Nostalgic complaints from old man
Life would be better if we had some of the things listed below in the article here
Fumie Nakamura
Cento Writer
When people discuss freedom and equality for all human beings, they cannot ignore gender issues because women have been suffering from different social injustices, such as discrimination and poverty, for centuries. Millions of people die every year from malnutrition, hunger and diseases around the world. The majority of the world’s population lives on a daily income of one dollar or less, with many of the victims being women. My interest in gender issues in developing countries grew through my volunteer work on HIV/AIDS education in Kenya in the summer of 1999 and developed further through a winter-term trip to Nicaragua in 2001.
In developing countries, poor women suffer not only from poverty but also misery caused by an unfair and unjust society. Women have their own dreams, but they are expected to give them up for their families. Women stretch out their day by making sweets or crafts at night in addition to outside and domestic work to make more income for their families. Furthermore, women eat very little so that their children and husbands get something to eat and force themselves to work as prostitutes to earn money for their families. Sadly, women in the developing countries cannot even receive the same amount of education or as a high social status as men. Additionally, women often have to accept unwanted pregnancies or being diagnosed with HIV from being raped without the help of financial or psychological support.
In Kenya, women are forced to accept the practice of polygamy and gender issues in general. This is primarily due to the fact that these women do not share the same benefits of equality that have been fostered in the United States. The more I get to know people in foreign countries, the more I understand their traditional ideas and customs, such as the fact that most women in rural Kenyan communities cannot ask men to use birth control because culture dictates that women have to be submissive to men. Some people do not use birth-control and some do not even believe that HIV/AIDS exists.
As more and more international organizations create projects in less developed countries, workers are sometimes seen by locals as pushing western ideology onto the less educated. However, we still have the capacity and the responsibility to develop projects which promote and facilitate the self-reliance of women without directly denouncing traditional gender issues.
Lack of rule, voice, participation, and independence causes a considerable burden on impoverished women. During our second home-stay in urban Managua, Nicaragua, we saw many gender issues exemplified. Many women in our barrio work in the foreign-owned garment industries which prefer to hire women rather than men because women are a docile and submissive work force. The factories often force the workers to work from early morning to late night in poor working environments. There are cases reported in which female workers are violated or humiliated by managers of the factories, but the unreported number is unimaginable. Since this is the only job opportunity for women as well as men, they cannot quit their jobs in order to support their children.
Women are at risk of being socially excluded and are the victims of incredible domestic violence and crimes. During my Managua home-stay, I lived with a Nicaraguan woman whose boyfriend often hit her when he got angry. Her neighbors knew about this, but nobody could do anything to make the situation better. At least in the United Sates there is greater awareness of domestic violence, but in developing countries it is less recognized. Nicaragua has extremely few organizations and formal groups that deal with recovery from domestic violence and other women’s social issues. Contrarily, even Danville has a rape crisis center, women’s health clinic and the school nurses and Resident Assistants give talks to men and women on campus about domestic violence.
People have recently made a significant achievement for human rights at the international level, which benefits not only women but also others who have been oppressed and have hardly had a voice in society. On Feb. 23, the International War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague found three Bosnian Serbs guilty of raping and abusing women during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. This verdict was a remarkable step for human rights and gender equality. By bringing voices from the oppressed into the forefront of society, this movement helped to establish rape as a war crime and also widened the definition of slavery to include forced labor.
The goal of society should be one in which all human beings can sufficiently meet basic needs while protecting the natural environment. This society also must be able to guarantee individual human rights, equality and justice in terms of political, economic, social and cultural activities. In order to achieve higher levels of global awareness and cooperation at the local, national and international levels, there must first be a better understanding of the most oppressed people in society–women. Back to top...
Nostalgic complaints from old man
David Gower
Cento Opinions Editor
We all know that everything is wonderful in Danville. At least, that’s the way it would seem. Sure, every day I hear several of my colleagues complain ferociously about everything that is wrong with the world (especially within our little closed-in portion of it). Nonetheless, I think such instances reveal our own biological tendencies of unconscious anti-social behavior and do not indicate any sort of exhibition toward real human emotion.
