October 16, 2009 • THE ARROW
OPINION
3
Robert’s Reality
In the eye of the beholder
Marika Price Performing Arts Editor
No one reads the newspaper anymore. Probably because there are almost none of them left. Newspapers are dying out like the dinosaurs. Or MySpace. That’s right, the fascinating and insightful journal of knowledge and information you hold in your hands (and all others like it) will one day be a relic. Archaeologists in the future will excavate old newspapers and say, “So this is how the news used to be!” Are people abandoning newspapers because they find them boring, crinkly, and awkward to handle? Possibly. The answer most likely lies with television and the Internet. When newspapers began to provide articles for free on the Internet that you would normally have to pay for, it was only a matter of time. Now people can go to Google or turn on CNN and get their news for free. Without paying customers, the newspapers fold (pun). New media, like TV and the web, can present the news faster and with more colors and sounds. The appeal is obvious. Some are attracted to television and internet news because it is more immediate, exciting, and in your face, even though you can actually put a newspaper in your face and get as close to it as you want without radiation. You could even hug a newspaper. But sadly newspaper-hugging will soon be a thing of the past. I shouldn’t have said earlier that no one reads the newspaper. There are, of course, the holdouts, the diehards, the hard-core newspaper fans. You’ll see them clipping articles, reading the paper over someone’s shoulder, carrying the Sunday Times into the john. They love print journalism and for good reasons. The following are some of them: 1) Newspapers are touchable. You can hold one in your hands, pass it around, share it with others. You have control over it. You can read, reread, and analyze the material you’re presented with all at your own pace and without commercial breaks. On TV, stories pass by in a flash without time to think. And unless you’re a wizard with the TiVo, you can’t hear something again or share information with friends. 2) Newspapers have in-depth coverage. They have substance. It’s more likely that you could actually learn something from reading a newspaper article as opposed to watching a 24-hour news broadcast. The medium allows thoughtful, detailed explanation and expression by journalists on a variety of topics. Some of our nation’s founders even thought newspapers were essential to democracy as they ensured an informed citizenry. Thomas Jefferson once said, “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” Senior Robert Dillon is a free-lance contributor to “The Arrow. “
put on hold until the designs are complete. America’s latest “tattoo trend” is mild compared to Ethiopia’s value of body art. While flipping through the pages of Inner beauty and a natural appearance any popular American magazine, it’s easy are two qualities of a beautiful woman in to detect a common trend of thin models France. with perfect smiles and long legs. Body lotion, scented perfume, and face The overwhelming desire to achieve wash are must-haves and neutral makeup this form of beauty causes many women tones are preferred over bright colors. to partake in life-threatening surgeries Rather than admiring the glamorous and spend astronomical amounts magazine image, most French women tend of money on material items like to gravitate toward a classic look—less makeup and clothing. make up and simpler fashion statements. This idealized image seems to Recently, French officials have rebe the only definition of beauty. quired their magazines to provide a health However, in terms of the rest of warning alongside photo-shopped models the world, this is not the case. to protect women from false images of feDouble chins, thick anmale beauty. kles, and stretch marks are the Not surprisingly, women in keys to becoming a beautiful France are less likely to undergo woman in the small counsurgery than the average American try of Mauritania. woman and are also less likely to be Young girls travel to larger than a size 12. summer camps and conPeople across the world waste countsume up to 16,000 calories less hours by fixating on their insecurities a day to produce a curvy and distorting their body image. Confifigure that pleases men. dence has become a rare quality The desire to marry and beauty has been reduced to and feel attractive is the its most superficial form. source of the obsession to conDespite the awareness of stantly gain weight beginning at how biased beauty is, low self-esa young age. teem is a rising issue in America Naturally thin girls are presand is effecting teenagers more sured to take weight gain pills than any other age group. that increase appetite and conSerious disorders such as tain hormones used to fatten depression and anorexia are camels. effecting young boys and girls Despite all of the effort because of the pressure to be thin to put on the pounds, AN ARTS AND CRAFT: Hot or not? To different people the ideal beauty and “beautiful” like the over exvaries remarkably. Mauritania is ranked posed celebrities. The focus revolves only number four in around appearance rather than self terms of obesity. worth. these braces simply give a visual allusion Nauru, which is a South Pacific Island to a longer neck and put the women at a But beauty is not narrowly defined with just over 13,000 people, tops the list risk for death. and, depending on the culture, can dewith 94.5% of it’s population considered Tattoos and scars are visually appeal- scribe completely different people. overweight. An American’s least favorite feature ing to tribes in Ethiopia and many women Although surgeries such as liposuc- create designs on their stomachs with their is likely another country’s most cherished, tion, gastric bypass, and Lap Band are scars. reflecting that beauty truly is in the eye of popular in the United States, women in Marriage and children are usually the beholder.
these countries would laugh at the idea and men would be revolted. In Thailand, the most attractive feature is a long, elegant neck. Women wear brass coils starting at age five to lengthen their necks and traditionally keep them on permanently. Many d o c tors a r gue that
PHOTO BY BECKY SADWICK
Peace prize causes turbulence
Iris Yan Editor-in-Chief When the Nobel committee unexpectedly awarded President Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize, the decision elicited both praise and scorn globally. Was it welldeserved and inspiring? Or was it premature and untimely? Those who laud the decision believe it is an encouragement by the Nobel committee for future efforts and American leadership. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mohamed Elbaradei, the director-general of the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency, said that he was “absolutely delighted” upon hearing the decision. “I cannot think of anyone today more deserving of this honor,” he said. “In less than a year in office, he has transformed the way we look at ourselves and the world we live in and rekindled hope for a world at peace with itself.” President Obama himself said he was “surprised” but deeply humbled and even doubted he deserved the honor; nonetheless, he vowed to use it to advance his advocacy for world peace. On the other side of the spectrum, skeptics who believe it was extremely untimely argue that Obama should have been given the award after at least the three of the most contentious issues—Afghanistan, Iraq, and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts— were resolved. The Irish peace campaigner and 1976 Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Corrigan Maguire strongly disagreed with the decision, saying in a statement that she was “very disappointed” to hear of it: “They say this is for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples, and yet he continues the policy of militarism and occupation of Afghanistan, instead of dialogue and negotiation with all parties to the conflict. The Nobel committee has not met the conditions of Alfred Nobel’s will, where he stipulates it is to be awarded to those who work for an end to militarism and war and for disarmament.” True, President Obama, only the third sitting American president to win the award, is unexpectedly placed in the company of world leaders like Mikhail S. Gorbachev, who won for helping end the cold war, and Nelson Mandela, who sought to end apartheid in South Africa. But less distinguished figures have also won the award in the past. The committee, based in Norway, emphasized that it made its decision based on Obama’s actual efforts toward nuclear disarmament as well as American engagement with the world relying more on diplomacy and dialogue. “The question we have to ask is who has done the most in the previous year to enhance peace in the world,” the Nobel committee chairman, Thorbjorn Jagland, said in Oslo after the announcement. “And who has done more than Barack Obama?”
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