that problem by educating students about the communities around ADVERTISEMENT

TEACH FOR SOLVING OUR NATION’S GREATEST INJUSTICE. Next Application Deadline:

us. But it goes beyond just community service. It’s about a sense of place and community, an understanding that the world just ve minutes from campus is dramatically different than many of our hometowns and that, like any community in the world, it is a place where we can learn and grow.

College is the perfect place to explore the dynamics of community in a hands-on way. Discussions we can have about community activism and issues of homelessness, poverty, and race relations are inherently intellectual and not antithetical to the mission of an institution of higher learning.

This week, the Observer will explore some of the overlooked phenomena on and around campus. In the next pages, our writers discuss the idea that one can be civically aware and a good student at the same time. On the following page, Juliana Slocum addresses the issue of on-campus hazing. Does it still exist, and where does Tufts stand within the national discussion? Unlikely to come forward, students who experience hazing can be found under the radar of a University judicial system that, while concerned, is often unable to recognize and deal with the signs of abuse.

Samuel duPont explores the national immigration debate in a local context on page six. Somerville — an immigration hub — is often overlooked by the national press as journalists ignore how immigration affects

ERIN BALDASSARI

BY DUNCAN PICKARD

cities in the north.

On page 10, Molly Posner describes her experience with a musician on the Red Line. Easy to overlook and write-off with stinginess, T musicians are often talented professionals who are content and satised with their jobs.

This issue of the Observer is not one of May’s slips of paper. Hopefully it will do more to engage people than sit rotting in a proverbial wailing wall. If nothing more, this issue hopes to make the campus more aware of the social pressures facing area residents and how they exemplify broader problems that we study and debate in the abstract everyday. O

Friday, January 3 Apply online at www.teachforamerica.org Full salary and health benefits. Seeking all academic majors.

2

THE OBSERVER

December 7, 2007

See more red, now online. www.tuftsobserver.org

Hazing on the Hill: Still a problem?

BY JULIANA SLOCUM

T

Legal Issues Tufts has a schoolwide anti-hazing policy in compliance with Massachusetts state laws. According to the Tufts Police website, the laws regarding hazing for

DIANA BARGER

he following is an excerpt from a New York Times article written in 1910: “Sophomores of Tufts College last night accomplished one of the most complete hazings that college has ever known. They captured about a dozen freshmen, and then all set out for Arlington by way of West Medford. Most of the freshmen were clad in their night clothes.

The sophomores were not particular about what route they took, and the freshmen were dragged through marshes and potato patches and over muddy roads. When they had gotten so far away from the college that they had no fear of interruption, they stopped. The exercises included cock ghts, boxing mills, swimming races through the long wet grass, debates, singing and many other pasttimes. The freshies were [even] made to propose to trees.”

While the tactics may have changed slightly, the practice of hazing persists to this day. Indeed, over the past decade, there has been an increased awareness of hazing around the country. The death of an MIT student in 1997 due to alcohol poisoning from a hazing incident rst brought the issue into the open and forced Americans to become aware of this reality. Since that time, numerous states have enacted laws prohibiting the practice and punishing those involved; in 2000, 44 states had some sort of anti-hazing law. Students and educators now seem largely to understand the consequences of hazing, and there is a much greater awareness of the crime.

Nonetheless, we must ask: Has this increased awareness really curtailed the amount of hazing that occurs? Despite the fact that most of the population now understands the denition, the practice continues to exist around the country. The difference is that today, hazing is done in secret. Groups no longer publicize their intitiation rituals, but this silence does not necessarily mean that the pressuring has stopped. Certainly at Tufts, there is a secrecy

and a mystery surrounding hazing.

Are students still hazed on campus? It is impossible to answer absolutely or draw any real conclusions. However, it is important to examine the reality of what is occuring at the University. Only with an understanding of the current situation can we work towards bringing the issue into the open.

the University are the same as those for the entire state. Hazing is dened legally as “any conduct or method of initiation whether on public or private property, which willfully or recklessly endangers the physical or mental health of any student or other person.” All student organizations, including sports teams, fraternities, sororities, and clubs must abide by the same policies and each group is issued a copy of this law

at the beginning of the year. Any student who takes part in, or even witnesses and fails to report, such activity is subject to punishment. The policy at the University is very clear: no hazing at any time. Yet do all student groups actually obey these regulations?

Hazing in Athletics Historically, varsity sports teams have had a reputation for hazing their freshmen members. This reputation may or may not be justied at Tufts, but the fact remains that many varsity athletes at other universities have been indicted on charges.

A survey done by Alfred University in 1999 found that an astounding 80 percent of college athletes had been hazed, although the majority of these incidents went unpunished. In 1999, a state investigation conrmed that members of the men’s ice hockey team at the University of Vermont forced freshmen to excessively drink alcohol and engage in inappropriate sexual activities. Today, the practice is not conned to college level athletics; the same survey found that roughly 40 percent of high school athletes had been hazed. The NESCAC league has also been a victim of the hazing crisis. An article in the Tufts Daily on February 16, 2006 reported that the Middlebury swim team had suspended its entire season due to charges of hazing involving alcohol. Members of the swim team had violated the team’s policy on drugs and alcohol, although the Middlebury coach would not go into details about the allegations. The team missed the rest of the season.

Tufts has never faced such a serious incident. According to athletic director Bill Gehling, the University has never had to suspend a sports team due to allegations of hazing or alcohol abuse. When asked in an interview about the issue, Mr. Gehling offered a positive yet realistic perspective, explaining that he understands most teams do have initiation events to welcome new members, and that he is not opposed to December 7, 2007

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3

these rituals.

Mr. Gehling emphasizes, however, that teams should use caution and common sense, because these harmless forms of initiation can quickly and often inadvertently spill over into the category of hazing. Specically, he urges athletes to “avoid posting pictures on the web that you wouldn’t want me, your coach, the dean of students, or your mother to see.”

He also stresses that alcohol should not be used in team bonding events because “alcohol is almost always involved when things spin out of control.” Mr. Gehling allows teams to determine their own initiation events, but underscores the fact that these activities should be safe and fun, rather than dangerous or “designed to pressure new members.”

activities that emphasize fun and team unity, rather than harassment and pressure.

Student athletes seem to agree with Mr. Gehling’s observations. A freshman on a varsity team this fall, who asked to remain anonymous, reported that the team did hold an initiation night and that alcohol was available, but that none of the members were forced to drink. She notes that one girl on the team chose not to drink at all and no one questioned her decision. According to this freshman athlete, the party was designed to welcome new members and create a sense of team unity, not to pressure freshman into doing embarrassing things. She stressed that she felt no pressure whatsoever and instead was welcomed right from the beginning of the season. She also mentioned that the

of whether frats and sororities deserve the reputation of being places of hazing is up for debate. Nevertheless, there is evidence to support the fact that hazing has occurred at many fraternities and sororities around the country and at this University.

In February, 2005, the Associated Press reported that Tufts had closed the Delta Tau Delta (DTD) fraternity for one year “following a hazing incident in which an intoxicated student lost consciousness and stopped breathing.”

The University’s Judiciary Committee on Fraternities and Sororities (CFS-J) voted to close the fraternity after it became apparent that the student’s excessive drinking was associated with a pledge event and a part of a hazing ritual. According to an article in the Tufts Daily on April 27,

“They strongly suggest that a dry pledge experience is going to be ten times harder than one that involves alcohol.”

According to Mr. Gehling, most Tufts athletes do seem to understand the difference between fun team bonding activities and hazing. While he admits that he is “not naive” and knows that some athletes do drink, he thinks that more and more athletes are conscious of the link between alcohol and performance, and therefore drink less, or not at all, during season.

The University has made progress, Mr. Gehling believes, in educating team members about the reality of hazing, and there is an increased consciousness of the subject among Tufts athletes. He also claims that there has been an increased awareness about alternative forms of team bonding. Athletes are realizing that hazing really does not strengthen teams, and so they are engaging in other, more positive ways to build team unity.

According to Mr. Gehling, these alternatives are silly and designed so that athletes can get to know each other. He also points out that an increasing number of Tufts teams are engaging in community service activities as an alternative form of team building. Overall, Mr. Gehling concludes that while the situation with Tufts athletic teams is not perfect, the majority of varsity teams have initiation 4

THE OBSERVER

December 7, 2007

team did many things together to bring them closer, such as having breakfast before games or holding psych dinners on Friday nights.

Another freshman on the women’s rugby team, who also asked to remain anonymous, reported a similar experience.

The rugby team also held an initiation night for freshmen. Although all new members were required to participate in the rituals, the activities were fun. This freshman emphasized that she had “no problem doing the activities” and that she even got “a sweet sweater vest” out of the deal. She admitted that some of the activities were awkward, but claimed that none of them were humiliating. The team did pressure its members to go to a party, but according to this freshman, “everyone wanted to go anyway because you didn’t want to miss out on the fun.” Throughout the season, the captains held dinners and get-togethers, such as cookie-baking nights, to strengthen the team. This freshman also emphasized that she felt accepted right from the beginning of the season.

Greeks and Hazing Besides varsity sports teams, fraternities and sororities have been the other arenas notorious for hazing. Again, the question

2005, charges of hazing and distribution of alcohol to minors were also led against the sorority Chi Omega as a result of some individuals’ participation in the DTD pledge activities. The CFS-J voted to suspend the sorority for one academic year, although members were still allowed to live in the house.

Clearly, the issue of hazing in fraternities and sororities is real and has been evident at Tufts in the past. But is it really an issue on campus now? Were these charges unfounded, or were the allegations accurate? Does hazing really occur in the fraternities and sororities?

Inter-Greek Council (IGC) spokesperson Jessica Snow and Chi Omega president Lauren Taylor offered their perspectives on these questions. They noted that the term “pledges” is no longer used; instead, they are now called “new members.” Also, they pointed out that there is a difference between the new member period and initiation. As Ms. Taylor explains, “The new member period lasts for the seven weeks between bid day — when girls going through Recruitment are offered invitations to become new members, and initiation — the ceremony in which new members ofcially become sisters.”

Having claried these terms, Ms.

Snow and Ms. Taylor described how the fraternities and sororities are not places of hazing. While both refused to discuss the specics of the initiation ceremonies, they emphasized that the process is intended to be fun and alcohol-free. Ms. Snow points out that although the IGC does not directly regulate the specic ceremonies, “there are always certain provisions set up for the chapters. For example, in AOII, it is a very set rule that no one in the chapter is allowed to drink at all 24 hours before or after initiation, whether they are 21 plus or not. This is just one of the ways our sorority tries to control hazing practices, and other chapters have similar rules.”

Ms. Taylor describes the new member period as “a fun, happy, and positive experience for everyone involved.” She says that the fact that not a single new member has de-pledged from Chi Omega in the past four years is testimony to the positive nature of the new member period.

In fact, the Chi Omega sorority works proactively to prevent incidents of hazing.

Ms. Taylor writes that “on the national level, Chi Omega teamed up with a few other Greek organizations to create the National Hazing Prevention Hotline, or 1-888-NOT-HAZE. This is a resource for people to anonymously report instances of hazing.” Additionally, “each Chi Omega member holds a personal responsibility to prevent hazing from occurring in her chapter.”

Do the Guidelines Work?

However, some students offer vastly different views, and one claims outright that fraternities and sororities are indeed sites of hazing. A recent Tufts graduate, who asked to remain anonymous, described his experience via e-mail. He de-pledged from a fraternity on campus a few years ago. While he had many reasons for depledging, he cites pressure as one factor, writing that “pledging was taking up way too much time, affecting my academics, and I also decided that I didn’t want to be treated like garbage for a semester. So I walked away.”

He notes that once a new member pledges, there is intense pressure to join and act like the rest of the members. He claims that “the pressure is inherent in the system. Basically your whole schedule is

worked out for you and any free time you have belongs to the fraternity. Also, there is a heavy guilt and belittling factor that goes along with it. Once you are into the pledging process you have two choices: give up and let everything you just did go to waste, or suck it up and push on to the end.”

