Happy Holidays!

From all of us to all of you:

Happy...Everything!

Keep it safe, keep it happy, keep it up!

Greetings, everyone! Welcome to the last edition of this semester's Boylan Blog. The semester went by so quickly! We hope we've kept you informed and entertained. For our final post we thought we'd inform you of these special internship opportunities for English Majors for which you can receive 3 credits in a field of your interest:

*Book & Magazine Publishing*

Farrar, Straus & Giroux*Fairchild Publications *Vibe Magazine*Teen People*The Feminist Press*Kaplan Publishing

*Research, Public Relations & Government*

New York City Council

*Tutoring & Social Services*

Fortune Society*Star High School*The Learning Center

*Journalism & Media *

Jack FM

Requirements

Student interns are required to meet every other week in English 66, which counts toward the advanced elective requirement for English majors. In addition to working 6-8 hours per week at the internship site, English 66 requires students to keep a journal and conduct an interview with someone working in the field.

Interested?

You must receive permission to register for English 66. Contact

Prof. Roni Natov in Boylan 3416 (rnatov@brooklyn.cuny.edu)

Prof. Elaine Brooks in Boylan 2308 (ebrooke@brooklyn.cuny.edu)

To see a list of internship sites and find out how to apply, contact

Prof. Martha Nadell in Boylan 2305 (mnadell@brooklyn.cuny.edu)

BROOKLYN COLLEGE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT AWARDS

The contests that require students to submit writing for 2006-2007 awards are due by February 20, 2007 (Tuesday). The essay-writing contests will be held in the second or third week of February, 2007. Consult the rules and guidelines for any prize you wish to enter. A booklet containing all the information about the 2006-2007 awards cycle can be obtained from the English Department, Room 2308 (Boylan).

POETRY

The BEATRICE DUBIN ROSE award (to poets with merit as agreed upon by the department).

The BERNARD GREBANIER award for a sonnet written to the Italian (Petrarchan) or English (Shakespearean) pattern.

The ENGLISH AWARD IN POETRY EXEGESIS (for the best explication of a selected poem in a contest conducted by the English Department).

ESSAY

The DOROTHY JERVIS Award for Science Writing (awarded to undergraduate students who have submitted the best essay on a
scientific subject written in language accessible to the lay reader).

FICTION

The BERTHA & PHILIP GOODMAN award (to the three undergraduate students who write the best short stories in a contest conducted by the English department).

The GOODMAN SHORT STORY AWARD (first, second, and third prizes).

The LAINOFF PRIZE (to a second-year fiction student in the MFA program. Students must submit a short story or chapter from a novel, not more than 25pages in length).

CREATIVE WRITING

The LOUIS GOODMAN prize for a "woman-centered" work, 10-15 pages in length. GRADUATES AND UNDERGRADUATES may apply.

The JACOBSON Award in Expository Prose (to a student enrolled in English 1 or 2 who writes the best expository prose essay in a contest conducted by the English Department).

DRAMA

The OTTILIE GREBANIER Award for a one-act play.

JOURNALISM

The SAM CASTAN Award, for graduating seniors only, based on material that has appeared in BC publications.

SHAKESPEARE

The SHAKESPEARE contest with money donated by RANDOLPH GOODMAN. Students competing for this award will meet to write an essay or essays, on assigned topics. Details to be obtained from the English Department office.

Poem of the Week

Elizabeth Bishop






Elizabeth Bishop, born in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1911, lost her parents at a very young age. Her father died and her mother was institutionalized, so she was sent to live with her grandparents in Nova Scotia. Many of Bishop’s poems are infused with nostalgic references to the landscapes of both New England and Nova Scotia, mingled with a sense of homelessness. Because of her wealth and independence, Bishop was able to spend much of her time traveling the world; therefore many of her books of poems address issues of geography and place, and are full of lush descriptions of Europe, South America, America, and Canada. Bishop died in Cambridge, Mass., in 1979, three years after publishing Geography III, a masterful journey through the geography and topography of her life. Geography III established Bishop as a major literary figure, and the following poem is reason enough for our regard.

