THE

COLLEGE
HILL

THE BROWN/RISD WEEKLY | SEPTEMBER 30 2010 | VOLUME XXI ISSUE IV

8 HIV TEST STEPS UP

9 MEANDERING CHEMICALS MAKE PLANTS SICK
14 INDY WATCHES MOVIES
1 6 HI, APOCALYPSE
 The
College
Hill Independent
contents from the editors
NEWS A few days ago, British millionaire Jimi Heselden died in a tragic accident when he drove his Segway
Personal Transporter off a cliff. Ironically, Heselden had actually purchased the Segway company in January,
2 Week in Review which means he’ll join a long line of people killed by their own products. New York inventor William Nelson,
Leah Michaels and Sam Levison
for example, took a fatal fall while testing a prototype for his new motorized bicycle in 1903. Otto Lilien-
3 Tomato Picking
Emma Whitford thal, inventor and owner of the hang glider, plummeted to his death in 1896 when—after more than 2,000
successful flights —his machine failed.
OPINIONS If Heselden had known in January how his venture would pan out, wouldn’t he have hesitated before
4 A Theoretical Recession signing the ownership papers for a company that would ultimately kill him? If Thomas Midgley, Jr. had
Brian Judge known he would be strangled to death by the pulley system he invented, wouldn’t he have scrapped the
project entirely? Perhaps it’s good we don’t know the future, because for every Franz Reichelt (death by coat
METRO parachute, 1897-1912) there’s an Orville Wright. For every Valeran Abakovsky (victim of the Aerowagon,
5 RI Fishermen 1895-1921) there’s a Leonardo da Vinci.
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Invention and entrepreneurship are risky businesses. There’s no guarantee of success, and there’s a high
6 Made in RI: Video Games rate of failure—even if the failures aren’t always fatal. Along with our capacity as humans to reason and
Maud Doyle
create, we also have a tremendous capacity to take risks. In fact, we’re conditioned to do so. So the next
7 Market on Wheels time you’re considering a life-altering decision, think of Franz Reichelt. Sure, plastic surgery–or moving to
Tory Elmore
Guam–or maybe just that haircut–could end up being a bad idea, but at least you’re not strapping yourself to
FEATURES a coat parachute and launching yourself from the Eiffel tower. -AS
8 Stigma Test
Kate Bell

9 Chemicals get Wanderlust

Deborah Lehmann

11Multiplying Providence
Simone Landon

ARTS F A L L 2010
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16 Doris Burke and Salmon Emily Segal, Dayna Tortorici
Malcolm Burnley and Belle Cushing

LITERARY COVER ART: Doug Poole

17 It’s the Apocalypse The College Hill Independent
Thirii Myint
PO Box 1930
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Providence, RI 02912
18 Wake/Pop theindy@gmail.com
Katie Gui
Letters to the editor are welcome distractions. The College Hill Independent is published weekly during the
fall and spring semesters and is printed by TCI Press in Seekonk, MA.
The College Hill Independent receives support from Campus Progress/Center for American Progress.
Campus Progress works to help young people — advocates, activists, journalists, artists — make their voices heard
on issues that matter. Learn more at CampusProgress.org.

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 THEINDY.ORG
WEEK IN REVIEW
by Leah Michaels and Sam Levison
Healing Bad Carma
Illustration by
Remember that time you lost your temper because Adela Wu
you left your car on Thayer Street for just five min-
utes and got a completely unfair parking ticket? In
Cambridge, MA, the Traffic and Parking Depart-
ment is trying to curb that rage by printing drawings of yoga poses on
the front and back of parking ticket envelopes. The city has printed
40,000 of these envelopes in hopes that parking violators will em-
brace their inner chakras and release their traffic ticket anger
when they see that dreaded envelope tucked under the
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The idea is the brainchild of Daniel Peltz, a profes-
sor at the Rhode Island School of Design, who is also
the first temporary artist-in-residence (his actual job
description) with the Traffic and Parking Department.
Interested by the human response when drivers find their
tickets, Peltz created the illustrations that appear on the
envelopes—probably the only artwork he’s done so far as a
member of the traffic court. Although the city didn’t com-
mission his artwork for the unique venture, they are pay-
ing a small amount to print the new age envelopes. And
once all 40,000 “salutation citations” have been handed
out, no more will be printed. In other words, they should be used up in
about two weeks, tops.
While the Cambridge Arts Council (a group working with the Traffic De-
partment to bring the project to life) and Peltz think the artsy endeavor will

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bring about positive changes in the city, others are not quite as willing to
bend in new ways. According to Boston Channel 7 News, one local motorist
called it “absurd” and unnecessary while another rejected it as “a waste…
because if I got this as a ticket I am not looking at the poses to relax, believe
me.” Seems like they could use some namaste in their lives. Once they’ve
paid their fines, of course. -LM
KFC Tries Ass-­vertisement

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The chain-formerly-known-as Kentucky Fried Chicken has recently adopted a
booty-centric marketing tactic that will finally provide buns for its infamous san[s
bread] ‘wich. The “creative on-clothing ad campaign,” as it’s described on the com-
pany’s official website, involves paying college girls $500 to wear red sweatpants
with “Double Down”—the chain’s 540-calorie fried chicken, cheese, and bacon be-
hemoth—emblazoned on the seat.
According to spokesman Rick Maynard, KFC borrowed this promotional tech-
nique from “some apparel companies and sororities” to target its prized young
male demographic after a 7 percent drop in 2nd quarter sales—though I’m pretty
certain that most adolescent males actually think the “Juicy” on sweatpants refers
to the wearer’s rear, not the couture.
TETRIS:
2
News
Beetle Juice for Babies
This isn’t your summer camp bug juice. Millions of containers of
Similac powdered infant formula have been recalled due to
an excess of unwanted protein: common household bee-
tles. Beetles and their larvae were found in both the pop-
ular product and the Michigan plant that manufactures
it. Although there is only a small chance of buying a con-
taminated product (and even then there is very little risk
of experiencing health problems), Abbot Laboratories
Inc., the makers of Similac, announced last Wednesday
that they were voluntarily implementing a recall be-
fore any disgruntled consumers could bug out.
There are few clues as to how the creepy-
crawlies managed to infest the factory,
and Abbot is none too thrilled with the
Beetle Invasion. The recall will likely re-
sult in a loss of around $100 million—
quite a cost considering that over 99.8
percent of the product line was found to
be lacking in insect activity. At least Ab-
bot isn’t alone in its misery: one of its
biggest competitors, Johnson & John-
son, has announced 11 recalls since
September 2009 on products such as
Tylenol, Motrin, and Benadryl due to customer com-
plaints of a “musty or moldy odor” coming from the items. Perhaps their plague
of bad luck has spread to Abbott.






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has determined that while the formula containing these beetles poses no immedi-
ate health risk, there is a possibility that infants who consume formula containing
the beetles or their larvae could experience symptoms of gastrointestinal discomfort
and refusal to eat.” Maybe it’s because babies just don’t like the taste of beetles, al-
though I can’t vouch for the gustatory pleasure provided by bug-free Similac either.
-LM

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pants, the participants will receive a supply of KFC gift certificates to ensure that
those sweats fit nice and tight.
Despite hundreds of “likes” on KFC’s Facebook page from enthusiastic support-
ers, the blatantly chauvinist marketing strategy has been met with outrage from
National Organization for Women president Terry O’Neill, who objected to the use
of “women’s bodies to sell fundamentally unhealthy products.” O’Neill also noted
that women make the majority meal-related decisions in their families, insinuating
that KFC’s darling campaign may ultimately bite them right in their corpulent cor-
porate ass. -SL
3 S E P T E M B E R 30 2 010 T H E C O L L E G E H I L L I N D E P E N D E N T
News
THE FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN
CIW urges Stop and Shop to face human rights abuses
by Emma Whitford
Illustrations by Dani Postigo
G
reg Asbed B’85,
co-coordinator
of the Coalition
of Immokalee
Workers’ (CIW)
Campaign for
Fair Food, says
that CIW is
about to make labor history. “The stan-
dards and changes we have been trying
to establish are on the verge of becom-
ing the norm. We’re at the tipping point
right now.” Immokalee is a labor re-

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serve in Southwest Florida. It is home
to the state’s largest farmworker com-
munity, composed mostly of Latino,
Haitian and Mayan-Indian immigrants.
Because Florida produces 90 percent
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between October and May, it sets the
standard for agricultural policy in the
country. A shift towards humanitar-
ian practices in the region, enforced by
companies at the top of the food sup-
ply chain, could inspire policy change
throughout the industry.
According to Asbed, CIW’s penny-a-
pound policy, which calls on companies
to pay an extra penny for every pound
of tomatoes they buy to augment wages
for farmworkers, “will become the in-
dustry standard. This will be a funda-
mental change in Florida that will move
up the East Coast.”
CIW is led and organized by Florida
farmworkers. The coalition appeals to
fast-food companies, food distributors
for corporate and university cafeterias,
and supermarkets. Because these com-
panies purchase produce in bulk, they
can demand the lowest possible prices
from their suppliers. This puts pres-
sure on workers’ wages. In extreme
cases, workers are subjected to forced
labor. CIW has uncovered and brought
to court eight instances of modern-day
slavery in the past decade. The federal
government defines slavery as using
force, fraud, or coercion to keep indi-
viduals at work. Laura Germino B’84 is
Asbed’s wife and coordinator of CIW’s

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companies that simply cease to do busi-
anti-slavery campaign. She has faith in
CIW’s top-down approach: “Corporate
buyers can use their market power for
good. The same way they can say, ‘We
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and Y shape.’ They can enforce human
rights the same way.”
R O OT C AU S E S
Farmworkers in most states have no
right to organize, no overtime pay, and
are excluded from state health and safe-
ty laws. The National Labor Relations
Act, part of post-New Deal legislation,
protects workers’ right to organize
unions and strikes in the private sector.
But the act excludes all domestic work-
ers and farmworkers. California and
Ohio are currently the only states that
protect farmworkers’ right to unionize
without threat of employer retaliation. campaign and new codes of conduct. The email to the Independent that, “[We] have
Tomato pickers are paid by the piece. benefits of worker-company negotiation met and spoken with CIW representa-
Each picker receives 50 cents per 32 have proven to outweigh the costs. tives on several occasions.” On Septem-
pounds of tomatoes picked, a rate that Now the focus has shifted to super- ber 9, the National Economic and Social
has only increased by ten cents since markets. According to Asbed, “Stop & Rights Initiative (NESRI) published a
1980. The most efficient workers can Shop could be the straw that breaks the public rebuke of Ahold, questioning the
pick one ton of tomatoes on a good day, camel’s back.” An agreement with Stop & company’s claim that it is “committed to
earning 50 dollars for approximately 10 Shop could inspire other supermarkets take part in discussions and join organi-
hours of picking. However, a ten-hour to get on board with CIW and make CIW zations that work toward improvements
day assumes ideal conditions—physi- agreements the norm in the food indus- across the entire food industry.” NESRI
cal fitness, and no rain or dew on the try. On August 6 CIW representatives argues that the two meetings between
tomatoes. In the most extreme cases, visited the Quincy, MA corporate head- CIW and Ahold, one in Amsterdam and
crew leaders have kept their pickers in RVBSUFST
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perpetual debt by deducting fees from company of Stop & Shop. Representa- CIW agrees—the only step forward dur-
their meager earnings for housing, food, tives attempted to deliver nearly 1,000 ing the first meeting in Amesterdam was
alcohol, and drugs. postcards urging Ahold to join with the promise of a second meeting in the
Transparency in the food supply chain CIW. The CIW reps were asked to leave States. According to Asbed, “At the [sec-
is hindered because consumers, distribu- the stack of postcards on the sidewalk. ond] meeting all they did was ask to hear
tors, and growers are well removed from The head of security came to collect the about our campaign.”
the source of produce. Supermarkets postcards, but had no comment on Stop Cathy Albisa, executive director of
often repackage the tomatoes they pur- & Shop’s stance. NESRI, believes that Ahold is “dragging
chase, labeling them with the store’s its feet on farmworker justice in its sup-
name. Consumers have no way of know- ply chain and attempting to co-opt the
ing if the tomatoes they purchase are good name of CIW to cover its tracks.”
coming from a humane grower. On the The corporate term ‘slow melt’ refers to
supply end, each tomato grower hires T H E CO R P O R AT E P E R S P E C-­ the practice of keeping an organization
pickers through a crew leader, eliminat- TIVE like CIW in negotiations for as long as
ing the need for growers to interact with Ahold lists responsible sourcing—the possible before reaching an agreement,
the workers who pick their produce. practice of seeking out and evaluating in order to minimize monetary losses.
Kate Hadley B’12 worked with the potential suppliers—as one of its key Weiner denies that Stop & Shop is stall-
Student/Farmworker Alliance in Immo- objectives. The company website states ing. She states, “We are deeply concerned
kalee this spring, in direct collaboration that “We take steps to insure that our about the claims that have been made re-
with CIW. She stresses that slavery is an suppliers respect the rights of their garding such workers, which is why [we]
extension of an already degraded work- workers and provide safe working con- suspended all tomato purchases from
ing environment. Germino agrees: “We ditions.” Earlier this year, however, CIW the Immokalee region.”
[CIW] have set the bar at ending forced discovered that Ahold was selling toma-
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labor. The way to do this is to eradicate toes in its grocery stores that had been full swing next month, there will be little
the sweatshop conditions that make it purchased from Six L’s, one of the Immo- evidence by which to measure the impact
possible.” kalee growers associated with the most of Ahold’s efforts to investigate its sup-
recent slavery prosecution in Florida. ply chain. However, NESRI points out
Supermarkets are especially vulner- that Ahold’s purchasing suspension also
able to consumer pressure because they applies to growers with reputations for
market themselves as trustworthy and being ethical. This negates the possibility
TACO B E L L’ S E X A M P L E responsible community businesses. of providing market incentive for ethical
CIW has forged agreements with the Hadley explains, “It is customers and practices.
country’s four leading fast-food chains consumers who are asking Stop & Shop On August 24 Sodexo became the
and three leading foodservice providers to do the right thing. People really want last of the nation’s big-three foodser-
in the past five years—Taco Bell, Burger this supermarket that they know and vice companies to come to an agreement
King, McDonalds, Subway, Compass love to make changes.” with CIW, following Compass Group in
Group, Aramark, and Sodexo. Hadley draws a distinction between September 2009 and Aramark this past

