°4A - Wednesday, September 3, 2014
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
4A - Wednesday, September 3, 2014 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom
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Edited and managed by students at
the University of Michigan since 1890.
JESSE KLEIN3 PODIUM BLOG: STUDY A-BLOG
Fearing the status quo
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arboyr MI 48109
tothedaily@michigandaily.com
MEGAN MCDONALD
and DANIEL WANG KATIE BURKE
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS MANAGING EDITOR
PETER SHAHIN
EDITOR IN CHIEF
A Unsigned editorials refdect teofal pstsofthe Daily's editorial oau r.
All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.
Cooking is chemistry
Coming back to Ann Arbor last week
was definitely a reality check. Not
because of school starting or leaving
home again, but rather, I
had to start cooking for
myself again. And I guess
this is a column on my love
for food. However, to be
clear, by no means am I a
foodie. I'm just a hungry
college student who occa-
sionally has some time on DEREK
my hands. WOLFE
During the summer
at camp, every meal
was provided to me at a
consistently average quality. And for better
or worse, there was variety - though the
breakfast burritos did get repetitive. Some
nights, the doctors and nurses at the clinic
would even be generous enough to buy pizza
and other food for the entire clinic staff. That
was awesome and worry-free. I didn't have to
lift a finger.
But now, it's back to making trips to
the grocery store, making my own dietary
decisions and watching my bill climb as my
food gets rung up at the front of the store. I
'happen to prefer self-checkout.
Shopping for food is often a hassle, but
admittedly one of my favorite things to do. At
'this point with a year of experience under my
'belt, I kind of have it down to a science. The
frozen foods and cookie butter are bought
at Trader Joe's. The fruits, vegetables and
snacks at Kroger. The pack of Arnold Palmer
cans and chicken at Costco. Though I do have
this routine, I've found picking out my meals
for the next week or two to be somewhat
enlightening. I have complete control,
'total independence and an opportunity for
creativity. This combination can be a rarity.
It's just me, my basket and my fellow shoppers
'who always park themselves in the middle of
each aisle while deciding which Campbell's
soup to pick out.
I know I'm not the only one who finds it
exciting to find the two-for-one deals of just
'what you wanted and picking out the crispiest
apples. The best feeling comes from thinking
about how to combine different products to
make a dish that has never been made before.
It's probably going to be pasta or something
like that. But still, for a brief moment each
week, I feel like a visionary. Heck, call me
Elon Musk. As a side note, Costco chicken
and Trader Joe's frozen pastas go really
well together.
Of course, it's one thing to buy food and
another to cook it. But, I'd like to believe my
enthusiasm for picking out my food carries
over to the kitchen. I've heard it said that the
kitchen is one of the only places where sharp
objects and open flames - or hot burners - are
socially appropriate. There's a certain thrill
from slicing, dicing, chopping, baking, grilling
and frying. Not really microwaving, though.
Anyway, I've found the process of going
from raw materials to a finished meal
extremely gratifying. For one, I'm no longer
hungry after eating. And two, it gives me a
sense of accomplishment, especially when I
can feed my friends and they like what I make.
On multiple occasions, I've even sent pictures
of my creations to my family. And yes, they
are proud.
I think what it comes down to is that I
enjoy working with my hands and exercising
my mind. Cooking accomplishes both.
It's therapeutic.
Again, I'm no chef. I don't even spend hours
at a time in the kitchen. Most of the time, I'm
trying to put together a good, simple meal as
quickly as possible so I can get back to work
on school business. But taking this step back
to write and reflect on food, I've realized
how meaningful cooking can become and the
control it gives me over my personal health. If
I don't want something in my body or even be
tempted to eat something by its presence like
Hershey's chocolate, then I don't buy it. It's
that simple. And if I want to try some crazy
recipe off the Internet, I can.
As someone who likes science and being
challenged intellectually, cooking falls
perfectly into that category.
Cooking is chemistry.
And since I passed Orgo lab, I must be
capable of doing it.
-Derek Wolfe can be reached
at dewolfe@umich.edu.