-Katy Maslow



In the Waiting Room


In Worcester, Massachusetts,
I went with Aunt Consuelo
to keep her dentist's appointment
and sat and waited for her
in the dentist's waiting room.
It was winter. It got dark
early. The waiting room
was full of grown-up people,
arctics and overcoats,
lamps and magazines.
My aunt was inside
what seemed like a long time
and while I waited I read
the National Geographic
(I could read) and carefully
studied the photographs:
the inside of a volcano,
black, and full of ashes;
then it was spilling over
in rivulets of fire.
Osa and Martin Johnson
dressed in riding breeches,
laced boots, and pith helmets.
A dead man slung on a pole
--"Long Pig," the caption said.
Babies with pointed heads
wound round and round with string;
black, naked women with necks
wound round and round with wire
like the necks of light bulbs.
Their breasts were horrifying.
I read it right straight through.
I was too shy to stop.
And then I looked at the cover:
the yellow margins, the date.
Suddenly, from inside,
came an oh! of pain
--Aunt Consuelo's voice--
not very loud or long.
I wasn't at all surprised;
even then I knew she was
a foolish, timid woman.
I might have been embarrassed,
but wasn't. What took me
completely by surprise
was that it was me:
my voice, in my mouth.
Without thinking at all
I was my foolish aunt,
I--we--were falling, falling,
our eyes glued to the cover
of the National Geographic,
February, 1918.

I said to myself: three days
and you'll be seven years old.
I was saying it to stop
the sensation of falling off
the round, turning world.
into cold, blue-black space.
But I felt: you are an I,
you are an Elizabeth,
you are one of them.
Why should you be one, too?
I scarcely dared to look
to see what it was I was.
I gave a sidelong glance
--I couldn't look any higher--
at shadowy gray knees,
trousers and skirts and boots
and different pairs of hands
lying under the lamps.
I knew that nothing stranger
had ever happened, that nothing
stranger could ever happen.

Why should I be my aunt,
or me, or anyone?
What similarities--
boots, hands, the family voice
I felt in my throat, or even
the National Geographic
and those awful hanging breasts--
held us all together
or made us all just one?
How--I didn't know any
word for it--how "unlikely". . .
How had I come to be here,
like them, and overhear
a cry of pain that could have
got loud and worse but hadn't?

The waiting room was bright
and too hot. It was sliding
beneath a big black wave,
another, and another.

Then I was back in it.
The War was on. Outside,
in Worcester, Massachusetts,
were night and slush and cold,
and it was still the fifth
of February, 1918.


Source: The Complete Poems 1927-1979 by Elizabeth Bishop

At This Moment

Tova Marin and Chris Gothorpe asked BC students the following question: If you could pinch anyone in the world, who would it be and why?

Ronald Reagan on the butt. He was such a great president, he must have been good in bed.

-Alison, BC Student

Hilary Clinton. On her face, to see if it's as fake as her policies.

-Nate G., BC Student

Political Correctness. It doesn't let me pinch anyone else.

-Y. Brownstone, BC Student

I would like to pinch Virginia Woolf. I admire her work (Orlando, Mrs. Dalloway) so much, that I'd love the chance to get close to her genius and imagination and "pinch" it—to get a corporeal sense of it and take away a "pinch" of the stuff that makes her voice and vision so fantastic.

-Maryana I., BC Student

I would pinch the people in front of me on the stairs in the subway that stop for no good reason. Right on the ass to get them moving.

-Ted S. Brooklyn Student

George Bush. Somewhere that would be very painful. And he should know why.

-Emma Wunsch, BC Professor

Professor Harrington. I have him for 17th Century Lit and he always wears a bowtie. Today he had on a Scottish knit hat with a pom-pom. He was so adorable that I wanted to pinch his cheeks.

