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4A - Wednesday, September 9, 2009
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
L74e Mcdiian Batilg
Edited and managed by students at
the University of Michigan since 1890.
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Ann Arbor, MI 48109
tothedaily@umich.edu
GARY GRACA ROBERT SOAVE COURTNEY RATKOWIAK
EDITOR IN CHIEF EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR MANAGING EDITOR
Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles
and illustrations represent solely the views ofttheir authors.
Guarding the Great Lakes
New regulations will protect state's ecosystem and economy
ver the next few weeks, Michigan residents will flock to the
Great Lakes to get in some end-of-summer beach fun. Not
only does Michigan's most precious resource provide state
residents with local vacation spots, but the Great Lakes are also
vital to many of the state's most important industries like tourism
and fishing. But because the state is so reliant on its lakes, it's also
necessary to protect them from environmental hazards like inva-
sive species. To combat this problem, the U.S. Coast Guard recent-
ly proposed regulations that would lower the amount of invasive
species introduced to the lakes by sea-faring cargo ships that dock
in them. Congress should put these regulations into effect to safe-
guard a resource that Michigan cares about and needs to protect.
It's a sad state of affairs that many in this country
politically would rather start an 'Animal House'
food fight rather than inspire kids to stay in school'
- White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, commeting on the seeming apathy and lack of
commitment to helping fund the nation's education system, as reported yesterday by CNN.
ROSE JAFFE
E-MAIL ROSE AT ROSEJAFF@UMICH.EDU
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NEWS IN TENNWPS n4oRLD
MyFree Press "confession
Many types of invasive species are intro-
duced into the lakes by way of ocean-faring
ships' ballast water, which is the water
used to help ships maintain the appropriate
weight and balance as they load and unload
cargo. This water is picked up and dumped
wherever necessary, and all kinds of organ-
isms - from algae to fish - travel with that
water to unfamiliar environments. Cur-
rently, regulations on ballast water are few
and far between, though there have been
recent movements to make regulations
more rigorous. The Coast Guard's pro-
posal will place stricter regulations on the
amount of organisms a ships' ballast water
can contain before being dumped.
The ecosystem operates on a delicate bal-
ance, and foreign species can easily disturb
that balance. The Great Lakes are still suf-
fering from the introduction of the zebra
mussel, a striped mussel originally native
to Eastern Europe. Some native animals
like ducks can eat the zebra mussel, but
that hasn't stopped it from spreading rap-
idly across the region and forcing out native
species.
While the shipping industry is certain-
ly important to Michigan's economy, the
Great Lakes need stricter regulations on
incoming freighters to keep them safe. The
lakes will not keep attracting visitors if
their ecosystem continues to sustain such
damages. The Coast Guard's proposals are
simply a practical way to bridge the needs
of the shipping industry with the well-be-
ing of Michigan waters.
Approving these regulations is Congress's
responsibility. Though many states benefit
from being able to use the Great Lakes for
shipping, Michigan and its neighbors alone
are suffering the environmental conse-
quences. Better protection for the lakes is a
sensible way to make this situation fairer to
the Great Lakes states.
On top of the need to protect the envi-
ronment, approving these regulations will
actually be a money-saving move, too.
Repairing the damage done by invasive
species is an expensive endeavor - for the
Great Lakes alone, it has cost more than
$200 million a year, according to an Aug.
28 article by the Associated Press entitled
"Coast Guard proposes water ballast rules."
The benefits to the environment notwith-
standing, these regulations will save the
state and federal governments plenty of
cash in the long run.
The proposal is currently undergoing
a comment period, which will last until
November 27. Michigan residents should
take advantage of the comment period by
going to www.regulations.gov and show-
ing support for the proposal. The Great
Lakes are Michigan's pride and joy, and it's
imperative that Congress takes whatever
steps are necessary to protect them.
Look, I'll talk, but you can't use
myname or anything, or maybe
you could use, you know, a fake
one, but it would
have to be some-
thing interesting _
like Cobra or Zeus
or ... I mean, I've
thought a lot about
choosing a good
name when the
time comes, and I
made a list, but I WILL
forgot it and I can'tG
remember the best GRUNDLER
names so I'll have
to get back to you
on that, but honestly I'm nervous and
I just really, really need to get this off
my chest.
I mean, I don't want to get anyone
in trouble or anything, but when I
found out that you guys were doing
an investigation of, you know, the
academics here, not just the football
team, and wanted some input from
students, I can't say I was completely
opposed to it. The investigation, that
is. Honestly, I don't know if what
I tell you would qualify as a good
hard-hitting story, but you know, if
you say so.
Well, I would definitely agree that
the academic hours I put in at the
University are excessive. It's a huge
mental and physical strain, especially
when you're coming right out of high
school. In my high school, you know,
and I'd say this is the same for most
high schools, except maybe those in
the Upper Peninsula that have their
own special rules because of the
bears, I'd usually be home by 2 or 3
p.m. at the latest. Then, after I was
home, I would have an average of only
an hour of homework to do, so at most
I was putting in five hours of work a
week for school.
