The Vagina Monologues

From our friends at the Women's Center:

It's that time of year again: when a motley crew of good-doers puts on a play about VAGINAS-- or, more precisely, what it means/feels like/is to have a vagina!

The Vagina Monologues is part of the international movement to end violence against women, called V-Day. Written by Eve Ensler, the play is a collection of pieces based on interviews conducted with women of all ages, backgrounds, races, social strati, etc. It explores the good, the bad, and the ugly of having a vagina--from the miracle of childbirth to the trauma of rape; from the ecstacy of orgasm to the confusion of getting your period for the first time. The best part? All proceeds go to local domestic violence shelters!

The play will be taking place on Thursday, April 6th and Saturday, April 8th. Both shows will begin promptly at 7:30 p.m. and will take place at Sam Levenson Recital Hall. Tickets are available at the Women's Center (227 NE). Advanced Tickets are $7, and tickets at the door cost $10. Seating is general admission.

To reserve tickets, or for more information, please call the Women's Center at (718) 951-5777.
Hope to see you at the show!

Best wishes,

Maria Rubio
2006 Co-Director of the Vagina Monologues
2005 Director of the Vagina Monologues

Poem of the Week

This week Robert Jones, Jr. shares a poem by Harryette Mullen entitled "Free Radicals" from her collection of poetry entitled Sleeping with the Dictionary. It is a poem he read in English 62.41 (Contemporary American Writers). It changed his perspective about west coast culture. We wonder what his perspective was before Mullen.

Enjoy!


Free Radicals

She brought the radish for the horses, but not a bouquet for
Mother's Day. She brought the salad to order with an unleav-
ened joke. Let us dive in and turn up green in search of our
roots. She sang the union maid with a lefty longshoreman. They
all sang rusty freedom songs, once so many tongues were loos-
ened. She went to bed sober as always, without a drop of wine.
She was invited to judge a spectacle. They were a prickly pair in
a restaurant of two-way mirrors with rooms for interrogation.
The waiter who brought a flaming dessert turned the heat from
bickering to banter. She braked for jerk chicken on her way to
meet the patron saint of liposuction. His face was cut from the
sunflower scene, as he was stuffing it with cheesecake. Mean-
while, she slurped her soup alone at the counter before the gig.
Browsers can picture his uncensored bagel rolling around in
cyberspace. His half-baked metaphor with her scrambled ego.
They make examples of intellectuals who don't appreciate
property. She can't just trash the family-style menu or order by
icon. Now she's making kimchee for the museum that preserved
her history in a jar of pickled pig feet. They'd fix her oral tradi-
tion or she'd trade her oral fixation. Geechees are rice eaters.
It's good to get a rice cooker if you cook a lot of rice. Please
steam these shellfish at your own risk. Your mother eats blue-
green algae to rid the body of free radicals.

At this Moment: Special Open Mic Edition

Photography by Katy "Kaboom" Maslow


Our own Anthony Punt asked a few of the exceptional performers at this past week's Open Mic event for a few words on what they're thinking about...At this Moment.




Ahnmin Lee: I thought the Open Mic was a terrific experience. The crowd was open, respectful, and gave an open ear to every reader. Almost every reader adhered to the time limit and everyone who signed up was given a fair chance, which was great.

Jade Zirino: I had a good time! It was my first time attending an Open Mic and also my first time reading at one. I found the other writers' pieces inspiring and wrote a new poem when I got home.

Katy Maslow: It's not smart to ask me what I really think "at this moment" 'cuz my brain is like those novelty chattering teeth. I'm thinking...that the end of the world will happen and I'll be sleeping, or in class, or both. That I'm not really as brilliant as I think I am. That one day I will wake up and not have poetry in me. That my cats might run away and die. That I might stop hearing the music, or that the music will stop playing. That there are people making decisions for me and we don't agree on anything. That one day someone will tell me, really, like it is, and it's gonna hurt. That I'm really insane and just can't see it, or don't want to. That there's really something after all this and I'm gonna pay dearly. That I'm verbose and don't know when to shut up. That you said 'keep it brief' and I purposely ignored you. That I'm totally self-absorbed like that. Trust me, there's more. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming. Holla!

The Boylan Brief #42

"Non-Violence is not inaction. It is not discussion. It is not for the timid or weak. It is hard work. It is the willingness to sacrifice. It is the patience to win."

-Cesar Chavez

North Korea: "Pre-emptive Strike is Not the Monopoly of the United States"

In a rare admission of its nuclear might, a Foreign Ministry spokesman in North Korea's official news agency warned that the country was both willing and able to launch a pre-emptive attack against the United States. "As we declared, our strong revolutionary might put in place all measures to counter possible U.S. pre-emptive strike," the spokesman said, adding that "pre-emptive strike is not the monopoly of the United States." A State Department spokesman said that the United States had no immediate plans to attack North Korea and urged the country to return to the six-party talks rather than make threats against another nation, but the North declined.

A key source of contention in U.S.-North Korea relations centers on an accord the United States recently signed with India. President Bush agreed to a quid pro quo arrangement that would allow weapons inspectors to examine India's atomic reactors in exchange for knowledge of U.S. atomic weaponry and fuel, even though India has yet to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. As a result, North Korea has accused the U.S. of granting "preferential" treatment to India in regards to nuclear issues and withdrew from the six-party talks in protest. The North's spokesman advised that it would be "wise" for the United States to cooperate with them on nuclear issues as they had with India. Since last year, North Korea has insisted that it possesses nuclear weapons, and although this claim has yet to be definitely confirmed by an independent party, many experts say that the North has enough plutonium for at least a half-dozen weapons. Through its spokesman, the North also challenged the allegations made by a U.S. national security report that the country could be considered a nuclear proliferation challenge, and referred to the Bush administration as "a group of war fanatics."

