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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2004
PINION Friday, February 24, 2006 -
Vol. 28, No. 28
This is what you've elected
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opinion@imprint.uwaterloo.c: Opinion Editor: Wasim Parka Opinion Assistant: Jennifer GU(
I had to prepare for this column. Exhaustive meditation with two forties of Old English - err, some nice green tea and a silk pillow -led me to a few conclusions. The first is why do people bother drinking Old English? The second is that this is going to be a very, very interesting year for our Feds exec. I'm not sure there is enough radical thought to push the envelope on student government. We won't see much change or advancement for all students, rather I think the status quo will be well maintained. Let's start with Renjie Butalid, everyone's favourite VPAF who hypothetically would close Aussies. He didn't know they were making money - fair enough, I can understand how you would c<?me to a decision like that without looking at financial statements of any sort. And indeed it seems plausible that a VPAF candidate
wouldn't know the current financial status of all Feds businesses ... All that aside, I'm sure Butalid will get a handle on the job eventually. I mean, as long as his extra-curricular activities don'tinterfere. You know, being pictured on the Compass Catholic Fellowship homepage, all that evangelizing takes time. And hopefully all the Sigma Chi activities don't tax his time further. Jeff Henry will be putto the test in the coming months. Given his experience, the transition from Howie Bender to Henry shouldn't be painful. With McGuinty's big two-year tuition freeze coming to a close, Henry is going to be called to battle like Russell Crowe in a Russell Crowe movie. Picture that, ole Jeff Henry all armoured up, taking a mace to the face of rising tuition. Solid. Speaking of champions - the unlikely VPI candidate Sai Kit Lo certainly makes for an interesting case. Lawrence Lam has done a great job of glorifying Lo on his blog - the lone soldier, a true rags-to-riches story. When you've got the support of one of the larger (and more political) fraternities on campus and all the Christians - things definitely tend to go your way. Interestingly enough, Lo received a testimonial from Ciprian Mihalcea,
Sigma Chi's webmaster and UW's senator-at large. I wonder if Lo will support fraternitie~ especially after such a nice gesture. And then there's Michelle Zakrisol - friend of the environment. She has a gOO( head,on her shoulders, something we'll nee( to ensure the execs make fair and balance( decisions. I'm not saying they won't anyway, but it' important to realize where your decision-mak ers hail from. It gives an idea for the future who will get support, and what decisions wi) be levied. And while clubs still crave attention, you VPAF definitely has a vested interest in sup porting fraternities. And Lo, with the testimonia from Mihalcea and all the wonderful suppor during his campaign, doesn't make me fee confident about impending decisions. All inall, the Feds execs were elected reason ably fairly. It's clear that certain organized group on campus "got out the vote." But at the sam. time, the interests of the student population a large were represented. I can make one concrete prediction: this i going to make for some damn good news. editor@imprint.uwaterloo.c.
BARFLIES 路Wow. Look at the concentration on that face, Karen." "Indeed, Bob. It's easy to see why he's the gold medal favourite at this aerials competition, here in Torino."
"He's looking good on the approach .....
路Uh ok - something appears to have gone wrong. Bob. This could end in disaster."
~\
Well, you get points for' degree-of-difficulty, but that'
lan\d~
i:::-':~~:. get these skis off.
\
The key to getting along Turmoil over the c;artoons could have been solved with one ~imple step
.AsK Ns UTER The idea of building a culture is as complex and complicated a problem as you might come across in your life. There are no models on which it can be based nor any laboratory where it can be experimented on. And yet despite the fact that I can't show you culture in my hand, it is as real and dynamic as any person on this planet. As defined by askoxford.com, culture is "the customs, institutions, and other achievements ofa particular nation, people or group." Within this basic framework, however, there are virtually an infinite num-' ber of variations. Some may be as similar as following a minutely different interpretation of the Bible, where others contrast 'like black and white. People within a culture are, in a general sense, all alike. While that may not result in a harmonious existence or a common belief system in all aspects in life, it is essentially a foregone conclusion that they prefer their culture to any other.
Where the idea of culture is important stems from the designation of the most basic of human rights and freedoms that every person on this planet is entitled to. What is clear is that this definition can differ from culture to culture, and that rllis list can serve as a source of friction and even conflict between them. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the controversy between Denmark and much of the Muslim world over a series of cartoons with which I am sure you are well acquainted. At the heart of the matter is the breadth of freedom of speech and just how free it actually is. Danes, as well as most of the western world, say that so long it is not a hate crime (a term that is continuously redefined by the courts), people have the freedom to express themselves in whichever way they see fit, including by way of the cartoon. The counterpoint to this are represented in this case by the many nations with strong affiliation with Islam and use prescribed religious law as their own, where any depiction of the Prophet Muhammad is stri'ctly forbidden. The question of which perspective is right in this case is not a simple one, and there is likely no one true answer as what is right and wrong depends strongly on the moral fibre woven by the generations who have upheld the customs and institutions of a given culture.
Thus, there cannot be such a thing as a trul: unbiased judge of cultural issues despite th, UN's attempts otherwise. Perhaps a start in the right direction, lik, most contested issues, is with education As Tim Alamenciak, the Imprint Editor-in chief talked about a few weeks ago, mere!: tolerating other cultures simply does not gl far enough - to fully comprehend an issue there needs to be a certain level of under standing. For the average Dane I am sure i is difficult to understand the outrage cominl from Muslims worldwide on an intellec.tual emotional and spiritual level just as it woull be for a Muslim to understand the point 0: view of the editor who published the cartoon iri the first place. For me to say which side is right in thi is~ue would be hypocritical at best, and thu I'll simply reserve my personal opinion 0: the matter to a criticism of both partie involved who have allowed ignorance anI short-sightedness to run rampant in thei decision making abilities. But perhaps more importandy, this debad is proof enough to add at least one item tl the list of basic rights and freedoms for al of humanity - that being the right to at education so that we all can understand th world around us a little bit better. kruch@imprint.uwaterloo.c,