The Rice Thresher, Vol. 96, No. 14, Ed. 1 Friday, December 5, 2008 Page: 3 of 20
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Op-Ed
Tis the season of giving, not materialism
$450 billion. What is that num-
ber? The estimated cost for the rest of
the Iraq War? The amount of money
needed to bail out all the faltering
companies in the United States? Ac-
tually, $450 billion is approximately
how much Americans spend on
Christmas each year. Each year, we
shop for hours in crowded malls and
stress over figuring out the best gifts
for friends and family — and don't
forget the standard Black Friday ar-
ticles about accidental deaths and
mass chaos. We stretch our budgets
and seek the best deals to spend
those dollars and cents on numerous
purchases of video games, DVDs, de-
signer clothes, jewelry, furniture and
other items all for the sake of provid-
ing a gift for someone for the holiday.
After all, you wouldn't want to be the
jerk who didn't give a gift to someone
who gave you one, would you?
MattYoun
Christmas is a holiday that is
loathed by many and loved by many.
People complain about the much-too-
early advertising and Christmas decora-
tions. There are people who despise the
Christmas music of Bing Crosby blast-
ing from the speakers and the holiday
lights tripping them on their way across
the living room. On the other hand,
there are people who love the holiday
atmosphere, Christmas cheer, spiked
eggnog and trips to the ice skating rink.
Either way, one cannot deny the ridicu-
lous amount of money put into this
holiday. And for what purpose? Was
Christmas made so that we could all
buy gifts for one another? Was it made
so that your aunt could buy you another
sweater vest from Banana Republic? Or
should we consider the greater mean-
ing of Christmas?
Christmas originated as a day to cel-
ebrate the birth of Jesus, who changed
the world (whether you believe in his
teachings or not). The day celebrated
love and peace on earth, and yet in our
times, this purpose seems largely to have
been placed in the background. The
message is lost, but there are churches
who are seeking to bring this purpose
back. Cue the Advent Conspiracy.
In 2006, five pastors, including
Chris Seay of the Houston-based
church Ecclesia, helped start the Ad-
vent Conspiracy (advent is the church
season leading up to Christmas). The
goal was to help end the lack of clean
water in the world, which kills more
people globally than anything else.
Remember that number $450 billion?
The estimated cost to provide clean
water worldwide is $10 billion. Four
churches ended up giving $500,000 to
the cause in 2006, and more churches
gave a sum totaling $3 million last
year. Hopefully, this year's total can
reach even higher levels.
The Advent Conspiracy's proposal is
that people spend less money on gifts,
and instead spend that money to build
clean water wells around the world.
Then, to give more to family and friends
not through presents bought at the Gal-
leria, but through extra time spent with
one another. With these steps, we can
attend to the poor and needy in the
world instead of attending to our own
material interests. After all, consumer-
ism doesn't lead to joy in the world.
This is the season of advent. You
don't have to believe in Christianity or
any other religion to believe that people
in this world could use help, and you
are free to buy whatever you want and
give however you like. This season, I
hope you will consider spending less on
material goods and giving more to help
out. Check out www.adventconspiracy.
org for more information (and a video
that explains the purpose of the move-
ment way better than I can). Maybe we
can contribute to once again making
Christmas a day about changing the
world for the better.
Matt Youn is a Brown College senior
and Student Association president.
U
Spanish" a misnomer, diverse language
There is no such thing as Spanish.
If living in Guatemala, Peru and Chile
during the last eight months has
taught me anything, it is this: There's
Guatemalan, Peruvian, Chilean, Ar-
gentinean, Bolivian, Uruguayan and
so forth, but no "Spanish," except for
maybe in Spain.
Julia Lukomnik
For those of you who are confused,
as you have a right to be, let me give
an example: if I told a non-Chilean
Spanish speaker, mi pololo estaba
ponceando con lolitas cuando fue a
caretear, 1cachai? it's a safe bet that
he or sho=e would have no idea that
I was trying to say, "When my boy-
friend went out partying he was mak-
ing out with lots of teenage girls, do
you get that?" And if I told someone in
Central America Nacio la gwawa en la
chacra he or she wouldn't understand
that I was saying, "The baby was
born in the country." And that's just
the vocabulary. How about accents -
where Spaniards use lisps and Argen-
tineans sound like Italians? Or gram-
mar - in which Chileans terminate
tu verbs with -i or how tu barely ex-
ists between Guatemalans?
