The extremely clever headline Let a thousand posters bloom, (Concordian, March 15, 2006 ) paraphrasing the greatest mass murderer in history, says a lot not only about contemporary politics but how we never learn from past mistakes.
With reports that Canadian troops have murdered some individuals in Afganistan we start a deeper involvement as our new government and the corporate mass media including especially the English CBC Television news beat the war drum with a propangandizing flair so we can become more complicit with the great war crimes of the George Bush administration.
David S. Rovins
Independent
Bravo to the R4 team’s brave attempt to re-examine our garbage. With reference to Ida Jorgensen’s article, “R4 finds composting could save $10,000 for Concordia University,” Feb. 15, I believe it is entirely possible for Concordia to recycle and compost more than it currently does. For example, last year, when I used to visit McGill quite often to see my sisters, I noticed that next to almost every garbage can, in particular, near food areas, there were bins for plastic, glass, metal and paper products. Their Pizza Pizza place (similar to our setup in the LB building) had special cans for the orange pizza boxes, which would not otherwise be able to be recycled since they are soiled cardboard.
While these wonderful bins have for some reason disappeared from McGill’s cafeterias, they still have some bins like at Concordia, for metal, plastic and paper. In fact, garbage cans sometimes have the slogan “Wait! Before you throw that out, can you reuse/reduce/recycle it?”
As for composting, I think it would not be too hard to get Concordians to scrape off their plates. I mean, don’t people do this at home before they wash their dishes? I also think the People’s Potato asks its customers to scrape their plates before putting them in the bins to be washed.
The latest improvement in McGill recycling will be their recto-verso campaign, beginning March 20, in which all print outs will automatically be double sided, and the teachers will have to accept assignments printed this way. (The only photocopying machine I’ve seen at Concordia that can do double-sided photocopying is in the Graduate Studies building on MacKay.)
So, it’s great we have team R4 and the Sustainability audit. With luck we should be able to imitate more of McGill’s good points in this area as well.
Donna Pinsky
Accountancy
I am really excited by this year’s team Experience. I have had the opportunity to meet all the members of the slate and I think that they each bring such a unique background to a group that I am certain will represent the exciting diversity of the Concordia student body.
Two examples of the diversity of experience brought by the team’s members are Marc Small and Justin Levy who have both worked tirelessly to help with the Concordia University Volunteer Abroad Project (CUVAP), an initiative that is unique to Concordia and which will see a number of our university’s students work and learn in Uganda for two months.
I am passionate about this endeavor and am presently working on its ethics portfolio to ensure that the volunteering and general contact that is done will be in a respectful manner and will be as beneficial to the host community as possible.
This global awareness, coupled with Experience’s goal to make student issues a priority by promoting our amazing Fine Arts department’s artwork prominently on campus, fighting to ensure that tuition stay frozen and bringing a free legal clinic to campus, amongst other goals, will ensure an incredible next scholastic year!
Concordia has enviable diversity and I think that Experience will best respect and showcase that, infusing pride in a school we all chose!
So, dear editor, I hope that you and your intelligent readers will take the time to vote for Experience on March 28, 29 and 30!
Alyssa Blank
School of Community and Public Affairs and Policy Studies, Political Science
