VIEWPOINT The continuing struggle. The Michigan Daily - Monday, May 24, 2004 - 5 Not just any old water bottle ELLIOTT MALLEN IRRATIONAt EXUB ERANCE The Board o unanimo does n result, s idesegreg regardle have acc Unfortun promise its entir segregat overwhe districts gated by Dese many ne ensure sa all. Ho still segre overwhel ticular remain u quate to iting low to low qu even in minoritie those of t These addresse desegreg BY JASMINECLAIR viate the education gap. The responsibility of ensuring a 50-year-old Brown v. good quality of education to stu- f Education decision dents should rest within govern- usly found that separate ment. However, when they fail ot mean equal. As a at this job, students suffer the chools were forced to most. Society is divided upon ate so that all students, socioeconomic lines making ss of skin color, could segregation a horrid reality that ess to equal education. still exists today. A person's race nately, today the Brown and income has a strong influ- has not been fulfilled in ence on where people live and 'ety. Instead of facing consequently the quality of edu- ion mandated by law, an cation received. lming number of school Brown v. Board sought to find that they are segre- eliminate institutional factors socioeconomic factors. contributing to unequal educa- gregation was one of tion. Yet, this milestone case has eded steps in order to not and realistically cannot atisfactory education for address all of the other factors wever, our schools are that contribute to the disparities egated, consisting of an in the quality of education. The ming majority of a par- fight for equality within educa- race. Urban schools tion does not stop with Brown inder-funded and inade- and people must continue the suit students' needs, lim- struggle to fulfill its legacy. It is -income students access not fair for students' educations uality schools. However, to suffer due to their race or diverse school districts financial situation, however, this s' test scores lag behind is a harsh reality that Brown heir white counterparts. alone can not solve. Brands polarize. We all know how pervasive branding has become, but we also know that not all brands are cre- ated equal. Different brands identify with different groups, espe- cially here on campus. K-mart and Prada separate the poor from the rich, Brooks Brothers and FUBU cuta line through white and black, Old Spice and Mary Kay draw a wedge between male and female. However, there is one branded product that has shattered barri- ers, broken down walls and brought the University together under one corporate logo: the omnipresent Nalgene bottle. Given the massively diverse student population here at our University, it is impossible to define something resem- bling a student uniform. The Nalgene bot- tle is the one item that could truly be a part of a student uniform. The athletes like them because they can measure their water intake to the nearest ten milliliters, the Greeks like them because it makes them look athletic, outdoorsy people like them for their durability and the activists like them because it makes them look out- doorsy. It's a branding success story. Nobody refers to one as "my water bottle," it's always "my Nalgene." One of the most surprising aspects of the Nalgene's success is its penetration into one of the most impenetrable of mar- kets - the political activists. These are people who get their clothing from thrift stores, eat organic food and decry the labor and environmental practices of just about every fashionable or popular brand. Surprisingly, this group seems to be among the most likely to use Nalgene water bottles. True, they are decorated with stickers proclaiming the virtue of every leftist cause imaginable, but that doesn't diminish the glory of the Nalgene name. The traditional activist tenets of buying generic brands or secondhand are cast aside for the sake of the Nalgene. Nalgene markets itself as socially responsible, which surely scores it points with this crowd. Its website speaks vol- umes about the environmental friendliness of plastic, claiming it emits few noxious chemicals once it gets to landfills and that there is currently more paper waste than plastic waste in landfills. Maybe evening the plastic to paper ratio in landfills will bring about some form of environmental- ly-friendly equilibrium, but I'm still not so sure using more plastic is the answer. The website also says that plastic bottles are better than glass bottles because they're lighter, saving semi trucks gasoline. Never mind that plastic is an oil derivative. This guise of environmental awareness is a clever technique used by a wide range of brands to attract those normally averse to conspicuous consumption. If a compa- ny can make it seem as if buying their product will make the world a better place, how could anyone dislike it? It's capitalis- tic fulfillment: the more you consume, the more you're improving the world, and thus the better you are as a person. Grocery chain Whole Foods is notorious for using this strategy, making its customers feel environmentally and socially responsible for buying organic food while simultane- ously paying workers substandard wages, crushing local grocery stores and inducing sprawl with its expansion strategies. Nalgene bottles are also portrayed as being durable containers for the true out- doorsman. When you're hiking through wastelands of Mongolia or climbing the staggering Andes, you know your Nalgene will be there to replenish your lost fluids. Its thick shell will prevent it from breaking when you're wrestling gorillas in Zaire, and its watertight lid will prevent any cont- amination when you're swimming across the Amazon. The rugged, exotic lifestyle associated with the bottles is the same adventurous romanticism used to sell SUVs. It's convincing people to buy items they don't really need: Just as we people using their Navigators to brave the danger- ous, uncivilized passes of I-94, there are countless students with Nalgenes who would never even consider climbing into a canoe or strapping on hiking boots. The Nalgene