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April. The company has vowed that it
company of Taco Bell, signed an agree- ness with inhumane growers and those will strive to purchase only from humane
ment with CIW, bringing an end to a that take active measures to develop growers. According to Hadley, working
four-year national boycott. CIW held ral- codes of conduct with farmworkers. with CIW is the only way to insure prog-
lies across the country leading up to the “Companies have to be in dialogue with ress on the human rights front. A CIW-
agreement, and student groups started workers if they want to know what’s assisted code of conduct is superior to an
the “Boot the Bell” campaign to get Taco happening in the supply chain,” Hadley independent one, says Hadley, because
Bell eateries off college campuses. Evi- insists. “Because they’re not working “Any sort of code won’t have teeth un-
dence of consumer interest in humane with farmworkers, none of their claims less farmworkers are sitting at the table
buying practices encouraged other fast- are verifiable in the first place.” and are part of the dialogue. They are the
food companies to forge agreements. Ahold argues that it is currently con- ones on the ground.”
Germino explains that from the perspec- ducting its own independent investiga- Meanwhile, Asbed wonders about
tive of these companies, “It’s not just tion of the growers with which it does Stop & Shop’s stubbornness. “Supermar-
profits that they are worried about, it’s business. The Ahold website explains kets are acting as if none of this stuff
their brand image.” that all contracts with produce suppli- we have done with other companies has
Asbed loves analogies. He compares ers contain the Ahold Standards of En- happened.” But he’s still hopeful, espe-
CIW’s succession of victories to plan- gagement, which establish “clear mini- cially if CIW can rally local consumer
etary accretion—the self-propelling and mum standards regarding issues such as support. “Eventually they will.”
accelerating process that forms planets. working conditions.” Asbed just shrugs.
“The first rock is Taco Bell, which starts “CIW doesn’t know anything about the
growing and increasing in mass.” Over [Ahold] independent reviews because A little bird told EMMA WHITFORD
the course of the past decade it has tak- they’re not transparent at all.” B’12 UIBU
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en less and less convincing to get com- Faith Weiner, the Public Affairs Direc- & Shop’s Peapod Delivery Service. That’s
panies onboard with the penny-a-pound tor for Stop & Shop, pointed out in an all.
 THEINDY.ORG 4
Opinions

O P   N N

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by Brian Judge | Illustration by Robert Sandler
Some of the madness can be explained
A PRIMER ON TURNING YOUR SUPERPOWER INTO A BANANA REPUBLIC
“rearranging deck chairs
on the Titanic” felt more
apt. Trusted economic
advisor to the president,
Mr. Larry Summers, an-
nounced that he is return-
ing to Harvard after his stint as lookout on a
certain mammoth ocean liner, in this none-
too-subtle analogy. In the last six months,
three of the four most powerful economists
in the president’s entourage have jumped
ship, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve
describes the state of the economy as “un-
usually uncertain,” Congress is gridlocked,
and America continues to slouch towards the
poor house.

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is still plenty at stake in a meaningful eco-
erations, in a statement at Goldman Sachs’s
Retail Conference on September 15:
I don’t need to tell you that our customer re-
mains challenged…You need not go farther than
one of our stores on midnight at the end of the
month. And it’s real interesting to watch, about
of retaking the House of Representatives in
a 1994-esque rout.

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wouldn’t be burdened with the largest out-
standing debt since World War II, the stock
market wouldn’t surge on day after day
of dismal economic news, and Democrats
would have a more compelling plan for fight-
ing the economy than a cut in miscellaneous
tariffs and a tax credit for R&D. In other
words, the data being fed into the magically
mysterious decision-making engine that is
the federal government and the American
stock, bond, and currency markets is contra-
dictory and incomprehensible and people are
finding a way to make money off of it. Surely
this won’t end well.
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verse who head the Federal Reserve. For the
last year, the Fed has pumped almost $2 tril-
lion dollars into the economy in the form of
“quantitative easing.” Or for laymen, “print-
ing money to buy banks’ shitty assets” and
world market. From superpower to banana
republic.
There’s a way out that has worked be-
fore—massive government spending—but it
requires a political ambition and competence
that no one seems to possess right now. The
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,as the country was climbing out of the Great
Depression. We borrowed tons of money to
stimulate demand, and it worked. An $800
billion (less than 8 percent of GDP) stimulus
package that consists of a random assort-
ment of grants and infrastructure improve-
ments has failed predictably. Although the
Great Recession poses slightly less of an
existential threat to America than the Japa-
nese or the Nazis during World War II, there
nomic recovery.
Would today’s deficit hawks have voted
against fighting the Nazis in the name of fis-
cal responsibility? An interesting question to
ponder. The Bank of France actively opposed
troop mobilization in the late 1930s because

11 p.m., customers start to come in and shop, fill
their grocery basket with basic items—baby for-
mula, bread, eggs—and continue to shop and mill
around the store until midnight when government
electronic benefits cards get activated, and then
the checkout starts and occurs. And our sales for
those first few hours on the first of the month are
substantially and significantly higher.
This is what the modern bread line looks
like. Electronic benefit cards (i.e. food-
stamps) have replaced the breadlines of
yore. Gone are the images of hordes of men,
hat in hand, wrapped around a Manhattan
city block. Gone are the resolute Dust Bowl
women that symbolized both poverty and
the strength of the American spirit during
the Great Depression. Instead, our huddled
masses flit silently in and out of Walmart
in the dead of night: out of sight and out of
mind. There are no cameras rolling in Rapid
City, Midland, Spokane or Tuscaloosa. Mil-
lions collect their pittance, and disappear
back into the night.
Mr. Simon paints the picture of the Amer-
ican economy on the micro-level. Here’s the
macro-level situation: the official unemploy-
ment has hovered just south of 10 percent
since the recession officially “ended” in June
2009 (recessions officially end when GDP
growth is positive for two consecutive quar-
ters, not when there are palpable or con-
crete signs to workers or citizens that the
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come more attractive, businesses start hiring and treasuries are the world’s safest assets.
States owes its creditors nearly $14 trillion
dollars (this number is more like $18-19 tril-
lion when Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s
debts are included), interest rates are at
.25%, treasury yields are at an all-time low,
the stock market had its best September in a
decade, and the Republicans are on the cusp
government debt. Yes, surely printing money
to finance government spending will end
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you who are not familiar with our nation’s
central bank, the Fed injects money into
the economy by crediting banks’ accounts
with money that doesn’t exist. For example,
if I have a heaping pile of toxic mortgaged-
backed securities and an account with the
Fed (as all major banks do), they take the
worthless assets from me, and credit my ac-
count with increasingly worthless dollars to
be spent at will. The mavens of finance of the
Weimar Republic at least had to use real pa-
per.
On the one hand, we have real people feel-
ing real pain across the country, and on the
other, we have the Fed printing trillions of
dollars to buy worthless assets. An unelected
branch of government prints money to keep
bailing out the banks and an elected branch
of government guts foodstamps to pay for a
bailout for teachers’ unions. The federal gov-
ernment gladly prints money so JP Morgan
won’t have to take a loss, but won’t borrow
money to help put Americans back to work.
Makes perfect sense.
The course of action that seems most
likely is massive currency devaluation. Politi-
cians and economists have convinced them-
selves that if the dollar is relatively cheaper
to other currencies, American exports be-
again, and all will be well. What exactly does
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(Japan). Not cheap plastic baubles (China).
Not solar panels (China). Not high-speed
trains (China). Thus the great hope for the
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port more corn, wheat and soybeans to the
it thought that excessive debt would create
a run on the Franc. This didn’t work out too
well for them. Behind every bad idea is a
seemingly sound rationalization. In our case,
it’s that growing the national debt by a few
trillion dollars and risking higher interest
rates will be worse than suffering through
years of massive unemployment and the to-
tal evaporation of the American Dream. If
we are set on resigning ourselves to an abys-
mal “new normal” and the end of the age of
American prosperity, then we should at least
put up a decent fight, instead of simply roll-
ing over.
Over the last twenty years, the average
real wage has remained stagnant. The ad-
vent of Walmart has allowed most people to
buy stuff more cheaply, so each dollar goes
farther, and the illusion of growing wealth
was able to endure. That fiction has been ex-
posed. The standard of living for most Amer-
icans had been increasing on the backs of
the people who now have their jobs. America
spent much of the aughts borrowing money
from the Chinese to then buy Chinese ex-
ports, while the backbone of the Ameri-
can middle-class was silently disappearing.
Washington shouldn’t commit this country
to a Japanese-style lost decade of high un-
employment and stagnant growth in the
name of appeasing the almighty debt clock.
The dollar is the world’s reserve currency
America is still the only superpower, and we
need to start acting like it, instead of letting
ourselves be held hostage by charlatans and
demagogues. Where there is a political will,
there’s a way.
Never before has BRIAN JUDGE B’11 felt
more apt.
5 S E P T E M B E R 30 2010 T H E C O L L E G E H I L L I N D E P E N D E N T
Metro

DEPL ET E D WAT E R S

R hode Island fish-

ermen have long
fished for bottom-
dwelling ground-
fish in George’s
Bank, an especially
shallow area 60 miles east of Cape Cod.
Groundfish like cod and Yellowtail floun-
der have been a staple of New England
fisheries since the seventeenth century.
During the fishing boom in the 1980s,
Environmentalism and Business in
Rhode Island’s Fishing Industry
by Simon van Zuylen-Wood
Illustration by Shay O’Brien

Newfoundland in 1992, when the cod

fishermen caught upwards of 5,000,000
pounds of Atlantic Cod and 24,000,000
pounds of Yellowtail flounder yearly.
But overfishing saw the groundfish
population dwindle to record lows in
the 1990s and 2000s. In 2009, fisher-
men caught 395,822 pounds of cod and
458,941 pounds of Yellowtail flounder,
some of the lowest yields ever recorded.
The biomass of cod in George’s Bank, ac-
cording to National Oceanographic and
population was viciously overfished and
over 20,000 fishermen lost their jobs.
NEFMC Vice-Chair Mark Gibson was
disheartened by the hardship the new
management system would cause some
fishermen, but said the organization had
no choice but to act. “The [old] manage-
ment system was not delivering the re-
building of stocks” as mandated by the
2006 Magnuson-Stevens Fishery
and overfished whenever they could, to
safeguard against the possiblity of com-
ing up empty in the future. Days-at-sea
is still permitted but is being phased out
through unusually heavy regulation.
President of the Rhode Island Fisher-
man’s Alliance Rich Fuka, who still prac-
tices days-at-sea, says the catch-shares
program denies fishermen with tiny
catch-shares the right to “prove” their
worth on the open sea. Fishermen
and catch-shares. Fuka says that the
NEFMC and its parent agency the Na-
tional Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)
are corrupt and “heavily lobbied by the
Environmental Defense Fund (EDF).”
Fuka says, “Overfishing is a thing of
the past—we have stocks of groundfish
that have rebounded over 500 percent…
NMFS’s goal is to consolidate more peo-
ple out of business—they want a much
smaller fleet.”
Beneath the conspiracy-theory vitriol
is a legitimate complaint. Some ground-
fish stocks like Haddock have rebounded
to 99 percent of NOAA’s target goal.
But if a sector meets its catch-limit on
any one stock, groundfishing is halted
for the year. In which case millions of
pounds of Haddock would remain legally
unavailable.