Eventually, this former student decided to opt out of the pledging process, but not before he witnessed multiple acts of hazing. He claims that the fraternity not only pressured, but forced its new members to engage in excessive drinking and other practices against their will. “There were lots of things that I would consider hazing,” he says. “At the beginning of the pledging there is the ‘option’ of doing it dry (no alcohol) or just regular (with alcohol). When they give you this option they strongly suggest that a dry pledge experience is going to be ten times harder and as such no one usually takes that option. There were lots of torturous things such as forced drinking, forced physical training in awful conditions.”

He notes that sometimes, members of the fraternity would force new members to drink so much that they would throw up. He also claims that the fraternity he pledged is not unique, asserting that almost every fraternity or sorority on campus hazes its new members.

Clearly, such allegations would merit punishment, but interestingly, this graduate never reported these incidents to any authorities because then “it would be obvious that it came from someone that de-pledged and that wouldn’t be good for me.” Even though this graduate did not try to report the incidents, he does not believe that his allegations would have made any difference. He presents a pessimistic view of the University’s handling of hazing at Greek houses, claiming that “right now, the only hazing that gets caught is the ones [sic] that happen on big scales where it’s so obvious that the administration feels that they have to do something about it. They aren’t proactive about it.”

Ms. Snow points out that many people are

Above is an extract from a 1912 New York Times article about hazing at Tufts. quick to label fraternities and sororities as sites of hazing, while ignoring other groups that may engage in similar practices.

She claims that “on the whole, fraternities and sororities don’t deserve any of the reputations set up for us. When one of the cultural organizations got in trouble for hazing last year…everyone didn’t start walking around saying, ‘Cultural organizations are places where hazing occurs.’”

Perhaps fraternities and sororities are treated unfairly. Or perhaps they are indeed sites of hazing. The question of whether hazing occurs at Tufts does not have a simple answer. What is evident is that the Tufts community and the nation as a whole must deal with the issue. Despite our best efforts to keep hazing underground and in

Want to share your hazing story? Submit anonymously at observer@tufts.edu.

December 7, 2007

THE OBSERVER

5

TIMOTHY FITZSIMONS

Immigration: Somerville How an illegal community in our host can shed light on the national debate SAMUEL W. DUPONT

S

itting around the table at Thanksgiving dinner, you might have discussed the courage of the Pilgrims, sailing to an unknown land, and making a new home in a foreign, inhospitable environment. With the turkey still sitting heavily in your stomach, it might

be interesting to reconsider Myles Standish, William Bradford, and the other brave Puritans, in the context of a hot-button contemporary political issue; it doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t take much of a leap to think of them as the ď&#x192;&#x17E;rst immigrants to Massachusetts, settling into what is now Somerville. >> 6

THE OBSERVER December 7, 2007

of them settling right here in Somerville.

ost city te Today, nearly 400 years later, the immigration issue is more contentious than ever.

Some fear the subversion of American culture, others fear the loss of jobs, still others fear the undermining effect of illegal immigration on American rule of law. In Somerville, nearly 30 percent of the population is foreign-born and 35 percent of households speak a language other than English. This city is a microcosm of many of the issues surrounding immigration on a national level.

And the issues aren’t going away: the number of immigrants in the Massachusetts labor force nearly doubled between 1980 and 2004, from 8.8 percent to 17 percent. In the rst three years of this decade, 118,000 new immigrants arrived in Massachusetts, many

Somerville’s Immigrants Tufts’ home city has a long and colorful history of immigration. In the early 1900s, Somerville was a richly diverse city with a wide array of Europeans from Ireland, Scotland and Germany. After World War I, immigration to Somerville increased from countries like Italy, Portugal, Russia, Greece, and Canada. Today it is a haven for Brazilians, Central Americans, and Haitians, to name a few.

Tom Batinelli is caretaker of the Somerville Museum, an institution currently displaying an exhibit called “Immigrant City, Then and Now” which looks at Somerville’s colorful history of immigration. Looking at the exhibit, Mr. Batinelli remembers his own immigration experience: “I came here when I was ve years old from Italy. We had to leave because Mussolini and the fascists were coming to power there.” Then, as now, getting a job was the rst big hurdle for immigrants arriving in America. “Here, my father worked as a sausage maker down on Gore Street, and that was great. Back in Italy he would only have had some factory job.” Even then, new immigrants faced some of the same trouble as today. “It was hard, because we were a minority,” he says. “There were so many ghts.

In middle school, people called us dagos, wops, guineas. It was bad.”

The immigrant population in Massachusetts peaked in 1920, and then dropped by half, to 495,000 in 1970. Through the 1970s and 1980s, a new surge in immigration began, with people arriving from Asia and Latin America. Now, as ever, people leave their home countries for economic reasons, seeking a better life for themselves and their children in America. It is no coincidence that a spike in Brazilian immigration coincided with an economic dip in Brazil at the beginning of this decade.

One Brazilian immigrant, who requested to remain anonymous because he lives here illegally, has a story that reects Mr. Batinelli’s from years earlier. “My neighbor, he lives up the street,” he says. “I don’t really know him, we don’t talk very often. One time [my illegal status] came up, and he got really pissed off, started saying, ‘You’re all on welfare, all have millions of kids, don’t go to school.’ I’ve never applied for welfare. None of that is true.” While the immigrants have changed, the issues have remained the same.

Mayor Joe Curtatone is the son of Italian immigrants. His family, like many in Somerville, came from the Italian city of Gaeta. A year ago, Mr. Curtatone formalized this bond, by honoring Gaeta as a sister city of Somerville in an effort to strengthen cultural and economic ties between the towns. He plans to establish similar relations with Yucuaiquín, a city in El Salvador that is the birthplace of many new Somerville residents.

Why Somerville?

Immigrants choose Somerville for a variety of reasons. For all, the relative affordability of the area makes it appealing. The large Portuguese population, immigrants of a generation earlier, established a language community into which the Brazilians could assimilate more easily. In many cases, people move to where their friends and family have moved before them, a phenomenon that has led to many of Somerville’s immigrants hailing from the same region, or even the same town, in their native country.

Massachusetts has been the willing host of many international refugees resettled in the United States. Some have found their way to Somerville, adding still more diversity to the city’s population. Sediq Omar and his family ed Taliban rule in Afghanistan in 2000, before the American invasion. After four years as refugees in Pakistan, the ve of them successfully applied for resettlement through the United Nations Refugee agency.

They were placed in East Boston, and last July moved into Somerville. “Here [in Somerville] we are in a housing project,” says Mr. Omar. “We live in a better house here. Before we were in one small room with a kitchen in East Boston.” He explains that he has found work in the same eld that he practiced in Afghanistan. “The job I have been doing in my country is oriental rugs. Over 30 years I am doing this business.” Here, he works for Mohr & McPherson, a Cambridge-based importer and seller of Asian furniture and carpets.

Hubbley Affonso is a Brazilian-American who has lived in Somerville for over twenty years. He has worked in real estate and as an editor at a newspaper publishing service, Hubble Communications. He offers his take on the wide range of nationalities represented in the city: “If you get in a cab, it’s a big black guy.

He’s Hatian. Indian people run all the stores, the 7-11s. Go into a gas station: Arabic. Restaurants are all run by Brazilians.” True or not, he gives a slice of the diversity packed into Somerville, or at least how many perceive it.

December 7, 2007

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7

rights, and people say: ‘Aren’t they illegal? Do they have rights?’ If people have no rights, then getting anything done becomes very difcult,” she says. “[Colorado Congressman Tom] Tancredo, Lou Dobbs — they’re at the heart of the problem. By their rhetoric, really terrible treatment of humans is justied.”

Luiz [name changed], an undocumented Brazilian immigrant who works at a restaurant in Somerville, has stayed past the limit of his visa. He explains some of the psychology of fear that haunts undocumented immigrants.

“Every day you think about it, you could be gone tomorrow. At the beginning you don’t care much, because you just got here, and you don’t have so much to leave behind. After time, you care about people, they care about you, and it’s weird, you think — tomorrow, maybe I

SAMUEL DUPONT

Tough Times for Immigrants Maria Elena Letona is the executive director of Centro Presente, an organization that advocates for immigrant rights and social justice. Operated and led by immigrants primarily from Central America, the organization is based in Cambridge and operates throughout Massachusetts. For Ms. Letona, the issues immigrants face in Somerville are representative of the national struggle. “The biggest challenge is the environment — the way that we are talked about — the whole rhetoric around immigrants is poisoned. The rhetoric about ‘illegals,’ ‘lawbreakers,’ makes it very difcult for even good-hearted people to understand.”

Ms. Letona is, of course, referencing the national debate on illegal immigration that has dominated all discussion of immigra-

A visitor to the “Immigrant City, Then and Now” exhibit talks with Marlene Vargas Jeime Lopez . The exhibit will run until December 22 at the Somerville Museum at 1 Westwood Road. tion in America for some time. One group, perhaps best characterized by CNN pundit Lou Dobbs, views the large inux of undocumented Latino immigrants as an “invasion.”

People on this side of the debate tend to oppose any governmental action that would legitimize the residency of the undocumented immigrants, and they support the deportation of all who cannot prove their citizenship.

Others, to varying degrees, are more sympathetic with the immigrants themselves, and see room for policies that would give undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship, and make the social environment in the U.S. more hospitable to them in the meanwhile.

In Ms. Letona’s view, the rhetoric of the former group creates an inhospitable environment for all immigrants — legal and undocumented alike. “We talk about immigrant 8

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November 30, 2007

won’t see you again.”

The climate has developed to the point that fear dominates all sides of the debate.

Warren Goldstein-Gelb is the director of the Welcome Project, a community initiative that for 20 years has worked to support new immigrants in the city. “The biggest issue for immigrants in Somerville is a general fear, an anti-immigrant climate — that is a national climate,” he says. “Undocumented or not, people feel at risk by our institutions, be it raids or police.” Despite the fact that 75 percent of immigrants in America are here legally, nearly all face this fear.

While immigrants fear discrimination and deportation, the immigrant-skeptics have fears — some very real — that immigration will undermine American culture, society and the economy, at the hands of the government.

Jennifer Burtner, a professor in the anthropology department at Tufts, argues that throughout American history, economic instability has always yielded a more hostile environment towards immigration. “Immigrants have always been scapegoats in wartime.” Speaking of the working class in the U.S., she says, “There is a fear of becoming impoverished.”

The most frequent objection to immigrants is that they steal jobs from Americans because they will work for lower pay. There is some truth to these charges, as a study published by the Pew Hispanic Center explains.

One third of the new construction jobs in the past three years have gone to an immigrant, and because they are likely to be undocumented, U.S. contractors can pay them less than half the prevailing wage. This money, often paid in cash, usually goes untaxed. A recent report by WBUR, Boston’s NPR news station, explains that some industries, particularly construction, are now “addicted” to the labor of undocumented immigrants, as the need to stay competitive makes them unable to pay their workers at union wages. The immigrants who perform these jobs are frequently lling the role of union members, who are left out of work.

Things get even more complicated when an undocumented immigrant gets injured while on the job. “When people get hurt while they’re working, they’re afraid to say they’re working,” says Hubbley Afonso. “They’re afraid they’ll get their employer in trouble, and get deported. They say they did it at home.”

Being undocumented, the immigrants rarely have any health insurance, and their medical fees are often socialized — paid for by the state taxpayers.

Luiz points out that many immigrants — even undocumented immigrants — defy this stereotype. “We get blamed for everything. Really, a lot of people here work really hard and pay a lot of taxes — I’ve been paying them since the rst day I was here, all along.”

Despite the taxes they pay, undocumented immigrants face a number of political issues, beyond struggles of discrimination and racism, a new language and culture, and the constant fear of deportation. In America, says Mr. Goldstein-Gelb, education is still the gateway to success. But undocumented immigrants in Somerville face a serious barrier to college education: They do not qualify for in-state tuition at Massachusetts state schools.