Here at the University, though,
well, hoo boy. I mean, after my class-
es are all done and I've been to the
library and I've fed the squirrels on
the Diag, I'm not getting home until
five, six o'clock, and then, jeez, here's
the part that really sweats my gears,
I've got way more than one hour of
work to do. Try four hours, at a mini-
mum, and if you count Internet poker
breaks the total comes to five hours.
I didn't sign up for that. Well, the
Internet poker I did, but don't men-
tion it because it's sort of illegal in
the States.
Of course, things got really bad
when I started missing my rec bas-
ketball games. I would be at the
library or in class and my team-
mates would call me and say, "Dude,
where's our water? You were sup-
posed to bring it, that's your job,"
and I would have to explain in a
quiet tone so I wouldn't upset the
professor or anybody nearby that I
couldn't make it right now, and to go
use the drinking fountain, but they
didn't take that too well and soon
they got a new water boy.
Like this summer, I was complete-
ly burned out. I mean completely.
Zero energy. All I could do was sit
in front of the TV or the computer.
Sometimes they wouldn't even be on.
So I was just sitting, wishing they
were on, praying that someone would
come and turn them on, or feed me,
but I could never make the effort, you
understand, to do anything myself. At
one point, I didn't shower or shave for
twelve days. Man, if you had seen me
... Well, I mean, if you somehow had
seen me, I would probably have had
a bit of stubble after the twelve days
but nothing seriously resembling a
beard, to tell the truth. But I could
maybe have used a shower.
The nasty rumors
are true: students
work too hard.
So yeah, the rumors are true. I
mean, it's really toughhere. I can't say
I was expecting it. That's why I was
so drained this summer. Oh - you
have to go? Okay. Yeah. Are you sure
you want to print this? Well. I mean,
yeah. Um, don't use my name, okay?
Use ... Neptune. Neptune's good.
- Will Grundler can be
reached at sailgull@umich.edu.
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS:
Nina Amilineni, Emad Ansari, Emily Barton, Harun Buljina, Ben Caleca, Brian Flaherty,
Emma Jeszke, Raghu Kainkaryam, Sutha K Kanagasingam, Erika Mayer, Edward McPhee,
Asa Smith, Brittany Smith, Radhika Upadhyaya, Rachel Van Gilder, Laura Veith
ELIOT JOHNSON
Adding coor toU
The newly constructed additionto the Museum
of Modern Art on the corner of State Street and
South University has considerably changed the
aesthetic panorama of Central Campus. Grow-
ing up 20 miles from Ann Arbor, the view facing
east from State Street always came to mind when
I thought of the University of Michigan. Angell
Hall, with its enormous width and towering
Roman columns, looked like it'd been slammed
down in its place by some giant. The trees, some
of them older than my grandparents, spoke to the
stability and historyofthe campus.
But the new addition to the Museum of Mod-
ern Art doesn't fit in with my vision of the Uni-
versity. The straight lines, right angles, walls of
glass and slabs of concrete seem architecturally
at odds not only with the classic buildings which
surround much of the Diag, but also with the
original Museum of Modern Art.
Initially, I was disgusted by the costly muse-
um addition. On top of the issues I had with the
incongruity of the building, it transformed a
grassy, shaded area of the Diag into an enormous
concrete walkway. "Why don't we just lay con-
crete over the entire Diag?" I thought. Out with
natural settings, in with modern design. Those
80 year-old trees were so 20th century. I figured
the addition to the Museum of Modern Art would
end up being the new Dennison - a true WTF
moment in University history.
Passing by the construction site last fall, star-
ing up at two stories of horizontal concrete
slabs, I had an idea. Maybe the University could
put something on those walls. The University
removed all the grass, trees and dirt (color), and
replaced them with huge slabs of clean, cut con-
crete (gray). Why so serious? Why so austere?
Isn't this Ann Arbor, the liberal mecca of the
Midwest?Aren't there students at this institution
artistically skilled enough to transform these
graywalls into something beautiful?
Of course, the University has the right to clas-
sify whatever it likes as art. If it says three large,
metal support beams painted orange and bolted
together is art, so be it. But what statement is the
University making when the art it chooses starts
more conversations regarding the definition
of art than the value or beauty of the piece? My
guess is that the University is saying, "We're all
about theory here at Michigan."
But the sculptures are fine. They're unique
and they add at least a little bit of color to an oth-
erwise drab part of campus. They're also highly
conceptual, so I'm not surprised that their design
goes over my head.
But how about adding something with a little
bit of culture, something that perhaps a few
more students on campus could relate to? Some-
thing a little less stuffy, or maybe even some-
thing the students of the University have some
say in? I know the perfect place for it. There's
a horizontal rectangle of concrete on the north
wall of the museum addition that would accom-
modate either one large mural or many small
ones. It can be aesthetically modern, since
that's all the University feels like building late-
ly. Abstract? Go for it. It could be anything, as
long as it adds some color.
