BABY TOURISM International adoption laws lack compassion

International adoption has become a phenomenon within the 21st century, perhaps due to celebrity headlines, compassionate volunteers, or a heightened sense that something must be done about global poverty. While adoption laws are invented to ensure child safety, sometimes the red tape interferes. Are these laws really helping or hindering?
The sun is pouring down on a dusty village in rural West Africa, covering the three small huts with inescapable heat. Since everyone in this village works on the farm, it is usually a quiet, isolated place in the middle of the day – but not today. Wails and cries of mourning can be heard from miles away – a mother of six has just died, only two months after her last baby was born. Not only has she left a gap in her family’s home and heart, but she has also left behind her already malnourished and sickly daughter, Mariama, who is only two months old. The baby’s father already has his hands full. He has five other children to care for, as well as his own farm. He has no time, resources, or medical care to provide for this baby. His elderly auntie offers to take Mariama from him, but likewise, her time and resources are incredibly limited. For a month or two, the auntie simply feeds Mariama dry rice, because it is all she has. Unfortunately, this caring old woman is forced to watch Mariama get sicker and sicker under her care, unsure of why this is happening, and even more unsure of how to fix it. What hope is there for a baby like this? Her future seems to be non-existent.
However, this baby was given a second chance at life. She was brought from this tiny village in Sierra Leone into Kabala, a larger town of approximately 10,000 people, a town where at least a small amount of medical care could be found. Her relatives from Kabala, unsure of where to take her, brought her to their neighbour, Adrienne Melissen, a Canadian nurse who was volunteering in Kabala with her husband. Fortunately, the clinic that Adrienne was working at was able to supply the baby with formula. The formula could not last forever, however, and the family simply couldn’t afford more. After several months, there was little improvement in the child's health, so Adrienne and her husband Joe started looking into another way they could help Mariama. This is when they began to think of adoption.
This story is not uncommon. Many Canadians find themselves abroad, volunteering or working, and discover a child in need. They begin to consider adoption as a way to help that child. This can be seen as an act of charity, an act of love, or ultimately, just the desire to start a family. However, starting a family internationally requires a lot of hard work and preparation. Due to the recent scare about child trafficking, it is no longer the case that one can simply go overseas, find a child, and come back several months later with that child in tow. Now, in the B.C. Adoption Act, it states that before a child who is not a resident of British Columbia is brought into the province for adoption, the prospective parents must obtain the approval of a director or an adoption agency, who set certain conditions. These conditions include providing the birth parent or guardian of the child with information about adoption and the alternatives, the prospective adoptive parents locating and providing the child’s biological family’s medical and social history, and consent being obtained from the jurisdiction in which the child is residing. Finally, a home-study of the prospective adoptive parents must be completed in accordance with the regulations of the province. Now, all of these conditions were implemented in order to stop child trafficking, which is a very legitimate issue. However, at some point, the question needs to be asked about where the line can be drawn. If what is really in question is the child’s safety, are all these rules and regulations helping or hindering that safety?

The Adoption Net

The home-study is one of the biggest problems for Canadians living abroad who end up trying to adopt a child. A home-study is a three to four month process in which an adoption agency studies the prospective parents’ lives in order to determine whether or not these parents are fit to raise a child. Not only is this study quite long and tedious, but it usually costs upwards of $4000. Although it is certainly a legitimate concern, this is the point where it becomes clear that adoption is not a process that can always be guided with the same rules and regulations, since we are dealing with human life – and every situation is different.
It is simple enough for Canadians to do the home-study before they go overseas, but if they did not intend to adopt a child while at home then it becomes more difficult. For example, the Melissens did not decide while they were in Canada that they would adopt Mariama in Sierra Leone. The couple had been working and living in Sierra Leone for over nine months before they made the decision, which was based on circumstance. They carefully and thoroughly went through all the work in order to do the process justly and fairly in the Sierra Leone legal system, but they were then told by the Canadian government that they could not come back into Canada with their own child - they had to complete a home-study in Canada first. This is a fair and logical requirement to prevent child trafficking, but again, not an easy requirement to complete when you are living overseas.
Not only is this hard on the parents, but it is hard on the child as well. In Mariama’s case, she was adopted because her family was not able to provide adequate medical care for her, so how were they supposed to be able to provide that care for her now? This child was actually placed in a dangerous situation by the laws that were so carefully invented to protect her safety – she was taken away from her new parents and left in a situation where proper medical care and food were unavailable. Beyond that, her parents were forced to leave the country in order to complete this home-study. They were not simply a phone call away.

Baby Bureaucracy

The home-study is incredibly difficult for those living overseas because they cannot ethically leave their child in dangerous conditions to complete this study at home. An individual assessment of the situation by adoption officials would have helped Mariama immensely. Many other countries are struggling with their own red tape issues.
India and China have both seen huge booms in international adoption. In India, commercial surrogacy became legal in 2002, referring to the law that grants tourists permission to find an Indian mother as a surrogate carrier of their child. They then fly out of India with the child several weeks after birth. Usually, they are allowed to do this with no problem, but, like Canada, India does have certain laws to prevent child trafficking. One such law states that in India, a single father cannot adopt a baby girl. Usually, this would be legitimate – the Indian government is being overly cautious in order to prevent the rise of the sex trade and baby trafficking. But when you look at it on a case-to-case basis, it becomes more complicated. For example, Tokyo Dr. Ikufumi Yamada and his previous wife, Yuki, went through this process in India. However, a month before the baby was born they were divorced because his wife decided she did not want children. Now the father is not allowed to take the child that he has adopted home to Japan, despite his potential qualifications as a parent. His child is left in a terrible situation.
In China, single parents, parents over 50 years of age, parents with a severe facial deformity, and parents with a Body Mass Index over 40, which is medically considered morbidly obese, all are no longer permitted to adopt children. Although these rules were implemented to protect children, the strictness and intensity behind them again reminds us of the fact that we are dealing with real lives, and it is not easy to simply make one rule or regulation that fits them all. Not all obese people make bad parents, and a single parent is better than none at all.
In both of these situations, there is no easy solution or way out. The adoption rules are meant to protect and safeguard children all over the world, to ensure that child trafficking is not occurring, and to provide children with a healthy and happy home. Yet it is not easy to make a rule in a ‘one-size fits all’ format when you are dealing with human lives. Every situation is guaranteed to be different, and sometimes, an exception will have to be made. The system that is meant to safeguard should perhaps be willing to adjust its strict policies if the situation requires.
No matter what country your child comes from, adoption should be a decision based on love, commitment, and a genuine connection. For this reason, it is necessary to have firm rules in order to ensure that potential parents legitimately want to help a child, and are not simply taking advantage of the situation or acting on a whim. However, on a case-to-case basis, the best interests of the child must be addressed. Perhaps we don't need a new system of rules and regulations, but we definitely need an adoption system where compassionate exceptions are a greater possibility.