Atmospheric Association (NOAA), is ten
percent of what it should be, its lowest
level ever. NOAA has responded to the
overfishing crisis by implementing radi-
cal conservation measures, including the
first-ever catch limits for groundfish,
pushing many Rhode Islander fisherman
out of a commercial fishing industry al-
ready compromised by the foreign im-
port market.
T H E CO S T O F CO N S E RVAT I O N
Beginning May 1, NOAA dictated annual
catch limits (ACLs) on fifteen species of
groundfish in New England—most of
which they deemed overfished or in the
process of being overfished. The new
regulations apply to federal waters and
affect all New England commercial fish-
ing ports, including Rhode Island’s main
port in Galilee. NOAA also ushered in
a new “catch-share” program in which
boats form cooperatives and pool their
resources.
The catch-share system is specifically

64
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designed to combat overfishing. If a
fisherman in a given catch-share sector
catches too many fish, he can trade them
to another member of the sector instead
of throwing back dead fish or getting
fined.
Fishermen opposed to the regula-
tion say NOAA’s program is freezing out
smaller vessels and shrinking the indus-
try by exaggerating overfishing. NOAA

end unfair penalization practices under
and the New England Fisheries Manage-
ment Council (NEFMC), which devised
the program’s specifics, argue that con-
servation and regeneration of certain
species are the only way to save fisher-
men from their own excess.
The NEFMC set the framework for
the current regulations to ensure that
New England wouldn’t end up like
CURRENT TIDINGS
Another third-generation Rhode Is-
land fisherman, Brian O’Hara, sold all
Conservation and Management A c t , fully capable of catching groundfish, in his permits and left the industry, unwill-
Gibson said. other words, are not legally permitted ing to cooperate with the May 1 regula-
The catch-share system is an efficient to do so. Those frozen out of the sectors tions. The worst-case scenario for any-
method for rebuilding groundfish stock will flock to other species, which may be- one invested in Rhode Island fishing is
while guaranteeing certain fishermen come overfished.  Cherenzia has given up that valuable permits like O’Hara’s get
annual returns. “It’s a social, economic, his useless groundfish permit and is now snatched up by big out-of-state vessels.
and ecological breakthrough,” says Pe- limited to fishing in state waters, which Galilee is currently the twentieth larg-
ter Shelley, Vice President of the Con- extend only three miles from the coast. est port in the country and third largest
servation Law Foundation (CLF). “Even To make ends meet he’s given up “non- in New England, behind only Glouces-
though without question it has caused a necessities” like boat insurance and he ter and New Bedford, Massachusetts.
lot a lot of pain, it’s long-term structural dives for steamers (soft-shell clams). Should Rhode Island permits migrate to
shift that gets at issues that has plagued The sector program, subsidized by Massachusetts or Maine, Bob Ballou says
this fishery for decades.” NOAA (at least for now), is not unlike Galilee would be like a “ghost town.” In
a large-scale bank bailout, in which the order to combat this possibility, NOAA
S TAY I N G A F LOAT government keeps the biggest players allotted Rhode Island one million dollars
The opposition to the catch-share pro- afloat after they’ve contributed to a col- to establish a state permit bank for fluke
gram is led in part by those who feel left lapse within their industry. The smaller (summer flounder) which would buy up
out. As Galilee small-boat fisherman Bob boats, like Cherenzia’s, are left to rust, available permits and sell them to local
Cherenzia puts it, the program rewards like so many inactive boats docked today fishermen.
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in Galilee. For now, however, New England fish-
the new system, fishing permits grant Most fishermen, however, less angry ermen are lobbying for fairer treatment
fishermen high or low catch quotas based with the collectivist catch-share system by NOAA, and the government is listen-
on who caught the most groundfish or the infusion of public money than JOH
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from 2001-2006. In turn, the permits they are at the “privatization” of the merce Gary Locke, Massachusetts Gov-
which grant the highest catch-share, or ocean, now divided into sectors, within ernor Deval Patrick, and Massachusetts
percentage of its sector’s annual catch which more divisions are couched. Third Congressman Barney Frank listened
quota, are worth the most money, often generation fisherman Brian Loftes says to fisherman complaints about over-
up to a million dollars. Because ground- the very idea of determining a boat’s regulation in a closed-door meeting. All
fish stocks during this five-year period catch before it hits the water messes up three sided publicly with the fishermen.
were low due to overfishing, many fish- a fisherman’s psyche. “In the ’80s and “We need action on the catch-limits and
ermen held on to their groundfishing ’90s, things were good. We had twice as we need it now, “ Patrick said. Appear-
permits, but didn’t use them. Now, be- many boats, four or five fish houses [dis- ing alongside him, Locke promised to
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invest in groundfish, their permits are “all kinds of guys are depressed, on anti- his watch. Five months after its big vic-
nearly valueless —not worth selling and depressants,” says Loftes, who in 2009 tory, NOAA is now being investigated for
not worth using. worked on a documentary, Truth, about administering nineteen “questionable”
Before May 1, fishing permits grant- the perils of government regulation in penalties on New England fishermen
ed each boat a certain number of ‘days the fishing industry. “They’re so disgust- over the past decade.
at sea’ per year during which they could ed, they’re walking around like mindless
fish. Days-at-sea bred a reckless ‘race sheep down there.” SIMON VAN ZUYLENWOOD B’11
to fish’ atmosphere in which fishermen Fuka also questions NOAA’s mo- feels strongly that in the ’80s and ’90s,
were forced to brave dangerous weather tives in advocating annual catch limits things were good.
THEINDY.ORG
G  G
CURT SCHILLING IS STILL RIGHT ON THE MONEY.
ONLY THIS TIME, IT’S RHODE ISLAND’S
P I TC H I N G TO P R OV I D E N C E
Last March, Rhode Island Governor
Donald Carcieri B’65 met Curt Schilling
at a fundraiser hosted by the former Bos-
ton Red Sox pitcher. Carcieri chairs the
Rhode Island Economic Development
Corporation (RIEDC), which was then
developing a state-backed loan program
to aid development of the state’s tech-
sector economy.
It seems the two hit it off—on July
26, the board of RIEDC approved a $75
million loan guarantee to Schilling’s
video game company, 38 Studios. In ex-
change, the company agreed to relocate
from Maynard, Massachusetts, to Rhode
Island, and guaranteed the creation of
450 much-needed jobs.
The loan has generated controversy
because Rhode Island taxpayers would
be responsible for the $75 million should
38 Studios fail. At a press conference fol-
lowing the loan guarantee’s approval,
Schilling assured the public, “I need
you to know I’ve invested a significant
amount of my life’s earnings in 38 Stu-
dios… I will protect the loan guarantee
that’s been given by the state with the
same passion and interest that I’m pro-
tecting my own investment in this com-
pany. Our paths are very much aligned.”
Schilling, a self-proclaimed “gamer,”
founded 38 Studios—named for the
number Schilling wore in the MLB—in
2006. It has not yet released any prod-
ucts.
The deal was made in accordance with
the Job Creation Guaranty [sic] Pro-
gram, created in June, that enables the
state to guarantee up to $125 million in
private loans to tech-sector and “knowl-
edge industry” companies and develop-
ment projects. The $75 million dollar
loan guarantee represents 60 percent
of the maximum $125 million in state-
backed loans.

