Amanda Bailly

A day in the cheese room

2010-08-05T10:51:00.000-07:00

This story appeared in the August 4, 2010, edition of The Valley Advocate.

Link to story.

The sun has just peeked over the horizon, and I am struggling to keep my eyes open as I make my way through fog and down winding roads into the sprawling farmland of Ashfield. It's not yet 6 a.m. As I turn into Sangha Farm, owners Maribeth and Derek Ritchie are already making their way to the barn where two dozen goats are huddled, all eager for attention, several impatient to be milked.

Everyone knows the lineup. After balancing on her hind legs to give Derek a good morning kiss, Bennie—a large, black goat with floppy ears and an in-charge attitude as the first goat on the farm—is the first into the milking room. She staggers up the ramp onto a platform and goes straight at the bowl of grain strategically placed at the other end. Derek closes two wooden panels around her neck to keep her in place while he milks her, though Bennie shows no sign of trying to abandon the bowl before every grain has been eaten.

After an iodine solution kills any bacteria on her udders, the milking begins. Derek keeps his hands wrapped around Bennie's teats, alternating between them as he pinches the milk down and squirts it into the metal bucket below.

An hour later, after seven other goats have been milked, Derek and Maribeth return to the house to feed their children breakfast and get ready for their day, which Derek will spend in the field and Maribeth in the cheese room. After a second milking at five p.m., there will be about six gallons of milk from the day to be pasteurized and turned into chevre, a fancy French word for a simple treat: fresh goat cheese.

*

The light, airy texture and cool tart flavor of fresh ch?vre makes it a summertime favorite for cheese enthusiasts. Goat's milk, with its high fat content, yields cheese that is creamy, tart and, well, goaty. It's also widely believed that goat's milk cheese is actually healthier than cheese made from cow's milk. Especially during the warmer months, you'll find it served over fresh greens, spread on sandwiches or dipped in chocolate. My favorite way of eating it is to buy a loaf of freshly baked bread and an herb-flavored cheese to dip it in.

The good news is that the Pioneer Valley has plenty of goat cheese. While our neighbor to the north, Vermont, has long captivated the attention of cheese aficionados, local dairy farms in Western Mass. have started to turn heads. Locally made goat cheese is a focal point on the menu at the best restaurants and available at every farmers' market and grocery store in the area.

Margaret Christie, of Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA), a group that helps connect farmers with markets for their products, attributes the rising interest in local goat cheese to the national movement to buy locally made food. Good food and food made near by excite people, she says.

At Sangha Farm, Maribeth can't make cheese fast enough to meet the demand for her product.

Bistro Les Gras in Northampton is one of her biggest customers. Chef David Martinez says he often uses chevre on his menu during the summer months for its flavor, which he calls "bright and lively." One unique dish he has concocted from local goat cheese is a chevre-flavored ice cream that he serves over a chilled peach soup.

When buying goat cheese to enjoy at home, Martinez says he suggests staying away from chevre that appears overly white or has a yellow tinge and opting instead for a creamy, natural color. He recommends pairing the cheese with fresh tomatoes.

"People are looking up to Vermont for cheese," he says, as he tends to the Bistro's stand at the Tuesday Market. "And I think they should keep their eyes here."

*

Derek and Maribeth bought their first goat not with the intention of becoming cheesemakers, but because it was cheaper to feed their two young children milk from the goat than to buy milk at the store. Six years later, cheesemaking has become a full-time occupation for Maribeth.

Inside the barn, the small cheese room is a cross between a kitchen and a science laboratory. On one side, curds wrapped in a cotton cloth are hanging from a metal rack while whey drains into bowls below. A metal vat with four gallons of freshly pasteurized milk is cooling in the sink, where it will ripen into a layer of yogurt-like curds submerged in yellowish whey. On the stove, two gallons of milk from the morning are being pasteurized.

In the refrigerator are Maribeth's special creations: chocolate-covered chevre truffles. The balls of goat cheese, which have been frozen and coated in a layer of Swiss chocolate, sell out at nearly every market she brings them to.

Once the milk is harvested in the morning and evening, a meticulous regimen of cooling and heating must be followed. Within two hours, the temperature must drop from 102 degrees, the temperature just after milking, to below 45 degrees. While the goats are still chomping on grain, Derek and Maribeth strain the milk for debris and chill it on ice. A few hours later, after the kids have been fed, Maribeth brings the milk into the cheese room to be pasteurized, a two-hour process.

When the milk has cooled again from the 145 degrees it reaches during pasteurization, Maribeth adds cultures that will coagulate it. A day later, she slices into the now-thick curds with her knife and scoops them into cheesecloths to be hung overnight.

Next comes the fun. Maribeth takes down the cheese, which has now reached the right consistency, salts it, and empties it into a bowl. She dices fresh chives from the farm, adds garlic powder, and stirs it all together. The result is chive and garlic chevre, one of her most popular varieties, to be sold tomorrow at the Ashfield market. From one gallon of milk there is almost enough chevre to fill six of the four-ounce containers she sells her Tava brand cheese in.

Maribeth's cheesemaking operation is carried on under strict regulations. Learning the rules and gaining the necessary certification was an arduous task when she began making cheese commercially three years ago. Christie, at CISA, stresses the difficulty of getting into artisanal cheesemaking. Jurisdiction overlaps between agencies, and often the regulations themselves are unclear. "Government makes it harder for local farmers," she says, creating a "hurdle at the front end."

The equipment can also be expensive. Maribeth's small four-gallon pasteurizer cost her $7,000.

Maribeth is now making upwards of 50 pounds of cheese per week. In addition to fresh ch?vre, she makes goat's milk feta and plans to experiment with brie. Her small-scale pasteurizer and the time it takes to milk each goat by hand limit the amount of cheese she can produce. The coolers come home empty from the markets week after week.

With the growing demand for fresh, locally made goat cheese, Maribeth and Derek are looking for a bigger property that can handle more goats and, possibly, a machine to do the milking.

"I can't keep up," Maribeth says with a smile as she tends to the milk on the stove. "They just love goat cheese."

Other dairy farms in the area that produce goat cheese are Hillman Farm in Colrain; The Farmstand at Mine Brook in Charlemont, which makes Goat Rising ch?vre; Rawson Brook Farm in Monterey, which makes Monterey Ch?vre; and Westfield Farm in Hubbardston.

Pretty damn cool.

2010-08-02T19:49:00.000-07:00

I stumbled upon this today and I must say, it feels good to read.

Click to access the story

Toothless reporting

News about anti-rape device isn’t news at all

By D.A. Kolodenko

This story appeared on June 30, 2010 on San Diego CityBeat.

Even if you don’t have World Cup fever, you might’ve heard about Rape-aXe, the brand name of an anti-rape device invented by a South African woman named Sonnet Ehlers, who plans to distribute 30,000 of them at the matches.

Like a medieval but self-imposed chastity belt with teeth, the Rape-aXe is a sheath-like polyurethane vaginal insert. Small plastic “hooks” on the device’s inner walls painfully latch onto an unsuspecting rapist’s penis and won’t let go. It can only be removed surgically by a doctor.

The legs of the story derive from its shock value, and the triteness of the reportage reflects this:

Typical is Kat Hannaford’s post for the online gadget guide, Gizmodo.com, which reads like a press release. She reports that the anti-rape “condoms” are being distributed at the Cup, explains how they work and who invented them and comments that the need of a doctor in removal will help with prosecution. She adds that Ehlers plans to sell RapeaXe for $2 each.

A Buzzfeed.com link to the Gizmodo story by John Winskowicz picks up its breezy tone: “I think this idea is fantastic,” he gushes.

But weak reporting is not a simple matter of new-media blog versus traditional news source.

A widely distributed New York Daily News story by reporter Joe Tacopino cites the criticism by Victoria Kajja from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Uganda that Rape-aXe “not only presents the victim with a false sense of security, but psychological trauma.”

Rather than elaborate or cite any other critics’ concerns, however, Tacopino merely answers Kajja’s statement with Ehlers’ unquestioned claim that she “had taken the proper research and development steps before launching the product.”

Even more widely distributed has been the story by Faith Karimi for CNN.com. Karimi at least provides context: She reports that South Africa has one of the highest rape rates in the world, citing a recent Human Rights Watch survey.

But Karimi’s story still lacks depth: “Some critics have accused [Ehlers] of developing a medieval device,” she points out, without citing who the critics are or elaborating. Karimi also gives the Rape-aXe inventor the last word: “Yes, my device may be medieval, but it’s for a medieval deed.”

You can learn a lot by investigating. Titania Kumeh of Mother Jones, in a followup interview with Ehlers, found out that CNN got basic facts wrong: The devices haven’t been distributed at the World Cup or anywhere else. Ehlers is seeking donations and a distributor.

Amanda Bailly, a Student Correspondent Corps reporter from Boston University, provided more thorough coverage than either CNN or the New York Daily News in her April report for GlobalPost.com. Bailly raised critical questions about how safe the devices are for the women who use them—questions mostly ignored in mainstream sources.

Bailly cited filmmaker Lisa F. Jackson’s argument that Rape-aXe doesn’t make sense in the Third World. Jackson interviewed rape victims and rapists in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and produced The Greatest Silence.

“If a guy is raping you, and there’s five other guys waiting to take their turn… do you think he’s going to take that well? They’re going to mutilate that woman. It’s just a provocation,” Jackson told Bailly.

Likewise, in a country where HIV/AIDS rates are extremely high, Bailly wanted to know the potential danger from blood. Ehlers said that the Rape-aXe does not draw blood. But later in the story, Bailly reported that “the ‘teeth’ have yet to bite into a real penis,” rendering Ehlers’ claims suspect.

Ehlers’ own website claims that “the penis will be encapsulated and the tines are so small there will hardly be blood that can spill because it is in a capsule.” This statement is inconsistent with her more certain response to Bailly. And whether the tines draw blood is not the same question as whether blood can leak out of the sheath.

Later on the site, Ehlers states that the rapist would not suffer permanent damage but would be left with “tiny scars.”

The issue of blood here is not a minor concern, nor is the issue of retaliation. Both can impact a woman’s life just as much as rape.

Considering that Rape-aXe hasn’t been tested on people and is highly controversial, is it any wonder that there is no distributor and seemingly no government approval? On Ehlers’ website, there isn’t even an order form to purchase Rape-aXe. There is, however, one way to spend money on Ehler’s website in addition to sending her donations: her “stylishly decorated” guest house on Great White Lake near Capetown is available for rent.

The Rape-aXe, it turns out, is old news.

The BBC reported on Ehlers’ idea five years ago. In that story, she is identified as a “former medical technician.” It makes you wonder if CNN’s labeling her a doctor, which has been constantly repeated, is also false. Ehlers makes no mention of it on her site, referring to herself only as “a woman.”