“People who have been going to Somerville schools since they were two, and then nd out

tuition is two or three times as much as nonimmigrants. That’s really big.”

For many, the biggest hassle on a day-today basis is the difculty, if not inability, to get a driver’s license. “Not getting a license, that’s the number one problem,” says Mr. Afonso.

“People don’t care about being illegal, they just want to drive. If you live in Somerville, and you don’t have a car, how do you work

Until recently, this was overwhelmingly true — immigrants who successfully entered the United States illegally were unlikely to be caught and deported. In March of this year, however, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted a raid on a leather goods factory in nearby New Bedford. Over 360 undocumented immigrants, mostly born in Guatamala or El Salvador, were detained

— these are things that NGOs need, that the corporate world expects, and that the public sector needs to expand.” A major component of the class is the opportunity for the students to work with the Welcome Project on fundraising, education initiatives, and curating the exhibit at the Somerville Museum. They build on the work Herman and her students do over the summer and incorporate the artwork of

“Undocumented or not, people feel at risk by our institutions, be it raids or police.” in Framingham, or anywhere? The buses stop running at night, it’s very hard.” The answer for many undocumented immigrants is to fake documents, or to drive without a license. “And when they get pulled over,” he continues, “The police aren’t supposed to call immigration, but sometimes they do.”

Eliot Spitzer, governor of New York, recently put forward a plan to allow undocumented immigrants to be issued driver’s licenses. The purpose of the initiative was to make the roads safer, acknowledging that hundreds of thousands of immigrants without licenses were driving in the state already.

Massive public opposition led by Lou Dobbs and others forced Spitzer to withdraw his proposal in November. Elena Letona believed Mr. Spitzer’s initiative was a good idea, both for the immigrants themselves, and for the other residents of the state. “The governor of New York actually did the right thing — that took a lot of courage, for a politician to actually do the right thing. And there was such a campaign against the government, he had to rescind.”

The whole episode, she argues, is an example of the racism that runs rampant against immigrants throughout the country.

Luiz got his license when he arrived in 2000. “Things were a lot easier before September 11, [2001],” he says. “Now people are treated like criminals.” Indeed, much of the outcry against Spitzer’s plan suggested that allowing undocumented immigrants to get drivers’ licenses would make it easier for terrorists to assimilate within our society. “But all of the hijackers on 9/11 were legal immigrants!” says Luiz. “They all had all their papers.” He believes that having a license would make any undocumented immigrant’s life much more comfortable. “If you have a license, and you run on the right side of the law, you have nothing really to be afraid of.”

following the raid, and nearly all have been deported, or are awaiting deportation away from their families. According to the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy (MIRA) Coalition, between 100 and 200 children have been separated from their parents as a result of the raid. This raid and others like it prompt a new fear for undocumented immigrants around the country.

Tufts Engages, Actively Tufts undergraduates have been very engaged with the Somerville immigrant community in a number of ways. Through the Leonard Carmichael Society, National Student Partnerships, the Tisch College, and other community organizations, students teach English to immigrants, lobby for immigrant rights, and work for community development.

“Immigrant City: Then and Now,” the exhibit on display at the Somerville Museum, was largely a product of the work of Tufts students. It has been a collaboration over the past months, between an anthropology class taught by Prof. Burtner, the Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service, the Welcome Project, and other individuals. Over the summer, Elizabeth Herman, a Tufts sophomore, taught photography to a group of young immigrants in the Somerville school system.

In addition, another group of local students worked with their teacher to interview immigrants in Somerville about their experiences.

Many interviewed their parents or other family members.

Professor Burtner designed her course, Urban Borderlands, to give students real, applicable experience working with non-prot organizations. “By the time they’re juniors or seniors, we know they can take an exam or write a paper. So it’s time they learned new skills. Data gathering, working with a database

several local immigrant artists, including Tufts students Enzo Moscarella and Diego Guzman. Says Prof. Burtner, “The exhibit was the rst step in giving back to the community. The students are working with local public school teachers to incorporate it into their curricula.”

The students have also staged several events at the museum to mark the opening of the show. It brought the middle schoolers back to the museum with their families to see their photographs and interviews exhibited.

They talked about their experiences over the summer. “My mother had endless things to say,” says Peter Gutierrez, one of the Brazilian students. “She started off with no friends, she couldn’t speak English. But then Somerville’s program to help immigrants speak English helped her a lot.” Edward Chen also interviewed his mother. “She immigrated from Beijing, China. She had to raise livestock and take care of her brothers and sisters [in China], and learning about that was very memorable.”

Marlene Vargas talked about her experience as the child of an immigrant. “My dad only nished eleventh grade in El Salvador, and then he had to start working, so he pushes me extra hard. They want me to succeed in school, and go to college. My dad works in Boston at Priscilla, cutting dresses; my mom cleans houses. I want to be a psychologist, or maybe work with kids.”

It’s always hard to leave home, and immigrants have never had it easy — Somerville is no exception in this regard. For so many immigrants, the reason they take on this hardship is to give a better life to their children. This next generation is decidedly American, in the way they talk, dress, and act; the labor and privation of their parents has earned them all the rights, privileges, and freedoms that all Americans enjoy. O November 30, 2007

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NICK DIAMOND PHOTOS

The Man Behind the Music A Harvard Square performer describes life on the platform

BY MOLLY POSNER

A

s Firooz Sorkhabi plays his guitar, throngs of people pass by. Some drop a dollar or two in his case while others are too busy to appreciate the amenco rhythms. Some people watch him while they wait; the regulars stop to say hi. Mr. Sorkhabi’s audi-

ence? The riders of Boston’s T who pass through Harvard Square. ¶ Mr. Sorkhabi started his life in Rezaeih, Iran. He was taken with music and art from an early age, and began playing the guitar at age 12. His rst teacher, his cousin, supplied him with the foundation of a classical training.

Knowing the basic chords allowed Mr. Sorkhabi to improve and further his training. Classical training did not hold his attention for long though. Soon, he became enthralled with Spanish bullghting and the music that accompanied it. His second music teacher, whom he met while studying economics at the University of Tehran, expanded upon his musical knowledge by teaching him the Flamenco style. >> 10

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December 7, 2007

The Masters’ Degree When Mr. Sorkhabi moved to England in 1974 to earn his masters’ degree in computer programming, he took his love of Flamenco with him. It was there that he met Juan Martín at one of his concerts. Mr. Martín was already a well-known musician, especially in the Flamenco style, when Mr. Sorkhabi met him in 1976. Mr. Sorkhabi learned the true style of Flamenco from him, and to this day he still references Mr. Martín as his greatest inspiration.

So why does this accomplished artist and professional play in Harvard Square?

He’s here, he says, not because “the money is good, although it pays the bills,” but rather “to practice, to get students, and to meet nice people.”

Firooz Sorkhabi comes to Harvard square several times per week to share his love of Flamenco with commuters, stu-

ngers to manipulate the guitar by having them follow what he does. This technique, he says, allows learners to play their rst song within the rst three to four weeks of lessons. The accomplishment, in turn, keeps students motivated, interested, and condent.

His students rave about his mastery of guitar as well as his ability to teach.

“Firooz has the patience of a saint, the knowledge of a professional, and the generosity of a professional,” one student explains. Another says, “Watching him play and listening to his stories about dedicating a life to music are inspirational, and he never hesitates to pass down the wisdom he has gathered for a life’s experience and the famous teachers he himself has had.

Studying under Firooz cannot be simply

with supporting his love of music and being sources of inspiration and happiness for him.

The Logistics of Music In order to play in Harvard Square, Mr. Sorkhabi rst had to obtain a permit. This is perhaps easier said than done, because there is a limited number of permits available despite a huge demand from musicians. According to an MBTA worker, those who do obtain permission to play are “all very talented.”

As a musician in Harvard Square, Mr. Sorkhabi is contributing to over 50 years of tradition. Street artists are so endemic to the square, and the T system, that they are as much of a distinguishing characteristic of Harvard Square as brick sidewalks.

Due to the popularity of street and T musicians, there is a playing schedule in Harvard station. Only two musicians are allowed

He’s here not because “the money is good, although it pays the bills,” but “to practice, to get students, and to meet nice people.” dents, and MBTA workers. He, like many other T musicians, is not homeless, is not mentally handicapped, and is not playing as a last resort.

Mr. Sorkhabi is a multi-talented, multi-faceted man. In addition to playing in the Harvard Square T station, he is also a graphic designer and offers private guitar lessons to “anyone old enough to hold a full-sized guitar.” His students benet from all parts of Mr. Sorkhabi’s repertoire, learning both classical and Flamenco styles.

Mr. Sorkhabi has a specic style of teaching. He does not teach his students music theory or how to tune their guitars. Those skills, he says, might be taught later, but the beginning of their training is focused on a “monkey see, monkey do” arrangement.

He teaches his students how to use their

considered classes, it is an apprenticeship.”

Graphic design clients have glowing experiences as well. The self-taught professional receives reviews from clients saying that “the quality of his work is impeccable” and that they “would not even consider changing or trying another vendor.”

Mr. Sorkhabi, then, is a well-educated and successful man. He is also well traveled, having lived not only in Iran and England, but also briey in Spain — the origin of his inspiration. In America, Mr. Sorkhabi has traversed the country, visiting New York, Arizona, and Washington, D.C. His daughter (who currently lives in Germany) and his mother continue to be a large part of his life; he accredits them

to play in the station at one time, one on the outbound platform and one on the inbound platform. If there is more than one musician on hand to play, they must take turns, usually in three-hour shifts.

Playing in the T station allows musicians like Mr. Sorkhabi not only an opportunity to make some money, but prime practice space. “Outside is very cold and there is too much noise,” Mr. Sorkhabi says. “Here, I have found a better place.”

Indeed he has. Harvard Station suits Mr. Sorkhabi so well that he has another role when he sits down to play his guitar.

He is not only an entertainer, but also a friend to those who work in the station as well as those who pass through and lend a listening ear. As one MBTA worker gets off her shift, she sits by Mr. Sorkhabi as December 7, 2007

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Mr. Sorkhabi has become a regular and friendly face for Harvard Square commuters. Above, he shows his guitar to his youngest fan. she waits for her train home. Seeing her, Mr. Sorkhabi waves and plays her something special: “Just for you,” he says.

Soon after, a woman gets off a train with her two-year-old son in tow. She immediately walks over to Mr. Sorkhabi and smiles. He asks her how she has been — she is obviously a regular of Harvard station — she responds with an outpouring of emotion. Pointing to her two-year-old son she says, “His father got married in Morocco and didn’t tell me. We have been dating for two years and he has had a secret wife for ve months.” Mr. Sorkhabi is incredulous. But the woman’s story didn’t end there. She continued to say that she ordered her son’s father out of their shared home and changed her son’s name to Alfred. “It was my grandfather’s brother’s name,” she says. “He was a very good man.” To this, Mr. Sorkhabi’s response was to start playing music. It seemed to comfort both the woman and her child, as the boy began to smile and reach for the guitar.

This kind of occurrence, a ood of 12

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December 7, 2007

emotion from strangers, is not wholly unusual for Mr. Sakhorbi. It is not always, however, so sad. Sometimes, people burst with happiness.

“One day,” Mr. Sorkhabi begins, “I was playing here. A lady came. It was wintertime. She took off her jacket and started to dance.” She told him, in her broken English, that she was a Flamenco dancer from Barcelona. She danced to his rythms for the rest of his time playing, drawing crowds from all over the station. People came through the turnstiles simply to listen to the music and watch her dance. Together, they almost tripled his usual earnings of $150. Humbled by her talent, Mr. Sorkhabi asked her if he measured up to the Flamenco guitarists who usually play for her. She responded, “If you were not a good guitarist I would have gone on a train.” When the woman left, she told Mr. Sorkhabi that if she were ever in Boston again, she would look him up. So far he hasn’t heard from her.

Some people, then, would say it belittles all of Mr. Sorkhabi’s accomplish-

ments to categorize him as a T musician.