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about Ken Rolston, designer of the high-
Island, as guarantor of the loan, will sell
$75 million in bonds to a group of inves-
tors led by Wells Fargo Securities. Wells
Fargo will lend that money to 38 Studios
in stages, setting aside a $20 million re-
serve fund. 38 Studios will
be held responsible
for the debt
unless it cannot pay it, in which case
Rhode Island is responsible.
On Thursday, September 23, 38 Stu-
dios announced that it is moving to
Providence. The announcement has
made it eligible to receive its first $13
million payout on October 1, when the
transaction is scheduled to close.
H I G H -­ R I S K FA N TA S I E S
The video-game industry is booming. 38
Studios has no revenue and no products
on the market, and nevertheless, the
company has been doing a swift business
towards developing its products. Accord-
ing to the RIEDC, it has “already raised
and invested tens of millions of dollars.”
Two video games, both highly antici-
pated by gamers and industry insiders,
have been in development since 2006.
They will be set in the same fantasy
world. One is a single-player role-play-
ing game (meaning that its played from
your consul). The second is a massively
multi-player online role-playing game,
or MMOG—thousands of people play
online at once, interacting with one an-
other (like World of Warcraft).
In March, 38 Studios signed a pub-
lishing and distribution deal with indus-
try leader Electronic Arts for their first
single-player title, Kingdoms of Amalur:
Reckoning, which is scheduled for release
in fall 2011. Reckoning is being devel-
oped at Big Huge Games in Maryland,
which 38 Studios purchased last year.
Aside from Schilling, who is prob-
ably more valuable to Republicans than
to gamers, the creators are being hailed
on gaming blogs as an “all-star” “dream
team.” Pop fantasy novelist R. A. Salva-
tore created the Amalur fantasy universe
in which the game is set. Todd McFar-
lane, the comic artist and creator of the
Spawn comic franchise, is the artistic
director. Gamers are particularly excited
mum amount of state-backed loans was
ly acclaimed Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion,
who is directing the games’ development
at Big Huge Games.
It is the second game, code-named
P ro j e c t Copernicus,
that will make or break the company.
While successful single-player games can
rack up millions, a successful MMOG can
be a multi-billion dollar jackpot. These
games usually charge players a subscrip-
tion fee of around $14.99 a month––
World of Warcraft, the most successful
MMOG, has 11.5 million subscribers
paying $15 a month.
But the gamble cuts both ways. Many
industry insiders have suggested that
38 Studios’s MMOG is at once too am-
bitious and nothing new. According to
one statistic, 90 percent of video game
companies fail (though “failure” is dif-
ficult to measure). For an MMOG to be
successful, there has to be plenty to do in
an interactive world. But the more there
is to do, the more expensive the game,
and the greater the likelihood that there
will be bugs—which an MMOG usually
cannot survive.
B AC K R O O M E CO N O M I C S
High-risk or not, 38 Studios represents
the kind of highly profitable knowledge
industry company the RIEDC hopes to
attract to Rhode Island through the Job
Creation Guaranty Program. The incep-
tion of this $125 million program, how-
ever, is dubious.
Keith Stokes began lobbying for a $50
million loan guarantee program shortly
after Carcieri named him Executive Di-
rector of the EDC in January. Stokes told
the Providence Phoenix that after the
RIEDC began talking to 38 Studios, it be-
came apparent that 38 Studios’ required
more capital than any existing programs
could provide. He then asked the legis-
lature for an additional $75 million for
the guarantee program, and the $125
million program was signed into law on
June 10.
It was not, however, made clear to
legislators that 60 percent of the maxi-
Big Huge Games, which is developing
earmarked for one company. Henry Vio-
let, president of the Ocean State Busi-
ness Development Authority, supported
the bill––by accident. He told reporters
that he was led to believe that the loans
would be distributed among several
business. But, he said, “If I had one scin-
tilla of knowledge that this much money
would go to one company, I would have
fought it tooth and nail.” Amy Kempe,
Governor Carcieri’s Director of Com-
munications, denied the earmark—”It
wasn’t a done deal when we passed the
legislation, by any means.” By this
point, though, 38 Studios had been
in talks with the EDC for months.
Many have also criti-
cized the deal because it puts
too many eggs in one high-
risk basket, rather than dis-
tributing the loans among
more small businesses. But
Stokes disagrees––if it weren’t
for Schilling’s company, he
points out, it would have re-
mained a $50 million program.
Lincoln Chafee, an independent can-
didate for governor in the upcoming
6
Metro
by Maud Doyle
Illustration by Charis Loke
elections, has criticized the RI EDC for
not clarifying the origins of the deal.
He’s questioned whether it surveyed
any other potential loan recipients prior
to their interest in 38 Studios. Carcieri
responded in a letter, assuring him of
“extensive due diligence by the board”
prior to the decision to extend the loan
guarantee.
The entire arrangement is murky. In
March, recalling his recent unpremedi-
tated meeting with Schilling at a cocktail
party, Carcieri told the Providence Jour-
nal, “My sense was that he wasn’t par-
ticularly thrilled with the reception he
was getting in Massachusetts, so I said:
‘Come on down, we’d be happy to talk
to you.’” In June, however, the Journal
reported, “[Keith] Stokes said 38 Stu-
dios had been in talks with state officials
since February.”
The RIEDC, 38 Studios, and Wells
Fargo all declined to comment for this
article. The RIEDC, notorious for its
opacity, has been communicating with
the press almost entirely through state-
ments released on its website.
T R O U B L E S H O OT I N G
Though Carcieri and RIEDC promise 450
new jobs, it’s unclear when they will ar-
rive. If the company employs 250 people
by December of 2011, it will be eligible
to receive $64 million under the terms of
the “payout agreement.” The 450 jobs are
not required until October 2013. Robert
Stolzman, a lawyer for the EDC, said the
contract was designed this way because
“We wanted a fast infusion of jobs in
Rhode Island.”
Melissa Chambers, spokeswoman for
the RIEDC, said that because 38 Stu-
dios’s business plan won’t work with
fewer than 450 employees, these dis-
crepancies are irrelevant: they will need
450 employees before 2013. However,
the single-player Reckoning, remains in
Maryland, suggesting that even if its
business plan requires 450 jobs, it does
not necessarily require that all of them
are in Rhode Island.
There will be a penalty fee of $7,500
for each job the company falls short on
at specific milestones. But as each job
will supposedly cost $67,500 annually,
owing $1.5 million for 200 missing jobs
in of 2014 and walking away with a $64
million loan doesn’t seem so bad.
38 Studios has signed a lease at One
Empire Plaza in downtown Providence.
Curt Schilling himself is not moving to
Rhode Island, depriving the Ocean State
of some of the income taxes these 450
jobs are supposed to be generating.
The RI EDC says it is engaged in dis-
cussions with four or five other compa-
nies seeking loan guarantees in the $2
to $4 million range, and has received
about a dozen applications, many from
in-state. Fill out your own application at
www.riedc.com
MAUD DOYLE B’11 beat Elder Scrolls
IV in a day.
7 S E P T E M B E R 30 2 010 T H E C O L L E G E H I L L I N D E P E N D E N T
Metro
S UCCESS
N G
C I R C U L AT I
On the Roa d
by Tory Elmore
T
Illustration by
Tarah Knaresboro
he Duck & Bunny is a quaint
creperie/teahouse tucked
away on Wickenden Street.
Among other drool-inducing
selections, the summer menu
boasts “Triple Berry Cupcakes
with Lemon Buttercream” and “Fresh
Strawberry and Sweet Mascarpone Blin-
tzes.” Foods with names like that come
with expectations of tastiness that can
only be met with fresh ingredients. The
restaurant purchases fruit from local
farms like Schartner Farms, 22 miles
north of Providence in Exeter, RI, or
Barden Family Orchard in North Scitu-
ate, RI, 11 miles west.
Though it seems like a simple arrange-
ment, transfer from point A to point B
once posed a serious problem. Between
getting in touch, coordinating delivery
and billing farms on an individual basis,
many businesses turn to multinational,
corporate distruibutors like Dole be-
cause they want to buy a variety of goods
wholesale from a single vendor, keeping
transactions quick and cheap.
Solving the farm-to-business distri-
bution dilemma was one of the many
visions of Farm Fresh Rhode Island, a
non-profit organization dedicated to
supporting local agriculture. With the
Market Mobile, the organization’s brain-
child, they may have found the solution.
Now almost two years running, FFRI’s
Market Mobile is a statewide farm-to-
business distribution system that has
connected 30 farms in Rhode Island to
over 65 chefs, grocers, hospitals, and
schools in Rhode Island and Massachu-
setts.
Every week, from Friday to Sunday,
Farm Fresh Rhode Island confers with
local producers to make a list of seasonal
foods to post online. Producers log on to
the Market Mobile website to list food
availability, quantities, and prices. On
Mondays, chefs, grocers, and other local
businesses log on to pre-registered ac-
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cific foods from the farms of their choice.
Farmers receive orders via email Tuesday
morning and harvest on Wednesday. On
Thursday morning, they drop orders off
at the delivery hub in Pawtucket, where
buyers can choose to pick their orders
up or receive a delivery from the Market
Mobile delivery truck. Farm Fresh pays
farmers upfront and invoices customers
later.
For farmers, Market Mobile means
that one weekly trip to Pawtucket can
bring their produce to dozens of busi-
nesses. For business owners, it means
one delivery and one bill for fresh food
from over two dozen local farms.
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  “One of the challenges we faced was the apple market, for instance, this is a
A B U D D I N G I N I T I AT I V E the pace—we didn’t expect the program serious issue. As the program grows it
From humble beginnings, the program to take off so quickly,” said FFRI’s Ex- could begin to favor larger competitors.
has quickly garnered success. The first ecutive Director, Noah Fulmer. “We’ve “I regularly provide produce for Brown
79 weeks of the Market Mobile program had to work hard to make things more Dining Services and East Side Market. I
saw a $500,000 of locally-produced food efficient. We weren’t expecting to have have the product to provide [for] larger
pass through the system. In the first to come up with solutions—warehouse businesses, but on Market Mobile I’m
half of 2010 alone, the “off-season” as space, number of volunteers—so soon.” just being outsold by bigger guys.”
the FFRI website calls it, Market Mobile There are a host of economic constraints Not everyone’s complaints are finan-
farms sold as much as during the entire on a small initiative like the Market cial.
2009 pilot year, totaling about $225,000. Mobile. It’s not financially feasible to “It’s an awesome program,” said Mark
Projected totals for this year are almost structure delivery routes around small Phillips of Absalona Greenhouse, “I just
$700,000, with close to $20,000 in sales businesses. Only after larger businesses, regret that I don’t get to meet the people
coming in each week. like the Renaissance Boston Waterfront I’m selling to.”
Initially, Farm Fresh RI only served Hotel, signed on, was it practical to serve
the Providence area. Now, the program smaller buyers along the Rt. 95 corridor. T R U C K S O N T H E H O R I ZO N
also distributes to Newport, East and Some large businesses demand more In a food economy laced with green-
West Bay, Narragansett, Pawtucket, and product than smaller farms can produce. veiled marketing campaigns from mom-
even Boston. In January of 2010, a new If a restaurant needs 150 tomatoes but a and-pops and multinationals alike, the
warehouse space opened in Pawtucket producer can only provide 75, the owner integrity of social entrepreneurship has
at Hope Artiste Village, the site of Farm may be tempted to reach out to a larger been rightfully questioned. Though food
Fresh RI’s Wintertime Farmers Market. distributor, even if it means sacrificing distribution is no glamorous undertak-
The space has dedicated cold, freezer, local ingredients. ing, Market Mobile’s success suggests
and dry storage for Market Mobile.
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that non-profits solving economic prob-
Though the startup grants that fund- that actual food costs were lower per lems have the potential to do good.
ed Market Mobile in its fledgling months pound for locally produced foods than “The goal of the Market Mobile is to
have been exhausted, the program keeps those from a national distributor. How- meet the needs of farmers and consum-
fifteen percent of revenue to stay afloat ever, when the study factored in time ers, to make sure farmers can sell all of
(up from ten percent when the program spent finding products, communication their foods,” Fulmer said. “We knew
still had grant money). with vendors, and lead time between or- from the start that this wasn’t a mon-
Despite the decrease in outside fund- der and delivery, national vendors had ey-making business [for Farm Fresh]—
ing, Market Mobile continues to meet the edge. But the study also showed that it’s not going to make anyone [at Farm
progressive business goals. It has built consumers are willing to spend more on Fresh] a millionaire.”
an efficient system that saves producers food when they knows it is locally grown. For Fulmer, increased availability of
and consumers time and money, brings The Market Mobile website features pro- local foods means more jobs. “The mon-
fresher foods to underserved Rhode Is- files of it’s producers and buyers and tal- ey [businesses] spend is being recycled
land communities, and supports local lies its top-selling items and producers back into the Rhode Island economy,”
farmers that can supply the wholesale each month. This raises consumer aware- said Fulmer. The sales from 2010 alone
marketplace of schools, grocers, and res- ness of which businesses are buying lo- produced the equivalent of fifteen new
taurants. Above all, the program has bol- cally, potentially offsetting higher costs local jobs, and the use of a single truck
stered sales and consumption of locally of local foods with advertising. cuts fuel costs and carbon emissions for
grown products. Though it has tried to overcome prob- deliveries.
“Shipping produce is costly,” said Ray lems with local food distribution, not ev- Fulmer sees a bright future for Mar-
Aubin, general manager of Confreda eryone is satisfied with Market Mobile. ket Mobile. Fulmer predicts that total
Greenhouses and Farms. “We participate “The first year of the program, I grew a annual sales will expand to two and a
in the [Market Mobile] program because ton of cherry tomatoes, expecting Mar- half million dollars by 2014, a feat that
without it, we just can’t serve so many ket Mobile to be able to sell them. Then would require daily deliveries and a few
restaurants, especially smaller ones, eco- they told me they didn’t need them… hundred additional acres of food produc-
nomically. It’s a matter of reach.” some bigger growers had a steadier sup- tion. “In order to meet our goals, we are
Market Mobile serves some favor- ply,” said Art Mello, owner of Mello’s committed to making schools and cor-
ites of Providence residents, from cof- Farm Stand. “I thought the program was ner stores a priority for growth,” Fulmer
fee houses like Blue State to four-star supposed to help everyone, not just the said. “Hospitals have been showing a
restaurants like Al Forno. The Brown larger producers. It doesn’t seem fair.” lot of interest, too. It makes sense that
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Mello was also dissatisfied with the health care folks would be interested in
both boast Market Mobile ingredients, treatment of his produce. our program. Healthy food goes a long
as does RI Hospital and Jack’s Snacks—a “I sold some squash at the end of the way.”
bakery for dogs in Cranston. In Boston, season last year. They stored it in an area “I think we have something here that
Clover Fast Food, a five dollar sandwich that was unheated, and squash can’t be could be a model for other communi-
truck, and Ten Tables, a restaurant with cooled. It compromised the quality of my ties,” said Fulmer. “Local farms can be
no entrées under twenty dollars, both product,” he added. the connection that makes communities
use the service.  Allan Hill, co-owner of Hill Orchards healthy and sustainable, we just have to
said, “It’s a good program,” but also men- take advantage of the resources.”
R OA D B LO C K S tioned that “when it started I was mak-
The road to success was largely unpaved ing more money from it than I am now, TORY ELMORE B’13 is a walk-in re-
for the Market Mobile. Despite its un- probably because it has more growers frigerator.
precedented success, the program strug- now.”
gles to keep up. In markets with many producers, like
THEINDY.ORG
A N U N FOR SE E N L EG AC Y
w With the pass-
ing of Bill 5415
in July 2010,
Rhode Island
updated its HIV
testing policies, striking the burden of
informed consent. Verbal consent is now
sufficient to receive screening. This leg-
islation amendment is a direct response
to 2009 rallies led by activists like Brian
Alverson, Assistant Pediatrics Professor
BU
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School. Alverson argued the “evidence
[was] overwhelming that eliminating
the signature would decrease the burden
of HIV in Rhode Island.” This seemingly
small change is a long-awaited first step
in moving towards HIV testing guide-
lines laid out by the Center for Disease
Control (CDC) four years ago.
In encouraging health care providers
to promote regular HIV testing for all
adults and adolescents, these 2006 fed-
eral guidelines aimed to eliminate bur-
densome pre-screening and risk-analysis
protocol. Still, even with state mandates
shifting to accommodate these new sug-
gestions, the perceived importance of
analyzing a patient’s risk before testing
still lingers. Health care providers, in-
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FNCSBD three reasons why the previous system
ing the call for modifications.
New York State, an even later bloom-
er, just changed its laws to allow verbal
consent on the first of this month. As
The New York Times reported in 2006,
when the CDC released its recommen-
dations, most advocates agreed too few

i6)4

New Yorkers were being tested. How-
ever, there were also widespread histori-
cal and political barriers to direct imple-
mentation of the new federal policy.
“What they’re recommending would
require a significant change in New York
law, and I am opposed to weakening the

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are doing an HIV test unless they object
protections we have,” said Democratic

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(opt out).” Since Brown currently utilizes
Assemblyman Richard N. Gottfried. In
its coverage of the legislation, The New
York Times identified the origins of
this resistance in the early 1980s when
the nature of AIDS was so uncertain it
was still being called ‘Gay Cancer.’ Little
could be done for treatment, so testing
was rarely sought out.
Moreover, in the early eighties, a posi-
tive test result was thought to encourage
discrimination against an already target-
ed group. The gay community feared that
doctors may begin testing them without
their consent based solely on their sexu-
ality.

