Wednesday, April 21, 2004

by Alex Glick

Sports Editor

Beginning this past Monday, Swarthmore’s environmentalists have been
bringing Earthweek to campus.  Earthweek, which has evolved as an
extended celebration of Earth Day, coincides with one of the most
beautiful weeks that students at the college have seen this year, so it
truly is a perfect time to give one’s appreciation to the Earth.

Earthlust, Swarthmore’s environmental group, worked with the
Environmental Studies Capstone Seminar to sponsor many of the events
that have taken place this week.  On Monday, Earthlust, along with
the capstone seminar and other groups, opened Earthweek with a panel
discussion on environmental justice issues.  One of the main
themes of the talk was that environmental organizations, while
sometimes trying to be helpful, do not look at the consequences of
their actions on the community level.

According to Earthlust coordinator Kelly Kleinert ’05, “environmental
hazards disproportionately affect communities of color,” and
organizations should be more willing to ask for the perspectives of the
people who will be affected by changes in policies.  Carr
Everbach, Professor of Engineering and member of the Environmental
Studies committee, noted that it might be a good idea to talk about
these issues more as part of the curriculum of classes focusing on the
environment.

Earthlust members have many goals for Earthweek, many of which were
discussed in an open meeting this past Monday.  Kleinert said,
“Earthlust wants to educate the campus about clean energy at
Swarthmore, by spreading the word about buying more wind energy.” Five
percent of Swarthmore’s energy currently comes from wind power.

Another Earthweek goal is to try to make members of the Swarthmore
community aware of just how much paper is wasted.  Members of
Earthlust have been collecting unclaimed printouts from McCabe and
Beardsley every night.  This paper is being placed by the
fireplace at Sharples to give students an idea of the level of paper
waste from these two buildings.

Earthlust also has been hoping to increase awareness of environmental
justice issues, as evident in Monday’s panel.  According to
Kleinert, “We also want to encourage people to do smaller things, such
as using (Earthlust) mugs instead of disposable cups.”

On Tuesday, Dr. Lisa Totten of Rutgers University addressed the campus
about local environmental issues.  PCBs, a type of harmful
chemical, are present in higher levels in Swarthmore than in every
other part of Pennsylvania beside Camden.  Later in the evening,
the environmental studies seminar and Earthlust showed Up in Smoke, a
film about Chester, and John Travolta’s A Civil Action to increase
awareness about environmental justice.

The ever popular Lust on the Beach will be held on Earth Day
(Thursday). This Swarthmore tradition will give current and prospective
students the chance to enjoy the outdoors and sleep on Parrish Beach;
refreshments will be provided.

On Friday, starting at 2:00 p.m., students from Chester High School
will be assembling near the Lang Center outside of the train station to
talk about various water and air quality measurements that they made in
their own area; Professor Everbach and Earthlust encourage available
students, faculty, and staff to come out and listen to these
environmentalists of the future.

Earthlust has been working on a variety of other projects this year, in
addition to the wind energy campaign, environmental justice, and
awareness of paper usage.  The group held its annual “Storm the
Dorms” in the fall. Earthlust members are currently planning to have a
Sharples takeover some time in the near future, in which they hope to
bring local produce to the dining hall along with the help of an
organization known as Food Trust.

*****

* Washington braced itself for more coalition pullouts from Iraq even
as the US administrator there, Paul Bremer, warned that Iraqi security
forces would not be able to protect the country by the June 30 handover
deadline. He said on Sunday that the recent surge in fighting showed
that Iraq’s security forces needed ‘outside help’ to fight insurgents
intent on shooting their way to power. Bremer’s pessimistic assessment
of Iraqi troops came as Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez
Zapatero announced that he was withdrawing the country’s troops in the
shortest time possible.US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice
indicated that more coalition partners might be heading for the exit.
Spain’s decision has drawn criticism from Washington. The Portuguese
government is reportedly coming under strong domestic pressure to
follow Spain’s example, and radical Shi’ite cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr
yesterday sought to accelerate the domino effect by telling his
followers to stop attacking Spanish troops. Meanwhile, Iraq’s
commercial transport network has practically ground to a halt because
of a deterioration in security and the closure of main roads by US
forces, shippers and merchants said yesterday. Iraqi civilian passenger
movement has also been disrupted and more people have been opting to
fly, taking planes from Baghdad airport that do sharp evasive
manoeuvres to escape possible shoulder-fired rocket attacks.

* While in China last week, American Vice-President Dick Cheney was
told, in no uncertain terms, what Beijing expected of Washington in
containing separatism in Taiwan. He received broad hints from his hosts
that the United States should not expect Chinese help over the North
Korean nuclear issue unless Washington was prepared to reciprocate by
helping Beijing check Taiwan’s independence movement. All four top
leaders he met – President Hu Jintao, Vice-President Zeng Qinghong,
Premier Wen Jiabao and military supremo Jiang Zemin – demanded that the
US stop selling arms to Taiwan as a first step in regaining Beijing’s
cooperation in the Korean peninsula. Reflecting the mood of the
discussions, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman urged Washington to
scrap the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), which empowers American arms
sales to Taiwan, altogether. The legislation effectively nullified the
third Sino-US communique, which commits the US to reduce arms sales to
the island gradually to nought. However, for the past 25 years, arms
sales have increased both qualitatively and quantitatively. Previously,
such arms were mainly defensive. But since 2000, they included
offensive ones as well.  Beijing has tried to tolerate the breach,
hoping that good Sino-US relations would curb Taiwanese separatism. But
the result of the March 20 presidential election in Taiwan dashed such
hopes. From Beijing’s point of view, the election showed clearly the
American hand behind the re-election of pro-independence President Chen
Shui-bian.