-Anthony Punt
Washington Post


Basque Separatists: Ending Terrorist Practices

The ETA--a terrorist organization of Basque state made up of sections of northern Spain and southern France--announced a permanent cease-fire effective March 24 over a Basque radio station, Radio Euscadi, and on a regional TV station. During their reign of terror that lasted for nearly 40 years, the group, founded in the 1950s, has killed over 800 people, half of which were innocent civilians.

The ETA had promised to give up their violent practices for a political approach to achieving independence for their region. "The objective of our decision is to advance the democratic process in order to construct a new framework that will recognize the rights that we as a people deserve. At the end of the process, the Basque citizens should have the final word and decision about their future," the statement delivered to the public said.

The group is believed to be very weak at this point, with many of its members arrested. Since May of 2003, it has been speculated that the terrorists were considering permanent cease-fire. Officials say that, perhaps, the train bombings in Madrid in March of 2004 had prompted that decision as well, because, being already hated in Spain and their own Basque region, the group would have unleashed an even greater public outrage were it to continue its terrorist practices.

Government officials, though hopeful about the terrorists' change of heart, remain cautious because of the ETA's "history of unfulfilled promises and deceit."

-Yevgenia Drobitskaya
IHT


China Goes Nutballs over Baby Names

joke used to go in China that if you called out “Wang Wei” in the street at least one person would turn around. But times have changed. The joke is now that the Ministry of Public Security has limited the choices of names to a restrictive database of names which don’t include rare characters. Currently, around 60 million of China’s 1.3 billion people contain at least one rare character in their name. Because with the introduction of electronic identity cards it became impossible to handwrite rare characters on cards, names which contain such characters make it difficult for their bearers to open a bank account or buy a car.

The current vogue in China is for the personal name plus a single character--hence the flood of boys known simply as Mighty. In Beijing alone, more than 3,000 men are called Li Wei - or Li Mighty - and another 3,000 share the name Li Jie - or Li Distinguished. Modern parents often choose words indicating "wisdom" or "brightness" for a son, while for girls feminine words denoting "serenity" and "beauty" are very fashionable. Before the introduction of the new police database, Mr Zhang--a Beijing fortune teller and a name specialist whom many parents consult when naming their child--had an enormous range of possible names to choose from. Ancient poems are a popular source of inspiration, while the 18th century Kangxi Dictionary, the authoritative work for the Chinese language, contains 50,000 words - almost twice as many as a computer database.

-Franklet
Times Online


Europe's Last Dictator in Belarus

Belarus authorities arrested Alexander Kozulin, a candidate who dared to oppose Alexander Lukashenko in last Sunday's disputed election in Belarus which gave Europe's last dictator a third seven-year term in office. Kozulin was seized as he attempted to march with hundreds of other protestors on a prison. In Minsk, the capital, the riot police clubbed opponents of the government who marched in defiance of an order to stay at home. Witnesses reported seeing marchers bleeding profusely from their injuries and there were claims that police had used percussion grenades.

Earlier, the leading opposition figure, Alexander Milinkevich, told a crowd of thousands that momentum was growing to bring democracy to Belarus. He declared, "The people havecome out today. They have come out in the face of truncheons, in the face of arrests. The more the authorities conduct repression, the closer they bring themselves to their end."

-Esther Hwang
Telegraph


Fun Facts:

--Chewing gum while peeling onions will prevent you from crying
--There is one million ants to every human in the world
--Shrimp can only swim backward
--Flamingos are pink because they eat shrimp
--You have to play ping-pong for 12 hours to lose one pound

Source: Armenian Teens

Elina Bloch's This Week in OurStory

This Week in OurStory, Mar 20-26:

Mar. 20

1813 Matthias Keller, hymn writer, is born in Germany
1826 Carel Vosmaer, Dutch art historian/poet/editor, is born
1828 Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian dramatist, is born
1887 Pavel Annenkov, Russian literature historian, dies at 73
1902 Kathryn Forbes, short story writer, is born
1910 Félix Tournachon, French writer/photographer, dies at 89
1917 Kalervo H Hortamo, Finnish poet, is born
1972 Jan Engelman, Dutch poet/art critic, dies at 71
1995 Sidney Kingsley, US playwright (Pulitzer Prize 1934), dies at 88

Mar. 21

1670 Honorat de Brueil seigneur de Racan, French playwright, dies at 80
1789 1st American novel, WH Brown's "The Power of Sympathy", is published
1792 Tsjalling Hiddes Halbertsma, Fries story teller, is born
1846 1st edition of Charles Dickens' "Daily News"
1883 Olav Aukrust, Norwegian poet, is born
1961 Blaise Cendrars, Swiss/French poet, dies at 73

Mar. 22

1561 Francis Bacon, English statesman/essayist, is born
1766 Antoine-Vincent Arnault, French writer, is born
1798 Matija A Reljkovic, Croatian writer, dies at 66
1820 Hermann von Lingg, German playwright/poet, is born
1849 August Strindberg, Swedish dramatist/novelist, is born
1894 Charles Morgan, English writer, is born
1899 Martti Haavio, Finnish linguist/poet, is born
1924 Maurice du Plessys, French poet, dies at 59
1993 Kobo Abe, Japanese writer, dies at 68

Mar. 23

1582 John Barclay, Scottish satirist/Latin poet, is born
1639 Francisco Maldonado da Silva Solis, Peruvian poet, burned at stake
1761 Friedrich von Matthison, German poet, is born
1762 Christian A Vulpius, German writer, is born
1783 Stendahl [Marie Henri Beyle], French writer, author of The Red and the Black, is born
1875 Charles Kingsley, English vicar/writer, dies at 55
1878 Oton Zupancic, Slovenian poet, is born
1897 Start of Sherlock Holmes "The Adventure of the Abbey Grange"