He possesses skills and successes that go beyond those in Harvard Square. He talks of his extensive guitar collection (featuring a hand made beauty from Spain) and his ability to completely remodel and alter old guitars in a few months, turning them into phenomenally-sounding instruments.

Modestly, he states that he has been able to make a career out of his one true love: music. Some might say that Mr. Sorkhabi is much more than a simple street musician, that he should be doing more with his talent or that he is selling himself short.

He says that this is just where he wants to be. He loves Boston — “of course,” he says. “It’s America.” He loves teaching and entertaining. He is part of a great Harvard Square tradition. He is a comfort to those who need comforting and an outlet for those who need to let loose. Firooz Sorkhabi is just an ordinary Harvard Square musician. O For more information about Mr. Sorkhabi’s Flamenco guitar lessons, visit www.amencoscene.com.

Bite-size news you might have missed since our last issue.

A First-Class Fake he Museum of Fine Art will open an exhibit entitled “Zhang Daqian: Painter, Collector, Forger” on December 15.

Mr. Daqian, a Chinese painter renowned for his ability to combine traditional ideas with contemporary trends and for his impeccable forgeries, will show original works, forgeries, and art from his personal collection.

“Of particular interest,” reads the MFA website, “is a master forgery acquired by the Museum in 1957 as an authentic work of the tenth century.

The painting, which was allegedly a landscape by the Five Dynasties period master Guan Tong, is one of Zhang’s most ambitious forgeries and serves to illustrate both his skill and his audacity.” The museum is open to any Tufts student with a valid ID.

T

With God on His Side n Friday, November 30, Daniel Dennett, a prominent atheist and Tufts professor of philosophy, debated against Dinesh D’Souza, a conservative Christian author, about the existence of God. Sponsored by the Tufts Freethought Society and moderated by Provost Jamshed Bharucha, the debate focused on the idea that God is a creation of man.

The Freethought Society has chosen not to declare either man the victor, but polled attendees to discover if the audience preferred one speaker’s ideas to those of the other.

O

E

Students Go Green nvironmental Consciousness Outreach (ECO) held ClimateFest on

November 29 in the multi-purpose room of Sophia Gordon.

The participants included students, professors, and activities as well as performers, including the Irish Dance Group, the Jackson Jills, Ezra Furman and the Harpoons, and the Traveling Treasure Trunk. Participants, including the Fletcher School’s William Moomaw, spoke about climate change and the importance of becoming eco-friendly.

Speaking ofGreen… he Tufts University police have reported a rise in the prevalence of marijuana on campus. Police captain Mark Keith told the Daily that between September 1 and November 27, 2006, eight students were found to be in possession of marijuana. This year, Mr. Keith reports that 28 students have been discovered with the drug during the same period. Administrators cannot remember a year with numbers quite this high.

“In my recollection, this fall has been uncharacteristically high in reviewing the last few years,” he said. “I think it’s probably the result of [marijuana] being more prevalent on campus.”

Veronica Carter, the student judicial affairs ofcer, told the Daily that she has also observed an increase. Thirty-ve reports concerning marijuana have come through her ofce this fall.

Both Mr. Keith and Ms. Carter were concerned about the dangers associated with marijuana usage, especially in dorms.

“We are all concerned,” she said. “We will review the semester’s activity and see what broader actions are needed.”

T

TCU Watch The next TCU Senate meeting will be held on December 9 in the large conference room of the Campus Center. It will be the last meeting of the semester.

From the Senate meetings of November 25 and December 2: n November 25, the TCU Senate passed a resolution intended to encourage the administration to use less bottled water at ofcial events.

The resolution, sponsored by the Think Outside the Bottle campaign, passed by a vote of 19-3-0. “Our major goal…is to let the administration know that there is student support for this issue and that we are looking for them to get involved with making a change at Tufts,” Elizabeth DeWan, one of the resolution’s authors, told the Daily.

O

T

he Senate unanimously passed a resolution condemning the faculty’s policy regarding SIS transcript access. Right now, any faculty member who is an advisor can see the transcripts of any student in the school.

The resolution encourages the faculty to change their policy to only allow access to professors to whom permission is granted from their students.

S

enator Matt Shapanka announced that his long-term project, the Joey GPS, will be running by January. The project will allow students to check the location of the Davis Square shuttle online.

— Compiled by Kate Schimmer Decemberr 77,, 2007

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OPINION 14

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December 7, 2007

December 7, 2007

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15

The Madness Over Marijuana BY

SETH STEIN

M

arijuana is the most popular illegal drug in America.

Our parents’ generation embraced it during Vietnam as a drug of protest. Today, almost 50% of college students have tried it at least once in their lives — a number I would suspect is misleadingly low, especially

on our campus.

In this liberal atmosphere, it seems as if decriminalization movements are on the rise. I would suspect that a large number of Jumbos support such a move — especially as pot-related incidents are uncharacteristically high this year.

But what are the arguments against decriminalization? That side of the argument is surely underrepresented, and needs to be considered.

The rst and most obvious argument against marijuana is its health effects.

To quote the Ofce of National Drug Control Policy, “Someone who smokes marijuana regularly may have many of the same respiratory problems that tobacco smokers do.” They also point to the fact that marijuana contains “50 percent to 70 percent more carcinogenic hydrocarbons than does tobacco smoke.” However, there has not been an expected jump in lung cancer from our parents stoned generation — and new evidence shows that marijuana’s psychoactive ingredient, THC, actually 16

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December 7, 2007

kills aging cells that develop into cancer! So if these health effects are considered, it is clear what we must do — make tobacco illegal. After all, if marijuana is considered dangerous enough with its respiratory problems, surely cancer sticks deserve the same treatment.

The next argument against marijuana use is its effect on the brain. The National Institute on Drug Abuse makes some very thoughtful observations, noting that while under the inuence, learning and memory capabilities are reduced. Also, it stresses that regular users “may be functioning at a reduced intellectual level all of the time.” To make things worse, the effects might be permanent!

Sadly, these arguments are based upon really heavy users — more than once a day — who constitute an exceedingly small percentage of the pot smoking population. And even among them, they provide little evidence of “reduced” intellectual level. As a matter of fact, these effects sound like that of another common drug: alcohol.

According to BBC News, higher order brain functions are depressed even up to a day after drinking heavily. And have you ever had trouble remembering things you did or learned while drunk?

Again, our course of action is clear — on these grounds, alcohol should be made illegal again. I look forward to bathtub gin.

You may have heard marijuana referred to as a “gateway” drug.

Most statistics point to the fact that those who use marijuana are more likely to use alcohol and tobacco, and eventually harder substances. This is true. However, it is also misleading.

A 12-year study at the University of Pittsburgh among users of drugs and alcohol “found that young men who chose to initiate their drug use with marijuana were no more likely to go on to abuse drugs or alcohol than those who smoked or drank rst.” In other words, they found that drug users use drugs, and no one drug is the gateway.

Again, we have to apply this logic to

our understanding of drug laws — tobacco and alcohol are just as harmful as marijuana, and should be just as illegal!

There is another disturbing element to marijuana use — its addictive potential among “addicts.” According to Marijuana Anonymous, those quitting marijuana may experience insomnia, trouble sleeping, and vivid dreams, and sometimes, even reduced appetite. However, these symptoms are rare. On the other hand, those quitting alcohol suffer from minor insomnia and loss of appetite, followed by hallucinations, withdrawal seizures and nally “alcohol withdrawal delirium.”

Those quitting cigarettes, although they experience less painful withdrawal symptoms, can tell you how hard it is.

After all, those quitting heroin are not urged to quit smoking at the same time — the stress may kill them.

This is of course assuming marijuana is addictive. It has been shown that it has very low physical addictive potential, far lower than alcohol and tobacco.

Psychological addiction is a different story — marijuana’s psychoactive effects may allow users to “escape,” or develop dependence to feel that they can have fun. The same could be said about alcohol, making this argument tenuous.

In short, the logic of marijuana’s dangers and therefore its criminalization should lead to sweeping changes in which drugs are allowed in our society.

Alcohol and tobacco should be the rst to go; in terms of addiction, caffeine should also be outlawed.

It seems highly unlikely that alcohol and tobacco will be illegal anytime soon. These are potentially dangerous substances; why is tobacco legal at all?

Because apparently people have this thing called freedom; it is up to you to put these substances in your body.

It seems more and more incongruous that we are not allowed that choice with a less dangerous substance. O Seth Stein is currently a sophomore majoring in Political Science.

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What Walt Gets Right BY

T

ZACHARY WITLIN

of settlements in the West Bank during the 90’s as an example — the housing projects intensied the Israeli-Palestinian conict signicantly.

I do not hold, as Mr. Walt and Mr. Mearshimer do, that such backing was the direct result of the Israel lobby. In fact, I consider the authors’ denition of the lobby far too broad to be useful — so many politicians and organizations fall into their grouping that it hardly resembles a lobby at all (in the traditional sense of the word). My point

o call the Israeli Lobby and U.S. foreign policy controversial would be an understatement.

Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer’s publication of the working paper bearing the same name in 2007 ignited erce debate on a subject that, for many Americans, was largely silent. The authors charge that the lobby (which they dene as a loose group of people working to inuence America in a proIsraeli direction) is responsible for the incredibly high levels of support we give to the Jewish state. They charge that in doing so we are setting aside our own security to advance foreign interests. Surely this is unwise, if what they say is true. It might be. More likely, their claims are exaggerated.

Precisely how much so, I’m not in a position to state.

But there is one point that everyone, regardless of whether or not he or she agrees with Mr. Walt and Mr. Mearshiemer’s argument, should be willing to accept: the current relationship between the United States and Israel is far from DANIEL S. ROSEN ideal.

The situation as it stands is a moral is that the specic source of this type hazard. That is, in providing Israel with of unconditional support (or at least, assurance that America will continue to almost entirely lacking conditions) for support her regardless of the decisions Israeli policymakers is far less important her leaders make, we embolden Israel than the effects of that support. Blank to follow aggressive (and oftentimes checks are, by principle, harmful to foolhardy) policies. Mr. Walt echoed this both parties involved. The issuer risks in his speech to the Tufts community, entangling himself in a larger conict, particularly emphasizing its detrimental and the recipient takes more risks than effects on both countries’ security. The are healthy for its long term security.

2006 Israeli war with Lebanon, backed America would be wise to reevaluate the by the Bush administration, exemplies nature of its commitment, and signal this problem. This war, of course, was to Israel that not just any actions will a complete disaster — Israel failed to meet her approval. And really, leading complete its objective of defeating us to look critically at American-Israeli Hezbollah, both its and America’s relations was half Mr. Walt and Mr. international reputations worsened, Mearshimer’s purpose in writing their and Hezbollah was strengthened by article and book. appearing to be the victor. America The other, grayer half was to criticize could have pressured Olmert to proceed the lobby itself. Rest assured, neither more diplomatically, but the Bush professor has written anything the least administration chose not to do so until bit anti-Semitic. Nor are they conspiracy the situation was already beyond repair. theorists. They do not argue that the The authors also cite Israeli construction lobby is wrong because it exerts inuence

on American policymakers — they call it “as American as apple pie,” but caution that decision makers would be wise to resist the lobby. Mr. Walt argued that our relationship with Israel should not have special status, and that we should treat the country no differently than any other liberal democracy.

Clearly there are issues with this stance. It is very difcult to imagine America treating Israel like any other state given our current level of commitment in the Middle East. But both authors point to Israel’s powerful military and strong economy as proof that Israel really does not need such great support to defend itself.

Despite being surrounded by hostile nations and combating constant terrorist attacks, Israel is not facing an existential threat. They are not at risk of being “wiped off the map” or eliminated as a political entity, and even if a state were to acquire nuclear weapons, Israel’s own arsenals would be an effective deterrent. For those who point to the possibility of terrorists threatening Israel with nuclear weapons, I respond that this is even less likely. No state would willingly supply them given the ease with which the nuclear material could be traced back to the source. Further, Palestinian terrorists in particular are unlikely to use a nuclear weapon given the critical problems of living in a fallout zone. For each of these reasons, one should not be afraid of leaving Israel defenseless should American commitments fall below current levels.