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behaviors that might transmit HIV after
To quell this fear, support was formed

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they become aware they are infected,” ex-
for the strict documentation of each HIV
test. Though this argument held meager
influence in most states, New York and
a few others adopted laws that set the
foundation for a cumbersome pre-test-
ing protocol, one that would take two
decades to overturn.
Patients would have to sign detailed
informed-consent papers differing from
those required for other medical tests.
Even worse was the burden placed on
the health care providers administering
HIV Testing, Then & Now
tests. The new law required doctors to
provide “an explanation of the nature of
AIDS and HIV-related illness, informa-
tion about discrimination problems that
disclosure of the test result could cause,
legal protections against such discrimi-
nation, and information about behavior
known to pose risks for transmission and
contraction of HIV infection.” Ironically,
these systems put in place to protect pa-
tients’ rights would twenty years later be
a significant barrier to a new generation
of HIV patients, for whom catching the
disease early could mean the difference
between life and death.
ASSESSING RISK
In response to the time-consuming and
expensive nature of these new practices,
a process of risk-analysis was initiated to
moderate the number of tests given. Cul-
tural perceptions of the HIV population
drew finite borders between those seen
as at risk and those seen as safe, and that
notion is directly reflected in the 1993
CDC guidelines for HIV testing. The
guidelines, which were in effect until the
2006 update, only “recommended rou-
tine counseling and testing for persons
at high risk for HIV.”
The 2006 CDC recommendations list
formed consent policy. According to
actually inhibits proper HIV care. First,
the cost of HIV screening is often not
reimbursed by insurance companies,
barring much of the deemed at-risk
population from seeking testing in the
first place. Second, providers in busy
health-care settings often lack the time
to conduct risk assessments and might
perceive counseling requirements too
cumbersome to widely offer. Third, ex-
plicit information regarding HIV preva-
lence typically is not available to guide
informed risk analysis, even if the pro-
vider did have the time to carry it out.
The old basis for assessing risk has
been recognized as inherently flawed.
The CDC confirms in its newest guide-
lines an unforeseen shift in what was
once thought to be the high-risk popula-
tion: “Since the 1980s, the demographics
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tions of infected persons less than 20
years of age, women, members of racial
or ethnic minority populations, persons
who reside outside metropolitan areas,
and heterosexual men and women.”
Because of these problems with risk-
analysis screening, the CDC now rec-
ommends that state laws allow for flex-
ibility in pre-screening requirements so
that doctors can make HIV tests part of
everyday protocol.
However, due to the implementation
of this wholly ineffective system of test-
ing based on perceived risk, there has
been a significant lack in HIV screening.
According to the New York City Depart-
ment of Health and Mental Hygiene,
over a third of the current HIV positive
population statewide discovered their
condition only after reaching advanced
stages of the disease.
by Kate Bell
Illustration by Charis Loke
If fewer tests are offered when risk-
analysis is part of protocol, even fewer
still are requested. In trusting their own
risk-gauge, the patients themselves be-
come the barrier to proper screening. If
individuals don’t see themselves as fit-
ting into perceived at-risk populations,
they aren’t seeking tests, says Cynthia
Capra, Nurse Practitioner for Brown
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The stigma that surrounds HIV test-
ing is created by the assumption that you
must have engaged in high-risk behavior
to warrant screening. This puts people in
the position of having to judge their own
actions as flawed or promiscuous before
seeking a test. Self-concluding foul play
is unlikely, especially within university
settings. According to Lizzie Feidelson
B’11.5, “students here define safe sex as
having sex with people they trust, not
making sure their partners are negative
for HIV before they sleep with them.”
STUDENT STIGMA
Health-care providers still use risk-
analysis as part of the screening
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Services is among those that main-
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which currently still includes an in-
in non-traditional locations does much
Naomi Ninneman, a health educa-
tor at Brown, “an honest discussion
with your medical provider about
your risk is a really important part of
determining which tests are most ap-
propriate for you, and how often you
should be tested.”
In the case of one Brown student
who declined to be named, a Health
Services staff member suggested
that because she had only had unpro-
tected sex with a Brown student, an
HIV test wasn’t necessary. Though
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actions have at times contradicted
the CDC’s guidelines that confirm
“all patients seeking treatment for
STDs, including all patients attend-
ing STD clinics, should be screened
routinely for HIV during each visit
for a new complaint, regardless of
whether the patient is known or sus-
pected to have specific behavior risks
for HIV infection.”
Other universities nationwide have
implemented HIV testing protocol in
ways that help students incorporate
testing into their normal health routine.
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many that offer free rapid HIV tests to
students and faculty on a regular basis.
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school also sets up screening sites in
residence halls and the student center,
where free, anonymous tests are admin-
istered by trained counselors. Susan Yo-
len, Vice President of Public Relations K ATE BELL B’11 thinks you should
for the Planned Parenthood Southern get tested.
New England chapter, validates this
method. “This approach to HIV testing
8
Features
Since the U.S. epidemic began,
565,927 people have died of
AIDS according to the National
Institute if Allergy and Infectious
Diseases (NIAD)
Over One million people in the
United States alone are currently
living with HIV/AIDS (NIAD)
According to a 2008 New York
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patients or 200,000 people are
unaware of being HIV positive.
Avert, an international AIDS
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again in 2010.
The current life expectancy of
a patient after being diagnosed
with HIV has tripled since 1993
going from 7 to 24 years. How-­
ever, in those two-­plus decades
medical expenses add up to be
over $600,000.
to reduce social stigma surrounding the
process. Anything you do to normal-
ize testing helps reduce the fear hurdle
that often blocks students from seeking
screening.”
Change may be on the horizon for
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providers are aware of the new RI leg-
islation and received related training
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at switching to “opt out” testing where
we simply tell the patient who could be
seeking care for other reasons that we
rapid testing, which takes up substantial
staff time, the university is currently
working on a way to effectively inte-
grate these new policies without drain-
ing resources. Ninneman anticipates the
amendments will be put in effect no later
than next semester.
It is clear from the CDC’s changes
that HIV testing needs to be positioned
as a preventative measure rather than
something reserved for those perceived
in a risky-behavior group. “The majority
of persons who are aware of their HIV
infections substantially reduce sexual
plains the 2006 CDC report. And though
we are a generation removed from those
for whom AIDS epidemic was a more pal-
pable reality, we are still at risk. As Yolen
points out, “If you are at risk for Chla-
mydia and Gonorrhea, you are at risk for
contracting HIV. It’s that simple.”
I
t started with tomatoes.
When I arrived at Buckhorn
Gardens in early July, the
other interns on the three-
acre vegetable farm in south-
western Colorado had just
finished pulling up almost the
entire crop of these juicy sum-
mer delicacies. They yanked
the plants up by the roots and
threw them—flowers, leaves,
stems and all—into black garbage bags des-
tined for the landfill.
They did the same thing with the po-
tatoes. And the fava beans. And anything
else that exhibited the telltale symptoms:
curling, cupping, twisting leaves, and some-
times a hard nub on the stem. By the time I
left at the end of August, we had pulled up
the peas, the peppers, and the beans too.
This is not what I envisioned when I de-
cided to spend my summer working on an
organic farm at the base of the San Juan
Mountains. I expected hot days in the field,
planting seeds and harvesting cucumbers.
I awaited a bounty of succulent produce. I
thought I would spend the summer months
enjoying the outdoors in a pristine, unpol-
luted environment.
Instead, I ended up learning a lot about
chemicals. Or at least the one chemical that
made its way into the Buckhorn fields from
an adjacent ranch, affecting nearly all of
the crops. I harvested plenty and I planted
some, but mostly I got a grim picture of the
way we think about our land in this country.
With deeds in our hands and barbs on our
fences, it’s easy to forget how the actions we
take don’t always stay within property lines.
Breigh Peterson, who started Buckhorn
Gardens four years ago at age 27, never
would have guessed that her plants would
be harmed by an herbicide. Her farm lies on
land owned by a cattle ranch in a secluded
valley. There are no giant cornfields or or-
chards right next door, no crop-dusters in
the vicinity. And though her farm is not
certified organic, Peterson doesn’t use any
chemicals at all, organic or synthetic. The
closest she gets to a pesticide is dusting
some crops with flour and cayenne pepper
to deter flea beatles.
So when an extension agent from Colo-
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and told Peterson that her plants’ symptoms
looked like signs of chemical residue, she
didn’t believe him. She recalled their conver-
sation: “He told me, ‘You know, this actually
looks like herbicide.” And I said, ‘No way.
There’s no way this could possibly happen
here.’”
When the twisted and cupped leaves
started showing up in early summer, Peter-
son thought they were symptoms of a com-
mon virus called curly top. But something
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top usually doesn’t show up so early in the
season, and even if it did, it shouldn’t have
been spreading this quickly. Six weeks later,
when plant tissue samples came back nega-
tive for curly top and a slew of other viruses,
Peterson started thinking the extension
agent was onto something.
It was then that she approached the
owners of the ranch and learned that they
were spraying an herbicide known as Mile-
stone to control thistle in their pastures.
A little computer research confirmed her
new hypothesis. “I looked it up online, and
the plant pictures looked the same as our
plants,” Peterson said. “Exactly the same.”
Thus began weeks of research and questions:
were the crops fit for sale? Was the soil fit
for planting? Would the ranch reimburse
Buckhorn Gardens for damages incurred?
We found articles about a number of organic
farms that had lost their certification due
to pesticide drift and sued for thousands,
sometimes millions of dollars. But because
Peterson was leasing land from the ranch
owners, who wanted an organic farm on the
property, a lawsuit was out of the question.
The Dow Chemical Company released
Milestone in 2006, adding another player
to a thriving market of synthetic weed- and
pest-control agents. A search on the Pesti-
cide Action Network’s Pesticide Database
turns up 2,412 herbicides registered for
use on land. There are thousands of other
aquatic herbicides, insecticides, fungicides,
algaecides and chemical fertilizers on the
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tection Agency, Americans apply more than
one billion tons of pesticides and herbicides
each year. The potential for contamination is
huge.
According to Dow, Milestone uses “a
novel, breakthrough molecule” to control
invasive broadleaf weeds such as thistle and
knapweed in all sorts of environments, from
pastures and wildlife management areas, to
campsites and cereal fields. The chemical is
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is even registered under the EPA’s Reduced
Risk Pesticide, which signifies that it is safer
for humans and for the environment than
available alternatives. Its biggest selling
point, though, is that it’s selective. Spray
Milestone on a weed-infested wheat field,
and in a few weeks only the neat rows of
wheat will remain.
Milestone kills plants by bombarding
them with growth hormones. Peter Hey-
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sity, explained that all plants have a hormone
called auxin, which regulates development.
Aminopyralid, the active ingredient in Mile-
stone, is an auxin mimic, and plants that are
flooded with this chemical lose control over
cell division, causing leaves to brown, curl,
twist, and ultimately, die. So how does the
wheat in our Milestone-sprayed field remain
undisturbed? Grasses respond differently to
auxin, so aminopyralid only affects broad-
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mer crops on a diversified vegetable farm fall
into that category.
The directions on the Milestone label
contain intricate instructions for avoiding
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50-foot border between the spray area and
any non-target broadleaf crops. The label
also contains a drift reduction advisory that
spans almost an entire page and covers ev-
erything from droplet size, to swatch adjust-
ment, to wind, to temperature and humid-
ity. The managers of the ranch adjacent to
the Buckhorn fields said they left a 900-foot
buffer zone between the spray area and the
farm site. They sprayed out of a small tank
that rested on the back of a four-wheeler—a
tool similar to a hand-sprayer, but not worn
on somebody’s back.
“It’s hard for people to believe that this
could happen from the way they were spray-

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ing,” Peterson said. “The people who spray
weeds for the county, both of them think
I’m crazy. They’re like, ‘No way this can hap-
pen.’”
Maybe the ranchers didn’t follow the di-
rections closely enough. Maybe the wind
changed direction or picked up suddenly. Or
maybe one of the thousands of other factors
out of their control kicked in. Whatever the
case, Peterson received a letter in early Au-
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versity of Montana. Aminopyralid was pres-
ent in three of the four plants she sent in.
The one plant uncontaminated was, ironi-
cally, a weed.
In attempting to solve scientific problems,
we tend to get caught up in our innovation
and ingenuity. What we’re not so good at is
predicting all the unintended consequences
of our actions. Assembling a chemical sub-
stance that mimics a natural plant hormone
and targets specific unwanted crops for de-
struction is genius. But what do we do when
that chemical persists long after we want it
or travels to new locations?
Despite its low-risk classification, amin-
opyralid has been causing a lot of problems
over the past several years, and all in all,
Buckhorn had it easy. When contamination
occurs by air, the herbicide has a half-life of
about a month, and it degrades even faster
when exposed to water. The Buckhorn Gar-
dens soil was fit for planting by the end of
the summer. But contamination can also
occur through other channels, and when it
does, things get a lot more complicated.
In the summer of 2008, gardeners in the
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beds they had covered with purchased ma-
nure. It turned out that this manure came
from animals that had eaten hay sprayed
somewhere down the line with aminopyral-
id-based herbicides. Dow touts the persis-
tence of these herbicides, saying they may
control weeds for a whole season with only
one application. This is how persistent ami-
nopyralid is: a farmer sprays it on his pas-
ture. Animals eat the contaminated hay and