Mar. 24

1471 Sir Thomas Malory, author of Le Morte d'Arthur, dies at 55
1732 Pierre de Beaumarchais, French playwright, is born
1798 Karl von Holtei, Silesian actor/playwright, is born
1834 William Morris, English designer/craftsman/poet, is born
1855 Olive Schreiner, South African writer, is born
1869 Émile Fabre, French playwright, administrator of Comédie Française, is born
1882 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, US poet, dies at 75
1895 Albin Zollinger, Swiss poet/author, is born

Mar. 25

1808 José de Espronceda y Delgado, Spanish revolutionary/poet, is born
1877 Alphonse de Châteaubriant, French writer, is born
1887 Josef Capek, Czechoslovakian painter/author/critic, is born
1899 Bella Spewack, Hungarian playwright, is born
1914 Frédéric Mistral, French poet (Nobel-1904), dies
1960 DH Lawrence' "Lady Chatterley's Lover" ruled not obscene

Mar. 26

1819 Louise Otto, author/feminist, is born in Germany
1833 Betsy Perk, Dutch journalist/writer/feminist, is born
1859 Alfred Edward Housman, English poet, is born
1871 Serafín Alvarez Quintéro, Spanish dramatist/playwright, is born
1874 Robert Frost, is born in San Francisco CA
1973 Noel Coward, English playwright, dies at 73

Career Conversations for English Majors

Wondering what you're going to do after you graduate? Join us at Career Conversations for English Majors!

Tuesday, March 28 and Thursday, March 30
SUBO Alumni Lounge, 1:30 – 4 pm both days

Q&A with speakers in the following fields:

Journalism (Tue 1:30-2:15)
Law & Community Development (Tue 2:15-3:00)
Writing for Businesses (and others) (Tue 3-3:45)
Publishing & Editing (Thu 1:30-2:15)
Museums & Libraries (Thu 2:15-3:00)
Teaching (Thu 3:00-3:45)

Refreshments will be provided.

For more information, contact Prof. Davis at jcdavis@brooklyn.cuny.edu or Prof. Nadell at mnadell@brooklyn.cuny.edu.

We hope to see you there!

Poem of the Week

This week's poem was submitted by Esther Hwang. It is a poem by Mother Teresa entitled, "Do it Anyway." Enjoy!


Do it Anyway

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank people may deceive you.
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.
Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

People who really want help may attack you if you help them.
Help them anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you may get hurt.
Give the world your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God.
It was never between you and them anyway.

At this Moment #16

This week, Robert Jones, Jr. spoke with the esteemed Mr. Ramsey Scott, instructor of English at Brooklyn College, about what concerns him...At this Moment.

"What a question! I keep thinking back to a class yesterday: I couldn't remember what 'diadem' meant. I said crown, turns out I was right, but at the time, I couldn't be sure. I consistently find myself thinking that someone has absented all essential facts. The informational food supply keeps us fat and generally lethargic. I'd like to think we can get around it, but I'm not confident that we can. The cards are stacked in advance. I wish that the literacy rate of the United States, and while I'm at it, the world, could be magically increased by a factor of ten."

-Ramsey Scott
Instructor

REMINDER: The Spring 2006 Open Mic!

It’s that time of year again!

Join the Poetry Club, the English Majors’ Counseling Office, and the English Department for the Spring 2006 OPEN MIC!

It will be held on MARCH 21, 2006 in SUBO’s State Lounge (5th Floor) during club hours 1:30pm-3:30pm. Food and refreshments will be served.

Only speakers who sign up on the SIGN UP SHEET posted on the English Majors’ Counseling Office door (3416 Boylan) are guaranteed a performance slot.

***PLEASE NOTE: Each speaker is limited to FIVE MINUTES. Please limit your short fiction, essays, prose, plays or other readings to THREE pages. Please limit yourself to 2 or 3 poems (depending on the length of the poems). Music performances should be tailored to last five minutes or less. Observing the time limit will allow every speaker a chance at the mic.***

Punctuality counts! So, please be on time.

There may be an opportunity for speakers who did not sign up to read their work!

We can’t wait to hear your art!

The Boylan Brief #41

"Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will be as one."

-John Lennon


The Boylan Brief #41

Dirty Work

The leak of classified information from the Swiss intelligence service appeared to confirm that secret CIA interrogation centers for terror suspects exist in several Eastern European countries including Romania, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Kosovo. Swiss senator, Dick Marty, accused the United States of violating human rights. “Washington’s policy respects neither human rights nor the Geneva Conventions,” he said. The United States has refused to confirm or deny the allegations.

Mr. Marty has also criticized European governments for failing to act when it seemed clear that they were aware of the U.S. policy. “It’s not possible to transport people from one place to another in such a manner without the secret services knowing about it,” Marty said and added, “The question is: was the CIA really working in Europe? I believe we can say today, without a doubt, yes.”

-Elina Bloch
Link


Law Fights Against Tradition in Turkey

Canan Arin, 63, a Turkish lawyer and women’s rights activist, visited the United States in December to inform U.S. lawmakers and Amnesty International (AI) about violence against women in Turkey.

A 2003 study of middle and upper-class women in Turkey found that 63 percent had suffered some form of sexual assault. Similarly, a 2000 survey reported that 600 women had been raped by their husbands. Arin provides aid to these women, once helping a doctor divorce her battering husband—he broke his wife’s spine in three places. Only one-third of families in Turkey are willing to accept an abused woman back into their homes after she has fled her marriage.

Turkey sits at the crossroads of East and West, a geographical position that has created overlapping cultural dichotomies, most apparent in its largest city, Istanbul. Women in headscarves walk on the same crowded streets as teenaged girls in tank tops. However, tradition dies hard and even “honor killing”—the murder of a woman by a relative seeking to protect the family’s reputation—is still practiced in the country.

