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_by Laura Pottie

Ever had the feeling that
someone was watching your every
move? I’ve felt that a lot lately -
except that it’s been true.

Ilive in New Westminster on
the fifth floor of an apartment
building. I love my apartment,
| with all its quirks and character,
but there’s one thing about it that
I just have to get off my chest (lit-
erally).

Much to my chagrin, there’s
a high rise going up across the
street. I can handle the sound of
construction at the crack of dawn
every morning. I can live with the
fact that I am going to lose my
view of Golden Ears and the Cas-
cades, never mind that the Lower
Mainland is going to have yet an-
other boring, lifeless high-rise. _

What I can’t deal with is com-
ing out of my bath one morning

 

twenty greasy looking construc-
tion workers leering in at me (I
have two big bay windows in my
‘apartment, a feature that I once
looked upon as a plus — what was
I thinking?).

I was a little surprised and
embarrassed but I laughed it off.
Since it had already happened,
what could I do? I can tell you,
though, that this has gotten pro-

 

_and looking out my window I find ~

 

A room with a view

gressively more and more irritat-
ing as the days have gone by.

I have no curtains or blinds in
my apartment, and I’m not particu-
larly eager to get any since closing
them would mean having to turn
lights on, an action that the envi-
ronmentalist in me would find be-
yond reproach!

It has gotten to the point
where I have to do my best stealth-
ninja-sub-commando routine to
get from my bed to the bathroom
in the morning. I roll off my futon,
crawl along the floor until I reach
the point where I can get by unno-
ticed as long as I hug the wall along
the hallway. This works pretty
well, except for the mornings when
I forget my not-so-secret admirers.

I know what you’ re thinking,
it’s my own fault for parading
around naked all of the time. But

-do I not have the right to’be naked

in my own home without having
an audience?

Those workers are the only
ones who have a vantage point into
my life, and I think that they should
be mature and professional enough
to perhaps glance at first, but then
get over it and get back to work!
What’s the big deal anyway?

After all, there’s not a woman
on this planet who doesn’t have
breasts and a butt so you’d think
we'd be used to them by now.

Photo by Zeebo

"Hey man! The view is over there’

 

 

The Other Press

Open up and say, "Baaaaaa"

   

 

A word for the ideologically spoon-fed masses

by Jimmy MacLaren

Some Douglas College students
took it upon themselves last week to
organize a delegation to the Canadian
Federation of Students propaganda
strike. Well, I would challenge any stu-
dent who attended the strike to tell me
exactly what the proposals in the Green
Book are, because I know 95 percent
of you didn’t even bother to read it. So,
if you’re one of those people who
bought into the “Government Rapes
Youth” line, you can now consider
yourself a sheep because you were part
of the baaaa.... effect.

You should be ashamed that you
believed what the bogus-leftist student
union, that claims to represent the stu-
dents, told you. You’re supposed to be
an educated person. If you had read the
proposal yourself, you would have re-
alized that you were blown by a nation-
wide propaganda machine.

Now that we’ve established how
foolish you were to wave those plac-
ards claiming that “Education is a
Right” let’s analyze what the proposal
actually is. The Honorable Lloyd
Axworthy brought out a proposal that
would make this nation’s social safety
net more fiscally responsible. Nowhere
does it say the government will cut any
money for post secondary education.
The federal government subsidizes your
education by sending a combination of
cash and tax points as transfers to the
provinces, who in turn fund the indi-
vidual institutions. The Green Book
proposes to reduce the amount of cash
transfers while equally increasing the
amount of tax points, which leaves a
net transfer equal to the current level.

One aspect of this plan is that it
puts inflationary pressures of tuition,
but only by about $10,000 over a four
year degree. I hope there weren’t any
Economics students out on the picket
line because you would have obviously
realized by reading the proposal that
this inflation would be short term and

it would increase accessibility to post
secondary education.

Why does it increase accessibility?
Take the student who presently gradu-
ates from high school with a 3.5 GPA,
and his mother makes more than
$40,000 per year. Assuming this stu-
dent’s parents want their child to learn
the meaning of a dollar and decide not
to pay for his education, this student will
not be able to get a student loan of any
kind because of
whatever group he
is. The new system
would allow this
student to borrow
the money from the
government to get
an education which
will unquestionably
improve his socio-
economic status for
the rest of his life.

There are
many other positive
points to the Green
Book; however, it is
my opinion that the
only negative point is that it’s
insufficiently detailed and provides no
clear payback system for the student
loans.

What I would like to know is
where did anyone get the idea that edu-
cation was a right? I just glanced over
the Canadian Charter of Rights and
Freedoms and nowhere in that docu-
ment does it say that education can be
considered a right. The fact is that ina
capitalist society education is a privi-
lege. You are the one who benefits from
going to school, not some bureaucrat
in Ottawa making the decisions. Wake-
up, take on some responsibility and ac-
cept the fact that from the moment you
were born you owed the Canadian gov-
ernment $20,000 in public debt.