duce enough vegetables to make it through
are unharmed. The sprayed hay is digested
and comes out the other end. Aminopyral-
id stays in the manure, and when a nearby may not be used on pastures that grow hay. cident at Buckhorn were huge. Peterson lost
farmer uses some of that manure to add nu- Before purchasing the herbicides, farmers 85 percent of her crop — at least $40,000
trients to his soil, the aminopyralid releases must discuss their plans for use with an ad- dollars worth of damages. That doesn’t take
slowly as soil bacteria break it down. Plants viser affiliated with BASIS, an independent into account the $10,000 the ranch is paying
exposed to the manure don’t germinate. organization that establishes standards for to reimburse CSA members. Or the labor that
the pesticides within the country. On top of went into planting those seeds and tending
The farmer’s soil can stay contaminated and that, they must sign a document stating that those plants. “From spring until June, we
unfit for planting for a year or more. they understand the effects of this product worked 12-, 15-, 16-hour days,” Peterson
Guy Barter, the head of horticultural advi- on their animals’ manure. Distributors in said. “Everything we planted died.” Even
sory services for the Royal Horticultural So- UIF
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ciety, told The Guardian during the crisis that based weed retardants if they re-train their leeks were smaller than normal. The onions
he was receiving more than 20 phone calls staff on the use of the chemicals. never bulbed. The squash plants produced
every week from concerned farmers and gar- Regulation may help keep these chemicals one-third the amount they usually do.
deners. “It’s happening all over the country,” in check. But there are some unintended In my last week at Buckhorn, I seeded
he told the newspaper. “A lot of cases we are consequences that will keep causing trouble. beds of arugula, spinach and mustard
seeing is where people have got manure from “I hope people realize that if we keep do- greens. The good news is that they have all
ing this, we’re going to have a huge manure germinated and are growing well — no cup-
hay from a merchant, and the merchant problem on our hands,” Davis said. “I keep ping, curling or twisting to be found. What’s
may have bought hay from many farmers, telling people that all you need to do is put more, the ranch agreed to stop spraying any-
possibly from different parts of the coun- manure on your garden. It is such a wonder- where in the valley. But there are still herbi-
try.” Aminopyralid wasn’t just leaking out ful resource, and to see us ruining that re- cides in the region. Thirteen miles down the
of farmers’ fields, it was trav-
eling large distances through
lengthy supply chains. It was
difficult to figure out where
the chemical came from, and it
was just as difficult to predict
where it would go next.
More recently, growth-reg-
ulator herbicides have hurt
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States — in Washington, Cali-
fornia, Ohio and North Caro-
lina. Jeanine Davis, an associ-
ate professor and extension
specialist at North Carolina
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in her community began hav-
ing problems with contami-
nated manure last year. “Dam-
age was widespread like we’ve
never had it before,” she said.
One extension agent in the
state told Davis that 25 to 30
cases had been reported in his
county alone.
Although both Dow and the
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torate have determined that
vegetables grown in contami-
nated manure can be eaten
without harmful health ef-
fects, aminopyralid is not ap-
proved for most food crops,
and produce treated with the
chemical may not be sold.
Farmers who use contami-
nated manure could lose their
crops for up to one year as
they wait for the aminopyralid
to break down in their soil.
Without some form of reim-
bursement, those financial
losses could be devastating to
small, diversified operations.
Davis said there is sometimes disagree- source just really upsets me.” road, the small mountain town of Ridgway is
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courage weed-control agents like Milestone. mimicking molecule to kill broadleaf weeds. regulations on control of invasive weeds.
“These herbicides are very effective, and They might not have known it would devas- When I talked to Peterson on the phone last
some of our weed scientists promote them tate small farmers across the globe. Or that week, she had recently voiced her concerns
because they’re so persistent that they don’t it would create a waste problem out of some- at a town meeting and is advocating alterna-
have to be sprayed very often. It appears to thing that was once a closed circle of nutri- tive methods of weed control, like goat graz-
be very sustainable from the point of view of ent recycling. But our scientific track-record ing.
the hay farmer.” But Davis said she finds the shows an impressive knack for innovation, It is easy to think of air and water as
persistence of the chemical troubling. with a deficiency at considering consequenc- common resources. Water moves and wind
Aminopyralid goes “way beyond the per- es. blows, and we can see how something de-
son who applies it,” Davis said. “That hay posited in one place may end up in another
farmer has no control by the time that hay quite quickly. What is harder for us to in-
has gone from his field to the compost pile Life at Buckhorn was morose for the last ternalize is that land is a common resource
in my garden.” weeks of summer. With hardly any summer too. We may have property rights, but that
Herbicides containing aminopyralid produce in our fields, we had to cut short our doesn’t mean that our actions are confined
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Community Supported Agriculture program. within our fences. And with supply chains as
two years following the complaints about CSA members had signed up in the spring to long as they are today, we can never be sure
tainted manure. This year, they were rein- receive a share of produce each week until where our inputs will travel. Who knows,
troduced with stringent restrictions—ones November, but at a certain point it became they might just end up on someone’s tomato
that Davis would like to see imposed in the clear that the gardens weren’t going to pro- plants.
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aminopyralid-based herbicides may only be the season. DEBOR AH LEHMANN B’10.5 has a
used on sheep and cattle pastures, and they The financial implications of the drift in- huge manure problem on her hands.
11 S E P T E M B E R 30 2 0 1 0 T H E C O L L E G E H I L L I N D E P E N D E N T

Place Trace
Features

A Geo-­Historical Ac
of Providence

Illustration by Rob
by Simone Landon

ert Sandler
count
w hen Roger Wil-
liams crossed
the Seekonk River
away from Plym-
outh Colony and out
of the reach of Mas-
sachusetts extradition
orders, he did not mourn his dissenter’s
fate. He did not liken his circumstance to
that of the Israelites, cast to wander in
the desert before reaching the Promised
Land. Instead, he identified his beef with
(perhaps reflecting colonists’ shifting
understanding of power to the more ter-
restrial).
Religious pilgrims’ fantasies of or-
dained exile in the New World evolved
easily to expansionist self-justification
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skip, and jump from Williams and the
Puritans’ divine providence to pro-ex-
pansionist journalist John L. O’Sullivan’s
insistence on American “divine destiny”
in 1839, to making said destiny Manifest
and that’s for the best. But if things go
wrong, the misfortune must be attribut-
ed to the mysterious workings of God’s
will. Providence is a fairly convenient
base belief for those attempting to found
communities with as yet unpredictable
results in foreign territory.
The colloquial uses of “providence”
also betray this ambivalence. Accord-
ing to the Oxford English Dictionary,
providence can be used to mean thrift
and frugality in regards for the future—
Providence-as-site no longer means
simply divine foresight or even destiny.
Providence now means Luxury.
Not all Providences are markedly
rich—in New Providence, Iowa, for ex-
ample, the median household income
was $39,000 in 2000. But it is exactly
these small-town Providences that serve
as inspiration of the developers of the
planned communities. The Village of
Providence (within the Hunstville, Ala-
bama city limits) bills itself as lost Amer-
the pro-Church-of-England colonists— with the annexation of Texas in 1845. something the Puritans would have ican small-town charm revived in a con-
which motivated his expulsion—as a There are now places called Provi- sanctioned. It can also mean foresight, temporary city, perfect for those seeking
matter of Divine Providence. dence in 23 of the 50 states. Most of provision, or a person’s God-allotted “the comforts and conveniences of a
Williams could claim the patch of land he these Providences are tiny, usually un- fate. Specifically in New England, “a modern neighborhood with the values
soon purchased from the Narragansett incorporated towns of fewer than 2,000 providence” denoted “that which is di- and traditions of yesterday,” according
Native Americans as his promised land. residents. Providence also lends its name sastrous but which is at the same time to to its real estate literature. (Providence,
He duly called his new home Providence, (if not its divine essence) to a neighbor- be regarded and submitted to as the act AL also makes explicit reference to the
an overt reference to his belief that God hood in Mesa, Arizona, and a mountain of God.” first American city of Providence—it has
was on his side. range in the Mojave National Reserve in streets named Thayer, Hope, and Meet-
Williams wasn’t alone in self-sanc- southern California. VICE PONDER ing, though these don’t correspond geo-
tioning geographic occupation via ref- The nominal link between expansion- 6OBCMF
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erence to divine power. Providence ap- ism and Providence deteriorated, how- tations, Providence as a place name has Developers market simplicity and
pears to be a favored ecclesiastical and ever, as the West was won. Providence meant more than geography and more, neighborliness (providential Christian
colonial concept of Britons and their even, than destiny. It represents an ex-
does not exist in either Alaska or Hawaii. values) as tenets of their planned com-
descendents—or of those who chose It is also missing from Montana, the Da-pectation of a certain kind of destiny—a munities, all while charging for access
to travel and found it prudent to carry kotas, Colorado, Wyoming, and Nevada. successful one, directed by a benevolent to such idylls. From the simulated home
God’s will with them. There are Provi- Nor can Providence be found in the God. And while providential success to tour on its web site, “comforts and con-
dences throughout the Anglophone southwestern states for which the idea Roger Williams might have meant secur- veniences” of Providence Village life in-
world, established by colonizers, would- ing a bit of land along with his religious
of Manifest Destiny was first articulated clude neoclassical columns, grand pia-
be colonizers, explorers, and, as we came in order to justify their conquest from freedom, for later providential pioneers nos, and canopied beds. The Providence,
to call them in this country, homestead- Mexico. Either the mapmakers felt God’s it meant territorial and material gain Florida, website asks readers to check
ers. first, with a bonus halo of divine sanc-
absence in their endeavors, or such insis- a price range box (the lowest value is
Their shared name evokes a shared tent bluster became unnecessary. tion to cover the moral rear. $300,000) when submitting inquiries on
idea: to find a place providential, one Whether by act of God or man, Provi- its contact form. Lighted tennis courts
must consider one’s own presence there P R OV E D N I C E dences were in the money. Post-Wil- and a 24-hour guarded entrance come
no less than an act of God. 0OF
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liams, Providence, Rhode Island gained standard. Providence Village, Texas,
properties of American Exceptionalist wealth through the slave trade (another shows off its lush lawns and a swimming
COV E N P R I D E belief twinned with Christian-articulat- vocation murkily justified via Christi- pool with waterslide—all in the middle
Wherever British ships sailed, Provi- FE
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anity). Providence, Ohio (now a ghost of the desert.
dence went with them. Thanks to colo- was more than just a trend. “What’s in town) was founded as a fur trading post These Providences demonstrate a
nialism, today you can visit several Ca- a name,” in the case of Providence, is a and grew rich on the gambling money of drift from the thrift of the providen-
ribbean Providences. Modern-day Isla de theological punch. travelers headed west. Isla de Providen- tial Puritans to the luxury of suede-
Providencia, off the coast of Nicaragua, Providence in the way Roger Williams cia supposedly still hides chests of pirate ensconced condo interiors. And while
was occupied by the Providence Island and other settlers meant it is short- treasure from its buccaneer days. this might seem a corruption of Roger
Company before it passed to Spanish hand for Divine Providence, a concept Contemporary Providences aren’t Williams’s faith, providence as Manifest
(now Colombian) territory. It was once a that dates back to the birth of Western lacking in wealth either. New Providence Destiny, the pinning of God’s will to fi-
pirate hideout and is now a scuba-diving monotheism. Though the exact theologi- in the Bahamas has been a luxury tourist nancial success—none of these are alien
destination. cal definitions of Divine Providence vary destination since the 1960s. Its capital, to certain geographic aspirations.
New Providence is the largest island depending on your preferred Judeo- Nassau, was once a pirate stronghold, The founders of today’s Providences
in the Bahamas. (In some tricky, canni- Christian sect, according to most, there and now hosts cruise ship tourism-driv- probably don’t literally believe their cul-
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are two types: “general providence,” en casinos. A “Princess” brand luxury de-sacs are informed by a divine hand.
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644 Providence to attack whereby a benevolent God keeps an eye hotel shares the suburb of Providence, Yet McMansion builders that proclaim
and capture the island from the British on the natural order of the universe, and Guyana, with a newly built world-class “freedom, family and beauty” as their
during the Revolutionary War.) “special providence,” in which God di- cricket stadium. motivators—as the Providence Village
Elsewhere, the less-suitably-named rectly intervenes in people’s lives. Stateside, Providences continue to developers do—are continuing the prov-
Providence Atoll in the Seychelles con- It is this second kind of “special prov- spring up around the country—and nor idential legacy. These new Providences
sists of two inhospitable islands. idence” that undergirds ideas of Ameri- are they named by accident. These new may be nominal allusions to the divine
But nowhere are there more Provi- can Exceptionalism and Manifest Des- Providences are master-planned com- rather than literal evocations, but they
dences than in this country. tiny. It is also what allowed someone like munities, aimed at wealthy homebuy- demonstrate an American sense of en-
Just 13 years after Roger Williams’s Williams to believe God acted specifically ers. And while (sub)urban development titlement regarding land that dates back
holy venture into Rhode Island, Puritans on his behalf to secure land in what is isn’t exactly analogous to 19th century to Roger Williams. Go on, they suggest,
exiled from Virginia took the same rosy now the Ocean State. homesteader settlements, Providences God knows you deserve it.
view in founding Providence, Maryland. Viewed this way, “providence” acts in Texas, Las Vegas, Florida, and Ala-
The city is now Annapolis—renamed as a sort of dual optimism/fatalism— bama share the moniker’s historic asso- SIMONE LANDON B’10.5 on Corn
in 1694 for Princess Anne of England one believes that God has one’s back, ciations with righteousness and money. Dip Eve.
THEINDY.ORG
T HE A E S T H E T IC OF
COL L A B OR AT ION
JF & SON Democratizes The Fashion Industry
by Emily Fishman
W
hen the term ‘eco-fash-
ion’ gets tossed around,
it automatically conjures
up fears of dull eggplant
hues, rumpled organic cot-
tons, and neo-hippie macramé accents.
For a while, this connotation was not
far from the truth. But in the past few
years, the disparity between sustainable
designers and the old industry favorites
has been diminishing. Companies like
Bodkin, Behnaz Sarafpour, and Edun,
founded by rocker-turned-human-
rights-martyr Bono and his wife, are at
the forefront of the war for sustainabil-
ity in the fashion business. Sustainable
practices in the garment industry en-
compass any and potentially every step
of the manufacturing process. Switching
from chemical to natural dyes, sourc-
ing organic fabrics, and ensuring fair
wages and safe working environments
for workers all signify a more sustain-
able or environmentally conscious mode
of production. These bigger lines may
be the famous faces of these emerging
practices, but the backbone supporting
them and revolutionizing the industry
from the bottom up is JF & SON, a small
New York-based textile and apparel de-
sign team.
B U S I N E S S A S ( U N ) U S UA L
JF & SON has been concerned with both
environmental and workers’ rights is-
sues since partners Jesse Finkelstein
B’05 and Katie King founded the compa-
ny in 2007 as a vertically integrated tex-
tile project. After giving up on working
in New York’s garment district due both
the rapidly closing studios and rising
prices, the two decided that the only way
they could stay afloat while staying con-
nected to the process was to start their
own studio overseas. It is in their facili-
ties in Noida, India (just outside of New
Delhi) and, as of this summer, China,
where JF & SON strives to control every
aspect of the process while also relying
on local skills and materials. Finkelstein
and King travel to each facility once ev-
ery two months and Skype conference
with their manager every day. In India,
the process involves mostly beading and
dyeing artisanship by the 50 plus em-
ployees, while the China studio focuses
more on impeccable pattern making
and complex production. The company
markets these different skill sets to out-
side companies who then hire them for
textile development projects for outside
companies (Gary Graham, Opening Cer-
emony, Loden Dagger, and aforemen-
tioned Edun and Bodkin are among their
clientele). It also designs and produces
an in-house line that is sold at the label’s
SoHo boutique.
Maintaining control of the manu-
facturing process affords the designers
creative freedom and opens every step
of the design and production process
up to collaboration. In an interview
with the Independent, Finkelstein says
“The big experiment is to take the stu-
dio model of making clothes and see if
we can bring that to an actual working
production system.” The studio model of
production—usually used for sampling
and specialized products—opposes the
hierarchical factory model in which one
unskilled laborer passes zipper after zip-
per to the next under the direction of a
designer or production manager. Instead
of mass-producing identical garments,
the studio produces pieces on an individ-
ualized level and thus necessitates par-
ticipation and flexibility among skilled
workers. “Oftentimes,” explains Finkel-
stein, “this whole outsourcing thing, and
designers being further and further re-
moved from how their things are being
made and even sold, means you can turn
a blind eye to it all.” With salaries over
three times the living wage and health
care for all, the workers at the Noida stu-
dio are, as Finklelstein calls them “cre-
ative participants rather than workers.”
It just so happens that the logic of
their structural goals fits directly into
the aesthetic goals of JF & SON. “Katie
and I are modernist in the sense that we
believe that the process takes priority
over the final product. The final product
will be powerful if the process is power-
ful. It’s our belief that we have an aes-
thetic in mind, but we invite a lot of par-
ticipation and collaboration, so whatever
thing we have in mind gets reworked and
diluted and changed and altered. And at
the end of the day we’re responsible for
curating it, but it’s an aesthetic that re-
ally is born out of collaboration.” Wheth-
er the aesthetic of collaboration or the
mode of collaborative production came
first, neither would function were it not
for the other.
M A K E W H AT YO U K N OW, B U Y
W H AT YO U K N OW
The company’s mission is not limited to
their own operation. JF & SON is not
simply carving out its own niche sepa-
rate from the rest of the fashion indus-
try, it is leading the restructuring of the
entire manufacturing process. With a
revolutionary twinkle in his eye, Finkel-
stein relates his project to the current
demands of the food industry. “People
want to know where their food comes
from. There is a similar deepness going
on with clothing… Anything that pro-
vides people with greater information
about how their stuff is being made and
who’s making it [is] empowering. People
design things, but they forget about the
other part of design, which is how they
actualize those things and the process by
which they are actualized.”
The closer the designers get to the
production process, the less limited JF
& SON is to adhere to the traditional
organizational structure of the fashion
industry. Normally, a company has to
finish all designs months in advance in
order to comply with the correct season
(Spring, Pre-Fall, Fall, or Resort) and
must determine its market (Contempo-
rary, Advanced Contemporary, Designer,
Couture) so as to be distributed and
merchandised correctly. This system of
classification dates back to the late 19th
and early 20th century when interna-
tional retailers had to make a long trip
to Paris for fashion and seasons had to
be planned according to itineraries. The
categories remain in place today despite
the advances in technology and the
popular shift in everyday dress to an all-
inclusive, mix-and-match aesthetic. JF &
SON actively rejects systematization as
the process moves fluidly from the stu-
dios to the storefront, and even to the e-
commerce site. Flexibility is the name of
the game as everything from experimen-
tal textile samples to materials for new
projects to accessory prototypes con-
stantly rotates through the hands of dif-
ferent team members. As they shed the
rigid, dictatorial structure of the fashion
industry, filled with middlemen and ex-
tra costs, JF & SON is able to keep prices
from skyrocketing. A dress for $163, a
blouse for $88, these (believe it or not)
comparatively low prices start to explain
why they were able to open a store and
thrive during a financial recession that
crippled the industry at large. That, or
the Finkelstein family home furnishings
company that makes novelty washcloths
for Ross Dress For Less.
H AV E YO U R C LOT H E S AND
E AT T H E M TO O?
All of this talk about vertical integration
and freedom from the tyranny of fashion
raises a series of questions that compare
JF & SON to none other than the ver-
tically-integrated, anti-fashion guinea
pig American Apparel. What makes JF
& SON different? In other words, why
will JF & SON work when rumors hint
at American Apparel’s impending bank-
ruptcy? Is it the fact that production is
overseas which maintains a large divide
between the consumers and the products
consumed? Is it the aesthetic produced
by the incorporation of and reliance on
local Indian and Chinese skill that main-
tains the clothing’s status as exotic and,
12
Arts
thus, ‘fashion-forward’? Could it per-
haps be the sheer size of the company
with one tiny store, under-cover collabo-
rations with larger companies, and two
home-based leaders that creates an aura
of elitism on which the fashion industry
thrives? Or is it just a matter of time
until this model also fails, when dreams
of expansion turn into the inability to
monitor production or maintain stan-
dards? It seems as though balancing the
goals of sustainable practices, a close col-
laboration between the creative and pro-
duction process, and a progression from
the arbitrary codes of the mainstream
fashion industry might just be too much
for one company to take on.
YO U C A N D O I T TO O
The people at JF & SON encounter cre-
ative energy on every level of the pro-
cess, from the design to the produc-
tion, and back to the merchandizing of
the store. Finkelstein describes that it
could not be done any other way. “When
you work closely with people, at least
in our case, it becomes really clear that
people have their own creative skills—
even the people who are sewing… It just
makes sense. You want people to get in-
volved.” The ultimate goal is, in essence,
to spread the responsibility and render
departmentalized production a collab-
orative process. The company does not
waste time and money on extensive PR
and proliferation of the brand’s image.
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beyond the self-satisfaction of branding
and making money, “to open up more
studios in more places, to open up more
stores. To become a company that gets
more people really actively involved in
the designing and the creation of the
clothes, like getting the customers to ac-
tively participate in the designing of the
goods.”
EMILY FISHMAN B’11 spent the past
two summers working at JF & SON.