Latching onto global publicity of the World Cup by falsely suggesting that she was on the verge of heroically distributing thousands of Rape-aXes, “Doctor” Ehlers hoodwinked the press into recycling her story as if it were new.

Back in 2005, anti-rape campaigner Charlene Smith told the BBC that the device would incite injured rapists to kill their victims.

“We don’t need these nut-case devices by people hoping to make a lot of money out of other women’s fear,” Smith said.

Write to dak@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.

Jackie Cooper: History told through the eyes of an artist

2010-08-02T19:34:00.000-07:00

This article appeared in the July 22 issue of the Shelburne Falls Independent, available only in hard copy.

In one small square room in the rear of the Ashfield Historical Society, artist Jacqueline Cooper has captured the story of early European Jewish immigrants and their impact on the fashion industry in America. Far from a dry history lesson, the exhibit is brushed with artistic flare to create a narrative that is as visually stimulating as it is informational.

Titled “Follow the Thread,” the exhibit weaves together two centuries of American Jewish culture with the evolution of the garment industry. From the stiff hoop skirt and gripping corsets of the mid-19^th century to the flowery fabrics of the 1960s, artist Jacqueline Cooper has illustrated this history through words, photos and the clothing itself.

Cooper— a former fashion designer turned photographer and now historian—says she remembers telling a friend that she was considering a multi-media Holocaust exhibit when the friend interjected, “there’s more to the Jewish people than that.” The idea for the exhibit was born. Rather than casting the Jews as victims, she would underscore their role as leaders and innovators in the fashion industry.

She found that Jewish immigrants had introduced standardized sizes so that clothing could be mass produced and available to the masses. Rather than custom tailoring each piece, someone could walk into a department store and pick up a shirt in a small, medium or large. Levi Strauss, a Jewish immigrant from Germany, was the first to manufacture the blue jean in the late 19^th century originally for coal miners.

Cooper has employed a range of mediums to tell the story like a scrapbook with a third dimension. Photos collages compliment text on each of the placards, which are arranged in order from life in the pogroms of Eastern Europe to the spirited 1960s in the United States.

The draw of the exhibit is the garments themselves, which hang from the walls and are displayed on manikins around the room. The clothes are a mix of vintage pieces from Cooper’s collection as well as others that have been loaned and one that Cooper sewed from fabric made in the 1930s.

Hoop cage skirts of the 1860s balloon from the waist to the ankle like an exoskeleton on the manikins. A knee-length pink dress with white lace fanning out at the bust looks as if a character from the film Grease could have worn it to the prom. There are overcoats, corsets, top hats and a woman’s bathing suit from the 1920s that looks more like a wet suit than what you might see donned at the beach today.

As Cooper tours her own exhibit on this Saturday morning, she is interrupted numerous times by friends and strangers praising her work. “Thanks, do you want to model for me?” is usually her response. In conjunction with the exhibit, Cooper is orchestrating a fashion show that will bring to life a century of style and history.

On August 8 at the Ashfield Community Hall, models ranging from age nine to 93 will sport designs from the 1860s to the 1960s. The show will feature different pieces than the ones on display at the Historical Society and will be accompanied by music from the time period.

The story begins with life for Jews in small, poor communities in Europe and tracks their migration in the millions to New York City beginning in the 1820s. In the struggle to survive in the chaos of the big city, the majority sought work in the fashion industry as tailors, dressmakers and when the Civil War broke out, as producers of military uniforms.

Cooper focuses on the contributions Jewish women have made to the garment industry as designers, sales people and marketing engineers. When the men went to war, the women had to step up and fill their positions. “Look, it’s even a woman designer,” she says enthusiastically, as she points to the label of a lavender short-sleeved dress from the early 1950s that hangs on the wall. She accredits the women for continuing cultural traditions as life changed shape for the immigrants.

Woven into the exhibit is much of Cooper’s own past. Her grandparents were European Jews from Odessa, Ukraine and Minsk, Belarus who migrated first to the Lower East Side before finally settling in a rural farmhouse in Great Barrington, Mass. Today, Cooper lives and works out of a farmhouse in Ashfield, Mass. that she postulates is similar to the one her grandparents lived in in the early 20^th century.

Worked into the exhibit are traces of Cooper’s own mother. There is a photo of her mother modeling a dress around the time of World War II and displayed in a glass case is one of her mother’s strapless corsets.

As Cooper explains the significance of each piece with great affection, her experience in the fashion industry is evident. She often wears the vintage dresses from her own collection, she says, though today as she visits the Historical Society, she sports loose green pants and a colorful blouse, her graying curls hanging freely to her shoulders.

Cooper grew up in Great Barrington, Mass., where her grandparents settled in the 19^th century. She attended Syracuse University where she received a degree in fine arts. After a short bout in the advertising industry, she left for the world of fashion.

Cooper describes herself as “an artist who found a niche in apparel.” Cooper worked for more than three decades as a self-taught fashion designer, first in Boston and then from her farmhouse in Ashfield. She owned her own label, twice, and sold her pieces to stores in New York City, she says. In 2004, she left the commercial fashion industry in search of producing art that she describes as “more from the heart.”

She decided to go back to school at Greenfield Community College and graduated in 2006 with a degree in media arts. This encompassed video, digital printing and her passion, photography, but she was unsure what she would do with the degree.

Her first project came to life when Cooper was invited to photograph a meeting of Ashfield’s oldest women. Cooper was there to capture the women’s portraits as they told stories about what Ashfield was like when they were young and sipped tea. Throughout the winter, Cooper visited each of the elderly women in their homes and asked them to tell a story on a single page, hand written, about their relationship to the town. She paired their portraits and their stories and put together an exhibit that offered a glimpse of Ashfield decades prior, called “Ashfield Elderly Women’s High Tea.”

At one home, the woman’s husband wanted to tell his story of life as a soldier during World War II, which led Cooper to her next project. History was never one of her strengths, but Cooper promised to come back, she says, and she did. She has now compiled the stories and portraits of 17 World War II veterans in the area in an exhibit called, “World War II Veterans’ Voices.” Her next endeavor is to take the exhibit into schools, where students can learn from the real life stories of veterans.

More than a year after Hurricane Katrina demolished parts of New Orleans, Cooper went south to photograph the Lower Ninth Ward and other affected districts and put together a photo collection called, “15 Months after the Levies Broke.” For three years, Cooper has continued a project called, “Creating a Sense of Belonging,” which introduces residents with Alzheimer’s disease at an assisted living center to multi-media storytelling.

Her work with World War II veterans spawned the idea for “Follow the Thread,” which has been in the works for more than a year and a half. In January of 2009, Cooper began applying for grants and spent the next year researching, learning and compiling what she found. She has received funding from the Y’DIYAH Memorial Fund, Greenfield Community College Diversity Fund, Herald Grinspoon Foundation and cultural councils in Ashfield, Shelbourne, Rockland and Charlemont.

The exhibit is available at the Ashfield Historical Society, which is open on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and by appointment, until October 11. The fashion show is scheduled begin at 4 p.m. on August 8.

Mosaic Cafe Review

2010-07-14T16:27:00.000-07:00

A Mosaic of Moroccan and Mediterranean Fare

This article appeared in the July 15 issue of The Valley Advocate.

Link to article.

A small country that rounds the northwest corner of Africa and juts northward just nine miles from the coast of Spain, Morocco is a fusion of European, African and Middle Eastern influences. Stroll through the bazaars and watch as Moroccans sip their mint tea, conversing in French and listening to the Spanish guitar as it echoes through the majestic open air markets. Breathe in the aroma of the couscous and tajine stews that have been served for centuries.

At a cafe just off Main Street in Northampton, owner Hafid Assab has concocted a menu inspired by the cuisine of his native Morocco. His restaurant, Mosaic Cafe, offers Moroccan- and Mediterranean-style dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Mosaic is nothing fancy; the menu is written on a chalkboard above the counter where you order and the specials board is a collage of laminated note cards. Assab strives to keep his food affordable; the most expensive item on the menu is $12.95. Order your meal, grab a number and wait for it to come to you.

The key to good Moroccan cooking is the spices. In the five months I spent living in Morocco's capital, Rabat, I watched as cumin, black pepper, saffron, chili powder, turmeric, ginger and cinnamon showered down in perfect accord onto just about everything I ate. At Mosaic, even my avocado salad, served with artichoke hearts, sunflower seeds, roasted green peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers and olives, was sprinkled with spices that complemented the vinaigrette dressing. The grilled lamb fillets in the lamb salad were tender and nicely seasoned as well.

Lunch is my favorite meal at Mosaic, with a variety of soups, salads, sandwiches and crepes to choose from. One of the more popular dishes is the Crepe Marseillaise, a crepe served with your choice of grilled chicken, lamb sausage or ground beef, with tomatoes, mushrooms, onions and Swiss cheese. Another is the soup served in a crepe bowl and drizzled with almond sauce. There are many fish and vegetarian options, such as the trout salad or the eggplant sandwich.

For dinner, the goat and lamb stews are solid choices. Both are cooked in broth with plenty of vegetables and served with rice or a baguette. To get the full Moroccan experience, try using chunks of bread held in your right hand to eat the stew. I would avoid the seafood paella, the only dish at Mosaic I have been disappointed with.

On a weekend morning, one of my favorite dishes is the sundried tomato omelet: sundried tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, goat cheese and home fries on the side. The French toast with cinnamon and honey is also a delicious option if you're feeling less adventurous.

An absolute must here is the Moroccan mint tea, either iced or hot. This green tea loaded with sugar and fresh mint leaves is the cornerstone of every gathering in Morocco. At Mosaic, you will be served hot tea in an authentic silver tea pot and painted glasses. You can also choose from fresh carrot juice, smoothies and milkshakes.

Mosaic offers both indoor and outdoor dining. Bring your own bottle of wine and Assab will provide you with glasses and a corkscrew. If you have room for dessert, the pastries displayed on the counter—baklava, bread pudding topped with raisins, and classic Moroccan cookies called fekkaz and ghriba—are all made in-house.

Assab opened Mosaic Cafe just over a year ago after working as manager of his brother's restaurant, Amanouz Cafe, on Main Street. Assab says he tries to bring out the Mediterranean element at Mosaic while Amanouz serves classic Moroccan dishes. In Casablanca, where he grew up, Assab helped his mother in the kitchen on Fridays as she cooked mountains of her famous couscous for their family of nine. At Mosaic, Assab ensures that the food lives up to the same standard.

Strawbale Cafe Review

2010-06-30T22:08:00.000-07:00

This article appeared in the June 10, 2010 issue of The Valley Advocate.

Link to article.

