Tuesday, November 11, 2003

by Evelyn Khoo
Living and Arts Editor

The Swarthmore chapter of the Student Global Aids Campaign will be organizing
an all-campus 8-ball tournament to raise funds for aids organisations.

According to Andrew Sniderman ’06, a member of the Student Global Aids Campaign,
the tournament will be split into separate men’s and women’s brackets, with
participants competing to place first and win a brand new pool cue and a plaque
with their name engraved to be hung in the gameroom after the results are released.
The tournament will proceed first with an elimination draw, then go on based
on who wins the best of three games. Although each male and female champion
will receive their own prizes of pool cues and plaques, they will then play
each other for ‘bragging rights’, says Sniderman.

Currently over 100 people, mostly men, have signed up to play in the tournament,
which is scheduled to take place in a week, in the gameroom, with play staggered
over several days. Entry to the tournament costs $5 per person and the funds
will be split between a domestic and an international aids organization,which
have not yet been selected.

Interested students should email asnider1 as soon as possible.

*****

* Thousands of Saudi soldiers and police poured into Islam’s holy city of
Mecca yesterday to beef up security amid government fears of another terrorist
attack. At least 5,000 men had been deployed to protect an estimated 2.5 million
pilgrims, as the government vowed to capture the suspected Al-Qaeda suicide
bombers who killed 17 people and wounded 120 in Riyadh on Saturday night. Security
was stepped up at residences of diplomats and Western nationals across the capital,
even as Western embassies urged their nationals to remain vigilant and restrict
their movements. Many residential compounds in Riyadh, housing expatriates who
hold key jobs in the kingdom’s oil industry and military programs, already resemble
army camps from the outside. Ringed by up to 50 national guardsmen, their high
perimeter walls are topped by razor wire and monitored by close circuit television.
Some have machine guns at the gate and armored vehicles draped in camouflage
netting near the entrance. The US embassy was closed to the public for the third
day in a row. The embassy closed on Saturday after Washington warned of imminent
attacks.

* Japanese voters on Sunday gave Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi another chance
to carry out his reforms and fix the economy. But they also indicated that the
need for a stronger opposition. When the results were finally tallied, Mr. Koizumi’s
Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) had won 237 seats in the Lower House of Parliament.
Yesterday, the morning after the general election, three independent lawmakers
joined the LDP. Then the Conservative Party – the LDP’s coalition partner –
decided it was best if it merged with the LDP. Its four seats raised the LDP’s
total to 244, giving it a simple majority. More voters on Sunday put their faith
in the DPJ, which won 177 seats, 40 more than before. Although the tally fell
short of the 200-seat target set by DPJ leader Naoto Kan, the party’s greatly
increased presence in the Lower House is seen as a major step towards a two-party
system in Japan.

* South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun appealed for calm yesterday as the country’s
most militant labor union vowed to launch a new wave of strikes, following a
violent clash that left about 100 people injured. The clash on Sunday in the
heart of Seoul was the most violent seen in the country in years between labor
activists and police. Thousands of metal pipe-wielding workers hurled rocks
and firebombs at riot police, turning a main thoroughfare here into a rubble-strewn
river of flames. It was the first time in nearly three years that workers used
firebombs in street protests. Police said 110 protesters, including a US citizen,
had been detained for questioning. The riot followed a labor rally by 40,000
workers affiliated with the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, the country’s
most militant umbrella labor group, which organized a half-day strike last week.
The group, which has 650,000 members, blamed police for triggering violence
and vowed to go ahead with a full-scale work stoppage tomorrow and a series
of protests through next month. Labor unrest has intensified since three labor
activists committed suicide last month to protest against new laws aimed at
curbing union power and giving employers more freedom to hire and fire. The
government has promised to curb labor militancy and strikes, which have alarmed
foreign investors and worsened this year’s recession.

* As yet another indicator of China’s growing clout as a global economic power,
World Trade Organization (WTO) chief Supachai Panitchpakdi yesterday called
on the Asian powerhouse to take the lead in helping to get the stalled Doha
trade talks back on track. Calling the breakdown of the Doha round in Cancun
last September a ‘wake-up call’ for WTO members, he urged China, as a leading
trading nation, to help push the round forward. The WTO chief’s appeal comes
at a time when there is talk of an ideological split between industrialized
nations and the G-22, a group of emerging economies led by Brazil, Egypt, India
and South Africa. That group had baulked at measly concessions on agricultural
issues offered by the developed nations in Cancun. China positioned itself at
the centre of the G-22 at Cancun, and has blamed the breakdown of the round
on the failure to address the concerns of developing countries. The WTO has
until Dec 15 to decide how to move the Doha round forward. In appealing to the
Chinese to play an active role in rescuing the talks, Supachai said: ‘China
cannot afford to stand on the sidelines and let others write the trade rules
of the 21st century.’

*****

Professor Tukufu Zuberi of the University of Pennsylvania: “How Racial
Statistics Lie” (Lecture, Reception, Booksigning)
Scheuer Room, 4:15 p.m.

Art Deptartment’s Annual Lee Frank Lecture:The Dream of Venus Dreams On: Salvador
Dali’s Surrealist Funhouse and Contemporary Art by Ingrid Schaffner, Senior
Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art
LPAC Cinema, 4:15 p.m.

Pizza and Theology
Common Worship Room, 5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Divertimento – A film by Jacques Rivette Starring Michel Piccoli, Jane Birkin,
Emmanuelle Béart, “A beautiful look at an artist’s life”
Kohlberg 115, 7:00 p.m.

American Narrative Cinema Film Screening: “Imitation of Life” (Douglas
Sirk, 1959, 120 min.)
LPAC Cinema, 7:00 p.m.

Alumni Career Panel on Careers in Public Health
Scheuer Room, 7:00pm

African Health Informational featuring Student Discount Initiative for AIDS
at NYU, Penn World AIDS Foundation at Penn, Student Global AIDS
Campaign at Swarthmore
Paces, 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Deshi Guest Speaker on Women and Health
Science Center 101, 7:30pm

Student Global AIDS Campaign Teach-In
Science Center 199, 9:00pm

*****

SPORTS UPDATE

Today:
There are no contests scheduled for today.

Tomorrow:
Women’s Basketball hosts Eastern, 7:00 p.m. Scrimmage

*****

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.”
–Joseph Chilton Pearce

*****

Interested in reporting or writing for the Gazette?
Got a news or sports tip for us?
Just want to tell us what you think?

Contact the staff at daily@swarthmore.edu

The Daily Gazette is published Monday through Friday by an independent
group of Swarthmore College students. The Daily Gazette Web Site is updated
regularly, as news happens. Technical support from the Swarthmore College
Computer Society is gratefully acknowledged.