The University of Guelph’s Independent Student Newspaper

167.8 ◆ thursday, march 18th, 2012 www.theontarion.com

meet your new csa executive ...Page 14

index7 Arts & Culture

12 Sports & Health

19 Life

22 Opinion

25 Editorial

26 Crossword

28 Classified

28 Community Listings

the issues

3 cuts forCAnCEr

9 keithriCHArdS

11 kitebOArding

a campaign for everyoneConsidering A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant, and a Prayer

natasha Visosky

One in three women are sexually assaulted in their lifetime. This may be a statistic you’ve heard before, but you probably haven’t spent too much time dwelling on it. On Mar. 3 and 4, people gath-ered at the Bullring to raise money and awareness while taking in two hours of emotional mono-logues performed by students on the subjects of sexual assault, physical harm, and hardships faced by women. This was pre-sented as part of V-Day, the global movement encouraging “a global activist movement to stop vio-lence against women and girls” that calls itself “a catalyst that promotes creative events to in-crease awareness, raise money, and revitalize the spirit of existing antiviolence organizations.” Pro-ceeds from the night’s event went to Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis, The Wellness Centre, and to a global V-Day fund to help women abroad. The “V” stands for Victory, Valentine, and Vagina.

Even if you’re not an active feminist, it’s important to try

and be aware of the state of the injustices individuals of certain genders face. The performances provided an excellent chance to connect with such issues emo-tionally through a medium that transmits empathy in an ex-traordinary way: theatre. Every participant bore their soul for all

to see. For every tale told, the audience felt that there were mil-lions just like it.

The ratio of men to women at the event was rather uneven, as the audience was almost entire-ly female, with only a few men.

Bottled water sales on the way out?duncan day-myron

When unofficial results of last week’s election were posted, with it came the results of the three referendum questions. All three questions passed, including one proposing bottled water sales on campus end, which came in at 78.62 per cent in favour. How-ever, if you’d read these results and thought that it meant you’d instantly no longer be able to purchase bottled water on cam-pus, that isn’t the case.

Bottled water sales on campus are controlled by the retailers themselves, whether it is the Bullring, Hospitality Services, or the Grad Lounge, to name a few. This question is simply part of a larger initiative made through-out the year by the CSA to move toward more sustainable prac-tices on campus with regards to drinking water. That initiative is ongoing.

“The next step is basically meet-ing with the administration and

The u of g’s v-day chapter offered two presentations of a memory, a monologue, a rant, and a Prayer at the Bullring on mar. 3 and 4. as part of their campaign to educate campus about violence against women.

vanessa tignanelli

SEE MMRP PAGE 10 SEE Bottles PAGE 6

Putin reaffirms right to ruleHot off unprecedented protests against his rule, and his portrayal as a lonely old man in a German produced documentary, Russian leader Vladimir Putin shocked no one by winning Presidential elections this week. Monitors then shocked no one by pointing to irregularities in the conduct of the elections. Amidst a crack-down on protests against the results, Andrei Isayev, a senior official in Putin’s party, terrified everyone by referring to Russians as “a conqueror people.” Elec-tion controversies aside, even opponents appear to accept that Putin, facing communists, ultra-nationalists, and liberal parties tied to the urban population, or as Putin terms them “foes,” drew a majority of votes in the troubled country. (BBC)

canadian government responds with the bare minimum to syrian massacresIn response to the Syrian gov-ernment’s bloody and rapidly growing crackdown on oppo-nents, the Canadian government has extended its sanctions regime and closed its embassy in the country. Sanctions now ban all financial services and dealings with the Syrian central bank, and freeze the assets of seven mem-bers of the Assad government. While positive moves, many remain doubtful they will have much effect on the actions of the dictatorship, which has been allowed to act relatively free from substantive international pres-sure. Syrian-Canadian groups and their supporters continue to pressure the Canadian govern-ment to do more to help their ravaged homeland. (Globe and Mail)

israel’s netanyahu repeats threatsIn Washington this week, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netan-yahu reiterated his willingness to attack Iran unilaterally if their government acquires nuclear technology, while American president Barack Obama cau-tioned against “loose talk of war.” The American president clarified that the United States was committed to ensuring that Iran does not acquire an actual nuclear weapon, but refused to go as far as Netanyahu in com-mitting to an illegal war. Obama did voice support for the posi-tion that the Israeli government may act as it sees fit. While this gap in stances appears to pre-clude American involvement in a regional war, many worry that an expected Spring attack by Israel will force American involvement as Obama faces pressure pre-election. (Toronto Star)

Compiled by Cal Ceasar

up for the cut?Cuts for Cancer holds fundraiser at Stone road Mall

Beth Purdon-mcLeLLan

On Mar. 2 to 5, Guelph had the chance to donate their hair to Cuts for Cancer, an organization that collects hair for wigs for can-cer patients. Cuts for Cancer is a CSA club started three years ago by Lisa Kellenberger, a MA stu-dent at the University of Guelph. Cuts for Cancer received such an enthusiastic response that the club decided to relocate the event to Stone Road Mall, and partner with a salon called Karisma.

“We just found that the space in the UC was too small for the amount of people we wanted to accommodate,” said Kellenberger.

“Which was great really. It’s proba-bly the best problem you can have.”

When The Ontarion interviewed Kellenberger, Cuts for Cancer had collected 66 ponytails, which is more than previous years. The

majority of people who partici-pate cut off eight to 10 inches of hair, which is the minimum re-quirement for a wig. It can take about nine to 15 ponytails to man-ufacture a single wig.

The hair is donated to two orga-nizations called Pantene Beautiful and Locks of Love, depending on whether or not the hair is treated. Pantene, a Canadian organization, distributes wigs through the Cana-dian Cancer Society and does not accept hair that has been treated or coloured. Cuts for Cancer also do-nates to the US organization Locks of Love to maximize that number of donations.

“Our preference is to keep it in Canada, because then it gets do-nated to Canadian women and children who’ve lost their hair in treatment,” said Kellenberg-er. “But we want to make sure that as many people as possible participate.”

Real wigs are considered su-perior to synthetic wigs for a number of reasons. After manu-facture, real wigs are one length and can be cut and styled just like real hair according to the client’s preference. The other benefit of real hair wigs is the comfort level. Not only are they tailor fitted, but they behave more like real hair.

“It really feels a lot better. It’s the difference between having real hair and Barbie hair,” said Kellenberger.

There are lots of ways to par-ticipate in the event, such as sponsoring someone to shave their head, or by simply donat-ing to the Cuts for Cancer website. This year Cuts for Cancer part-nered up with an organization called Streaks for Cancer. People can buy coloured hair extension for $10-20 if they can’t quite bring themselves to shave. Both hair and monetary donations will be collected until the end of the month.

cuts for cancer collected both hair and monetary donations at stone road mall to provide wigs for cancer patients.

allison rostic

key tips to finding a job this summerdaVid Lochead

It is no secret that university is expensive, and finding a job for the summer or school year is essential. Luckily, there are many opportunities for students to get employed and possibly in an area similar to their degrees. Carrie Steele, a coordinator at CESC (Co-operative Education and Career Services) stresses two main themes for students seek-ing employment: find a job sooner rather than later and preferably look for jobs related to your de-gree or career interests.

A tool emphasized by Steele to find such jobs is Recruit Guelph, which can be found at the Co-operative Education and Career

Services desk or on the Univer-sity of Guelph website. Recruit Guelph advertises over 250 sum-mer jobs for students and over 220 part-time jobs, many related to a student’s degree: more than enough for those who take the time to look on the site.

Steele’s advice on finding em-ployment soon should not fall on deaf ears either. While pro-grams like Recruit Guelph are in full swing, deadlines for student employment with the Federal and Ontario government have already come and gone. Students may also find opportunities to earn higher wages but Steele em-phasizes that should not be one’s main goal. Even with prospects of higher profit, Steele stresses the

second important theme towards student employment: career-re-lated jobs.

“If you can get a career-relat-ed job that is the place you want to work,” said Steele. As well, a student is better fit to explore different career -elated jobs throughout different summers.

“Students should want to develop different skills and different ex-periences, it’s certainly beneficial having different employers on the resume, it allows you to develop different skills.”

Steele recommends, which quells the commonly held belief that it is good to stay with one employer over time.

As for resumes, Steele empha-sizes extra-curricular activities

as well as career-related jobs to add to your resume.

“Competition between other universities can be intense,” Steele explains. “It’s one extra step.”

For more information on stu-dent jobs, go to the CESC section on the University of Guelph’s website or the Recruit Guelph job fair at the UC courtyard from 10a.m.-3p.m. on Mar. 27. So to get the career-oriented student job you want, get involved sooner rather than later.

For more about summer job hunting, check out page 22.

“it really feels a lot

better. it’s the difference

between having real

hair and barbie hair.”

– Lisa Kellenberger

nEwS 167.8 ◆ march 8th – 14th, 2012 3

scientifically inclined: harnessing brain waves to move objectsScientists prove that it is possible to dissociate brain waves from the action with which they are normally associated.

arieLLe duhaine-ross

Roald Dahl’s Matilda was a favor-ite book of mine as a child long before the movie was released in 1996. Like many children, I wished I could move objects using only my mind, just like the little girl in that book. Although that specific skill probably won’t be possible in our lifetime, scientists recently revealed that we are now one step closer to harnessing the mind’s power to move objects and, more importantly, we are now also one step close to sig-nificantly improving the lives of people affected by spinal chord injuries.

In an article published in Na-ture, Dr. Jose M. Carmena and his team of researchers re-veal that they have been able to isolate specific brain waves in-dependently from the physical

movement that they normally trigger. This innovative study opens up the possibility of pros-thetics that could be completely controlled by the mind, allowing people who are completely para-lyzed to use them.

To demonstrate this, the re-searchers set up an experiment in which rats had to complete an abstract task in order to get a food reward. The catch? The rats could only complete the task if they didn’t use physical movement.

The scientists outfitted each rat with a brain-machine inter-face (BMI). This machine converts brain waves into auditory tones. The only way to obtain the food reward was for the rats to mod-ulate their thought patterns within a specific brain circuit. This modulation in turn raised the pitch of the signal, allow-ing them access to sugar water, or lowered the pitch of the sig-nal, allowing them to access food pellets. If, however, the rats used the targeted group of neurons to twitch their whiskers (their usual function) then the BMI would fail to change the pitch of the audi-tory tone, and they would not

gain access to any food.It took only two

weeks for the rats to learn how to get the food. Through this training pro-cess, the rats learned to as-sociate certain thought patterns with the appropriate pitch and were able to control when and how often they were reward-ed. In essence, the research-ers managed t o s e p a r a t e the role of the targeted motor neuron that triggers whisker twitching from the action.

Carmena, associate professor of electrical engineering at UC Berkeley, cognitive science and neuroscience, believes that this study demonstrates the very real possibility that a patient could one day control a prosthetic without having to use any physi-cal movement.

“This is something that is not

natural for the rats,” said Dr. Rui Costa, co-principal investigator of the study. “This tells us that it’s possible to craft a prosthesis in ways that do not have to mimic the anatomy of the natural motor system in order to work.”

The researchers hope that this study will lead to the develop-ment of new and more innovative prosthetics. So, although we won’t be using The Force for

telekinesis any time soon, it is possible that we might see those who have lost motor control re-gain some agency and control over their lives in the next few years, which is just as extraor-dinary if you ask me.

Arielle blogs about science at www.salamanderhours.com

courtesy

www.theontarion.com nEwS4

safe week promotes education and awareness of sexual assaultBeth Purdon-mcLeLLan

The Wellness Centre is getting ready for Sexual Assault Free Environment (SAFE) week, a campaign that pro-motes awareness and education on sexual assault. On Mar. 5, 4000 pinwheels were placed around the cannon to represent the number of students on campus who may have experienced sexual assault. SAFE week held awareness events on campus and a T-shirt campaign from Mar. 12 to 16.

“We have lots of profs who are going to be wearing T-shirts, and we have all kinds of students in the criminology course who are going to be wearing T-shirts,” said Mela-nie Bowman, from Student Health Services. “We’re trying to make it a wide audience.”

Awareness is a major part of SAFE week because many people are un-aware of the frequency of sexual assault. It is estimated that one in four women will experience sex-ual assault, and for men the ratio is one in ten. The T-shirt campaign promotes visibility and brings

education out into the community. The Wellness Centre encourages men especially to show their support for women by collecting signatures of male allies on their T-shirts.

“Some the challenges are that the perpetrators of sexual assault are not going to come to an event about sexual assault,” said Bowman. “So it’s not to say that the individuals here aren’t going to take the learn-ing and education around kitchen tables and bar stools, but it’s that it’s generally not going to attract those individuals who really need the information.”

The Wellness Centre is based on a peer help education model, where student are responsible for running workshops and providing informa-tion. Currently, the Wellness Centre is holding a series of workshops that focus specifically on consent and healthy relationships. They are also in the process of creating a work-shop that brings awareness to the fact that there can be abuse in same sex relationships.

Creating an SAFE space is some-thing that happens both on and off

campus. The Wellness Centre col-laborates with many groups and organizations in the community to give survivors of sexual assault the support they need.

“It’s called ASAP and that’s Awareness of Sexual Assault and Prevention, and what we do is that

we look at ways to promote edu-cation and awareness around this issue,” said Bowman. “So the Well-ness centre is part of that bigger committee.”

The committee includes the CSA local affairs commissioner, the di-rector of Campus Police, Campus

Housing, CJ Munford, and the Ab-original Resources Centre.

SAFE week is usually held around National Women’s Day as a way to promote awareness. For students who wish to participate in the T-shirt campaign, T-shirts will be available from the JT Powell building.

as part of safe week, the wellness centre placed 4000 pinwheels around the cannon to represent the prevalence of sexual assault.

marianne Pointner

shedding the stigma of mental health challengeskarim Boucher

If you were to pass any given stranger on campus, you may (perhaps) not even pay them a sec-ond glance. You may not wonder who they are, or what they be-lieve in, or how they came to be right there in front you. Yet, de-spite our unknowing, there is an entire world of people around us to whom we may not be as different as we let ourselves believe.

This holds true for many things, but this Thursday, Mar. 8, the University of Guelph campus is coming together to share in its common experiences on mental health challenges; perhaps one

of the most widely prevalent yet grossly misunderstood realities af-fecting our society today.

The 1 in 5 committee came together as a part of various or-ganizations on campus trying to raise awareness and support mental health. It aims to reduce stigma and support those who may be experiencing a mental health challenge.