Krissi Bucholtz
Writer

THE DANCE OF DE-FEDERATION Students at 13 unions petition to leave CFS

MONTREAL (CUP) – Members of 13 student societies across Canada have started petitions asking their peers if they wish to leave the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), Canada’s largest student lobby group.
The development comes almost two years after student unions at the University of Cape Breton, Simon Fraser University, and Kwantlen Polytechnic University in British Columbia tried unsuccessfully to leave the federation because either the student unions failed to meet CFS’s referendum by-laws, or students ultimately chose to stay with CFS following litigation.
Students circulating the petitions expressed strong disenchantment with CFS, and some felt that the fees their union pay to the group – ranging from $40,000 to $300,000 annually – could be better spent elsewhere.

Litigation

Many student petition organizers expressed frustration with what they feel is a track record of aggressive litigation by CFS. In recent years, many of the student unions that have tried to de-federate from CFS have found themselves in hot legal water when they failed to follow CFS bylaws.
Simon Fraser University’s independent student paper the Peak reported that a case between CFS and their student union, on whether it had the right to leave the federation, went to the Supreme Court of B.C.
Derek Robertson, director of external affairs with the Kwantlen Student Association at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Surrey, B.C., confirmed that his society was taken to court for similar reasons. Similarly, the Acadia University Students’ Union in Nova Scotia spent almost 10 years in litigation after they tried to leave CFS in 1996.
Former Canadian University Press (CUP) president and Maclean’s OnCampus writer Erin Millar said that legal threats from CFS have extended beyond student unions to student journalists in the past.
“In my experience, working as a student journalist, and my work at CUP and Maclean’s, CFS has consistently been the most aggressive organization I’ve ever covered as a journalist,” she said. “They’ve done that by employing legal means. They spend a lot of money using lawyers . . . which I think is a completely inappropriate way to spend students’ [dues]. . “Journalists, particularly student journalists who are inexperienced, are intimidated.”

Revolving doors

Other student organizers were concerned with what they saw as a revolving door policy between pro-CFS student politicians and the CFS national or regional headquarters. Robertson pointed to the example of Hamid Osman, the pro-CFS president of the York Federation of Students who became the CFS national executive representative for Ontario after his time at York University in Toronto, during which students tried to impeach him.
“Instead of him facing the students for reelection he became the national executive representative for Ontario,” said Robertson.
Concordia’s independent student newspaper the Link reported that Noah Stewart-Ornstein, CFS national deputy chairperson, kept his job after being caught on security tapes tearing down a slate’s posters during Concordia’s Arts and Science Federation of Associations’ (ASFA) general election campaign last year.
Sabotaging a campaign violates the CSU’s election rules, though Stewart-Ornstein was not a candidate in the election and could not be reprimanded. He was the chair of CFS-Quebec, a separate provincial entity, at the time of the incident, and had previously been the VP Communications for the Concordia Student Union (CSU).

Transparency and reform

Many student leaders stated that they felt CFS was not completely transparent and accountable to its member organizations. Both Robertson and Veronique Dorais, president of the Graduate Students’ Association of the University of Calgary – both of whose schools are holding petitions to leave CFS – said past executives had become frustrated with CFS for these reasons.
“One of our executives last year went to a [CFS National Graduate Caucus] meeting and . . . every motion he proposed, asking for financial audited statements or minutes from the meeting were defeated,” Dorais said.
Devin Alfaro, former VP External with the Students Society of McGIll University (SSMU), said that during SSMU’s time as a prospective member at CFS – from fall 2006 until fall 2007 – its executives found it very difficult to pass motions they hoped would improve CFS’s accountability.
“SSMU presented a series of motions at one [annual general meeting], that were not well received. One was accepted – that executive reports list resolutions [from previous years] and what [the executive] had done to follow up on them. One motion wasn’t well received, that gave student media full access to the [meeting] – most of it happens behind closed doors. The final motion [would have] posted meeting minutes online,” Alfaro said.

CFS responds

Though CFS National Treasurer Dave Molenhuis said that he could not comment on some of the litigation between the CFS and its members because it predated his tenure at the CFS, he said that as a democratic organization, any problems members had with the CFS could still be fixed internally.
“The CFS is the common democratic framework under which the student movements in Canada make decisions on campaign lobbying and services decisions. The bylaws of the federation are voted on by delegates at general meetings. Student unions vote on their common democratic framework; it’s up to them,” he said.
Molenhuis also said that CFS is a transparent organization, and ready to provide its members with any documents they require.
“With [regard to] financial records, the audited financial statements are presented in budget committee. They are handed to absolutely every delegate who attends a federation general meeting. They’re sent to every member local of the federation who does not send delegates to a national general meeting,” he said.
“All the financial records are available to students who wish to access them, because they are housed in the student unions of schools who are members. [It’s] the same with copies, by-laws, and constitution of the federation for every student to see and review.”
Molenhuis added that a member of CUP is invited to CFS annual general meetings to represent the press.

