4A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, April 4, 2002 OP/ED c e ict igttn ttrl 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 letters@michigandaily.com EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 JON SCHWARTZ Editor in Chief JOHANNA HANINK Editorial Page Editor Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of the majority of the Daily's editorial board. All other articles, letters and cartoons do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily. NOTABLE QUOTABLE I dig him, like his politics .style" -- Former Michigan quarterback and Super Bowl MVP Tom Brady on President Bush, during a White House ceremony in honor of the New England Patriots. The quote appeared in the Drudge Report yesterday. 3 _.inr V5; )w .damwN c 171 v ~o-°c G- - Cr- . n v l o 1~ o nietcs o c k0b~~ioY SAM BUTLER THIE SOAPBOX The French outlook on sex and the public YAEL KOHEN jE NE SAIS UI rench culture is more than just food and wine ... there is also sex. Before I get started I would like to clarify that most cultures (at least the Western ones) are obsessed with sex; the French are just more open about it. First of all, the French never cut out the nude or sex scenes from movies.airing on regu- lar television. In fact they don't cut those things out of their commercials, either. Many French commercials use sex and nudity to sell some of the most unsexy products out there. My personal favorite is a commercial for dishwashing gloves, a rather dull product with a not-so-dull ad. It begins with a man searching through his medicine cabinet for a condom. Of course he can't find one, so instead he decides to use the finger of the very durable dishwash- ing glove for protection. Another commercial takes place at the beach where a woman strips down to her scanty panties - yes, just panties - letting the ocean's waves splash against her bare bosom - yes bare. Obviously, this commercial is for shower gel, but who would've guessed? I would like to add that there are also com- mercials with exposed men: Let's take Nescafe Instant Cappuccino for example. The actor is selling cappuccino while hanging out in his bath towel, when suddenly it drops and luckily the already made cappuccino is strategically covering his private parts while he assures the viewer that he has "nothing to hide." I'm reminded of the scene in Austin Powers when the meat, bread and fruit cover Austin's pri- vates. But in the States I had to see this scene in a theater where I paid for it, not to mention that it was protected by ratings. The beach is another place where people .have "nothing to hide." The French are famous foreatheir topless beaches - a big no- no in the states where many people (and the law) consider it to be indecent exposure. Well, I guess it is indecent exposure if you think of it that way but it seems to me that the only people gawking are the American boys and girls who then find the need to take a pic- ture. But there are the American girls who eventually put aside their cultural inhibitions and sunbathe a la francaise. When in Rome ... However, there is still one thing that sticks out, no matter how open-minded we are - the extremely high level of PDA (public displays of affection), on the street, in cafes, on the metro, on the bus, really just about everywhere. They have no shame in being overtly touchy with their significant other. And the French do not link morality and righteousness to someone's sexual exploits. Take the French movie "The Brotherhood of the Wolf," which was done in American blockbuster style, but with a very un-American role of sex. The story takes place in 18th century France when women were either marriageable or pros- titutes. The main character - our hero - is in love with the young virgin maiden but that doesn't stop him from getting pleasure in the brothel by a prostitute who eventually saves his life. His sidekick, the noble and wise character, also takes pleasure at the brothel. Now, if Americans had made this movie, this aspect would be very different. Our hero would remain loyal to the woman he loves and our wise and noble sidekick would then give us some speech about love and intimacy - maybe adding in a tale of love long lost. You can see where American Puritan her- itage still exists even if we are more open than we were before. We associate morality, nobility and wisdom with sex: Just look at how the Clin- ton-Lewinsky scandal was viewed. Clinton was pegged "immoral" leaving many to think that he was unfit to be president. The French know that their public figures have affairs. But what do they care? In the United States, conventional ideas of marriage persist. In the U.S. there is an increase of young people waiting to have sex until they're married while in France more and more people are opting not to get married at all. Americans still have very traditional notions of the sexual world. We live in a paradox where movies and TV tell us to be more open, while Republicans lobby to turn sex education into lessons of abstinence instead of accepting the fact that people are going to have sex before marriage. I would like to clarify here, that I am not advocating casual sex or the end of marriage. If people want to wait until they're married that's their personal choice. Nor am I saying that the French don't have monogamous relationships. But as society they have ahealthier, less antiquated and more realistic way of looking at sex. Yael Kohen is a Daily columnist writing from Aix-en-Provence, France. She can be reached atyaeljkohen@hotmail.com. VIEWPOINT The real victim of the Ed Martin 'scandal' BY CHRIS FARAMi Chris Webber denies everything. The former Michigan star basketball player was recently accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars from former Michigan booster Ed Martin. Since then, it seems like everyone - from students, alumni and sports writers to the local paperboy himself - have been calling for Webber's head, saying that the University must distance itself as far as possible from its horrible, tawdry past in order to prevent further abuses