-Emilie D., BC Student

The Boylan Brief #59

Miscarriage Greater For Thin Women

On Monday, December 4, researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) reported the findings of a study that examined the relationship between biological, behavioral and lifestyle risk factors and the probability of miscarriage. The study indicates that underweight women who possess a Body Mass Index (BMI) below 18 are seventy-two percent more likely to suffer a miscarriage in the first trimester of pregnancy than women with a BMI above 18. The study also indicated that the percentage of miscarriages are halved by taking vitamin supplements early on in pregnancy, or by eating certain foods such as fruits and vegetables.

The study also showed that single women were more likely to miscarry than married women or those living with a partner. Furthermore, if a pregnant woman changed partners, and the new man is not the father of the baby, the odds of miscarriage increase by sixty percent. Women who had previously terminated their pregnancies are also at higher risk. Planned pregnancies also decrease the chances of miscarriage. As Noreen Maconochie, senior lecturer in Epidemiology and Medical Statistics at the LSHTM, noted, "[these] findings related to low pre-pregnancy weight, previous termination, stress and change of partner are noteworthy."

-Yecheskel Schneider

Source:
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=200
6-12-04T110120Z_01_L04284499_RTRUKOC_0_UK-BRITAIN-MISCARRIAGE.xml



Saving Children’s Hearts Across Israeli-Palestinian Divide

Save a Child’s Heart is a private Israeli program, funded in part by the European Union, under which doctors at a hospital near Tel Aviv treat congenital heart defects in children from the Palestinian territories, including Gaza and the West Bank, and also from Iraq, Jordan, and Africa. Begun in 1995 by a US-born cardiologist, the program has helped over 1,000 children so far and has treated higher numbers of Palestinian children in recent years. With worsening conditions in their own hospitals and low levels of health care in their territories, Palestinians rely on Israel and Egypt for medical care and other humanitarian aid. This need has risen since Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 and the cutting of foreign aid following the election of Hamas members into the Palestinian government.

Israel eases security screening when it comes to people seeking medical care, especially for children. However, since the suicide bombing at a Gaza checkpoint by a woman seeking medical care, security measures have been stepped up. For example, in cases where adult parents pose a security problem, another relative is required to escort the child in need of care. The director of the program, Simon Fisher, believes that medicine is a common denominator that can help bridge the gap between Israelis and Palestinians. He says, “They are our neighbors whether we like it or not, whether we have a political issue or not. We live side by side, share the same destiny of the Middle East.”

-Maryana Isakova

Source:
http://today.reuters.com/news/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=L29506164




“Compelling” Evidence for Life on the Red Planet

Recently, Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft belonging to NASA had discovered gullies and trenches in the planet’s crust that are believed by scientists to be “carved by fast-moving water coursing down cliffs and steep crater walls.” This finding constitutes compelling, though far from definitive, evidence that Mars may have suitable conditions for organic life.
Although scientists are wary to accept this one explanation for the gullies and have hypothesized that other compounds, like dust, may have left the tracks, the evidence discovered by NASA since it first landed its Mars rovers in 2004 paints a different picture. The alterations in the planet’s ancient rocks suggest that currents of liquid water flowed once on the Red Planet.
Some scientists say its possible that the water that flowed on the surface could have seeped through the planet’s crust and now exists as a “reservoir” beneath the surface, housing variations of microbial life. "We're now realizing Mars is more active than we previously thought," said Arizona State University scientist Phil Christensen.

-Yevgeniya
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6214834.stm?ls



Maryland Rules Women Cannot Withdraw Consent in Cases of Rape

According to a recent Maryland law, a woman who gives consent prior to intercourse and then withdraws her consent cannot claim she was raped. This decision came when the Maryland Court overturned a rape conviction. The trial judge said Maryland's law was unclear and wouldn't provide an answer. The Special Court of Appeals disagreed with the trial judge, because according to the ruling, Maryland's rape law is "not ambiguous." The woman cannot accuse her partner of rape if he continues the sexual act. Women's rights groups are outraged by the ruling and believe anyone should have the right to say no at anytime and if the act continues, then it should be considered a crime. Maryland is one of two states that have ruled that women may not withdraw consent, while seven other states have ruled that women may withdraw consent at any time.