Arin has tried for over 25 years to provide for these women—she co-founded Turkey's first autonomous women's group, the Purple Roof Foundation, which opened Istanbul's first women's shelter. Currently, Arin is working to promote harsher punishment to abusers and greater provisions for victims in a new penal code. Today, Turkey has only 14 women's shelters, while Sweden has 120 for a population just one-tenth the size. Progress is taking place, but there is still a ways to go.

-Esther Hwang
Zissis, Carin. "Homegrown Progress." Amnesty International Spring 2006.


Creationism Finds a Place in UK Science Lessons

Creationism is to be taught alongside Darwin’s theory of evolution in mainstream British secondary schools next September.

OCR, one of three main examination boards in the United Kingdom, is including references to the theory in a new secondary education biology syllabus as an example of how scientific evidence can be interpreted differently.

Critics claim that including discussion on creationism in lessons runs the risk of blurring religious education and science. But OCR argues that the references to creationism are only to draw students’ attention to the scientific controversy.

In its “Gateway to Science” curriculum students are asked to look at how organisms became fossilized, and teachers are to “explain that the fossil record has been interpreted differently over time (e.g. creationist interpretation).

John Noel, OCR’s science qualification’s manager, told the Times that including creationism is “simply looking at one particular example of how scientific interpretation changes over time.”
He added, “The history of scientific ideas has not only a legitimate place in science lessons; it is a requirement of the new program of study.”

Creationism is an offshoot of the theory of “intelligent design,” which challenges Darwinism on the grounds that given the history of earth, nature is too complex and well-ordered to have arrived in the state it is now through evolution. It holds that the only explanation can be that it was the design of an intelligent creator.

-Christine Choi
Link


Self-Proclaimed Merry Men Become the Targets of Indian Tribes

More than 46,000 tribesmen have fled their villages near Dornapal, India to join a campaign against Maoist guerillas. The Maoists, or Naxalites, launched a movement in 1967, calling themselves modern day Robin Hoods who steal from the rich and give to the poor. However, the tribesmen feel that the Naxalites have not lived up to their promises of a better life, claiming that they have done nothing to help the poverty there. The Tribesmen have gathered in Chhattisgarh to join a peace campaign called anti-Maoist Salwa Judum.

At camps in Chhattisgarh, members of Salwa Judum have armed themselves with bows and arrows to protect against the Maoists and are now being backed by the Indian government. Many of the camps are virtually unguarded, some with only small paramilitary camps to offer protection, and most that put Indian civilians in the front lines. Naxalites threaten to kill any villagers who join Salwa Judum. The government hopes that Salwa Judum can help end the almost 40 years of Maoist insurgency.

-Alyssa Gargiulo
Link


FUN FACTS:

-George W. Bush and John Kerry are 16th cousins, three times removed.

-Sixty-five percent of Elvis impersonators are of Asian descent.

-Life Savers got their shape by a malfunctioning machine, which mistakenly punched a hole in the center of each candy.

Source: http://funny2.com/facts.htm

Elina Bloch's This Week in OurStory

This Week in OurStory March 13-19

March 13

1822 Moritz Grave von Strachwitz, German poet, is born
1884 Emanuel Stickelberger, Swiss writer, is born
1884 Oskar Loerke, German writer, is born
1884 Sir Hugh S Walpole, novelist/critic/dramatist, is born in New Zealand
1917 Maria Vlamynck, Flemish author, is born
1930 Mary E W Freeman, US writer, dies at 77
1941 Isaak E Babel, Russian writer, executed at 46

March 14

0840 Eginhard, French nobleman/biographer, dies at 69
1272 Re Enzo, Italian poet/son of Emp. Frederik II von Hohenstaufen, dies
1878 Carel T Scharten, Dutch poet/writer, is born
1899 Emile Erckmann, French writer, dies at 76
1907 Björn-Erik Höijer, Swedish writer, is born
1925 John Barrington Wain, English novelist/poet, is born

March 15

1824 Branko Radicevic, Serbian poet, is born
1830 Paul von Heyse, German writer, is born
1852 Lady Augusta Gregory, Irish, playwright/poet/Yates mistress, is born
1867 Lionel Pigot Johnson, English poet/critic, is born
1905 B Amalie Skram-Alver, Norwegian author, dies at 58
1945 Mark J Green, lawyer/author, is born in Brooklyn

March 16

1585 Gerbrant A Bredero, poet/playwright, is born in Holland
1634 Contessa Marie Madeleine La Fayette, novelist, is born
1821 Ernest Feydeau, French author, is born
1850 Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Scarlet Letter" published
1897 Start of Sherlock Holmes "The Adventure of the Devil's Foot"
1901 Walter E Schäfer, German playwright, is born
1993 Giovanni Testori, Italian writer, dies at 69

March 17

1680 François Duc de La Rochefoucauld, writer, dies
1832 Moncure Daniel Conway, US clergyman/author/abolitionist, is born
1846 Kate Greenaway, English artist/book illustrator, is born
1926 Siegfried Lenz, German writer, is born
1994 Arthur C Jacobs, poet, dies at 57

March 18

1548 Cornelis Ketel, Dutch portrait painter/poet, is born
1768 Lawrence Sterne, writer, dies
1842 Stéphane Mallarmé, French poet, is born
1886 Marianne [Goudeket-]Philips, Dutch author, is born
1899 Svetolik Rankovic, Serbian writer, dies at 35
1900 António Nobre, Portuguese poet, dies at 32

March 19

1742 Zacharias H Alewijn, Dutch poet, is born
1821 William Allingham, Irish poet, is born
1933 Philip Roth, novelist, is born in Newark NJ
1937 Horacio Quiroga, Uruguayan author/poet, commits suicide at 58
1946 Amir Hamzah, Indonesian poet, dies at 35
1994 Jose Coronel Urtecho, poet, dies at 87

Poem of the Week

This week Alyssa Gargiulo blesses us with a beautiful piece from Rita Dove entitled, "After Reading Mickey In The Night Kitchen For the Third Time Before Bed." Enjoy!