The road to referendum

If the petitions at the 13 student societies achieve a 10 per cent quorum, their supporters will have to wait up to five months before CFS recognizes their petition, and a date for their referendum can be set.
During that time, CFS will first have to acknowledge their receipt of the petition, then within three months decide on whether to acknowledge its legitimacy. If the CFS chooses to approve it, they have 60-90 days to set the date themselves.
A student organizer at Guelph University highlighted some of the obstacles the system posed to student societies attempting to de-federate.
“You can’t campaign from April 15 to Sept. 15, and can’t campaign over winter holidays,” he said. “In six and a half months, you only have a window of half a month to initiate a referendum campaign.”
Dorais said student organizers at her society were nervous their petitions could lead to legal action by the CFS.
“We’re going to try to work with the CFS to follow the referendum and guidelines point by point, if this is what the student body wants,” she said.
Societies can expect CFS supporters to arrive on campus during their referendum. When the Graduate Students’ Society of the University of Victoria successfully left the CFS in March 2008, the university’s student paper The Martlet reported that pro-CFS supporters flew in from across the country to support the pro-CFS campaign.
Students at Post-Graduate Students’ Society of McGill University, the Concordia Student Union, the Graduate Student Association of Concordia, the Dawson Student Union, the Society of Graduate Students at Western Ontario University, University of Windsor Students’ Alliance, Carleton University Students’ Association, the Central Student Association at Guelph University, the Trent Central Student Association, the Kwantlen Student Association, the University of Victoria’s Student Society, the Graduate Students’ Association of the University of Calgary, and the University of Regina Students’ Union are all circulating petitions to leave the CFS.

Erin Hale
The McGill Daily (McGill University)

STAR SEARCH Galilean telescope shakes off dust

EDMONTON (CUP) – The telescope of Galileo was an elegant device of the Enlightenment, turning astrological conjecture into the science of astronomy.

Its day in the sun was the topic of a lecture by Professor Albert Van Helden of Houston’s Rice University last week at the University of Alberta, in which he fondly summed up Galileo’s device as having a brief-but-glorious career.

“What intrigued me was how quickly the Galilean telescope had reached its potential, and how quickly – in terms of discovery, in terms of power – it had become obsolete,” Van Helden began.

The telescope had a simple construction of convex and concave glass lenses. Indeed, that simplicity of Galileo’s telescope design evidently incited claims that his was not the first.

“Would it be an act of genius for a spectacle maker, to put together a concave and convex lens and invent a telescope?” Van Helden inquired. “That is the sort of thing you’d expect a spectacle-maker to know . . . But if you make a counter-intuitive move, and restrict the aperture [of view], then, all of a sudden, we get a clear image.”

This was the genius of Galileo’s telescope. Prior telescopes offered a large-but-fuzzy image. When Galileo restricted the aperture, this delivered an image that was enlarged and clean for the first time.

Not only was the design groundbreaking, but Van Helden added that Galileo polished and ground lenses to get the clarity needed for the telescope’s range.

Interspersing 16th- and 17th-century sepia illustrations and photos of artifacts, Van Helden gave a personal, as well as professional, resumé of Galileo, mentioning previous instruments and patents, family life and professional appointments, and recalling handwritten manuals with familiarity.

Van Helden also explained the practical limitations on Galileo’s design, in that one can only take in a small part of the telescope’s field of view.

“In the Galilean telescope, the exit pupil . . . is larger than the pupil of your eye,” he said. “That means, if you move your eye laterally, the field moves with you . . . That is one of the great limitations of the Galilean telescope.”

Galileo made this first spyglass in June 1609, and began methodical observation for a scientific publication of his findings.

“What [Galileo] observed first was, of course, the moon,” Van Helden said, noting that the astronomer charted the varied topography of its surface.

This seemingly innocuous discovery had earth-shattering implications for the age’s philosophers and scientists. Under the Aristotelian astronomy of the day, Earth was understood as geocentric, and the surfaces of the planets surrounding as flawlessly smooth.

Van Helden also showcased Galileo’s mathematical approach and his enthusiasm for accuracy. Despite stubbornness and speculative inconsistency from colleagues, Galileo’s findings with this telescope forever changed the cosmological beliefs of our galaxy into a scientific and open-eyed sphere of understanding, Van Helden concluded.

“There were people who wished him ill, lots of people. You loved the guy, you [hated] the guy. Galileo was a person about whom you would not tend to be neutral.”



By Arah Slack

The Gateway (University of Alberta)

LOCAL WRITER DOESN’T PRESS BUTTON Come on, man, you had one job

I notice there are some aesthetically pleasing steel boxes around campus. They say EMERGENCY on them. Solar panels: Awesome. Blue Flashing Lights: Fun. A largely visible phone number to contact campus security: Practical (also contradictory to a previous article, more on that later). I can’t yet imagine that these actually do some good. How much did they cost and what practical use do they have? Maybe a loud alarm goes off and these blue lights flash in order to scare the rapist, bear, or fire away? You know, hoping something productive would happen in the precious amount of running-away time you lost. You know, hoping you’re not a fucked-to-death burnt pile of half digested bear stool by the time help arrives to your flashing steel emergency station. Enough, you say, of fun scenarios. I must read about some real investigating! Or shut up and just push the damn button and tell me what happens! Agreed. Someone decided to put them there for (hopefully) a reason. I will take up this cause and get to the bottom of this.
My quest begins at the semi-hard-to-find Security office. I get to talk to the Head of Security and he sits outside on a bench with me to chat. “When someone presses the button at one of these stations”, which is “basically a phone in a box”, a call goes to the security cell phones. After speaking to the button pusher, a blue light goes off but there is no siren or noise to speak of. He senses my disappointment. I guess it only makes sense because, studies do show, both fires and rapists feel 80% calmer and less agitated when blue lights are flashed at them. A siren would just piss them off. So it’s not just about cosmetic features here. The call ID tells the guards where the call comes from. “These phones are always in someone’s possession and are totally in security’s interest to answer as fast as possible.” The guards are timed on their response by their employers. The calls possibly involve first aid or dangerousness, where time is of the essence. I didn’t realize that all the campus security is trained as our first response in first aid cases. “There is a first aid room in the corner of Arbutus that not many people know about”. I get a sense that the man takes his job seriously and doesn’t want anyone to think that he or his guards are incompetent. I understand what he is getting at. He didn’t decide to put the boxes up, but he’ll use them to do his job. The stations are becoming a little more valuable, or at least less mind-boggling. You're a very persuasive and well-spoken man, Head of Security. Well played, chap. Well played. So yes, a ghost may maul you as you use the station. So by the time you push the button you've been haunted to shit and your iPod has been stolen. What's the alternative? It will take a while for security to get to you once you push the button. They aren’t outfitted with jetpacks, yet. Say they are fast runners and have passed their ghost busting training course. What the fuck kind of expectations do we have here, anyways? I'm pretty sure hiring a full time Airborne Special Weapons and Tactics team would be great fun, but probably expensive or something.
Anyway, I wanted to press the button. But the head guard expressly articulated that the buttons shouldn’t be pressed for fun or experimentation purposes. They are first aid lines and they do tie up the first aid responders of the school. I didn’t test the boxes or the guards. Foiled again! I had a chart set up for the Response Times vs How Fast I Feel the Gaurds were Running/Not-Running and it would have been great and colourful and maybe there would have been a graph. The question of how long the response time is left a mystery and not likely to be answered, ever. How much did the boxes cost to replace? What was wrong with the old ones? Mr Ian Robertson has those answers, hopefully.
There are phone numbers on the stations. Now they are up in the form of a sticker, so I’m not sure when they were put up. Having access to the phone number is essentially the same thing as pushing the button. Calling gives you the option of running away with cell phone in hand. You’re free to flee from zombies or H1N1or downed electrical wires while talking to security. If we’re making a pros/cons list, the down side is that emergency personnel don’t know where you are anymore. You aren’t near Station East #8, it’s more like “Yes, I’m being chased by a very pissed off cheetah or perhaps panther, in the woods.”
So I didn’t test the box. Others have – security asks what the problem is and get there in X amount of time. There is value in even an empty, non-functional box. Like a fake security camera. These beacons of hope may hold preventative potential. “The more visible the security, the safer.” The Head of Security says, echoing in my head like a wise sage of five minutes ago.