-Jade Zirino

Source: http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=9972



The Raping of Darfur

In response to the ongoing and increasingly catastrophic events in Darfur, "Global Day for Darfur" will see planned protests in 40 countries with women-led protests outside the Sudanese embassies. Female leaders worldwide have contributed their signatures to a call for peacekeeping missions in Darfur to protect the female population, who have been targeted directly with rape - possibly the most aggressive weapon in the arsenal. According to the Sudanese government, the Darfur crisis is a “Western invention.” and the government officials are quick to point out that rape is “impossible” as the people of Darfur are Muslims. Individual stories are trickling out of Darfur and into newspapers worldwide - but where is the response? Aside from protests which, according to the Sudan government, will "have no direct impact", there is still no strong UN response to the conflict and injustices in Darfur. There are only 7000 African Union peacekeepers attempting to protect civilians, but there have been an estimated 200,000 deaths and two million individuals have had to flee their homes.

-Katy Maslow

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6165017.stm

Welcome to the Boylan Blog!

Greetings! Welcome to this edition of the Boylan Blog! We are currently accepting submissions for annual English Major's Zine; if you're interested send a copy to boylanblog@yahoo.com and turn in a hardcopy to room 3416 B. Here is what’s happening on campus this week:

This week the BC Women’s Center, in cooperation with the Health Clinic, is sponsoring their final event of the semester on December 5, a workshop and Q&A session on the Morning After Pill’s new over-the-counter-status in 227 New Ingersoll from 1:45-3:15p.m.

On a soberer note, Jonathan Maitre, vice Chair of CUNY legislative affairs, is organizing a CUNY-wide rally calling for justice in the case of Sean Bel,l on December 6, 1:00p.m. at One Police Plaza, Downtown. For info call 718-270-6240.

On Tuesday, December 5th, Hofstra University is hosting a workshop for pre-law students on their application process, scholarships/financial aid in Room 411 of the Library from 1:30pm to 3:30pm.

Also, the BC to New Orleans Committee is having a bake sale to raise money for their January reconstruction and grassroots organizing trip. The event will be held this Tuesday, 10:00-5:00p.m. in front of Whitehead Hall.

Also, a friend of the Office, Jackie Rosenthal, wanted to let us know about a talented performer named Mickey Ehrlich who has some gigs coming up; for more info, check out his site at www.mickeyehrlich.com.


BROOKLYN COLLEGE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT AWARDS

The contests that require students to submit writing for 2006-2007 awards are due by February 20, 2007 (Tuesday). The essay-writing contests will be held in the second or third week of February, 2007. Consult the rules and guidelines for any prize you wish to enter. A booklet containing all the information about the 2006-2007 awards cycle can be obtained from the English Department, Room 2308 (Boylan).

POETRY

The BEATRICE DUBIN ROSE award (to poets with merit as agreed upon by the department).

The BERNARD GREBANIER award for a sonnet written to the Italian (Petrarchan) or English (Shakespearean) pattern.

The ENGLISH AWARD IN POETRY EXEGESIS (for the best explication of a selected poem in a contest conducted by the English Department).

ESSAY

The DOROTHY JERVIS Award for Science Writing (awarded to undergraduate students who have submitted the best essay on a
scientific subject written in language accessible to the lay reader).

FICTION

The BERTHA & PHILIP GOODMAN award (to the three undergraduate students who write the best short stories in a contest conducted by the English department).

The GOODMAN SHORT STORY AWARD (first, second, and third prizes).

The LAINOFF PRIZE (to a second-year fiction student in the MFA program. Students must submit a short story or chapter from a novel, not more than 25pages in length).

CREATIVE WRITING

The LOUIS GOODMAN prize for a "woman-centered" work, 10-15 pages in length. GRADUATES AND UNDERGRADUATES may apply.

The JACOBSON Award in Expository Prose (to a student enrolled in English 1 or 2 who writes the best expository prose essay in a contest conducted by the English Department).