The name originates from a Ca-nadian Mental Health Association (CHMA) statistic estimating that one in five Canadians will suffer from a mental health challenge in any given year.

Shannon Stach, a volunteer from the Student Support Network

(SSN) at the University of Guelph, and one of the organizers of the

“1 in 5” event, has battled depres-sion for years and emphasizes the importance of awareness and un-derstanding both on a personal and social level. Stach mentioned that she herself did not even realize she suffered from depression for many years; she now struggles to help others achieve the same clarity.

“For me it’s really important to reach out to the younger gener-ations and be a peer support for my generation,” said Stach. “The biggest support that I have is the mental health community, and I don’t know where I would be without it.”

In many respects, mental health challenges may very much be the silent killer. Often having dev-astating effects on a person’s life, they are made all the more deadly by people’s reluctance to address the issue.

“The first step is to create that safe space so people can start talk-ing about their experience and not feel ashamed by it or feel that what they are going through is not real,” said Brittany Moor, SSN volunteer and organizer for the event.

Thursday will feature a number of events all designed to educate on mental health and show how ev-eryone can take steps to improve their quality of life. The events

include a panel discussion, mental health training session, self-care events, and a resource fair. The panel discussion will take place from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in Rozanski Hall, room 103, and will include guest speaker Eric Windeler, the founder of the Jack Project at Kids Help Phone.

Be sure to participate in the T-shirt campaign, students can receive a “One-in-Five” T-shirt to help support the cause with donation of $5. T-shirt sales will take place leading up to and in-cluding Thursday. Students who don’t manage to purchase a shirt can also wear green on the day of the event to show their support.

nEwS 167.8 ◆ march 8th – 14th, 2012 5

The costs of being an international studentamy Van den Berg

It is expected for a student at the University of Guelph to say that they are experiencing financial hardships. It is not uncommon for students to make sacrifices regarding their undergraduate or graduate education. For interna-tional students, this is a significant understatement. These fellow Gry-phons are minorities in the sense that they are far from their homes and families, and that they have had the unfortunate experience of having to deal with exorbitant international student tuition fees.

While all Canadian students have had to cope with the effects of the increasing rate of tuition fees in the last decade, the amount paid by international students continues to be excessively high. The average undergraduate student in Ontario has to pay $6640 for the 2011/2012 year, almost a third of the $17,571 demanded of international stu-dents. Last year, Ontario recorded the largest increase in interna-tional undergraduate tuition fees, reaching a high of 6.1 per cent.

The root cause of elevated fees is government underfunding. In-ternational students were not charged differential student rates until the 1970’s, when the federal government suggested that charg-ing foreign students different rates was an easy way for Canadian in-stitutions to generate additional revenue.

These numbers are dramatically increased for graduate students such as Jaime Brenes Reyes. Origi-nally from Nicaragua, and in the process of completing his MA on Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Reyes talks about the dif-ficulties of being an international

student at the University of Guelph. Reyes remarks that in addition

to tuition, international students must cope with forever-rising additional compulsory fees. The University of Guelph website states that upon their arrival to the Guelph campus, international students are expected to provide a study permit as a condition of admission. Since interna-tional students are excluded by OHIP, in addition to medical and dental plans, these students are re-quired to purchase the University Health Insurance Plan (UHIP) for themselves and any other accom-panying family members. Failure to do so will result in a $500 pen-alty assessment.

Reyes came to Canada on a full scholarship in 2004 and completed his undergraduate degree at Trent University. Now nearly finished his studies, he has had a lot of experi-ence with elevated fees, a situation he feels is unfair.

Reyes describes his first four years studying in Canada with en-joyment, saying how fortunate he was to have achieved a scholarship, as he would not be here without one. He remembers feeling as-tonished at the price of bananas, almost quadruple the price of the same fruit in his country of origin. This was when the realities of the costs of living began to sink in. He says that an international student barely considers the cost of living, since tuition is the primary focus of concern. Upon the completion of his undergraduate degree at Trent he was no longer helped by a scholarship and was left to face the international graduate-lev-el costs of tuition along side the price of rent, food and additional fees charged by the University of

Guelph. But, as Reyes says, he was already here.

Reyes describes his frustration with the little influence interna-tional students have on their fate as institutional cash-grabs, and describes the biggest issue foreign students face are vulnerability and fear. After recently experiencing a close call with the expiration of his student visa, Reyes was forced to extend his education until the administrative conflict was re-solved. This nearly cost him more money, as his academic duration was stretched into the following year. Luckily Reyes confronted the matter, and dealt with the lengthy procedure of getting his money back, a process that he says would rarely be undertaken by the aver-age international student.

Students being overworked or unfairly treated are often too afraid of any repercussions that would jeopardize their scholarship or hard-fought and expensive educa-tion. Unlike the average Canadian youth that attends the University of Guelph, international students don’t have anywhere else to go but back to their home country, should anything go wrong. This is why, Reyes claims, international students are such easy targets for governments and institutions to charge double the rates on their tuition.

International students make up a valuable fraction of Guelph’s stu-dent population, creating diversity through the enrichment of friend-ships and academic perspectives. Reyes echoes the popular opin-ion that Canada, as a developed and notoriously generous coun-try, has both the responsibility and the resources to assist those who want to learn.

coyotes attacks increase in frequencyJordan sLoggett

Most of us eventually grow out of our childhood fear of dangers living in the woods, but for some Guelph residents those fears have been re-awoken. A number of coyote attacks on pets in Guelph have been reported over the last few weeks. A report issued by the Guelph Humane Society and the City of Guelph suggests to always keep an eye on small children while they’re outside, and keep dogs and cats inside during the night.

One of those attacks occurred on Feb. 24, and resulted in the death of a beloved family dog. Watch-ing from the backyard window of their home in the south end of Guelph, the dog owner’s 11-year-old daughter witnessed two coyotes attack and kill their pet.

Coyotes haven’t been native to Southern Ontario for very long.

They migrated from western North America just over a hundred years ago. Since then they’ve been thriving, and have expanded their territory to just about all of North America.

“Coyotes play an important role in controlling populations of rab-bits, rats and mice, and they can be a threat to other animals,” said Deb Gray, operations manager for the Guelph Humane Society.

While normally nocturnal, they are known to be active in the day-time during their mating season, from around January to mid-March.

“Coyotes are highly adaptive, and they’re learning to live clos-er to people so we are starting to see them more often,” said Gray, who’s worked in animal care for 18 years. “People can discourage coy-otes from entering their properties by removing yard waste and se-curing compost and other garbage”

Coyotes, or Canis latrans are closely related to wolves and dogs which, along with the dingoes and the jackals, make up all the living species of the genus Canis. Aside from killing or injuring pets, they are also are sexually attracted to some dog species. Male coyotes and female dogs can give birth to hybrids called Coydogs. The in-verse- Dogotes is also possible but occurs less often.

Gray says that the coyotes are learning to adapt to living in close proximity to humans, and like any wild animal will do what they have to do to survive. Outdoor cats are especially vulner-able to coyotes as they don’t tend to have a fear of dogs, which for them a coyote would resemble. Outdoor cats don’t have the same instincts as a feral cat and would be easier prey for a coyote.

samantha dewaele

marianne Pointner

hospitality services and getting a gauge of how best to phase out bottled water or if we need to make a compromise but certainly there are steps we need to take,” said Jessica Carter, the academic and university affairs commissioner.

Although the CSA’s efforts have been going throughout the semes-ter, the results to this referendum question will definitely strengthen their case moving forwards.

“It’s huge. Students voted over-whelming in favour to discontinue the sale of bottled water on cam-pus,” said Carter. “If anything, action has to be taken.”

Despite the show of support from students, there won’t be anything definitive about the future of bot-tled water on campus right away. Part of the process involves meet-ing with and discussing the topic with representatives from vendors on campus, including Hospitality Services.

“It’s definitely going to be an on-going thing with negotiations and phasing and getting figures about bottled water and how much prof-it that brings into the university,” explained Demetria Jackson, the external affairs commissioner.

Jackson is familiar with similar efforts, and brings up a referendum question from March 2010.

“In 2010 we had the Bullring ref-erendum to remove bottled water there, and that was huge and stu-dents voted overwhelmingly in favour of that,” said Jackson. “Ul-timately it came down to [students] are our stakeholders, this is what they want so we need to make it happen. That was very successful.”

With the success there will hope-fully be motivation for further water bottle restrictions to take place, although part of the issue also in-volves providing alternatives.

“Part of it is also making sure we have more access to water fountains, so that’s something that we’re also advocating for, and accessible water fountains so everyone has access to it,” continued Jackson.

The referendum results only coming in this week, it is still early in the process, and it is something that will likely be ongoing through-out the next year.

“We hope to get the wheels turn-ing and leave a good solid transition for our next counterparts,” said Carter. “Before meeting, it’s diffi-cult to put a time on it. But students voted in favour, so that’s the direc-tion we’re going.”

Bottles CONTINUED

www.theontarion.com nEwS6

improvising instruments and soundsContemporary Music Ensemble kicks off sixth annual U of g Creative Music Festival and Colloquium

iain storosko

A sit down for Mar. 6’s show-case of the University of Guelph’s Contemporary Music Ensemble at the Mackinnon building on the U of G campus had the chilling effect of pushing ones musical boundaries in ways not thought possible. The ensemble is a course offered through the University of Guelph and is open even to those wishing to take part aside from the credit, and audience mem-bers are also always welcome. The performance was part of the sixth annual creative music festi-val and symposium put on by the university, running Mar. 6 to 10, and offered the chance for indi-viduals to immerse themselves in the art of contemporary music.

The performance given the night of the festival’s kickoff con-sisted of collaborations between students enrolled in the course offered through the U of G, as well as their Laurier University

counterparts in Improvisation Concert Ensemble (ICE).

Both schools showed impres-sive ingenuity when it came to presenting their improvisa-tional skills, pulling bizarre and captivating sounds from their instruments in highly creative ways. Each instrument added its own unique blend to the subtle harmony of sounds that was al-most impossible to make heads or tails of. There also seemed to be an enduring sense of passion within the room that came with the whole ensemble. Every time you got an ear fixed on one of the instruments another would jump in and grab your attention, showing its own merits within the infusion.

The evening seemed to bleed the essence of contemporary improvisational music. Try-ing new things, the repertoire played around with whatever was in front of them, illustrat-ing that there are never really any mistakes in the repertoire. Improvising with sounds as well as instruments, the experi-mentation ranged from playing piano strings with toothbrush-es to drumming on guitar cases. It seemed the repertoire had an endless supply of music to

feed their conviction that there is always room to add further creativity to an already diverse group of musicians. Any music geek should be strongly encour-aged to attend one such evening of music, guaranteed to walk away with a fresh take on musical

ensemble and creative license. The remainder of the collo-

quium’s events include lectures from key note speakers, round table discussions, performanc-es, and studio tours. Most events are free to attend. All will be held throughout the Alexander,

MacKinnon, University Centre, and Zavitz buildings on the U of G campus, except for a final joint presentation of an African rep-ertoire and Newfoundland singer, fiddler, actor and accordionist Daniel Payne, at Harcourt United Church on Mar. 10.

Joe sorbara, director of the university of guelph’s contemporary music ensemble (cme) gets creative on the drum kit during their open rehearsal last tuesday night with laurier university’s improvisation concert ensemble (ice).

marianne Pointner

ZZBra is “about nothing”Moka Only weighs in on new collaborative project with Evil Ebeneezer and Stuey Kubrick

tom Beedham

Many Canadian hip-hop listeners will recognize rapper and beat-maker Moka Only (born Daniel Denton) for his involvement in Vancouver-based hip-hop group Swollen Members. Appropriate-ly so, as it was Swollen Members rapper Prevail that gave him his nickname. However, Only is a man of many projects. He has an extensive back catalogue of solo work, and has collaborated with the likes of Ishkan, Jeff Spec, Kirby Dominant, Def 3, Psy, Fac-tor, and Nebz Supreme. He even served some brief time in Len. His newest project, a collaboration with fellow Vancouverites Evil Ebeneezer and Stuey Kubrick that runs under the moniker ZZBRA came to Guelph’s Knights of Co-lumbus Hall on Mar. 3.

Speaking with The Ontarion over the phone following the concert, Only offered some in-sight into how the project came together.

“I’ve known Evil for years from the Vancouver hip-hop scene so he’s somebody that I already had collab’d with in the past,” Only told The Ontarion. “We have a mutual friend, which was his beat maker, Stuey Kubrick, who actu-ally pitched the idea of producing the album for us.”

Only said he and Ebeneezer thought it “was a great idea” so they got to work on what be-came Original Motion Picture Soundtrack in 2007.

“That’s when we actually made the album, and we’ve been real-ly tinkering with it since,” Only said. “We were waiting until all aspects – whether financial or visual – were ready. It just hap-pened to be now, at the beginning of 2012.”

He says that despite the al-bum’s being tied together with a

“wild” and “jungle-istic” theme, it’s ultimately about nothing.

“That’s the glory of it,” said Only. He feels the open-ended nature of the album leaves it up to listeners to develop their own take on the material.

The group also wanted to poke some fun at themselves, some-thing they ran with further in the production of their videos for “Elephant” and “Lets Roll,” which riff on exploitation film

and celebrity.“There’s been a lot of silly

movies in the past that just do outlandish things, whether Tar-zan or even Schwarzenegger movies. We just wanted to show-case some of that. Kind of poke a little fun at that as well poke a little fun at ourselves,” said Only.

“We don’t take ourselves super seriously as individuals; we take the craft of the music seriously.”

While Only’s recent work has been largely devoted to getting ZZBRA off the ground, he says that fans of his work with Swol-len Members might not have to wait long before they can hear him on another one of their re-cordings. According to him, he has contributed some beats and lyrics to an album the group is currently working on.

“They’re my brothers and I’m sure we’ll always be messing with each other for as long as we do music.”

Only also has material on Swol-len Members rapper Mad Child’s latest EP, Little Monster.

For a complete interview with Moka Only, visit theontarion.com.

moka only and evil ebeneezer ventured out to guelph’s knights of columbus hall mar. 3 in support of their new release as ZZBra, Official Motion Picture Soundtrack.

fares al-shammary

arts & culture 167.8 ◆ march 8th – 14th, 2012 7

featured at Zavitz gallery from feb. 27-mar. 2, duplex focused on aspects of the typical urban living situation.

marianne Pointner

album review Plants and Animals – The End of That 4/5

nick reVington

As one might expect from any band’s third album, Montreal indie outfit Plants and Animals’ latest offering, The End of That, is of a more mature sound than its predecessors.