After Reading Mickey In The Night Kitchen For the Third Time Before Bed


I’m in the milk and the milk’s in me…I’m Mickey!

my daughter spreads her legs
to find her vagina:
hairless, this mistaken
bit of nomenclature
is what a stranger cannot touch
without her yelling. She demands
to see mine and momentarily
we’re a lopsided star
among the spilled toys,
my prodigious scallops
exposed to her neat cameo.

and yet the same glazed
tunnel, layered sequences.
she is three; that makes this
innocent. We’re pink!
she shrieks, and bounds off.

every month she wants
to know where it hurts
and what the wrinkled string means
between my legs. This is good blood
i say, but that’s wrong, too.
how to tell her that it’s what makes us—
black mother, cream child.
that we’re in the pink
and the pink’s in us.

At this Moment #15

Esther Hwang received an interesting answer when she asked, "What's on your mind at this moment?"

"Are you sure you wanna know what I'm thinkin' right now? I don't think you wanna know. I'll tell ya. I'm thinkin' I wanna hurt everyone in this room right now."

-Ernest (the Starbucks guy downstairs in Boylan)

The Boylan Brief #40

"He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, deplorable love-of-country stance, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder."

—Albert Einstein



Mexico Strips Rape Victims of Abortion Rights

Mexican courts and officials routinely intimidate rape victims into carrying their pregnancies to term and prevent them from exercising their legal right to an abortion, a report released by Human Rights Watch indicates. Although Mexico, predominately a Roman Catholic country, bans abortions in most cases, an exception is made for women who become pregnant through rape. This law, however, has not prevented public officials from willfully misinforming women of their reproductive rights and, in some cases, actively obstructing them from having an abortion. “The result is that many pregnant rape victims are essentially assaulted twice, first by the rapist and second by public officials,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.

President Vicente Fox, himself a conservative Catholic, has come under fire from rights activists over his role in the case of Paulina Ramirez, a 13 year-old girl who was raped by 2 men in 1999. Ramirez, now 20 and raising the son she bore in 2000, accuses Fox’s party and other anti-abortion organizations of pressuring her to deliver her child.

Many Mexican states encourage underage girls who are sexually assaulted by a family member to charge their attacker with incest rather than rape, thereby waiving their right to an abortion. The government estimates that 13,000 women are raped each year in Mexico, a figure that averages out to one woman being raped every four minutes.

-Anthony Punt
Link


Wildlife for Sale

Modern technology has had a detrimental effect on the natural world for thousands of years. Nowadays, the Internet, as a tool of indulging the innate human desire for consumption, is used to arrange illegal trade of wildlife between individuals from all around the world. Tory Mark Pritchard proposed the Endangered Animals Trade over the Internet Bill in UK and urged the British to set an example for the rest of Europe in fighting this "abhorrent trade" which, according to estimates, is worth up to 3lb. billion in UK alone and 25lb. billion worldwide.

By visiting certain websites, one can easily purchase animal products, as well as rare live and dead animals. In August, 2005, the International Fund for Animal Welfare discovered that over 9,000 rare representatives of the natural world were offered for sale over the Internet in a single week. In addition, there is no information available on how the sold animals are treated, where they are kept, or where they come from.

In his Bill, Ptitchard proposes a certain "code of conduct" for the ISPs and those involved in the Internet market place as a remedy against the illegal activity, a code that would "ensure that the sale of endangered animals, directly or indirectly, [is not facilitated] through their products and services." The phone or e-mail hotlines are expected to be efficient in fighting against the trade and in reporting the illegal activity directly to wildlife officers and the police through the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. However, without government support, the bill is unlikely to become law.

-Yevgeniya Drobitskaya
Link


Ex-teacher Must Be Extricated

On Thursday, a 33-year-old former teacher of a school in Sable-sur-Sarthe in western France has seized at least eighteen students and two adults as hostages on an upper floor of a secondary school. The man has been out of work since losing his job as a supply teacher two years ago; a police official said the hostage-taker "wants to talk to the press about his employment problems."

A receptionist at the Colbert de Torcy school noted: "He looked normal when he walked in . . . We let him in because we knew who he was." The teacher happened to be armed with a handgun. As an explanation to the teacher’s violent behavior, a school employee commented that "he was very depressed when he left two years ago."

Currently, the school has been evacuated, and crisis centers for parents and students have been set up.

-Esther Hwang
Link


Protests in Sorbonne

French riot police officers fired tear gas into the Sorbonne building at the University of Paris to disperse students who had occupied part of the edifice since Wednesday. On Friday, the students blocked the streets outside it. The police forced about 200 to flee. 11 people had been arrested. The French education minister, Gilles de Robien, said that the occupation of the building was a “turning point” in the government’s tolerance of the protests.

The students were protesting new employment procedures that will allow companies to hire people under the age of 26 for a two-year trial period, during which they can be fired without cause. The new regulation is intended to relive unemployment by making it more lucrative for employers to hire part-time workers.

Currently, unemployment among working-age youths is more than double the national average.

-Elina Bloch
Link


Fun Facts:

-Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined.

-There is no synonym for "thesaurus."