NORTHAMPTON, Mass., June 10, 2010-- On a weekend morning when the sun is shining and you aren't forced to grab stale coffee as you jet out the door to work, enjoy a leisurely drive out of town past scenic landscapes to Strawbale Cafe in Westhampton, a weathered cabin on the edge of a family-owned farm. The plastic sign that hangs from the wood panels mirrors the casual, rustic feel of the breakfast cafe within. Seated at a table below the exposed wood beams and between the earth-toned walls, I felt like a guest in the kitchen of the Aliosi family's farmhouse.

The "truth window" carved out in a corner of the dining room and the occasional stalk of straw poking through the wall are the only signs of what makes this structure unique and what gives credence to its name. Behind the plaster walls are 355 bales of straw. Purchased from a Pioneer Valley grower and stuffed between two layers of a natural mud plaster, the straw makes for excellent insulation, according to co-owner Leo Aliosi.

The Strawbale Cafe is one of a handful of buildings in the state that have opted for the eco-friendly design.
The menu at Strawbale features local produce, and local means it was grown in the back yard. Fruits and vegetables picked from the garden are worked into classic breakfast favorites. The zucchini in my flavorful zucchini bread French toast was harvested from the garden last year and the syrup that had me scraping my plate for every last drop was bottled in the sugaring house next door.

The Florentine Eggs Benedict were equally tasty, with a creamy hollandaise sauce over a heap of fresh tomatoes, spinach and poached egg. Served with it were the key to any good breakfast: well-seasoned homefries on the side. The plates are simple, as is the d?cor, but excellent service and creative food combinations set the meal apart from the average breakfast at a diner. Other house favorites include baked eggs (with cottage cheese, shredded cheese and "other secret ingredients") and baked oatmeal (with eggs, raisins and cranberries).

Outside the dining room, Strawbale is surrounded by 150 acres of farmland and forest that customers are encouraged to explore. Strawbale tends to be much busier during syrup-making season, from February until April, when the tubes that run from the Maples to the sugaring house are filled with fresh sap and Leo is showing tour groups how he makes his prized maple syrup. For those of us looking for a low-key breakfast, off-season means less of a wait and a fuller menu. But even then, Leo is happy to show those who are interested around.

Strawbale Cafe and the surrounding Hanging Mountain Farm is a family-run business to the core. Leo bought the farm from his father after having spent his childhood working on what was then a dairy farm. In 2001, Anita and Leo began what would be more than four years of laboring to complete the cafe under the direction of their youngest daughter Missa, an architect. Friends and family would gather on weekends to pack straw; eventually Anita brushed the mud concoction on the inner walls.

Leo and Anita continue to bottle the syrup that has poured from the maples on the farm for more than 100 years, making enough to sell and to use in the restaurant for the rest of the year. When the cafe first opened, the couple served a buffet breakfast and the dining room was only open during sugaring season until one day, as the season was coming to a close, a neighbor asked, "You wouldn't mind keeping it open, would you?" So they did.

Today the Strawbale Cafe is open year-round on Fridays and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Sundays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. A range of classic breakfast dishes is served in addition to daily specials like my zucchini bread French toast. On this particular Sunday afternoon, a family is laughing around the unlit campfire and Leo has pulled up a chair to joke with customers before checking to make sure our meal was satisfying.

As the weekend hours come to a close, Anita is pulling the few stray weeds from the garden in the front and Leo is showing me where old taps had been pulled from the maple tree. He points to a small fruit and vegetable display near the road and reminds me that in this neighborhood, the Strawbale is still a farm stand—just a farm stand that has grown to include a kitchen, a dining room and a satisfying breakfast."

Rape-aXe

2010-06-30T22:02:00.000-07:00

This article appeared on GlobalPost's homepage on April 11, 2010 and was published by The Huffington Post that same day.

Link to GlobalPost article.

Link to Huffington Post article.

BOSTON — Sonnet Ehlers looked into the eyes of the rape victim and saw nothing.

“Her eyes looked like marbles, totally dead,” said Ehlers, who was working as a medical researcher at Kimberley Hospital in the Northern Cape of South Africa when a 20-year-old South African woman was being treated for rape injuries.

But Ehlers remembers clearly one sentence the young woman uttered: “If only I had teeth down there.”
South African Ehlers made a promise to herself to "do something about this.” Forty years later, the result is the Rape-aXe, an anti-rape device with "teeth."

Rape-aXe is a flexible polyurethane condom-like tube that fits into the woman's body. Rows of jagged plastic hooks line the inside of the tube — bent backward like teeth in a shark’s mouth — and lodge in a perpetrator's penis upon entry. The perpetrator can withdraw from the woman, but the Rape-aXe remains clamped on. Trying to pull it off will cause discomfort.

Though the device causes great distress, it does not draw blood, Ehlers says, which is crucial in areas where HIV/AIDS rates are high. A man must seek medical attention to have the Rape-aXe removed. Until then, he cannot urinate, essentially tagging him until he gets to a hospital, she explains. Ehlers says she consulted an engineer, gynecologist and psychologist on the design.

Grace Faraja, 29, has lived through the constant fear of being raped. She lived most of her life in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, before being granted refugee status and moving to New Hampshire in 2008. She says that if she were back in Congo, she would wear the Rape-aXe.

“What people need is this condom,” Faraja says. Especially when women are most vulnerable, at night and when traveling from one town to the next, she says. “When men hear about this,” Faraja says, “they will be scared. They won’t know who has protected herself and who not.”

But some critics are doubtful that the Rape-aXe will benefit women in conflict zones, where rape is used systematically as a weapon of war.

“Maybe that makes sense in the First World,” says filmmaker Lisa F. Jackson, who interviewed rape victims and rapists in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and produced "The Greatest Silence." Jackson estimates that more than 200,000 women and girls have been raped since the civil war began in 1998.
“But if a guy is raping you, and there’s five other guys waiting to take their turn … do you think he’s going to take that well? They’re going to mutilate that woman. It’s just a provocation.”

The Rape-aXe is a latex sheath containing sharp barbs that latch onto the penis when a man tries to rape a woman. The device can only be removed surgically.

Sonnet Ehlers devised the Rape aXe after working with rape victims in South Africa.
(Courtesy of Sonnet Ehlers)

But Ehlers, who created the device, says that the benefits outweigh the risks. What is already a violent and often deadly incident cannot be made more violent, she says. "I'm trying to get these women a moment, that's all."
Women already have been arming themselves with homemade defenses — a razor blade hidden in a vaginal sponge or razor blades glued to the inside of a plastic cap that is worn in the vagina. Some South African women have taken to wearing bicycle shorts so short and so tight that cannot be yanked off, Ehlers says.
In South Africa, which has been dubbed the rape capital of the world, women are begging for access to the device, Ehlers says. A 2006 Interpol study found that a woman is raped every 17 seconds in South Africa. A separate study found that of more than 20,000 reports of rape across South Africa, only 8 percent led to a conviction, according to a 2009 Amnesty International report.
With the Rape-aXe, “at least the police have this man,” Ehlers says. “But now he rapes, now at least the possibility of getting him sooner is there before he kills more women.”
But the device remains unavailable to the public. In fact, its “teeth” have yet to bite into a real penis, though it has been tested without the barbs attached. One man from the U.K. has offered to be the first, though his motives are unclear.
Ehlers will not release the Rape-aXe until she is able to first distribute the devices to South African women. She plans to distribute 30,000 at no cost, and hopefully before the World Cup games in June, she says. They will cost less than $2 each thereafter.
"Women try to fight, to save themselves, but you can’t fight men," Faraja says. "You don’t know when they’re going to rape you, you can’t walk with a weapon. It comes abruptly ... It’s done in darkness."

Wartime Rape

2010-06-30T21:56:00.000-07:00

This article appeared on GlobalPost on April 11, 2010.

By Amanda Bailly and Sean Silbert

Link to article.

It happens on a walk to collect firewood, or in the dead of night asleep at home. Five soldiers against one woman in a secluded cornfield or in the center of town. A daughter raped in front of her family. A 2-year-old girl or a 90-year-old woman.

"Any time, any place, that’s what sex terrorism is about," says Lisa F. Jackson, a filmmaker who documented wartime rape in the Democratic Republic of the Congo during 2006 and 2007 in "The Greatest Silence." "It slams into women as they’re just living their lives.”

Machetes, rifles and grenades are common weapons in the arsenal of war. One less recognized, yet no less potent, is rape.

Rape against women is a routine instrument of war used to shred the fabric of the the village, the family and the woman's or girl's standing in her community, said Megan MacKenzie, who studies wartime rape at Victoria University in New Zealand and the at the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard University.
A Congolese rebel talks about raping women in "The Greatest Silence."
(Courtesy of Lisa F. Jackson)

Yet the issue is often overlooked by the press, she says. In December 2009, more than 300 people were massacred, and women and children were forced into sexual slavery in Democratic Republic of Congo, but reports trickled out just this week, according to Human Rights Watch and the United Nations.

The civil war in Sierra Leone — notorious for its brutal amputations — was notable for its crimes against women, yet too little attention was paid, says the United Nations journal "Africa Renewal."

In Sierra Leone, a conservative estimate says that around 250,000 of the women in this small West African country were raped during the civil war from 1991 to 2002. Sons were forced to rape their mothers at gunpoint. Family members were gathered and threatened with death if they didn't watch, and victims were told they would be killed if they cried. Some were forced into sexual slavery in Sierra Leone and other African nations.

Democratic Republic of the Congo is the latest spot on the war map to garner international attention for systematic rape. Since civil war broke out in 1998, more than 5 million people have died. Jackson estimates that more than 200,000 women and children have been raped and re-raped by government and rebel forces during the conflict.

“The walking dead,” Jackson calls them.

Read: Putting teeth in the fight against rape

Wartime rape is not limited to Africa. And it is not new. It has been reported in Sudan, Bosnia, Rwanda, Japan, Cambodia, Chechnya, Nepal, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Cyprus, Haiti, Liberia, Somalia, Uganda, Iraq and Afghanistan since the early 1900s.

The "Rape of Nanking" was infamous for the horrific forced prostitution of Korean, Chinese and Filipina women during World War II by Japanese imperialists. The International Military Tribunal of the Far East estimates that 20,000 women were systematically raped over six weeks during the 1937 Rape of Nanking, following the Japanese capture of that city when women, including infants and the elderly, were kidnapped from their homes, gang raped and explicitly mutilated when stabbed with bayonets or pierced by a bamboo stick.

Another 200,000 women were abducted and forced into prostitution as so-called "comfort women" in Japanese military brothels. Roughly 25 percent survived.

Seventy-three years later, the Rape of Nanking has been researched, documented and discussed in classrooms as one of the worst human rights abuses in history. It remains a serious source of controversy in Asian foreign relations today.

However, the weapon of rape persists.

In Colombia, the threat of rape against women and their daughters has been used by rebels to displace entire communities. Colombian women who speak out in their communities are targeted as a way to “shut them up,” Jackson says.