One of my first nights in
Australia, my hall and I were having
a couple drinks and talking about
money. Many of them were hoping
to find jobs in the area and asking
for advice on where to send out their
C~s. Some were complaining about
working for $14.00 an hour (Yeah,
I tried to hide my scoffing when I
heard that too).
They finally got around to
talking about university fees. In
Australia most university fees
are paid through the government
by a program called the Higher
Education Contribution Scheme.
During university, the education
is free and the student only has
to pay it back when and if they
start making over $50,000 a year.
University tuition in Australia is
capped at $10,000 and most are
lower. One of my hall-mates wasn't
on HECS. Her parents were paying
- full price - for her schooling. The
other people in the group were
shocked, confused as to what it
would mean for a kid to have their
parents pay upfront for school.
I shrank back a little.
$10,000 or less a year? I thought.
What the hell are they going to think
of me paying almost $50,000?!
A week ago a new budget
was proposed in the Australian
government. Under the budget the
government would no longer cap
tuition prices for universities. The
universities would now be allowed
to set their own prices, higher fees
based on how profitable a certain
major is thought to be later on.
HECS will now start collecting
interest and if you are between 25
and 30 years old you will either
have to "Learn or Earn." This is a
welfare program that only gives
benefits if the person is in school
or has a job. The government will
force a young person back to school
if they are unable to find a job.
As the United States government
begs and pleads with universities to
keep their costs low, the Australian
government has gone the direct
opposite route. In America, as much
as we hate the extreme tuition prices,
we have become desensitized to
them. In Australia that isn't the case.
Even these seemingly small changes
caused massive uproar.
University students held protests
in the center of Melbourne that shut
down the tram system. Joe Hockey,
the budget writer, was on a political
question & answer program where
Australian Citizens didn't so much
as ask questions but take shots at
him and the new budget. It was the
topic for every newspaper article
and radio broadcast.
Even though the changes and the
prices were very different from the
United States of America, some of
the sentiments from the students
I talked to were similar to those
in the States. Most were just upset
about the bleak future they seemed
to be in for. Everything seemed to
be getting worse, less jobs, less sup-
port and an education system that
is run like a business - something
United States students gave up on
trying to combat decades ago.
The interest place on HECS
seemed to cause the most distress
after the uncapping of university
prices. Student loans are a huge
burden to American college stu-
dents. They're also a huge drain on
the American economy. It therefore
makes sense that Australian stu-
dents would fear the same burden
being instituted for them.
"Kids from the country of
Australia already don't go to Uni
because they are too afraid to create
debt, it's just the culture they have
grown up in," said Lucy Johnson,
a first year at Australian Catholic
University. Even though they might
never have to pay any of it back if
they don't get a well-paying job,
the fear of debt just runs too deep
in rural areas. According to the
students I talked to the 10 percent
interest on HECS will increase
these fears and continue to dissuade
rural kids from getting degrees.
The astronomical prices of
tuition in the States doesn't seem
to dissuade many from going to
college because we have been
taught that a college degree is a
requirement for the 21st century
world. The New York Times wrote
an article that stated a college
degree is still valuable. It's worth
the debt burden that students have
and fear once they graduate. In my
bubble of Silicon Valley, a university
education was the only kind I
wanted, regardless of the cost.
While Australian students
fear the changes coming to their
education system, we fear the
status quo: that nothing will change
except the continued rise in tuition
and debt.
-Jesse Klein can be reached
at jekle@umich.edu.
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
Jaekwan An, Berry Belmont, Edvinas Berzanskis, David Harris,
Rachel John, Nivedita Karki, Jacob Karafa, Jordyn Kay,
Aarica Marsh, Megan McDonald, Victoria Noble, Melissa Scholke,
Michael Schramm, Matthew Seligman, Paul Sherman, Allison Raeck,
Linh Vu, Meher Walia, Mary Kate Winn, Daniel Wang, Derek Wolfe
NURLAN ORUJLU |
The dead end for nationalsm
I
Watching the watchmen
Without government - and without
police - we, as human beings,
would lose most of our rights.