Shaun McPherson
Writer

THE CASTER SEMENYA DEBATE It’s actually a debate, see?

Let Her Run. 

By now, we’ve probably all seen her face, paraded and splashed across the various newspapers and magazines of the world. International news conglomerates are clamouring to squeeze every little detail out of her private story. Her victories are conveniently pushed aside so that someone can get rich to sell the most intimate details of her private life. If you’re thinking this is another sob story about an air-headed, bottle-blonde, French-manicured monstrosity we call a ‘celebrity’, you’ve got it wrong.
I’m speaking of 18 year-old Caster Semenya of South Africa.
At first glance, you would think she is just an incredibly fit young woman striving to make her mark in the world of athletics, much like Lance Armstrong, Ian Thorpe and Michael Phelps have done in their respective sports. And much like those athletes, her genetic make-up makes it capable for her to dominate her chosen sport. Unfortunately, her remarkable athletic prowess has also put her in the line of fire of scandal.
Her more masculine appearance made people question her gender or wonder if she had taken steroids, and if her hard-earned medal should be stripped from her. She was subjected to another round of gender tests, the first being done in secret by her own country, and the second by the IAAF.
Hours after the results of the second were finalized, they were leaked out and the world came to know of this poor-girl’s private life. Knowing this, critics questioned her right to compete with females, since it became evident that Caster had a biological advantage over her fellow athletes.
But the question they should be asking is: should any athlete with some natural advantage be able to compete with ‘normal’ human beings? Is it fair? Caster’s case put our hypocritical nature into the spotlight. Few may remember the Australian swimmer, Ian Thorpe – he dominated the swimming scene all the way up to his retirement in 2006. He had a huge natural advantage over his competitors, standing 6’ 5” and size 17 feet, practically giving him natural flippers. In more recent memory, Lance Armstrong, who garnered a remarkable seven straight wins of the tour de France, had a large advantage, having an over-sized heart, that could beat up to 200 times a minute, thus pumping massive amounts of oxygen around his body.
Their advantages were never questioned.
So, should a someone, who had been raised as a girl, treated like a girl and thought of as a girl her whole life, have her gold medal taken away from her for being too masculine?
Of course not.
After all the hard work she has put into her athletic career and the humiliation the world has caused her, does she deserve to keep her title?
Absolutely.
Now that sport has evolved to become so much more competitive, one would have to have some natural advantage to stand out and shine. So kudos goes out to Caster Semenya for winning gold, and hopefully we will be able to see her competing along fellow woman at the 2012 Olympics.

Haley Whishaw
Human rights lover

Disqualify Her.

It was a proud moment for both Caster Semenya and her home country of South Africa when the 18-year old took home the gold medal in the 800 meter dash at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics. The uproar ensued after she placed a time of 1:55.45 and it was leaked that a gender test had revealed her to have secondary male characteristics. It then became questionable as to whether Semenya had won due to training or due to her body’s natural physical advantage. Although Semenya herself claims to be female, the fact that she is a hermaphrodite makes her biologically part male – to allow a male to compete and potentially win amongst females would be unfair to the competition.
The issue was turned over to the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and their role in determining the athlete’s eligibility in future competitions. Although such a decision has yet to be made, it would be absurd to allow her to compete against females when there is such strong evidence of her unjust advantage. In comparison to an average woman, Semenya’s body has been said to contain three times the amount of testosterone - a hormone that, alongside many physical benefits, promotes increased muscle mass and strength. In merely a month, she had already beaten her own previous record by four seconds.
Furthermore, Semenya is not the only athlete that needs to be taken into consideration. Making an exception for one runner would mean disregarding all of her future competitors and the disadvantage they hold against her on the block. The acceptance of Semenya’s unusual condition is so desired that much of the public has resorted to viewing her situation with sympathy. It therefore needs to be realized that much of the sympathy is being extended toward an athletic advantage that has already led to the gaining of multiple honors.
However, if the decision is ruled in favour of Semenya’s ineligibility, it won’t be the first time an athlete has been banned from competition to maintain equity. Paralympic runner Oscar Pistorius competed amongst able-bodied athletes with two prosthetic legs until the IAAF ruled him ineligible due to the unfair mechanical advantage that his prosthetics provided. They passed a rule failing to allow the use of any device that gave an advantage to its user. That goal of eliminating illegitimate advantages should be applied to Semenya’s case as well. Although she has used no physical contraption, she is equipped with organs that no ‘normal’ woman possesses. Oscar Pistorius was able to control his situation no more than Semenya is hers and exceptions should not be made to accommodate the middle distance runner.
Semenya has recently been shown to have a new appearance that emphasizes her feminine features. This does nothing to override the fact that she will continue to have testes that will produce increased amounts of testosterone in her body and provide her with an unfair edge over other athletes. Her performances have and will continue to be impacted more by the internal male sex organs that she possesses than by the external female ones, prominent or not. Semenya’s gender choice does little to affect the knowledge that her advantages are due to having male characteristics.


