2011.04.07

Joining the human race since 1918

the real world: vancouver. four ubc students enter political arena

U

Students ring out classes with ams block party. will you be there?

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the ubyssey

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APRIL 7, 2011 volume 92, number xlix room 24, student union building published mondays and thursdays feedback@ubyssey.ca

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events

april 04, 2011 volume xcii, no xlix editorial Justin McElroy : coordinating@ubyssey.ca

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The UBC Pottery Club is now selling their work at Sprouts and have donated some pieces in return for space. It brings a new addition to the Sprouts atmosphere and allows potters space to showcase their pieces. •

Yoga Club—all skill levels are welcome. Bring your own mat and enjoy this invigorating session.

RSVP on the Facebook events page. • Tuesdays, 12–1pm, UBC Bookstore, $1.

thursday, apr. 7 ams block party • The AMS

Block Party is an event by UBC students, for UBC students and the campus community that brings students and friends together in a celebration of a year completed and a summer soon to start. This year’s bands include Switch, Felix Cartal, Rye Rye, Team Canada DJ’s and My!Gay!Husband! • 19+ event,

2–8pm, MacInnes Field, $15 at the Outpost, go to amsblockparty. com for more information.

saturday, apr. 9

friday, apr. 8

highly regarded as a writer and conceptual artist, best known under the moniker “DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid.” His large scale multimedia work “Terra Nova: Sinfonia Antarctica,” is a meditation on global warming, translating Miller’s first person encounter with the harsh, dynamic landscape of Antarctica into visual and sonic portraits. In addition to video projections and DJ Spook y on turntables, the performance will also feature local chamber musicians on violin, cello and piano. • 8pm, Chan Centre, $25.25–$48.25, go to djspooky.com for more information.

capture the flag tournament •

Team Up 4 Kids is throwing their first event as a club to raise money for Success By 6, an early childhood development initiative dedicated to providing all children with a good start in life. Come out to play some capture the flag in order to raise money for a good cause! There will be prizes for the winning team and other activities to do while you’re waiting to play. • 12– 3pm, UBC Campus, $40 team (6 –10 people), $5 individual, email info@teamup4kids-ubc. com for more information.

DJ Spooky in Terra Nova: Sinfonia Antarctica • Paul D Miller is

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contributors Fabrizio Stendardo Michael Cheung Lisa Ma Karina Palmitesta Alexandra Warren Jocelyn Lau Gordon Katic Mairead MacKinnon Olívia Zauli Fellows Christian Voveris Hazel Hughes Robert Straker Kait Bolongaro David Chen Will Mackenzie Brian Platt

The following people are eligible to vote in The Ubyssey’s 2011–2012 editorial elections: Andrew Hood Arshy Mann Ashley Whillans Brian Platt Bryce Warnes Catherine Guan Charles To David Marino Drake Fenton Fabrizio Stendardo Gavin Fisher Geoff Lister Ginny Monaco

Ian Turner Indiana Joel Jeff Blake Jenny Tsundu Jon Chiang Jonny Wakefield Josh Curran Justin McElroy Kai Green Kait Bolangaro Kalyeena Makortoff Karina Palmitesta Laura Tuovinen

Marie Vondracek Matthew Naylor Michael Cheung Micki Cowan Mike Dickson Noah Burshtein Samantha Jung Stephanie Warren Tara Martellaro Taylor Loren Trevor Record Virginie Menard Will Mackenzie

Voting will take place from Friday, April 8 to Thursday, April 14, weekends excluded. Email Elections Coordinator Karina Palmitesta at karina-palmitesta@hotmail.com for more information. justin mcelroy | coordinating@ubyssey.ca

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Front cover illustration by Indiana Joel

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News

editor ARSHY MANN » news@ubyssey.ca assistant editor KALYEENA MAKORTOFF » kmakortoff@ubyssey.ca SENIOR WRITER MICKI COWAN » mcowan@ubyssey.ca

Liberals recruit students for election Arshy Mann news@ubyssey.ca Three young UBC Liberals will have more on their plates this April than studying for finals.

UBC students Kyle Warwick, Sangeeta Lalli and Stewart McGillivray will be running for the Liberals ridings both close to and far from home—Warwick in Skeena-Bulkley Valley, Lalli in Cariboo-Prince George and McGillivray in Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam. The Liberals finished a distant third in all three ridings in 2008.

All three received word that they had received the party’s nomination earlier this month.

For Warwick, the news came as a bit of a surprise.

“I heard there was the opportunity, so I approached people and I was told that this was a riding where there might be an opportunity. After some time I was told I was a candidate. So I don’t really know what the whole process is.”

Warwick, a political science student and long-time AMS councillor, has been volunteering for the Liberals since he was 15 and has been a card-carrying member since 19. “[Running as a candidate] seemed like an extension of some of the things I’ve already done,” said Warwick. “I’ve always believed in the values of the Liberal party so this seemed like a way to help that.”

He faces a tough race: in 2008, only 5.5 per cent of the riding’s 34,000 voters turned out in

Warwick is running for the Grits. Geoff Lister Photo/The Ubyssey

support of the Liberals. NDP candidate Nathan Cullen has held the riding since 2004. Warwick has never resided in the riding and will only be able to begin on-the-ground campaigning on April 20, when his exams finish.

“I’ve done a lot of reading about the key issues there, but I shouldn’t overstate it in any way.

I still have a lot to learn still.”

While Warwick was the first UBC student nominated, two more joined him this week.

Lalli, a 21 year old political science student, was nominated Tuesday, while McGillivray, a second year student and the head of the UBC Young Liberals, was nominated Wednesday. Both declined comment for this story.

Lalli will be hoping to unseat veteran Conservative MP Dick Harris in Cariboo-Prince George. Harris has represented the traditionally Conservative riding since 1993.

But she’ll also be running against a very similar candidate to herself. Jon Van Barneveld is a 22-year-old UNBC student who is running for the NDP and a protégé of Cullen, the MP holding the seat Warwick is going after.

“I have seven years of political experience behind me. I worked for Cullen on all of his campaigns [and] the HST initiative, STV referendums as well as local riding associations and campus clubs at UNBC,” said Van Barneveld. “And so I don’t feel by being a youth I’m inexperienced.”

Unlike Warwick and Lalli, Van Barneveld has lived in his riding, which UNBC is a part of. He said that the response to his candidacy has been very positive.

“New Democrats have always been really supportive of their youth candidates, more so than most parties,” he said. “And I think even from the public media we’ve been getting really good reception from them.”

He argued that while his youth gives him a fresh perspective on the issues, he is well acquainted with problems in Northern BC. “The north has been economically depressed for the last fifteen years. Most of the recession has happened in the last two years, but the north has been living in it for [much longer],” he said, adding that his background in the resource sectors gives him a heightened understanding.

While Van Barneveld said he was glad to see more young people such as Warwick and Lalli running for office, he was critical of how the Liberals chose their candidates.

“It’s good to see more youth coming out of the woodworks, but I have a sneaking feeling that lots of these Liberal candidates are thrown into the mix just so that they can say they ran a full set of candidates,” he said.

Warwick, however, said he plans on putting up a fight.

“I think that people will see that I’m not here to tell them that I know what’s best, but I’m here to listen to what their concerns are and I’m going to put in as much of a campaign as I can.” U

UBC student eyes Vancouver School Board seat micki cowan mcowan@ubyssey.ca Ryan Clayton is not your ordinary second-year social work student.

Involved with the field and passionate about fighting discrimination since he was 17, the 23-year old is now hoping to be nominated for a the position of school trustee on the Vancouver School Board—a position he’s confident he has the experience and support to get.