Mature, but not necessarily all-grown-up: the songs are dom-inated by two conflicting themes to which any student can surely relate. First, there is a restlessness about these songs, a yearning to be on the road (take a year off to travel, anyone?). Second, there is a certain apprehension about the future, a realization that what we once thought was the distant future is not so distant anymore (marriage? kids? a real job?). Their website likens 2008’s Parc Av-enue to childhood, and 2010’s La La Land to adolescence. The End of That, then, represents the twenties.

Part of the appeal of Plants and Animals’ early albums was the freewheeling yet restrained rock and roll sound they exhib-ited, particularly in La La Land, with the layered guitar riffs oc-casionally invoking some good old-fashioned Rolling Stones vibes. The End of That began with a completely different ap-proach, starting off with “Before,” a soothing acoustic ballad, before moving into the titular track. “The End of That” is a likewise acousti-cally-dominated piece, but laced with fuzz-toned guitar licks, it is catchy, upbeat, and refreshing. It’s like Tom Petty singing a Bob Dylan song.

The third tune, “Song for Love,” is upbeat as well, beginning with an aesthetic similar to that of the one before it. Though at this point it is understandable if one starts to worry whether or not they can still live up to the rock and roll precedent they constructed with their earlier albums. While these are great songs, it would be an altogether bad thing if their raw edge were to fall by the wayside as they grow as a band. But fear not: halfway through the chorus, the cavalry arrives in the form of wailing guitar chords and shout-ing vocals.

From here on out, the album captures the familiar Plants and Animals sound of earlier works, but with a fresh take. Lead singer Warren Spicer’s voice is throati-er, harsher and, most importantly, more emotive than on either of the previous albums. The vocals are no longer just providing a melody; they provide a depth of meaning beyond the lyrics themselves.

“No Idea” slows things down once more—the way the Eagles might do—in resignation to the fact that the future will always be uncertain. This tension breeds restlessness, and that manifests itself in “Runaways:” one last chance to delay commitment and responsibility, one last youthful road trip.

courtesy

hedley frontman Jacob hoggard serenades a crowd at guelph’s sleeman centre on mar. 1.

regena sinclair

marianne Pointner

www.theontarion.com8 ArtS & CULtUrE

rock ‘n’ roll chameleondeanna Jones guides audience through Keith richards’s life at one-woman show

tom Beedham

An electric guitar, an amp, and a bottle of Jack Daniels make min-imal set props for a performance about a man who has been related to students of rock as a guitar god, a junkie, and a pirate, and described as “mad, bad, and dangerous to know.” but they aren’t any less appropriate. Sitting in wait for Suit-case in Point Theatre Company’s The Keith Richards One Woman Show at the eBar on Mar. 3, this is what bar-flies and lovers of rock ‘n’ roll saw.

The show tells the story of Mona (Deanna Jones), a Keith Richards fanatic who has amassed a collec-tion of The Rolling Stones’ entire back catalogue, and additionally, a nearly total anthology of their con-cert bootlegs. She possesses every known remnant of Stones audio ex-cept for an elusive recording of a controversial 1979 benefit perfor-mance for the blind at the Oshawa Civic Auditorium, a show Richards was ordered to give as a condition of his parole after an arrest and trial following a Toronto drug bust.

When Mona loses an eBay bidding war with another Richards fanatic over the same coveted artifact, she collapses. This is just a glimpse into the world of devotion that Mona has constructed in shrine for her wor-shipped rock god. Following some jinxes against her competing devo-tee, Mona shares her penchant for

“Keith” – as she so familiarly relates Richards – and her fandom woes with the crowd.

Mona’s obsession with Richards cuts so deep, that in addition to her record collection, she has read the guitarist’s book six times. Re-lying on a Jack and shepherds pie diet alone, she is on her eighth day without sleep in an attempt to best

– or at least match – her hero’s per-sonal record (nine days), when, as the laws of dramatic comedy dic-tate, she crashes.

What ensues is a kaleidoscopic dream voyage wherein Mona meets Richards (also Jones), and travels through his years as a Rolling Stone. It is here that Jones proves her-self a true rock ‘n’ roll chameleon, channeling the cartoon weirdness of Richards’s career to offer stop-and-start on a dime impressions of Mick Jagger, Brian Jones, Anita Pal-lenberg (the mother of Richards’s first three children), some of the judges Richards has encountered throughout his career, and of course, Richards himself, to name a few. The amount of Richards’s perspective that informs those impressions is

– given Mona’s inclinations – appro-priate, and particularly recognizable

in Jones’s depiction of Jagger, whose contributions to the band Richards is unrelentingly critical of in his 2010 memoir.

Running just less than an hour, The Keith Richards One Woman Show is far from a comprehensive tour through Richards’s life. Jones

– who also wrote the play – offers selective picks from the musician’s past, present, and even future, going as far as depicting Richards on the set of a Pirates of the Caribbean film that is recording some 4000th episode.

Performed against a perpetu-al musical backdrop provided by the blues-rock stylings of guitar-ist Kevin Richardson, the audience was treated to sound bytes from the Stones themselves as well as those that Richards has cited as having influenced his career (Muddy Wa-ters, Chuck Berry), generating a soundtrack that someone just like Mona might consider essential Stones listening.

A show that simultaneously por-trays the trials and tribulations of fandom while also running through the personal history of a fairly public figure and his band, TKROWS ulti-mately gives back to the myth and the man that is Keith Richards in a way only deep respect and sheer wonder can.

list service: rolling stonedFive drug busts that landed Keith richards in front of courts

tom Beedham

Assembling onstage for the first time in 1962, releasing “The Last Time” in Jan. 1965 saw The Rolling Stones earn a number one spot on U.K. charts as well as a foray into the U.S. top ten in the spring. While the success and popularity the band received and enjoyed long after that release was something to applaud, it also resulted in guitarist Keith Richards falling into some of the most dan-gerous excesses associated with rock

‘n’ roll, and from 1967-1977, he was stood before courts on drug charges five times. Richards has claimed he’s abstained from drug use since those years, but the particularly dark de-cade of his life have left their mark on the public’s perception of him.

1967A police raid of Richards’s Sussex,

Eng. residence found amphetamines in Marianne Faithfull’s (Mick Jag-ger’s girlfriend at the time) coat pocket. Richards and Jagger received sentences for time in prison that were ultimately suspended based on public appeal.

1972After a drug raid of the French

villa where Exile On Main St. was

recorded, Richards and girlfriend Anita Pallenberg were found guilty of possession for marijuana, heroine, and cocaine. They were fined, given suspended prison sentences, and banned from France for two years.

1973A drug raid of Richards’s London

turned up marijuana, heroin, Man-drax tablets, paraphernalia, as well as a .38 Smith and Wesson revolver, a shotgun and 110 rounds of ammu-nition. However, Richards got off on a 250-pound fine. In response to the 1972 and ’73 raids, rumours circu-lated suggesting Richards had all of his blood replaced in a cleanup effort.

1977Conviction of cocaine posses-

sion by a London, Eng. court and fined 1300 pounds after police in-vestigated a car accident involving Richards and found 130 grams of coke in his car.

1977Following a drug raid of his To-

ronto hotel room that upturned 22 grams of heroin, Richards was charged with “possession of heroin for the intention of trafficking” – an offense punishable with sentences of seven years to life in jail. Pleading guilty to possession, Richards was ultimately given a suspended sen-tence and put on probation for a year, with orders to continue treatment for heroin addiction and perform two benefit concerts on behalf of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind.

The Keith Richards One Woman Show sees deanna Jones serve up impressions of rolling stones’ mick Jagger, Brian Jones, and of course, richards himself.

courtesy

List

Service

167.8 ◆ march 8th – 14th, 2012 9ArtS & CULtUrE

The u of g’s v-day chapter presented a memory, a monologue, a rant, and a Prayer at the Bullring on mar. 3 and 4.

vanessa tignanelli

The Pop machine: a leaky system is a deficient onePublications trafficking in unlawfully

obtained images of exploitive nature should be penalized

tom Beedham

Last weekend, nude photos of Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks and actress/model Olivia Munn to the Internet. They repre-sent only the latest of photos acquired through cell phone or email hacking.

The ethics of anyone responsi-ble for the delivery of such leaks need no deliberation. The prac-tice of hacking into anyone’s private data is perverted enough, but the further trafficking of such materials for personal gain is in-nately destructive, exploitive and predatory.

In the past, in response to leaks of such nature, it appears the FBI has done what they can and acted appropriately in seeking out and charging who they can identi-fy to be behind such depraved activities.

Christopher Chaney is a

self-professed celebrity hack-er that allegedly hacked into the emails and cell phones of some-where around 50 celebrities. Following an arrest on Oct. 12, 2011, he is in the middle of tri-als that could result in him being sentenced for up to 121 years for his alleged participation in acts privacy violations and character defamation.

What is equally deplorable, is the tendency of news sources to publish such photos.

Yeah, I know: news sources have a responsibility to report on what’s going on and many read-ers are of the “Pics or it didn’t happen” philosophy, but without allowing a venue for such leaked photos, ideally there would be no market for such materials, nude leaks wouldn’t be an issue, and celebrities could maintain their private data.

Anyone approving the initial distribution of photos obtained in an unlawful, invasive manner are especially shameful and should have to answer to penalizations of the same – if not greater – load as those faced by the people obtain-ing photographs illegally. They facilitate and promote an entire network of privacy violation. But at the same time, we need to be critical and vocal about media that are not involved in the ini-tial publication of such images but continue to publish the im-ages anyway. By continuing the publication of hacked images, news media perpetuate the pub-lic presence of material that are meant to be private, and thus fur-ther the exploitation of those that are victimized in the first place.

courtesy

The purpose of V-Day is to raise awareness, and it’s important for women to be aware and feel em-powered by each others’ strength to overcome the many hardships they have had to endure. However, it is equally important for men to hear their stories as well. Reaching out to men on V-Day may need to be the next step of the campaign. The more people who are made aware of violence agains women the better.

The inspiring words found on the back of the program truly showcased the positive energy of the event: “Don’t ever let them silence you girl. You are sensa-tional. What you have to say is important, it is relevant. You are undeniable, you are capable, inde-scribable, revolutionary. You are fucking beautiful.” Let’s hope the message and the campaign it rep-resents can reach the ears of more men and women future years.

MMRP CONTINUED

“Anyone approving the initial distribution

of photos obtained in an unlawful, inva-

sive manner are especially shameful and should have to

answer to penaliza-tions of the same…load as those faced

by the people obtaining photo-graphs illegally.”

www.theontarion.com10 ArtS & CULtUrE

a philosophy for allUbuntu philosophy connects people from all walks of life

daVid Lochead

When Nelson Mandela was impris-oned in South Africa for rebelling against the Apartheid regime, he recognized that he was not the only prisoner. No, he was not only rec-ognizing the others behind bars, he was recognizing the guards. Man-dela philosophically saw that these guards were imprisoned, as was anyone promoting the Apartheid regime. Imprisoned by prejudice, racism and hatred; imprisoned by misunderstanding and confusion. Mandela began to not only think of his own release from prison and his own sense of freedom, but hoped that his release would also free his guards from their own prison.

It is the impactful philosophy of Ubuntu that fuelled Mandela’s be-lief, the sense that he was related to the guards as much as he was to his own family. Just like he was con-nected to those that he knew and loved, Mandela was connected to those that were creating incred-ible pain for him and his people. There are some who would ques-tion the sanity and thought process of Mandela, but it is this philoso-phy of Ubuntu that is recognized as helping South Africa move from Apartheid to Post-Apartheid with-out a civil war. This was a story told by Marty Molengeraaf, ecumeni-cal campus minister and founder of Campus Ubuntu at the univer-sity, about Ubuntu philosophy at the Philopolis Conference held at Macdonald-Stewart Hall on Mar. 3.

Ubuntu can be defined through its associated aphorisms. These in-clude “I am what I am because of who we all are,” and “A person is a person through other people.” Originating from South Africa, Ubuntu is a philosophy that focuses on community and the importance that all humans are connected to each other – that we are all one community.

At this seminar, the impact of Ubuntu was seen presented all different walks of life and how it could be applied. A passionate and revealing story was told by Rene Meshake on how being an Aborigi-nal abused in residential schools tore him of his identity and soul, transforming him into an alcoholic and eventually leaving him home-less in Toronto. Meshake then spoke about the long rehab process and how it brought him to the concept of Akina’awiia, the Aboriginal ver-sion of Ubuntu, which means “A power greater than you.” Meshake spoke about how Akina’awiia lifted the rage he carried from his time in residential schools, as it brought him to the realization that it was

not about ‘I.’ It was about being one with your surroundings and everyone around you.

“I cannot do this alone and still can’t, I need others” said Meshake, emphasizing a sense of community that led to him living a comfort-able life as a happily married artist.

Sean Higgins, a local business-man, spoke about how reading a compelling book on the philosophy of Ubuntu changed his perspec-tives on how to approach being a part of a business. Higgins spoke about how the failure of business-es today is that they are focused on results and not the honesty and interaction with others that Ubun-tu emphasizes. Higgins translated the community motto of Ubuntu into the business world by stress-ing that everyone makes mistakes, and what’s important is how you recover from them. Further, we should separate the person from the mistake. The results come after that.

Michael Nicholson, a fourth year student, explained the core and basic meanings of Ubuntu. Nich-olson concentrated on the theme of Ubuntu being a life philosophy that focuses on the community; it’s a paradigm shift from our individu-alistic society to one more about the

‘us’ than the ‘I.’ Nicholson started by stating a basic Ubuntu approach.

“What you want in life is a differ-ent question from what you want out of life,” Nicholson said. He con-tinued by saying that overemphasis on individuality excludes us from connecting to others through com-munity, concluding that Ubuntu is sustainable because of its shared reality.

Marty Molengeraaf explains a variety of Ubuntu concepts, first telling a story about a Brit-ish woman living in Canada, who was trying to become more of a Canadian. Molengeraaf notes that Canada needs her to be Brit-ish because that is who she is. It is a story that exemplifies the

Ubuntu theme most have heard before, the belief that rather than being someone else, you should be yourself. Molengeraaf adds that we learn how to truly be our-selves, and that Ubuntu teaches us that we can all embrace each other and that difference does not mean Other.