Alexa Ray
Freedom Hater

XOXO XX YY: Intersex poster child Caster Semenya

I would hate to be in the International Association of Athletics Federations’ shoes right now, after it bungled up the gender testing of Caster Semenya. Worse yet, I’d hate to be in the shoes of Caster Semenya right now, which is unfortunate - a world-class runner should be someone who is admired for their abilities, not pitied. But, whether she likes it or not, Semenya has the opportunity to be the poster girl for intersexed people everywhere.
While nothing official has been said yet, it’s heavily suspected that Semenya’s tests showed her to be intersexed - that is, heavily female characteristics, with secondary male characteristics. The outdated term for intersexed people is hermaphrodite. This theory is further supported by the fact that the IAAF allowed Semenya to race in the 800 meters (the test was conducted prior, at the try-outs) – the results would have come back and if they were conclusively female, there would have been an apology immediately. If she were biologically all male, then she would have been automatically disqualified.
While I can really understand the harsh words thrown around by South Africans who want to support Semenya, who they’re calling their “golden girl,” it seems as though there is actual justification for the tests, as the rules are drawn now. There are no hard and fast guidelines about where intersexed athletes fit into sports, although I’m positive this is not the first time that an intersexed athlete has participated in a large sporting event. The IAAF and other groups are simply coming to terms with the fact that it does happen.
As well, unfortunately, the athletic community has every reason to suspect that men will try to pass themselves off as women to win. It’s happened a few times, most famously when the Nazis put in high-jumper ringer Dora Ratjen, who was biologically and psychologically male (the story is the plot of the new movie Berlin 36 - the timing is so ridiculous I can’t help think it was fixed).
This is not the first time Semenya’s been picked on for being masculine - in an interview with BBC Sports, her grandmother says that Semenya’s always been teased, since she was the only girl on the football team in her hometown.
Leonard Chuene, head of Athletics South Africa, indirectly acknowledges that Semenya is intersexed, stating "Her crime was to be born the way she is born,” prefaced by saying that he will go as far as getting kicked out of Germany to protect and support her.
A week after her manager quit, Semenya was dolled up for the cover of South Africa’s YOU Magazine. Instead of her usual track suits and pulled back hair, she wore gold jewellery, a sleeveless black dress, and makeup. Around the same time, Semenya told the BBC “I'd like to dress up more often and wear dresses but I never get the chance. I am who I am and I'm proud of myself." The cover and the statement seem a little bit contradictory, which is unfortunate, and I’m wondering how much pressure she felt to dress up in a traditional feminine way that is really out of her comfort zone. Thankfully, outside that one photo shoot, she still wears her baggy tracksuits and her hair in cornrows, as always.
Most importantly, there is great news at the end of the tunnel for both Semenya and other intersexed athletes. While an official report will not be completed until sometime in November, Dr. Myron Genel, a professor emeritus of pediatrics at Yale University and a member of the IAAF panel that was put together to specifically decide on the case, told the Associated Press, “She's born a female, raised as a female through puberty. Whatever is found, with the exception of deliberate substance abuse, she's going to have to be allowed to compete as a female.”

Megan Drysdale
Columnist

High Politics Strange Rumblings in the Heart of Africa.

A pair of ex-soldiers from Norway have been condemned to death in a Congolese courtroom, in a bizarre case that focuses on the murder of their guide – while both Norwegians allegedly took part in covert military actions against the Congolese Government. Though Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported that the Congolese Foreign Ministry assured the Norwegian Government that the two men would not be executed in relation to the incident, it made no statements as to the original charges of espionage against the two Norwegians. Tjostolv Moland, 28, and Joshua French, 27 - both former soldiers - were convicted Tuesday, September 15th, by a military court in the Congo city of Kisangani for killing their driver on May 5, 2009. The two were also found guilty of illegal arms possession and armed robbery. One of the pair was also found guilty of the attempted murder of two other people.
According to a security industry related website named the Private Military Herald, the plot around the two Norwegians thickens – they were apparently contracted by a private security firm (read: mercenaries) to conduct operations in Africa. The company in question is SIG or Special Interventions Group, that consists mainly of Norwegians. As the blog reports, there is a lot more going on in this story that a simple story of a safari gone wrong:
The evidence against the two is summed up in a very concise quote: “Evidence seized recently at the apartment the two men shared in Uganda could play a large role in the eventual outcome of the trial.” During the police raid, authorities found Norwegian military ID cards, counterfeit United Nations hats, employee ID badges with both the correct and false names of the two men. The employee badges are from a heretofore little known security company named Special Interventions Group (SIG) which is owned by and mostly staffed by Norwegians. During the raid on the apartment authorities also confiscated at least one rifle and a camera containing pictures of the two men on their recent travels in Africa. In one grainy image, believed to have been taken by Mr. French, Mr. Moland is seen smiling as he washes the blood believed to be that of Mr. Kasongo from the inside of the hired car.”
It’s not hard to decipher that fake United Nations ID, and various identity badges bearing different names and different organizations, leads to the obvious conclusion that there is a lot more to the story than is being reported. The fact that the Congolese Government is suing the Norwegian Government for about 60 billion US dollars in damages, related to espionage involving this case, underlines just how bizarre and underreported these kinds of stories are.

Aaron Bolus
Columnist

Love, Awkwardly Episode Two: "Little" Details on a Big Man.