-The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows—shaved eyebrows were a fad at the time.

http://www.fun-facts.com

Elina Bloch's This Week in OurStory

This Week in OurStory: March 6-13

March 6

1495- Luigi Alamanni, Italian poet, is born
1615- Jan Zoet, actor/playwright/poet, is born
1740- Giovanni Meli, Sicilian poet, is born
1806- Elizabeth Barrett Browning, English poet, author of Aurora Leigh and of the “Sonnets form the Portuguese,” is born
1855- Gustave Flaubert writes goodbye to Louise Colet
1885- Ring Lardner, US writer, is born
1928- Gabriel García Márquez, Colombian novelist, winner of the Nobel Prize (1982), is born

March 7

1715- Ewald Christian von Kleist, German lyric poet, is born
1785- Alessandro Manzoni, Italian poet/novelist, is born
1807- Franz Grave von Pocci, German poet/composer, is born
1841- Olegario Víctor Andrade, Argentinean poet, is born
1919- Mochtar Lubis, Indonesian writer, is born

March 8

1728- Gian M Crescimbeni, Italian literary/critic, is born
1899- Eric Linklater, Scottish novelist/poet/historical writer, is born
1920- Rafael Obligado, Argentinan writer, dies at 69
1937- Albert Verwey, Dutch poet/literature historian, dies at 71
1941- Sherwood Anderson, US writer/publisher, dies at 64
1958- William Faulkner says US schools degenerated to become babysitters

March 9

1814- Taras Shevchenko, Ukrainian national poet/painter/professor of Kiev, is born
1892- Joseph Weinheber, Austrian poet/writer, is born 1892 Vita Sackville-West, English novelist/poet, is born
1905- Rex Warner, English poet/writer, is born
1994- Charles Bukowski author/poet, dies of leukemia at 73

March 10

1628- Constantine Huygens Jr, Dutch poet/painter/cartoonist, is born
1772- Friedrich von Schlegel, German romantic writer/critic, is born
1788- Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff, German poet, is born
1833- Pedro Antonio de Alarcón, Spanish writer, is born
1877- David Mendes Chumaceiro, Curaçaoan poet, is born



March 11

1544- Torquato Tasso, Italian Renaissance poet, is born
1596- Isaac Elsevier, book publisher, is born
1726- Madame Louise-Florence d'Épinay, French writer/salon hostess, is born
1754- Juan Meléndez Valdés, Spanish lawyer/poet, is born
1793- Jan F Willems, Flemish writer/philologist, is born
1920- D J Enright, English poet/novelist, is born
1993- Manuel da Fonseca, Portuguese writer, dies at 81 1994 Jacques Doucet, French painter, dies at 69

March 12

1209- Djamal al-din Abu Mohammed Iljas Nizami, Persian poet, dies
1572- Luís Vaz de Camoes publishes "Os Lusíados" in Portugal
1863- Gabriele D'Annunzio, Italian writer/military hero, is born
1945- Anne Frank, diarist (Diary of Anne Frank), killed in Belsen Camp
1950- L Heinrich Mann, German/US writer, dies at 78
1973- Manuel Rojas Sepulveda, Chilean writer, dies at 77
1982- Elisabeth Zernike, Dutch writer, dies at 90

Poetry Club Meeting

Dear Poets and Writers:

Spring is right around the corner and so is another meeting of The Poetry Club. I'm not sure what we're going to do yet, but trust me when I say it's going to be fun with a capital "F." So be there or be square: Thursday, March 16 @ 1:30 p.m. in 2307 Boylan. I would appreciate if you could send me an email if you plan on attending, as I plan on bringing some type of snack for the event. Also at our first meeting, I mentioned we should bring in pieces of writing or short bios of our favorite writers to share with each other. I think it's time we follow through with this, so whoever wants to bring something in, please feel free.

In addition, don't forget to visit our website: http://students.brooklyn.cuny.edu/poetry

I've added our collaborative sestinas (in the poetry section) and pictures (in past events) from the last meeting. There is also a new guestbook (accessible on the main page), where you can leave comments about the site. As always, you should check the calendar for upcoming events.

Coming up is the spring English Majors Open Mic:

Tuesday, March 211:30-3:30 p.m.State Lounge, SUBOSign up to read at 3416 Boylan to guarantee yourself a spot. Hurry, though, because last time I checked the list was already filling up. Of course, you don't have to read. Feel free to stop by just to hear fellow BC students recite poetry, read fiction, or sing original songs. The event is always fun and convivial.

Best,
Christine
Poetry Club President

Academy of American Poets College and University Prize

THE DEADLINE FOR THE ACADEMY OF AMERICAN POETS COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY PRIZE IS MARCH 30, 2006, BY 2 PM, IN THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH OFFICE.

Students may submit up to 5 poems. These should be submitted with a cover sheet listing the titles of all submissions, and the student's own name, address, and telephone number. Poems of more than one page should be stapled, with the title typed in the upper right hand corner of all pages subsequent to the first. For poems of more than one page, authors should also indicate "stanza break" or "no break" at the bottom right hand corner of each page except the last.

The winner(s) and any honorable mentions will be announced at the English Majors Tea in May. Winners will also be listed in the Fall 2006 Issue of Poets Magazine, the Academy's journal.

So enter today!

At this Moment #14

Alyssa Gargiulo takes a refreshing approach to At this Moment....


What are you thinking about right now? What concerns, if any, do you have as a student?

"Not enough gin."

What exactly do you mean by that?

"Well, I'm a full time student and I work here full time, at Shakespeare and Company Bookstore. Plus, I have a tough course load. So, when I say "gin" I mean to get through the course load."

*laughter*

"There aren't any good bars around or near campus that I can go to to relax."

-Peter Stern
Transfer Student
Major: Undeclared
Shakespeare and Company Bookstore Employee

Poem of the Week

This week's contribution is from Yevegeniya Drobitskaya.

Mahmud Kianush, Iranian poet, writer, literary critic, and translator, was born in Meshed, Iran in 1934. He studied at the Teachers Training College and Tehran University and has a BA in English language and literature. To learn more about Mahmud Kianush and his work, please visit: http://www.art-arena.com/mahmud_kianush.htm. In the meantime, here is his poem "To Victorious Warlords." Enjoy!