Where these vocabulary, accent
and grammar differences come from
is fascinating from a cultural and
linguistic standpoint. Let's take the
first example. Some of the words
are purely Chilean genus — pololo,
which means boyfriend (novio, what
many of us learned as the word for
boyfriend, means "fiance"), caretear,
which means to go partying and
poncear, which means, loosely, to
make out. But some words have in-
credible outside influences that Chil-
eans took and reworked to become an
integral part of their language. Lolita,
a word used to mean a teenage or ad-
olescent girl, comes from the famous
Nabokov novel of the same name
where the main female character is
a twelve-year-old. 1Cachai?, which
means "Did you catch that?" in refer-
ences to understanding something,
comes from the English word "catch."
In no other countries are these words
present, because it is Chile's specific
relationship with the outside world
that has brought them to existence.
In other cases country-specific
vocabulary may come from internal
sources. I'm referring here to indig-
enous populations. In Peru, Chile and
Bolivia it would be common to hear the
second example — nacio la gwawa en la
chacra - because both gwawa and cha-
cra come from Quecha, the language
of the Incas. While the Incas spanned
Board member's support of
Proposition 8 impacts campus
The passage of Proposition 8 in
California, a ballot measure that
stripped existing marriage rights
from same-sex couples, was a pain-
ful and troubling moment for les-
bian, gay, bisexual, transgender,
queer and allied people. For the fair
minded and progressive members of
the Rice community, this devastat-
ing measure signifies the reality that
they, their families and their friends
must continue to wait to be granted
the same rights we are all guaranteed
as citizens of America.
Caitlin Maclntyre
Proposition 8 devalues the rela-
tionships and demeans the love of the
gay and lesbian students in our class-
rooms who are forced to question when
their partnerships will be given equal
value to those of the students in the
desks next to them. Straight allies are
left with a sinking disappointment as
they wait and wonder when they will
see their friends or family members re-
ceive the benefits they themselves are
freely given without question.
from Ecuador to Chile, they never made
it past South America, so if you asked
someone in Mexico how to say the same
sentence, it's certain he or she would
tell you something different.
In Argentina "Spanish" is spoken
like Italian because, well, there's a
big Italian influence. In Guatemala
many men will not use tu between
each other because tu has come to
take a homosexual connotation. In-
stead they use vos, a practice that
is leading to the slow extinction of
tu in Guatemalan. All over the vast
Spanish-speaking world the same
processes of language individualiza-
tion have taken and are taking place,
pulling the Spanish spoken in these
countries further and further apart.
My point in writing this article is
to point out that "Spanish" should be
viewed not as a unified language, but
as a set of dialects — mutually intel-
ligible manners of speaking within a
language. This may be something lin-
guists are already doing, but it needs
to also be something that anyone
studying or teaching "Spanish" rec-
ognizes. Especially living in Texas for
the majority of the year, it's easy to
familiarize oneself with the Mexican
dialect and assume that's all there
is to know. But in reality, there's so
much more. And who doesn't want to
cachar todo, understand everything?
Julia Lukomnik is a Baker College
junior and abroad in Chile.
*4
Proposition 8
devalues the
relationships and
demeans the love
of the gay and les-
bian students in
our classrooms.
99
eliminate the civil rights of our own stu-
dents and staff, not to mention count-
less other Americans, I must question if
our commitment to diversity is nothing
more than lip service.
4i
With students at Rice University
feeling the pain of Proposition 8 and
many even taking a stand and attend-
ing a protest in the Houston area to
raise awareness, I was shocked and dis-
heartened to discover that a member of
the Rice Board of Trustees, Laurence E.