DRAMA

The OTTILIE GREBANIER Award for a one-act play.

JOURNALISM

The SAM CASTAN Award, for graduating seniors only, based on material that has appeared in BC publications.

SHAKESPEARE

The SHAKESPEARE contest with money donated by RANDOLPH GOODMAN. Students competing for this award will meet to write an essay or essays, on assigned topics. Details to be obtained from the English Department office.

Hero of the Month

Apocalypse in the Classroom, with Tony Kushner

Mike Nichols’s 2003 HBO Films production of Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Angels in America, opens with an ethereal view through the clouds of the Golden Gate Bridge amid music both moving and foreboding, and then gives a striking glimpse of the statue of an angel - Bethesda in Central Park - that suddenly turns its head toward the viewer. The music strains, you are absorbed, and the huge, harrowing, humorous, haunting, hopeful drama begins.

Yevgeniya and I both experienced Angels in the classroom setting,­ she in Prof. Lee Quinby’s seminar on Sexuality and American Culture at Brooklyn College last spring, and I on a summer study-tour of Western Europe that focused on the management of HIV/AIDS. When we discussed its awesome brilliance together, we both confessed being “freaked out” by the part of the opening in which the bronze angel moves its head to stare at and confront the viewer. It overtakes you for a brief moment, the shock, the wonder, the fear of a celestial affront. It is, after all, only a movie, not reality. But Kushner’s apocalyptic play continues to break open assumed boundaries, while it intertwines disparate figures of American society through a confluence of poignant realism and probing fantasy. People move into and out of one another’s dreams, argue with ghosts of the past, struggle with pain and pleasure through terminal illness, experience the devotions and detractions of love, and grapple with political, religious, and behavioral inconsistencies. In the end, the prophet-protagonist, Prior, who has AIDS, insists on survival, awareness and hope for the future, proclaiming “The Great Work Begins” in a call for change. Kushner’s art, while it entertains, also peers into the face of serious personal and political problems and presses for progress. Which makes it perfectly suited for any classroom of the mind.

Tony Kushner was born in New York City in 1956, but grew up in Lake Charles, Louisiana where his mother performed in plays. Both of his parents were classically trained musicians, and Tony soon grew inspired by theatre. He also observed racial tensions, which he referred to as “the culture of genteel post-integration bayou-county racism” and later captured in his JFK-assassination-era musical, Caroline or Change. In 1974, Kushner went back to New York to study English Literature at Columbia University, explore the theatre scene, adopt a liberal political stance, especially through reading Brecht and Marx, struggle toward accepting his homosexuality, and complete an MFA in directing at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Kushner began directing small-scale Shakespeare plays and writing various kinds of dramas, then won several awards and grants, and went on to direct his own influential plays. The plays were lyrical, bold and sweeping in themes and theatricality, and political. Angels in America has been his most acclaimed work, going to Broadway and the screen and continuing to be staged in local and university theaters to this day. Kushner has also published essays and poems. While embracing his sexual orientation, Kushner engaged in activism for gay and lesbian rights and AIDS awareness. More recently, he has been involved in motivating and helping people to vote and participating in John Kerry’s presidential campaign. A documentary film by Freida Lee Mock on Kushner’s life and work, called Wrestling with Angels, is currently touring the country and is scheduled for another screening in New York on January 4 and 6 at the Makor 92nd Street Y theater (see film website: www.wrestlingwithangelsthemovie.com).

Kushner is heroic for his bold and brilliant use of theatre to shake and stir people toward awareness of and action against the marginalization of some groups by the historic domination and will of others. Kushner believes that “everything is political” and that theatre “presents the world as it is, an interwoven web of the public and the private.” Conversely, the world is as “tainted, tawdry, and superfluous” as theatre itself. Through the theatre, we explore the ambiguity of appearance and reality and “take a reading of the times, and change.” Indeed, Kushner’s themes build on “moments in history when the fabric of everyday life unravels, and there is this unstable dynamism that allows for incredible social change in short periods of time. During these sorts of periods all sorts of people - even people who are passive under the pressure of everyday life in capitalist society - are touched by the spirit of revolution and behave in extraordinary ways.”