How am I tuned in to this knowledge? Because of the sheer fact that no one wants their ideas judged by people who have not met them; people are afraid they will look stupid to their highly educated and esteemed peers and professors. Apparently, only a few of us care about sharing our opinions with the rest of Centre College via one of the most public and ongoing forums on campus – the Cento. A friend of mine said the other day, "In four years, one thing has stayed the same–I’ve never given enough of a shit to care whether or not I was quoted in the Cento." It’s a shame that this is the general feeling on campus.
We might snicker at the "other" organizations on campus but we would never want others to know exactly what we think about them. No, we’re not all beautiful. And we have all been guilty of thinking dirty thoughts of every person we may take notice of. Furthermore, it is fairly infrequent that anyone ever writes articles exposing current Centre College scams and corruption.
Now, I am not implicating anyone in particular, but one would be foolishly mistaken if he or she thought this college could do no wrong. I figure the administration’s policy has become something like this: "Keep them happy; keep them busy; keep them ignorant." How many of us actually know why curriculum changes were made within the past few years? Few, if any; and that is a shame.
Personally, I am not necessarily optimistic of the multitude of changes I have seen take place on this campus since I came here. Old, publicly known rivalries among fraternities showed us the incredible potential for ignorance among our kind (such as the rock-snowball wars between the Dekes and Phi Delts).
We used to be horrified at the gross segregation, which, by the way, is still totally obvious if you have not noticed (e.g., the official Cowan way). No longer can we bring couches outdoors to help us enjoy soccer games. Remember Spivey’s, for holy God’s sake–why did people ever stop going? And whatever happened to kick-ass underclassmen dorm parties like Rock-the-Nation and Mondo Exotica?
If you think back hard enough, you can reminisce upon the much-loved, much-needed and reasonable smoking section in Cowan, but even that’s been taken away from us. Some might call this progress; I call it the death of a most wonderful and diversified culture.
Once upon a time, there was something called "Lobster Baseball;” now, you can’t beat that with a stick when it comes to high culture. Your mother’s world will be rocked when she realizes that her life has been all vanity of vanities without such a characteristically American reaction to shellfish. And somebody needs to hold a party in the quad. Somebody get on that, if you know what’s good for you.
Also, for the past four years, tuition has continued to go up (a trend that will likely persist throughout the next four). So, while the administration works to up the national p.r. (with such hot-hot showcases as the vice-presidential debates, Schlesinger and Spike lectures and Willie, 3-Dog and the Beach Boys), the prices simply rise to the point that many prospective and demographically diverse students from out-of-state will decide that other colleges or universities sound much better. After all, how much can people be expected to pay for tuition at a college that sports a not-so-trendy stockyard in its backyard? Who wants to smell manure between classes or defend themselves from escaped and wandering cattle on their way home from lunch?
Hell, it seems that everyone’s getting more and more greedy. Several people have been double-ticketed this year for both parking in a restricted area AND for not sporting a parking decal (that’s a $50 fine–totally unreasonable). Well, I may be wrong, but I don’t think they make restricted area decals. Some people even get ticketed for parking in visitor parking when they have no decal to begin with. It’s pretty ridiculous that we have to pay to park in student lots anyway. With that said, I would like to announce the first annual Parking Decal Bonfire this Friday evening in front of West Walnut’s DPS office.
A lot of so-called renovations have changed the face of Centre College, but one terrible and awful thing that no one is taking any stance against is the continuation of 8:00 a.m. class sessions. Come on, peoples, and get hip to the feel-good era that is this generation of college students. The school can allocate more and more funds to the increasing number of extracurricular opportunities on campus, but we could all benefit from a scheduling reform.
