Student involvement needs to continue
Mostafa Tabatabainejad may have been uncooperative; he may have
been a little mouthy; he may even have been downright rude, but it
remains that the university police’s response was
disproportionate to his crime.
The UCPD officers should have been trained to calmly and
rationally control the situation that night.
More than 400 students rallied Friday for the sake of
Tabatabainejad’s rights and what they saw as a threat to
their own.
But now that the chanting and marching has captured the
public’s attention, we cannot let the ball drop.
Several student groups met on Nov. 20 to shape an Undergraduate
Students Association Council resolution to call for student input
in resolving this incident.
We are asking for the officers involved to be suspended until
the completion of the inquiry.
We are also demanding a review of UCPD rules and procedure
regarding the use of Tasers and we want to see nonviolent conflict
resolution training for all UCPD officers.
For the students who cannot attend these meetings, however,
there will be alternate programs held on campus such as the
“Know Your Rights” workshop held by the Muslim Law
Students Association.
However you viewed the events of two weeks ago, see this as your
opportunity to educate and protect yourself.
Muslim Student Association,
UCLA board 2006-2007
Concentrate on Darfur’s real issues
After reading the Daily Bruin’s article about the lecture
on Darfur (“Lecture outlines history of situation in
Darfur,” News, Nov. 15), I found it symptomatic of the
disappointing way the international community has handled this
crisis.
One question that many find puzzling is why Sudan’s Arab
neighbors are not putting any pressure on the government to curtail
the Janjaweed.
The article paints the conflict in the traditional colors of
this crisis: Arab Muslim militias from Northern Sudan are
committing genocide against a powerless black ethnic group in
Western Sudan.
This conjures images of a Hollywood bad guy.
That’s where any discussion over Darfur disintegrates for
people in the Middle East.
Most people who portray the issues this way fail to note that
the Janjaweed are as African as the Fur and other allied
tribes.
So this is a conflict between two black African ethnic groups,
one of which happens to speak an Arabic dialect unintelligible to
all other Arabic speakers.
People should be uniting to stop this instead of talking
religion, politics and race when none of the three are major
factors in the conflict.
Karim Mohammed
Third-year, electrical engineering
USAC leaders should focus on business
At the last USAC meeting I attended, I counted eight laptops
open on the table while the meeting was in progress.
But the eyes and focus were not on what happened at Powell, but
on who posted what on their Facebook walls.
Is it too much to ask that our elected representatives refrain
from taking part in online gossiping for a few hours a day while
discussing student business?
In talking with any one of them, they make their jobs sound so
important and yet they don’t care enough to pay attention
during the meeting.
Instead, these supposed leaders are checking Facebook and
chatting with each other during presentations and debates.
Shut off your cell phones, end your Instant Messaging, and keep
computers out of the USAC meeting ““ that is
representation.
Tyler Johnston
UCLA Class of 2006, political science
China’s checks on freedom not so dire
I’m currently studying abroad in Beijing, and I agree with
the importance of granting freedom of information to all Chinese
citizens.
However, China isn’t as gloomy as your editorial
(“Access to information necessary for freedom,” Nov.
20) makes it out to be.
There are about 30,000 government workers who are assigned to
monitor Internet usage in China. The majority of the regulated Web
sites are Chinese.
While in China, I have been able to access other major
international news Web sites such as The New York Times, Los
Angeles Times and Yahoo! News, which have all had articles
criticizing the Chinese government’s foreign and domestic
policies in the past.
To a certain extent, the access to information also depends on
the ability to read English, which only a very small size of the
Chinese population can do.
When looking at other media in English, such as the newspaper,
The China Daily and their only English television station, CCTV 9,
government censorship and propaganda are more visible.
It’s not uncommon to see or hear how much Chinese media
boasts about China’s recent economic success as a developing
country without touching issues such as human rights or the
environment.
Amit Urban
Third-year,
international development studies