Please note: These names have been changed for obvious reasons.
Within a month of my breakup, my life had been turned on its head. I had moved out of my old apartment and back in with my family. My ex started a new relationship within weeks, and friends were telling me to jump back in head first to the dating pool. My friend Christian told me he knew just the person I should meet. This is the problem gays have: people think the only requirements someone needs to set you up with are the same genitalia and sexual orientation as you. Christian gave me the number for his friend Michael Little, a local budding actor. We briefly phone chatted and decided to just meet up for dinner.
I was very nervous for this first date. Keep in mind I had been with the same person for the last five years. After work, Michael pulled up into the parking lot, and I hopped in. Immediately, I could tell things were going to be a bit interesting. He blasted The Killers as we drove to a restaurant. It was only after he parked and we exited the vehicle that I realized there was a (mind the pun) small problem. As a six foot one male, I’m used to most people I meet being shorter than me. But the fact that someone almost a complete foot shorter than me exited the car made for a definite awkward realization. I couldn't help but think of his last name and wondered how many times the poor guy had been teased for that in his younger years. He walked toward the restaurant with his burly muscular arms leading the way, as if on the way to pump some mad iron before running 20 laps. I looked down at my slight gut and knew that our common threads were probably as few as the number of times I've been to the gym.
Turns out the restaurant wasn't good enough for him, and we moved on to no less than five other places before settling on a nice Italian place in the West End. Nothing on the menu was under thirty dollars, but I sort of bit the bullet in hopes of a nice evening. The waiter lit a candle, and the spring Vancouver sky was closing to darkness. It had all the elements of a very nice date. He handed me a wine list and said, "Do you prefer white or red?" I told him I preferred white, and he scoffed, replying, "Fag." Seriously. I felt so uncomfortable, and simply tried to railroad the conversation. Let me tell you about the stupidest question I have ever asked someone: "So tell me about your acting career." The next hour and fifteen minutes were filled with inane babbling about made for television movies, C-list name drops, and film jargon that went right over my head. Half the time I dozed off, eating my thirty-five dollar pasta and homosexual Pinot Grigio, staring off into the sky, wondering what the hell I would do with myself when this date was done.
Our bill came, and although we split it, he complained about the price all the way back to the car, as I tried to be pleasant about the whole thing. I hoped the evening would pick up, and to be honest, all I wanted was a little bit of in car action. Instead I was treated to a six-pack of Dude Beer, and an evening of watching him and his friends playing drinking games and smoking up. One of these friends was our mutual pal Christian. "How was the date?" he asked me, as the rest of the guys laughed about a joke centered around someone's overweight ex girlfriend. The look on my face really must have said it all, as he said, "I'm so sorry." I laughed, and cracked a beer, knowing next week I'd be the overweight ex-girlfriend they'd all be drunkenly guffawing over. And you know, maybe I was okay with that.

JJ Brewis
Columnist

A Creamy Cocoa Carriage: Chocolate and wine fuel my tummy, so why not my car?

It’s the yummiest car out there, because it’s a racing car that runs on chocolate and wine. Pre-2009, it only existed in the wildest fantasies of a posh Willy Wonka, but we can now officially say it exists – and surprisingly, the results are better than anyone expected. In fact, in many ways chocolate and wine may be better fuel for your car than gasoline. Before you wonder why anyone would want to waste putting perfectly good wine and chocolate in their engine, let me clarify that it’s stale wine and cocoa waste. The only problem is that, whether it’s chocolate or cheap chocolate waste, using food for fuel may cause food prices to rise. So while it may lower gas prices and carbon release, it has its disadvantages.

First, let’s look at how this chocolate car can be better than what we have now. The car is ‘carbon neutral’ and at least half of it has been created by recycled material and plant waste. Some of its more notable ‘green’ features include: A steering wheel made from carrot fibre, seats made from flax and soya-foam, and vegetable-mix tires. The car also eats away at existing smog. The radiator of the car is coated with a catalyst that breaks down ground ozone.

I hate ‘car-talk’ as much as the next guy but let’s put on our Formula 3 trucker hats and compare the cars in terms of numbers. For starters, chocolate is as efficient with fuel as gas is for a Honda Civic. That is, both use about 35 mpg. Of course, when you take into account that chocolate is biological waste, it has even the Toyota Prius beat in ‘greenness.’ Chocolate cars can also be a lot faster. The creators of the car claim it can reach 60 mph in 2.5 seconds. If you don’t know how fast that it is, consider that a Ferrari Enzo takes a half second more to reach that speed (3.14 seconds). And its top speed is 135 mph but with some tweaking, the creators claim, it can reach up to 180 mph, which is about the same as a Porsche 911.

The car was created by researchers at Warwick University with project leader Dr Kerry Kirwan. It was also built to compete against other Formula 3 cars and will make its debut at the next F3 race on October 17 at the Brands Hatch racing circuit in the UK.

Although a chocolate race-car is reminiscent of a popular Homer Simpson dream, the land of chocolate, there is an ugly side to all the great advantages. The largest problem with the car is mass production. Because the car is largely waste it would depend on biological waste to be produced. However, biological waste is not abundant and once its threshold is met, actual biological products may begin to be consumed. This wouldn’t be the first time this potential problem occurred.

There have already been corn-ethanol racecars invented in order to promote ‘green’ racing at NASCAR. However, there was a common concern among environmental scientists that cars that depended on biofuels would create more demand for such biofuel foods (i.e corn and sugarcane). The high demand would actually raise food prices.

Two of the biggest producers of corn and sugarcane include Venezuela and Cuba. Both countries’ leaders, Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro respectively, have written and expressed concern for such agricultural growth for fuel. Of course, the difference with the chocolate racecar is that it’s plant waste. Cuba and Venezuela also plan to use only waste material but the switch from plant waste to real plants is a slippery slope. Also, creating inedible plant waste isn’t a viable option as it would take up valuable agricultural space and thus raise food prices.

Ramón Pichs of the World Economy Research Center (CIEM) explained it best: "What they are considering is a scheme in which most of the biofuels are produced in underdeveloped countries in Asia, Latin America or Africa, to be exported to the industrialized world." Basically, the agricultural burden would be placed on developing countries. Pichs estimates that filling a car's tank with biofuel for two weeks uses the same amount of grain it would take to feed 26 people for a year.

So it seems that too much chocolate can make others sick.

Alamir Novin

Editor

The Six Rules of Threesomes: Three's company too.

VICTORIA (CUP) – The threesome is one of the most common sexual fantasies. There's just something so tantalizing about throwing an extra person into the mix.
But threesomes aren't like regular sex, and if you plan on having one, or just hope like hell that you might one day, you need to know what you're getting into.
Following some basic rules will help to make sure your three-way is a success.