Perhaps shared values and the history of our commitment to the country are as important as whatever inuence the Israel lobby holds. But that certainly does not mean our commitment is the best it could be, and it does not mean we should not use our inuence to push Israel towards more conciliatory policies with its residents and neighbors. If you accept anything Walt said, let it be that American-Israeli relations are in need of improvement. O Zachary Witlin is a sophomore double majoring in international relations and political science.

December 7, 2007

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EDITORIAL 22

Active Politics

L

ike other towns across the country, Somerville is home to many recent immigrants who come to the United States seeking a better life. In a heightened election season with immigration policy serving a focal point of debate on both sides of the political aisle, the legal status of those immigrants who live and work in Somerville is uncertain. While the Observer commends Tufts students who contribute positively to the day-to-day lives of immigrants, members of our community must not downplay the importance of the political process for the development of an immigration policy consistent with our shared values.

For active citizens who wish to better the lives of our local immigrant population, an increased emphasis on political advocacy is imperative.

As this week’s feature news article illuminates, the current political environment is growing increasingly hostile towards immigration. Maria Elena Letona, the executive director of the immigrant rights advocacy group Centro Presente, describes how the rhetoric about immigrants has poisoned the political discourse: “The rhetoric about ‘illegals,’ ‘lawbreakers,’ makes it very difcult for even goodhearted people to understand [the issue]” and it justies “really terrible treatment of humans...” While close to 75% of immigrants in the U.S. are here legally, this fact has not stopped politicians and political pundits in Washington from distorting the reality surrounding immigration policy.

More importantly, the battle over immigration policy blurs an obvious condition about the power of the vote in our political system. While cynicism about government has merit, the situation remains that real change occurs in the political bodies of our country. The electoral process allows citizens with the right to vote to shape the composition of federal, state, and local government in a manner they see t, which makes taking a greater part in the political and electoral process the critical avenue for those wishing to better the lives of immigrants.

Given this reality, it is surprising that the University’s focus on active citizenship places little emphasis on working within the political process. While the newly minted Institute of Political Citizenship of the Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service lls a much needed void, its absence until now speaks much about the perceived role of politics in active citizenship. While community projects that allow for the integration of immigrants into the local community are commendable and should certainly continue, they do little

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DECEMBER 7, 2007

to change policy. Developing a forum that elucidates the positive role of immigration in Somerville, or organizing a group to pressure local candidates for ofce would be more effective to facilitate immigration reform. The primacy of politics in policy-decisions will continue to necessitate approaches that conform to this basic idea.

Early last semester, this editorial page wrote about the importance of immigration reform in combating the negative image of the United States, and how the country “cannot effectively coexist in a global society when our immigration policy seeks to exclude or reject our global neighbors.” Nine months later, this imperative is as relevant as ever. As active citizens, Tufts students aspire to make positive social change. In the case of immigration, this desire for social change must couple with action in the political arena, because the two are not and cannot be mutually exclusive.

We have every right to expect more from our government, but we are only to blame for the policy stagnation if our strategies for change bypass the political process. Activists must not forget the role of politics in social change. O

BY OLIVIA TEYTELBAUM

Candycane.

The avor, which the website claims is made “with holiday cheer,” will bring you straight back to Christmas 1990, eating candycane ornaments straight off the tree. Regardless of the fact that this mischievous thievery resulted in an awful bout of the runs which may or may not have turned you off of peppermint sticks for the rest of your life, this candycane treat will make you fall in love with it all over again. The ice cream has little red peppermint pieces sprinkled throughout, which is what gives it its delightful pink color. If peppermint isn’t your cup of tea, go for the gingersnap molasses. This creamy brown ice cream has a bit of a spiciness and totes actual gingersnap cookie chunks. A venture down to JP Licks (or any ice cream place for that matter) is sure to make a great study break in the stressful weeks ahead.

BITCHIN’: What pisses you off ?

“Boys are nasty and don’t change their sheets.”

– Appalled Alice How many boys’ sheets have you seen that you can make an assessment of the entire male demographic? I recommend you stop concerning yourself with the cleanliness of the individuals with whom you so frequently shack up and start concerning yourself with the curtailment of your sexual shenanigans.

“The party scene dies when everyone is studying for nals, which doesn’t really let anyone have a last good time before they go home for winter break. That’s totally not cool.”

– Social Sheila Maybe the school should just cancel exams altogether? Throw a massive end-of-the-year bash on the Presidents’ Lawn? Provide the beer? Sounds good to me.

“Dewick needs to realize that all students want is butternut squash soup. They can really stop throwing the split pea concoctions and mixed chili nightmares our way.”

– Bored Boris Alright, selsh one. How many students did you consult before sending out that memo?

For every student who feels that butternut squash is the nectar of the gods and deserving of biblical mention (I am one of them), there are probably three who wish its very existence was wiped from the face of the planet. So before you go advocating BNS’s monopoly on soup choices, think of your fellow brethren in learning. Maybe a hot bowl of split pea or chicken noodle would tickle their fancy on a cold blistery day? On another note, have you ever tried preparing butternut squash yourself ? Peeling the orange vegetable is an intensely demanding job — take it from someone who cut the end of her thumb off while carving one.

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ARTS

The Boston Ballet’s Land of Sweets: 40 Years of The Nutcracker BY

NATALIE POLITO

T

he original premiere of The Nutcracker was on December 18, 1892 at the Maryinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, Russia, a date that makes this year’s performance the 115th anniversary of the work. It is appropriate that the ballet premiered close to Christmas — obviously because its story centers around the holiday. The timeless plot of The Nutcracker is relatively simple: On Christmas Eve, Clara, the protagonist, receives the gift of a nutcracker from her uncle, Herr Drosselmeier.

Clara decides to sleep next to her gift under the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve, and is subsequently magically transported with Herr Drosselmeier through the Land of Snow to the Kingdom of Sweets. In the Kingdom of Sweets, ruled by the Sugar Plum Fairy, Clara is engulfed in a series of themed dances, including Spanish, Arabian, Chinese, and Russian sections.

Her dreams of this magical place stay with her forever.

Nothing is perhaps more emblematic of The Nutcracker than the music. Composed

by Tchaikovsky in the same year of the ballet’s premiere (1892), the music is practically ubiquitous during the month of December.

People who have never seen the ballet before have almost certainly heard the music. It’s the sort of subliminal Christmas soundtrack that’s sometimes difcult to place, but always recognizable. Almost all of the music in the ballet is familiar, but it is the music of Act II that stands out as some of the most familiar, culminating in the pas de deux performance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. In Boston Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker, the music is amazing. This would make sense, because the Boston Ballet takes its orchestra very seriously. The Orchestra is the second largest musical institution in Boston, and it was recently named by Newsweek as the best Nutcracker orchestra in the country.

Now that I’ve acknowledged that the music at Boston Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker is incredible, I should proably get to the actual dancing, which, it goes without 24

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December 7, 2007

SARAH LEENEN

saying, was exquisite. The Nutcracker is so globally appealing because it has something for everyone — more than 250 children will perform in this year’s 40th production of the ballet, several of whom are students of the Boston Ballet School. But the ballet also features extraordinarily talented company dancers. At the evening performance of December 1, I was lucky enough to experience the iconic Larissa Ponomarenko as the Sugar Plum Fairy in Act II of the ballet. She is truly stunning — even though at least one third of the audience was young enough to have an attention span of under ve minutes, the entire Opera House was silent for her Grand Pas de Deux and dance with the Cavalier.

Of course, you would expect Larissa Ponomarenko to be breathtaking. But the other performances were impressive in different ways. As Clara, Boston Ballet School student Lauren Herfindahl delivered a controlled and animated performance. As a sort of leader for the other children in the production, Herndahl lled the stage with her presence — no small task for a dancer who is, in actuality, very small. The other children in the production were equally adorable

and entertaining, especially the ones in the more extravagant costumes. The mice that encounter Clara in Act I were all played by children, and they scampered across the stage so convincingly that as a child, I probably would have been scared of them.

And if I’m going to bring up costumes, I should probably mention that the costumes at the Boston Ballet are somewhat legendary.

The Nutcracker costumes will be worn 122,500 times before they are retired. They are painstakingly restored and refurbished every year, and are made from 20,000 yards of fabric, including silk taffeta, gold-embroidered trim, and velvet imported from England. The Sugar Plum Fairy’s tutu alone costs $3,500 to build, with more than 300 pink and white beads individually hand-sewn into the tutu.

And if the costumes are visually appealing, the set makes the production exponentially more appealing. It truly transports both the performers and the viewers — and how could it not? It includes a 30-foot Christmas tree with 1,200 hand-sewn soft sculpture limbs, and overwhelms the stage in Act I of the ballet. Throughout the performance, about one ton of white confetti is used in the snow scenes, and there are more than 550 spotlights and 500 hidden miniature bulbs embedded into the set. Clearly, the Boston Ballet doesn’t cut corners when it comes to aesthetics. And the characters parade and y around this set as if they actually were in a magical place. Clara and Drosselmeier enter and exit the Land of Sweets in a hot air balloon, and it takes three stagehands to y Drosselmeier across the 50-foot stage of the Opera House.

All in all, the whole affair is perhaps the most visually stunning production of The Nutcracker that I’ve ever seen. The Boston Ballet pulls out all the stops — and it’s glorious. In all sincerity, I wish I could watch it once a week for the entire month of December. Having seen The Nutcracker, I will ofcially have visions of sugar plum fairies dancing in my head until Christmas. O The Nutcracker runs through December 29. Tickets start at $30. For more information on tickets and show times, see bostonballet.org.

One Woman, Leaving Nothing Behind BY

I

BENJAMIN TAYLOR

t’s no secret that the United States public education system is leaving a lot of people behind. Earnest young teachers are stretched well past their limits, and overlooked urban schools are turned into dreary penitentiaries that foreshadow many teenagers’ all-but-certain futures.

Nilaja Sun’s one-woman show, No Child…, an Off-Broadway hit that recently opened at the well-equipped American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, dramatizes these conned lives with a thundering voice and energetic spirit. Sun knows from experience that this vastly insufcient education is just one symptom of a general social malaise.

She manages, though, to turn everyone’s frustration into more than wry criticism of a failing system, and lets us in on the humanity that can be that system’s saving grace.

For this project, Sun has drawn on her experience as a self-described “teaching artist” working in the New York City school system. It is an ambitious undertaking in which she alone portrays 17 characters, ranging from herself to uncooperative students to an elderly janitor who functions like a Greek chorus, as she attempts to work with them to stage a production of Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Our Country’s Good.

The story’s contours are immediately familiar, a basically obvious arc in which a ery young teacher tries to bring some inspiration to abandoned teenagers, encounters obstinate resentment and loses heart, and ultimately manages to elicit a creative response. But this particular story is a deeply contemporary one, operating under the shadow of the oppressive conditions that the No Child Left Behind Act exemplies. The audience understands how much is being left behind without having to be told, but as the wizened janitor suggests, we lack the rsthand experience of those children and communities that are most deeply affected.

Sun does an admirable job of trying to replicate that rsthand experience, and recognizes the full hardship of pushing a kernel of creative thought into the students’ well-

defended brains. Her near-instantaneous transitions between characters give the audience some idea of the fragmentation of all these lives. Not for nothing does the school principal describe her efforts to secure the auditorium for a performance as having to ght off “diseased lions.” This is an environment of metal detectors, armed NYPD ofcers, and a revolving door of faculty weighed down by the necessity to raise test scores to sustain federal funding. It is no wonder that Sun has to ght against the attitude that the kids are being prepared for prison.

Many of her vivacious representations of students’ wildly varying personalities and body language appear at rst to be approaching caricature. One has an extreme speech impediment, others display callous machismo, and the janitor has a pronounced limp and soulful manner. I would like to imagine that given her experience with kids in similar situations, the performances must be grounded in her genuine impressions. But they feel at times decidedly over-the-top, as if stressing the point that this is a world far removed from that of the overwhelmingly white, upper middle class audience.