“We can live, learn and em-brace each other in a multicultural experience like we do at the Uni-versity of Guelph, in a way that strengthens our own faith but does not denigrate somebody elses,” said Molegraaf.

He concludes that Ubuntu is not the name and origin of a phi-losophy as much as it is a belief held worldwide. In South Africa it is called Ubuntu, in Nigeria it is called N’Konson Konson, among the Ojibwe it is called Akina’awiia, and among ancient Peruvian cul-ture it is called Minga. The variety of indigenous cultures that have practised a similar concept of Ubuntu speaks to how the phi-losophy is embraced.

In a society that shuns any be-lief that goes against the grain, the concept of Ubuntu may natural-ly seem difficult to accept. But as this Philophis seminar highlights, Ubuntu is a philosophy that can be applied to a wide variety of peo-ple, culture, and practices that can keep our core values intact, but teach us to respect and embrace others more in the sense that we are all one community of people. For more information on Ubuntu, you can go to Campus Ubuntu at McNally House on 377 Gordon St, across from Alexander Hall.

from philosophy and feminism to the philosophy of chemistry to the “species problem,” the inaugural Philopolis guelph conference brought together thinkers to discuss varied topics on campus on mar. 3.

caitlin mcnamara

“we can live, learn and embrace

each other in a multicultural experience like

we do at the University of

guelph, in a way that strengthens

our own faith but does not denigrate somebody elses.”

–Marty Molengeraaf

167.8 ◆ march 8th – 14th, 2012 11ArtS & CULtUrE

huge air, wave riding and complex trickssasha odesse

Dylan Rea, a fourth year UofG student shares insight into the adrenaline-pumping world of kiteboarding.

sasha odesse: how did you get into kiteboarding? what attracted you to it as a sport?

Dylan Rea: I got into kiteboarding at a pretty young age when I saw people riding in the bay next to my cottage. At the time, there were only five or six people doing it but you could count on them being there every single windy day. It was amazing seeing people boost-ing huge air and I was surprised that with so many kite lines criss-crossing each other they managed to avoid tangling themselves up! Eventually, a friend of mine took a lesson and after seeing him ride, I was hooked.

so: what are some of the dangers associated with kiteboarding?

DR: Kiteboarding can be very dan-gerous for beginners or during times when the weather is unpre-dictable. As with any extreme sport, it’s important that you are always cautious– the kites are enormously powerful and if they are used improperly you can get seriously hurt. That being said, if

you are taught proper kite safety and control by an experienced kiteboarder then the sport can be very safe– just be sure not to ride during bad weather!

so: how did you learn?

DR: I was taught to kiteboard when I was around 13 [years old] by a close friend. At the time, there was only one kiteboarding school and kiteboarding lessons were much too expensive for me. These days, there are far more kiteboarding schools around and lessons are cheaper. Like most extreme sports, you cannot learn to kiteboard unless you are taught by an experienced teacher.

so: where are some of your favourite places to kiteboard?

DR: My favourite place to ride is in Sauble Beach or Oliphant, Ontario. I learned to ride in Oliphant and my family now lives there per-manently. Oliphant has terrific flat water but on really windy days Sauble has some killer waves to ride. If you are looking for something a little more exciting, a relatively cheap kiteboarding vacation spot is the Outer Banks in North Carolina. You can drive there in less than 15 hours and the wind is very reliable.

so: what are some of the expenses of kiteboarding?

DR: Kiteboarding can be expen-sive at the onset but buying gear is an investment. Unlike snow-boarding or skiing (which have similar upfront costs), once you have your kiteboarding equip-ment you never have to buy any lift tickets—-the wind is free! You can expect to pay around 300 dol-lars for a day-long lesson, which usually provides you with enough experience to continue the learn-ing process on your own. Buying all of the equipment itself can run anywhere from 700 dollars (if you

purchase second hand equipment) all the way up to 2000 dollars for new equipment. Expect to pay at least 1000 dollars to get yourself started with a harness, kite, bar/lines, and board if you choose to buy directly from a retailer.

so: what would you say/advice would you give to people who were interested in getting into kiteboarding?

Take a lesson! This advice is gen-erally overstated but it always applies– the sport requires instruc-tion or it can be very dangerous. If you are even mildly interested in

kiteboarding or if you are a thrill seeker, you need to try this sport! I have met very few people who have tried kiteboarding and have not followed it as a lifelong pas-sion. There is something uniquely addicting about the feeling of kite-boarding and the pursuit of wind. The sport truly has something for everyone– huge air, wave riding, powerful and complex tricks, and even just the feeling of cruising through the water. Every kite-boarder will tell you: after your first (usually brief) ride, you will be helplessly addicted!

if you’re looking for a thrilling sport, kiteboarding is sure to get your adrenaline pumping

yurii kuZmin

want to advertise with us? contact the ontarion today!call us at 519.824.4120 x58267or email onsales@uoguelph.ca

golf club at franksit’s a pun, get it?

sasha odesse

On Wednesday March 7, at 10 p.m. the Guelph Gryphons varsity golf team held a fundraising event for their trip to nationals, Gryphon style. The night was a success overall and featured a mixed audi-ence of athletes, Gryphon friends and fans alike.

The day before the event, athletes Stephen Wright and Al-exander Forbes stopped by The Ontarion to share the scoop on the details of the night.

“It will be $2 cover and $2 for coat check and Franks is giving us the proceeds from both,” said Forbes.

“We will also get the profits of a featured drink towards our

fundraising as well,” said Wright, though the name of the drink fea-ture was not revealed.

Frank & Steins not only gives Gryphon athletes VIP access into the bar, but also helps support the teams in a number of ways simi-lar to this.

In terms of how many peo-ple were expected to show up, Wright mentioned that, on top of Franks’ Wednesday night regulars, each teammate also committed to helping increase attendance by spreading the news through word-of-mouth and their social media sites.

“As a personal goal we’ve tried to get five friends per teammate [to come out], so that works out to about 120 to 150 people. We’re guessing that we’ll get in between

75 and 100 people who actually show up,” said Wright.

As for the overall demographic of the night, as one might expect of a varsity event, there were certainly “Gryphons supporting Gryphons” in attendance, but also a lot of other students as well.

“A lot of my friends are on the golf-team and we’re not allowed to invite team members, so I think it will be mostly students who are not on varsity teams [at the pub],” said Forbes.

“Golf is seen more as a leisure sport, so I think we’ll also get the people who are recreational golfers [at the event]. Especially because athleticism in golfing is a relatively new concept,” added Wright.

The money raised from the

event will go towards the costs associated with the team’s trip to Victoria including travel expenses, entry fees, accommodations, food and transport around B.C, that the chosen team representatives would otherwise have to come up with on their own.

While the coach decides which team memebers will make the trip out West, the team must wait in anticipation.

“We’re sitting on pins and nee-dles right now” said Wright.

Both team members agreed that in addition to the night being a fun time, it’s a great way for stu-dents to support their Guelph athletes while also being a part of the initial development of the team. The team is also hoping that their results at nationals will help

increase awareness of the team on-campus as well as encourage golf athletes to try-out for the team.

At this point in the game the Gryphons have a leg-up on the competition having had the op-portunity to train throughout the winter thanks to their new training program, whereas other schools might only have a month after exams to prepare.

“We’ve been doing this the whole winter, hitting balls in-doors and I think it’s definitely going to help us out,” said Forbes.

In case you missed this one, there is another fundraiser pub night for the team in the works. For updates check out the Univer-sity of Guelph Men’s and Women’s Varsity Golf page on Facebook.

www.theontarion.com sPorts & health12

erg-a-Thon helps a tonneLinnaea Jasiuk

Everyone knows the stereotype: tough, arrogant, rude, a bully, your typical jock. However more and more often athletes are proving this stereotype incorrect and mak-ing a difference in the community. This is one of those moments.

I am proud to report that the Gryphons Rowing team is doing just that. Mar. 5 marked the first ever Erg-A-Thon. For those of you that don’t know an erg is a sta-tionary rowing machine. The event was held in the UC courtyard from 10a.m. to 3p.m. this past Monday and was bustling with participants form eight different teams. Teams consisted of 10 - 12 people each made up of varsity rowing mem-bers, Right to Play club members and friends. Each team member spent 30min on the erg machine and speaking from experience that is quite a workout!

The event was a fundraiser for the rowing team, whose equip-ment is expensive, receives little to no funding and needs to pur-chase new erg machines for their winter training. The team part-nered with the on-campus chapter of Right to Play to also raise funds

and awareness for a worthy cause. Right to Play is an internation-

al humanitarian organization that uses the power of sport and play to promote health, development and peace among the children and youth of some of the world’s most disadvantaged areas.

Each participant was asked to raise a minimum of $50, observers could donate to a team during the event, purchase goodies at the bake sale or challenge a varsity rower to an erg-off. The teams rowed over 300,000m in just five hours and raised over $3,000 which will be split 50:50 between the organizations.

Emily Jago, a two-year row-ing team member, expressed that it is important to the team to be involved with and help out other clubs on campus and raise awareness.

“We know just as much as they do how hard it is to raise money and support.”

Zakiya Pirani, co-president of the Right to Play club is not only pleased with the funds raised at the event but also of the initiative that Guelph students and Gryphon ath-letes are taking and is proud of “the way that two clubs from different

areas of the university came to-gether to make a difference”.

Of course the real winners of the day are the Gryphons rowing team and Right to Play, however special

mention goes to Erg-A-Thon team ‘The Argg-A-Thoners’ for raising the most money.

For more information about Right to Play and how you can

donate or become involved visit www.righttoplay.com. For all information about our Gryphons rowing team visit www.gryph-ons.ca

gryphon rowers partner up with right to Play for erg-a-Thon event

vanessa tignanelli

167.8 ◆ march 8th – 14th, 2012 13SPOrtS & HEALtH

S tudents have cast their ballots and have selected their student

government representatives for the upcoming year. Students not

only voted on the CSA Executives, but also At-Large representative of

each academic college. The winning candidates are as follows:

College of Arts: Steven Kavaratzis, Brye-Anne Maniacco

College of Social and Applied Human Sciences: David Alton,

Namrata TilokaniCollege of Biological Science: Jessica Tarka

College of Physical and Engineering Science: Paul Caruso

Ontario Agriculture College: Anthony Blurton-Jones

All referendum questions that were presented in the election were

passed. Students were asked to vote on whether the CSA clubs Univer-

sities Fighting World Hunger and TeaTree House Café should receive

support through increased student fees. The TeaTree House Café’s

request that students pay $0.10, was voted “yes” with 61.18 per cent.

Similarly, Universities Fighting World Hunger request for students

to pay $0.50 was voted in with 67.53 per cent of votes. Perhaps most

inspiring was the referendum to eliminate bottled water from the Uni-

versity of Guelph campus. Students voted in favour with 78.62 per cent,

demonstrating that students value a sustainable campus environment.

However, the election also produced some disturbing numbers. Ac-

cording to the voter turn out statistics, only 3, 967 student voted in the

CSA elections. Only 20 per cent of the student population felt that they

needed to add their voice to their student government.

To put in perspective, candidates can only be voted in if

10 per cent of the student body votes, while referendum

questions require 20 per cent. This year’s CSA general

election barely made quorum. Despite the lack of

student support, the elected CSA is dedicated and en-

thusiastic, and will continue to work to better student

interests in the coming year.

deaglan mcmanus

In what way do you think the Academic and University Affairs Commissioner can help improve the university experience for students?

The Academic & University Affairs Commissioner’s (AUAC…maybe pronounced ahhuuuaaak!?) main func-tion is to be a strong voice and support for students’ academic rights on this campus. One improvement for students may be the extra support that the AUAC can provide when you are trying to sort out how to apply for deferred exams, request financial assistance or academic consideration, experiencing discrimination in the classroom, or any other matter that you are unsure of that relates to the multitude of

policies/rules/procedures we have at the university. One of the reasons I was so interested in this position was to turn the lengthy and dense policies and procedures into something more understandable and prac-tical. If you need any help on matters related to academics or university policies. Come talk to me! That’s what I’m here for.

Are there any specific issues that you consider a priority, or is there anything you hope to address or work on first when you assume the position?

I have always considered accessibility a priority, and this will undoubtedly continue during my time as AUAC. I hope to strengthen the Accessibility Working Group, and continue initiatives that started there, including students with (dis)abilities group on campus similar to the many other Special Status Groups that provide space for marginalized students in a student-controlled space, and resolving issues surround-ing attendant care that have been identified over the years.

You ran unopposed. Do you have any plans to raise awareness or involvement with the CSA, specifically what is included in your position’s portfolio?

The other priority I have is to increase student seats and involvement in decision-making processes. I expect this to facilitate greater involvement in the CSA and other campus organizations, as well as raise awareness of the AUAC portfolio. There are more students and workers on this campus than heads of corporations. Why do corporations have more representatives at the highest decision-making body on campus, the Board of Governors, than students and workers do? I think proportional representation is fairer than the current system we have in place. I will do my best to fight for increased student and worker representation in university decisions– they affect us and we deserve to be part of the process.

AcAdemic & UniverSity AffAirS commiSSioner

joshua ofori-darko

How do you think your expe-rience as this year’s Human Resource and Operations com-missioner will help you move forward next year with your platform?

As a returning commissioner, I have had the opportunity to in-teract with the different services and staff over the last 10 months. As a result, I have a strong understanding of everyone’s roles. Furthermore, I have a good understanding of the timeline of

events at the CSA, which will only help me to do my job more efficiently the second time around. This information allows me to make informed decisions, and create positive and meaningful change within the CSA. The transition period between April and June will be an opportunity for me to get a jump-start on initiatives and projects this year.

Could you explain how the continuation of your role will effect how you plan to meet your platform promises, such as student space? Are you looking forward to the opportunity of participating in the space task force as the Human Resource and Operations commissioner?

My established relationships with key decision makers at this institution will play a key role with addressing student space. Contin-ued participation with The Study Space Task Force will help carry the momentum in the new academic year. Rather than repeating previous discussions and questions, I will be in a position to brainstorm and discuss solutions.

What were some of your biggest challenges this year as Human Resource and Operations Commissioner? Do you anticipate those problems nest year, and how do you plan to address them?

Being responsible for the Human Resources at an organization is a little intimidating for a new commissioner. I hope to draw upon my skills and experiences gained over the year to be a better supervisor, resource and role model to the staff in the CSA.

Some of the projects and initiatives I took on this year were rather large, and required several semesters of research and consultation. With the opportunity to work another year, I can finish projects currently in progress. In addition I’ll have the opportunity to evaluate and reflect on some of my completed initiatives.

