Letters
to the editor
A
few corrections
As
students of history, we are compelled to
voice our disappointment in the article,
"Scholars Discuss Conflict," published
in the On-line Forty-Niner on Nov. 20. This
report on the discussion event titled "The
Israeli/Palestinian Conflict: Alternative
Perspectives" contained numerous typographical
errors, historical inaccuracies and incorrect
paraphrases.
It
should be clarified that the correct spelling
of the name of the director of the Middle
Eastern Studies Program is Houri Berberian.
The continual reference to an incorrect
name throughout the article demonstrates
serious carelessness on the part of the
reporter, who used Berberian as a key source
for her story.
The
article claims that scholar Saleh Jawad
"rated the [Israeli/Palestinian] conflict
as being far worse than apartheid in West
Africa." Those who attended the event
know that Jawad actually said "South
Africa," not "West Africa."
Those who have even a basic knowledge of
African history and geography know that
the apartheid system was a notorious issue
occurring in South Africa and that a country
called "West Africa" is entirely
non-existent.
The
article continues its paraphrasing of the
discussion, asserting that "the Arabs
want the land without the Jews in it."
This report of Jawad's statement is alarming
for two reasons: 1) the reporter swapped
the terms "Arabs" and "Jews,"
completely reversing the core meaning of
Jawad's actual words; and 2) the reporter
neglected to include that Jawad was referring
to particular factions within the Israeli/Palestinian
conflict, not a group as a whole.
By
omitting important elements of the discussion,
the reporter proposed that Jawad was making
erroneous generalizations that Arabs (or
Jews, had the terms not been switched) as
an entire people are intolerant of others.
We
find the publication of this misinformation
unnerving and we hope that in the future
the reporting staff will take the necessary
measures to ensure that On-line Forty-Niner
embodies the standards of exceptional objective
journalism.
--
Blake Gaskins, Lisa Gilpin, Elisa Herrera
and Eric Neal,
history students association
Student
misconduct
I
am attending Cal State Long Beach for my
first semester and have found that the conduct
of my peers has left me totally cold! Besides
their messiness, their conduct in the classroom
is worse and has made me think I attend
kindergarten instead of university. There
are the perpetually late, then those who
wish to socialize while the professor lectures,
interrupting my train of thought and making
it difficult to follow the material.
One
of my professors seems to think that it
is OK for students to harass their peers
and call them dirty names, and when the
student being harassed says something, the
victim is accused of being in the wrong!
I
do not pay close to $1500 a semester to
have students interrupt my education, harass,
humiliate and embarrass me. You should run
the Student Code of Conduct, and send the
message that college is for adults and that
we are no longer in grade school. If they
don't want to be here they can leave, and
let the rest of us learn and achieve our
dreams!
--
Jacqueline Widick,
film and electronic arts major
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