Though the stories in his plays are often tragic and contain undeniable loss on both historical and personal levels, Kushner promotes faith in compassion and progress and living past hope, as Prior insists on doing in Angels.

Finally, Kushner is also heroic and a role model for the same reasons he looks up to his own heroes. In his afterword to Angels, titled “With a Little Help from My Friends,” he challenges American Individualism and the myth that “artistic labor happens in isolation,” solely due to the artist’s genius. He thanks Kimberly T. Flynn for her intellectual insights and for teaching by example, writing of her the very things he has come to do himself:

“She feels safest, she says, knowing the worst, while most people I know, myself included, would rather be spared and feel safer encircled by a measure of obliviousness. She’s capable of pulling apart, teasing out fundamental concerns from the camouflage; at the same time she uses her analysis, her learning, her emotions, her lived experience, to make imaginative leaps, to see the deeper connections between ideas and historical developments. Through her example, I learned to trust that such leaps can be made; I learned to admire them.”

Hopefully, as Kushner does, we, too, will, in our own work, acquire some of the admirable traits of our heroes, even as we keep them above us and continue to strive toward them.

-Maryana Isakova

Sources:
Fisher, James. Introduction to The Theatre of Tony Kushner: Living Past Hope. London: Routledge, 2001. Pp. 1-16.

Kushner, Tony. Angels in America. Afterword: “With a Little Help from My Friends.” New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1995. Pp. 283-9.

Poem of the Week

I was introduced to Charles Baudelaire’s poetry when it was assigned to me in a college class I was taking. I re-read his poems repeatedly to notice the little nuances in his writing. His poetry tends to have dark metaphors that draw a vivid picture and clearly reveal his intentions. In the following poem, I was drawn to the symbols that Baudelaire chooses to depict hate, such as a drunkard in a tavern or the Danaides.

-Yecheskel Schneider





The Cask of Hate

Hate is the cask of the Danaides,
Vengeance, distraught, has red and brawny arms,
With which she hurls into her empty dark
Buckets of blood and tears from dead men’s eyes.

Satan makes secret holes through which will fly
Out of these depths a thousand years of pain,
Through Hate will use her victims once again,
Resuscitating them to squeeze them dry.

Hate is a drunkard in a tavern’s depths
Who feels a constant thirst, from drinking born,
That thrives and multiplies like Hydra’s head.

But happy drinkers know their conqueror,
And Hate is dealt a bitter fate, unable
Ever to fall asleep under a table.



Charles Baudelaire was born in Paris, France in 1821. He lost his father at the age of 5, and had a troubled life marked by poverty and illness. Aside from being a prolific poet, he was also a contemporary art critic. His most famous work, The Flowers of Evil, from which the above poem was taken, was published in 1857 and prosecuted for challenging public decency. He suffered a series of strokes in 1866, eventually leading to paralysis and aphasia. He died in Paris in 1867.

Source: Baudelaire, Charles. The Flowers of Evil Oxford University Press (New York) 1998.

At This Moment

This week’s At This Moment, presented to us by Katy Maslow and Anthony Punt, dares to ask the question that has plagued mankind since time immemorial, or at least since illustrators started drawing overdeveloped he-men in funny li’l tights: If you were a superhero what super power would you have, and how would you use it?



An infallible lie detector, for use particularly with politicians, maybe to be in the UN meetings, so that I can interface with all those language translators.

Angela C., BC Student

Hmmmm...I’d want super-underwater capabilities. Breathing underwater, swimming fast, super-soft regular feeling skin that couldn't be penetrated by bites, stings, etc. And I suppose I'd be mostly good with it... nah...Fuck it! Evil!