HUmAn reSoUrceS & oPerAtionS

dominica mcpherson

What do you think are the most important aspects of the External Af-fairs Commissioner’s portfolio?

This portfolio is responsible for a number of important aspects that I am both committed to working on and am particularly excited about. Advocating for the rights and interests of students on a number of levels is crucial, while acting as a resource on provincial and federal decisions and policies is essential. I think it is also really important for Guelph to have strong relations with other student unions and associations in order to be a part of a greater student movement, and to learn from their suc-cesses and challenges in order to inform our efforts here. A dedication to social and environmental justice, the organizing of strong campaigns, and providing students with a number of opportunities to get involved in ways they feel both comfortable with and excited about is essential.    

What do you hope to work on first once you assume the position?

Aside from getting a good handle on the position and the work that has already been accomplished in this portfolio, I hope to be building strong relations with the other commissioners and taking the first steps to put my platform into action. I am excited to explore ideas for campaigns that students and groups feel they can work collaboratively on, including a campaign on tuition fees and other areas pertaining to social and environmental justice. I will begin by asking important questions concerning provincial and federal decisions and policies affect-ing students, as well as begin finding out where funding is coming from for our university. I hope to be building relations with other student unions and associations in order to explore what they are working on.

How do you plan to get feedback from students on the issues that this position represents?

In terms of acquiring feedback and input from students, I feel strongly about speaking with students directly and ensuring they are aware of this position and how this portfolio relates to them. I am dedicated to reaching out to students and working closely with groups and individuals on a number of projects in order to ensure feedback and direction along the way. I see the importance of using social media as a form of communication and I am committed to creating a forum for students to ask important questions concerning decisions that impact them. I am not coming into this position with a set agenda and my goals are flexible and open to being responsive to the interests and needs of students. I am approachable and dedicated to open communication and collaboration.

externAl AffAirS commiSSioner

matthew pecore

Do you have any specific goals you hope to accomplish during your term?

I really want to make sure I’m doing a lot with the transit issues we currently have. I don’t know what I specifically want to do yet, but I know I want to take them on and I think it is going to depend a lot on how I work with the city and what I’m able to do. Right now the routes really aren’t working for students. I definitely want to work on that. The other big area I want to pro-mote is the Awareness of Sexual Assault and Prevention (ASAP) committee. I want to work on raising the profile of that committee and really helping students become aware of those resources that they have on campus.

What would you say is your top priority and is?Transit is definitely my top priority. When I was doing my campaigning and I had my

Facebook group, I had a poll on there and asked “which issue in the local affairs portfolio do you think needs the most attention?” and transit was far ahead of everything else so I think that needs to be my first priority.

Do you have any plans to raise awareness of the other issues that the local affairs commis-sioner?

I really want to work with the community and get people more aware of what’s going on in the community. A lot of people in Guelph have conceptions about students, and I want to work towards changing that. Just being more aware of the people around us and being more aware of Guelph.

Have there been any things ongoing that you’re aware of from the outgoing commissioner?He has a lot of things that he wants me to continue on. One thing for example and I want to

continue it over the summer was a series of videos about living in a community. For example, one of them would be about “how to properly throw a party” and just outline the respectful things you would do there. I think there’s definitely a lot of ongoing things, that’s just one of them.

locAl AffAirS commiSSioner

drew garvie

What are the next steps you plan to take in order to phase out bottled water? 

Students have voted 80 per cent in favor of phasing out bottled water sales on campus.  I firmly believe that water is a human right.  The vote at University of Guelph was a small victory in the fight against water privatization and for sus-tainability in Canada.  The next step lo-cally is to meet with Hospitality Services and the University of Guelph admin-istration and make sure they live up to their commitment to sustainability and respect the democratic voice of students. 

We are totally willing to talk and figure out the best way to phase out bottled water and bring in more public drinking fountains.  I will continue to work with the rest of the CSA Executive to make this central to the CSA’s work for the next year.

When can students expect the new CSA website to be available to them? The new CSA website is now officially under construction!  Myself and other

staff at the CSA have been working on this since Nov. and we’re now in the final development stage.  The CSA website will be available to them in April.  Students will have a chance to check it out before enjoying their summer break.  The hope is that it will become a tool for students to provide feedback directly to the CSA.  Working on promotion of the site and integrating social media effectively will also be a project that continues into the Fall as many students return.

 What were some of your biggest challenges this year as Communications

and Corporate Affairs Commissioner? Do you anticipate those problems next year, and how do you plan to address them?

 We need to increase membership/involvement at the Board of Directors level

and voter turnout in the elections.  Strong promotional campaigns are certainly part of this, but it’s not as simple as that.  Making sure students see the CSA as outwardly focused and advocating on their behalf will generate interest in the organization.  Also, making sure there is that direct contact with our members.  We need to break the “CSA bubble,” reach beyond involving only student leaders and people directly connected to the CSA, and speak directly to students about things that matter to them and challenges that they face.  I plan on holding office hours and tabling for campaigns at least once a week in the fall and winter semesters as a step towards this general strategy.  The CSA is only as strong as student involvement so this is at the top of the list of priorities!

commUnicAtionS & corPorAte AffAirS

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why you should reconsider wheatJessica aVoLio

Consider the reality that humans have only begun eating grains in abundance for 10,000 years, start-ing at the brink of the agricultural revolution. That may seem like a long time, but it only accounts for about 0.4 per cent of human existence, and from an evolution-ary standpoint this is the blink of an eye. There is no doubt that we have started to genetically adapt to relying on grains since then, but many suggest that 10,000 years isn’t nearly long enough for sig-nificant genetic adaption to occur. Especially when we acknowledge that both human stature and brain size decreased once we adopted a grain-based diet during the agri-cultural revolution.

It is important to consider the recent hybridization and cross-breeding that happens with the wheat plant. It is now considered a high-yield dwarf because it is about two-and-a-half feet shorter than conventional wheat from 50 years ago, and its stockiness can support a heavier seedbed. Not only does this plant grow much faster but it is resistant to drought and fungi, and these hybrids contain proteins found in neither parent plant. Their

safety for human consumption has never been questioned.

It is difficult to ignore that one per cent of people have full-blown celiac disease, a medical condi-tion in which the small intestine is damaged by gluten (found in wheat and other grains) to the point where the body isn’t able to absorb nutrients necessary for good health. It is also believed that gluten intolerance affects a third of the population with some sta-tistics stating as many as 50-70 per cent of people are sensitive to gluten. A study by Dr. Kenneth Fine found that 29 per cent of as-ymptomatic (non-celiac) people tested positive for anti-gliadin IgA in their stool. This is an antibody produced in the gut after sensing an impending threat– from wheat. Some symptoms of gluten intol-erance or sensitivity are; weight loss or gain, nutritional deficien-cies, gastro-intestinal problems (such as bloating and gas), aching joints, depression, eczema, irrita-bility, exhaustion, the list goes on.

While gluten is the most dis-cussed toxin these days, there are plenty of other toxins and anti-nutrients found in wheat. Grains contain large amounts of phytic acid, which strongly inhibits the

absorption of many important minerals. These phytates bind to calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc. There are also lectins which are shown to bind to insulin recep-tors and our intestinal lining, and also seem to cause leptin resistance (difficulty regulating appetite). To recap, these toxins worsen the features of metabolic syndrome; a group of risk factors including diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.

Another interesting protein that is unique to wheat is gliadin, which has the ability to cross into the brain and bind to opiate recep-tors. These wheat exorphins cause a subtle euphoria in some people. This is why wheat products are believed to increase appetite and cause addition-like behaviours in certain individuals. Beyond these mentioned proteins, there are over 1000 other proteins in wheat that have potential for odd or unex-pected responses.

The easily-digestible complex carbohydrate, amylopectin A is also something unique to wheat. This type of sugar explains why two slices of whole wheat bread will increase blood sugar higher than many candy bars. Having high blood sugar is not only detrimental

to health, but it leads to an accu-mulation of visceral (abdominal) fat, diabetes and pre-diabetes, cataracts, arthritis and heart dis-ease. Dr. William Davis, author of

‘Wheat Belly’ states that when his patients eliminate wheat from their diet, the average daily calorie in-take drops about 400 calories per day with reports of less hunger and less cravings.

Many argue that there are im-portant vitamins and minerals in wheat such as vitamins B1 and B2, magnesium and iron, zinc and

potassium. And with grains form-ing the base of the food pyramid with a suggestion of 6-8 servings per day, it is difficult to ignore the advice. But there is absolute-ly nothing in wheat or grains that can’t be obtained elsewhere in the diet, especially from a huge salad. The government makes it seem as if grains are absolutely essential for health, but with access to healthy meats, fruits and vegetables, their necessity is all but eliminated. Ask yourself, is wheat really benefiting your body and your health?

courtesy

www.theontarion.com16 SPOrtS & HEALtH

gryphons bring it on: dance Pak vs. cheerleadersThe contrast between the dance pak and cheer squad: not the similarities you would imagine

daVid Lochead

Media portrayals and fic-tional stories can give the misconception that the dance pak and cheerleaders share striking similarities. But the similarities between the two teams are not found on the surface or in what they perform, they are found through the concept of being a team, shared experiences of stereotypes and thanklessly ded-icating themselves to their craft for the love of it. Ironically, many but not all of the contrasts be-tween the cheerleaders and dance pak can be found on the surface of what they do.

Like most sports, dance and cheerleading require dedica-tion. This is true for the dance pak in which most of the 23 mem-bers started dance at a young age. Dance pak member Jessie Saw-yers, planned on quitting dance altogether in university until her roommate from the same child-hood dance studio convinced her to try out. Now she finds herself as co-captain of the team in her third year.

“When you’re younger it’s more about getting the basics of jazz, ballet and tap down. In dance pak we mainly focus on jazz and lyri-cal and we have about six or seven dancers who are passionate about tap,” said Sawyers.

In comparison, the 36 mem-bers of the cheer squad start at a variety of times in their life. Some cheerleaders started in high school, such as fourth year cheer squad member Heather Szentimrey.

“If you were start off at a young age there are teams like Scorpi-on and Sharks where you have to travel for competitions, but there are many avenues to start cheer-leading,” said Szentimrey.

The relevant contrast between both teams is on the surface of what they do: their style of dance and/or art.

“I can understand the similar-ity but they are quite different. Cheerleading is about showing people what kind of crazy stunts and tumbling we can do, it’s re-ally high energy. We’re taught to be showy and show people a good time. It’s a different kind of showmanship,” said Szentimrey.

“If you’ve never done dance or cheerleading it’s really hard to understand how vastly different

the two are. Dancing is really about the expression,” Sawyers responded.

Dance pak co-captain Olivia Castiglione adds to the compar-ison by mentioning that “if you watch cheerleading it’s more about flips and throws, and if you watch [the dance pak] side of it it’s more of the art side of dance. Cheerleading is more about acrobatics and big, excit-ing movements compared to [the dance pak] which is more con-temporary and emotional.”

A similarity that is not com-monly related in outside circles between cheer and dance squads is the dedication both teams have in regards to practice, fundrais-ing and community involvement. With the cheer squad practic-ing three times a week for three hours each practice and the dance pak practicing for seven hours on Sunday and three hours on Mon-day, both are clearly hardworking.

Both teams live for the compe-titions, but they also must pay for these competitions themselves through fundraising. On top of that, both teams are active in the community.

“It’s to show the community who we are, that students aren’t just a bunch of crazy, partying, riled up people. There are people

here who want to give back to the community. We think it rep-resents our school well,” said Szentimrey.

As agile as both teams are, in the school community they can-not avoid the stereotypes society has placed upon them.

“People always ask ‘do you guys hate the cheerleaders?’ said Sawyers. “As well as asking ‘are you guys better than the cheer-leaders?’ and I always say well we’re not comparable so I can’t answer that. Both our teams have stigmas around us and people just assume things, it’s funny because everyone seems to have this opinion that we are against each other but we are support-ing the same school and we don’t compete against each other so I would rather see them succeed than not succeed.”

“A lot of people that think be-cause of the stereotypes that we’re supposed to be some beau-tiful, vein, shallow creatures. But that’s not the case there’s so many people on my team that are really great, smart people,” said Szentimrey.

In reality there is nothing but mutual respect for each team as both are part of the UofG commu-nity and respect their differences in style and performance.

The athleticism of gryphon cheerleaders and dance pak are often overlooked in favour of less accurate stereotypes about the teams

heather sZentimrey

ontarion archives

gryphons in historysasha odesse

Published in The Ontarion on June 10, 1980.

Good ol’ “Flying Disks” have been around since the ‘30s, start-ing with cake pans and evolving into what we know know as the Frisbee but it would seem that in 1980, the University of Guelph campus saw a boom in these fancy disks. The article high-lights the importance of weight,

disk-care and retail prices (five to nine dollars!) and advertises for an upcoming tournament on campus. While the “primary attraction” of the Frisbee is their being their ability to “soar, fly, ski, roll, hover [and] boomer-ang,” Geoff Smither, the Guelph athlete in this image, demon-strates one of the many tricks in the “advanced art of Freestyle Frisbee.”

167.8 ◆ march 8th – 14th, 2012 17SPOrtS & HEALtH

hot cousins and cold showersdiVinus caesar

Long the practice of only psycho-paths, soldiers, superspies, tough ancient Greeks, people trying not to cheat on their spouse with their hot cousin, and the ex-tremely poor, cold showers are making a comeback. The reason isn’t entirely due to the recession or sudden preponderance of hot cousins either: the damned thing seems to provide health benefits.

What brought the first recent wave of folks to the cold show-er may have been its purported benefits for the skin. The online world is full of anecdotal evi-dence claiming that cold showers can be beneficial for acne suf-ferers. The supposed method of action differs in these accounts, as do the suggested means of ap-plication. One school claims that hot showers are contributing to acne by stripping the skin of its natural oils and drying it out, and that a move to cold only showers clears up these problems and the acne with it. Another suggests beginning with a warm shower, to help remove dirt and oil, and then a cold shower to close up the pores, the acne being attribut-ed to open pores throughout the

day. It’s difficult to adjudicate between these two schools, and they may well both be right (or wrong) depending on the cause of the person’s acne, but the basic division between combiners and go-cold-or-go-homers is one that can be seen throughout the world of cold shower advocates.