His role as school trustee would be to make decisions for the school board on finances, programming and advocating the Ministry of Education about the needs of the board and the voice of the students.

Clayton feels that in the role he could improve consultation with students.

“I could walk in a room with another school trustee and ask the exact same question in the exact same way, and students are going to respond to me differently because I’m closer to their age,” he said.

Consultation with students for him also involves discussing technology and making sure all schools are upgraded.

As a self-proclaimed geek, Clayton also wants to discuss video games and the impact they have on the education system.

Dealing with homophobia and bullying while growing up in Salmon Arm, he was motivated to help other troubled youths in what he feels was valuable experience for the job.

“When I was a kid I was bullied pretty badly, which led me to the point where I opened that youth centre so I could be a peer to peer councillor for other people who were going through similar things.”

Clayton said that the youth centre helped kick-start his role as a councillor to youths and then into politics.

“I think that there are huge opportunities to just talk to kids, really engage them and discuss issues in a way that they can take ownership of their schools and they can be in charge of it. That’s what sort of led me into education, and I’ve always been interested in politics,” he said. “I’ve always thought that’s where stuff gets done.”

Politically, he has acted as co-chair on a civic advisory committee, where he worked with the mayor, city council, the parks board and the school board.

As far as support goes, he feels that he is strongly backed by Vision Vancouver, where he is seeking nomination to run for the position.

Clayton is hoping for trustee spot. Geoff Lister Photo/The Ubyssey

“The odds are I have a very strong shot at it…I think I have a lot of people who want me to be very successful that are going to help me.”

Despite his young age and the fact that he has not yet graduated from his university program, Clayton is confident that his experience will win over

critics. “If you take my age away from it, I have more than enough experience to be qualified for the position,” he said.

“I have eight years working around politics, five years working around education directly with students. My experience is completely justified. I belong there.” U

NEWS BRIEFS Kalyeena Makortoff kmakortoff@ubyssey.ca AMS postpones voting on increasing exec wages

Heated debate surrounded executive pay hikes, as the Business and Finance Committee brought forward a motion to increase AMS staff pay ahead of the province’s minimum wage increase that comes into effect May 1.

The motion proposed a threetier wage structure and wage increases would take place in two stages—one on May 1, 2011, and the other coming in May 2012.

The changes would raise the four executive positions to $15 per hour, effectively raising executive salaries from $25,000 to $30,000 a year.

Executives recused themselves from the discussion.

While assistants, speakers and committee chairs would also receive raises according to their assigned tier, most of the discussion surrounded the pay hike for non-minimum wage employees.

“We believe our execs need this kind of compensation so that they can continue to do the great work that they do,” said Allen Chen, GSS rep and budget committee member.

Student senator Joel Martens said executive pay raises would receive negative attention, especially since the AMS recently passed a referendum to increase student fees.

The referendum passed by a two per cent margin and one of the primary arguments of the “no” campaign was that the AMS wanted more fees to increase executive wages.

“I believe that right now we’re about...top tier of exec remuneration, and...moving up to some of the highest in student unions across Canada,” added Martens.

Had the motion failed, increases would have applied to all employees whose pay would fall below the $8.75 new minimum wage, while all others would stay the same.

Student Greg Williams was concerned that the decision would go to vote without student input.

“I’m not all that passionate about exec wages, but about that I know a large number of people who would probably have been here right now had they known that exec wages were going to be discussed.

“If you do this at another meeting, I guarantee there will be more students here, and they will have things to say,” he said.

Though Council was only informed of the proposed increases at the meeting, in which most of the councillors were newlyelected representatives, Chen insisted “it wasn’t our intention to deceive Council,” and further opposed the postponement, saying that “student employees who were set to be hired this coming week would not know their pay…Think about standing up for students who are working for these wages.”

AMS food and beverage workers were not included in the wage restructuring. U

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Set up for the annual last day of classes concert began Wednesday morning. GEOFF LISTER PHOTO/The Ubyssey

Can’t tell a dubstep from a mashup from a fat guy with a Macbook?

BLOCK PARTY

BY THE NUMBERS

$18,500 Talent budget

$3

cup of beer

40

kegs of beer

1800

feet of fencing

1500

Tickets sold as of Tuesday

$17.50 Day of tickets

~4000

tickets to break even

2900

Last year’s attendance

11°

Forecast temperature

A BLOCK PARTY 2011 PRIMER W

e did it! Summer! Classes are over! But before thinking about the small matters of finals and trying to find a summer job, let’s take a little break to celebrate. If you’d like to huddle in a group on MacInnes field under whatever atmospheric conditions Vancouver spews on Thursday, either shivering or dancing to 4/4 beats and swilling crispy cups of $3 Molson, then Block Party is sure to satisfy your needs.

April 7 will see electronic artists Switch, Rye Rye, Felix Cartel, Team Canada DJs and MY!GAY!HUSBAND! take the stage for UBC’s last-day-of-classes celebration. We talked to a couple of the acts about Johnny Cash, dubstep and starting fights.

MY!GAY!HUSBAND! “I don’t know any of the frats at UBC, but they’re all wimps.”

Jason Sulyma, who DJs as MY!GAY!HUSBAND!, won’t consider his set at Block Party a success unless he gets to fight someone afterwards. “That’s why I’m coming up there,” he said. “To beat them frat guys up. Especially the big ones.”

They’re strong words coming from a man who believes he was only asked to play the event because he’s a “giant, sweaty, fat guy freakshow.”

Sulyma has been performing as MY!GAY!HUSBAND! for about eight years, hosting parties all over Vancouver. Most Saturday nights he performs at the Biltmore as part of the Glory Days series.

Nothing is off limits for Sulyma. He’s remixed everyone from Lou Reed to the Beatles, and even the Muppets theme song. “I’m just a big weirdo and I have nothing else to do when everyone else falls asleep,” he said. “So I make all these stupid

songs from like 1am to 6am...

No one will play them except for me.”

Despite his love for genre bending, there is one sound Sulyma avoids at all costs, despite its popularity. “I like sing-along songs. Save the dubstep for the overdose at the hotel,” he said.

“I don’t like having crazy, drugaddicted friends who grind their jaws all day and stare at you like they’re going to kill you. I like Muppet songs.”

Sulyma isn’t sure what he’s going to include in his Block Party set, but he promises a “shitkicking” show. Whether he’s referring to the music or his on- and off-stage antics is unclear.

“ I apologize in advance for everything I’m going to do.”

Jason Sulyma, AKA MY!GAY!HUSBAND!

“I don’t know why I’ve been invited to play. I tried to DJ over Stars one year and then I blacked out,” he said.

“So I apologize in advance for everything I’m going to do.”

—Ginny Monaco

Team Canada DJs Team Canada DJs have a CV that includes sets on the Olympic medal stage and at private parties for the likes of David Beckham and Paris Hilton. On April 7, they’ll add UBC’s illustrious MacInnes Field to that list.

The group is composed of DJs Grandtheft and D.R. ONE, both veterans of the Montreal club scene. About eight years ago they began co-hosting parties as Team Canada. In 2004, their remix of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of

Fire” earned them a host of new fans, including the late DJ AM, who helped launch the group in the US. Grandt heft considers t he group to be “pioneers” in the Canadian DJ community.

“I don’t think anyone does it like we do,” he said. “Especially when we started. At the time, you’d go to the club and just hear house music or you’d go and just hear hip-hop. There was no going and hearing hip-hop at a house club—never mind hearing Johnny Cash.”