bottle is a branding suc- cess story here on campus, appealing to people from all walks of life by portraying itself as being rugged, environmentally friendly and athletic all at once. Whether it makes anyone rugged, environmentally friendly or athletic is another story. Mallen can be reached at emmallen@umich.edu. e problems need to be ed and suggest that ation alone cannot alle- Clair is an LSA senior and a member of the Dailys editorial board. LETTERS POLICY The Michigan Daily welcomes letters from all of its readers. Letters from University students, faculty, staff and administrators will be given priority over others. Letters should include the writer's name, college and school year or other University affiliation. The Daily will not print any letter containing statements that cannot be verified. Letters should be kept to approximately 300 words. The Michigan Daily reserves the right to edit for length, clarity and accuracy. Longer "viewpoints" may be arranged with an editor. Letters will be run accord- ing to order received and the amount of space available. Letters should be sent through e-mail to tothedaily@michigandaily.com cr mailed to the Daily at 420 Maynard St. Editors can be reached via e- mail at editpage.editors@umich.edu. Letters e-mailed to the Daily will be given priority over those dropped off in person or sent via the U.S. Postal Service. HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY? WANT TO SEE IT IN PRINT? E-MAIL: MOMIN@MICHGANDAILYCOM SAM BUTLER TaE SoAr'ox ,,-ers oocrmche > f. / ) 1 / >2 ( i A surprise on the Subcontinent SUHAEL MOMIN AN LTERNATIVE PIN When Indian Prime Min- ister Atal Bihari Vajpayee called for national elections earlier this year, he did so fully expecting that his Bharatiya Janata Party would be the sole beneficiary. After all, under BJP tenure, India emerged as a high-tech powerhouse, achieved 8.6 percent annual GDP growth and took seri- ous steps in easing cross-border tensions with Pakistan. Thus, it came as a big shock when, last week, Indian voters did not sim- ply deny the BJP any significant gains - they dealt the party a major defeat. In a result that no political pundit could have predicted, the previously waning Congress Party was catapulted to power. Of course, the Congress Party repre- sents India's greatest political dynasty. Its current leader, Sonia Gandhi, is the widow of the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, son of India's first female prime minister, Indira Gandhi, herself the daughter of India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. In recent years, however, the Party found itself sidelined - after Vajpayee's election in 1998, and the emergence of a BJP-led coalition, the Congress was reduced to providing semi-constructive criticism from the opposition bench. Without a doubt, last week's rejection of the BJP came as a major shock. Howev- er, the election has deeper significance: It demonstrates a remarkable degree of maturity on the part of the Indian elec- torate. For one, Gandhi, the latest heir of Nehru dynasty, is not ethnically Indian. Indeed, despite her Italian heritage, India's citizenry elected Gandhi to the highest position in the nation. Furthermore, when Gandhi declined the top position, nominat- ing instead prospective finance minister Manmohan Singh, a Sikh, the public was widely indifferent about his religion. When President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam swore in Singh as India's 13th Prime Min- ister on May 22, he became the first Sikh to ever hold that position. Merely 20 years ago, nobody could have foreseen that a Sikh would hold India's top job. In 1984, Sikh bodyguards assassinated Indira Gandhi after she ordered Operation Blue Star, an assault on the Golden Temple at Amritsar, the holiest Sikh shrine, in an effort to quell a militant Sikh separatist movement. Today, Singh's religion is effectively a non-issue. In the greater scheme, the Indian electorate endorsed Sonia Gandhi at the polls - her origin was a non-issue. The BJP, which tried to make Gandhi's Italian birth and imperfect grasp of the Hindi language an issue, was thrown out of power. Religion and ethnici- ty, two politicized issues that tore savagely at India's social fabric during the 1980s and '90s, were rendered moot. Ironically, an election held to help the Hindu nation- alist BJP resulted in religious minorities holding both of India's top positions. The extraordinary elevation of Singh, architect of India's economic liberaliza- tion, to India's highest position holds great promise. In many ways, India's economic advancement can be attributed to the dar- ing reforms Singh undertook during his tenure as finance minister for Prime Min- ister Narasimha Rao. When Singh inherit- ed the position in 1991, India had barely $1 billion in foreign exchange reserves; the reserves now stand at almost $120 bil- lion. In 1991, the fiscal deficit was a whopping 8.5 percent of Indian GDP, today it is half that. Twenty years ago, there were three car manufacturers in India. Now, dozens of companies, ranging from Honda to Daimler-Chrysler, compete freely. Singh's reforms opened India's doors to foreign investment, simplified the tax code, removed oppressive government controls on production and ended many monopolies propped up by restrictive laws. With Singh at the helm, India's economic future seems bright. Last week's election, therefore, was phenomenal in every sense. The BJP, and its Hindu nationalist rhetoric, was dealt a sound defeat. The Indian electorate cast aside concerns about Sonia Gandhi's for- eign origin; economic issues, not ethnicity, drove the election. Manmohan Singh, a Sikh, was confirmed and inaugurated with no difficulty. Most importantly, even though Congress campaigned on flaws in the BJP's pro-liberalization economic poli- cies, Singh has no plan to reverse the reformation he himself set into motion. With any luck, this election is a vanguard sign, an indication that India is moving beyond ethnic politics and accelerating on its journey toward prosperity. Momin can be reached at smomin@umich.edu.