Andrea M., BC Student

The Omniscient Growlpurr: the ability talk to the animals. The Empathic Boomerang: the ability to turn on/off seeing self through other's eyes. The Psychic Shovel: to can dig out of any hole of depression. The Morphinox: the power to change the seasons at will/whim. The Speakeaser: the power to back-calculate your vocal volume to fit the situation—wit and kindness are easily heard, while those clumsy, footinnamouth things become magically inaudible. I'm afraid all would be used for good. I do enough evil without intending it.

Colleen D., BC Student

Ever since I read Dune, I have always wanted "The Voice.” Bending others to my nefarious will and whims. I have tried to use super cool Jedi skillz on occasion, but These are not the 'droids you are looking for is pretty hard to insert into a conversation, even for me!

Kelly M., BC Student

There's always been one superpower I've wanted above all others: the power to issue $50 tickets at will for any offense I name. Dude, you've got 15 items in 10 items or less line. Ticket! We've been in the same office for over a year and you've never said hello to me. Ticket!

Don R., BC Student

I would love to be able to be invisible because I could force people to make decisions, like taunting world leaders by showing up in their bedrooms, knocking things over, and writing stuff on their walls like “what are you doing to help others in the Sudan?” If I taunt them enough, then they would have to do something eventually.

Ornesha W., Junior, Political Science and Art

I guess I’d pick the powers that Jean Grey (from the X-Men) has, she can pick up stuff telekinetically and read other people’s minds. It would be easy to know who to trust and who your friends are, and you could protect yourself from harm.

Clinton F., Sophomore/Junior, Business Management and Finance

Gee, I never really thought about it…but if I had to think about it, which I do now, I would want invisibility because I could watch people unobserved all the time. Especially hot chicks.

K.W., CUNY BA

I would want the same power that that Japanese guy (Hiro Nakamura) has on that show Heroes. I’m in the middle of writing 2 papers for different classes, and studying for finals, so the ability to stop time would come in mighty handy right now!

Anonymous BC Student

Boylan Brief #58

A Nation Divided

On November 30, South Africa passed legislation legalizing same-sex marriage, making it the fifth country in the world to do so. The law, known as the Civil Union Act, was passed a day before the court-mandated deadline and is consistent with the country's post-apartheid constitution which explicitly prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. It was the vision of Simon Nkoli, a gay activist who spent four years as a political prisoner in a South African jail with members of the African National Congress, which helped make the Civil Union Act possible by convincing would-be policy makers in the ANC to expand their notions of equality to include gays and lesbians. Traditionalists claim that instituting same-sex marriage in South Africa would upset age-old marriage practices such as the lobolo, the dowry paid by the groom to the bride's family. Others point out that lobolo was once paid with cattle but is now paid in cash, which serves as proof that such traditions are elastic and can continually change with the times.

Still, many countries in Africa remain socially and religiously conservative and reject homosexuality as, in the words of former Namibian president Sam Nujoma, "a behavioral disorder that is alien to African culture." Church and government leaders consider homosexuality to be a “white colonial import,” despite evidence that suggests that the colonizers repressed expressions of homosexuality that had been an accepted part of the culture for centuries. In many African countries, such as Nigeria, Cameroon and Ghana, homophobia is codified by the government, and gays and lesbians are arrested, and in some cases beaten or murdered. Even in countries where there are no anti-gay laws on the books, homosexuality is a taboo subject and gays and lesbians are forced to conceal themselves. Even in South Africa, one of the few countries on the continent that does not actively oppress its homosexual population, 63 percent of its citizens believe that homosexuality should not be accepted, leading the current Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota to comment that “the question is not whether same-sex marriages or civil unions are right or not, [but] whether South Africa is going to suppress [them].”

Anthony Punt
Source: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article2001487.ece



15 Church Members Executed in China

According to the Texas-based Chinese Aid Association, China has executed a total of 15 members of various Protestant underground churches. Of those killed, three were the leaders of the Three Grade Servant church and were put to death last week, while twelve belonged to another church and were killed as far back as 2004. However, the families of the deceased were unaware why. The reason cited for the execution was the people’s alleged involvement in the killings of members of another religious sect. According to lawyers, the confessions obtained by Chinese officials were extracted through "severe torture." If true, then according to Chinese law such confessions are inadmissible and executions impermissible.