The comedian George
Carlin once said, "Rights
aren'trights if someone can
take 'em away," instructing
his audience to read up on
the internment of Japanese
Americans to "find out
all about your precious
fuckin' rights." JAMES
Japanese Americans BRENNAN
had their freedom
taken away because the
government stopped protecting them (and,
in turn, acted directly against them). Carlin
believed that human beings have no rights
even with government, and in some ways he's
correct. Rights and freedom are just ideas that
human beings invented and try to enforce.
We aren't always successful, but in a country
like the United States, rights and liberties
have strong protections and enforcement
mechanisms, allowing us - for now - to have
a good amount of freedom. Like all things, this
freedom is temporary. But what keeps it alive
is government.
If you disagree, answer me this question:
Where do rights come from? Many argue that
their rights are inalienable, that they come
from some "creator" or from nature, as the
Declaration of Independence argues. These
are both fine theories, but I can't recall the
last time God arrested and tried a murderer,
nor the last time "nature" stepped in to
protect black children from mobs outside of
segregated schools. Natural rights are an
interesting concept, but rights aren't real
unless they're protected. That's the whole
point of government. Yes, the state can be used
as a tool for tyranny as well, but human beings
come together and create government so that
our freedom will be guarded.
Police are one of the mostbasic mechanisms
governments use for the protection of rights.'
They are called law enforcement officers for
a reason - they enforce laws, and laws are
typically aimed at protecting key rights like
life, safety and property.
I won't mince words: I hate American
police in their current form. While the events
in Ferguson, Mo. this summer should not
surprise anyone who is vaguely familiar
with criminal justice in America, they are
nonetheless appalling. Police officers have
become armed to the teeth and conditioned
to a mindset of us vs. The Criminals/The
Rioters/The Thugs. Instead of protecting
rights and liberties, police are often taking
them away from people. I don't trust police,
and I probably never will, but with that being
said: I would never want to live in a country
without them.
The only reason we have the freedom that
we love is because the government (usually)
protects us. The Constitution and all of its
amendments are brilliant, amazing ideas, but
even if they're written down and passed by
legislatures, they mean nothing. We need a
way to protect our rights, and police are one
of those ways. The consequences of an overly
militarized police force go far beyond one
notable incident where a teenager is killed and
protests are oppressed. Martin Luther KingJr.
once spoke of injustice anywhere threatening
justice everywhere; the threats to civil rights
and civil liberties seen in Ferguson, Staten
Island, Davis and other cities is a threat to
every American. As police fail to do their job,
our rights slip away.
In Ferguson, police and the governor shut
down freedom of movement and assembly,
enforcing curfews and assaulting protesters
with tear gas and rubber bullets. It didn't
matter what the Constitution said at that
point - its defenders were busy rewriting the
First Amendment with their guns and tanks.
These same events have happened before,
they will definitely happen again, and they
could feasibly happen anywhere. Rights are
not permanent; they last only as long as we
protect them.
In 1963, Governor George Wallace of
Alabama made his famous "stand in the
schoolhouse door," physically standing in
the way of Vivian Jones and James Hood as
they attempted to register for classes at the
segregated University of Alabama. President
John F. Kennedy federalized the state's
National Guard, and a military escort guided
the students past the governor to officially
desegregate the University. Six years earlier,
President Dwight Eisenhower used armed
troops to protect the freedom of nine Black
students in Little Rock, Ark. who would
have otherwise been attacked by a mob
of segregationists.
Sometimes, we need "jack booted
government thugs" - not to take away our
rights but to make them real.
- James Brennancan be reached
at jmbthree@umich.edu.
The European Parliament elec-
tions that took place about two weeks
ago may have an historic importance
as the far-right and anti-European
Union politicians are gaining more
power in the largest single assembly
in the world. Even though the right-
leaning parties performed worse
than they did five years ago, there
are more than hundred non-affili-
ated lawmakers, most of whom are
expected to join the alliance of the
rightists and the nationalist.