A second skin-based claim for cold showers is that they reduce the signs of aging. The argument follows a similar line to the acne one, with dryness, oils, and pores featuring prom-inently, and a similar division existing between whether the cold should be combined with heat or if the showerer should forgo heat altogether. This ben-efit appears more dodgy, another in a long line of anti-aging claims, and conflicts somewhat with the acne claims: the current predom-inance of hot showers should be producing wrinkly, zit covered folk in droves, and they don’t ap-pear that prevalent. But perhaps they’ve become shut-ins.

Cold showers are lately win-ning fans on slightly more substantive claims though, as they’ve been pegged as a useful tools in the battle against depres-sion and low sex drives. The key

to the anti-depressant claim is a study claiming that either cold or sudden changes in temperature stimulate noradrenaline secre-tion, an aid against depression. Again, advocates differ on wheth-er the cold should follow heat or define the shower experience.

Those who claim that cold showers do anything but lower the sex drive (as many of us and our hot cousins provide sorry, shameful proof of), appear in contrast to lack any doubt that a cold-only shower is the way to go. The claimed scientific basis is that the cold stimulates the pro-duction of testosterone (in those inclined to produce testosterone), which in turn turns them into towering idols of unquenchable sexual power. (However, the cold also injures sperm cells less than the heat, so try to otherwise in-jure them through bicycle riding or drug use if you’re consider-ing sex with someone who can get pregnant. Or maybe through cooking them in a hot shower first….)

Finally, cold showers have also been pegged as a weight loss and muscle gain tool. They’re use-ful as a weight loss tool because shivering tricks the body into

treating fat cells differently, apparently unkindly. The mus-cle-building qualities of cold showers kick in for similar rea-sons: when the body shivers it releases hormones that benefit muscle growth (though it sounds like you still have to lift weights

and such in tandem with this, so it’s not quite the miracle muscle method one might hope). Outside of a small clique of Russian Olym-pic weightlifters, these benefits are thankfully touted without a substantial body of people advo-cating that the shower begin hot.

fleur suiJten

www.theontarion.com18 SPOrtS & HEALtH

Beth’s craft cornerMake your own cookie jar

Beth Purdon mcLeLLan

Here’s a gift that is always a re-freshing surprise. The trick to this gift is to pick a recipe with ingre-dients that have lots of different textures and colours. For this craft, I chose caramel oatmeal cookies.

you will need:

Mason JarRibbonPiece of decorative paper or card stock

1 C brown sugar1/2 C white sugar1 ¼ C flour1/2 tsp baking soda1tsp salt3 C instant oats1 C caramel chips

how to make it:

For this craft, you only include the dry cookie ingredients in the jar. Write out the wet ingredients on your cardstock with baking in-structions. For this recipe, your instructions would be:

Preheat oven to 325 Fadd 2 eggs, 2 tsp of vanilla and 1 C butterplace on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 12 min

Layer your dry ingredients in the jar. Remember that ingredients

like white sugar and flour will quickly sink to the bottom. You might find it takes a couple tries to get it to layer the way you want. Usually people who receive this gift aren’t particularly concerned, and that the cookie mix might not stay in the jar for very long anyways.

aBi lemak

make your own stereographic planet in Photoshopmarianne Pointner

Start with the image that you want to make your planet from. It helps to pick one with a level horizon line-

The first step is to crop or stretch the image into a square. A tip for stretching images easily is with the free transform tool (ctrl T on Windows, cmd T on Macs)-

Once you have a square image, rotate your image 180 degrees by selecting Image>Image rotation> 180°-

Next, select Filter>DistortPolar Coordinates, and in the pop-up window choose ‘Rectangular to Polar’

Finally, using the free transform tool again, rotate your planet to the angle of your choosing.

Those eyes so deep and soulful, and with a tender smile that could melt your heart: the perfect disguise for patrolling the campus for dweebs’ lunch money. look at that face. no one was going to believe them when they say that allie was the one taking it. and what’s she going to spend it on? more t-shirts? your damn right she is. she looks good in those t-shirts.

marianne Pointner

all images By marianne Pointner

life 167.8 ◆ march 8th – 14th, 2012 19

“Please play again”rrrolling up more can help you win, but it can’t help your chances

tom Beedham

Every year, we know when it’s here. Red coffee cups begin to dominate our fields of vision as some abandon the franchises they normally frequent, and others even leave their Earth-friendly mugs at home for a chance to win Roll Up the Rim to Win.

Roll Up the Rim has become so popular that inventor Paul Kind has even created a device called the Rimroller, a tool intended for inclusion on any seasoned contest participator’s keychain. A piece of plastic that might resemble a rab-bit’s foot if you look at it with the right kind of eyes, for some, the dedication to rim rolling contests that the low-tech gadget repre-sents might even serve as a good luck charm.

Whether items like the Rim-roller carry any mystical powers or not is a debate of faculties that I can only adopt a decidedly ag-nostic stance on. What I can argue is that it is a statistical certain-ty that– while many will argue that playing more will increase their chances at winning– there are no possible ways to improve one’s chances at winning, or spinning probability to work in their favour.

As Scottish philosopher David Hume taught, nothing is chance. If things happened by chance, they would occur without causes. He uses this argument to account for how people believe things like probability to work.

He says that we draw a direct relationship between witnessed occasions and the probability of outcomes.

In the case of Roll Up the Rim and other play/buy to win contest scenarios that supply contestants

with the odds of winning, it is a case of misidentification of which witnessed occasions are impor-tant that leads some to believing they can better their chances at winning by playing more.

It is important that the diction used by the Tim Hortons compa-ny when discussing odds reads that participators have “one in six chances to win,” rather than saying “one in six cups win.” The wording of the latter claim would imply the certain circumstance that for every six cups purchased, one cup will be a winner, a sce-nario that, given the scrambled distribution of winning cups, is practically impossible to control. When people suggest they can in-crease their chances at winning by playing more, this is the ob-servation they are falsely lending their belief to, but it’s not entirely their fault.

By saying “one in six chances to win,” Tim Hortons’ copy is suc-cessfully vague, leaving it open to interpretation that there could be an observable occasion wherein one in six cups turns up a winner. Really they only offer a simplified account of an observed case in which slightly more than 16 per cent of all Roll Up the Rim cups printed win.

The Tim Horton’s promotional scheme offers one in six chances at winning Roll Up the Rim. Those are the odds, and you’re stuck with them. But if you ignore the way statistics work (like many of the people obsessed with the thrill of possibly winning some-thing as big as a vehicle or as small as a free coffee will do) the idea that buying more will increase your chances at winning makes for a great justification in fa-vour of increased consumption. And that’s exactly what Timmies

– and any other franchise or group pitching buy/play “for a chance to win” contests want you to do.

That’s how it works. Play at your own discretion.

sex geek: The what and why of consentshireen noBLe

Consent, given freely and enthu-siastically, is one of the sexiest things anyone can say.

Actually, let’s back that up for a minute. Have you ever heard the tagline “consent is sexy”? Well, have you ever stopped to won-der why we’d claim such a thing? I have a couple of theories.

First of all, it’s sexy to know that you have consent. What’s not sexy is when you’re stumbling around hoping that you partner might not notice and say something when you take off their pants. It’s way better to be able to know “awe-some, my partner told me that they want this” rather than thinking

“please don’t tell me to stop.”It’s also really sexy to be asked

for consent. Why? Because it means that your partner has re-spect for you and your desires. And while I only have anecdotal evidence of this from discussions with friends, respect is a massive turn-on.

Consent leads to confidence. You can have confidence that your partner is actually interested (and enjoying) whatever the two of you are doing, but also confidence in feeling comfortable engaging in sexual activity knowing that your partner respects you enough to stop if you don’t want to continue. And I think we’ve all learned by

this stage in university that con-fidence is sexy.

Great, so now that we’ve es-tablished that consent is in fact sexy maybe we should go back even a step further and figure out what the heck consent is. Con-sent is about giving permission for something to happen. It’s about giving your partner permission to engage in whatever kind of sex you happen to enjoy (I use the term sex loosely here– it can be for any kind of sexual activity, including a kiss). It’s about being able to give permission to allow someone else access to your body. It has to exist in any kind of sex-ual encounter, even if you’ve had sex with your partner hundreds of times before or assumed that

“date night” would end in sex.Maybe what’s more important

to understand is that consent is not the absence of saying no. It’s actually saying yes. And this has to be saying yes freely, not saying yes because of some kind of ex-ternal threat. It can also be taken

away at any time.Now for some reason, there’s

this trend that when anyone brings up the topic of consent, it’s met with rolled eyes. Some-how many of us have forgotten that it means so much more than just preventing sexual assault, but actually serves a greater purpose in enhancing your sexual en-counters. It promotes essential communication and it ensures that there’s respect if your rela-tionship (whether we’re talking about a one-night stand or a long-term romantic partnership).

Okay, now let’s go back to my

original point: consent being freely and enthusiastically given. Why would that be sexy? Well, it’s the difference between “okay, fine” and “@#$% yes I want (you) to [verb] my/your [noun]!” En-thusiasm is definitely a desired trait in a sexual partner, and while it can serve plenty of other purposes (connecting partners, reproduction, etc.), sex is sup-posed to be fun. Why not use actively asking for and giving consent part of the sexy banter leading up to whatever sexual ac-tivities you and your partner want to engage in?

“it’s also really sexy

to be asked for consent.

why? because it means that your partner

has respect for you and your

desires.”

www.theontarion.com20 LiFE

Bones and their juicy middlesduncan day-myron

Growing up, one of my favou-rite meals was lamb chops. We ate them a lot. Some mint jelly, brussels sprouts and roast potatoes. Every part of that meal is practi-cally perfect, but the best part of lamb chops was when your bone had a bit of marrow in it. Lamb chops are small, and you’d never get more than a small spoonful of it, but at the end of the meal nothing was more satisfying than scooping it out and slurping it back. It was my favourite.

Which is why it surprised me so much that I’d never simply made a meal of marrow. You can buy mar-rowbones at most butcher shops and plenty of grocery stores. I’ve always known that they are pret-ty useful for thickening soups, but never really thought to just eat them on their own.

My memory of marrow is always with roasted meats, so that was my first inclination. A lot of recipes seem to call for boiling the bones, but I didn’t think that would be as good, so I ignored it. I arranged them on a baking tray with some

seeded tomatoes and garlic– more on those later– and baked them at about 350 F for however long one episode of Buffy the Vampire Slay-er is. I think I probably could have left it in shorter, but online reci-pes called for everything from 20 minutes to an hour, so I just waited until it looked well cooked.

I usually eat marrow with a spoon, but general consensus was to spread it on toast, so that’s what I did. It’s relatively easy to get out of the bones, but it might require some flipping and rotating and careful aiming with your knife to get it all out. It’s smooth and but-tery and spreads well.

I ate it with brussels sprouts out of nostalgia purposes which I salted, buttered, and mixed with roasted garlic, diced up. The roast-ed tomatoes I added to the toast and marrow.

The first slice I ate all on its lone-some, just to see what it had to offer. It was great. All it needed was a little salt. I added the roasted to-mato to the next slice, and it was as good, if not better. I went through my pantry picking out different accoutrements that I could adorn

my new favourite food with, and had some winners and some los-ers. Worcestershire sauce was a bit too overpowering, as was HP Sauce

and sriracha. Each of them was all I could taste. There were a couple winners though, aside from the tomato, namely anchovy paste (I

used Patum Peperium, but you can be less fancy than me if you like), lemon juice or a couple drops of chipotle hot sauce.

in season: Beauregard sweet potato quesadillaaBi Lemak

Hello hungry reader. This is def-initely my most experimental dish yet, but I promise you wont be disappointed. Seriously, I’m surprised how good this actual-ly tastes.

Sweet potatoes are in season, and the finger sized variety that I’ve snootily decided to call Beau-regard (this resolution came after staring at countless potato images for hours– note to self: ask farm-er in the future). Anyways, they are quaintly sized and totally de-licious. Usually people avoid the whole cooking-sweet potatoes-at-home business because they’re so damn hard to peel and cook thor-oughly. Not the case with these babies– they’re small enough to cook evenly after a relatively short amount of time, and mash effort-lessly, skin and all. The flavour of these potatoes is sweet and buttery, perfect for those rainy nights to come. The sausage adds that de-sired savory smokiness, and the cheese acts as the perfect ooey gooey glue for the tortilla. Nom.

ingredients:

2-3 finger sized sweet potatoes (by finger I mean the size of a giants)1 tortilla handful of chorizo or Italian sau-sage (any meat really that’s been

pre cooked)handful of shredded cheddar cheese

saltpepperoil

Set the oven to 325 F and place your washed, aluminum foil wrapped sweet potatoes into the oven for forty minutes. I just placed them on the bottom rack of my oven.

Carefully peel the foil off the sweet potatoes (they’re really hot so take your time!) and drop them in a medium sized bowl.

Add in an inch of butter and mash with a fork. I like to leave the skin on for extra fiber and nutrients. Add a pinch of salt and pepper.

Take this sweet potato spread and smear it over one side of your tortilla (that’s already laying in a pan.)

Take the diced chorizo and sprin-kle it on top, followed by the cheese and fold the tortilla in half.

Place on the top rack of your oven for 10 minutes until the tortilla is crispy and your cheese is melted.

Cut in half and enjoy!

aBi lemak

duncan day-myron

167.8 ◆ march 8th – 14th, 2012 21LiFE

The 21-day challengeHow to conquer yourself and attain self-discipline

shwetha chandrasekhar

Bad habits die hard, and good hab-its seem impossible to form. As per Plato, “the first and best victory is to conquer self.” If there is one thing my university experience has consistently taught me, it is that discipline is the most valuable habit a human mind can form. Talent, drive and determination fall short in discipline’s absence. Self-disci-pline is a channel through which one attains success, triumph and true accomplishment.

Habits and self-discipline are two edges of the same sword. You cannot establish one without the

other. As a critical part of our life, habits nurture our goals, and help us stay focused along the path of accomplishment. Concurrently, non-supportive habits act as ob-stacles from moving forward and hurt our well-being.

Research has proven that it takes 21 days to form a habit, and there-fore break one too. So, amidst a second round of upcoming mid-terms, innumerable other deadlines, and a terrifying MasterCard bill to face, I’ve challenged myself to practice and indulge in 21 days of thorough self-discipline. It’s time for a re-evaluation of my current routine, and a much needed inter-vention and introduction of daily rituals.

Anything you practice with rep-etition and emotion will become your reality. If you’re not satisfied

with your current experience, re-examine your habits.