No one should be held accountable for his or her actions at that God-forsaken time. That sentiment is surely being sneered upon by many “early-to-rise” professors who think us (or, perhaps just myself) immature, irresponsible and lazy. Well, screw ‘em. Most people do not even have to be at work by eight; why should we students have to start work before our parents? This is college, not the farm. Most of us cannot learn at 8:00 a.m. anyway.
More often than not, many of us get caught up in the frenzy of doing something new to the college that allegedly represents reform and progress. Well, I think we should be more critical, or at least more aware, of the changes that we can have a say about. Upperclassmen unite! for it is our responsibility to tell all those young ’uns about how things used to be so they can understand the possibilities of what Kentucky’s brightest can accomplish here in Danville.
It’s a damn shame, getting old. Things just aren’t the same anymore. That all-night diner a couple of blocks down the road stopped serving after twelve because we stopped going there to close our nights of young, drunken abandon. I was a lot happier before–and I used to look a lot better than I do now. What happened? Back to top...
Life would be better if we had some of the things listed below in the article here
Edward Hatfield
Cento Opinions Editor
A Samosa bar at Cowan
It’s true. Four years ago a very progressive thinker among us lobbied for a bar at Cowan devoted solely to samosas. Unfortunately, his pleas fell on deaf ears. Is Danville not a center of multiculturalism? Do you not feel most cool when eating ethnic food? If you answered yes to both of these questions, then perhaps the time has come.
More Goth kids
It is now well in to March and spring is upon us. The sun is shining overhead, the grass growing underfoot and Centre girls can be found lazing around campus sporting little more than tanning bed sheens, "studying". Yes, it’s all just too damn great. So what I propose we do is get ourselves a handful of Goth types here on campus. With all of the rebirth and renewal that comes with Spring I think a couple few pale-faced, black blue jeaned, Magic card toting, Gwar fans would provide a right pleasant leaven. This, however, is easier said than done. We will need some plan, some clever ruse to lure them from their secret underground lair, otherwise known as the "underworld", otherwise known as their mamma’s basement. We might for instance place flyers in all Lexington video arcades announcing a Dungeons & Dragons convention to be held here on campus Friday afternoon. They would likely only mill about a few hours before realizing the convention was a scam and then go steal Oh Henry bars from Super America or play with a Ouiji board or drink cows blood. At any rate, it’s worth mulling over.
More Rap-Metal Acts
It has been some seven years since Rap-Metal pioneers 311 took the popular music scene by storm and forever changed the pop music landscape. With their wicked brand of funk infused, post-apocalyptic, hyper-intensified grooves, their hair-raising, incendiary, fuzz drenched guitars and the silent majesty of their hip hop beats, 311 stamped their stupid insignia all over the face of popular music and every overweight thirteen year old in the nation. Some say they even helped popularize the big pants revolution, and for that we are forever indebted. (Big pants, Big loser). But who will carry the torch?
More submissions for the Opinions Section
Unless you care to read more hastily thrown together opinion pieces like this one, you must take charge, heed Dave’s word and lighten our load.
More Inter-Fraternity parties
Or so I hear. I’m not quite sure about the arithmetic here though. If party Y sucks, and party X is on par with massaging your grandmother’s feet, do you add them to get a decent party, or multiply them and wish yourself dead? As i understand it, these parties would help assuage the tensions that sometimes flare up between our Greek groups. Why not settle the score once and for all? Why not have a Battle Royale? It would be just dandy. We could set up a cage on the field hockey field, one hour, no holds barred, anything goes. They could take betsat the Warehouse and the winner could get a dinner for two at Freddie’s.
More School Shootings
I don’t know about you, but I can’t get enough of this shit. Frontier mentality meets disgruntled youth, a casualty of the modern era, all punctuated by a glossy-eyed teen saying that she can’t believe this is happening at her school. This is top shelf drama! Then a panel of experts weigh in and point fingers at parents, gun shows, television and on and on. Meanwhile Charlton Heston shows up from time to time, smiles and says a few words about gun safety. God bless the NRA. God bless America. Now I no longer have to spend my afternoons watching “My So Called Life” reruns. Back to top...