Cash’s well-known track is cut with clips from Clint Eastwood Westerns and samples from Busta Rhymes and 50 Cent. It’s surprising and clever. Grandtheft said, “We definitely have a sense of humour about it…We don’t take ourselves too seriously. There’s a Canadian humility to the whole thing that I think is lacking a lot in the States.”

Even though they’ve played parties for people who could buy and sell the AMS in an afternoon, Grandtheft says the pair are excited about their Block Party set.

“To be honest, the party we’re going to do at UBC is going to be a million times better than any of those celebrity parties,” he said.

—Ginny Monaco

Felix Cartal The Ubyssey caught up with Vancouver DJ Felix Cartal for an email interview to talk about how he plans to rock an outdoor beer garden as hard as a Miami Beach after party.

Ubyssey How did you get into music? How was it coming up in the Vancouver scene?

Felix Cartal I slowly started listening to more of it once I heard Radiohead’s Kid A. This album really helped me to connect rock music and electronic

music, and from there I just tried making my own. I’ve always been a studio guy as well, I was using Reason [sound editing software] back in grade 10 in high school. I kind of lucked out having to climb the ranks in Vancouver’s scene, because I lived in Glasgow when I first started DJing. My first gigs were all overseas. And actually, I was a UBC student at the time, doing my studies abroad there. When I came back, I started gigging in North America.

U Do you play a different set at a club versus an outdoor stage?

FC Yeah definitely. I think when you’re playing outdoors versus in a club, it’s more of a band vibe, people are jumping and looking at you more directly. In the club, I try to remember people are actually dancing more, so I try to cater to that in that environment.

U You’ve got a section on your blog that explains your creative process. What’s some basic advice you can give to new producers?

FC People had been asking me online how I made some of my sounds so I thought this would be a good way of documenting and referring everyone to one place. My biggest advice is you don’t need an expensive studio to make great music. Learn what you have and use it well.

U You’ve done some work with Steve Aoki. Any wacky stories?

FC He crowd-surfs at his shows in an inf latable raft! Enough said.

U Evaluate the term/concept/ genre: “dubstep.”

FC What’s dubstep?

—Jonny Wakefield

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Diving in with AquaSoc Venerable UBC club gives students a taste of the life aquatic

For the sake of practice, AquaSoc substitutes the impenetrable depths of the ocean with the pool at War Memorial Gym. Jeff Blake photo/AQUASOC

Hazel Hughes Contributor One of the oldest diving groups in Canada is in the basement of the SUB. The UBC Aqua Society prides itself in providing the highest calibre of recreational diver training as well as a learning environment that is fun, safe and respectful of the underwater ecosystem.

Jeff Blake, the Aqua Society’s internet coordinator, said that the best thing about scuba diving “is the ability to enter a completely different world, one which we were not designed to be in and enjoy.” According

to Blake, “we’ve invented a way to breathe underwater—that’s a pretty amazing achievement that more people should experience.”

Breathing underwater for the first time is strange and a bit uncomfortable. Before you know it, though, your brain puts it all together and it gets easier. During your first lesson you’ll practice safety skills, from what to do if your goggles flood to what happens if your tank runs out of air, all within arm’s reach of a qualified instructor.

Mike Duncan, a scuba instructor, started diving about eight years ago. “When you take a new group of students down, it’s new

and exciting for them,” he said.

“And when they come up out of the water for the first time and are so excited and thrilled about the experience, that makes it new and exciting for me every time.”

He recommended the Aqua Society to anyone interested in learning how to scuba dive. “Especially for those who want to travel and dive, I recommend doing a good amount of dives in your local area first,” said Duncan. “Then when you go and travel you can spend so much more time enjoying what is around you instead of focusing on improving your skills.”

However, you don’t have to travel far to have a great dive experience. Duncan described some amazing dives close to home.

“On [Vancouver] Island, the artificial reef society of BC has made artificial reefs out of old ships. They gut these ships and sink them into a well-suited environment and then these sunken ships...after five to ten years you have some really amazing life on these ships that divers can explore.”

The Aqua Society offers diver training and members have access to monthly club meetings, newsletters, instructional

programs and scuba equipment rentals. Membership for a year costs $35, which also includes free air refills and access to dive events (weekly night dives, bi-weekly club dives and dive holidays).

The Aqua Society also hosts other events, like the Helium Karaoke Beer Garden, guest speakers and regular movie nights.

Blake invited anyone interested to come and see what the Aqua Society has to offer. “We’ve got one of the largest club spaces in the SUB, with our own member lounge, classroom and shop, so come stop by, eat lunch and talk about diving!” U

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Travel Welcome to the Travel Supplement

BC Travel | Have you ever been to....

Osoyoos, ideal Platonic polis

describing extreme activities, such as bungee jumping and skydiving, available around the greater Vancouver area.

Geoff Lister photo/The Ubyssey

Fabrizio Stendardo Guest Editor As summer quickly approaches and final papers and exams are completed, many of us are beginning to focus our attention on something more exciting—summer holidays. Should we book a five-star resort in the Caribbean or travel by train across Europe?

What about a cruise to Alaska?

While these may all sound like great options, I encourage you to think outside the sphere of traditional travel.

My goal for this travel issue is threefold: to describe and highlight novel ways of travelling, such as organic farming; to critically examine the goals of organizations offering overseas experiences to students; and to highlight less-visited destinations and activities in and around Vancouver and the province of British Columbia.

This issue is divided into two sections. The first section is dedicated to travelling BC and includes “Have you ever been to...?” stories, which detail little-known gems around British Columbia. There is also a piece

As summer quickly approaches and final papers and exams are completed, many of us are beginning to focus our attention on something more exciting—summer holidays.

The second provides sto ries on alter native travel, while critically examining volunteer and exchange organizations that require payment.

Included is a piece which details several popular volunteer-travel companies that advertise on campus, while analy zing how the money they receive is used. There is also a story about the various exchange programs for UBC students, which highlights both positive and negative perspectives.

As an editor for a large Canadian publication once told me, stories relating to travel should focus on the destinations and what makes them special. I hope this issue will offer fresh insight on not only the places, but also the experiences that can make a trip unique and memorable for you. U

Osooyoos. courtesy of Dannielle Hayes/Aboriginal tourism association of BC

Robert Straker Contributor A perfect weekend road trip of five hours down Highway 3 takes you from temperate rainforest to shrubs and steppes, raincoat to sunhat, backyard to vineyard, slug to scorpion. Osoyoos is located at the northernmost reach of the Great Basin desert, which itself stretches down and widens into Nevada. However, unlike most deserts, barren and desolate it is not. The town is situated on the waist of a beautiful (and warm) lake. The name Osoyoos is

derived from a native word meaning ‘where the waters narrow’— always a good fishing spot.

Fishing is just one of the myriad of activities available there.

Anything you can think of to do on a lake, you can do in Osoyoos: relax on the sand beaches, windsurf, canoe and so on. You can harvest fruit straight from the tree at the many orchards between June and October. There are a number of well-regarded vineyards in the region, such as Burrowing Owl estate winery, where one may have a taste, or two, of the wine-making process. There are

hiking and biking trails strewn throughout the shrub-grassland, which flowers to wonderful effect in the spring. As well, come night time you will find the stars are less shy in a desert sky.

Accommodation options are plentiful, with prices starting at around $50 a night, and a one way Greyhound bus ticket from Vancouver is $70. You can visit destinationosoyoos.com for a well-puttogether visitors’ guide. U Bonus fact: Osoyoos’s population is exactly that of Plato’s ideal for a town or polis—just over 5000.