The University should hold a competition for
student artists (or those in the community) for
the opportunity to paint that enormously bor-
ing wall. The price of said competition? Cheap.
The University pays for materials and that's it.
Cheaper than a single bright orange support
beam, I bet. Another perk of the mural idea
- it could be changed. Every semester, year
or decade, the competition is held again, and a
brand new mural goes up for people to examine,
talk and argue about.
Allow students to have some creative con-
trol over how their environment is aesthetically
changed. Why not allow some artistically gifted
students to display their genius and become
voices in the way our University evolves and
changes? The University has an opportunity to
give students the artistic license to create what-
ever they like out of a boring campus building.
What's more modern and progressive than that?
Eliot Johnson is an LSA senior.
BRIAN FLAHERTY |
I
The coffee conspiracy
Have you ever met one of those
idealists who wants to scale Mount
Rushmore to throw protest banners
over Lincoln's nose the instant their
sense of justice is even slightly violat-
ed? Well, I'm one of those people. And
I'm now engaged in an ongoing battle
involving coffee beverages.
I didn't always consider myself
a coffee warrior. There was a time
when I believed coffee was just a
tasty and aromatic liquid that one
must chug daily and in exorbitant
quantities to experience pleasure and
the illusion of being wakeful. But my
views changed one day when my lov-
ing gaze fell on a caramel cafe latte
and I thought about where this nec-
tar of the gods actually comes from.
My first guess was trees. I was
close - coffee grows on bushes, pri-
marily in Brazil, Columbia and Viet-
nam. Around 1000 CE, coffee was
introduced to Arabia, where coffee
bushes remained a closely guarded
treasure until 1616. That's when the
Dutch successfully swiped a cof-
fee bush and brought it to Europe.
Demand for Java quickly rose as afflu-
ent Europeans gathered in cafes and
slurped cups of Joe. Voltaire report-
edly consumed 50 to 72 cups per day,
and to support Voltaire's habit, coffee
cultivation was outsourced to various
colonies where, in many cases, it's
still grown.
Today, coffee is a Goliath industry
- petroleum is the only commodity
that ranks higher than coffee in terms
of dollars spent in trade. According to
Coffee Universe, over 400 billion cups
of Java are consumed each year, mak-
ing it the world's most popular bever-
age. And why not? Coffee stimulates
the brain, is an integral cultural arti-
fact and (arguably) tastes heavenly.
The problem is that there's a dark
side to coffee. For one thing, coffee-
growing has big and ugly impacts on
the environment. Among the things
it causes are destruction of habitats,
deforestation, pesticide pollution and
degradation of soil and water. Add to
that the fact that a single cup requires
more than of 35 gallons of water to
produce (often in countries where
drinking water is already scarce) and
you have a large-scale and far-reach-
ing environmental problem.
Java raises social justice issues,
too. Corporations make billions sell-
ing coffee, but the farmers that actu-
ally exert the time and effort to grow
it typically see very little of that
money. often, farmers lack direct
access to coffee markets and have
little choice but to sell their coffee to
better-connected middlemen - at a
fraction of the price the middleman
will receive and an even smaller frac-
tion of what the end seller receives.
For many growers, the result is a
cycle of poverty, debt and sweatshop-
esque working conditions.
I personally don't like any of those
things, and unfortunately there's no
easy solution to the problems sur-
rounding coffee. But there are some
things a student can do without sac-
rificing coffee and all of its magical
benefits. In my case, I've decided to
start buying fair trade coffee rather
than the other stuff. Fair trade cer-
tified coffee cuts out exploitative
middlemen by replacing them with
cooperatives that offer farmers a fair-
er price for their harvest.
Fair trade coffee is also fairly
easy to find on campus, if you simply
watch out for the label. Some of the
places offering fair trade coffee in
Ann Arbor are Beansters. Expresso
Royale, and Bert's.
And, according to the Organic
Trade Association, 78 percent of all
fair trade certified coffee sold in the
United States is also certified organ-
ic, meaning that it's grown using
more environmentally sustainable
pnethods. For instance, organic coffee
is grown without artificial pesticides
and with sustainable crop rotation
that mitigates problems like soil and
water erosion.
Our consumption decisions and
the businesses we support have real
and noticeable effects on other peo-
ple and the environment. Drinking
a cup of fair trade coffee or writing
a viewpoint about it doesn't right all
the wrongs in the world. But it hope-
fully does make a tiny difference,
and even tiny differences can really
add up in the long run. I now drink
my coffee with a little milk, no sugar
and a sense of pride from know-
ing it got into my cup the right way.
Brian Flaherty is a Business senior
and an associate editprial page editor.
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The Daily is looking for a diverse group of strong, informed writers to
be columnists during the fall semester. Columnists write 750 words
on a topic of their choice every other week.
E-MAIL ROBERT SOAVE4T RSOAVE@UMICH.E U FOR MORE INFORMATION.