The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, February 03, 2003, Page 4, Image 4
4 THE GAMECOCK ♦ Monday, February 3, 2003
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IN OUR OPINION
5 Points plan
offers little
The 5 Points Meal Plan has drawn more than 400
students since it was introduced to USC this past
July, but the system lacks the characteristics of a
“plan” that its name implies.
Students using the 5 Points Meal Plan get no
specific meal allotments, no savings depending on
the size of the plan they buy. A membership card
confers no equivalent to USC Dining Service’s bonus
bucks — extra funds that
If Students want students can spend on
more dining campus food if they purchase
options, they don t a enough use meal plan.
Iffd 3 f?fCia* The 5 Points Meal plan a130
Car 0 ge . em, doesn’t add on a percentage of
^acrossthe thestudent’soriginaldeposit
Horseshoe, and a the way usc does on
meal plan is not students’ cash cards.
required for entry. The money a student (or a
student’s parents) deposits on
a 5 Points Meal Plan card is the money that student
has to spend. Period. More money on a 5 Points card
doesn’t equal more benefits.
The system does have some advantages; first, it
provides competition. The 5 Points Meal Plan is the
only thing stopping Dining Services from having a
monopoly. Perhaps this alternative plan will
encourage USC to offer lower prices and more
variety, in the vein of the new restaurants on the
Russell House’s first floor.
The plan offers some more immediate benefits to
its participants, as well. Students using a 5 Points
card can more easily keep track of the money they
spend on food, and they benefit from once-a-week
restaurant deals (this week’s at Pizza Hut) and
occasional discounts at other Columbia stores.
But besides these occasional discounts — which
cardholders might or might not get around to taking
advantage of— the 5 Points Meal Plan offers little
incentive to sign up. Cardholders still, for the most
part, pay full restaurant prices. Why shouldn’t they
just use the debit card they probably own already?
The 5 Points Meal Plan basically amounts to just
one more card to keep track of, one more card to
potentially lose. If students want more dining
options, they don’t need a special card to get them;
Beezer’s is right across the Horseshoe, and a meal
plan is not required for entry.
GAMECOCK CORRECTIONS
If you see an error in today’s paper, we want to know. E-mail us
at gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com.
ABOUT THE GAMECOCK
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Jill Martin
Managing Editor
Charles Tomlinson
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Erin O'Neal
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Ridgway, Emma Ritch
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aiuutni mtuiM
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CARTOON COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS
Reality TV takes on politics
DAVID STAGG
GAMECOCKVIEWPOINTS@HOTMAIL.COM
Bush’s ’axis of evil’ is
seen in a new light.
We’ve seen season after season
of “The Real World.” We’ve en
dured “Survivor.” We’ve been
“The Weakest Link,” “The
Bachelor” and a millionaire. But
now, executives have gotten to the
heart of the reality series; it is the
most outrageous, no-holds-barred,
revealing series of them all. It’s
the reality show you’ve all been
waiting for: “Joe Axis of Evil.”
That’s right: The United States
has been given 192 nations to
choose from, and must narrow
the field down each week based
on each nation’s political stance,
until there is only one country
left, which wins immunity from
U.S. military action.
After two consecutive weeks
at the No. 1 spot in TV’s Nielsen
ratings, we have seen the United
States narrow the field to three
final countries: Iraq, Iran and
North Korea, which comprise
what President Bush has affec
tionately termed the “Axis of
Evil.”
“I was insulted, honestly,” Mr.
Syria said after being rejected by
Bush. “I mean, we’re just as evil
as the next country. We’ve got to
have the biggest terrorists in the
world!”
President Bush wasn’t fooled.
“It’s not the outside that
counts,” he said in last week’s
episode. “Personality, not just big
bombs, gets you further with the
United States.”
Iran, a surprise choice by Bush,
had stunned audiences nation
wide as it was announced during
last week’s record-setting episode.
It so offset fans that some took to
the streets and began protesting
with an anti-anti-war message.
“I couldn’t believe it,” a local
protester told camera crews.