Simmons, had donated $25,000 to help
aid the passage of this discriminatory
initiative. While the university touts
the value of diversity and professes a
commitment to creating a safe space
for all people, a powerful leader in our
community is undermining a group
that is vital in making up this wonder-
ful mosaic of unique perspectives and
experiences — lesbian, gay, bisexual
and transgender people. When some-
one who makes decisions about where
Rice is going an .1 how the world will see
us decides to participate in an effort to
Simmons repre-
sents Rice and his
actions certainly
reflect upon the
board, adminis-
tration and our
university as a
whole.
99
While I completely understand
Simmons has the right to donate mon-
ey to anyone he pleases, I also think we
as a community of students and facul-
ty who are affected by the passage of
this divisive proposition have the right
to hold Simmons accountable as well.
A donation of that size could have
helped the "No on 8" campaign as it
fought for families and sent a message
that love has value no matter the gen-
der of the parties involved. Simmor ;
represents Rice and his actions cer-
tainly reflect upon the board, adminis-
tration and our university as a whole.
I am ashamed that my school is under
the guidance of a man who apparently
seeks to tear apart families, who deval-
ues love and who would put the future
happiness of some of our students in
jeopardy. I am troubled that this man,
who says the LGBT friends I live, eat,
learn and spend my life with are not
equal members of this community, is
making decisions for my school. That
is not acceptable to me and I hope it is
unacceptable to Rice University.
As co-president of Rice's Queers
and Allies, I can speak for the group
when I say this news is certainly un-
acceptable to us, and we believe it is
our responsibility to take some sort of
action. Please feel free to write a let-
ter to Simmons and drop it off at the
Queers and Allies office in the RMC,
and we will make sure he gets it. I
want an explanation. I want an assur-
ance that my community, the LGBTQA
community, is valued by the Rice
Board of Trustees and our rights will
be protected and our presence valued.
I want this injustice corrected and our
efforts focused on ending oppression
rather than adding to it. I want all of
our voices and identities to be valued
by this university, regardless of who
we love or who we are, and I certainly
don't think that is too much to expect.
Caitlin Maclntyre is a Brown
College junior and Queers and
Allies co-president.
OLETTERS
With its controversial political views
and halftime performances, the
MOB, of all groups, ought to extend
some tolerance to projects (even ex-
pensive ones) that try to say some-
thing about Rice.
Jacob Poteet
Martel junior
VADA article
requires correction
To the editor:
The Visual and Dramatic Arts
Department would like to thank
the Thresher, Logan Beck and Josh
Rutenberg for covering the issue
of arts on campus in such an even-
handed fashion. We hope to see
more articles in the future.
One quick note of correction,
however: The film collaborations
that the Visual and Dramatic Arts
department and the University of
Texas Film Program are currently
developing originated from Dean
Wihl and are part of a larger, city-
wide initiative on film through the
Houston Film Task Force.
Brian Huberman
VADA chair
Absence of lyrics
displays censorship
To the editor:
The chorus of the penultimate
encore song "Mr. November" from
the National's performance during
Homecoming weekend lacked a little
of the zing that it carries at the band's
other performances, and it wasn't just
because the band was playing in the
sunlight. If you were listening close-
ly, you may have heard fans familiar
with the song filling in the rest of the
chorus, which generally includes the
word "fuck" several times.
According to band member Aar-
on Dessner, the Rice administration
had asked their singer. Matt Bering-
er, to leave out the naughty words
because of the presence of donors
and alumni. Have they themselves
not heard and issued curse words
before? Do they not know what col-
lege is like? Do they really value
censorship more than free speech?
The administration certainly oper-
ated within its bounds in making
this request and were probably just
trying to ensure that donors would
donate, but I doubt that hearing
the f-word at a concert is really that
shocking. What's truly shocking
is that through this censorship our
administration has exercised a
power that should have extremely
limited use in a healthy academ-
ic community. Dessner said that
they've played this song at conser-
vative Baptist schools and other
colleges in addition to their regular
touring schedule, and he said the
band never received complaints or
censorship requests. Rice may not
have an upper limit on academic
performance, but it certainly ap-
pears to have one on its commit-
ment to free speech.
Jacob Poteet
Martel junior
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Chun, Lily & Farmer, Dylan. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 96, No. 14, Ed. 1 Friday, December 5, 2008, newspaper, December 5, 2008; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443148/m1/3/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.