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(05/06/03 6:00am)
At a time when it sometimes feels as if the whole world is going
to hell, I realize that when I leave Madison for good this summer I
will be leaving it in surprisingly capable hands. For all we
complain about Associated Students of Madison, our quirky city
government and the occasional overzealous activist, Madison as a
whole has also proved a certain resilience and uncommon sense that
seems to outlast its less credible moments.
(04/22/03 6:00am)
There are so many things angering me today that I can barely
concentrate for 200 words at a time. Actually, it could just be a
new and more advanced stage of senioritis setting in, heralding a
new era of convoluted ramblings on my part, but I prefer to believe
it's just that this is a very difficult time for everyone, what
with so much wrong with the world.
(04/08/03 6:00am)
International students face a number of challenges when they
choose to attend American universities, especially with the new,
stricter rules and enforcement in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001. And
this month, UW announced it will make attendance here just a little
bit more difficult for its international students. Earlier this
month, International Student Services (ISS) said that it will
introduce a new annual charge of up to $125 for international
students. The charge is to offset the costs to the university of
the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, the U.S.
government's new system for tracking those shady international
students as they pursue their educations in this country.
(03/04/03 6:00am)
This weekend, North Korea unleashed a new round of paranoid
accusations and ominous threats on the world.
(02/18/03 6:00am)
Not a lot of Americans have been to Cuba. The U.S. embargo
prevents ordinary American citizens from traveling to Cuba and
spending their money there, though recent changes in the law allow
certain people on humanitarian or special student visas to visit
for limited periods.
(12/03/02 6:00am)
As if we didn't already have enough to worry about, researchers
at Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico are warning workers this
week not to clear trees on certain parts of the property where
nuclear testing took place more than 50 years ago.
(11/05/02 6:00am)
You hear it every election. In fact, you may be tempted to stop
reading this column at the end of the next sentence you've heard it
so many times. But brace yourself, here it comes again: Please
vote.
(10/22/02 6:00am)
Yesterday President Bush announced his proposal for new
pharmaceutical patent regulations. Bush's plan, like a Senate bill
passed months ago, calls for better U.S. patent regulation of the
pharmaceutical industry'though, for once, not regulation geared
disproportionately to the advantage of major drug companies.
(10/08/02 6:00am)
Last Friday a California jury awarded life-long smoker, and more
recently cancer victim, Betty Bullock a record $28 billion in
punitive damages to be paid by tobacco giant Philip Morris. Yes, I
said billion.
(09/24/02 6:00am)
Drugs are expensive. Developing countries need drugs not only to
address raging HIV/AIDS epidemics, but also to fight epidemics of
malaria, tuberculosis, and various childhood diseases. But, forced
by international intellectual property rights agreements to allow
major commercial pharmaceutical corporations exclusive production
rights, the cost of those drugs can make them unavailable.
(09/10/02 6:00am)
Last Friday Illinois Gov. George Ryan announced that he is
seriously considering the commutation of all current Illinois death
sentences. The announcement is meaningful without being entirely
shocking: The death penalty debate in Illinois has been especially
active for the last few years, prompting the moratorium in January
2000.
(04/29/02 6:00am)
CAIRO, Egypt'We arrived in Cairo only a few days ago as the sun
was softening after what must have been a hot, dusty day. By the
time we had set down our bags, we could hear the call to prayer
echoing around the city, wavering above the constant sound of
honking horns. My roommate and I watched the sun slip away into the
desert somewhere, the dust and air pollution dimming it to a great
orange globe.
(04/15/02 6:00am)
LONDON'Down the street from our flat, somewhat beleaguered and
hemmed in by cement barricades, sits the Israeli Embassy. The job
police and officials have done of riot-proofing their surroundings
still looks crude and out-of-place on its elegant, embassy-lined
street. Unless you happen to pass by on a weekend, though, it
remains easy to miss.
(04/01/02 6:00am)
LONDON'A little after three in the afternoon this Saturday, just
as the Oxford-Cambridge crew race set out along the Thames in
London, the Queen Mother died peacefully in her sleep at Windsor.
She died at 101 years old, having seen the whole of the 20th
century. The major networks cancelled or pushed back their
prime-time programming to air hours-long tributes to her long life.
People gathered around Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle late
into the evening. Tony Blair, notorious dismantler of royal power,
appeared on every network looking grave and saddened, praising the
Queen Mum's lifetime of service.
(03/18/02 6:00am)
LONDON'No one was particularly surprised when Robert Mugabe, the
incumbent candidate and leader of Zimbabwe for 22 years, was
declared victor in the troubled presidential election last week. In
fact, after a campaign marked by intimidation, smearing and
outright fraud, the only question on most minds was why Mugabe
bothered holding an election at all.
(03/04/02 6:00am)
LONDON'On my flight from London to Malta, the woman beside me
kept peering over my shoulder at an article on the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Jammed into the economy class row of
airline seats, I could nearly feel her shaking her head and
sighing, presumably at the all too familiar picture of violence in
the Middle East that accompanied the article. A few pages later, an
article on foxhunting came up'again eliciting the audible sighs of
my neighbor. Of the two, it was the comparatively smaller, nearer,
legislatable atrocity that brought us to conversation. I asked her
what she thought of Parliament's attempts to ban the curious
upper-crust English past-time of terrorizing foxes all over the
countryside before letting the dogs tear them to bits.
(02/18/02 6:00am)
After months spent in eclipse behind America's war on terrorism,
Slobodan Milosevic once again commands the international spotlight.
Charged with nearly 70 counts, from failure to comply with
international war conventions to genocide, Milosevic's trial before
the Hague's Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal began last Tuesday despite
his protests.
(02/04/02 6:00am)
LONDON'Not a lot of Americans have been to Cuba. The U.S.
embargo prevents ordinary American citizens from traveling to Cuba
and spending their money there, though recent changes in the law
allow certain people on humanitarian or special student visas to
visit for limited periods.
(01/18/02 6:00am)
LONDON'Several months ago, when asked what the most important
issue of the year would be, I gave priority to our defense of
political consciousness. A few weeks later the towers fell, and the
United States experienced one of those pivotal moments in history
so sudden and undeniable that it felt as if a new history began
with its passing. The U.S. president, formerly regarded with a
mixture of condescension and contempt by nearly half of the
country, suddenly found himself sitting on the highest approval
rating of any president since World War II. U.S. Attorney General
John Ashcroft called the American Civil Liberties Union and its ilk
\unpatriotic"" and the nation didn't blink. My father plastered his
car with American flags. Everything changed.
(12/03/01 6:00am)
Last September, when it was becoming obvious that the U.S.
military would make an appearance in Afghanistan and a handful of
young men on the ship were itching to get themselves into the
middle of it, one of my professors told me the following
story.