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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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 Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2008 3:35 pm Post subject: Cystic fibrosis not 'inclusive' enough for Carleton students |
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http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=912b7a91-272e-47ac-b851-3b650f0b1a79
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OTTAWA - The Carleton University Students' Association has voted to drop a cystic fibrosis charity as the beneficiary of its annual Shinearama fundraiser, supporting a motion that argued the disease is not "inclusive" enough.
Cystic fibrosis "has been recently revealed to only affect white people, and primarily men" said the motion read Monday night to student councillors, who voted almost unanimously in favour of it.
Every year near the beginning of fall classes, during university orientation for new arrivals, students fan out across the city and seek donations from passersby. According to the motion, "all orientees and volunteers should feel like their fundraising efforts will serve their (sic) diverse communities."
Nick Bergamini, a third-year journalism student on the student council, said he was the only elected councillor present to vote against the motion. The decision is an example of campus political correctness gone too far, he said.
"They're not doctors. They're playing politics with this," said Bergamini. "I think they see this, in their own twisted way, as a win for diversity. I see it as a loss for people with cystic fibrosis."
The Shinearama fundraiser is carried out by students at about 65 colleges and universities across Canada. It has raised money for the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation for almost 50 years and Carleton has been participating for at least 25.
During orientation week this year, Carleton students, who have raised about $1 million over the years, raised about $20,000, said foundation chief executive Cathleen Morrison, who was surprised and dismayed by the student association decision.
The rationale for dropping cystic fibrosis as the beneficiary is not correct, she said. CF is diagnosed just as often among girls as boys, although the health of girls deteriorates more rapidly, she said. It is commonly considered an illness that affects Caucasians, but that includes people from the Middle East, South America, North Africa and the Indian subcontinent.
" 'Caucasian' as we understand it isn't just white people," said Morrison. "It includes people with a whole rainbow of skins."
Student association president Brittany Smyth said the motion came about because the association has been contemplating rotating the beneficiary of Shinearama to different charities each year instead of giving the money to a single charity.
"It's about people wanting to do something different," she said.
The motion was forwarded by Donnie Northrup, who represents science students. Northrup did not respond to a request for an interview.
The preamble to the motion is Northrup's explanation for why he supports the motion, based on what he learned as an orientation-week volunteer, said Smyth.
In making a decision, it was not the preamble but the declaration itself that matters, she said.
"The preliminary is the councillor's own motivations and ideas," she said. "Most discussion revolved around rotating the charity."
Bergamini said he doesn't believe the decision represents the opinion of most students.
"They're playing racial politics with something that is supposed to bring people together - a charity," he said.
Morrison, who hopes to get a chance to set the record straight with the student association, said students raise a healthy chunk of the approximately $16 million raised each year to support cystic fibrosis research.
The median life expectancy for a person with CF in Canada is just over 37 years, about twice what it was two decades ago. The money for research has helped produce a lot of international "firsts" including isolating the CF gene and carrying out the first double-lung transplant for a CF patient.
Meanwhile, public reaction to the student association decision has been swift, from those who denounced the decision as political correctness to those who facetiously mused about what would qualify as an "inclusive" disease. Others wondered if the student association decision would affect alumni donations to the university.
"The reasoning behind this is totally ridiculous. Eventually cystic fibrosis is a fatal disease. I wouldn't wish it on anyone," said Marie Lunney, a Carleton graduate who has worked as a foundation volunteer. "If I had a choice between donating to CF or Carleton, I'd donate to CF." |
Jonathan Kay from the National Post comments:
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2008/11/25/jonathan-kay-on-cystic-fibrosis-and-the-disgrace-of-carleton-university-s-students-association.aspx
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Cystic fibrosis is a horrible disease. A congenital ailment, CF affects the mucus glands of the lungs, liver, pancreas, and intestines, gradually interfering with digestive and respiratory functions until such time as the victim dies from organ failure � usually in his or her 30s.
All of which would seem to make cystic fibrosis research a worthy cause, right?
Wrong, you racist! This week, the Students� Association at Carleton University in Ottawa voted to drop cystic fibrosis as the beneficiary of its annual $1-million Shinearama fundraiser. The reason: CF �has been recently revealed to only affect white people, and primarily men� � and therefore is insufficiently �inclusive.�
Even by the loopy standards of students governments, this has got to be a new low. Had the author of this resolution (update: we now know who moved this thing � see below) bothered so much as to look at Wikipedia, here is what he or she would have found: �Approximately 1 in 25 people of European descent � is a carrier of a cystic fibrosis mutation. Although CF is less common in these groups, approximately 1 in 46 Hispanics, 1 in 65 Africans and 1 in 90 Asians carry at least one abnormal CFTR gene. Cystic fibrosis is diagnosed in males and females equally.�
That same author would also have found a photo of a young, pitiful-looking black girl staring back at him from behind a mask nebuliser. (Good thing for her the disease �only affect[s] white people,� huh?)