Rule #1: There are no rules.
Just kidding.
You should definitely lay out some ground rules if possible beforehand. Although spontaneity is a key factor in a good threesome, everyone has different boundaries and needs.
This rule is especially important if two of you are in a relationship. Make sure you know how far everyone is willing to go. Are you all comfortable with penetration? Oral sex? Kissing? And if you're in a two-men/one-woman or two-women/one-man threesome, are the two people of the same sex comfortable with engaging sexually with each other, or will they both focus on the member of the opposite sex?

Rule #2: Don't fuck your friends.
You can bend this rule if all three participants are single and very confident that the friendship can handle it, but I strongly recommend if you're a couple looking for a third person, find someone you don't have to be around all the time. Seriously, it can get really messy, so try to avoid it.

Rule #3: Make sure no one feels left out.
Remember that when there are three people involved it’s less of a give-and-take situation and more of a share and share alike. If you're having penetrative sex with one person, make sure to caress the other person, look them in the eyes, and talk to them.
If the two other people are busy with each other, find a way to be involved. Kiss them, caress their necks or good bits, give oral sex to one person if the positioning is right, or maybe just masturbate while watching the other two go at it.

Rule #4: Be safe.
Make sure to use separate condoms when penetrating different people, and while giving a hummer either use one hand for each person and keep it that way, or clean your hands with disinfecting gel between partners. Using a dental dam while “dining at the Y” is a good idea too. After all, the only thing you want to take away from a threesome is good memories.

Rule #5: Don't get wasted.
While alcohol is not a bad idea to loosen things up at first, keep your consumption to a minimum. Too much booze will mess with your equipment and your judgment.

Rule #6: Spending the night is probably not a great idea.
Having a threesome is mostly about fulfilling a fantasy, and waking up next to each other in the morning can be awkward. That doesn't mean you shouldn't indulge in a little post-coital cuddling, but then go your separate ways.
This rule is an especially important one to follow if two of you are in a relationship. Chances are you'll need some alone time to process everything that's happened and reaffirm your connection to each other. Make sure to discuss this when laying down ground rules so no one is left feeling rejected.

By Keltie Larter
Nexus (Camosun College)

ROBOTS WILL KILL YOU There are no mad scientists, just mobs with pitchforks.

We’re a society that can genetically strip down viruses down to the point where one could identify genetic material from other strains. To control things on a molecular level is a feat and something that could not have been conceived 100 years ago. There are countless other capabilities of our present society that we pass off as ‘normal’ because they don't shoot lighting or they aren't a rocket that we can strap to our ass in order to fly. We are a society still impressed by big and shocking advancements, and usually we still have to be spoon fed the details. Our cultural view of the future as a visual image is that of 'large' things. However, large things tend to scare people.

Things like Nikola Tesla scare people.

Tesla was about the big, bold and terrifying, and the thing that scared people the most was his constant work with power. In what is historically referred to as the War of Currents, he introduced the world to alternating current after defeating Thomas Edison (a pusher of direct current) by creating the alternating current motor as well as the polyphase system of electrical distribution. This alone revolutionized power and paved the way for commercial electricity – however, Tesla's end-goal was far beyond power sources that we exploit today.
It was in 1899, when the potential of the next century was a mere wet-dream for other inventors, that Tesla set his sights on predicting the future of electricity by setting up shop in Colorado Springs. The experiments conducted by Tesla led to what would later frighten the general public into labeling him insane. It was at this point that he discovered a cavity within the Earth's atmosphere which held a build up of extremely low frequencies just below the Earth's ionosphere (later rediscovered in 1952 as the Schumann resonances). The cavity contains electromagnetic resonances, which are powered by lighting discharges, and spans the entire globe. Tesla's plan was to further charge this cavity and harness the power found within it as a form of wireless energy transmission.
Tesla planned for his greatest invention, the Wardenclyffe Tower - a series of broadcasting towers started in 1901 that were intended to demonstrate the full power of wireless electricity and advance wireless telecommunication. Tesla's plan was to pull energy from the ionosphere and distribute the electromagnetic energy throughout the world without any wires.

Flash forward to our genetic stripping society of today. In 2008, The Wireless Power Consortium, an alliance of 16 different firms, began working on a standard for wireless energy over a hundred years after Tesla. Within the last month, the consortium announced that they have developed an open standard for wireless energy called the Qi. This should have happened sooner. Tesla would've made it happen. With time, he could've made Wardenclyffe Tower project into a more badass form of the Qi.

Tesla’s public image was reaching new levels of crazy when rumors that he intended for the series of towers to be used as a weapon. Tesla publicly mentioned his work on Teleforce, a charged particle beam projector nicknamed “peace ray” by himself. Tesla offered it to the US military as well as Great Britain and even less US-friendly countries such as Yugoslavia. His intent was to give the weapon to all nations in order to keep countries at a stand still with a balance of power and fear of mutual assured destruction, and all before the second world war. Funding for the project was cut before completion on a single tower was made. To the public, this could never be some "peace ray". It was only a mad scientist trying to conquer the world.

Nestled in the wake of the Industrial Revolution, Nikola Tesla was one of the key catalysts for the 20th century and the future beyond it. A hundred years ago, when humans couldn’t fathom a future that could identify (let alone manipulate) the genetics of a virus, the world got a taste of what is still our future.

Sam MacDonald
Columnist

Sam MacDonald has been writing for the Courier for 3 years and is really a nice guy once you get past the boorish yelling.

Comics

Top 4 things about Jennifer’s Body that were hopefully self-aware jokes

The Dialogue.

I could be cynical and directly make fun of a film like Jennifer’s Body, like any other male writer but that would be crass. Oh wait, crass, that’s used in the movie. The word. Someone says it. She makes a point of saying it. She says it in a sentence and then automatically defines it to the people around her as though they are lowly sea scum to her sperm whale-sized vocabulary. See! The dialogue is smart, not stupid. This is a film that’s aware of how smart it is!

The Plot.

Such a plot could only survive in the presence of extreme ironic subtext because, left to fend for itself in a film world where you take things seriously, it would be seen as stupid. Stupid to the point of third generational inbred stupid. But this film is too clever to take anything seriously. Rather than a disenfranchised youth having to deal with pregnancy, we’re given a devil worshipping indie band who sacrifices Megan Fox as a virgin to Satan so that they may become rich and famous. Effects of the sacrifice still work for the band, but the deal with Fox’s simple butchering backfires because she isn’t a virgin and instead of dying becomes a demon who is sustained by the blood of overly trusting young men. So what I’m saying is that the plot does a good job of hitting that “stupid enough that it might all be part of some clever joke” mark. Again, this is a movie aware of its own smartness-making.