To Victorious Warlords

The fighting man who fires hatred

Through his borrowed mouth,

And ecstatically plays with death

In his beguiled eyes,

Has forgotten his unguided childhood

When the sun rose in his head,

Rose gardens bloomed in his heart,

And nightingales perched on his fingers

To learn their songs.


To make him remember

That Life is always Beautiful,

That Truth is Beauty,

That Beauty is the Faith of Man,

You only need a gentle, awakening word,

Not a blind, revengeful bullet.

The Boylan Brief #39

"Everybody today seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for greater developments and greater riches and so on, so that children have very little time for their parents. Parents have very little time for each other, and in the home begins the disruption of peace of the world."

-Mother Teresa



Un-censoring China

Despite China’s rapid modernization over the past quarter-century, one thing hasn’t changed: the Chinese Communist Party’s resolve to clampdown on virtually all media expression. China, in fact, leads the world in jailed journalists, with 39 detained. But many targets of China’s censorship campaign have refused to be silenced.

A wave of protests following the closure in late January of Freezing Point, the Chinese magazine famous for its cutting-edge reporting on sensitive topics, pushed the government decision to reopen the publication again this March.

In addition to journalists and activists, propaganda officials have also faced challenges from people in business, government and law who believe media reform is a necessary part of China’s modernization.

“It’s such an information age. There’s no way anyone can block everything,” said Jiang He, who runs a hi-tech company in the western city of Chongqing.

Jiao Guobiao, a journalism professor forced to resign from his job last year after making statements that compared the Chinese government with that of Nazi Germany, said “There is now an unstoppable wave of demands for more freedom of expression and resistance to the old propaganda policies. He added, “The row over the extent of people’s right to know shows that the Communist Party’s authority is ebbing away.”

-Christine Choi
Link


Cat's Bird Flu

The World Health Organization reported that a domestic cat found dead in Germany on Feb. 27 tested positive for bird flu. The incident occurred on the Baltic Sea island of Ruegen, where over a hundred cases of H5N1-infected wild birds have been found. Scientists said it was possible that the cat ate one of the infected birds.

The incident marks the first time the virus has been found in a mammal, which raises the concern that bird flu could spread to other species both in Europe and in other parts of the world. Maria Cheng, of the World Health Organization, commented: “We know that mammals can become infected with H5N1. But we don’t know what this means for humans. We don’t know how much virus the cats would excrete, how much people would need to be exposed before they fell ill.”

Several cats in Asian zoos died after being fed with infected birds. So far, however, no human has been infected by a cat. Scientists are particularly concerned about bird flu infecting pigs. Because swine can also become infected with the human flu virus, the combination of the two viruses could cause a mutation and create a human pandemic.

-Elina Bloch
Link


Brazilian Prostitutes Oppose Abstinence

Brazil stands to lose a $48 million grant for AIDS prevention from the United States because of an American requirement that all countries receiving funds must “formally state that prostitution is dehumanizing and degrading.” Brazilian health officials have partnered with sex workers in education and prevention efforts, supplying information and condoms to prostitutes.

The United Nations considers Brazil's AIDS prevention and treatment program to be among the most successful in the developing world. There are currently at least 600,000 people living with HIV in Brazil, but that figure is just half of the prediction made by the World Bank ten years ago.

"Brazil's sexual culture is very different from the puritanical tradition in the United States," said Sonia Correa, an AIDS activist. "The denial and the stigma that you find attached to sexual health issues in so many places isn't found in Brazil."

The U.S. government strongly disapproves of Brazil's unorthodox approach to AIDS prevention. Emphasizing abstinence, the official policy of the American government, has not taken hold despite Brazil being home to more Roman Catholics than any other country.

-Keith Zackowitz
Link


“No Soup for You!”
Soup Nazi… Literally: Racism reaches new lows in France

Just months after the Paris race riots, right wing protesters huddled around Place Maubert last Thursday, sipping down the symbolic “pig soup” that has Muslims and Jews up in arms. Shouts were heard from the protestors: “We are all pig eaters! We are all pig eaters!” The soup has been deemed identity soup for its antiracial implications, and is one of the symbolic acts of a growing grass-roots backlash against the multiculturalism that has been spreading through Europe for the past two decades.

This unusual political statement began in 2003 when Odile Bonnivard, a member the far- right nationalist movement, Identity Bloc, began serving soup to the homeless. Pork, being a key ingredient in the soup because it was inexpensive and is a traditional base in French soups, became the focus of the group’s work once its political significance dawned on its members. The soup is meant to exclude those who do not eat pork, namely Muslims and Jews. The “others,” as the Identity Bloc describes them, use up scarce resources that ought to be used for descendants of the Continent's original inhabitants. Bonnivard defended the group’s actions saying that other communities “help their own, noting that Europe's Islamic charities serve halal food to disadvantaged Muslims and that its Jewish charities operate kosher soup kitchens.

Authorities have left the pork-soup kitchen alone, shutting it down only once to avoid an altercation with a group of French leftists. But the riots that swept France in October and November last year forced the government to take note of the alienation felt by Muslim youths. Authorities became alarmed when other pork-soup kitchens run by similar groups popped up in Strasbourg and Nice. They worried that this might be the start of a dangerous racist-tinged trend.

“The only condition required for dining with us: eat pork,” reads the group’s website, which bears the image of a wanted poster—a cartoon pig in a pot framed by the words, “Wanted, Cooked or Raw, Public Disturbance No. 1.” Despite a ban on the rally, anti-riot police did not interfere in the end, leaving the French to “have their soup, and eat it too.”

-Alyssa Gargiulo
Link


Blessings upon the Gay Union

The Reverend Jeremy Caddick, Dean of Emmanuel College in England, has recently informed the Bishop of Ely about his intention to offer blessings to gay couples. Thus commenced the breaching of the ban that the Church of England had placed on the clergy's ability to perform “civil partnership ceremonies.”

