The Week in Brief

STARC to hold weekend conference

A group of 500 undergraduate student activists will meet at Yale from Fri., Nov. 5 to Sun., Nov. 7, to attend "Students Challenging Corporate Power," the first country-wide conference of the Student Alliance to Reform Corporations. Student workshops will focus on defining the guiding principles of the corporate reform movement and on creating guidelines for socially responsible investing. Speakers include labor activist Bari-Ellen Roberts, Canadian indigenous leader Mary Jane Crate, and labor leader Kevin Danahera. The conference will conclude with a rally and march at 2:15 p.m. on Sunday.

—David Carson-Knowles

Study shows high asthma rates for local kids

According to New Haven Children and Youth: 1999, a report broadcast by Voices for Children, a New Haven child advocacy group, one-fourth of all New Haven school children suffer from asthma. The New Haven Register [11/1/99] reported that the advocacy group in question, claimed that the city is home to more asthmatic children than any other community in the state.

The report cites statistics from the past couple of years that suggest a gradually worsening asthma epidemic among children. About 13 out of every 1000 New Haven children under 17 were hospitalized for asthma in the 1996-97 school year; by 1998, one-fourth of surveyed children said they had been diagnosed with asthma by a health official.

Dr. Jack Elias, the head of pulmonary medicine at the Yale School of Medicine, said the report confirms the disconcerting trend he has noted of a "serious asthma epidemic" across the country. Although the cause of the epidemic remains unclear, Elias feels it should be regarded as a "nationwide and international issue."

—Andra Waniek

Speaker says college shouldn't be universal

Dr. John Silber, GRD '56, joined the Yale Political Union on Tues., Nov. 2, to speak on the topic: "Universal college education is not only harmful, it is impossible."

Silber, a former president of Boston University and chair of the Massachusetts Education Committee, argued against President Bill Clinton's, LAW '73, statement that in the next century, America's goal should be to make college as universal as high school. "If everyone attends college, as President Clinton proposes, then those who drop out are called failures," Silber said. "We could never function without people who never went to college and instead chose technical and manual careers, why should we denigrate them?"

The topic sparked a vocal affirmative reaction, while those disagreeing with the keynote speaker remained in the minority.

—Averril Harrington

Near Eastern official hopeful for peace

Martin Indyk, Assistant Secretary of Near Eastern Affairs, told Yale students on Wed., Nov. 3, that he is optimistic that the Middle East will achieve reconciliation within a year. Indyk discussed the topic "Will we see Peace in the Middle East?" at a sparsely attended Yale College Student Union event.

According to Indyk, agreements between the Middle East nations in the last several years have brought them close to realizing peace. "The road to peace is shorter than the road already traveled," he said.

He argued that forces are in favor of peace because of recent changes, including the elimination of both Russia's support of anti-Israeli Arabs and chances for an Eastern Front coalition with the defeat of Iraq in the Gulf War.

"There is an unusual convalescence we see to end the Arab-Israeli conflict and achieve peace in the next year," Indyk said.

However, Indyk commented that peace treaties among the nations would not mean peace among people in the Middle East. "Reconciliation doesn't happen between leaders," he said. "It happens between people."

—Melissa Muscat

Students speak out about hate at silent rally

JOHN YI/YH Students protested on Thurs., Nov. 4.

At noon on Thurs., Nov. 4, concerned students met in Beinecke Plaza and held a silent rally to "protest the use of racial slurs and hate," according to a yellow flyer handed out at the event. Attendees were given a yellow ribbon to wear and formed a silent circle. "At the high point, [there were] about 90 people in the circle that ran along the Beinecke wall, the steps in front of the memorial, and around the flagpost," organizer Henry Lau, TC '00, said.

The rally was concieved after a meeting at the Asian American Cultural Center on Mon., Nov. 1. The discussion discussed an alleged hate crime— an Asian-American student was reportedly attacked about a month ago—but "the meeting ended without much concrete decision," on how to respond, Lau said. There were differing opinions on how to respond, so the rally was a compromise, showing "that something could be done that involved all camps, the overly-cautious, the moderates, and the hotheaded," Lau said.

Since the victim has not pressed charges, and conflicting versions of the story exist, planning a response has been difficult. However, Lau personally believes that quick action is needed. "I feel that Asians have to be quick to action and it isn't a bad thing to have the same reputation as the blacks and Latinos for their speedy responses...if anything remotely seeming like a bias crime occurs," he said.

—Ayon Nandi

JOHN YI/YH The celebration of Halloween on Sun., Oct. 31 provided ample opportunities to defy superstition.

Around the Globe

Woman divorces pig

In Buenos Aires, Argentina, a woman was awarded a divorce on the grounds that her husband never puts down the toilet seat, or flushes it, for that matter. The exasperated wife, married for 25 years to the same slob, said that her husband was so dirty and slovenly that she could not live with him. "He's incredibly dirty," the woman told Buenos Aires newspapers. "He doesn't pay attention to the kids and didn't even bother when the toilet backed up and floods the dining room."

The woman was forced to resort to dirty tactics after her husband refused to agree to a divorce. The husband was amazed by her decision to divorce him. "I'm not a slob," he said. "I take a shower at least once a year."

I want my Stalin TV

In Czechoslovakia, a backlash against shallow Western programs has returned Iron Curtain-era government propaganda television programs to the airwaves. Viewers used to tuning into the subtitled troubles of trendy New York 20-somethings can now watch Soviet bloc classics like Festival of Political Songs and Russian Lectures and relive their happy experiences being oppressed by the Kremlin. Replacing the latest Susan Lucci TV movie is A Skirt But a Green One, which is the story of "a secondary school student who resisted her parents and gave up the love of a boy to join a military academy."

Say it ain't so, Abe

Honest Abe is turning in his grave right now. A robber in the Washington, D.C. area, armed with a handgun, a top hat, and an Abraham Lincoln false beard and mustache, is responsible for a wave of hold-ups at gas stations and retail stores in suburban Maryland.

The robbery spree began in July, and the man, thanks to his clever disguise, still has not been caught. "He actually kind of looks like Abe Lincoln," Police Spokeswoman Joyce Barrow said.

The man behind the disguise, described as a black male in his 30s, may have formerly sported a Nixon mask when committing his crimes.

—Compiled by Ayon Nandi from Reuters News Service.

YALE INDEX
1. Members of the Slavic Chorus	16
2. Days until Slavic Chorus performs at Mt. Holyoke	2
3. Payment Slavic Chorus will receive for their services, in dollars	1000
4. Planned duration of Slavic Chorus performance, in minutes	20
5. Payment Index writers will receive for their services, in dollars	0
6. Time it took Index writers to write Yale Index, in minutes	97
7. Slavs in Rumpus' 50 Most Beautiful	3
8. Yale Index writers in Rumpus' 50 Most Beautiful	0
9. Beautiful Slavs per index writer	1.5
10. Slavs for whose services Index writers would pay $1000	3
11. Slavs offering $1000 for Index writers' services	0

—Compiled by Cornelius Kaestner and Daniel Serviansky

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 7) Christine Evans, BK '00; 5) Julia Paolitto, BR '01; 6) 5.35x10¹³ cycles of our pet cesium atom; 8) The Mirror; 9) Math; 10) Cornelius Kaestner, BR '00; 11) A hunch, but please contact us if we're wrong.

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