Rape "is effective in creating terror in the population that you're moving into," says Marianne Mollman of Human Rights Watch. "It's effective in humiliation of the enemy. It's effective in breaking down the social fabric that could help in keeping together the society that you're trying to break up."
Hundreds of thousands of women have been raped by rebels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In her documentary, "The Greatest Silence," Lisa Jackson talks to both victims and rapists.
(Courtesy of Lisa F. Jackson)

Jackson, who interviewed admitted rapists in her documentary, "The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo," says it is less of a calculated strategy of war.

To them, she says, “it’s a right…these women are barely human anyway.”

Corinne Dufka, a well-known researcher with the Human Rights Watch Africa Division, has interviewed many of the assailants.

“I needed sex and she was there,” Dufka recalls one high level combatant saying.

In Sierra Leone, about 90,000 girls between 15- and 17-years-old have HIV/AIDS, transmitted by their rapist, and in some cases, to the babies fathered by the rapist. Society is often unsympathetic. Men do not accept children of the rapist, says Mackenzie, and families will often slight the woman’s character. Some women marry their rapist to regain acceptance into their society.

Men are sporadic victims of men in conflict scenarios, as well. Men who are raped are forever humiliated, Mackenzie says. They are seen within their cultures as reduced to the subordinate status of a woman, where he remains humiliated and debased.

In many parts of the world, rape casts a shadow over both its victims and their community. The impact is so profound that women from a neighborhood or region known for widespread rape have been stigmatized by being from that area.

In some Guatemalan regions, half the children bear the surname "soldier" or "terrorist" because the mother knows only that she was impregnated by a soldier or a member of an insurgent group. The child grows up with that scarlet letter attached to them.

"One can sort of imagine what that does to a society," says Mollman. "This is not something that is overcome within two years, three years, or five years. This is something that has a lasting impact."

But this is exactly the obstacle to holding global attention: Before one nation can be healed, another is in need, MacKenzie says.

"It's very difficult not only for the media but also for funders, big organizations, even researchers, to stay focused on an area [for] two, three, four, five, six years after a conflict. You just see their attention focused on another region of the world," she says.

Weak or absent prosecutions in many countries deter women from speaking out.

Eight years after a 13-year-old girl selling peanuts was raped in Sierra Leone — and her rapist identified by a passerby who intervened — the case remains undecided. The girl has been to court 13 times, Dufka says.

“People always ask me, don’t you think they should have education programs that teach boys to respect girls?” Jackson says. “I say you put a boy in jail for 20 years for disrespecting a woman…that sends a signal.”

In June 2008, the United Nations Security Council voted to classify rape as a weapon of war.

“There are lots of little pockets of people trying to bring awareness, but the darkness is so overwhelming,” Jackson says.

Narrative: Native Americans living in the 21st century

2010-06-30T21:53:00.000-07:00

Keeping the circle whole: American Indians living in the 21st Century

BOSTON, May 16, 2010-- The sacred circle has been moved inside the gymnasium because of the rain and there is no sacred fire because the fire code won't allow it. Instead of cheering sports fans, the bleachers are now a sea of braided hair, feather headdresses and leather hide, and the gym floor has been covered so that the wax won’t dull from the hundreds of moccasins that will dance across it during the powwow. A tradition as long-lived as the American Indians themselves, the powwow has evolved to fit modern times. Elders share stories and artists sell crafts, but all eyes are on the circle where costumed dancers will compete for a cash prize.

The crowd rises to its feet, and the emcee calls the head dancers to the front of the arena with his microphone. A ring of feathers fans out like a peacock from “Greatwolf’s” blue regalia, white paint masking half of his round face. Next to him, “Gentle Rain’s” stern face is framed with long black braids that reach down to her waist with fur extensions.

“And next, let’s welcome the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s powwow princess, Chelsie “Dancing Blanket” Miranda,” the emcee announces. Cheers and then silence. “Chelsie Miranda." The applause turns into whispers.

“Chelsie? Has anyone seen Chelsie?”

A spectator runs into the hall to find Chelsie huddled against a wall fixing her hair and talking with her non-Native friend that she had brought along for the day. She throws her crown on top of her pigtail braids and bolts into the gym, slowing her steps as the crowd stares down at her from the bleachers. She takes her place behind the head dancers, the corners of her mouth pursing into a half-smile.

With the beat of the drum, the three tap one foot then the other and move counterclockwise to begin the first of many intertribal dance processions.

As the parade moves like a slow Conga line around the Brown University gym, Natives of all ages and dress emerge from the bleachers, craft stands and the food vendor selling Indian tacos and bison burgers, to join the circle. Some of the men squat low while the women twirl their shawls, but Miranda's hands are at her side and she walks with only a slight bounce.

There is a man in his twenties wearing leather boots and a loin cloth, a single braid hanging from the back of his shaved head. A middle-aged man wears a skinned fox down his back, the fox’s eyes staring out above his own. Girls not older than five dressed in sparkling regalia weave in and out of the circle. Some wear t-shirts with phrases like, “Our Real Founding Fathers,” and other younger dancers are dressed in their street clothes and Nikes, dancing the steps alongside the elders in deer hides and moccasins.

While many from the older generation are moving closer to the ways of their ancestors, their children and grandchildren have other concerns. Today, the American Indian population is facing a new kind of threat to their way of life. Cell phones, iPods, computers and Facebook and what the elders fear is less of Mother Earth, Grandfather Sun and Grandmother Moon. Like the powwow tradition, the Natives have also evolved.
_______________________________

Lee “Brave Heart” Edmonds, 75, and Harry “Hawk” Edmonds, 74, were also at the Brown powwow and today, several weeks later, they have made the trip to Harvard University. As at every powwow, the two are side by side, though Hawk, several inches taller than Lee, is the unspoken leader of the two. They wear matching sand-colored pants and knee-length tops lined with fringe that they crafted from elk hides before the start of powwow season. Both wear glasses on their tanned faces and have their hair pulled back. Lee often bellows a deep laugh and Hawk rarely cracks a smile.

They make their way around to greet nearly every Native with an “aho,” or hello in the Pokanoket Tribe's native dialect, but they remember a time when were out of touch with the traditions.

“Twenty years ago, we weren’t into our culture as much as we are when we've gotten older because it was pretty much taken away from us,” Hawk says.

“But we always had bows and arrows and stuff that we used, that we were part of,” Lee cuts in.

“And my mother always cooked Indian dishes like succotash,” Hawk says. “And corn bread,” Lee adds.

The two are from the Pokanoket Tribe of Cape Cod, and grew up in East Providence, where most of the population was white. Those who weren’t fell into one category: colored. “We were called Negro, nigger, go back to Africa—right, Hawk?” Lee says. But he never lost sight of who he was, he says.

After returning from the Korean War where Lee served in the United States military, and where he adopted his Indian name Brave Heart, Lee remembers not being able to sit in the same section of a restaurant as the white kids in town. Rather than further alienating them, their parents never forced the traditions onto them. They would attend powwows, but in their street clothes, and they would only go to secluded spots to sing and dance with relatives.

Mid-sentence, Hawk is tapped on the shoulder by a stranger. “I’d like to get a picture,” the man says with no apology as he points to his family, all dressed in their jeans and t-shirts, and ready to pose for a photo with the costumed men. “Okay, let me go get my brother,” Hawk says, as if he had rehearsed this scene many times before.

__________________________

Miranda, 18, is a founding member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe's youth council, a group of about a dozen teenagers who wanted to have a say in the future of the tribe, which she says is growing in size. Tonight the meeting house was closed, so instead they convene nearby in Miranda's aunt's kitchen.

When Miranda steps out from behind the wheel of her black SUV, her jacket, embroidered with a Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe logo, is the only indication that she is a Native. She has tanned skin, a mix of her Wampanoag mother and her Cape Verdean father, and dark hair. She wears tight jeans, a top with a swooping neckline and hoop earrings, her hair spilling from a bun on top of her head-- a far cry from the single braid down her aunt's back and feather tattoo peeking out from the sleeve of her Aunt Vanessa "Slow Talk" Mendes' t-shirt.

The group circles around the table to discuss the night's agenda. Tostito chips and salsa share the table with a pair of moccasins in need of new soles and the jawbone of an animal that would be made into a spear for a class project. Sage burns on the counter and the aunt's dance regalia hangs on a mannequin in the living room opposite the flat screen television. The boys have ponytails and the girls each have acrylic nails.
The council also mentors the younger "Wamps" on how to balance being a Native with the other distractions they face. "One foot in the shoe, one in the moccasin," Miranda jokes.

They pick berries, do crafts and plant gardens and talk about healthy living and sobriety, but the balance can be difficult at times. Brian "Moskwetan" Weeden, who wears a shirt with the profile of an Indian rendered in homage to Shepard Fairey's iconic Barack Obama campaign poster, recalls a non-Native teacher who repeatedly called him a girl; Weeden has had a ponytail since he was a child, like male and female Natives have for centuries.

Miranda, now a senior at Dennis- Yarmouth Regional High School, is one of few Native students in her high school and was often the subject of intrigue at school. "Bring me back something Native!" her field hockey coach would say when she had to again miss practice for a tribal event.
_______________________________

On a sunny spring day, the faint sound of drumming can be heard from Harvard Square in Cambridge, Mass., which is bustling with shoppers and restaurant-goers and street performers. Tucked just out of sight, behind historic stone buildings and iron gates, the scene is again one of feathers and animal hides. Another weekend, another powwow. The spectators, who were likely intrigued by the sound of the drums and the rare sight of a man in a loin cloth in Harvard Square, outnumber the Natives; the circle is smaller and still no fire in the center.

"If you are with your boyfriend, if you are texting, stop," the emcee says into the microphone, summoning the dancers to the circle to start the event.

Quantah' "Rose" Eleazer, with braided white hair, a walking cane, and lips sunken with age against her gums, commands respect as one of the oldest at the powwow. She will say only that she is older than 75, and does so through the voice synthesizer she holds to her throat as a result of years of smoking cigarettes. A member of the Shinnecock Tribe, she traveled from Patchoque in Long Island, New York, to be at the powwow.

She alternates between the shade of a tree and the circle of folding chairs where she holds the hand of her 13-year-old granddaughter, who is videotaping the dancers with her other hand. As she looks out on the courtyard with eyes as blue as the sky, she remembers being young and dancing in the circle. "I never competed," she says. "I did it to strengthen my own spirit." However, like the Edmonds brothers, Eleazer hid this from the outside world.

When she was in school in the 1940s, she recalls being one of only four Native kids, and they tried not to stick out. "It was kind of a secret you didn't tell people," she says. Her parents always taught her to be proud of who she is despite the circumstances. When she wasn't in school or around her non-Native friends, she remembers going to powwows that looked nearly identical to today's. The dancers competed for less money and there was less sparkle on their regalia, but they always drew a crowd.