These concerns do linger throughout the play, but they become relatively minor as Sun begins to delve into what really makes the kids tick.

The janitor alludes to the minor absurdity of the care that school ofcials take to refer to him as a “custodial professional,” or to protect the feelings of delinquent students, as if political correctness is what matters most in such a corroded atmosphere. Everyone is suffering in his or her own private ways in spite of the system that treats them like dispensable commodities. They have gang problems, ailing family members, and pregnancies to worry about. The fact that Sun apparently gets them to care about a play that relates only tangentially to their lives is testament enough to their need for self-expression, a healthy release being never more necessary

than when IMAGE COURTESY OF A.R.T. troubles seem to pile up at a rate beyond their control.

No Child… displays one woman’s commitment to risk no end of personal embarrassment to bring these stories to light. The young people she has worked with don’t have much opportunity to speak for themselves, so it seems appropriate that a woman so bursting with expressive force should be allowed to do it for them, if only via surrogate characters. She takes completely to heart Walt Whitman’s idea that “I am large, I contain multitudes.” The play’s real success is its ability to breathlessly persuade us to recognize how all these stories and personalities are wrapped up in both hers and our own experiences.

Sun has performed this piece over 400 times, but you would never know given the freshness she brings to each opening.

Hopefully, these kids would never really get left behind when they have such a strong advocate arguing the case for their complicated humanity. O No Child…runs through December 23.

For more information on ticket prices and showtimes, see amrep.org/nochild.

December 7, 2007

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25

SOUNDS AND TASTES:

The Digital Revolution

BY JONAH

GOLD

Sounds and Tastes is a bi-weekly column that examines the relationship between popularity and quality in contemporary music, and its cultural implications.

of Napster, Morpheus, and other early peer-to-peer programs have in many ways dictated how we have interacted with digital music since. Before a single legitimate online music store existed, millions of tracks

S

ome look at music’s withering sale today and deem it a dying medium of expression. Yes, the industry may be shrinking, but is music fading away?

N o. M u s i c i a n s, and artists in general, create work not because of its monetary potential, but because of an internal, intrinsic drive towards expressing oneself.

While the dream of the international rock star is sure to fade, the need for certain individuals to create and listen to music will not.

This is not to deny the tremendous change that has occurred within the music community over the last 10 years. The rise of the digital age has brought with it both benets and repercussions. The Internet has entirely changed the way we explore, interact, and affect the world around us.

More radical than the transition from vinyl to cassette to CD, the rise of digital music has changed not only how we listen to music, but how we nd it Throughout the 1990s, high CD prices brought about a festering anger among the most ardent fans. Article after article detailed the enormous prots being made by record executives at the expense of their artists and their fans. It was not long before consumers took the industry into their own hands and put it on the Internet. The role 26

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December 7, 2007

were being exchanged for free. One could now download the single for free and avoid the ller and cost of a standard CD. Digital retailers like iTunes, Amazon, and Rhapsody continued emphasizing single track downloads. There was simply no other way to compete with the trend established by the illegal softwares. Other technologies such as CD burners, Data Discs, and Torrents contributed to the rapid change. In the space of just a few years, the album was obsolete. One witnessed the death of both the diamond and the multi-platinum record. Unable to quickly respond, label executives watched their industry crumble in front of their eyes.

What started in America became a global musical movement, just one facet of the greater Internet revolution. Time was more than on to something when it deemed “You” the person of the year in 2006. A new generation of customiz-

able content websites focused on helping visitors to create their personalized Internet experience. On blogs or on YouTube, one chooses exactly what information to read and from what site to read it. The rapid rise of streaming content in combination creates today’s sensational, immediate, sound byte culture. Here, louder is almost always better, crudeness is a selling point, and if it isn’t free, it’s not worth it.

Web sites continually ght for the users’ attention amongst literally millions of other pages. Today’s music industry has been shaped in similar pressures.

Services like Limewire, Azureus, and until recently Albumbase, provide access to over 100,000,000 albums worth of content. BeJULIA BOURQUE fore Albumbase was shut down last week, it had close to 350 million entries, without any repeats acknowledged. Musicians, like Internet rms, must compete for our ears.

The same societal trends that created blogs like Perez Hilton and CobraSnake are pushing music to its own polar extremes.

Such a progression is illustrated most clearly by the spectacular changes to the concept of pop over the last decade. At the turn of the millennium, the Billboard was topped by the likes of The Backstreet Boys, Matchbox 20, and Blink-182; now we see Timbaland, Kanye West, and Soulja Boy. Such artists show that today’s music production reects the same demand for immediacy spurred on by the Internet. Pop music mirrors society at large in its adoption of more overtly aggressive, sexual, and often misogynistic themes both in lyrics and production. Timbaland’s hooks have created the most popular songs during each of the

last two years, with Nelly Furtado’s “Promiscuous” and Timberlake’s “SexyBack,” and “My Love.” Sexually laden, excitingly paced, each song came into its own in the clubs, with arching synths, pounding base, and Furtado-moans included. These songs were not made for casual listening; they were made for an increasingly oversexed culture in search of quick satisfaction.

While Timbaland and his entourage of stars push the sexual limits of today’s music, others push the concept of good taste.

Soulja Boy may have created the crudest #1 hit ever, with few even knowing, and even fewer caring. His chorus-driven single references the hypothetical ability of semen as glue to create a cape for an unsuspecting “mistress.” It is no surprise that Soulja Boy is an Internet phenomenon. Unsigned before the release of the single, Soulja’s sensational content, simple dance, and contagious beat thrived on the presence of streaming video platforms like YouTube. The song has since inspired a whole second generation of spoofs on the original lyrics. Many videos feature oblivious children dancing ecstatically, yelling unedited lyrics. We laugh, but “Superman” does more than show the level of vulgarity, not just allowed, but also accepted, not only by fring es of society, but also by every Top 40 radio station in the country.

Still, it would be unfair to claim a general lack of morality within our country or its music. Other trends have manifested themselves since the advent of internet downloading most clearly in rock, hip-hop, and electronic. Rock has clearly suffered the most economically from the digital revolution. The rise of alternative rock and grunge in the early ’90s was a clear regression from the arena rock of the ‘80s, but the genre showed no real sign of slowing down. At the turn of the millennium, many of alternative rock’s largest acts worked hard to find fame in a pop group era, losing touch with their base. At the time, hip-hop was still marginalized, perceived by the majority of the population as a direct and overly violent threat to the established

authority. Pop’s transformation into a more urban- dominated genre left many of these alt-rock groups with alienated fans and shrinking sales.

Tastes were changing quickly, and without the ability to establish nationwide hits, rock artists and their labels were forced to retreat from the pop arena. In place of these more traditional acts arose an entirely new niche-based rock movement, expansively referred to as indie rock. While many of these acts were in fact signed, the name stuck.

In a New Yorker article published on October 22, entitled “A Paler Shade of White,” author Sasha Frere-Jones argues that indie rock is a hyper-white genre, abandoning earlier inuences from the black music community. Such a claim also reafrms the Internet’s polarizing effect on today’s music industry. Catering to specic tastes and niche markets, such labels are able to selectively and very effectively appeal to the fans most interested in actually purchasing the music.

With a low total investment, such labels stand less to lose if their artist’s music is “stolen” online. Such a model is much more sustainable for a label lacking any real capital on which to fall back.

low suit.

The rise of the mix tape is the clearest adaptation by hip-hop artists in the wake of the digital age. Almost always offered for free, mix tapes provide listeners with a sample of the artist and his label mate’s work. Artists such as Lil Wayne have fully embraced the medium, crafting mix tapes that intersperse new tracks, remixes, and freestyles, while introducing new artists and gaining a forum for their thoughts.

Legal sites such as AllHipHop.com catalog these releases, offering them via streaming on the site and for download on their own servers.

One of the most recent movements in the Internet age is the integration of world music both as a rising independent genre and a force within every other type of music. This year witnessed the rst truly world-pop album, M.I.A.’s “Kala.” Denied a visa into the United States, M.I.A. traveled to and recorded on almost every continent, mixing native ethnic elements and poignant liberal commentary over dense pulsating rhythms to create some entirely and truly progressive. During the song “20 Dollar,” M.I.A. declares, “I put people on the map that ain’t never seen a map,” as she decries the arms trade facilitating conflict in Africa.

There is a new, global future awaiting this digital music industry.

While it may have led to dramatically decreased sales in the United States, world album sales are still on the rise. While the coliseum rock star of the last two decades may be fading because of it, the Internet has the potential to create a musical future even brighter: the advent of a true global music community, thriving international stars, a whole new level of personal and economic success for artists and executives alike without straining the pockets of the listeners. The vinyl record has been in use since 1900, the CD since 1990. Napster was created in 1999, and in just eight years, the entire industry has changed. The internet’s potential inuence is immeasurable. O

While the coliseum rock star may be fading because of it, the Internet has the potential to create a musical future even brighter: the advent of a true global music community, without straining the pockets of the listeners.

Other artists have taken their music and its distribution into their own hands.

To great fanfare, Radiohead released its latest album, “In Rainbows,” over their own website, free of charge, with an optional donation. Reportedly with over a million downloads, “In Rainbows” showed that an established group can more than effectively distribute its content online. Surprisingly quickly, smaller acts have followed suit.

Just last moth, emcee/poet Saul Williams released “The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!” free for download with a version of superior audio quality for $5.00. Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails has indicated that his band plans to fol-

December 7, 2007

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27

Find Your Center at Spontaneous Celebrations BY

HUI LIM

H

ave you ever wondered why they’re called “Community Centers”?

Maybe the phrase was coined just to give these buildings an operational name, but for Spontaneous Celebrations, the name is perfect. That’s exactly what it is — a nexus of community activity for the Jamaica Plain neighborhood and greater Boston.

If you’ve heard of the annual Boston’s First Night Parade, the Jamaica Pond Lantern Parade, or the Wake Up the Earth Festival, you’ve experienced Spontaneous Celebrations.

Spontaneous is the organization behind these festivities, dedicated to providing and supporting a rich cultural lifestyle for its surrounding residents — and anyone else who comes forward. If you’d like to take a dance or culture class, come on by the center. Currently offered classes include Salsa Dancing, Contemporary Dance, and Brazilian Culture. If you’re a fan of spoken word, come down on the second Thursday of the month, for Gender Crash Open Mic. And if you’d like to teach a class, Spontaneous invites you to get in touch with them. Whether it’s festival-planning, performing, creating artistic masterpieces, or working with youth, Spontaneous Celebrations has something for you. You should be feeling very overwhelmed at this moment, by the gold rush of options Spontaneous offers — I know I am.

“Everything is drop-in here,” Seth Kirshenbaum, the director of Beantown Society, an after-school program for high school students at Spontaneous Celebrations, explained. Everyone is welcome. Carolyn Infante, 15, one of the student leaders of Beantown Society, also highlighted this aspect of the group. “It’s [Beantown Society] a drop-in program; anyone can come, and usually when people come, they keep coming back, because this [Spontaneous Celebrations] is such a

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December 7, 2007

safe space. They feel comfortable here.”

I can’t imagine why not. As you walk

under the “Spontaneous Celebrations” banner pinned above the door frame, you step into a room that literally glows with warmth. A large “Welcome” banner hangs overhead, artwork and excitedly pinned notices line every wall in sight, and the main room ahead of you rings with lively chatter and laughter. On the far side of the room, you see beautiful panels of artwork that are used to form a wooden fence outside the building, painted by hobby painters of the surrounding community. Along the wall on your right are decorated toilet seats, displayed next to a sign that reads “Handmade Decoupage Toilet Seats: All proceeds go directly to Spontaneous Celebrations’ Accessible Bathroom Project” — They’re currently renovating their bathrooms to make them wheelchair accessible. And hanging from the ceiling are strings of paper cutouts, paper snowakes, and lanterns — an art teacher’s dream. The entire atmosphere is saturated with color, life, and art.