Beaches, wine and hiking in Summerland Kait Bolongaro Contributor British Columbia’s interior is riddled with small towns that are far from many tourists’ travel radar. Think blue lakes, rolling mountains and kilometres of untarnished landscape: this is the BC that is shown in HelloBC advertisements but rarely seen except by locals. Perhaps it’s the tourist herd mentality that keeps them off the beaten path, but here are two small-town BC destinations not to miss.

With a population of 10,000 people, Summerland is a quaint destination in the Okanagan.

Often overlooked in favour of Kelowna or Penticton, Summerland has the same beaches and wineries the valley is famous for, but with the small-town feel that Penticton has lost.

Where to Stay?

Summerland has three camp grounds.

“I would recommend Peach Orchard campground because it is a ten-minute walk to [Peach Orchard] beach and ten minutes’ walk into [Summerland’s] downtown core,” said Shannon Brilz, a tourist information host at the Summerland Info Centre.

Peach Orchard Campground is located at 6321 Peach Orchard Road with rates ranging from $27 per night for a tent to $32 per night for an RV. Want to visit with a big group of friends?

There are only four adults allowed per campsite, so make sure to book adjoining sites.

Wineries in Summerland. courtesy of Don Weixl/Vancouver Tourism

Peach Orchard Beach, which is just down the road, is Summerland’s best. This beach also has a dog section and water park attached to it.

Where to Eat? While known for its wineries, Summerland isn’t a culinary destination. There are, however, a few good spots to get some grub. The Vanilla Pod (9917A Main St) is as good as any tapas bar in Vancouver, with morsels ranging from paella to sushi pizza.

“My favourite dish is t he créme brulée,” said Anna Campbell, a Vanilla Pod fan. “It is light, creamy, with the perfect amount of burnt sugar—and paired with one of Vanilla Pod’s

Summerland wines, it’s the perfect finish to a dish.”

Summerland is a wine lover’s paradise. Bottleneck Drive, aptly named for the ten wineries within eight minutes of each other, is located on Highway 97. Most are family owned and independent, meaning that each winery produces their own special brew. Tours can be booked daily at any winery from July to October.

Summerland is also known for its outdoor activities. One local favourite is the Giant’s Head Mountain hike on Milne Road.

After about an hour’s hike to the summit, there is a view of the entire South Okanagan. This is the best spot in Summerland for a picnic and makes the somewhat strenuous hike worth it.

Best of all, it’s free. U

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editor TREVOR RECORD » features@ubyssey.ca GUEST EDITOR FABRIZIO STENDARDO » f.stendardo@ubyssey.ca

Williams Lake: rough it cheap

Adventures up, down, near and far

Hiking in Williams Lake. courtesy of Neil Openshaw/Vancouver Tourism

Kait Bolongaro Contributor While the Okanagan has been overrun with tourists in the past decade, the Cariboo-Chilcotin region of the province continues to grow in popularit y due to its unspoiled wilderness and good price value.

With a population of 12,000, Williams Lake is in the heart of the BC backcountry.

Where to Stay?

“One of the number one hotspots in Williams Lake is the Stampede Campgrounds,” said Mindy Cox, an avid Cariboo-Chilcotin traveler. “It’s close to downtown shopping and food, and it’s open all year round.”

The Stampede Campgrounds are clean and selfcont a i ned w it h excel lent rates, starting at only $16.80 per night for a tent.

Another option is McLeese Lake Resort, which has cabins on the lake that start at $59 per night and sleeps two to six people. “It is my favourite spot to go swimming and camping, even just for the day or a pit stop during a long summer’s highway drive. It is right off the highway, about 30 minutes north of Williams Lake,” said Cox.

Where to Eat? Most of Williams Lake’s restaurants are popular franchises or smaller diners. The Beeotcheese Bistro and Bakery (160 2nd Ave) brings urban fare to the hamlet.

Owned by two chefs, the bistro has a rotating weekly menu with reasonably priced items, such as a turkey burger for $10. They also have a vast assortment of baked goods, which can be purchased to go.

“The students that work for the summer come with their friends,” said Geoff Moore, a travel writer and media relations representative for the Cariboo-Chilcotin Tourism Centre. “They go for cattle drives and crazy adventures because [these] are affordable. They also go mountain biking, kayaking or canoeing for long weekends and hang out at quirky, under-theradar festivals.”

One of the ‘quirky’ Williams Lake traditions is the annual Canada Day weekend stampede, marking its 85th year in 2011.

The rodeo features bull and bronco riding and is a smaller version of the Calgary Stampede.

Tickets go on sale in June and start at $15 per person for general admission. If you are looking for that real country flair, there is a barn dance during the rodeo, with tickets at $20 per person. U

TOP: Rafting. Courtesy of Ryan Robinson/Reo Rafting Bottom: Sailing. Courtesy of Kevin Arnold/ Tourism BC Right: Ziplining. Courtesy of Neil Openshaw/Tourism Vancouver

Jocelyn Lau Contributor Finals are coming, but summer is just around the corner, just in time to release your pent-up energy after the rain is done.

Not sure what you want to do?

The Ubyssey has a quick guide to local spots where you can try out adventures from skydiving to white water rafting.

Get ready for intense adventures that will bring you from sky high to the rock bottom sea floor!

Bungee Jumping Bungee jumping is t he ultimate adrenaline rush—and an activity that many add to their bucket list. Whistler bungee jumping offers several jumping options, including a chest jump in an upright position, an ankle jump in the traditional free-fall manner and the tandem option that bundles you with a partner. Advance booking is required, especially during the peak season from June 12 to August 30. UBC REC also offers daily bungee jumping.

Price: $130 (including tax)

Sk yDiving Imagine falling from 12,500 feet in the open sky and out the doors of a small plane over Abbotsford. UBC REC offers day trips from May to July for $325.

Alternatively, you can visit Skydiving Vancouver and organize a trip with friends.

Price: $325 for UBC students with UBC REC

• Williams Lake

• Summerland • Osooyos

Zip-lining Ready to move on to something that lies between the sky and the ground? Try zip-lining. Engage in a two hour ride that goes 80km/h from the peaks of Grouse Mountain to the top of Dams Mountain, and over the Blue Grouse Lake in a selection of five different zip line

circuits. The general admission is $105 plus tax, including Skyride and dual-track, plus the five-line zip circuit.

Price: $105 Time: Mon-Fri 10am-4pm (every two hours), Saturday, Sunday & holidays 10am-4pm (every hour) White water raf ting Canadian Outback is one of the few organizations that provide white water rafting packages in Vancouver. Elaho rafting takes place around Squamish and the whole trip is roughly five hours long. Whistler Heli-Rafting offers an extra helicopter ride from Squamish to witness the majestic ambience of emerald green water, snow-covered mountain peaks and lush green valleys. To ensure participants are safe, full wetsuits, booties for your feet, a life jacket and a helmet are all provided.

Peak season runs July 1 to August 28 and prices range from $149-159 depending on the size of the group. The value seasons are from May 7 to June 30 and August 29 to September 25. Tickets range from $129-139. All trips usually depart at 10am. During peak season, however, Saturday trips leave at 8:30am.

Price: $149-159

Windsurfing, sailing, skimboarding Jericho Sailing Centre ( JSC) is one of the largest facilities in Vancouver that arranges multiple water activities. The centre offers classes from introduction to advanced levels. The UBC Sailing Club operates out of the JSC, as do a number of other companies. Membership in the UBC Sailing Club costs $97 for students, and courses for sailing, windsurfing and kaya k range from $55-100.