She says that today, it's harder for young Natives to hold on to the traditions because they are exposed to other ways of life, new technology and what she calls temptation. But she's not worried. "[The traditions] never change," she says.
_________________________

Courtney "Morning Gift" Powell-Turner, 22, is also at the Rhode Island powwow. With her light skin and blue eyes, the one-shouldered dress and fur boots she wears could almost be mistaken for a woman in a Pocahontas costume on Halloween. For her, this has been the biggest obstacle to growing up as a Native. She has faced discrimination of a new kind: people who deny that she is a Native because of her appearance, which she gets from her non-Native mother.

Powell-Turner is a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, like Miranda, but she graduated in 2006 from Mashpee Public High School where the majority of the students were Native. She also worked at Plimoth Plantation, where she dressed in the regalia she wears today and reenacted the ways of the Wampanoag people in the traditional weetu longhouse. Even there she encountered what she calls racism. "You have blue eyes. You're not a Native," visitors said to her on multiple occasions, expecting the high cheek bones and long, straight black hair characteristic of Natives from the West.

Powell-Turner, however, is reverting back to the lifestyle of her Wampanoag ancestors.

"Everything was great before colonization," she says as she steps into the hall to rest. "The things people do for fun now, we did for work then: gardening, fishing, sewing, hunting." Powell-Turner weaves baskets and belts. She takes classes to learn the dialect, which was almost lost after the Europeans forced the Wampanoags to adopt English.

At the powwow she is joined by her boyfriend, a dark-skinned, dark-haired Native from the Narragansett Tribe. Powell-Turner says that it's easier dating someone from within her circle. The two attend powwows together, but they also go out to dinner. She's not afraid to flaunt her Native side to the outside world. "I'll go right to the mall looking like this," she says, looking down at her regalia. "And I look good."
__________________________

It's Miranda's turn to dance and she can't find her feathers. With seconds to go, Miranda locates the essential prop, clips a feather pendant to one pigtail and runs down the bleachers to her place in the circle with five other women. With the beat of the drum, all rise to the balls of their feet, left hands planted on their waists, feathers in their right hands. Their backs straight, they lift one knee and then other, tapping the floor with their feet and bouncing to the rhythm. The rows of metal trinkets on their regalia fly up and down, adding to the cacophony of drumming and bells and giving meaning to the name of the dance, the jingle.

After the dance is over, Miranda, whose forehead now glistens with a hint of sweat, returns to her place on the bleachers. She checks her cellphone for missed calls and again returns to the question that has been the theme of many conversations today, whether to go to the club in Boston tonight or not.

"I'm not really that competitive," she had said before going on stage. "Winning is nice, though. And I am kind of broke." But Miranda said herself, competition was not the way of her ancestors and is a more recent phenomenon.

She begins to pack her things to go home as they announce over the loudspeaker that she has won second place in the women's jingle competition, which means a 200 dollar prize.
"Oh, that's me," she says, her expression unchanged.
_____________________________

Back on the step, tucked just out of the sun beating down on the crowd at the Harvard powwow, Lee and Hawk Edmonds find little time to rest with the steady flow of people approaching them to say hello or to introduce themselves. One woman, who has met them before, asks to take their picture. "You're on Facebook, right?" she says to Hawk, and offers to send him the photo. "Yeah, I have Facebook," he replies.

His Facebook profile picture is of the two brothers arm in arm in their matching regalia. Quantah' Eleazer is also on the social networking site. Her picture is a black and white photo of a Native woman with similar features, likely a relative, posing beside a tree. Courtney Powell-Turner's Facebook picture is of her dressed in her regalia squatting behind a pile of sticks. From the story of these individuals, who grew up in different times and in different places, a common thread weaves them together: unwavering pride in who they are.

The generations seem to be in different worlds and drifting apart, but below the surface, what is important has withstood the test of time. The youth respect their elders and are thankful to their Creator. They are proud to be American Indian today and proud of the ancestors in the spirit world who carved out the traditions centuries before.

Whether sporting full regalia in Harvard Square, or building a raft hidden from the public eye, being proud is what carries them. It's what moves the 75-year-old Lee to squat as low as the teenagers in the duck and dive dance and it's what drives Miranda to go to youth council meetings instead of field hockey practice. As Miranda's Aunt Vanessa said as she watched over the youth council meeting, "same values, just harder to see."

Court Narrative

2010-06-30T21:49:00.001-07:00

BOSTON —Detective Thomas F. Connolly was feeling antsy. It was a summer evening in Boston and he had been cooped up in the station listening to the police radio for nearly five hours when he decided to get fresh air. He parked his car alongside Copley Square, and in his jeans and nylon jacket, the 25-year police veteran became one of the many strolling the square after dark in late August.

“Hey you,” a voice called from the benches set back from the sidewalk where the leaves on the trees eclipse the light from the street lamps. “Hey you,” it barked again, only louder this time as the figure rose from his seat, his fingers wrapped around a brown paper bag. Unsure if he were the target, Connolly turned to face the commotion.

“What are you looking at?” the stranger demanded, as he emerged from the shadows and advanced toward the detective. “I’m lookin’ at you,” Connolly replied, his Boston accent unmistakable. Years of training taught Connolly that he wanted his hands free, so he tucked his radio into his pocket.

As the man crept toward him, Connolly backed away, careful to keep several feet between him and the encroaching stranger.

Something rustled to Connolly’s right. He turned.

As he did, the stranger struck Connolly’s left temple with his fist and as the detective’s weight shifted, his foot got caught, either on a raised brick or an exposed root, and he was on the ground. Another police officer soon biked to Connolly’s rescue and together the two cuffed the man and escorted him—Connolly hobbling from his now broken right leg—to the police car where he was taken to jail.
______________________

More than seventeen months after the alleged incident, a jury of eight is now asked to determine whether on the evening of August 29, 2008, the defendant knew that Detective Connolly was a police officer when he struck him in the face.

Today, the defendant, Mark Leonardi, sits on the edge of his seat, in a bowtie and dirt-covered sneakers, as he listens to Detective Connolly recount the incident. He spits heated words at the public defender sitting beside him when Connolly responds with the short, sardonic responses that marked his testimony. He scribbles notes and shakes his head in obvious disagreement as Connolly recounts his version of what happened on August 29, 2008 before the small crowd at Boston Municipal Court.
Leonardi remembers the incident a bit differently.

There were no small children playing in the fountain. In fact, the fountain had been turned off and only a shallow pool of water remained at that hour. And Leonardi was not in possession of a brown paper bag, he says. He is alcohol-free and points to his wrinkle-free face as proof.

Leonardi had been homeless since his grandmother died two years earlier and on that summer evening was sitting on the benches at Copley Square waiting to meet a friend when he noticed Connolly. Straight ahead was a grey-haired man, a little shorter than the 5-foot-10-inch Leonardi, staring directly at Leonardi.

“What are you looking at?” Leonardi recalls asking. At that point, Leonardi says, he “made the mistake” of getting off the bench and approaching the stranger. As he came closer, Leonardi says, the man made a point to reach across the front of his windbreaker—whether to insinuate that he was in possession of a weapon, or, as Leonardi proposes, to provoke an altercation, is unclear.

So he hit him. As he did, a radio and handcuffs crashed the bricks beneath the men—both of whom remained standing throughout the incident, Leonardi says.
Leonardi was in shock. “You’re a cop?,” he asked in awe.

“Don’t weep about it now,” Leonardi recalls the man responding.
________________

Leonardi resembles Charlie Chaplin had spent a few years on the street, but with a thinner, wider mustache and sporting a green jumpsuit instead of a coat and tails. He is now seated in the visiting room of the Massachusetts Correctional Institute at Concord.

When he breaks into laughter and opens his mouth wide to emphasize a point, the dark gaps of missing teeth are obvious. He curses and snorts his mucus without apology. Yet he is courteous, and smiles at the children as they run past him and into their daddies’ arms.

Leonardi has a long and violent history. He is 50 now, and reflects on how today, the prison is much more crowded than when he was there back in 1979. Leonardi has been in and out of—but mostly in—the Massachusetts prison system for the past 24 years.

He describes stealing cars and urinating in public. He admits to beating people up, once with a metal tool. For the past 15 years, Leonardi has suffered from crippling seizures. When asked the name of his condition, he points to the scar on his forehead—a souvenir from the time he flew through the windshield after a high-speed chase with police that landed him in a coma for several days. Different prisons, dirty cops, deserving victims but one common theme—his actions were justified and the system is flawed.

But in this instance, he makes a convincing argument.

Michael Roitman, Leonardi’s court-appointed defense attorney, argued, though his point was thrown out by the judge, Thomas Horgan, that there is more than one surveillance camera that likely captured the incident on film. Copley Square is after all, one of the most frequented spots in the city. If the events unfolded as the detective recounts, then why wouldn’t the prosecution introduce this indisputable evidence?

According to public records, Detective Connolly received $21,924.57 for ‘injury’ in 2008—presumably for the initial treatment and several months of physical therapy in the eight months before Connolly was able to return to work. Leonardi postulates that after a recent surgery on the same leg, financial compensation may have been a motivating factor. Connolly declined to comment at the courthouse and did not immediately return phone calls.

_______________

The jury acquitted Leonardi on all three charges: assault and battery of a public official, assault and battery and drinking in public. Leonardi says the judge appeared shocked by the verdict and even Roitman, the defense attorney, was unable to explain the rare instance when a jury found a homeless man’s word more credible than a veteran police detective’s.

However, today Leonardi is again behind bars awaiting trial for a new, separate assault and battery charge. He claims that the police officers fabricated evidence in the case to retaliate for hitting one of their fellow officers. Next week is Leonardi’s 51st birthday and he will most likely spend it in state prison, as he has many birthdays prior. He talks about starting a new life when he is eventually released, but says he doubts he’ll be a free man for long. After all, he says, “I’m now ‘the one who got Connolly’.”

Marshmallow Fluff Festival

2010-06-30T21:47:00.000-07:00

Thousands treated to sugary festival in Union Square

SOMERVILLE, Mass., September 23, 2009—It’s unlikely even Archibald Query himself envisioned the outlandish hairdos, costumes and Fluff-inspired poetry that was present at the Marshmallow Fluff festival, Saturday.

The annual “What the Fluff?” festival drew several thousand people to the site of the condiment’s creation, Union Square, to relish in the history and deliciousness of the gooey marshmallow spread invented by Query nearly a century ago.

Participants lined up for the various Fluff “shenanigans,” with activities like “Pin the ‘F’ on the Fluff Boy,” Fluff Lick-off and Fluff Fear Factor, as well as various competitions such as a cooking contest and a poetry contest.

Mark Hessler of Arlington, Mass., said he has been eating the “quirky” Marshmallow Fluff since he was a child, but never in the “startling” combination that was served at the Fear Factor tent.