Activities of Christian groups have been fairly quiet in China, but are growing with rapid speed. The current case involves a total of 63 church members, 22 of whom were sentenced to death, with 15 having been executed.

Tova Marin
Source: http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/11/29/061129163937.z8z5m8mz.html




Circumcision May Reduce the Risk of AIDS Infection

With no end in sight to the AIDS pandemic in Africa, researchers are investigating any possibility into preventing new infections. Studies conducted by the World Health Organization and Orange Farm in Africa have found that circumcision can reduce the risk of contracting HIV by as much as 60%. But the good news has its critics: the Treatment Action Campaign, South Africa's most vocal AIDS activist group, believes that promotion of circumcision will give the false message that condoms and fewer sex partners are no longer a necessary alternative. There is also the concern about whether or not ethnic groups will accept medical circumcision over the more traditional but less effective and more dangerous, due to unhygienic practices forms of the procedure. Nevertheless, groups such as UNAIDS are gearing up to begin an aggressive promotion campaign for circumcision as soon as enough studies make the evidence conclusive.

Damian Patterson
Source: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=healthNews&storyID=2006-11-29T171745Z_01_L28511181_RTRUKOC_0_US-AIDS-AFRICA-CIRCUMCISION.xml



U.N. Keeping Peace In Bangladesh

The Bangladesh elections committee has recently announced that it will hold general national elections on January 21st, 2007. The current government has only been active since October 29th, and according to the country’s constitution, it has only 90 days to hold elections. In response, thousands of protesters rallied in the capital on Monday, demanding electoral reforms and calling for the resignation of electoral commissioners, who have been accused of being biased towards certain
groups. Fourteen political parties came together under former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to demonstrate. Kofi Annan, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, has announced that the U.N will deploy a senior U.N. official to Bangladesh this week to reinforce U.N. support for the upcoming elections. The U.N. hopes to coordinate with the government’s senior officials, election authorities, and representatives of the country's political parties and nongovernmental organizations to maintain a peaceful atmosphere for the January elections. On November 27th, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric
said that Craig Jenness, the director of the U.N. Electoral Assistance Division, has been designated to visit Bangladesh this week to offer continued support. Dujarric also explained that Annan wishes to underscore the importance of a peaceful and transparent environment so that these important elections can enjoy the full confidence of the people of Bangladesh."

Yecheskel Schneider
Source: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/28/news/UN_GEN_UN_Bangladesh.php

The Condom 2.0

Sexperts in Germany are attempting to create a market for a spray-on latex condom. Jan Vinzenz Krause from the Institute for Condom Consultancy said, "We're trying to develop the perfect condom for men that's suited to every size of penis. We're very serious."

The group is developing a cylinder that the man inserts his penis into, and then, with a push of a button, a coating of latex is applied. The aim is a condom with a better fit than normal condoms, and therefore a more willing use of condoms by stubborn men. Before this product will be ready, research needs to be completed to determine if the application is uniform and yields an effective barrier. If the application process can be accomplished satisfactorily, the result would be a better fitting, safer condom. The goal is a product that can be ready for use in five seconds. Krause is hopeful that by 2008 the spray-on condom will be ready in various colors and strengths.

The projected cost of the unit is around $25. The latex cartridges will cost around $12, which will be enough for twenty applications. Will the public be interested in spending the extra money for this product? Will someone really want to be the first person on the block to put a condom on as if it were a paint job? Krause is hoping that the potential for a safer, better sex will entice the customers to make that switch.

Chris Gothorpe
Source: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=2006-12-01T134004Z_01_L30758784_RTRUKOC_0_US-GERMANY-CONDOM-1.xml&WTmodLoc=OddNewsHome_C2_oddlyEnoughNews-2

http://www.spraykondom.de/spraycondom/index.php?