I truly admire an athlete’s conviction, as they embody self-discipline in its truest colour. But most people struggle with their day to day practice of habits. If you are one of them, and this article has found you in your escape into procrastination, fear no more. You can change and form new habits, just give yourself an allowance of 21 days of patience, resilience and perseverance.

Whether you want to practice controlled spending, efficient study habits, a healthier lifestyle, or learn and explore a new talent, you will find yourself well on the way to be-coming a changed person. Just take a personal challenge and commit yourself to 21 days of self-discovery!

I can’t recount how many times

I have tried to stick to a daily study routine. My main frustration was that I attacked my initial planning stage with vigour and then gave up too soon because I didn’t see instant results. That’s where most people are at fault. When bad habits die hard, you have to practice pa-tience, and accept that you will fall a few times before you stand victo-rious. Any personal breakthrough is usually preceded by a personal breakdown.

Positive affirmations are a useful tool to keep you mentally stimulat-ed through this process. Practice them daily, along with the power of gratitude to keep you mentally empowered.

When you really think about it, 21 days of sacrifice for a long-term reward is a minimal trade-off to say the least. Remind yourself that

you reap what you sow, and that momentary restraint allows for long-term success.

Here’s a breakdown to make the transition a smooth one. First, write down your intentions. It is important to identify why you want to accomplish and master this habit. The greater your conviction, the easier it will be for you to stand by the change. Next, practice total honesty with yourself and cele-brate each step, regardless of how irrelevant it may seem. Make sure to stay clear of negative people. There will be people who unintentionally may act as a trigger to your down-fall. Ultimately, constantly remind yourself, as Aristotle did himself, that we are what we repeatedly do, excellence then is not an act, but a habit. Mastering yourself is true power.

using your summer job to help your future careerwayne greenway

Allison is one of our clients, who is coming in for a meeting today after doing a lot of thinking about

“who she is” and how she wants to steer her career. I was expecting to help her finalize that decision, but she came with a more distressing problem. The call centre where she worked last summer is closing and she won’t be able to work there this summer. She was surprised when I told her that losing that opportu-nity might just be a gift in disguise.

Allison immediately needed to call her former boss before the company closes, to empathize with him about the closing, and to ask if she could use him as a ref-erence for her summer job search. Somehow she will need to gather contact information where a po-tential employer could reach him even after the firm closes its doors. It sounds kind of harsh to ask for this of someone who is losing his job, but he might just feel honoured that his reference means that much to her. At the same time, maybe he has landed another job where he could be helpful to her.

So then she wanted to know why it might be a gift. I explained how important summer jobs can be when she finishes school and begins searching for her first ca-reer job. Now that she is on the road to having her career paths a little more defined, her next two summer jobs could become won-derful opportunities to learn more about her career destination zone. The right summer job will give her plenty of opportunity to become friends with all kinds of people who may be really helpful in identify-ing job opportunities at a later time. The information she learns on the job will also help her to tailor her course projects and/or volunteer

work in a direction that would show her interest in the field. If the industry is right for her, it is a powerful way to show employ-ers after she graduates that she is interested and ready to work for their field.

I asked Allison what advice she would give a school friend, if her friend was looking for a summer job. Allison thoughts on the topic just streamed out almost fast-er than I could write them down.

“Once she knows the area that she wants to pursue, she should get on line and check all the summer job boards that she can find to see what kind of jobs are listed there. Then if I were her, I would start listing all my friends and their parents’ friends and of course, my parents’ friends, who might work in that kind of industry. I would contact them and see if they are aware of any jobs or people in the indus-try, that I could contact using their name. I would research each sug-gested contact and then compose an email to each of them, consisting of a few lines which mention the referral’s name in the introduc-tion, my pertinent strengths and my keen career interest in find-ing a summer job in this area. It would ask them if they could give me any suggestions for how I could get a start in their field with a sum-mer job. I would also ask them for contacts that would help me in my search. I would follow up those emails with phone calls and then follow up on every lead. I would just keep hammering at it until I found an opening. But before doing any of that I would clean up my Facebook and other on line sites and get myself properly set up on LinkedIn.”

Allison was talking so fast that I could hardly keep up with writ-ing down all of her ideas when she

added “I would go through all my contacts on my email address book and send a similar individual email to selected people.”

I pointed out that she just cre-ated her own advice. What she described is exactly the strategy she should follow!

Allison is right. She is better to put her time into this kind of net-working than into blitzing a job area with generic resumes. At the same time, she could put that time saved into producing a master re-sume. This is a resume that never leaves her computer, but it has all her jobs and volunteer positions on it with all the accurate dates, in the right format. Under each job she should list the strongest ac-complishments or innovations that she achieved (60 per cent of her list) in the job and the major re-sponsibilities (40 per cent of her list). She won’t send this resume to anyone, but she will keep it to use when she carefully tailors every resume to the job she discovers in her networking. Her cover letter should be brief and state exactly how she fits the position “like a glove” with each statement backed up by achievements and respon-sibilities listed in her resume. When her friends proofread the letters, they should first tell her if they im-mediately see how she fits just from skimming the cover letter and re-sume. It is important to remember that the employer is going to be going through a couple of hundred good resumes and her “fit” needs to be apparent without any work or interpretation.

Allison is going to prepare a more concise professional resume that generally positions her well for the area she is pursuing, but also highlights her leadership skills. She going to subscribe to online job sites and submit her professional

resume wherever possible. Some-times employers get approved for hiring a summer student before they have a student in mind. Then their time crunch might increase her chances of landing a summer position. She is also going to talk to a friend of her boyfriend who has his own website. She is going to see if the time in setting up her own website would be worth the benefit. If she can do a professional looking site, it makes a powerful impression on an employer but it can be of detriment, if it does not reflect her strengths or if it has er-rors in grammar and style.

We also talked about the need for Allison to read the local and nation-al news every day, so that she will be better able to handle introduc-tory conversation in the interview, but also because she may be able to predict potential opportunities before others see them.

Looking for work is a challenge

and can get discouraging. Its im-portant to maintain a positive outlook throughout the process. I asked Allison to start writing, every evening before she goes to bed, three meaningful things that happened to her to her that day ( no matter how small they might be) and why they were meaning-ful. The habit will become almost addictive and will keep her strong through her job search and her career.

Allison says she also has an idea for a summer business and so she is also going off to her school’s career centre to see if they know about grants and the process for follow-ing up on that lead. If it is too late for this year, it will be a great idea to start planning for next summer.

The key to landing a summer position is to stay strong and have three or more target areas each with their respective plan and set of contacts to explore.

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why we look awaysusannah riPLey

When confronted with horrible things, we cover our eyes so we can’t see; cover our ears so we can’t hear; and cover our mouths so we can’t scream. It’s human nature.

Consider the Syrian govern-ment’s crackdown on rebels and protestors. The government led by President Assad is committing terrible crimes against the Syr-ian people with no mercy shown towards civilians and children. Yet many people in Canada are unaware of the extent of the atrocities. The conflict shows up in headlines, but a lot of people I know don’t read any farther than that. The Syrian conflict is not just another Arab Spring uprising, and it is not discussed as much as it should be.

One explanation given for this wilful blindness is that the sheer horror of violence is too much for us, that it repulses us so that we are unable to read the papers or watch the news. We skim over world news because it’s too har-rowing to read of torture and murder.

The counterpoint to this ar-gument is that we are immersed in violence everyday; we crave a good bloodbath. Our appetite for fictional violence is increasing: a 2007 Scientific American article stated that the average American

child will have seen 8000 mur-ders on TV by the time he or she starts elementary school. The most mainstream movies and books contain scenes of brutal and sadistic violence, and we enjoy it. I don’t think of myself as a depraved person – but I’m ex-cited for the release of the Hunger Games movie, in which children fight each other to the death.

Another reason for our seeming apathy is that we feel unable to help. Although we care, there’s a disconnect between what we feel and what we do. However, feel-ings of powerlessness should not prevent us from knowing what is happening. Even if we cannot act, we can at least bear witness. We may not be able to shape foreign policy or create sanctions, but we can let tyrants know that we are watching; we can show the oppressed that we stand in soli-darity with them.

Then there’s the point that it’s too depressing to think about the issue. Most people have a slew of problems in their own lives, and we’re constantly bombarded with stories about what is wrong with the world. At the end of a long day, sometimes I just want to make a cup of tea and watch The Bachelor on TV. I don’t want to hear about atrocities. It’s hard to face the ugly side of humanity, but it’s our duty as human be-ings to know what’s happening.

It’s not pretty: the Assad re-gime is killing Syrian rebels and civilians more or less indiscrimi-nately. Human Rights Watch has reports of children as young as 13 being raped, tortured and killed. The prisons are overcrowded and unsanitary, and prisoners are given spoiled food. People who are able to escape the country are fleeing to neighbouring Leb-anon. In Homs, the initial centre of the uprising, activists are being rounded up and executed.

The Guardian, a British news-paper, interviewed journalist Paul Conroy after he was injured by shrapnel and smuggled out of Syria.

“I don’t know how we can stand by and watch this,” he said.

“It’s not a war, it’s a massacre.”“We are going to have the shame

of sitting back and watching it once again,” he continued. “As in Srebrenica, as in Rwanda. It’s not too late, but it needs someone to step up to the mark. Other-wise, forget it, we are going to be talking about a massacre be-yond measure.”

We need to fight our tendency to look away in the face of this conflict. We need to keep our eyes open so the Assad regime knows that the world is watching. We need to uncover our ears so that we know what is happening. And we need to scream.

courtesy

who you arecarLeigh cathcart

My name is Carleigh Cathcart. My hair, nails and eyelashes are real. I’ve never worn Abercrombie & Fitch in my life. I couldn’t tell you the difference between eyelin-er and mascara. I strive to be a model citizen, not a model. And I’m not changing any time soon.

Let me make one thing clear: I do not care if you wear popular clothing labels. I do not care how much make-up you use everyday. I do not care if you dye your hair, paint your nails or curl your eye-lashes. What I do have an issue with is when you look down upon those who don’t conform to your standards. Who are you to decide what is acceptable? Who are you to judge others based on the first level of appearance?

There is no normal. In a world with billions of people, there simply cannot be one accept-ed standard, a certain criteria of habits, style and behaviour. Some people drink, some peo-ple do not. Some play hockey, others prefer chess. We all know these differences exist, and we

all know they will continue to exist for as long as mankind re-mains on this planet. Yet, we seem to fight the notion of diversity; always observing our peers and mimicking their fashions and ac-tions. We are forever controlled by a social script written for us by our peers, one where stray-ing from your correct dialogue or stage movement comes with a social rebuke or ostracizing consequence.

Clichés abound. “Geek,” “nerd,” “jock,” “emo.” “Drug-gie,” “slut,” “whore.” And that’s just in middle school. Why? Why do we care what other people wear, do and say? Can’t we just be ourselves?

The answer, of course, is no. It is obviously not that simple. I will be the first to admit that I have used many of the above labels to describe people in the past. And honestly, you know you have as well. There’s no point in any of us pretending we’re exempted from the disservice of name-calling.

Perhaps it is best for me to put it in this perspective: it is not the use of stereotypes that I

find troubling. People really are “geeky,” act “slutty,” and love sports. I, myself, depending on my clothes, poetry or morals, could be described as a nerd, emo, or goody-two-shoes. Truthfully, these descriptions are fairly accu-rate. The problem comes when we use these designations to evaluate our “approval” of others.

Greg is not hurting anyone because he loves fixing comput-ers. Amanda can play on 5 sports teams and still have a great per-sonality. Alicia may not like drinking alcohol, but that doesn’t make her a brown-nosing loser. If you really don’t like someone, you don’t like them. No point making a big deal of hating them or viewing yourself as superior

- it just makes for an exhaust-ing, perpetual competition. And frankly, none of us need that.

Apples are apples, and orang-es are oranges. You can like one, both, or neither. But at the end of the day, they are two colour-ful foods that contribute to the impressive vibrancy of a fresh fruit bowl.

167.8 ◆ march 8th – 14th, 2012 23OPiniOn

fire away: Breaking down the stigmas of mental health challengesstePhanie rennie

In April 2007, I lost a dear friend that suffered with mental health challenges for a large portion of her life. This experience, along-side many other glimpses into the rising concerns of mental health, opened my eyes to the prevalence of such difficulties as well as the unfortunate stigmas that sur-round them. In honour of Mental Health Awareness day on Mar. 8, I hope to shed light on some of these concerns that are affecting so many people around us.

The current stigma around mental health challenges is prevalent as many people are uncomfortable discussing what is going on inside their heads. It seems that most people will openly discuss physical ailments, but a majority are not confident in addressing mental health concerns.

Shannon Stach of the 1 in 5 committee stated that “as much as you have a broken leg and need to put a cast on it… with men-tal health you also need proper support.”

The 1 in 5 initiative estimated that 4500 students on the Uni-versity of Guelph campus are affected by a mental health chal-lenge. This imperative group on campus developed its name from the Canadian Mental Health As-sociation’s statistic stating that 1 in 5 Canadians will be affected by a mental health challenge in any given year.

Members of the 1 in 5 com-mittee addressed the many factors contributing to mental health challenges. There are a wide range of aspects including genetics, life experiences, envi-ronment, personal relationships, family environment, support (or lack thereof), and many

other crucial factors. Although the statistics for those affect-ed by mental health challenges may seem overwhelming, there are many initiatives that can be taken to assist with such chal-lenges. Shannon Stach said that the biggest preventative measure is early intervention. She also ex-pressed the need for people to increase self awareness, promote self care and create healthy cop-ing mechanisms.

In terms of student life, it is easy to see how mental health challenges can emerge with such tedious and stressful workloads and a tense environment. Stach urges students to “do whatever your passion is for an hour a day.” Furthermore, 1 in 5 committee member Brittany Moor conveyed that students often put time for self care on the back burner. It is as simple as not eating lunch at your desk while working, taking

a moment for self reflection and even taking a deep breath once in a while.

Eve Lampert, another member of the 1 in 5 committee, empha-sized education as being a very important aspect of confronting the stigmas around mental health. The members of the 1 in 5 cam-paign have been busy developing events that will tackle stigmas and promote awareness. In hon-our of Mental Health Awareness day on Thursday Mar. 8, there will be a panel discussion held in Rozanski 103 at 5:30pm. The panel is comprised of students that have experienced a mental health challenge, a psychiatrist, and Eric Windeler, founder of The Jack Project at Kids Help Phone. Another unique and informa-tive event taking place in light of mental health awareness is being held on Mar. 25 at War Memo-rial Hall. This event will begin

with music by Noah Gundersen, followed by a conversation led by To Write Love On Her Arms founder Jamie Tworkowski on issues including self injury. One of the event coordinators, Ian Sinclair, describes these two events as being “the book ends of March” to raise awareness of mental health challenges.