by the program and to prevent big NCAA sanctions. A sports columnist for the Ann Arbor News went as far as to say that Webber should be banned from the University altogether, the ban- ners won by Webber and the Fab Five torn down, whole seasons forfeited. And then, lo and behold, Webber had to come along and deny everything. He says it didn't hap- pen. He never took a dime. Well, I'm gonna be brutally honest. I'm angry. Really angry. No, no, I'm more than angry. I'm seriously pissed off about this whole situation. But maybe not for the reason you would think. You see, I wish Webber had taken the money - not because I think he's a bad person or want his name "tarnished," but for the exact opposite reason. I think he deserved it. In fact, if he really didn't get any of the alleged $280,000, I think the University should send him a big, fat check in the mail making up for every last dollar. Heck, in that case, the University would still be getting a pretty good deal, considering inflation and everything. Think about it. How much money did Webber and the Fab Five earn for the University while they were here playing basketball? How much money do all Michigan athletes - particularly in basketball and football - bring in for the Univer- sity every single year? Sure, you got your most basic sources of rev- enue. The most obvious is tickets to the games. Then you got the money from all the TV deals, shoe contracts for the coaches, apparel and equip- ment deals with Nike. Then, of course, you've got merchandis- ing. Did you know that Michigan is basically a brand name overseas? Half the time, they don't evenknow what they're wearing repre- sents a school. They think the block "M" is just another trademark (which, technically, it is), like the Nike Swoosh. Oh, and I'm not done yet. We've still just covered the most obvious stuff. You also have to consider donations and endowments from alum- ni - and don't think that's not related to sports. Win a national title, make a big splash at the NCAAs -that all amounts to big money for the University in terms of donations from alumni gushing with school spirit. Even tuition money has a lot to do with ath- letics. I'm serious. How many people do you know who came to Michigan because they love the sports here? Sure, there's the academics and all that, but man, I grew up watching the Wolverines on TV - there's no way I could go anywhere but Michigan. All that stuff - all of that - would not be possible without the athletes here at Michigan. And what do we give them in return? An educa- tion. And a small living stipend. Now, I know what we've all been taught to believe: An educa- tion is priceless. But let's be honest here. In-state tuition amounts to a few thousand dollars a year. Out-of-state tuition is another story, but I don't see Lloyd Carr or Tommy Amaker agreeing to coach at Michigan for a small living stipend, along with a guarantee that they can enroll in any classes they might be interested in taking. I'm sure by now I've managed to offend a lot of people out there. The purists. The purists argue that players should go out every game and give 110 percent because they love the game. Let's be serious here for just a moment. If the game was so pure, each fan wouldn't have to pay over $50 a pop for a decent ticket. Coaches wouldn't be making more money than most teachers at the Univer- sity put together. If you want purity, then let's go for it. But let's go all the way. I say we give up on money com- pletely. Doctors? Let them perform surgery for the love of performing surgery. After all, that's why they got into medicine, right? Because they like to heal people!'They don't need our money at all! See, the only time this whole purity thing works is in the hands of a major, manipulative corporation like the NCAA. They spew a lot of garbage about the purity of the game and we all buy into it. And in the process, the NCAA and universities all over the country make a killing every single year in one of the best, most finan- cially lopsided deals of all time. And why? Because we foolishly believe that players should be happy with what they get. They should be happy they receive the honor to repre- sent our fine academic institutions. They should be happy with much less than they truly deserve. So, Chris Webber, if you're out there, and you did take the money, I salute you. You got not only what you deserved but what we, as a University, owe you. And if you didn't get the money - and most athletes in today's system do not - then I hate to tell you this, but you got screwed. 6 0 Farah is a Near Eastern Studies Rackham student. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Suicide bombers a product of an environment beyond our understanding; To THE DAILY: I read with interest the responses to Amer Zahr's column She was from Deisheh, Palestine, (4/1/02), but to my great dismay there seems to be a common thread of denial of reality from all three people who actions. However, let's be real about the sit- uation for a moment, rather than simply spewing political rhetoric for the benefit of an audience. Most likely none of us have ever had the experience of a Palestinian who has lived under illegal Israeli occupation for the last 35 years. This experience includes having personal property confiscated by an illegal invading force, watching your town be reduced to rubble, being moved to a refugee camp where you live in a squalid tent while vnn wntA henvily armed Tsraeli "settlers" Yesterday in that city the Israeli govern- ment showed its biggest act of "mercy" to date: For two hours it lifted the curfew so that citizens could scramble to find their dead in the overcrowded morgues and give bury them. The bereaved families dug a mass grave in the dirt parking lot next to a hospital and buried their families there because it was all they had time to do. I think that before we pretend that we don't understand how an oppressed person can go crazy and do an admittedly immoral thina ui ehAld consider the lives of Pales- ai~nfavtextsor~ omer renmons. me llXU1~ UIe U. LUlSUIUU Ul. Al