Windsure offers windsurfing,

along with skimboarding, in which boarders surf the shallow water waves leave on shore.

MacSailing provides group and private sailing lessons.

Ecomarine offers courses in kayaking. Alternatively, UBC REC offers the same activities for lower prices. One session in skimboarding costs $44, while one session in windsurfing is $66.

Price: Varies

Scuba diving If you’ve never been on a dive before, The UBC Aqua Society offers open water certification starting from $369. Memberships in the the UBC Aqua Society are $35 for UBC students, and include discounts on rentals and access to group trips.

UBC REC also offers the ‘PADI Basic Open Water Certification’ hosted by t he International Dive Center for $493 per UBC student (includes eight sessions). All classes are a combination of both pool and open water sessions.

Price: $400 and up

Mountaineering UBC’s very own Varsity Outdoor Club (VOC) organizes sma ll weekend trips from hiking, climbing, mountaineering and rafting to last minute ski trips (till the end of May) across the mountain peaks of Garibaldi to Tetrahedron Provincial Parks and the Sea to Sky Highway.

As one of its long-term members, Matt Parisien, commented, “Lots of the trips are open trips. If you want to go, then you just sign up!” VOC welcomes new members at any time of the year, so if you are not a member and would like to make new friends and embark on new adventures, check out their website at ubc-voc. com/index.php. U Price: $35 for st udent VOC

membership

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WWOOFing your way around the world Travel through organic farming packs a major bite Alexandra Warren Contributor No, it is not a brand of dog food or a chain of pet stores. WWOOF stands for “World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms,” and it’s a network of organizations that allows volunteers to live, work and learn on farms that produce food naturally without the use of synthetic chemical fertilizers.

Becky Young, coordinator of WWOOF Canada, described how the environment and living sustainably is extremely important to the organization.

“WWOOF Canada is not in the business to make money‚“ said Young, “but to live and promote our passion for organic growing and sustainable living.”

If you are going to volunteer for WWOOF, it is an asset to share these same values. Imagine making wine in Italy, harvesting olives in Greece or tending to sheep in Scotland—all while working on an eco-friendly farm.

Traveling volunteers can find work on farms in over 50 countries worldwide, and no work visa is required because you are paid in food and accommodation. What you do need is an open schedule and a willingness to travel outside of cities to work on farms that are usually in remote areas.

An organic farm. David Chen Graphic/The Ubyssey

When planning your WWOOFing experience, think about the type of work you would like to do, how many hours a day you are willing to work, whether you prefer working on a farm with many different people or only a few, and the type of accommodation that you prefer. With thousands of hosts worldwide, there are numerous options.

Farming is hard work, but the experience can be enriching.

Elizabeth Plessis, a WWOOFer who volunteered on a farm in Argentina, explained how the experience changed her views on food production.

“There’s something different when you’re helping grow the food you eat. It makes you appreciate where it comes from and

the impact that we as human beings have on our environment.”

Work and hours vary, but expect to do a lot of weeding, planting, composting and many miscellaneous jobs that involve tending to animals for about four to eight hours per day. The length of your stay can range from a couple days to a few months. Many farmers also give volunteers the option to

pay a small fee for accommodation or food if you do not want to work long hours.

To become a WWOOFer, you must pay a membership fee that ranges from $20 to $50 Canadian dollars, depending on the country in which you wish to volunteer. Membership fees help cover the costs of running the organization. These include employee wages, website maintenance, promotion of WWOOF through publishing marketing materials and media interviews, investigation of reports when problems or concerns arise and the support of various charities.

A membership entitles you to online access of hosts on the website of the country you register for, the ability to create your own profile, access to an online community forum and staff support to answer questions and assist in negotiating WWOOF stays. Many are skeptical as to how difficult it is to find a suitable host, but Becky Young assured that, “in our 26year history, there has never been a complaint of a volunteer who was unable to WWOOF due to lack of opportunity.” U For more information, refer to the The Practical Guide to WWOOFing by Adam Greenman or check out the website, wwoofinternational.org/.

Paying to volunteer: Where does your money go?

Lisa Ma Contributor Volunteering abroad can be a valuable experience for any student. But to guarantee a positive experience can come at a price—literally.

Advertisements for international volunteer placement organizations are found all over the UBC campus and a quick Google search of ‘volunteering internationally’ brings up more than ten million results. Representatives of companies such as Help Learn & Discover will often make classroom visits to students at UBC, where they advertise rewarding and unforgettable volunteer experiences in countries around the world.

Help Learn and Discover (ecuaexperience.com), targets students across Canada and the United States and offers an all-around experience in terms of a volunteer vacation. Volunteers fundraise in Canada and the United States prior to the trip before spending two weeks working on a volunteer project. This is followed by one week of touring Ecuador and engaging in activities such as surfing and waterfall rappelling. A 28-day volunteer trip costs $3500 and includes transportation, meals (excluding dinner), as well as costs for outdoor recreational activities. This sum does not include medical expenses, travel insurance or more than $500 of miscellaneous fees.

According to Jose Naranjo, marketing director of Help Learn and Discover, “100 per cent of all money fundraised goes towards the volunteer project. No fees are collected from the organization for the fundraising.

The fundraised money is then

find a complete and detailed account of their actual fees. According to Alison Kean, a Projects Abroad program advisor, this is because each trip can vary greatly depending on the destination country.

“The exact proportion of the volunteer’s fee depends on how big the office is in that country, how many staff are in that office and how many volunteers

“Our organization is a for-profit company and we thus reserve the right to withhold private information.”

A BC student works in Nicaragua. Geoff Lister Photo/The Ubyssey

taken to Ecuador to finance various projects to serve those less fortunate.”

However, in terms of an actual breakdown of a prospective volunteer’s fees, their company maintains a policy of financial confidentiality.

“Our organization is a for-profit company and we thus reserve the right to withhold private information,” said Naranjo. “The financial breakdown of our company’s profits is confidential.”

Projects Abroad (projectsabroad.org), an international service projects organization with more than 350 employees, has fairly comparable fees. A one month trip to Ecuador at an Amazon Rainforest Conservation site costs $4000 and includes

accommodation, meals, medical and travel insurance, as well as support from Projects Abroad staff. These fees do not include airfare or immunizations.

The ‘Money Matters’ section of their website gives a breakdown of the percentage allocated to each division of their company. Project monitoring takes 19 per cent on average, while volunteer support takes 23 per cent and administrative costs take up 17 per cent. Direct costs on the ground—accommodation, meals, workshops—run at 22 per cent on average. The remainder is taken by awareness, communications and advice, which takes around 19 per cent.

Once again, prospective volunteers may be hard-pressed to

Jose Naranjo Marketing Director, Help Learn and Discover

choose that specific destination,” said Kean, “A portion of the volunteer program cost definitely goes towards the staff.”

In contrast, Bolivia Volunteers (boliviavolunteers.webs.com) offers a four-week placement in Cochabamba, Bolivia for $750 and provides a complete price breakdown. Homestay accommodation with three meals a day costs $22 per day, the project co-ordinator takes $84, project sundries—materials, stationery, etc—costs $15 and finally $35 goes to ‘administration’ (advertising, phone calls).

Claudia A ndrea of Bolivia Volunteers was once the Cochabamba City Manager for a large multi-national placement

organization, but found dealing with volunteers’ questions quite problematic.

“It became increasingly difficult to avoid the issue of [where the money goes],” says Andrea.

“It was actually contract-bound that the financing of a volunteers’ placement was not to be discussed with them.”