And that’s just the setting; wait till you experience the people. As I sat in on Beantown Society, I was blown away by the sheer energy and honesty of the youths and volunteers involved. The peer leaders were conducting a workshop on education, and the youths responded with bold, resonant expressions of the differences between schools with stronger alumni funding, and those without; how education is the only way to get

anywhere; the middle school to high school leap. These youths were bursting to talk, to be heard, and the best part was they always came back to something positive, something constructive. They don’t have great textbooks? That’s no issue; they have the Internet. School is hard work, but it’s great, because they like to be with friends,

UPCOMING EVENTS at Spontaneous Celebrations Friday through Sunday, Dec. 14-16, Shopping for Social Change. Finish off that holiday shopping list with Fair Trade gifts items crafted by artisans hailing from around the globe.

Monday, Dec. 31, First Night Boston.

Catch Spontaneous’ Festival Arts youth and La Pinata groups in action at Boston’s annual New Years’ Eve parade. and they’ve chosen classes that they like.

“My sister went to college, but she didn’t nish, so I’m going to be the rst person in my family to graduate. I want to be an engineer,” offered one student I haven’t had one class as riveting as this in college.

So where is the art in this? As I found out from speaking to Infante, most of these youths are graduates of the middle

school youth programs, such as Festival Arts, herself included.

There, they learned stiltwalking and tap-dancing, and performed at events such as First Night Boston. These arts programs

ARTS THIS WEEK TUFTS: Friday, Dec. 7, The Beelzebubs Present: Fishsticks and Cabernet in an A Cappella Shower. Goddard Chapel, 7:00 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. Featuring guest groups the Wellesley Tupelos and Suffolk U Ramications. Tickets $6 at the door, $5 at the Campus Center.

and had dropped-in that afternoon to check in on the bathroom renovations. He lives in Cambridge now, but he is still very involved with Spontaneous, making the effort to drop-in after work when he can. His wife also acts as a bookkeeper for the organization at no

are what drew them into the community at Spontaneous Celebrations, and activities of craftmaking for fundraisers and dances are still very much a part of their involvement here, as could be seen from the masterpieces decorating the room.

The formal end of Beantown Society sessions usually signals the beginning of a dance jam session, which was unfortunately cancelled that Tuesday, because of a meeting that was taking place upstairs — more evidence of the oor-to-ceiling volume of communityforging cultural activity taking place at Spontaneous Celebrations.

“That’s what this neighborhood has always been about,” John Robertson, an electrician and a volunteer at Spontaneous, told me. “Many cultures coming together.

That’s why I really encourage the work here.” Robertson grew up in the area,

Friday, Dec. 7, FunkSoulLove. Remis Sculpture Court, 8:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Featuring FunkSoulLove, a group fusing the nest of Hip-Hop, Funk, R&B. Includes spoken word, music, and traditional poetry.

Saturday, Dec. 8, Tufts Dance Collective Presents: Off the Clock. Cohen Auditorium, 6:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.

Tickets $4 in the Cohen Box Ofce.

Sunday, Dec. 9, Tap Ensemble Show.

Jackson Dance Lab, 7:00 p.m. Featuring guest groups Tufts Burlesque Troupe and others! Free. Sponsored

by Dance Department.

Sunday, Dec. 9, 2007. CheapHYPE! Improv Comedy. Cohen Auditorium, 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Improv comedy group and mime troupe come together for one night of fun. $2 donation suggested.

BOSTON:

charge. He spent several minutes detailing the history of Spontaneous, talking about Fenta Rosenbaum, one of Spontaneous’ key gures, and her vision of “involving the community in art” in detail.

Such a safe, creative environment, and such an engaged, activated community — even on a regular weekday. Can you imagine how vibrant one of their special events would be? Find out. All you have to do is drop in. O Spontaneous Celebrations is a block away from the Stony Brook station on the Orange Line.

For more information, see spontaneouscelebrations.

Friday, Dec. 7, No Child, Loeb Drama Center, Harvard Square. Presented by the American Repertory Theater, No Child is a humorous look into the New York City public education system.

Through Dec. 23. For information on show times and tickets, see amrep. org/nochild.

Friday, Dec. 7, The Nutcracker, The Opera House. Presented by the Boston Ballet, tickets start at $30. Through Dec. 29. For more information on show times and tickets, see bostonballet.org.

December 7, 2007

THE OBSERVER

29

Cause for Celebration at the Middle East BY

RYAN YANNALFO

A

t 8:57 p.m. on Thursday, November 29, I nd myself outside the Middle East Club, wondering what kind of concert I am about to see.

At this point, I’d heard material by all three of the bands performing there (Dragons of Zynth, Holy Fuck, and Celebration). All three impressed me, but the live show is what I’m here for, and I’ve seen firsthand a normally fantastic band fall at on the stage. So at 9:01 p.m., I’m eagerly waiting inside the club for the Dragons of Zynth to take the stage.

9:30 P.M. The Dragons of Zynth begin their rst song. I’ve always asked myself a question when it comes to live shows: is there such a thing as TOO loud? If the answer is yes, then this band certainly falls into the “too loud” category. The volume level was too high to hear any coherent thought that may have passed through my head. However, as my eardrums were mashed into a pulp, I was able to make out talent in the music: Imagine an early version of early The Mars Volta, only slightly crazier and, of course, louder. They certainly were tightly knit as a group, as they were able to cover passages of strange time signatures and rhythms with ease. Had the volume been turned down from 11, I feel like I would have enjoyed this act much more.

Yet, as it was, they left much to be desired, but this yearning was later fullled.

10:30 P.M. I hear chants of “Holy Fuck! Holy Fuck!” throughout the Upstairs at the Middle East. The makeup of this act was the strangest: a drummer, a bassist, and two keyboardists, each with a huge setup of pedals and switches to customize their sounds. I will say it right here and right now — I have never seen a live act get a crowd on its feet better than Holy Fuck did. Right from their rst beat until their last note, the crowd was wild. The energy the group had onstage was so real, it was almost tangible.

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December 7, 2007

This was the act of the night that I did not want to end. If they had continued to jam until Valentine’s Day, I would have been happy. The way the musicians moved as they played clearly showed that they not only love what they do, but that they also do not care about what others may think

of their music. Luckily for them, it seemed as if everyone present was deeply in love with each and every song they played, and mine was not the only disappointed face when their set came to an end.

11:30 P.M. The time has come for Celebration, and I can tell that even after Holy Fuck, most of the audience was here to see this nal act. As the four members take the stage, I notice how unusual their setup is. Besides the drummer and female lead singer, there is a keyboardist and an organist, the latter of whom plays the bass parts on the pedals of his organ with his feet. Both key players also played guitar when necessary. Celebration had the best musical performance of the night; the

songs they played were beautiful, melancholic, and emotional. Although they could not control the crowd like Holy Fuck did, they were clearly the top act of the night. The organ parts were gorgeous at moments, and when combined with the lead singer’s voice, they made a beautiful medley of sound, bolstered by the backing synths and drums.

At times, I felt washed away by the sound enveloping me. Their music is eye-opening. The only downsides were the occasional dull sections, in which the band would do little more than repeat one vocal line over one organ riff over one drum beat. However, as the musical and emotional peak of the night, I did not leave feeling disappointed at all.

12:15 A.M. I leave the Middle East, reflecting on the show I have just seen. The wild-andcrazy opener Dragons of Zynth were decent enough, but the show might not have lost much if it had been just Holy Fuck and Celebration. Of the two, however, the live show award would have to go to Holy Fuck. If the audience’s reaction was any indication of the type of fan base Holy Fuck has, then they certainly have a very fortunate future ahead of them. As for Celebration, the concert was truly a “celebration” of their sound; this show was at the tail end of their current tour, and after that long, they were still able to deliver a lively, poignant performance that was at once very enjoyable and not easily forgettable. Despite their average moments, the show was a success, and I recommend that readers check the band out. O The Middle East Club is accessible by the Red Line, two blocks away from the Central Square station. For information on their events, see mideastclub.com. For information on Celebration and their latest tour, see ilovecelebrationmusic.com.

For information on Holy Fuck, check out their MySpace page at myspace.com/holyfuck.

BY

ELIZA WALTERS

With nals crunch time in full swing, you may not have all the time in the world to head into Boston to do your holiday shopping. However, lucky for you, Davis Square is just a Joey ride away and is good for more than Anna’s and J.P. Licks runs — it actually is name to stores that offer wonderful holiday gifts. Whether you are shopping for your mom, your grandpa, or your hard-to-please best friend, there is probably something to be found in Davis Square.

Davis Squared D2, located at 409 Highland Ave., has a lot to offer in the shopping department. At the front of the shop is a large selection of knit scarves, hats, and mittens by Wooden Ships in an assortment of colored stripes. Each scarf, hat, or mitten set is $27 and is a perfect gift to keep a friend or sister warm during a cold New England winter.

For other friends or family members who spend time keeping toasty during the winter months, D2 sells wonderful smelling “bath bombs” for $8.95 to liven up a blasé bath. For a friend who doesn’t let the cold stop her from going out, a set of four colorful and classy shot glasses for $17 might be just the gift to give.

Anyone would enjoy receiving one of the pretty and elegant frames that D2 sells. Costing anywhere from $12 to $40, they won’t set you back too much.

For Mom or Dad, depending on who does the cooking in the family, D2 sells a collection of specialized cookbooks.

Think about giving Trattoria: Italian Cooking ($24.95) or Heavenly Chocolate ($12.95) to a parent.

For the men in your life, D2 also has a nice collection of gift-able items.

Is your boyfriend’s or brother’s wallet looking pretty used and beat-up? An Ab Clay wallet ($47) is just what he needs.

For the party-thrower, D2 sells a cheap ($6) set of “beer bands,” which each have a funny message written on them and are used to identify whose beer is whose.

If you may can’t wrap a gift to save your life, but enjoy artfully presenting gifts, D2 also sells funky wrapping paper ($6) and holiday cards (about $3 each) to adorn your gifts.

Just across the street from Davis Squared is Magpie, at 416 Highland Ave. Magpie has unique, handmade gifts for artsy and funky friends and family. Look here for jewelry for friends, aunts, Mom, and sisters. The jewelry ranges from cheap ($8) earrings by Chick A Dee to more expensive ($50-$90) necklaces by Erica Weiner and Quiet Jewelry.

Something a Tufts friend might enjoy is the book Eat. Shop Boston, a fun guide to Boston and the surrounding area ($14.95). For a Tufts friend or someone that you’re willing to spend some money on, Magpie sells cute, patterned totes from Lylou designs for about $90.

For Dad or a working older brother, Magpie sells handmade and unique business card holders made of old bike chains for $30. If your dad is one who

ALL PHOTOS BY

EXCURSIONS

A Holiday Shopping Guide to Davis Square

enjoys receiving a picture of you for his ofce desk or bureau, a brown tweed picture frame ($16) may be just the thing.

Over on 267 Elm Street is Cameras, Inc., which offers gifts that almost anyone on your list would love. Cameras, Inc. has an extremely wide assortment of picture frames and photo albums, as well as several computer stations at which you can use your camera’s memory card to make digital prints of several sizes.

For a boyfriend, girlfriend, parent, or anyone worth quite a bit of money, Cameras, Inc. sells a large selection of digital cameras, many of which are actually very affordable. Several Nikon, Pentax, and Olympus cameras run between $119 and $139. And if you really feel like splurging, camera cases will set you back about another $20.

For a grandparent, Cameras, Inc. also has a lot to offer. Using almost any photo, Cameras, Inc. can create anything from a tote bag ($17) to a Christmas ornament ($12.95) to a coffee or tea mug ($14.95). Something else a grandparent might enjoy is a set of photo coasters ($19.95 for four) or a photo book keychain ($6.95).

