Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 12, 1998)
Virtual Presence. Here you can make it all happen. Unrg=L. Smart Videoconferencing 1 VTEL's seamless integration of video, voice and data. It's a multimedia performance that's nothing short of brilliant. Here at VTEL, we believe that the best performances aren't always rehearsed. That’s why we encourage passion, creativity, enthusiasm and free- thinking. VTEL, a world leader in the design and manufacture of SmartVideoconferencing systems, is headquartered in Austin and employs over 800 people worldwide. Our digital visual communication systems are deployed in the most advanced corporations, healthcare facilities, educational institutions, and government operations around the globe. Technology Opportunities Information Session Sunday, February 15, 1998 *6-8 p.m. 510 Rudder Refreshments will be provided. http://www.vtel.com FRIi^pAN improvisationcd comedy We’ve got a heart on for you Saturday, Feb. 14 9 p.m. Rudder Theatre Tickets are $4 in advance (MSC BoxOffice) http://http.tamu.edu :8000/~fsl ip Thursday Rival ethnic groj clash over love KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — It was a Shakespearean love story playing out Wednesday in Pak istan’s largest city: A young couple from hostile ethnic communities apparently ran off together, lead ing to bloodshed and rioting. Pathans went on a rampage in Karachi, claiming a Mohajir man kidnapped a Pathan woman. His family says the couple eloped. Two bystanders were killed, eight peo ple were injured and the lovers went into hiding. The mob violence that spread through the city raised fears of a re vived blood feud among ethnic Pathans and Mohajirs. The Romeo of this tale is Kan- war Ahson, a political activist of the Mohajir Qami Movement (MQM) and nephew of a Pakistani member of parliament. Two years ago, Ahson took refuge for six months in the household of his Juliet. Rifat Afridi. to evade a police crackdown on the MQM, according to published reports. Tensions between the two com munities then were at a low ebb, de spite their antagonistic history'. In the mid-1980s, about 1,000 people were killed during months of violence that began when a bus driven by a Pathan struck and killed a Mohajir girl. The Afridis reportedly refused to let Ahson marry their daughter, say ing she already was betrothed. Back ing out would disgrace the family. The couple, both in their 20s, dis appeared last week. Police, who be- Up in smoke lieveshe left of hero; they may have flee miles north of LI’ council on MondavT cial government 2b c< >u| he and return;:-' 'IVvo senior pofo fired Tuesday fori the disappearance appease Pathanev deadline passed the couple. On Wednesday hurst from shanty middle-class rt | smashing car \vi: lights, stoningpass:; n | luxury intematior - r 1 Stray gunfirekife 55-yeat old man-.: a| Hahih (iul, a lab ^ passing by. H Six policemen erl a pc >lk evanandbea: cil were injured becatK h[ get out ni their car of alight — that indite general strike by tk irj Stores were (i I on the street v c smoke from bi pil over parts of Kara )N Police fired teat pi ammunition intheani mobs on the rutu the violence had radic incidents. . Pathans, a con>-J t group originally fe northern Pakistan a are the third-larges j Karachi’s 13 million Egyptian wom| challenge tradit CAIRO, Egyrpt (AP) — Dice tum ble over backgammon boards, cups slam on wooden tables and the thick smoke from a gurgling water pipe wafts into the night time air. What’s that peeking from be hind the swelling smoke? Lipstick? Long hair? Painted nails? To the chagrin of many Egypt ian men, women have taken up the water pipe, long a tradition that was the most masculine of male habits, puffed in the thou sands of cafes that serve as the hub of men’s social life in the Arab world’s biggest apd most spirited city. “In my opinion, it is sacrilege,” declares Ahmed Sadiq, a waiter at a cafe coated with a generation of grime. “If women sit here, it’s not natural. It goes against the nature of Egyptians.” In Cairo, there are cafes for the deaf, there are cafes for literati, and there are cafes for chess play ers. There are all-night cafes, and there are cafes where Cairenes run their daily affairs. For centuries, in those cafes, it was a man’s world. And in that world was the smoke of the water pipe, known alternatively as the shisha, nerjil- la, arkila, qalyan or hooka. All share the distinctive looping hose that draws the smoke of burning, syrupy tobacco through water and into waiting lungs. But recently, the shisha and the style of smoking it has experi enced a transformation, making it, well, more feminine. Once one of the easier ways to catch hepatitis, the shisha now comes with a removable plastic mouthpiece known as a mabsam. Even more striking is the ex plosion in flavored tobacco that has hit the upscalec frequent — a far ti days when honey-fltj co was the mosti might sample. “I haveapple-flal co, I have rose flavi strawberry and even have licoriceal tail,” said Bahgatali dor at the neighbt| selling tobacco. “Everyone has mood,” he adds. And his customer: “There’s no mani would smoke strawtl apple,” he insists.'' would smoke these.!'! the tobacco is lighte are kind of fragile.” At an npscalecafe| Cairo’s five-star 1 woman in black veils dently on a shishabl 11 a vo red tobacco.TM and she knowinglf plume of smoke thai*! any male aficionado^ “Shisha is beau mood,” said Mona^ witli her husband, better than cigarettes'! Such a scene firesti| servative elements in'l Many men still see!] and indecent fot smoke shisha, fid ma’alima, the rough-*! woman who runsap borhood through anr evj idation and gusto. Un . Al-Haqiqa, a wee- lamented the deed came with young wc > m e n smoking shisT. “They smoke wiilf ciousness every day from 10 a.m. until - newspaper intoned. \ Someone misses you. I-SOO-COLLECT i ai s, T(| on wil]| hei 3lS larsl emj athl scl X hi L if >lar; ergjl uat(| >r. Ipij md er II d tc I It's .1 self m l [ lenj tntel theil