“Iraq, surely we see it. North
Korea has been a com on our foot
since the ’60s. But Iran? I was se
cretly pulling for Russia. Man!
That would have been good TV.”
The protesters claim that the
anti-war protesters could halt fur
ther shows, as pressure has been
put on television executives to
“tone down the harsh rhetoric.”
That’s why they’ve adopted the
anti-anti-war message.
“The anti-war protesters need
to just chill out,” the anti-anti
war protesters said. “We don’t
want anti-anti-anti-war protests,
either. Anti-anti-war is all about
abolishing anti-war antics
abruptly and with alliteration.
All we want are more episodes.”
And more episodes they will
get. Next week, Bush must tackle
hidden secrets about each of the
remaining three countries that
he wasn’t told about.
“Word has gone around that
North Korea has had some li
aisons with South Korea,” an
anonymous source said. “I don’t
know if I would go so far as to say
they were adulterous, but Bush
might feel intimidated that South
Korea can now fulfill some of
North Korea’s needs.”
And it doesn’t stop there. The
action only gets more intense —
and more lowbrow.
“A little birdie told me
Saddam used to pass gas,” the
same source said.
Be sure not to miss next week’s
episode! The decisions only get
harder (“What do you think, hon
ey?” Bush asks his wife. “The red
tie or blue?”), longer (“Well, the
blue tie really brings out your
eyes, but it could send the message
that you’re too peaceful, so maybe
the red tie would be best, but that
might cause people to think of
blood and that you’re too tyranni
cal... ”) and more important (“I’ll
go blue. ..v What do you think
about the color of my belt?”).
Stagg is a second-year media-arts
student.
IN YOUR OPINION
Patel’s lies stain
Senate credibility
First, let me say that I cov
ered Student Government for
three-and-a-half years at The
Gamecock and voted for Ankit
Patel. But I have since become
convinced that he is a power
hungry, obstinate and patho
logical liar.
When I first heard that Patel
said he didn’t propose an in
crease in student fees at the
Board of Trustees meeting
June 27,1 knew he had lied. I
knew because I was there.
Patel then told the Student
Senate he hadn’t asked for an
increase in tuition, but in the
portion going to programs.
Again, Patel lied, unless he se
riously believes the Board will
give the programs another $20 a
student out of the goodness of
their hearts during a budget cri
sis. If so, Patel’s inability to
grasp reality is more dangerous
than his power-grubbing lies.
“What happened today was a
circus, and I think it reflects
poorly on the Senate,” top Patel
cheerleader Ginny Wright said.
Wright should know. Her ef
forts to censor campus organi
zations (Public Endorsement
Prohibition Act) and her other
chores for Patel reflect far more
poorly on the Senate than any
thing Sens. Hark and Shipman
have done.
“It was too much drama, and
it ended up making us look like
a joke,” Sen. Tyler Odom said.
Sorry, senator, it’s too late.
SG doesn’t just look like a joke;
it is a joke.
“I don’t really understand
how they expected him to re
member a line he probably shot
from his hip,” Odom said.
Fine, if he didn’t remember a
line. But if he didn’t remember
an entire presentation? Reagan
didn’t even try that in the Iran
contra affair, and he was in the
beginning stages of Alzheimer’s.
What’s important here is
Patel’s dangerous habit of
stretching the bounds of his
power and trying to make
Senate a subservient body. We
saw it when Patel removed Sen.
Zach Scott from a presidential
commission for daring to chal
lenge him; we saw it when he
unilaterally pronounced a new
constitution — overwhelming
ly passed by the student body
— null and void, then tried to
give himself a stronger hand in
appointing members to the ju
dicial body that would rule on
challenges to his authority; we
saw it in his and Wright’s effort
to gag student organizations.
What happened here was not
an innocent mistake on Patel’s
part, but a deliberate lie about
an action he took backed by the
power entrusted to him by the
student body.
By building his record on a
lie, ignoring the Senate and try
ing to ride roughshod over the
checks and balances built into
SG’s system, Patel has done
more than soiled his office.
He has soiled SG and made it
more impotent than it ever was.
And that’s something no one,
from SG to the students who are
still without an honest advocate
to the administration, can afford.
