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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 11, 2002)
SPORTS attalios ech THE BATTALI0\ ir defender as 'ashington. rently owns! reaik, the last a 2-1 defeat to a good team “1 think we’tt specially with ter (Colorado tion the nation eat opponum- ion in. so tk i the 'A' squad to Maine red- t “ B' squad a i. nity for soiik vel of comp;- not get at tliis edshirt fresh- iking forward han the usual will push us have. It will 'MENT LOM ^ling ardi Diamonds, drugs and al-Qaida’s cash (U-WIRE) PHILADELPHIA Remember that TV ad, the one where they show kids talking and saying, “I just wanted to have a good time" interspersed with pic tures of the World Trade Center crumbling and large shipments of weapons being moved? The ad that suggested - no. stated — that drug use leads to terrorism? It was a powerful ad. And to a certain extent, it is truthful. Drug money may have been used in the Sept. 11 attacks, especially considering that Afghanistan is the world's leading producer of opium. But then again, considering that the Taliban banned the growing of opium in 2000, it may have been less of a factor then suggested by the ad. Interestingly, the same TV stations that show this patriotic message have no qualms about airing commercials advertising dia monds. Currently, and over the past decade. Sierra Leone, along with a number of other African countries, has been in a state of political and social strife as bloody civil wars have left thousands dead. Many can be seen walking the streets without hands; slicing them off is a tactic often used by rebel groups to deter people from voting in elections. The fighting in Sierra Leone has destroyed countless families, as parents are slain and children taken and forced to fight in battle, some as young as eight years old, forcibly drugged to eliminate the pain and fear. And at the center of this fighting is the diamond trade. Diamonds can be seen operating in two ways here. On the one hand, they are the ultimate prize at the end of this civil war, a mighty valuable export that Western compa nies gobble up as part of a $7 billion dollar industry. On the other hand, diamonds are also prolonging the war. It’s through the sale of diamonds that rebel groups are able to keep themselves armed. These "blood” or "con flict diamonds make up about four percent of the annual worldwide diamond trade, roughly $250 million dollars deposited Erectly into the hands of these fighters, tthoin turn use it to continue financing their wars. Along the same lines of human rights eolations, the diamond miners used by rebel groups are often prisoners of war used as slave labor. What’s more, major diamond buyers, including companies like De Beers, knowingly participate in this trade that pro- ntotes such grievous behavior. In 2000, the United Nations mandated 1 at diamond traders obtain certificates stat- ln §that their diamonds are not conflict dia monds. The certificates were to be issued by t estate, hypothetically ensuring their legit- imacy. However, when the West doesn't trust many of these corrupt governments to dis- r > ute humanitarian aid to their people, cer- jicates from such nations is little more than an attempt at placation. Recent surveys suggest that up to 40 per- centot the diamonds coming from these African countries may in fact be of blood diamonds. So while in clear view our politicians and er moral leaders point to drugs as a t J rce financial backing for terrorism, e y quickly and succinctly neglect to men- f narnore open, and legal, method of Ann* n ^ terror ' sm — the diamond trade, whereas the links between drug smug- ln g and terrorism are necessarily unclear, woVd ^ le Un ^ er § rounc I nature of the drug iel ’, t ^ e between diamonds and terror ls, ?uch more definitive. men 'h* mern bers acting as middle- flofV 16 diamond business continues to tion m ^ ney ' nto terrorist coffers in addi- r i a L, ° , e un thinkable abuses of human g J ts th e trade encourages. - e en( h the drug ad is not really about eating terror ^ sm ’ hut rather about impli- § ru § us ers in an act to which they at best loosely tied. decn/ C Sarne time, there is no campaign DiJ ln8 , the sa ^ e °f diamonds, only the “A Ula *ond is Forever” ads. t 0 st ° U Wou Id think that a country so primed ocriti^. ! err ° r rn ‘8ht take a slightly less hyp- age-nn a,ti f ude ’ hut we can’t break the mate tratl ition of diamonds as the ulti- °riein 0 r 1an ^ C to k en — a tradition whose th an j^ e g ’ n a 1940’s ad blitz by none other Garrett Kennedy is a columnist at the University of Pennsylvania. Opinion The Battalion Page 11 • Friday, October 11,2002 SGA butchered election Results should have been verified before release RICHARD BRAY S ometimes, after attending a Student Senate meeting and listening to a con gregation of student leaders using the most protracted language they know, it is hard to take the Texas A&M Student Government Association (SGA) seriously. It is even more difficult to take it seriously fol lowing its inability to correctly report the results of its freshmen elections. The computer program which produced the erro neous results was run through Measurement and Research Services, and was not under the direct control of SGA. However, it was the responsibility of SGA to announce legitimate election results, a responsibility which SGA failed to meet. According to the election commission, the initial results reported 452 abstentions out of 795 voters, resulting in more than twice as many abstentions as votes for the announced winner. For nearly 57 per cent of the voters to abstain would be an exception al situation. Although such a high number of abstentions is not impossible, it is certainly a situation that would require further review. The SGA should have recog nized a problem upon reviewing the data it received. There was no genuine need for SGA to report the election results immediately. The freshman election results are important to those close to the election, but are not a terribly important event to the majority of those on campus. Waiting an extra day to double check questionable results may have inconvenienced an impatient candidate, but it seems,likely that Venton Jones, the student who was announced as the original freshman president, would prefer to have had the correct results announced the first time. Even worse than the appearance of incompetence is the damage done to the individuals involved in the election. Jones was willing to place his reputation on