Bolivia Volunteers is a family-run organization and relies on family members and friends to assist in facilitating volunteer projects, including airport greetings and city tours. Administration costs are minimal because they use a free site and have very little overseas advertising. The company prides itself on its ability to offer ‘at cost’ placement fees and corporate transparency.

Matt Whiteman, a MA candidate in the Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Program at UBC, stresses more concern in issues of equitable allocation of fees rather than actual price amounts. Whiteman has volunteered overseas twice in East Africa, once with a Canadian government-funded NGO called Youth Challenge International, and a second time with a small organization called KASOW (Kanyawegi Support for Orphans and Widows).

Whiteman found his experiences quite fair in terms of personal financial expenses, but is more concerned with the very nature of overseas volunteer ventures.

“The negative externalities of the presence of volunteers in a community are never included in [the calculations],” says Whiteman, “[Volunteers] saving money may just mean that somebody at the other end is not getting a fair deal. That’s the level of transparency you want—are volunteer partnerships really equitable?” U

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The highs, lows and costs of going global Mairead MacKinnon Contributor Many students will tell you that studying abroad was the best time of their life. UBC student Ellie Chan said that after her exchange at Jean Moulin Lyon three in France her “comfort zone now is so much wider,” and Sauder student Paul Davidescu said he “learned to enjoy the little things in life and be less materialistic,” after his exchange at the ESADE School of Business in Barcelona, Spain.

Bailey Dew, an Arts student who went on a summer abroad in Guatemala, said, “I enjoyed a different way of learning—our papers were hand-written, we had very limited internet access [and] our ‘classroom’ was outdoors.”

Dew was also able to get six credits in six weeks, which she described as “nice in terms of getting credits faster.” Pam Jung, an HKIN graduate who went on exchange to the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia only had class three days a week and said a full course load was four classes—which are worth four credits each.

These are the stories most students hear about exchange, but what isn’t talked about as much is the downside of studying abroad. The biggest negative for students is usually the cost.

Tamara Navaratnam said her program through Go Global with the Manchester Business School was “quite expensive, since it only ran five weeks but it did include transportation around

Students in Guatemala. Kalyeena Makortoff photo/The Ubyssey

Europe, as well as accommodation—although the hotels were memorable for all the wrong reasons.”

It can also be poor for your hea lt h. In Guatema la, Dew said, “[I never] went more than three or four days straight being healthy and I know everyone was in the same boat. [Some] people had to make hospital visits.”

She added that “we were really isolated—[living] an hour into the jungle in a remote community [without] hot showers [or] laundry machines.”

Sophia Munoz, who studied Spanish for a month at the University of Santiago de Compostela, said that “having class in Spain from 9am to 3:30pm did not allow for a lot of travel time.”

“It was harder to make friends than I thought, due to the fact we didn’t have a campus,” added Chan, who also advised students to be aware of post-exchange withdrawal as well.

She herself is working with UBC’s International Peer Program (IPP) now to help exchange students adjust to their life back at UBC. Most students were reluctant to give any negative feedback about their study abroad experiences, and almost everyone said they grew or changed as a person for the better after studying abroad.

While Go Global Exchange is the most well-known program, there are other programs for students to learn abroad, such as International Service

Planning for hassle-free travel Olivia Zauli Fellows Contributor Thinking of throwing on your backpack and buying a one-way ticket for the start of a great adventure? Think again. Letting a travel agency help plan your trip might reduce some of the hassle and the cost of doing it alone.

Kam Johal, manager at the UBC Travel CUTS office, believes planning a trip through an agency has several advantages. “Our travel consultants are experts who will help plan all aspects of your trip, from choosing the perfect destination for you to getting the best student deals out there.”

While some students may feel overwhelmed and nervous about the prospect of going through an agency, TJ Hermiston, co-founder of the Vancouver-based travel company Beach Travellers, said there is no reason to be hesitant if you choose to go through an agency with a good infrastructure, reputation and tons of experience. “Beach Travellers provides the outline and structure of what we think to be the ultimate trip in each country.”

According to Johal, doing your own research and planning is great, but “nothing compares to talking to an expert travel consultant who’s been there and done that, and can offer invaluable first-hand advice.”

Planning your trip through an agency may also save you money. Travel CUTS, for example, specializes in student-travel, and encourages people to take certain steps to save even more, such as getting an ISIC (International Student Identity Card), which full-time students can apply for.

They also offer five per cent off some of the trips.

Learning, Group Study and Research Abroad.

Go Global Director Katherine Beaumont said that “the breadth of these opportunities allows students to choose a program that fits their individual needs and interests.” International Service Learning allows students to learn about international development issues by volunteering for community-based projects in Africa and Latin America.

This program usually includes accommodations, meals, a mid-session excursion and sometimes flights, but there are only a handful of credit-bearing programs available. Group Study Programs are small (25 students max), specific, theme-based

The volunteer conundrum I like to believe that people are generally caring and altruistic in nature. I like to think that the privileged will help those less fortunate. That’s why I find it fascinating that volunteering abroad, or so-called ‘voluntourism,’ seems to be en vogue nowadays, especially with the under–thirty crowd.

While some of the prices online seem scary, Hermiston assures they are worth it.

“Yes, anyone could go anywhere and live off a smaller budget, and stay in one place for one month and save money,” he admits, but argued they would probably make more mistakes and miss out on awesome experiences.

“The people who deal with trips and have been going there for a long time know exactly where to go.”

During summer, Hermiston said their most popular trip is the one to Thailand because “if a traveller wants to bask in the culture, eat the amazing street food and hang out with locals, they can do so, or if they want to have a more activity-based trip they can go diving, hang out on the beach or go rock climbing.”

The 24-day trip costs about $1800. Johal suggests a month in Europe, through Paris, Rome

and Amsterdam, or London and Athens. The trips cater to both experienced and first-time travelers.

The prices for these trips depend on what you would like to see, but they also have a planned 11-day trip to seven countries that goes for about $1400.

If you are thinking of taking off somewhere this summer, consider letting someone else take charge. It is true that travelling alone may be filled with more excitement and might be more appealing if you like going where the wind takes you.

But if not, there are many agencies that offer awesome trips and are there to cater to your needs and safety. After all, they are the experts. U If you are interested in contacting Beach Travellers, visit their website at beachtravellers.com. Travel CUTS has several agencies around the city and can also be accessed online at travelcuts.com.

There is much more info available for students at students.ubc. ca/global/index.cfm, which lists all the partner institutions and the course transfer credit database.

Perspective

Fabrizio Stendardo Guest Editor

Travel Agencies can be lifesavers. courtesy of salisan laugesen/Flickr

programs where students travel along with UBC professors to study in another country. Research Abroad is fairly self explanatory—students can conduct research at any of UBC’s 150 partner institutions, which Beaumont said helps students “access equipment and resources beyond what might be offered at UBC.” In regards to exchange, everyone always asks the cost. In most cases, students just pay their regular tuition to UBC along with a basic $363 acceptance fee. Students also have to take into consideration the cost of flights, visas, accommodation and living expenses. Beaumont said there is “absolutely” scholarship money available, with $1.4 million in awards for students. Almost every student is given $1000 from Go Global so long as they have a 70 per cent average.

The process of applying is fairly simple with the first round deadline in mid-January for terms one and two, full-year and split-year. The round two deadline is coming up on May 13— exchanges for this deadline are limited to term two and splityear programs. Students must state their top three university choices when applying, along with the application, a study plan and a short essay explaining their university choices. U

Are these voluntourists actually affecting change, or are their benevolent deeds causing more harm than good?