I referred earlier to the CFS strike
as a propaganda machine. I said this not
because I am against criticism on gov-
ernment activities, but because they are

the ontet ;
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is am

readers of the OP

to vent their - you

Submit to room 1020.

Articles may be edited for brevity,
clarity, or pretty much anything elsity.

 

using this issue as a political tool that
does nothing but hurt the students they
claim to represent. The CFS twisted the
facts about the proposal so much that
their literature and activities can only
be considered propaganda.

And, once it became known that
the NDP financed the “Ax Axworthy”
campaign, it became apparent why the
CFS refused to negotiate with the gov-
ernment on the students beha-viour.
Why yes, if you
hadn’t noticed the
NDP have been in
election mode for
sometime in this
province; giving
$15,000 to print
really pretty glossy
signs and posters in
hopes of trashing
the Liberals makes
me wonder if we are
being adequately
represented. You
should be thankful
Douglas College is
not a member of the
CFS because then you would have had
to pay fees for that disgustingly cor-rupt
representation.

t

opportunity for the

February 8, 1995

 

be We

aa

UBC student government was a

good example of an organization who
came down hard on the Green Book but
responded in a admirable manner. The
AMS chose to organize a student fo-
rum to discuss the issues rather that
support the strike. The fact is, the gov-
ernment approached the public and
asked for our feedback before making
any policy on social security, yet few
organizations made this attempt.

I hope I pissed off a few of you
socialists out there, and I welcome any-
body who wishes to further debate this
issue to approach me. But, to the rest
of you students out there let this be a
lesson, one that shows you not to be-
lieve everything that you read. Make up
your own minds on the issue of educa-
tion and don’t be a sheep.

 

 
 

1 hate puritanical fanatics.

Yvonne Nicoletti is not a puri-
tanical fanatic. An honours student at-
tending Andover High School in Mas-
sachusetts, yes. A fan of the band
White Zombie, to be sure. She most
definitely is not is a puritanical fanatic.

Yvonne wore a shirt to school one
day last October. Now, stay with me
here... Outlandish as it may seem, it
was not the first time she had worn a
shirt to Andover. In fact, she had on
occasion worn that very shirt to
school. I know it sounds crazy, but it’s
true.

Timothy Thomas didn’t like
Yvonne’s shirt. Apparently, a cartoon
depicting two fully-clothed women
was ‘inappropriate’ due to the char-
acters’ breast size.

In most circumstances, it would
have been possible to dismiss Thomas
as a closed-minded ignoramus who
probably thinks women are best bare-
foot ‘n’ pregnant and sex education is

 

an evil means of corrupting youth. In
, _ other words, a drooling imbecile out of ©

| ascurvyesque age; a puritanical fanatic.
_ In this circumstance, however, that

wasn’t possible. While he is those

things, Thomas is also the principal of

Andover High.

Yvonne was promptly ordered to
go home and change. More concemed
with an impeding exam (this suppos-
edly took place at an institution of learn-
ing, remember...), she refused.

Thomas unfortunately was of the
opinion that academia should ride a
back seat to petty draconian dress codes.
Yvonne’s parents were called and asked
to retrieve their miscreant offspring.

Now, the Nicoletti tribe is a free-
thinking bunch; Yyonne’s wish to make
a stand was honoured. Instead of blindly
following the principal’s wishes (which
I assume also included burning at the
stake and exorcism), Mrs. Nicoletti ap-
proved of her daughter’s plan to make
a silent protest.

Standing by the school flagpole,
Yvonne repositioned her bra over the
shirt to conceal the “offensive” images.
When ordered off the property, she sim-
ply removed the bra and stood -bra in
hand and shirt on back- in protest.

The escalation of stupidity from
here is paralleled only by that of a bad
sitcom. Thomas took time out from

righties, and called the police.

whipping left-handed students into

 

Andover Police showed up in full
force, arresting Yvonne for disturbing
a school and creating a public nui-
sance. oe S
So obviously dangerous was she
to both herself and society, gun-toting |
Andover Police felt the need to cuff
Nicoletti - | mean, come on, she had a
bra!!! - Yvonne was held in jail until
her mother came to the station to pay
her bail. Before that bail came, Yvonne
saw one thing slipped under the door
of her cell: An expulsion notice from
none other than Tim Thomas, puritani-
cal fanatic.

This case is presently being ar-
gued in the courts of Massachussets.
And, though it’s all about a shirt, a
principle, and a principal, it could just
as easily be about any other censor-
ship issue in the world.

Galileo was killed for wearing a
shirt that. said the Earth wasn’t the
center of the universe. Little Sister’s

  
 

   
   
 
 
 
  
 
 

Bookstore is financially and socially
opressed because they try to sell shirts
that don’t limit people’s sexual tenden-
cies to the status quo. Yvonne Nicoletti
gets expelled, arrested and charged.
Over a shirt.

| hate puretanical fanatics.

Bs