The Rice Thresher, Vol. 95, No. 4, Ed. 1 Friday, September 14, 2007 Page: 3 of 20
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THE RICE THRESHER OPINION FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14,2007
Guest column
Choose ethics, not simply job, at career fair
In 1972, Texaco, now owned by
Chevron, began a massive drilling
project in the central Ecuadorian
Amazon. In the 17 years that Texaco
operated the I .ago Agrio oil
field, it spilled 17 million
gallons of oil and dumped 12
billion gallons of highly pol-
luted water into the Amazon.
Today, local water supplies
are poisoned, the area has
abnormally high rates of
cancer, leukemia, skin dis-
eases, and birth defects, and
hundreds of square miles of
Ecuadorian rainforest have
been destroyed.
In 1993, local citizens
filed a lawsuit in an attempt to force
Chevron to clean up the mess it left
behind — fourteen years later, Chev-
ron has yet to pay a single dime for its
environmental destruction, the brother
and best friend of the plaintiffs lead
attorney have been murdered, and
hired killers have machine-gunned
the judge in the case.
In America, matters are only slightly
better. According to University of Mas-
sachusetts researchers, ExxonMobil
and ConocoPhillips rank numbers
three and six in a list of the top 100 most
toxic corporate air polluters. Much of
this pollution occurs in the poorest
parts of America, where marginalized
groups have little recourse in cleaning
their air.
Wal-Mart still denies its employees
the right to unionize and denies bo-
nuses to managers that allow the forma-
tion of unions. When 11 meat-cutters
voted to unionize, Wal-Mart eliminated
meat-cutting jobs nationwide, relying
Jeremy
Caves
on packaged meat instead. And in2005,
Abercrombie and Fitch was sued by
former employees, mainly women and
minorities, who were fired or hidden
from the public because
they didn't have the "Aber-
crombie look."
The litany of injustices
against workers, against
citizens both American
and foreign, and against
the environment are al-
most endless.
But, this Thursday and
Friday, these companies,
along with many others,
will descend upon Rice to
recruit the next generation
of business executives, consultants,
scientists, and engineers.
And while the list of energy giants,
financing behemoths, and influential
engineering firms that will be recruit-
ing is impressive, the list of human
rights violations, worker rights
abuses, and environmental injustices
perpetrated by these companies is
equally shocking.
Will you choose a
company that values
human dignity?
As you tour the career fair and
decide for whom you will work, a
bigger question faces you. Do you
want a high salary and a position
with a prestigious corporation, or will
you choose a company that values
human dignity and environmental
integrity? Research the corporations
that interview or hire you. Have they
been involved in discriminatory hir-
ing practices? Do they abuse work-
ers' rights? Have they defrauded the
government and taxpayers? Do they
violate environmental regulations
meant to safeguard the health of
American citizens?
Ask yourself: Do you wish to join
a corporate team that has become so
driven by its bottom line that it has
forgotten the importance of caring
for the well-being of its workers, fel-
low citizens, and the Earth?
Business is an integral part of our
world; it provides jobs, social interac-
tion, and creativity—all things that are
vitally important to a healthy commu-
nity. But something has gone terribly
wrong when corporations set aside the
lives of human beings for the sake of a
couple million more in profit We can
either work to maintain this status quo
or we can be part of restoring a world
where businesses uphold social and
environmental responsibility.
As you visit the corporate booths
and talk to recruiters, I urge you
to consider the social and environ-
mental practices of the companies in
which you are interested. Remem-
ber, the responsibility lies with each
one of us, in the workplace and in our
private lives, to better the world, pro-
tect the rights of others, and promote
environmental sustainability. If we
don't bring change to the corporate
world, who will?
Jeremy
junior.
Caves is a Wiess College
Guest column
Bush leaves no great conservative legacy
True Republicans are currently
in an abusive relationship with their
nominal leader. President George W.
Bush. As Peggy Noonan succinctly
put it, conservatives remain
in a state reminiscent of
"battered wife syndrome,"
in which each blow the
administration has perpe-
trated against conservative
ideals has resulted in many
remaining loyal, scared to
abandon that which they
know, merely hoping for a
better future.
However, it is no secret
that, thanks to the policies of
Bush's second term, a con-
sistent stream of conservatives have
jumped off the proverbial Bush band-
wagon—a bandwagon that currently
portends no clear philosophical direc-
tion. Grassroots Republicans — the
masses to whom the president owes
his presidential victories — have
many bones to pick with their former
candidate. The man who qualified his
conservatism with the feel-good word
"compassion" during his campaigns
has gone astray from the original
premise of conservatism. He has
not only squandered any claim to the
Reagan restraint of days past but he
basal so lost the bastion of supporters
garnered by the election savvy of "the
architect" Karl Rove.
Seeing Bush as a southern simple-
ton, the liberal establishment in this
country has hated the president
from the moment he took office, and
continues to do so. With hisenemies
calling him an illegitimate president,
it seems clear that the former Texas
governor, celebrated for his good
relations with Texas Democrats, has
failed in his campaign promises to
bridge the divide between Democrats
and Republicans in Washington.
Washington, D.C. is indeed a place
very different from Austin. Tex.
In his attempt to reach out to
those who loathe him. Bush has only
alienated those who actually backed
him. Conservatives were baffled, for
example, by his appeal to Massachu-
setts Senator Ted Kennedy with the
Caroline
May
"No Child Left Behind Program."