BRANDON LARRABEE
2002 liSC CRADUATE
SG senators should
not abuse ‘power’
When I picked up the Jan. 24
issue of The Gamecock, I was dis
mayed to learn that J.D. Shipman
and Adam Hark are trying to un
dermine Ankit Patel’s authority
as his term nears its end.
When I lived in Maxcy with
Adam and J.D. this past year, it
became apparent that they took
part in unethical activities.
Throughout the year, I watched
them try to use their political
“power” to get out of sticky situ
ations unscathed.
I am concerned that as J.D. and
Adam gain authority in Student
Government, they will abuse
their power and hurt others in
{heir own search for publicity
and unfounded respect.
Adam and J.D. consider them
selves exempt from an ethical
code in their search for media at
tention and name' recognition.
This only becomes more obvious
with the announcement that J.D.
will run for SG president in the
next election.
All the information presented
in the article suggests that Adam
and J.D. took the melodramatic
approach to questioning Patel,
rather than the calm and logical
one. This drama serves to get
J.D.’s name in the paper before
elections, but is this a reputation
he really wants to earn right be
fore he tries to earn the trust of
the entire USC student body?
MARK SMITHER
SECOND-YEAR MARKETING-AND
MANAGEMENT STUDENT
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Exports
are key
to S. C. ’s
economy
C3
4
BEN EDWARDS
GAMECOCKVIEWPOINTS@HOTMAIL.COM
State’s future success
depends on free trade.
South Carolina must encour
age exports to achieve economic
success. Traditionally, the South
has relied on exports to drive its
economy. For evidence, look no
further than the situation before
the Civil War.
The South exported cotton and
other commodities and used that
revenue to buy products from
around the world. As tensions
rose between the North and
South, about slavery and other is
sues, the tariffs on imports to the
United States rose to as high as 50
percent on iron products in the
early months of 1861.
These tariffs devalued
Southern exports because more
cotton had to be exchanged to buy
a product than would have been
necessary without high tariffs.
The tariff burden fell dispropor
tionately on the Southern states.
Charles Adams, a respected au
thor on the history of taxation,
says the Southern states paid 84
percent of the revenue generated
through tariffs in 1840 and 87 per
cent in 1860.
This is not to argue, as Karl
Marx did, that the Civil War was
fought primarily over economic
concerns, but rather to illustrate
the historical importance of free
trade to the South.
Marx contended that “the war
between the North and the South
is a tariff war.”
“The war is, further,” he said,
“not for any principle, does not
touch the question of slavery and
in fact turns on the Northern lust
for sovereignty.”
In actuality, the South would
never have been able to develop
its tremendous agricultural base
without the exploitative and im
moral use of slave labor. The eco
nomic and moral arguments
about determining the cause of
the Civil War cannot be analyzed
independently. Doing so over
simplifies a complex and emo
tional issue.
The reality remains, however,
that free trade has historically
been in the best interest of the
South and still is today. Jobs cre
ated through exports pay 15 per
cent more and are 9 percent less
likely to be lost than jobs that do
not depend on exports.
companies sucn as Micnenn,
Honda and BMW employ thou
sands of South Carolina workers.
These jobs depend on exports. The
success of these companies drove
South Carolina to national promi
nence with an increase of 143 per
cent in exports from 1993 to 2000,
the third highest increase in the
nation during this period.
Sadly, not all South
Carolinians understand the vital
importance of trade in attracting
better jobs for South Carolina.
Many people think that agree
ments such as NAFTA hurt the
United States because of compe
tition from cheaply priced im
ports. These considerations aside,
adopting protectionist policies
can only hurt the United States’
ability to export its products prof
itably.
More than 94 percent of mar
kets are outside the United States.
By tapping these markets through
better trade policies, South
Carolina and the United States as
a whole can greatly improve the
quality of life for their residents.
With Charleston Harbor pro
viding a gateway to the world’s
markets, not voting for public
leaders who support better trade
policies will only leave South
Carolina behind in creating eco
nomic growth.
Edwards is a fourth-year
philosophy student.