13
Arts
The Town Director: Ben Affleck
A director who picks himself to play the lead role in a movie runs the risk that, if
he doesn’t suit the character or his acting is poor, he’ll look conceited—too blind to
his own faults to pass up the starring role (on top of the usual damage that bad act-
ing does). The risk is bigger if you’re someone like Ben Affleck, neither the most ac-
complished director nor the most reputed actor. It’s all the more impressive, then,
that Affleck is flawless as bank robber Doug MacRay in The Town, which Affleck
directed and co-wrote.
Doug has spent his entire life in Boston’s tough Charlestown neighborhood
(supposedly home to the most bank robbers per capita of anywhere in the country),
as have three pals who team up with him on heists. Together they work under the
crime lord, Fergie (Pete Postlethwaite), for whom Doug’s imprisoned father once
worked. Fergie operates out of his Charlestown florist shop, where Doug and com-
pany receive elaborate robbery plans and return with duffel bags full of cash.
In the first scene, the foursome storms into a Cambridge bank wearing Hallow-

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een masks and full-body costumes. They take cash and a hostage—the bank man-
ager—and drive her across town. When they drop her off, they keep her driver’s
license, noticing that the woman, Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall), lives just blocks
from them in Charlestown.
Doug trails Claire, making small talk with her after he finds her sobbing in a
laundromat. She mentions what happened at the bank, and Doug tries to gauge
what information she has told the FBI. He can’t resist flirting with her, and she
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mance, what with Doug belonging to a world of crime, poverty, and drugs, and
Claire being a yuppie (which she’s repeatedly called in the movie) who chooses to
live in Charlestown to stay true to her politics—she volunteers in the community
garden and with neighborhood kids.

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Probable or not, they fall for each other, though Claire still has no clue about
Doug’s crimes. Claire opens up to him about the trauma of being taken hostage and
seeing her co-worker brutally bashed in the head with the butt of a machine gun.
Doug, like any good friend, says he’s sorry to hear what she’s been through. She
replies, “It’s not your fault.”
Across town, agent Frawley of the FBI (Jon Hamm, “Mad Men”) is heading up
the investigation. He’s blunt and quick to say what’s on his mind. He has identified
all four robbers, but groans that regardless of his suspicions “we’ll never get 24-
hour surveillance, unless one of these idiots converts to Islam.” Despite Frawley’s
intuition, the robbers covered their tracks well and the FBI can’t get a warrant.
Typical movies in the crime/action genre preempt any chance at genuine sus-
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cause he’s never in convincing danger. Conversely, alternative takes on the genre
commit so fully to pessimistic realism that it’s obvious the hero is going to falter.
The Town stays tense by not committing to either standard.
The heists, almost Ocean’s Eleven-like in extravagance, and the dynamic police
chases play to the former. But the movie leans toward realism in other respects,

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casting Boston rapper Slaine and an amateur named Owen Burke as the other two
robbers in the foursome. Burke, a Charlestown resident, had just finished a stint in
prison when he went to an open casting call and scored the role of Dez.
The Town’s unpredictability keeps the adrenaline up for its entire two hours—
achieving its only goal. The film doesn’t send any thematic or sociological message,
managing to say little about the potential for cross-cultural love between someone
like Doug and someone like Claire. The Town just wants to provide intelligent escap-
ism—to fit as much excitement as it can into two hours—and it pulls it off.
  -ZJR
  
T H E
S E P T E M B E R 30 2010 T H E C O L L E G E H I L L I N D E P E N D E N T
Devil Director: John Erick Dowdle
The premise of Devil—five naughty schmucks trapped in an elevator, one of
whom is Satan—is admittedly gimmicky. But unlike other single-event horror
movies born of confined spaces and perilous conditions (cf. Open Water, Panic
Room, Frozen), this M. Night Shymalan-produced spook-fest isn’t too married to
the limitations of its scenario. Accordingly, a recovering alcoholic detective, a pro-
I N D Y
phetic Hispanic security guard, and various janitors, lawyers, and firefighters all
get screen-time, even though they are outside of the satanic elevator at 333 Lo-
cust Street (the devil’s in the details). Structurally the film maintains a quick pace
by alternating between people in the elevator getting maimed (bitten, slashed,
hanged, twisted) and people outside the elevator freaking out (and also occasion-
ally getting maimed).
For a PG-13 rated horror movie (a curse for the Fangoria crowd), Devil offers
up an array of wacky wounds. Shard of glass perforate necks, heads are torequed