Education initiatives did little to
sway the career politician Kennedy, a
man who has continued to denigrate
the president in the media.
I love the quote in which
Kennedy criticizes the
very proposal he presided
over: "This is the pattern
and the record of the Bush
administration Ion] Iraq,
jobs, Medicare, schools,
issue after issue — mis-
lead, deceive, make up the
needed facts, smear the
character of any critics.
Again and again, we see
this cynical, despicable
strategy playing out."
In the image of legislation-happv-
Democrats, the president has allowed
government spending to skyrocket
and has expanded the government
in ways unimaginable for one who
claimed to be a conservative. Perhaps
it would be piling it on to mention
immigration reform and the Harriet
Meyers nomination; however, the
latter has become relevant in recent
days. Additionally, it provides Repub-
licans with just one more reason to
leave the president's side.
To conservatives, the administra-
tion's Supreme Court nominations,
JusticesJohn Robertsand Samuel Alito
represented a ray of light in a seem-
ingly dark period for the conservative
movement. In the recently published
Dead Certain:'Hie Presidency of George
Bush, which received a great deal of
input from die White House, journalist
Robert Draper tells of strife within the
president's most intimate inner circle.
Providing a wealth of information
ab( >ut a wide variety of issues, Draper's
account offers a piece of seemingly
damning information about one of
Bush's greatest successes.
The book, with administration
participation, claims that it was Su-
preme Court Justice John Roberts
who initially suggested Harriet
Meyers as the optimal nominee for
the open seat on the bench. As many
will remember the president did nomi-
nate the far-from-qualified Meyers,
receiving near unanimous rejection
from even the most ideologically
lax Republicans.
Since learning of the book's allega-
tions, Roberts has adamantly rejected
the allegation. It seems misguided
for the president to blame one of his
biggest mistakes, Harriet Meyers,
on his greatest victory. Chief Justice
Roberts. With thisclaim, it seems that
the president has completely rejected
any attempt to reinvigorate his base.
Perhaps with such a short amount
of time left in office the president no
longerfeelscompelled to do so. But has
he gone so far that he is actively trying
to destroy one of hisgreatest legacies? I
continue to be biiffled by this president.
Bush has frequently stated history will
be his judge. I have reached a point,
however, where I doubt I will even be
able to depend on that.
Caroline May
College junior.
is a Will Rice
Guest column
Give students choice in
common reading plan
This summer, before any of
us arrived on campus, the class
of 2011 had been united unlike
any previous class at Rice. Com-
ing from a variety of
backgrounds, places
and cultures, it is hard
to imagine something
powerful enough to pull
an entire class of new
students together. But
somehow the admin-
istration inadvertently
managed to devise the
perfect plan to do just
that: They sent out
copies of Elizabeth
Kolbert's Field Notes
from a Catastrophe. And we all
ignored it.
Although the attempt to pro-
mote academic exchange was
noble, the true result of the com-
mon reading was something en-
tirely different. We, the freshman
class, had been brought together
not through our reading of the
book, as the committee had hoped,
but rather through our mutual
ignorance and general disdain for
the program.
Karen
Gerken
We mostly
complained to each
other and shared
our reasons for not
reading the book.
Many freshmen started the
book, but few finished. Some never
even bothered to read past the first
page. The occasional person may
have plugged away through the
whole thing, but I have yet to en-
counter anyone who truly enjoyed
the reading and actually wanted
to do what the common reading
committee hoped we would do:
discuss the issue of global warm-
ing with other students and devise
solutions to the problem.
When we arrived in August,
the first thing the new students
discussed about Field Notes was
not the problems our grandkids
are bound to face as the planet
warms. Instead, we mostly com-
plained to each other and shared
our reasons for not reading the
book. I did not finish the book
mostly because it was unable
to hold my interest past chapter
three. Lots of people have told
me they did not read the book
because they thought they knew
enough about global warming to
hold their own in any conversa-
tions they might be forced to
participate in during Orientation
Week. Many simply tossed the
book aside the moment
they got it, not thinking
it to be important at all.
And then, of course,
we all had something
else to read that was
much more interesting,
controversial and uni-
versal: Harry Potter and
the Deathly Hallows.
I like the idea of
engaging in a year-long
debate on an important
issue. However, if the
university really wants to accom-
plish this, the approach needs to
change. Global warming was a
good start — the topic is both a
pressing political debate and a
crisis in need of a solution — but
there are better and more varied
ways of identifying with the issue
than Kolbert's book.
I suggest the committee
behind addressing next year's
topic for the common reading let
students pursue various avenues.
News articles, documentaries,
podcasts, novels, movies, non-
fiction books, plays, YouTube
videos, radio broadcasts — any-
thing and everything to catch
the attention of our generation.
We have become accustomed to
choosing our own ways of doing
things, and the common reading
should not be any different .
We have become
accustomed to
choosing our own
ways of doing things,
and the common
reading should not be
any different.
We could all benefit from
common pursuit of a topic, but
the common reading committee
needs to adapt to the way stu-
dents' minds work. A common
reading sounds good in theory,
but the student body deserves
an interesting topic, and, even
more, several appealing ways
to research and exchange ideas
about our new knowledge.
Karen Gerken is a Hanszen College
freshman.
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Whitfield, Stephen. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 95, No. 4, Ed. 1 Friday, September 14, 2007, newspaper, September 14, 2007; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443187/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.