the line when he entered the election process, and for SGA to unofficially announce him president and subsequently relinquish the title violates the trust Jones placed in the system. Mistakes happen when trying to report news to the public. However, SGA was not in a position where it needed to release the information immedi ately. If it had chosen to wait until it received more credible data rather than hoping the questionable data was correct, it would have been able to save face. Bobby Tucker, election committee adviser, said the commission will consider delaying the announcement in the future. With luck, the organization will make the neces sary change. Although mistakes are inevitable in an organization, when SGA cannot even conduct a rel atively small election, it makes it difficult to trust in its leadership. r Sarah Fowler • THE BATTALION 10-year-old suspect (U-WIRE) SAN JOSE, Calif. — I’m befuddled and disturbed by what happened in Milwaukee last week. Thirty-six-year-old Charlie Young Jr. was killed by a mob of youngsters ranging in age from 10 to 18. The incident happened after one of the children hit Young with an egg. Young proceeded to chase the group of kids down the street and punched a 14-year-old in the face, knocking out a tooth. The group of children then grew in numbers, grabbed weapons, includ ing baseball bats, broomsticks and pipes, and they chased Young back down the street. Young then ran to a house where he was beaten on the front porch. He died in the hospital two days later of injuries sustained in the beating. Seven boys have been charged with first-degree reckless homicide, and the youngest of the mob, 10 years of age, was spared from facing adult charges that could carry a term of up to 40 years in prison and 20 years of supervision. Instead, the 10-year-old was charged with second-degree reckless homicide and could face a two-year jail sentence at a juvenile prison. The crime was obviously a heinous one, but the thing that upsets me more than anything is that this 10-year-old boy is not facing the same type of charges‘his peers are. District Attorney E. Michael McCann told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Thursday that the decision to charge the 10-year-old with a second-degree charge, rather than the first-degree charge, was because of the boy’s age and his ability to demonstrate “moral reasoning.” McCann said he looked over the case of 13-year-old Latasha Armstead, a Milwaukee girl who in 1999, became the youngest child to be sentenced as an adult in a homicide case in Wisconsin, before deciding on the charges for the 10-year-old. “I can find nothing in that literature that says a 10-year-old is capable of adult moral reasoning,” McCann told the Journal Sentinel. Adult moral reasoning? Are you telling me that this boy doesn’t know the difference between right and wrong? Are you telling me that when someone is 10 years old that he doesn't know what a savage beating will do to someone? Granted, this McCann is probably trying to save the boy’s future by not trying him as an adult, but this is ludicrous. It wasn’t a single blow that took this man’s life, it was the brutal attack deserves no mercy by a mob of boys, which included the actions of this 10-year-old boy. So why should he be spared? This 10-year-old boy, just like the other kids, knew when they were bashing this man in the head with a shovel that the blood was real. And when Young stopped fighting back, it was because he was uncon scious, not because he was enjoying the thrashing. The decision continues to fuel a debate about a child’s responsibility in crimes. When does one become responsible for his or her own actions? Some argue that the children are not old enough to make their own decisions and that they should be tried as a juvenile until the age of 18, or 17 in Wisconsin. I’d agree if we were talking about stealing a CD from the local music store, but we are talking about an attack that took someone’s life. Whether the boy can think like an adult, or in this case, whether or not he had an utter disregard for human life is a moot point. He was part of a mob who knowingly was out to injure Young. I wholeheartedly think that anyone who attacks someone and leaves them with injuries that lead to death should be charged as adults, regard less of age. It’s not like he accidentally attacked him or unexpectedly shot him with a gun he was playing with. I know this child has a future ahead of him and that he has probably already learned his lesson, but who’s to say the other juveniles haven’t learned a lesson as well? It’s semantics. It’s because this kid is a whole 24, 23 or 22 months younger than some of the other juveniles who are being tried as adults. The entire group was in on the beating, and they all deserve the same treatment. If you ask any of the participants what they did that night, they’re all likely to say the same thing — beat Charlie Young. I think it’s time that we use this case as an example and show the rest of the country that no matter how old you are, if you have a part in some one’s death, you are going to pay and the punishment will fit the crime. Ben Aguirre Jr. is a columnist at San Jose State University. Students have right do do as they wish with sports passes they have already paid for In response to an Oct. 9 mail call: Tuition: $2,500.00 Books: $500.00 Sports Pass: $150.00 Parking Spot: $130.00 Bottled Water: $4.00 The opportunity to make a little money back selling my sports pass: priceless. MAIL CALL Adam Clark Class of 2004 I congratulate Mr. Brendel for having the most history-filled letter this year in the mail call of The Battalion. I think if Mr. Brendel will remember correctly, we all pay for those sports passes at the begin ning of the year. Some students, for whatever reason, have things come up and cannot attend some games. Why shouldn't they at least try to make up for some of that loss? Students who sells their sports passes are not trying to disgrace James Ear Rudder, Sullivan Ross or E. King Gill. Simply put, they're trying not to waste the money they spent on tuition. Quite frankly, 1 find that using the names of this University's most important historical figures essentially as red herrings is in extremely poor taste. Brendel did a good job in telling about these men's contributions to Texas A&M history. Too bad that has no real bearing on a poor stu dent who pays his own way through college and is trying to get a couple of extra bucks from a sports pass. James Holland Class of 2003