“It just hits you,” Hessler said, though he appeared unaffected by the combination of wasabi power, barbeque sauce, peanut butter, ketchup and Fluff in his mouth. Tuna, sardines and spam were among the other ingredients at the tent.

For the more reserved Fluff fans, the return of the cooking contest drew 51 contestants to present their Fluffy creations to a panel of local celebrity judges. Among them was Alex Whitmore, owner of Taza Chocolate in Somerville, who returned for the third year as a judge.

“It gets difficult to stomach them after a while,” Whitmore said of the dozens of sweet treats he sampled. One of his favorites was the contest’s honorable mention, a chocolate peanut butter cup with layers of cookies and Fluff. The winning creation was avocado and Fluff flavored ice cream. The edibles were sold in a bake sale after the winner was announced.

Samuel Haynor of Cambridge, Mass., spent the latter portion of the event with a glob of Fluff on the verge of dripping from his long curls after receiving second place in the hair design competition. Haynor lost to a young boy who used pieces of bread to transform his head into a fluffernutter sandwich.

“I had had Fluff, but I hadn’t been raised on it like the Massachusetts people have been, I’ve heard,” said Haynor.

The event also featured live musical entertainment from Los Sugar Kings, Rex Complex and Jordan Valentine and the Sunday Saints, along with a cabaret-style performance by the Flufferettes.

Jordan Valentine, a performer and a neighborhood resident, said Fluff is not what brought her to the event. Valentine said it is the “great crowd” and planning that make Fluff Fest the best of many festivals in Union Square.

“I have to admit my secret shame is that I’ve never had Fluff,” said Valentine, “but I’m not going to leave today without a fluffernutter.”

The event, now in its fourth year, was organized by Union Square Main Streets as part of the ArtsUnion campaign aimed to boost the cultural and economic development of the square.

Mimi Graney, executive director of Union Square Main Streets, said the festival was initiated as a “fun, funky way to bring people to Union Square.” The festival has since grown exponentially, Graney said.

Brenna Sueltenfuss, manager of The Independent, a restaurant and pub in Union Square, said the festival is also a great way to generate extra money for local businesses. The Independent created special menu items, like this year’s Fluff Alexander cocktail and Fluff brownie dessert, to coincide with the festivities.

Boston Freedom Rally

2010-06-30T21:41:00.000-07:00

Thousands rally in celebration of reformed marijuana laws

BOSTON, September 21, 2009 —Event organizers hailed the 20th annual Boston Freedom Rally a “victory party” as thousands gathered in Boston Common, Saturday, for the first rally since Massachusetts residents voted to decriminalize small quantities of marijuana last November.

The goal of this year’s event was both to celebrate the victory and also to educate citizens about the policy change, said Keith Saunders, president of Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition (MassCann), the organization in charge of the event.

Last November, 65% of Massachusetts voters supported decriminalizing possession of less than an ounce of marijuana, which went into effect in January. Violators are now issued a $100 citation.

Scott Gacek, board member of MassCann, estimated that more than 50,000 people were present to enjoy an afternoon of live musical entertainment, guest speakers, food vendors, merchandise and the new, more relaxed marijuana laws.

Despite the change, a police presence was still visible.

Officer Rivers, who asked his first name be withheld because he was violating Boston Police Department policy by speaking to the media, said he had “no interest” in issuing citations at the rally, stating that “this is what Massachusetts voted for.”

“I’m not going to go out in the crowd looking for people,” Rivers said. “It’s decriminalized, how far are you really going to go?”

The purpose of police presence was to ensure the event was a peaceful one, according to both Rivers and Officer James Kenneally, a spokesperson for the Boston Police Department. Officers were seen clustered around the perimeter of the park and also strolling through the crowd. About 30 officers were assigned to the rally, according to Rivers.

Not all officers took a standoff approach, however. 136 civil citations were issued and three arrests were made for possession with intent to distribute. In recent years, Saunders said arrests averaged between 60 and 80 at the event.

Danny Danko, the senior cultivation editor at High Times Magazine and a returning speaker at Hempfest, said that although people will smoke to celebrate, “today is the day we should demonstrate what responsible use is.” Danko said he and the other organizers discouraged people under the age of 18 consuming marijuana and those distributing marijuana, which is still a criminal offense in Massachusetts.

Gacek said volunteers from MassCann were patrolling the crowds to ensure attendees were not selling marijuana.

Danko said in an interview before his first scheduled speech that his goal was to keep people motivated, saying that they “hadn’t crossed the finish line yet.” Danko is pushing for full legalization, though the new law is a step in the right direction, he said. As “responsible adults,” Danko said he believes it’s time for authorities to redirect their resources toward “more important things.”

Alison Murray, a freshman from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, said she was looking forward to returning to the rally this year because she anticipated a more “comfortable” atmosphere.

“It’s civil disobedience,” she said, as she passed a marijuana pipe around a circle of other young people. “They can’t ticket everyone.”

Saunders said MassCann is already preparing for next year, reaching out to music groups early in an effort to attract bigger names for the 2010 rally. The organization has already decided that next year the message will be to legalize the use of medicinal marijuana.

Court Story

2010-06-30T21:36:00.000-07:00

BOSTON, November 17, 2009 -- A man accused eight times in three years of violating a restraining order filed by a former girlfriend was sentenced Friday to one year in jail at the second of two court appearances that day.

The defendant, Gilberto Martinez of Roxbury, Mass., was arraigned before Judge Sally A. Kelly at Boston Municipal Court Friday morning after being arrested Tuesday for allegedly violating an abuse prevention order on November 1, 2009. Martinez is accused of approaching the home of the former girlfriend’s parents, which was forbidden by the terms of the restraining order.

Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Nicole Rimar said that Martinez had a 10-page Board of Probation record and requested $1,000 bail. She referred to a previous trial in which Martinez was acquitted for a similar offense, but stated that jurors in that trial expressed concern that Martinez continued to be a threat to his former girlfriend.

Richard N. Ivker, Martinez’s private defense attorney, called the case “troubling.”

In a statement to the court, Ivker claimed that of the eight complaints filed by Martinez’s former girlfriend, seven were dismissed because she failed to pursue the complaint by testifying in court. There were no other corroborating witnesses. The other complaint Martinez pleaded guilty to in February 2009, and received one year of probation, Ivker said in a phone interview on Sunday.

Ivker said in his statement to the court that he has two credible witnesses who will testify that Martinez was home on the night of the alleged violation.

“Women are given immediate validity when they come in saying they’re in fear,” Ivker said in an interview at the court house Friday. “There’s very little room to question credibility. If she were really afraid, why didn’t she show up to prosecute?” The prosecution said they have no reason to doubt the credibility of the woman.

Martinez was taken into custody Tuesday by Dedham police, just minutes after a jury issued a not-guilty verdict for a different restraining order violation on September 1, 2009, Ivker said on Sunday. Following the September arrest, the district attorney’s office labeled Martinez a “dangerous person” and he spent 35 days in jail before being released to house arrest October 30 due to a health condition, Ivker said. The newest alleged incident happened two days after he was released.

After setting a pre-trial conference date of December 22 and a pre-trial hearing date of January 21, Judge Kelly released the defendant so that Martinez could appear at South Boston District Court that afternoon. Martinez was sentenced to one year in jail after the parents of the alleged victim testified in court.
Ivker said Sunday that he doesn’t plan to appeal the decision.

Brookline Town Government

2010-06-30T21:34:00.000-07:00

BROOKLINE, Mass., October 18, 2009 -- The Brookline Planning and Regulation Subcommittee pledged unanimous support for car-sharing organizations (CSOs) but after heated debate among residents and officials, members still disagreed about how far new zoning laws should go to restrict the number parking spaces allotted for these vehicles.

After the committee unanimously approved minor changes to the verbiage of current zoning bylaws, angry town residents attacked a more controversial proposal that would reduce the number of parking spaces for CSO vehicles and would require a special permit for all spaces.

The proposed amendment, Article 13, if approved as it stands by Town Meeting, would render 16 of the 78 parking spaces now reserved for CSO vehicle use in Brookline illegal under a new zoning bylaw.

CSOs - Zipcar being the only company currently operating in Brookline- offer members the option to rent cars by the hour for a small fee along with a yearly membership charge. According to Kara Brewton, economic development director for Brookline, CSOs offer the most efficient solution for those who don’t own a vehicle but need to travel a medium-range distance.

Under the amendment, CSO parking spaces would be limited to 10 percent of each parking cluster in residential zones and one additional space may be granted to residences of four or more families with a special permit. In business zones, the limit would be six parking spaces.

Andrew Fischer, a Town Meeting member and a vocal CSO supporter, said he would like to see a zoning change that would allow CSOs to expand under “sufficient oversight,” but not by capping the number of spaces.

“To put a cap is going to hamper the growth of car-sharing,” Fischer said in a phone interview after the meeting.

Fischer called Zipcar the “singular significant change” to effectively reducing carbon emissions and dependency on foreign oil.

Committee members repeatedly affirmed that they too support the presence of CSOs in Brookline.

In a phone interview, Sean Lynn-Jones, another committee member, called Zipcar an “ideal solution” for individuals, families and the Town of Brookline.

However, Lynn-Jones cited three potential problems that could arise if adequate bylaws are not enacted. Parking spaces for CSOs could take over those now used by residents, there could be additional disturbances to neighbors and the noise generated from cleaning and maintaining the vehicles could aggravate neighbors.

The proposed bylaw amendments came about after the Building Department received a complaint from a resident at a Center Street apartment complex. The resident claimed that Zipcar parking spaces were taking over residents’ parking spaces, according to Walter White, Brookline’s Chief Building Inspector. White said that as of Tuesday, this was the only complaint he was aware of pertaining to CSOs.
Prior to the complaint, the 78 spaces, used by roughly 3,500 Zipcar members in Brookline, were largely ignored by town officials.

After a tie vote and the refusal by committee member Stanley Spiegel to cast his vote, the controversial article failed.

Since Thursday’s meeting, Spiegel drafted an additional amendment to Article 13, which would only eliminate 2 of the 78 CSO parking spaces and would disregard the 10 percent cap in some future cases.

Lynn-Jones said that the committee will present its findings, along with Spiegel’s amendment, to the full Advisory Committee on Tuesday, October 27. Powell also said that the subcommittee will recommend the special permit process be delegated to the Board of Selectman.

A final decision is expected to be made at Town Meeting in November.

Brookline Town Government

2010-06-30T21:32:00.000-07:00

BROOKLINE, Mass., October 27, 2009 -- The Town of Brookline took a step toward ridding the world of nuclear weapons at Tuesday’s joint Human Services and Schools Subcommittees meeting.