In the 12 or so years I have been travelling around the globe, I have noticed a change in the way young people travel. I remember when travelling used to be just about the parties, the hook-ups, the 17 countries in 28 days. Yet it seems that instead of merely travelling for fun, more people are trying to incorporate a greater sense of purpose in their adventures. Whether it’s because the experience will look good on a CV or if it’s simply due to the altruistic nature of one’s intentions, voluntourists pick an area they would like to visit, like sub-Saharan Africa or Southeast Asia, and try to justify their travels by including a little goodwill on their part.

It all sounds great, doesn’t it? For example, a return flight from Vancouver to Nairobi, Kenya, costs roughly two thousand dollars. Add another thousand if you want to visit India and the surrounding area. It’s a win-win scenario. Tourists get to spend time in an exotic and foreign land, snapping amazing photos, while at the same time, helping the less fortunate—the Other. In addition, regardless of their intentions, they are treated like royalty.

A question that needs to be asked, then, is if these voluntourists actually affecting change, or are their seemingly benevolent deeds causing more harm than good?

I remember when, during the summer of 2008, I spent nearly a month volunteering in a small village in northern Tanzania as a language educator. My entire trip, including almost a month of volunteering, cost nearly $3000.

After returning, I often wondered if my money would have been better spent had I simply donated the amount to the organization with which I volunteered.

Even though my experience was unforgettable and something I will cherish the rest of my life— I still look at the photos in awe— I often wonder if my “expertise” was really needed. I met many local educators who seemed to be as knowledgeable as I was, if not more.

Thus, despite our good-natured intentions, who actually benefits when Westerners travel abroad to volunteer? Some say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. After all, didn’t they pave paradise and put up a parking lot? U

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Platt: Kabul U “an oasis,” but also a battleground Brian Platt Contributor A fg hanist an wrested t he world’s attention back from Libya and Japan this week with a series of violent protests over a Koran-burning stunt in the United States. The stunt was performed by a pathetic old man named Terry Jones, a villainous right-wing pastor with a Yosemite Sam moustache and a tiny religious following. His fringe actions were properly ignored by all major media outlets until the Iranian and Afghan governments issued simultaneous condemnations of it. Hamid Karzai’s role in inflating an otherwise irrelevant incident is deplorable, and reinforces my sinking feeling that Afghanistan has no chance for a peaceful future until a new president is elected.

It is wrong to assume, as some people have, that these are grassroots protests organized by concerned Afghan citizens. Much like the Danish cartoon protests from a few years ago, the Koran-burning protests are the result of a concerted effort by reactionary Islamic clerics to foment anger through misinformation.The first protests last week were organized by the forces of Sheikh Asif Mohseni, t he same practitioner of Shia teachings who launched his angry mob against the progressive curriculum of Marefat High School.

The result of the effort initiated by Mohseni and friends? A UN compound in the relatively peaceful northern city of Mazari-Sharif was stormed by an angry crowd; seven foreign staff members and five Afghans were murdered. According to reports from Afghan police, two Nepalese guards were beheaded. Rolling protests have taken place in many other cities since then; an unconfirmed number of Afghans have been killed or suffered injuries, but a massacre on the level of Mazar has fortunately not been repeated.

The worst thing we can do right now is lump moderate, ordinary Afghans in with the wrathful and largely illiterate leaders of the violent protests.

It should also be noted that the majority of the protests in the country have been peaceful. The blame for the UN compound deaths should be placed squarely where it belongs: on the

Kabul University resembles any other university campus. brian platt Photo/The Ubyssey

religious and political leaders in Afghanistan, Iran and elsewhere who take any chance they get to whip up an intimidating mob in order to selfishly secure their own power.

The only current protest in Kabul was being organized on the campus of Kabul University. It’s not surprising that a protest would be organized on the campus; Afghanistan’s universities have long been ideological battlegrounds. In the 1960s, Marxists and Islamists competed to organize their own factions among students. Yet I was also disappointed to see the campus being used for this, as all of the Afghan students and teachers I met while in the country were contemptuous of the efforts by clerics to turn Afghans against the international community.

I’ve spent an afternoon at the university. Compared to the rest of Kabul’s clogged, dusty, trashstrewn streets, the campus felt like an oasis. It is filled with green trees and shrubs, water

fountains and quiet pathways.

Students were lounging around on grassy hills, talking with each other and reading books.

It was for the most part like any campus I’ve been to in North America. None of the students I passed seemed surprised to see a white person walking by.

There was a sense of normalcy here that most places I visited did not have.

The campus had a brand new soccer stadium and a social sciences building funded by the Pakistani government. New faculty buildings were going up in many places. There was a large sign announcing a project to build new pathways around the campus.

Later on in my trip, I sat down with a staff member at the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit. When I expressed my optimism about what I’d seen at the university, he was mostly pessimistic.

Most of the professors there were “trained” (he used air

quotes when he said it) decades ago, and have no sense of what a modern university curriculum is supposed to be. He didn’t like the multi-million dollar social sciences building either.

“What Afghanistan needs are accountants and engineers, people trained in the trades,” he said. (As the outgoing Arts Undergraduate Society president, I put up a fight for the liberal arts, but I take his point.)

The biggest problem at Kabul University is the vicious circle that hinders so much development work in Afghanistan: you can’t have a good education system without good teachers, but you can’t have good teachers without a good education system. It is crucial for Afghanistan’s post-secondary education system to help train professors and break the negative feedback loop for the international communit y. UBC and other Canadian universities are running a few partnership programs with universities in

Afghanistan (I mentioned one in the previous column involving SAIT in Calgary, and UBC depart ments have run programs with Afghan universities on forestry and early childhood development), but there is so much more work to do and there will be for a long time.

In the end, the protest at Kabul University went off peacefully. And that’s good: if there’s anywhere in the country where safe, peaceful protests should happen regularly, it’s on a campus. But I desperately hope that the protest organizers don’t gain the upper hand among students. Kabul University and the other higher education facilities in the country need to be able to produce a large number of graduates who are literate, professional and able to contribute to the country’s political and economic health.

They aren’t there yet, and any progress will be doomed if religious reactionaries are allowed to dominate the discourse. U

2011.04 .07/ubyssey.ca /opinions/11

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editorial exams shouldn’t hinder effective advocacy While this election offers policy options that, for the first time in recent memory, are of real interest to students, the timeline for the election is less than ideal. Not only is all of the campaigning happening in the midst of exams and final papers, but the day of the vote itself is May 2. That’s right in the middle of moving and vacationing for many, many students. So in many ways, the deck is stacked against us leveraging this rare opportunity—one where politicians actually care what we think—all that much.

But there are a few things student groups and clubs can do in the upcoming weeks that could provide a valuable service. First, educating students on how they can vote. Last election, there was a change in what constituted valid ID, forcing students who lived in campus housing to either bring registered mail, or to swear an oath and be vouched for by a registered voter. Few students knew this, and thousands were unable to vote.

And that was in the middle of October.

Given that, it’s especially critical for all students moving from one residence to another to know what they have to provide in order to vote, and for the AMS and UBC Housing to communicate that.

Secondly, we’d like to see an all-candidates forum on campus. One was organized in the SUB in 2008, and it was a valuable opportunity for students to ask pertinent questions and for our elected hacks to get face time with potential MPs before they got elected. Both are important, and unless you believe Kyle Warwick or Sangeeta Lalli are going to be elected next month, an all-candidates forum is the best way for it to take place.