* A mortar attack on an American-run prison in Baghdad killed at least
22 detainees Tuesday, the U.S. Army said. Twelve mortars struck the
prison at Abu Ghraib on the Iraqi capital’s western outskirts,
according to the U.S.-led Coalition Press Information Center. In
addition, 92 other detainees were wounded, and 25 were transported to a
hospital, the press center said. About 4,400 detainees are held in the
prison, which the U.S. military now calls the Baghdad Confinement
Facility.  Under Saddam Hussein’s regime, the Abu Ghraib Prison
was infamous for its torture of prisoners.  Texas-based
Halliburton Co. identified three of four bodies found last week as
American contractors who were ambushed in an April 9 raid on a fuel
convoy near Baghdad. They were Stephen Hulett, 48, of Manistee,
Michigan; Jack Montague, 52, of Pittsburg, Illinois; and Jeffery
Parker, 45, of Lake Charles, Louisiana. Halliburton said the company
and its subcontractors have lost 33 personnel in Kuwait and Iraq. Also
missing since the convoy attack are Sgt. Elmer Krause, 40, of
Greensboro, North Carolina, and Pfc. Keith Matthew Maupin, 20, of
Batavia, Ohio. Arabic-language TV network Al-Jazeera has aired footage
of Maupin with armed insurgents, who said they wanted to trade the
soldier for prisoners held by the coalition.

*****

Ride the Tide Events

Starting at 12:00 p.m.

Linguistics Talk by William Poser

SCI 101, 4:00 p.m.

Mathematics Lecture by Thomas Hunter: “What is Mathematics?/What is
Algebraic Geometry? A lecture on Truth and Beauty for
non-mathematicians”
Scheuer Room, 4:30 p.m. (reception at 4:00)

Lecture by Michael Eric Dyson: “Race, Religion, Politics, and Popular
Culture”

SCI 199, 7:00 p.m.

SCF Screening: “Do the Right Thing”
Kohlberg 115, 7:00 p.m.

Rising Sophomores Housing Lottery

Fieldhouse, 7:30 p.m.

Genocide Awareness Faculty Panel

Scheuer Room, 7:30 p.m.

Absentee Ballot Info Session

Bond, 8:30 p.m.

SWIL Star Trek Episodes

Hicks Mural Room, 9:00 p.m.

Feminist Majority Meeting

Parrish Parlours, 9:00 p.m.

ENLACE Movie Night

IC, 10:00 p.m.

*****

SPORTS UPDATE

The women’s tennis team defeated Haverford 7-2 yesterday in their last
home match of the regular season.  This makes for the Garnet’s
eleventh consecutive victory.

Anjani Reddy ’04, Caroline Celano ’04, Kristina Pao ’04, and Marissa
Matthews ’07 were all winners in singles action.  Reddy teamed
with Sonya Reynolds ’07 to earn a first doubles victory.  First
years Sara Sargent and Waverly Lutz won in second doubles, while Pao
and Elli Suzuki ’06 were victorious in third doubles.  The Garnet
play their last regular season match tomorrow at Johns Hopkins.

*****

The softball team took one of two games with Haverford yesterday.In the
first game, the Garnet fell 4-1.  Emily Remus ’06 scattered five
hits and allowed three earned runs. Val Marone ’05, Stephanie Rogan
’06, and Christina Procacci ’06 were the three Garnet players to get
hits in this game.

Swarthmore earned a 1-0 victory in the second game.  Val Maulbeck
’06 drove in the winning run in the fifth inning to lead the Garnet to
victory. Marianne Klingaman ’07 earned the complete game shutout, only
allowing three hits.

*****

The baseball team came up short yesterday against Keystone, taking a
12-2 loss.  Seniors Ryan Pannorfi and Carlton Davis had two hits
apiece, with Ian Adelstein ’07 and Cliff Sosin ’04 garnering one hit
each.  Pannorfi drove in both runs for Swarthmore.  The
Garnet fall to 4-18 overall and will travel to Muhlenberg tomorrow in a
game starting at 3:30 p.m.

*****

The women’s lacrosse team fell 15-0 to the Franklin & Marshall
Diplomats
yesterday at home.  The last time the Garnet was shut out dates
back to
1990.

*****

Today:

Men’s tennis hosts Haverford, 3:30 p.m.

Baseball at Muhlenberg, 3:30 p.m.

Men’s lacrosse hosts Muhlenberg, 4:00 p.m.

Women’s lacrosse hosts Rosemont, 7:00 p.m.

Women’s tennis at Johns Hopkins, tba

Tomorrow:

Softball hosts Neumann (double header), 3:00 p.m.

Track at Penn Relays

*****

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of
work to do.”

–Jerome K. Jerome

*****

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