Though no requests of such service have been made yet, Rev. Caddick states that he would not want to deny it because, in such a sexually diverse community as theirs, it is important to "affirm and celebrate those that are faithful and life affirming."

Rev. Caddick's action opens doors for other social institutions, such as schools and colleges, to follow his example. This is made easier by the fact that chaplains are not required to obtain a license from their bishops to perform services in their own chapels.

Last July, the bishops of the Church of England permitted the clergy to "legally enter civil partnerships," though specified that no blessing service should be performed. In his address to the Bishop of Ely, Rev. Caddick argues that the Bishop's statement that "sexual intercourse as an expression of faithful intimacy properly belongs within marriage exclusively" goes directly against the common "pastoral experience," where the overwhelming number of marriages unites two people who have been engaged in intimate relationships long before the official union.

Rev. Caddick also states that “in setting its face so publicly against gay relationships the church imperils, perhaps terminally, its standing to speak authoritatively on the subject of relationships generally.”

-Yevgeniya Drobitskaya
Link

Elina Bloch's This Week in OurStory

Feb. 27

1539-- Franciscus Raphelengius, Dutch book publisher, is born
1656-- Johan van Heemskerk, Dutch lawyer/writer/interpreter, dies
1784-- Elias Annes Borger, Dutch theologist/poet, is born
1807-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet, is born in Portland ME
1912-- Lawrence Durrell, writer, is born in Darjeeling, India
1913-- Irwin Shaw, US novelist, is born
1943-- Kostís Palamis, Greek poet/scholar, dies at 84

Feb. 28

1533-- Michel de Montaigne, French essayist/philosopher, is born
1626-- Cyril Tourneur, English poet/dramatist, dies at about 51
1638-- Claude G Bachet de Meziriac, French mathematician/poet, dies at 56
1784-- Phillis Wheatly, poetess, dies
1812-- Berthold Auerbach, German author, is born
1865-- Arthur Symons, Welsh poet/critic, is born
1901-- Rudolf W Nilsen, Norwegian poet, is born
1909-- Stephen Harold Spender, English poet/critic, is born
1911-- Amir Hamzah, Indonesian poet, is born
1916-- Henry James, US/British writer, dies in London at 72
1940--Richard Wright's Native Son published

Mar. 1

0772-- Po Tjiu-I, Chinese poet/Governor of Hang-tsjow, is born
1610-- Johann B Schup [Schuppius], German poet/historian, is born
1633-- George Herbert, English poet, dies at 39
1711-- "The Spectator" begins publishing (London)
1788-- Gheorghe Asachi, Romanian writer/humanist/politician, is born
1828-- Vittorio Bersezio [Carlo Nugelli], Italian playwright, is born
1837-- William Dean Howells, US novelist/critic/editor, is born
1914-- Ralph Waldo Ellison, US writer, is born
1917-- Robert Lowell, poet/pacifist, is born
1920--Howard Nemerov, 3rd US poet laureate/novelist/critic, is born
1921-- Richard Wilbur, 2nd US Poet Laureate, is born
1926-- Camilo d'Almeida Pessanha, Portuguese poet, dies at 58

Mar. 2

1760-- Camille Desmoulins, French journalist/pamphleteer/revolution leader, is born
1797-- Horace [Horatio] Walpole, British horror writer, dies at 79
1817-- János Arany, Hungarian epic poet, is born
1904-- Dr Seuss [Theodor Geisel], children's book author, is born
1909-- Jan Fabricius, Dutch playwright, is born
1930-- David H Lawrence, poet/writer, dies at 44
1950-- M Joseph V d'Arbaud, French poet/author, dies at 76

Mar. 3

1459-- Ausias March, Catalan poet, dies
1549-- Henric Spieghel, Dutch Renaissance poet, is born
1606-- Edmund Waller, English poet, is born
1652-- Thomas Otway, English dramatist/poet, is born
1756-- William Godwin, philosopher/political writer, is born
1858-- József Bajza, Hungarian author/poet/critic, dies at 54
1906-- Artur Lundkvist, Swedish writer, is born
1982-- Georges Perec, French writer, dies at 45

Mar. 4

1595-- Robert Southwell, English poet, hanged for becoming a Catholic priest
1782-- Johann Wyss, Swiss folklorist/writer, is born
1841-- Kristian Mandrup Elster, Norwegian author, is born
1852-- Nikolai Gogol, Russian writer, dies at 43
1881-- Holmes & Watson begin "A Study in Scarlet", 1st case together
1888-- Amos Bronson Alcott, US theory/poet, dies at 88
1903-- Joseph H Shorthouse, English writer, dies at 68
1916-- Giorgio Bassani, Italian writer, is born

Mar. 5

1625-- James I (VI), king of England (1603-25)/poet/author, dies at 58
1746-- Jacob Wallenberg, Swedish writer/naval chaplain, is born
1794-- Rámon de la Cruz, Spanish playwright/translator, dies at 62
1853-- Howard Pyle, illustrator/painter/author, is born
1895-- Fritz Usinger, German writer, is born
1944-- Max Jacob, French writer, dies in Nazi concentration camp at 67
1986-- "Today" tabloid launched (Britain's 1st national color newspaper)

Literary Essay Contest!

The Association of Young Journalists and Writers is sponsoring a $2000 Literary Essay Contest!

Students may submit any essays that they have written to http://ayjw.org. The deadline is June 30, 2006.

For more information about the essay contest visit http://ayjw.org/rewards.php?type=lit.

Additionally, the Journalism Studies Scholarship has been extended to English and closely related majors as well. Students may apply for the scholarship at http://ayjw.org/scholarships.info.php. Thank you.

Robert Anderson
AYJW Scholarships Coordinator
http://www.ayjw.org/