But even if it were true that only white males got CF, what of it? We raise money for breast cancer even though it is primarily a female disease. We raise money for Tay-Sachs, even thought it strikes almost exclusively Jews. We raise money for AIDS, even though it disproportionately affects gays and blacks. That�s because we raise money to save people � not tribes.
Members of the Students� Association at Carleton University have disgraced themselves and their school. In a fair world, their funding would be docked by the same amount they raised for CF last year � and the money directed toward the disease�s victims, in all their �inclusive� need. |
Oh, Canada. |
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sharkey
Joined: 12 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 12:35 am Post subject: |
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| what is wrong with this country ? i blame the conservatives .... liberal/ndp majority government in 2010 .. you heard it here first |
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yawarakaijin
Joined: 08 Aug 2006
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| Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 1:27 am Post subject: |
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The longer I am in Japan and the more I read about crap like this, the less I miss Canada. What a fukin farce. I'm reasonably sure the Canadian government won't be far behind.
Sorry whites, blacks, asians or natives. Our hospitals can only treat you if your disease is equally prevalent amoung all races and occurs naturally between an equal percentage of males and females, it's the Canadian way Eh. Don't you just love and admire our system because we treat everyone the same?  |
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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| Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 1:52 am Post subject: |
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From reading the article in the OP, it looks to me that the real reason this charity wasn't given money this year was because the students had decided that they should rotate charities, and not give to a single charity year after year. And this appears to be the reason most of the people involved supported the motion, with most discussions focussing on the rotating policy. At least that's what the article in the OP seems to suggest on close reading.
However, the other reason is completely loony, and therefore far more sensational, and thus far more likely to sell papers, and so predictably the media has focussed on it, giving the daft idea of some silly student far more gravity than it deserves. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 6:15 am Post subject: |
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| Big_Bird wrote: |
| From reading the article in the OP, it looks to me that the real reason this charity wasn't given money this year was because the students had decided that they should rotate charities, and not give to a single charity year after year. |
No. They used the "inclusiveness" as the rationale to begin rotating. CF being a white man's disease was the racial wedge.
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| Only the resolution is important, Smyth said, even though it appears councillors are endorsing the idea that support of cystic fibrosis be stopped because it is a white-man's disease. |
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20081125/carleton_fundraiser_081125/20081125?hub=CTVNewsAt11
The actual motion:
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Motion to Drop Shinerama Fundraising Campaign from Orientation Week:
Whereas Orientation week strives to be inclusive as possible;
Whereas all orientees and volunteers should feel like their fundraising efforts will serve the their (sic) diverse communities;
And Whereas Cystic fibrosis has been recently revealed to only affect white people, and primarily men.
Be it resolved that: CUSA discontinue its support of this campaign.
Be it further resolved that that (sic) the CUSA representatives on the incoming Orientation Supervisory Board work to select a new broad reaching charity for orientation week. |
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2008/11/26/7538841-sun.html |
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speakeasy
Joined: 22 Nov 2008
Location: Ottawa
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| Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 10:00 pm Post subject: |
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Whoever came up with that statistic about "white men" should have at least glanced at wikipedia...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cystic_fibrosis
Note the incredibly sad picture as you scroll down... |
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Dude Ranch
Joined: 04 Nov 2008
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| Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 12:32 am Post subject: |
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they screwed up because they unknowningly changed 'caucasian' to 'white'
a lot of people think they are the exact same, they are not
All of south america (latinos), the middle east, indian and pakistani, and northern africans (libiyans, algerians) ARE ALL considered caucasian |
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Manner of Speaking
Joined: 09 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 3:31 am Post subject: |
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I think their comments are contemptable because they justify discriminating on a whole group of people based on their race and gender. Whether or not CF AFFECTS white males or not is beside the point.
I'm really getting tired of these pretentious, self-righteous cocksuckers.
There should be a movement called "Canadian Students Against Political Correctness" that should work to clean these people out of positions of authority. |
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EzeWong
Joined: 26 Mar 2008
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 11:18 am Post subject: |
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If it is true that the basis for changing funding is because it's a "white disease" they are going to have a hard time justifying other charities. While they mean well, it's not fair to the parents of Cystic Fibrosis children. To learn they aren't getting needed support for a reason such as this would infuritate them,
Sickle Cell Anemia affects more black people than white. If they pulled sickle cell funding on the same principles it would be considered racist by the general public. They should have been more careful and considerate coming to this decesionl...
I might be biased though, I used to spend time with children who suffered from cystic fibrosis so i have a soft part of my heart for them... |
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canuckistan
Mod Team
Joined: 17 Jun 2003
Location: Training future GS competitors.....
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| Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 1:19 pm Post subject: |
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| We could also call it a "French-Canadian" disease--higher than normal prevalence in the pur laine francophone population--the cause being most of them descended from roughly 200 ancienne regime couples only. |
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