As the Eurozone crisis revealed
the deficiencies of economic policies
of the EU, considerable amount of
political parties in Europe became
willing to attack the EU system while
bringingbackthe ideasofnationalism
and patriotism. It sounds quite scary
when someone simultaneously uses
the concept of "nationalism" and
"Europe" as we get enmeshed in
unpleasant recollections of Adolf
Hitler's Germany, Benito Mussolini's
Italy, and Joseph Stalin's Soviet
Union -where multiple nations were
living under the strident Russian
nationalist propaganda.
A famous extremist in Greece,
Nikolaos Michaloliakos, is the
leader of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn
party and a firm supporter of anti-
immigration laws. Michaloliakos
is also known for his admiration of
Adolf Hitler. It's that same Greece
that fought a war against the Nazi
Germany and lost 5-10 percent
of its population. Meanwhile, its
Jewish community was almost
exterminated. Despite the staunch
efforts of the Dawn party supporters
in Greece they're still lacking a
significant foothold in the country.
The best portrayal of nationalism
comes from acontroversialjournalist/
polemicist Christopher Hitchens: "I
have often noticed that nationalism
is at its strongest at the periphery.
Hitler was Austrian, Bonaparte
Corsican ... The most extreme Irish
Republicans are in Belfast and Derry
(and Boston and New York). Sun Yat
Sen, father of Chinese nationalism,
was from Hong Kong..." I see the
quote is missing a very important
piece. Joseph Stalin - a Georgian
dictator - was the leader of an
empire that was established after the
Russian invasion of free Republics,
including Georgia (country).
Although nationalism sounds like
an unhealthy ideology to me, it's also
important to be able to distinguish
it, from patriotism. I would like
to describe the difference in a
hypothetical way. Let's assume that
I was born in China and immigrated
to Sweden when I was a teenager.
Subsequently, I can become a
Swedish patriot after growing a deep
affection for the country. However,
the same scenario doesn't work
with the idea of nationalism. With
no Swedish heritage and cultural
background I cannot declare myself
a Swedish nationalist. Thus, the
leaders mentioned above could have
been patriots at their best before they
abused the nationalist propaganda to
carry out their hawkish policies.
Patriotism could be a means to
contribute to the prosperity of coun-
tries as long as it's not being exploited
in any wrongdoings by the morally
corrupt politicians, which unfortu-
nately happens a lot. A prominent
19th century Russian satirist Mikhail
Saltykov-Shchedrin's reference to
the aforementioned case is flawless:
"They are talking a lot about patrio-
tism - must haye stolen again."
In my sincere opinion, I don't
believe that nationalism is a pro-
gressive theory that aims to prosper
nations without harming anyone.
It's the worst enemy of peace that
ironically supports peace through
strength. To be clearer, nationalism
shows more hatred towards other
nations than respect to your own.
No one wants to see the repeat of
the Holocaust, deadly .battles that
claimed the lives of many brave
people or the gang-rapes of innocent
Germans that took place during the
invasion of Germany.
Nationalist movements that
are firm supporters of the anti-
immigration laws will eventually
acknowledge the fact that there's
no room for xenophobia in modern
societies anymore as the integration
of nations becomes common. Who
knows, maybe a hundred years
from now it will sound ridiculous
to our descendants that there used
to be borders and nationalities in
our world. That's a discussion for
another day as I don't want to sound
like an anarchist.
What's more important for now is
that people realize the irrelevance
of one's nationality when it comes
to determining his/her individual
values. Nationalism will not
prevail because it's senseless to
be proud of something that isn't
an accomplishment, but has been
randomly assigned to you.
In loving memory of the heroes
and victims of the World War II
Only June 6, 70 years will
have passed since the Invasion
of Normandy.
Nurlan Orujlu can be reached
at norujlu@umich.edu.
OAiE QUO9 0TA BLE
I think (University President Mark
Schlissel) is going to continue that tradition
of being engaged with students."
- E. Royster Harper, vice president for Student Life, said at Schlissel's
open house held on Aug. 28.
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