If Article 17 is passed by Town Meeting in November, Brookline will join the more than 3,000 other municipalities calling on the federal government to end nuclear proliferation. The campaign, organized by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, urges the highest tier of local government- in Brookline, the Board of Selectmen- to send a letter to the president and to Congress pressing for nonproliferation negotiations.

“Normally you wouldn’t think of cities in foreign affairs,” Human Services Chairman Francis Caro said. “Since cities are the targets, cities have to respond thoroughly.”

Sue Gracey, the petitioner and a member of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, said she brought the campaign to attention of the Advisory Board after hearing the story of one mayor who realized that there wasn’t a “blessed thing” he could do for the people of his city in the event of an attack.

“I believe in movements,” Gracey said after the meeting. “It’s not going to happen if we don’t do anything.”

Caro said that before Tuesday’s meeting, he and others were concerned about vague rhetoric in the original version of the petition and suggested it needed to be clarified and put in context. Rather than stating that Obama has called for support, the committee voted to include a quote from a speech the president gave in Prague in April, 2009, pledging America’s commitment to seeking a world without nuclear weapons.

Sytske Humphrey, a committee member, called the changes “wonderful” and said they omit questions she had had about the origins of the petition.

Not all were moved to action by the campaign.

Leonard Weiss, chairman of the Schools Subcommittee, was the only one of seven members to vote against the article. He expressed doubt that government would act on such claims.

“I’m not sure it puts everything in context,” he said. “I don’t think it’s the way the world is going.”

Another committee member, Estelle Katz, assured Weiss that the purpose of the petition is to set policymakers in a “new direction.”

The subcommittees voted to amend the language of the petition and to bring a favorable recommendation to the full Advisory Board. Later Tuesday evening, the Advisory Board also passed the petition, which it will now recommend at Town Meeting in November.

Cambridge and Newton have already adopted similar petitions.

Brookline Town Government

2010-06-30T21:30:00.000-07:00

Residents uneasy with neighborhood surveillance

BROOKLINE, Mass., September 30, 2009 -- Brookline Police Chief Daniel O’Leary defended the town’s six month old surveillance camera system on Tuesday against claims from the public that it infringes on their right to privacy and that there is no evidence that Brookline is any safer because of it.

The Brookline Police Department first announced last January a plan to install 12 surveillance cameras at major Brookline intersections, as part of a year-long trial that began in April and is funded by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The eight members present at the joint Public Safety and Human Services meeting, subcommittees of the Advisory Committee, voted against a warrant article seeking to cut all funding used to maintain the cameras, which would have rendered them inoperable beginning January 1.

Frank Farlow, the petitioner who presented the warrant article, began the meeting by criticizing the use of the cameras as an invasion of privacy. “They may be useful,” he said, “but they’re not right for Brookline.”

In the text of the article, Farlow argued that the purpose of the cameras is unclear and shifting, a burden on the budget and can lead to a much higher, undesirable level of surveillance. Farlow also argued that the cameras are linked to regional monitoring center, which O’Leary denied.

O’Leary responded by arguing that the department hasn’t strayed from the original goals to aid evacuation plans and local law enforcement, and that the cameras are part of a “stand-alone system.” Though other departments can view the footage, he said, they cannot control the cameras.

O’Leary also outlined the compromise the police department struck with the Board of Selectmen, limiting surveillance from 10p.m. to 6a.m., reducing daytime surveillance to special cases and turning a camera technically on Boston property over to the City of Boston, which is already in effect.

“I have listened,” O’Leary said of the discontent. “But it’s our job to do what’s best for Brookline.”

A common incident addressed by both sides throughout the meeting was the use of the surveillance cameras in the arrest of two men accused of raping a woman in Coolidge Corner in August. The chief of police said that the cameras were “critical” in identifying the two suspects quickly, but several Brookline residents questioned whether an arrest could have been made without the cameras.

Sarah Wunsch, an attorney with American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, spoke during the public comment period and questioned the use of surveillance not on the grounds that it is ineffective, but because she said she believes it has the “potential to become a very different society.”

“The debate was about what kind of town are we?” Wunsch said before the committees, referring to debate at a prior Town Meeting. “Where is this country going and do we want to go there?”

Susan Howards, an attorney in Brookline, addressed the committee heatedly, rejecting the notion that the cameras are an invasion of privacy. “How are we are going to hold the police department to a level of perfection- and we do in this town- and not give them the tools to do so?” Howards said.

Seven of the eight members, one abstaining, voted against Article 6, which was roundabout way to discontinue surveillance by eliminating funding for the electricity used to power the cameras from next year’s budget, Harry Bohrs, chairman of the Advisory Committee, said in an interview after the meeting.

The subcommittees will now take their findings to the Advisory Committee, who will then vote and provide a formal recommendation for the Town Meeting scheduled on November 17, Bohrs said. The Town Meeting members will then vote in a binding decision whether to continue with the surveillance.

Finding could help HIV patients live longer

2008-12-09T14:59:00.000-08:00

By Amanda Bailly

Link to article.

BOSTON, December 5, 2008- Nearly half a century has passed since the first case of HIV was reported, and though there is still no cure, a Boston University scientist is at the forefront of research that could potentially slow the spread of HIV and allow patients to live longer, healthier lives.

The team, a collaboration of scientists from BU and Pennsylvania State University, found that by introducing selenium –– a nutrient –– they were able to slow the spread of HIV, Penn State team lead scientist Sandeep Prabhu said. Selenium is a trace mineral that humans need in small quantities to live. HIV/AIDS patients tend to be selenium-deficient and could potentially bolster their immune systems with selenium supplements.

“It makes them healthier and need less hospitalization,” Prabhu, a Penn State assistant veterinary and biomedical sciences professor, said. “And it’s not expensive. It’s a few cents a pill. It should help the rich and poor –– that’s the beauty of it.”

HIV-positive individuals, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa where nutrients are scarce to begin with, have been taking selenium supplements for years and seeing positive results without understanding the reason, Prabhu said.

BU School of Medicine and team leading scientist Andrew Henderson said the public should be cautious of drawing sweeping conclusions from this research about selenium as a treatment for HIV.

“We have cells sitting in a test tube, and we’re putting selenium directly on top of them,” he said. “It is too far extrapolated what you can do in a test tube and what you can do to a human being. It’s still very far from being a drug.”

He said the research is far from negative, however.

“It’s the goal to give people extra years on their life,” Henderson, a B.U. associate infectious disease professor, said. “If we provide other people the information to improve their studies, then we’ve achieved our goal.”

Henderson said the research sheds light on something he thinks the medical community has understudied.

In the lab, Henderson offered expertise in HIV replication, and Prabhu brought forth his nutrition expertise. After many “hallway meetings” and a “couple successful experiments,” the two decided to team up, Henderson said.

“If you talk to people enough, ideas happen,” Henderson said.

Prabhu said Henderson is a “pioneer” in HIV transcription work. Henderson, who began the research as a professor at Penn State, said he came to BU so that he could expand the level of research he was doing. His team is currently researching other proteins that may influence the spread of HIV.

The National Institute of Health has been partially funding the team, which is in the process of applying for another grant to potentially fund human trials, Prabhu said. Both researchers said there is still a long way to go.

“It can take a long time to translate a basic finding into anything that is practical, but you need the basic finding to build on the information,” NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases pathogenesis and basic research branch Chief Diana Finzi said. “Sometimes what happens at a cellular level doesn’t always translate to a patient level.”

The team began working together three years ago and recently published its findings in The Journal of Biological Chemistry on Nov. 28.

Prof. says it is the test of a lifetime

2008-11-11T23:13:00.000-08:00

By Amanda Bailly

Link to article.

BOSTON, November 10, 2008- A Boston University professor has a test that could actually help its takers live longer.

The Life Expectancy Calculator uses 40 multiple-choice questions to predict how long a person will live, and then gives feedback based on its findings to improve life expectancy.

By cutting caffeine, the calculator tacks on another six months. It adds a year for minimizing sun exposure and for flossing daily. By exercising six to seven times per week, the calculator estimates living an additional five years.

Boston University School of Medicine New England Centenarian Study Director Thomas Perls said he invented the calculator not to be perfectly accurate, but instead as a “public health intervention.” It is used to show “how important lifestyle choices are for how long a person will live and the quality of that life,” Perls said.

Perls, a BU associate geriatrics professor, said he had two suggestions for college-aged people: Don’t smoke and learn to manage stress.

Smoking can deduct up to 15 years from a person’s life expectancy, even if only during college years, and stress can knock off anywhere from six months to two years, Perls said. Young people need to find a way to cope with stress, whether through physical exercise, yoga or deep breaths, he said.

“If you do everything right –– a positive attitude, not be obese, minimize red meat consumption, don’t smoke, floss –– you should at least get to your late 80s,” Perls said.

Plans are in place to develop a calculator more specific to young adults, and Perls will likely begin working on it in spring 2009, Perls said. He said these questions will focus more on stress, promiscuous sex and issues of suicide and depression.

Perls invented the calculator in 1999 for his book, Living to 100: Lessons in Living to Your Maximum Potential at Any Age, and put the calculator online in 2000. It has since evolved from 26 questions to 40, and Perls has changed some of the content based on new research developments, he said. The site regularly gets about 5,000 to 50,000 visits per month.

College of Communication sophomore Samantha Rajotte said her life expectancy, which was 89 years, was much higher than she expected. She thinks the calculator did not ask enough about her weight, exercise habits or family history.

Amanda Parker, a COM sophomore, said she is “bummed” about her life expectancy of 84 years.

“I don’t think I would rely on it that much, because it seems like it’s more geared toward people in their 40s,” she said. “They asked how much I drink, how stressed I am, how much fast food I eat, but I do those things way more now than I will at any point in my life.”

“It’s stuff everyone knows you’re supposed to do anyway,” she said. “Maybe in the next couple days, I might buy a salad instead of Chinese, but I’m not willing to do anything drastic, and I’m not cutting out caffeine to live six months more. I’ll die in June instead of December.”

"The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly"

2008-11-09T12:27:00.000-08:00

By Amanda Bailly

November 5, 2008- “Change has come to America,” Barack Obama, now president-elect, declared at Grant Park, in Chicago on Tuesday, before a nearly a quarter million weeping and cheering supporters. Obama promised that as president, he will not always be perfect, but he will “always be honest with you about the challenges we face.”

Obama, a Democrat, said he believes Americans voted for him because they “realize the enormity of the task that lies ahead: two wars, a planet in peril, and the worst financial crisis in a century.” Although Obama sees a long road ahead, he promises that “brick by brick,” the country will rebuild.

Obama entered a stage lined with flags, surrounded by his wife, Michelle, and two daughters, Malia and Sasha, all wearing coordinated red and black ensembles. Obama sported a red tie complete with a flag pinned to his jacket. He appeared composed and confident as he looked ahead to the next four years. His running-mate, Joe Biden, joined him after the speech.