For essentially anyone on your list this holiday season, nearby Davis Square has a wide selection of interesting and thoughtful gifts. So if you can’t nd the time to venture into Boston for a day of shopping, get some holiday shopping done in Davis, while supporting local businesses at the same time. O

ELIZA WALTERS December 7, 2007

THE OBSERVER

31

Local Asian Eateries BY

LAUREN LEE

Aside from the many open-latetake-out places in Chinatown where we all go for late night food, Boston actually has quite a decent selection of Asian restaurants that serve more than greasy, fried Chinese food. Le’s and Thai Basil are two Chinese food alternatives that are both delicious and wallet-friendly.

Le’s is located only a few minutes away from the Harvard T stop in a building complex known as “The Garage,” which also hosts Starbucks, Crazy Dough’s, and Newbury Comics.

Le’s is a cozy, casual place for solid Vietnamese food. The restaurant is perhaps best known for its pho, which are thin rice noodles with your choice of broth and meat, served with a plate of basil, lime, and bean sprouts. Le’s most popular dishes are its chicken and beef phos, but they also serve an assortment of other rice and noodle dishes including seafood. If you’re looking to satisfy all your Asian cravings in one place, they also have boba milk tea and spring rolls on their menu.

I have been to Le’s probably once a week so far this semester; it is that delicious. Whether it’s for a relaxed dinner off campus on a Friday night or for afternoon brunch on a Saturday or Sunday, Le’s is the perfect place to be.

There’s just something about the rich broth, tender meat, and tangy (optional) cilantro that make for a wonderful Asian meal. Best of all, their bowls come in small, medium, and large. It will only cost you around $8 or $9 for a large bowl, almost big enough for Jumbo to put one of his elephant feet in. The portions are plentiful, the food delicious, and the price is relatively cheap, although the non-pho dishes are a bit more expensive.

However, since Le’s is a very casual and often hectic sort of restaurant, it’s probably not the best place for a romantic date or for large parties. The tables are pretty small, so it can get 32

THE OBSERVER

December 7, 2007

noisy, and the service is very fast, which can be both good and bad.

If you want to catch up with an old friend over a slow meal, it’s not the place to go. But if all you’re looking for is good food for a good price with a few friends, then Le’s is denitely worth trying.

You’ll probably catch me there enjoying yet another bowl of chicken pho.

Le’s is located in Harvard Square at 36 JFK Street. Tip: the Collegiate Coupon book has a coupon for Le’s.

Buy one entrée and get a second half off, so bring the coupon and a friend so you can split the costs.

Yes, Thai Basil is on Newbury Street, but thankfully the menu isn’t marked in standard Newbury prices. Thai Basil is about a ve minute walk from the Copley T station. The restaurant can be easy to miss because while the restaurant front is located on Newbury, it is slightly underground and requires one to take a few steps down. That aside, the interior is casual but stylish, and deceptively larger than it appears from outside. Like all of my other favorite places to eat, Thai Basil offers authentic and great tasting food with no frills for a very reasonable price.

Being the unadventurous person that I am, whenever I go to a new Thai place, I always order the pad thai, and I truly believe that one can judge a Thai place based on the quality of this dish.

With this said, Thai Basil’s pad thai is amazing. My more adventurous friends ordered green curry with rice and a seafood dish with a spicy tomato-based red sauce. After copious samplings of their dishes, I must admit that there is more to Thai food than pad thai, and the other dishes were very, very good. While

LAUREN LEE

the food is not exactly “cheap” per se, it’s denitely cheaper than most other places on Newbury, and I’d say it’s better tasting than many other places. Dishes are generally less than $15 and the portions are decently sized.

At peak dining hours, like Le’s, Thai Basil can get a bit noisy and crowded, so consider arriving a bit early to avoid the dinnertime rush. Thai Basil is a cute place for a meal with some friends after a day of shopping or a casual date. The lights are low, and the walls are painted a cheery lime green. As with many Asian restaurants, the service tends to be fast, and like Le’s it is not the best place to linger over a cup of tea.

So the next time you can’t afford any of the ultra-pricy eateries on Newbury after a day of draining your wallet on pretty things, hit up Thai Basil for some not so humdrum grub that won’t send your bank account into overdraft. O Thai Basil is located on 132 Newbury Street and is accessible by the Copley T stop on the green line. Tip: If you’re looking for an even cheaper Thai place, get off at the Hynes Convention Center T stop and by Berklee School of Music there’s a hole-in-th-wall Thai place called Pad Thai, where dishes run for around $7 to $8 for gigantic portions.

POETRY AND PROSE

Movements The fault lines of our palms intersected so well— a double album’s grooves in one sleeve— it is dreadful as a detective blushing. The adagio sway, the web of hair, are what I think of when I think of your apartment. Not your bruised ankles, or the candlewax drip— the sex was tenser than a blues scale.

But that is done now, and this is my cure— my cadence, perhaps.

I don’t think of your sway, your taste. I think of the size ten shows, the glasscased cologne, the piss scented magazines.

Then the lamp ickers, umbrellas leak, the bow comes off the violin. But watch closely: the pianist brushes his coattails and exits.

His pace more unnatural than his wig.

—BY MICHAEL YARSKY

Michael Yarsky was the winner of the Poetry Contest from the beginning of the semester. He is a senior majoring in Economics.

Erik Doughty is a freshman majoring in English.

Jenny Hong is this week’s featured photographer.

She is a sophomore, double majoring in sociology and art history at Tufts and is in the combined degree program with the SMFA. December 7, 2007

THE OBSERVER

33

Snowed In

when they freeze against my calloused skin Begging me to give in.

A lonely horse gallops across the living room oor.

His back is strong with too little wear in the hooves.

Behind him resides a white house with a blue windowpane Where the raindrops race each other in a childish game.

When the snow begins to pour over me. It swallows me.

Tears the lids off my tattered eyes.

I lose the feeling in my melted thighs.

I want to lie down, though I know I have not the strength to again rise.

A disheveled girl lies still on the hardwood oor.

But I stand, arms raised to the sky.

Her hair uncombed and clothes unchanged for four A desperate prayer my eyes sing years now.

To the snow as it pours its relentless emptiness The hollow eyes stare blankly like an empty bottle Over my head and my lungs collapse.

Once lled with a path to oblivion.

I can’t breathe and my heart restricts, Because it reminds me of the time I can see the creases embedded in the sheets.

You squeezed my hand so tightly The cold pillow remains untouched and tucked As if you were sinking beneath the oor. beneath But now you’re gone and it’s me The barren blankets that cover the rigid mattress Struggling to stay warm, As it stiffens amidst a melancholy lonesomeness.

As the skin on my face wilts My wife – she walks and I feel it. It kisses my cheek I have the strength for these last few words.

With a blade of conviction.

Smirking teeth of daggers it shatters But only a whisper escapes.

The chemistry between us like a Buried beneath a gasp of breath.

Porcelain portrait of a broken marriage.

The words trickle off the tongue with urgent eloquence.

The mouth rises to the surface and releases: And there it is. The door.

It swings open before I can even control my arms.

“I won’t let you bury me the way you buried my daughter.

I gravitate to the ground of the front lawn No more a man am I than a father.”

Dropping to my knees as the sweat and tears sting my pores —BY ERIK DOUGHTY

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DECEMBER 7, 2007

Soul Seeks Sky Cush, cush, cush the sand cushions his swagger.

He’s rockin’ boardshorts with a polka-dotted pattern.

His hair dangles at an angle in the crosshairs of his vision, But he couldn’t care less because he’s focused on the ocean.

And how could he miss it?

The universe of blue dimensions.

The whitewater sprays off the breeze and It sends a tingle to his feet.

He breathes. He breathes.

Now the waves start to rustle and the gulls start to squawk.

He nods his head and starts bumping to nature’s boom box.

In one step, he steps, from the breadth of a realm That was cozy and warm, but too close to the ground.

He says, “Man, I feel more balanced on this board Than I ever did in class, at a desk, on a carpeted oor.

I think I learn more from this than from the media and T.V. It’s a feeling unlike any, I checked wikipedia, believe me.”

And with each stroke and each push that owed from his soul He left behind the world that he never called a home.

In one smooth move, he snaps up to his feet.

His hands extend like wings; he takes off to y.

Feet meet board and soul seeks sky.

It’s like living and dying all at the same time While the music plays and the yellow star shines.

He oats above gravity and sinks into fantasy, ‘Cause in that moment he waved goodbye to a reality that gripped and clenched so tightly when they said there’s no place in the world for drifter’s and nobody’s.

But when he pulls into the barrel, everything gets quiet.

His ear stops ringing of deadlines and monthly payments.

And with curious grace his ngertips caress the face of the wave that always smiles back.

There’s a light at the end of the tunnel, But before he reaches it, the door closes.

Now treading in the ocean, crash landed, and helpless, He smiles a smile that stems from the eight year old inside of him.

—BY ERIK DOUGHTY

The wind off land begins to blow and call him back.

It brushes the tip of the crest and melts it like glass so The sunlight peeks through, just to say hello.

December 7, 2007

THE OBSERVER

35

CAMPUS

Tuesday, November 27

blotter

police

At 5:06 p.m., TUPD received a call from a student who left her purse on a bench in the common room of the Psychology building at 490 Boston Avenue. When she returned to the bench ten minutes later her purse was missing. The bag contained her cell phone and iPod. Sometime between 5:00 and 7:30 p.m., a green mountain bicycle was stolen from a roof rack of a car parked in the Eliot Pearson parking lot.

Wednesday, November 28

At 11:48 p.m., TUPD ofcers spotted three individuals standing near a tree behind the Hillel Center. Upon investigation, it was discovered that the individuals were smoking marijuana. A pipe and a small plastic baggie containing the illegal drug were conscated.

Saturday, December 1 At 1:29 a.m., TUPD responded to a call at Hill Hall. There, two males had made a small re in the old barbeque area outside the residence hall. The re consisted of several small logs and some pieces of wood. An obviously necessary call was then made to the Medford Fire Department who were able to put out the very miniature blaze.

At 1:52 a.m., TUPD ofcers responded to a call at 126 Packard Avenue (ZBT) where two males had previously tried to vandalize a large inatable snowman on the fraternity's porch. One offender, wearing an extremely conspicuous red raincoat, ran to 123 Packard Avenue upon police arrival. However, when the male came out of the side door at 123 in the same bright red raincoat, he was apprehended by the ofcers (who were still outside).

At 2:31 a.m., a speeding car traveling north on Packard Avenue was pulled over by TUPD ofcers who witnessed the car running the stop sign on the corner of Packard Avenue and Professor’s Row. The driver, a non-Tufts student, was then placed under arrest for driving under the inuence.

COLLEGE BULLETS Elite Prosperity?

The extreme wealth of the “Ivy Plus” universities (which includes Stanford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology in addition to all of the Ivy League institutions) is showing itself more transparently as of late. The triple-glazed mahogany casement windows made of leaded glass featured in every dorm room in Whitman College, Princeton University’s newest residential college, is only one example. Other Ivy Plus universities have followed suit, funneling resources into the construction of new multi-million dollar facilities. These universities have also been accused of “stealing” prize professors from public universities who cannot afford to compete with the compensation packages offered by the Ivy Plus universities.

The wealth is not all used in a controversial manner, however. With a larger endowment, the Ivy Plus universities are able to offer a larger percentage of their students nancial aid. This allows many students who would have otherwise not be able to afford the stiff $45,000 per year price tag to attend these prestigious institutions. The universities have also placed an emphasis on decreasing class size and increasing personal student attention.

The fact remains, however, that the $5.7 billion in investment gains generated

by Harvard’s endowment for the scal year that ended June 30, 2007 exceeds the total endowment of all but six other universities in the nation. This begs the questions— does the wealth of the Ivy Plus universities benet the institution of higher education, or does it simply perpetuate inequities?

Heard on the Hill “Life is a cabaret.”

—Compiled by Molly Posner, with the cooperation of the Tufts Police Dept.

36

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December 77, 2007

Greta Cottington (A ’10) as Sally Bowles during the November 29 performance of Cabaret.

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