On top of these initiatives to promote awareness of mental health, many resources exist on and off campus to provide peo-ple with support. These services include: Counselling Services through the University of Guelph, Student Support Network, The Wellness Centre, Trellis and Homewood Health Centre.

No matter how high the stack of library books or how few hours are left until your exam, take time for self reflection and for a much-needed deep breath.

Bropocalypse nowPauL rashotte

The Bropocalypse is a cataclys-mic epidemic that has viciously poisoned and destroyed integral parts of Western humanity. It came without any warning from the Mayans and spread faster than the Spanish Flu. Most of you al-ready know what Bro’s are, but for those who don’t look no fur-ther than the stereotypical party personalities present at almost every social gathering. They’re the guy’s whose only gear is alpha male sexual predator. The ones who are well versed in how much they drank and how many girls they’ve slept with, but are com-pletely impotent in every other avenue of conversation.

I had been aware for a long time that the Bros live among us; I had seen them during the day walking half-dead in their hangover pa-ralysis. Petrified, I observed their attempts to suckle all the good out of this world. Yet, only re-cently did I realize the extent to which their infection had spread. This awareness washed over me when I awoke in the darkness to the hum of a misogynistic drone. Slowly, the sound became louder and louder until finally I looked out my window to see the horde that is Bro culture beckoning at my chamber door.

From that day forward, I did everything in my power to re-sist the onslaught of the Bromidic horde. I even took the precaution of pouring ammonium outside my home to throw them off my scent (Bro’s constantly piss and defecate on each other, so this is a good practice for blending in). Howev-er, over the slow decay of time my

defences eventually broke down and the Bros devoured me like savage dogs—in the end cat piss only attracted them. Yes, my dear reader, I confess that up until this point I have mislead you. There was a time when I was the mon-ster that today I renounce.

The Bros baptized me into their ranks with a funnel of cheap beer. Funnel after funnel I drank that beer until it tasted like dirty water. When I finished they yelled my name, celebrated my alcoholic de-bauchery and chanted that I was a legend. I became an exalted vacu-ous slob. I became a Bro.

Once the Bropocalypse de-stroyed my humanity, life became so easy. With the help of severe intoxication, my existential and metaphysical quandaries evap-orated into hollow pleasure pursuits. My role models stopped being Billy Corrigan and Chris-topher Hedges and started being the Jersey Shore cast. The Jersey Shore is MTV’s most viewed T.V. telecast series ever and the show’s

superficial slogan GTL (gym, tan, laundry) became the Bro religion that I followed faithfully. Onward I walked with Bro ideology in my heart, but I was not the only one.

Enrique Iglesias, arguably the world’s most romantic man, the one who promised to “be your hero baby … to take away the pain” forsook his loving heart. I suspect that he was corrupted by Pitbull—the bald pervert Bro who fills the role of the boogey man in all of our nightmares– but I can’t be sure. Together Enrique and Pitbull released “I Like It,” a song devoid of passion that features the entire Jersey Shore cast. While the song had all of Enrique’s usual production value it lacked his relevance and heart. As a result, the song was dumped into the landfill that houses all the other forgotten pop music pornography. The Bropocalypse transformed Enrique from a bea-con of love to a proponent of Bro culture.

Fortunately, even with En-rique succumbing to the Bro fever, in 2011 the Bropocalypse started slowing down. You see, the Bro mentality is so devoid of substance that in order to func-tion it must constantly subsume new people into its apparatus of control. Human beings, by their very nature, can only handle a meaningless perspective for so long before they start to ques-tion it. In order to compensate for this flaw, new Bros are con-stantly recruited, so that old Bros can feed off their enthusiasm and put their doubts to rest. New Bros then climb this hierarchal Bro ladder, as they attempt to tran-scend reality and become some

sort of super Bro, which of course does not exist. In 2011, however, the Bropyramid started crash-ing down. There were too many Bros at the top and not enough at the bottom.

I know the Bropocalypse scourge is slowing down be-cause I have just recently looked at the Jersey Shore ratings and– thank God– they are in decline. Ever since the finale of season four their viewership has been slipping along with their gener-al appearances. Jersey Shore, the engine of Bro culture, is losing its ability to pump gas and spread Brosyphilis.

For me, however, it wasn’t Jer-sey Shore’s decline that rescued me from the vacuum of the Bro-pocalypse—it was Charlie Sheen.

Although I can’t speak for human beings, I know that last year while he went on his holy “winning” crusade, the Bros watched every moment. When Charlie did all those drugs, drank all that alcohol and slept with all those women, he became the super Bro we had all longed for. We watched in ec-stasy as he stumbled through one controversy to the next speaking about his transcendence to the Bropocalyptic Promised Land and the endless pleasure that await-ed those who followed him. But then shockingly, Charlie’s path to greatness stopped at a custo-dy battle where he lost his kids.

With that, my twisted dark Bro fantasy came to an end and I awoke disoriented: from a ter-rible empty dream.

www.BrotiPs.com

“Funnel after funnel i drank that beer until it tasted

like dirty water. when i finished they yelled my

name, celebrated my alcoholic

debauchery and chanted that i was

a legend.”

www.theontarion.com24 OPiniOn

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The flaws of financial need assessments and work studyWith summer sublets hard to come by, sticking around in Guelph seems like the simplest solution to the summer rent issue, but with all the students staying back it can be difficult to find work, especially in your area of study.

The competition for summer employment on-campus is espe-cially fierce but the experience is rewarding. Once you finally make your way through the labyrinth that is the University of Guelph website and find the hidden cache of job postings, the next step is drafting your resume. Coop and Career Services offers some great workshops on resume and cover letter writing and are available by appointment for mock inter-views and to review your resume with you.

The real employment gems are the research assistant positions, but require a little more digging– unless you know where to look. The catch is that once you find them, you still have to apply for Financial Need or Work Study. And that’s where things get ugly.

“You’re not poor enough to work here” is the response many students get in response to their application (though not quite in those words). Even if you’re

$16,000 in debt, you have a sibling (or multiple) at university, your parents are about to retire, halv-ing their income each yea or any number of other mitigating factors which could affect your finances, you might get denied.

“But that doesn’t mean you can’t work somewhere else,” is a response that often follows to stu-dents who are turned down. There are few on-campus opportuni-ties that accept students who do not qualify.

The Financial Need Assessment forms do not take into consider-ation your own personal student debt, nor does it take into consid-eration that some students may be choosing to support themselves through university through other means of employment rather than relying on student loans. Even if you choose not to accept OSAP because you would rather learn valuable lessons about managing your own finances than owe the government money– and kudos to you if you pull it off– if you can technically receive financial sup-port through OSAP, you may be denied Work Study approval since those other options are available, even if those options saddle you with debt. So what’s all that about?

The Financial Need Assessment form looks only at your parents’ income. But here’s the real kick-er, it looks at their income before taxes. You can appeal the verdict, but the logic they seem to follow behind those Student Financial Services desks is this: if you’re parents make X amount of money (and they don’t have “crazy credit card debt”) then they should be able to fund your education. The end.

So if you’re working 40 hours a week on top of a full course load to pay for school, you’ll get nothing but a pat on the back. Rather, they might look at your employment as another reason not to approve your application, because obvi-ously you don’t have any expenses other than paying tuition.

The standards for the Financial Need Assessment form need to ei-ther be released so we can all see what these results are based on, or else the system needs to be over-hauled to consider that students are no longer solely dependent on their parents, and that some students are choosing to pay for their own education. It seems fair to have resources available to sup-plement the income of students who are struggling a great deal

financially, but what student isn’t struggling? Saying that all jobs should be based on qualification for financial need alone ignores the merits and qualifications of each student, closing rather than open-ing doors to students who wish to stay in Guelph over the summer or who want to gain a more valuable summer work experience.

Many students also look to use their summer job opportunities to find work in their field of study to help them find a career once they graduate and in many in-stances in Guelph these kinds of jobs are only available through the university. When these positions, namely research based positions, are based solely on financial need it does a disservice to academically outstanding students who would benefit from and contribute to re-search in these types of positions, positions which they won’t be able to find elsewhere.

As previously stated, the criteria for Work Study and Financial Need should either be made available to students or revised to consider fi-nancially independent students if Financial Services wants to con-tinue serving the best interest of students.

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across1. Electronic book 5. Appliance maker 10. Monopoly square 14. diabolical 15. deprive of gender 16. First Lady of Jazz 17. bloodshed 18. Suave pl. 19. wander

20. Scientologist’s luxury liner? 23. “Help!” 25. Soccer chant 26. tire pattern 27. Mutter 29. Streaky 31. inbox contents 32. Procrastinator’s promise 33. Police alert, for short

36. Fast food ruler of England? 40. inquire 41. Lubricates 42. Microsoft program 43. Academy of European

Medieval Martial Arts 45. Airway disease 46. Molten rock 48. gore and Capone 49. “Ouch!” 50. Australian panties? 54. Et ___ 55. Leg bone 56. radiate 59. grandmothers (slang)60. Madagascar lake 61. dash 62. Longing 63. goddess of agriculture 64. Singles

down1. it’s tapped 2. Lacto-___ 3. Skin irregularity 4. Margarine 5. tissue 6. Habituate 7. Son of isaac 8. First name in jeans 9. Alive 10. ___ Shore 11. Luau greeting 12. “Since ___ Eyes On You” (2) 13. Light source 21. Pepper tree

22. Seabird 23. tiny organism 24. Mature compost 28. Large 29. “behold!” 30. Years and years 32. graze 33. will Ferrell movie 34. AKA, dJ Premier35. Municipal rule 37. Chivalrous 38. 1946 Literature

nobelist 39. Office no. 43. realise 44. Ostrich cousin 45. Constantly 46. back tooth 47. Amazing 48. get up 50. irish goddess 51. Make ready 52. bar above bookshelf 53. bubbly chocolate bar 57. rocks, to a bartender 58. French possessive

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Thursday march 8

In celebration of International Women’s Day, come out for an evening of celebration, solidarity & awareness of women through dance, music, film & poetry. ‘Women’s Voices’ 7pm at John F.Ross, E.L. Fox Auditorium. Tick-ets $15/door. Reception after the show. Brought to you by Guelph Fab5.

SAFE Week, an annual initiative to raise awareness of sexual assault and the importance of consent and respectful relationships. Come

check out the all day event in the UC courtyard. Pick up a t-shirt for the SAFE week t-shirt campaign from the The Wellness Centre, J.T. Powell Bldng, 2nd floor, Mar 12-14, 8:30am-4:30pm.

Guelph Lecture in Philosophy. Everyone Welcome. Harvard Professor Thomas (Tim) Scanlon will speak on ‘What is morality?’ 5:30pm-7pm. Academic Public Square, McLaughlin Library, U of G.

Guelph Field Naturalists indoor meeting: 7:30pm at the Arboretum

Centre. All welcome. ‘The Won-derful World Of Fossils’- Bob O’Donnell, shares his knowledge of Fossils around Canada. Fossils will be on display.

saturday march 9

Guelph Contra Dances holds its monthly contra dance 8-10:30pm at St. James Anglican Church (corner of Glasgow/Paisley Rd). Free parking. Special guest caller Tara Bolker, band Relative Har-mony. Admission is $10/$8 members and students. Info call: Rick Avery at 519-763-2494.

saturday march 10

Guelph Hiking Trial Club Hike: Snyder’s Flat, Bloomingdale 7 km. Level 1. Speed Moderate. Meet at Canadian Tire on Woodlawn for 10am departure and car pool to hike start point. Some muddy spots Bring water, no pets. All welcome. Leader: Terry (519) 265-6203. www.guelphhiking.com

Guelph Cultural Arts Festival: a one day arts festival to foster and showcase creative writing, music, theatre, performance and other cultural arts in Guelph. Free and open to public. Info and registra-tion: www.guelphculturalarts.com

wednesday march 14

Decreasing Headaches program begins at 7:30 pm. More than 2 or 3 headaches a month are too many! This 4 session program teaches drug-free strategies that decrease tension and migraine headaches. Fee $20. Details at www.uoguelph.ca/~ksomers.

Thursday march 15

Guelph Civic Museum Mili-tary History Lecture Series. This month: Matt Symes speaks on War

in the Abstract: Art as a Window into Canada’s Military Past. 7:30 pm at the new Guelph Civic Museum. Doors open 6:30pm. Free admission. 52 Norfolk St. Contact: 519-836-1221 x2775.

ongoing:

Milk bags for Mat-making! Meal Exchange is making bed mats out of Milk bags! The bed mats are used in third world countries. email meal@uoguelph.ca to par-ticipate in the event or arrange a pickup time,or bring bags to UC room 241. Deadline- March 9th

Thursday At Noon Concert Series. ♫♫ “celebrating over 40 years of music making” ♫♫. Concerts start at 12:00p.m. Thursdays in Mack-innon room 107 (Goldschmidt room). Admission free – dona-tions gratefully appreciated. Everyone welcome!

Trillium Gift of Life Network (TGLN) is encouraging all Ontar-ians to register their consent to become organ and tissue donors. By registering as a donor, you could one day save up to eight lives and enhance as many as 75 more. Online donor registration is now available at BeADonor.ca. It’s easy and it only takes 3 minutes to register. www.beadonor.ca

Under University student plan, co-payment has been waived.

Dentistry Asleep.FREE CUSTOM TEETH WHITENING!

Invisalign from $1900!

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community events

Student of Colour Support Groups (and Students from Dif-ferent Cultural Backgrounds). Mondays: One on One support 10am-2pm, Discussion 3-5pm. Tuesdays: One on One support 10am-2pm. Discussion group 2-3pm. Wed: One on one support 10am-2pm. Discussion group 5-7pm. Confidentiality ensured. Munford Centre, Rm 54. Contact: rmcleod@uoguleph.ca or x53244.

servicesEditing Specialists! Research and Editing Experts At Your Service. All levels, all subjects. Post-grad-uates in most fields available to help you get the job done right! 1-888-345-8295 www.custom-essay.com

volunteer oPPortunitiesSave a life...or 3! Canadian Blood Services is looking for donors at the University of Guelph. Clinic held in PCH March 23 from 10am-3:30pm.