These may not be groundbreaking or particularly exciting endeavours, but the work of advocacy, education and lobbying is filled with plenty of mundane tasks that pay off in the long run. Here’s hoping people take the chances afforded by an election to do this. wage increases deserve a fair debate At last night’s council meeting, less than a month after the referendum for an AMS fee increase barely passed, a motion came from committee to pass an across-the-board increase to AMS salaries. Without any consultation. Luckily, Council stopped this in its tracks, delaying a vote until the next meeting.

The increases weren’t necessarily a bad thing.

They are a result of the recent increases in the BC minimum wage. But both employees currently making minimum wage and those that are making more would be getting increases, to reflect the current pay tiers. And somewhere in there, those goshdarn chowderheads forgot to do proper planning, consultations, legible Excel documents or assessments of previous reports.

One of the main issues is that the AMS Executive actually aren’t allowed to receive raises in the middle of their terms, according to code. So getting raises would require that code be suspended—which they can do if they want, but that code is there for a reason. And the stated justification for the executive wage increase is that otherwise some people in the AMS would be paid more per hour than the Execs. Another sticky point is that the pay increases reflect a percentage-based increase to all positions. Increases to the minimum wage are meant to benefit the lowest-paid, not serve as an excuse to also hike up higher-tier wages. This could be a chance to reassess which positions are the most important and pass fair adjustments.

Across-the-board pay increases have the potential to push the AMS’s finances back into the red once more. In fact, turning previously volunteer positions into paid ones is one of the reasons they were in such financial straits this year. Without careful planning, the AMS could end up back on your doorstep, hat in hand, asking for another fee increase.

Needless to say, this could have been bad for the AMS’s public relations. The “no” campaign, which nearly stopped the fee increase from passing, argued the AMS wanted to pass the referendum was to raise salaries. And careless use of money is exactly the sort of thing that 48 per cent of voting students, who didn’t want the to have their fees increase, were no doubt worried about when they voted “no.” This is money that you, as students, voted (barely) for them to use—you’d expect they’d be a little more careful with it. U

virginie ménard graphic/the ubyssey

opinions

Katic: Living in the Adderall Era Gordon Katic Columnist Once again it’s April, and that means baseball season has begun. However, the sport remains shrouded by its reputation for rampant performance–enhancing drug use. Time and time again, talk of baseball becomes condemnation, derision and sanctimonious screeds about integrity. Athletes? No, they’re bloated cheaters, certainly not worthy of our respect.

But baseball isn’t the only season starting this April. Yes, I’m thinking of final exam season. In this season too, there is rampant use of performance–enhancing drugs. Just like baseball players, students crack under the pressure of keeping pace in a competitive environment. Despite whatever the health effects might be, students pop copious amounts of amphetamine pills. Integrity? Don’t be silly, the stakes are much too high for that.

Like the slugger who takes steroids in the final year of his contract because he thinks it will help him land a big deal next season, students in their last year of undergrad use amphetamines to help get into graduate school.

In both of these cases, the use of performance–enhancing drugs proliferated during the 90s. Illegal use of ADHD stimulants on college campuses tripled between 1992 and 2003. According to the most recent studies, nowadays anywhere between 16 and 34 per cent of undergrads admit to using stimulants, mostly during times of academic stress. For baseball, the 90s marked the beginning of the ‘steroid era.’ In academia, it would be apt to start calling this the ‘Adderall era.’

I wish nobody took these performance–enhancing drugs. Not only is it unhealthy, but it’s unethical. However, I won’t condemn baseball players who use steroids, nor will I condemn those who use study drugs. We must recognize that, in both cases, there has never been more pressure to perform. For baseball players, they’re taking drugs for their own job security. For students, it’s the exact same motivation.

There’s something rather perverse about an educational system whose core function is to churn out able workers with marketable degrees. According to a UCLA survey, in 1971, 37 per cent of university students said the primary aim of their university education was

to become “well-off financially,” while 73 per cent of students came for a “philosophy of life.” By 2009, those numbers had reversed, as the primary aim for 78 per cent of students was to become “well-off financially.” But we shouldn’t place all the blame on the student, because financial insecurity is a reality. According to the most recent largescale study of college stress, “The American Freshmen: National Norms Fall 2010,” students are feeling record levels of stress, in large part due to financial anxiety. Researchers suggest that the bleak job market (in the US, there are five job seekers for every opening), record debt levels and parental unemployment are placing added pressure on students to succeed. It appears likely that this generation of students is going to be worse off than their parents.

It’s unfortunate that this society forces its best and brightest to forego a real education—aimed at wisdom, knowledge and critical thinking—in favour of more financially secure degrees. Like the benchwarmer who’s scared he’ll be sent back to the minors, today’s student is anxious about their future. Should we be surprised that either decide to use performance-enhancing drugs? U

Trevor Record of a disgusting comparison of fraternity drinking crackdowns by the RCMP to the Holocaust. After returning from a year on exchange in France, I provided investigative work on the Aquatic Centre. In addition, I promoted the work of several students trying to stop the deportation of an El Salvadorian immigrant.

I believe The Ubyssey shines when it keeps this University on its toes. Its shine goes away when it provides a tin mouthpiece to former and unelected AMS executives. Blake Frederick still occasionally appears, after having disgraced UBC on the international scale through his UN Human Rights debacle. Matthew Naylor, the never-was VP External, continues to campaign hopelessly for a position that has yet to exist.

Meanwhile, Gordon Katic writes about soft, safe issues, declaring tuition ‘too high’ and women’s rights as ‘universal.’

Perhaps Mr. Katic should rename his column ‘The Obvious.’

The writers for this paper, ripe with history, need to be diversified. It is a small group of students that work hard to publish this paper twice a week. And that needs to be appreciated. But there are scores of English majors, journalism students and activists that need to be welcomed into The Ubyssey. There need to be hard-line investigators that question McElroy and Cappellacci’s glossy, well-rehearsed responses. We need writers, not narcissistic ex/current AMS politicians, revealing scandals and proposing logistically feasible solutions to our university’s issues.

YES is a hardly objective thing to put on a front page pre-referendum. UBC students can think for themselves. Give them that right. Then, let them write.

letters A Human Write: An Objective Press I couldn’t help but be shocked at the large YES on the cover of The Ubyssey prior to the referendum. Endorsements aside, the tradition of the press as an objective, democratic institution was lost on UBC’s beloved campus paper. The tens of thousands of students the Society represent bears two key implications. First, you represent a lot of people. Second, and more importantly, those people are going to have different opinions.

While the politics of this referendum were important to certain students, as usual, apathy reigned rampant on our campus. Personally, nearly half of my friends and colleagues had no clue about the referendum. All they saw: the word YES everywhere, including on the student paper meant to inform us and keep our AMS executives in line. In my second year at UBC, I informed writer

—Nadeem Hakemi

2011.04.07/ubyssey.ca/our campus/11

our campus bryce warnes culture@ubyssey.ca The cement-bound hellscape of Gage Towers was decorated yesterday with faint stirrings of life as, in defiance of entropy and the dread god Moloch, a row of tulips probed the warming spring air. Gage residents, clad in peasant rags and buckling under loads of damp wood and sorrow, were mesmerized by this rare display of vitality.

Some of them even paused in the midst of their never-ending perambulations between the torture wheel, the mud pit and the charcoal-burning flats, taking a moment from their torturous existences to revel in the oranges and yellows of those courageous blossoms. Before long, though, the Gage taskmasters took notice, setting about their charges with flails, and the pitiful residents were forced back to their grueling labours. But as they toiled, each held in their heart a tiny bulb of hope, incubating until the day when their spring would come. U

geoff lister photo/the ubyssey