Obama thanked his immediate family for their support, even pledging to bring a new puppy to the White House. He also thanked his extended family, including his grandmother, who died a day before the election.

Obama looked to the future through the story of a woman from Georgia, who is 106. He spoke of the social and political changes this woman has witnessed throughout a century and asked, what if our children live through the next century? What change and progress will they witness?

Obama called this the “true genius of America; that America can change.”

As the media first projected a victory in Pennsylvania for Obama, and later Ohio, Republican nominee John McCain called Obama to congratulate the 44th president-to-be. Obama said McCain fought long and hard during the campaign and thanked him for his service to this country. Obama said looks forward to working with McCain and Governor Sarah Palin in the future.

On the lawn of the Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix, a red-eyed John McCain offered his congratulations to Obama and also to African-Americans on the victory. He also expressed gratitude for being given the chance to run for president, which he called the “great honor of my life.”

McCain spoke in front of one giant American flag, wearing a gold tie and no red, white and blue pinned to his suit jacket. He was joined on stage by his wife Cindy, and Republican vice-presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, and her husband, Todd. Palin did not speak but was shown tearing when McCain called her “one of the best campaigners” he’s seen.

He also offered his support to the president-elect, and quieted the crowd when they erupted in “boos” after Obama’s name was mentioned. McCain urged his supporters to “bridge our differences,” so that America may restore prosperity and security so that we may “leave our children with a stronger and better country than we inherited.”

“It is natural tonight to feel some disappointment, but tomorrow we must move beyond it and work together to get our country moving again. We fought as hard as we could, but the failure is mine,” said McCain.

McCain offered a promise of “more peaceful years ahead.”

Dorm signs offend some

2008-10-26T20:42:00.000-07:00

By Amanda Bailly

Link to article.

BOSTON, October 24, 2008- Pedestrians walking down Commonwealth Avenue last fall couldn’t avoid a nine-letter message from the windows of Warren Towers 14C: “HOT SEX NOW.”

College of General Studies sophomore Tanya Khandpur said she and her eight neighbors posted the message with one, three-foot-tall letter in each window of their dorm room. A resident assistant entered her unoccupied room and removed the “S,” leaving a note behind explaining that a complaint from another RA prompted the removal.

“We have the right to say whatever we want to say,” Khandpur said. “Yeah, it was offensive and probably wrong. Maybe someone should have come in and been like, ‘Hey, this is a little offensive,’ instead of the RA coming in the room without permission.”

Issues of offensive content in students’ windows are isolated and infrequent, Office of Residence Life Director David Zamojski said.

“We have mature students here at the university, and what I see in windows looks appropriate to me,” Zamojski said.

When a student makes a complaint, ORL’s course of action is determined on a case-by-case basis, Zamojski said.

“We don’t in any way regulate the content,” he said. “If a message proves offensive to the community, we might talk to the student about the content.”

Before students can live on-campus, ORL requires students to sign the Residence License Agreement, which states that students must agree to BU Lifebook policies.
The Lifebook states that students may hang items on the inside of their dorm rooms. The document lists no content restrictions.

College of Arts and Sciences freshman Micah Oppenheim said he was not surprised when his RA demanded he and his roommate remove a sign asking women to expose themselves from the Warren 18B floor in late September.

His RA received an email from ORL reporting a complaint, who returned later to make sure it was gone.

“I remember hearing at either orientation or a floor meeting, that if we had an inappropriate sign on a window, we’d have to take it down,” Oppenheim said. “It was up for about three weeks. I’m just surprised at how long it stayed up there.”

Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore said the university only acts on student complaints.

“I hope campus would rather have the liveliness of discussion and debate,” Elmore said. “This has to be the place where people . . . can be persuaded. We don’t want a campus devoid of messages.”

College of Communication junior Peter Brunet said he was stunned when he saw a Hezbollah flag in a Rich Hall dorm window during his freshman year.

“The tricky part is when one person is defending their beliefs while offending someone else,” he said. “It’s hard to know where those boundaries lie.”

BU School of Law professor Jay Wexler said this is not a First Amendment issue.

“The University is a private university and the First Amendment is a limit on the government’s power to restrict individual speech,” he said. “If a private individual tells someone not to speak, it’s not a First Amendment violation.”

ENG looks to bright future with grant

2008-10-26T20:39:00.000-07:00

By Amanda Bailly

Link to article.

BOSTON, October 14, 2008- The College of Engineering is looking to a brighter future after its Engineering Research Center received a $18.5 million grant to conduct a five- to 10-year research project on Smart Lighting, a system that uses light for communication.

The Center, which is led by the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., received a $18.5 million grant for the project with BU and the University of New Mexico as partner organizations.

ENG Dean Kenneth Lutchen said the grant “adds to the prestige” of the BU college by putting it “at the forefront of a very new technology.”

Within the next several years, Lutchen said he expects to see today’s lighting replaced by solid-state lighting in the form of light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, with a system similar to what is used to transmit the signal from a remote control to a television. Energy from the light is picked up by the television to trigger operations.

LEDs use only 10 percent of the energy that standard light sources use, which means they emit less carbon dioxide, RPI principle investigator E. Fred Schubert said.

LEDs also have a communicative ability, which is BU’s specialty, and prompted RPI to approach BU about participating in the project,Schubert, a former ENG professor, gave a futuristic example to explain the potential outcomes of the research.

“A car could recognize a signal from a traffic light,” he said. “The car would recognize it [and] couldn’t go through the light. It could save thousands of lives through smarter transportation.”

The NSF announced Sept. 29, after holding an 18-month application process, that it would award the grant to BU, RPI and UNM, BU lead investigator Thomas Little said. More than 20 industrial partners are working with the Engineering Research Center on Smart Lighting.

The NSF began with a pool of 134 proposals, but narrowed it down through a process involving additional proposals, oral presentations and site visits, Little, a BU electrical and computer engineering professor, said. The team now consists of 30 investigators, 3 of which are from BU, including Little.

Little said NSF made its decision based on the proposal, the faculty and industrial partners and the Center’s ability to “engage students K through 12, undergraduate and graduate.”

The grant allows the Center to work with local elementary and high school students to raise interest in math and science.

The grant will also be used to fund scholarships and stipends for undergraduate and graduate student research, demonstrating NSF’s “strong mission,” which supports science and technology education, Little said.

“We will potentially provide network access wherever there is human-made light,” Little said. “It’s more tangible and immediate, now. It’s time to get down to business, roll up our sleeves and make our vision a reality.”

BU fights female mutilation

2008-10-26T20:21:00.000-07:00

By Amanda Bailly

Link to article.

BOSTON, October 7, 2008- When she was a child, Mali native Alima Traore had her genitals completely excised and later sought refuge in the United States. Though she said she felt unsafe returning to her Mali, U.S. officials said in 2007 she must return home.

That stance changed last month when U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey overturned a decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals that denied asylum for a woman who had been genitally mutilated after Boston University and other university medical and law professionals voiced their disapproval.

In September 2007, the Board denied asylum to Alima Traore, a woman from the African nation of Mali whose genitals were completely excised as a child. The Board claimed that, because Traore had already been excised, she could not physically be subjected to it again. Traore would have been forced to marry her cousin if she returned home, her lawyer, Bryan Lonegan, said.

“What annoyed me about what the Board did was that they didn’t contact people with real expertise in the area,” he said.

Mukasey refuted the decision on Sept. 22, stating that the Board “based its analysis on a false premise: that female genital mutilation is a ‘one-time’ act that cannot be repeated on the same woman,” citing an example of a woman whose vagina had been sewn shut five times. Mukasey also said in his statement that the Board was wrong to claim that the persecution would have to be identical to past persecution.

BU School of Law clinical professor Susan Akram was the third signatory on a list of 31 clinical law professors who called for the attorney general to review the decision. The petition was organized by Seton Hall University and the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at University of California-Hastings.

“I think the fact that BU faculty are involved in critical contemporary issues that contribute to the development of areas of law such as immigration and asylum sends the message that what makes BU a special place is the close integration of academia and real-world issues,” Akram said.

A separate medical petition circulated among university medical officials. BU health law professor Michael Grodin contributed a medical brief on behalf of the Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights. The brief highlighted the medical complications and possible mental health problems that could arise if victims of female genital mutilation are deported, he said.

West African Research Association U.S. Director Jennifer Yanco said female genital mutilation is not just an African practice, but is seen in many parts of the world. Even within Africa, the practice is limited, and several governments, supported by the African Union, have either denounced or outlawed it.

In the parts of Africa that do practice female genital mutilation, it is considered “the norm,” Yanco, a BU African studies lecturer, said.

“If a woman hasn’t been excised, she might have trouble getting a husband,” she said. “Having kids is a woman’s role and this is a pre-requisite for that. There’s no place for single women, and to control women’s sexuality is part of it.”
Yanco said students should “feel proud” that the university “took a stance” supporting women’s rights abroad.

“Many BU women want to have control of their own bodies, like having sex or an abortion. It’s the same core issue: Who controls what we do with our bodies?”

Students Apathetic Toward Debate

2008-10-24T15:59:00.000-07:00

By Amanda Bailly

BOSTON, October 16, 2008- Project Runway, “Madonna live in concert” and sporting events seem to have trumped students’ interest in watching the presidential candidates one last time.

When random people at Boston University’s student center were asked for their reaction to
last night’s debate, more often than not, they hid their faces as they admitted they
had not watched.

‘I didn’t even know there was one,’ said Michael Gulas, a B.U. student.

When asked why she had chosen not to watch the debate, Ashley Grossman, a B.U. student, explained that she found the debates repetitive and hard to understand.

‘Besides, my teacher didn’t offer extra credit for watching this time,’ said Grossman.

Grossman said she learns about candidates’ positions through ‘word of mouth, my parents, my roommate. Basically anyone I trust I listen to their opinion and then say it like it’s my own.’

Gulas admits he still has not made up his mind about whom he will vote as the next president
of the United States, but candidates’ debate performances are not going to be the deciding
factor for him.

Instead, he ‘read something brief on yahoo.com.’

But there are some enjoying their lunch who feel the debates are worth their time.

Brittany Lutz, a B.U. junior from Armonk, N.Y., feels ‘it’s sad that people have the
opportunity to decide the most important election of our lifetime and they don’t care.
Yeah, answers are repetitive, but the candidates stress what is important so they make
sure people hear what they’re saying. Besides, I wanted to see Obama kick McCain’s ass
again.’

Bob MacBlane, 43, a registered Republican, said he watched the debates ‘looking for a
reason to vote for McCain.’ But after the three debates, he has decided that ‘he[McCain]
has no emotional intelligence’ and sees more of what he’s looking for in Obama.

In response to students’ apathy toward the debates, MacBlane said, ‘It’s sad. We have a right and if we’re not going to chose to exercise it, maybe it should be taken away.”