Megan Fox.

Fox is hot. Or at least, this is what I’m assuming the film is trying to tell me. The film says that Megan Fox is the type of girl tailor made for a film about a bitchy bisexual high schooler with an insecure sense of power. But it’s interesting because she isn’t what I’d consider sexy. Sure, Fox is hot, but in the most boring of ways – like she was put together by a focus-group who were given nothing but Maxim magazine for reference. Yet this is a story about an attractive woman feasting upon unsuspecting and ultimately undeserving males who were just teased with the possibility of sex with anything that wasn’t their own hand. Fox’s dull hotness is turned up by the fact that she is doing nothing more than killing young men who were only guilty of thinking for a split second that they had a chance with someone that was out of their league. So, what I’m saying is that this movie put me in touch with my inner masochist.

Girls Kissing.

One of the main selling points of the film is a scene that dedicates more than two and a half minutes to the leads Amanda Seyfried and Fox. The reason why this is one of the best moments of the film is because it’s one the Internet now, so you don’t actually have to see the film. Or better yet, why not just go on the Internet? You should check that thing out. I guarantee you that you’ll find something good.

Band Boot Camp: Peak Performance Project boosts local scene

In a time when arts funding isn’t getting cut so much as slaughtered, it’s nice to know that there is still money out there to be taken by artists that work hard and play the game. At least, there is the possibility of money for BC’s radio-friendly bands and solo artists, thanks to the Peak Performance Project, a multi-million dollar contest and training program sponsored by 100.5 The Peak, Vancouver’s newest major radio station.

The Peak Performance Project is unlike any other radio contest looking for new talent, though, because the Peak does more than just plug a song or put on a concert - it takes 20 musicians or groups and teaches them everything they need to know about the ins and outs of the music business. At the end of the months-long process it offers $150,000 to the band that exceeds in talent but industry know-how.

“A lot of times a band will get some funding for a music video, or a tour,” says Bob D’Eith, Executive Director of Music BC, “but there’s no follow-through. We try to develop artists. We wanted to let the cream rise and give them enough money to make it.”

The Peak Performance Projected is slated for a 7-year run, with a 5.29 million dollar budget. The Jim Pattison Broadcasting Group, which owns 31 other stations in BC and Alberta, developed the contest as part of their Canadian content initiative, necessary to get a broadcasting license for The Peak.

D’Eith was put in charge of designing the program. What he came up with was a full introduction to all sides of the music industry. Besides having a chance to compete for the top three spots with large cash prizes (cash prizes which can only be used for band development like tours, recording or studio musicians), the 20 acts chosen for the Peak Performance Project get a one-week boot camp at a lodge where they will learn about everything ranging from entertainment law to marketing, radio tracking to management.

“We didn’t expect them to learn everything about the business in a week,” says D’Eith. “What we did want was for them to fill in the gaps a little, and to know where the gaps were so they had an idea that they were there.”

This year it was held at Rock Ridge Canyon Resort in Princeton, BC. Danny Echo was one of the chosen this year, out of nearly 500 applicants. Dan Newton, singer of the band Danny Echo, found the camp invaluable.

“A lot of bands get managers who end up ripping them off. [The bands] are naive about the music industry and there’s these guys sometimes who are like ‘C’mon, we’ll make you famous’ and next thing they know they’re out a couple grand,” says Newton. “The camp was really about teaching artists to get the most out of the industry we can without getting hurt.”

The highlight for both Newton and D’Eith was the songwriting challenge. After the songwriting seminar, all the artists were given a few days to write an original song inspired by the title “In a Minute.” All the songs were performed at the camp, and the caliber was so high that songwriting instructor Don McLeod was inspired to record all the versions - despite the fact that they had no recording studio at the lodge and had to build one at the last minute using bits and pieces of all the gear they could find.

“We feel really lucky to have been chosen to participate,” says Newton. “It was a big treat for us to see these bands perform every night for a week.”

“[The boot camp] totally exceeded all of our expectations by a large margin,” says D’Eith. “We wanted to give them the tools to develop themselves, but we didn’t expect the sense of community to happen. I think everyone came out of there really inspired.”

D’Eith admits that a lot of tweaking of the program has had to happen along the way, because they were so surprised by the quality and talent of everyone involved. Besides the boot camp, artists were also given the opportunity to record. At first, it was intended that five acts be chosen from the 20 to record demos. It wasn’t until later that organizers realized that nearly all the participants already had demos, and so funds were split evenly; all 20 were given $3500 to record and produce three songs.

All the acts are also now given the opportunity to perform, instead of the originally planned five. For five weeks starting in October, those who’ve heard the bands will have a chance to see them live at The Cellar, where four bands will play every Thursday night in front of an audience as well as a panel of judges. The live performance only makes up 30% of the bands’ score, though, in deciding who will win the grand prize. Another 20% is online voting from the Peak’s website, while the remaining 50% is made up of a number of small challenges, like writing about how the band has incorporated what they learned at boot camp.

“It’s not always the best, most talented bands that succeed. It’s the best bands with business sense that succeed,” says D’Eith.

The three bands with the highest scores will play a show at a yet undisclosed venue, during which the winner will be announced. D’Eith doesn’t find it fair to predict who will win — he also says he wouldn’t be able to harbour a guess. “After the camp, I think it’s up to [the artists] now. We came away thinking ‘Oh my god, how are we going to pick one?’ I wouldn’t want to be on the final jury,” he said.

And picking the final jury is even tougher now. After the camp, connections were made between artists and their seminar instructors, the very people who were supposed to be in the pool of potential judges. For instance, Danny Echo is going into the studio soon with producer Jeff Dawson, who they met at camp. Dawson had already been a fan, having seen them live, and owned a copy of the album.                         
Newton says that while the top prize money would be nice, it isn’t everything. “Whether we win or not, we still got a lot out of it. [The contest] is a real scene booster for BC music, and it’s really great to get that injection of education into these bands.”

Megan Drysdale
Columnist