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ultimately, a child is thrown through the windshield of a car. But despite this
farrago of destroyed bodies, the movie strikes a shrill moral chord. Like some
amalgamation of the Saw movies (where characters are faced with literally tortur-
ous moral dilemmas) and Crash (Haggis, not Cronenberg), Devil is ultimately a
parable about taking responsibility for your actions, apologizing, and being on
the look out for Satan. The almost sanctimonious message of the film makes the
scares less enjoyable, in the way that it is impossible for a Lifetime movie about
G O E S
teen pregnancy to be sexy.
For a movie with Shymalan’s name on it, the ending isn’t very twisty, per-
haps because Christianity and predictability go good together, but perhaps also
because as with all “trapped-in-a-location”-location movies, if all the characters
EPOU
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-EJS
Legend of the Guardians:
The OwlsDirector:
of Ga’Hoole
Zack Snyder
  If you believe that commodities are marketed based on demand, then Legend of
the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole is a grim indicator of the state of our cinematic
T O
appetite. Or rather: Who decided that what we need, right now, is a RealD© amal-
gamation of tropes from Avatar, LoTR, and Star Wars featuring British owls? The
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and Watchmen. What, you ask, is this man doing directing a (surprisingly brutal)
children’s feature? Again, short answer: making a mess.
I have long contended that going to the movies is a pleasurable experience as
regards form as much as content—which is to say I’m satisfied to sit in a dark room
with loud noise and bright images. Owls of Ga’Hoole (What’s this?—an island?—I
dunno.) presents the rare exception to this paradigm tolerance. In part, the mov-
ie is hard to watch because the 3D visuals are, at best, invasive. The ceaseless
fights scenes are an incoherent mish-mash of feathers flying and owls shouting in
upper-class British accents. The plot, a mise-en-abyme
T H E
mish-mash of a bedtime story turned hero’s jour-
ney offers so little that is original (or even real-
ly intelligible), it’s surprising that someone
got screenwriting credit. The requisite an-
noying banter between the CGI owls (no,
actually, the only characters in the movie,
besides some Lion King-esque snakes and
wart-hogs are British CGI owls) is really an-
noying.
The film, based on a series of children’s
novels by Kathryn Lasky, promises to spawn
sequel after asinine sequel. The future is bleak.
M O V I E S
That said, if you are one of those unfortunate
people who thinks that the Pixar versus Dream-
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if unmentionable experiences from your childhood
mean that it’s easier and more comfortable for you to
empathize with badly voice-acted, digitally animated
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go the movies heavily intoxicated, you may enjoy the
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole. Maybe.
-EJS
Illustration by Eli Schmitt
Design by Joanna Zhang
THEINDY.ORG
The Social Network
Director: David Fincher
Much ado has been made about ‘the Facebook movie.’ Rolling Stone has already
said that the film “brilliantly defines the decade”, while blogs and top reviewers rarely
refrain from dropping the word ‘Oscar’ in overwhelmingly positive reviews. That’s not
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ists that came before him is to ignore the purpose and range of his work. His paintings
producer Kevin Spacey, director David Fincher (Fight Club, Benjamin Button) and writ-
er Aaron Sorkin, creator of The West Wing, how could the movie be bad?
It turns out the movie is very good—maybe even great—but it doesn’t define the
decade (like Fincher’s portentous slacker hit Fight Club did) so much as utilize a crucial
moment to tell a story. That moment, of course, took place a mere seven years back
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friend Tamra Davis (Half-Baked, Billy Madison and director of music videos by Sonic
the Holy Grail of information technology, and a year later ended up as the world’s
youngest billionaire. Sorkin and most of his supportive critics have pitched The Social
Network as some kind of modern treatment on Citizen Kane or Howard Hawks—Greek
tragedy infused with American entrepreneurship. That source of inspiration holds for
the dramatized, partly fictional story, but the appeal as a film is a bit more compli-
cated. A much riper analogy would be All the President’s Men, the story of Carl Ber-
nstein and Bob Woodward who broke the Watergate scandal in ’72. Both films are a
back-story that beckons because we already know, or are heavily concerned with, the
headline story.

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a college bar arguing over Mark’s obsession to get into a prestigious Harvard ‘Finals
Club’. “Why?” “Because they’re exclusive, and fun. And they lead to a better life.” The
fictionalized sequence ends with a breakup whammy from the girlfriend: “You’re going
to go through life thinking that girls don’t like you because you’re a nerd. That’s not
true. It’ll be because you’re an asshole.”
And thus continues a string of events that, each and every time, avoid any one
explanation of why Mark is really doing what he’s doing. Sore after the breakup, Mark
runs home and drunkenly retaliates at the female gender by coding up facemash.com,
a Harvard campus version of hotornot.com. Within a couple hours the school’s women
are put on a hugely public sliding scale, which gets Mark a dean’s hearing and about
half the school pissed off at him.   him to transition into painting.
His name popping up around campus, Mark is then approached by two Aryan rower
socialites, the Winklevoss twins, both played deftly by Armie Hammer through the
use of digital editing. The twins have a deal for Mark: help them build their proto-Face-
book website called HarvardConnect, and they’ll help him regain his social stature.
Maybe he’ll get to come to their really elite clubhouse, too. OK, so that’s what Mark
wanted all along, right? But then he says screw the clubs, he can make a better website.
Not for money or fame or clubs, but because he can do it better. Mark gets his funding
from (now ex-) best friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) and the initial success
of thefacebook.com propels the two into school wide stardom.
This new website gathers interest. Enter Sean Parker, the former creator of Napster,
played by an ecstatic Justin Timblerlake (his midway entrance into the film feels like a
double cameo). Parker gets wind of thefacebook.com, calls Mark and Saverin for a 5th
Avenue meeting, and then drops the kicker to starry-eyed Mark: “Yo, a million dollars
is cool, but you know what’s really cool? A billion dollars.”

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SF lowing gallbladder surgery. The shock sent Basquiat into depression and he began using
ally just a bigger rise) matches those same stereotypes of enigmatic entrepreneurs be-
cause there is never any clarity to the end goal. Mark wants girls, Mark wants money,
Mark wants to be friends with famous people. None of those hold to the finale. Just
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world more open.” It’s clearly scripted, but we can’t fault the real life or fictional per-
son for that. Because Mark, really, just wants to make a better Facebook. But that gets
confusing when the existence of ‘Facebook’ is contingent on its investors (like every
character in the film) being set on one of those much simpler fantasies.   film gives a new life to Basquiat and his work. Anyone interested in contemporary art or
Part of the experience of watching the film is simply the question of what it really
has to do with Facebook, if the film is verging on some great revelation about those
hours of looking and clicking. Sorkin himself admitted in an interview that he “knew
about Facebook like he knew about a carburetor.” And so in some ways the analogy
between the actual functioning ‘Facebook’ as we [its users] know it and the plot of
the film, doesn’t go much deeper than what the title alludes to: that these characters
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by, nor belongs to those in charge of museums and New York Times columns. Rather, it is
If anything that’s to the benefit of the final product. The restrained grandeur of
the film, with its soft colors and minimal effects (a far-cry from Fincher’s awesomely
oversaturated Zodiac) works because it is exactly the opposite of being on Facebook.
It’s a slow-paced melodrama, not some kind of frenetic postmodern commentary. If
Fincher had chosen denim blue and stark white as the film’s color palette, it would
have been a disaster.
There’s also a subtle sadomasochistic element to the film. Whether we admit it or
not, many of us—although certainly not all—have a love-hate relationship with Face-
book. Yes, it generates connections, keeps us in touch with far-away friends, strokes
the need to ‘stay updated.’ And then the other common side-complaint: Facebook
wastes time. It’s inherently unessential and superficial. The Faustian bargain of Face-
book is one that generates a lot of guilt and shame among many of its willing consum-

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ers.
Which is why I don’t think it’s digging too deep to say that there’s a revenge-flick
appeal to The Social Network. Think of it as the inverse of All the President’s Men. In-
stead of cheering on those intrepid journalists about to sack corrupt politicians, we get
to watch young, socially inept billionaire act like an asshole. Why is he a billionaire?
Because he created a program that we can’t stop using.
14
Arts
Jean-Michel Basquiat (b. 1960) spray-painted poems signed SAMO (short for same
old shit) around Lower Manhattan before becoming the first internationally acclaimed
African-American artist. Since he died of a heroin overdose at the age of twenty-seven,
praise for Basquiat’s work has grown exponentially, and in 2007, the record price for
a Basquiat painting was set at 14.6 million dollars.  In part, the significance of Bas-
quiat’s work stems from his rejection of classical and contemporary methods in favor of
a raw, sprawling technique that, upon first impression, seems like an exploding collage
of scribbling and color. However, to view Basquiat solely within the canon of great art-
explore the complexity and hypocrisy of contemporary society, the diaspora of the indi-
vidual and the rich, often ignored history of Africa and African-Americans.
Basquiat’s meteoric rise from the New York no-wave/punk/hip-hop scene to the
top of the contemporary art community has made him something of a pop icon. The
new documentary Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child, directed by Basquiat’s close
Youth, Hanson and N.W.A.) illustrates Basquiat as even more complex and unruly than
previous works have indicated. Basquiat’s close friends and art dealers offer fresh per-
spectives and revealing stories, but the film’s finest moments come from a previously
unseen interview Davis filmed with Basquiat two years before his death. For the past
twenty years the footage has remained in Davis’s closet. In an interview Davis explains
that she left the footage buried partially because she remained stricken with grief long
after Basquiat’s death, but also because she did not want to capitalize on Basquiat’s
fame (many of Basquiat’s close friends sold paintings he had personally given them).
Although there have been plenty of works on the artist (including a 1991 biopic), Da-
vis’s friendship with Basquiat creates the setting for an intimate interview, one that is
perhaps the best source for understanding Basquiat. 
The film begins in New York in the late ’70s. After dropping out of high school and
running away from his home in Brooklyn, Basquiat sold postcards on the street and
slept on park benches. Although living hand-to-mouth makes a good story for any ac-
complished artist, in his interview with Davis, Basquiat becomes visibly upset as he re-
counts living on the streets—hungry and without a place to go. Nevertheless, Basquiat’s
graffiti became notorious and soon he was invited onto Glenn O’ Brian’s “TV Party,” a
local cable access show that featured underground figures like Debbie Harry, The Clash
and Klaus Nomi. The show and his graffiti art propelled Basquiat into the underground
scene. The film captures the energy and excitement of this period in New York, but also
demonstrates how it provided Basquiat with a community and confidence that allowed
His work garnered immediate attention and by 1982 he was showing regularly along-
side other notable contemporary artists such as Julian Schnabel and Francesco Clem-
ente. Yet as these artists were largely praised by critics, Basquiat remained the victim
of much criticism that often took patronizing, racist tones and portrayed him as the art
world’s negro mistress. His work began to reflect this frustration and, in turn, reached a
new level of complexity and magnitude. The film expertly demonstrates how Basquiat’s
position as an African-American art celebrity tortured him, but also provided him with
a unique perspective that he was able to translate into art.
At a time when Basquiat did not know who to turn to, he made an unlikely friend in
Andy Warhol. From ’84 to ’86, the two collaborated on a number of spectacular works
that explored the dialogue between the individual and American iconography. However,
upon their release, the works were bombed by critics. More vulnerable and with more at
stake than the veteran Warhol, Basquiat was devastated and fled New York.  During his
absence he slowly lost touch with Warhol and a year later Warhol unexpectedly died fol-
heroin again. Despite a number of attempts to quit, Basquiat died in his SoHo studio on
August 12th, 1988, at 27.
Although many of his friends discuss the end of Basquiat’s life, the film avoids talk-
ing about his heroin use. His friends, all of who seem to share a bit of guilt over his
death, explain how caring and incredible Basquiat was, but the film delivers the true
sense of loss by demonstrating his talent and genius as an artist. Backed by a classic,
groovin’ hip-hop soundtrack and filled with anecdotes that explain his paintings, the
New York in the late 70s/early 80s will enjoy the film. Its most compelling aspect, how-
ever, is its opposition to notions of high art—a stance true to Basquiat’s character. Since
his death, Basquiat’s work has been appropriated by the community and critics that
once rejected him—his work can only be seen in art books and museums. In turn, the
significance and message behind Basquiat’s work has been lost. He purposely defied all
of the supposed rules of painting and still created amazing works of art, and as a result
demonstrated that African-American culture is equivalent in significance and beauty to
by and for the people. Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child takes Basquiat out of the
gallery and gives him back to the public. -EMF
Jean-Michel Basquiat:
 
The Radiant Child
Director: Tamra Davis

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rotic speech, but when he sinks inside himself, when he looks like an exhausted vam-
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ity/scorn of the elite is a near-universal trope in American media, but The Social Net-
work is a unique case where the distance is not so great. Try going to facebook.com/
zuck.
-AQR
15 S E P T E M B E R 3 0 2 010 T H E C O L L E G E H I L L I N D E P E N D E N T
Arts

T HE E T H E R E A L
C I T YSC A PE
A sonic take on our town

by Natasha Pradhan
Photographs by Betsey Biggs

C
hristina Kubisch, a pioneer in sound art, recently Originally, the headphones were not intended to make a di-
injected Providence with an innovative aural experi- rect statement, simply allowing listeners to interact with invis-
ence, by way of headphones that ring the sounds of ible currents in a raw, sensory fashion. But the immediacy of this
electric currents. Kubisch invited a group of us—art- experience, once digested beyond the aesthetic allure of making
ists, students, and teachers from various media arts music from magnetic fields, can be somewhat troubling. As the
programs at Brown and RISD—to take her invention headphones make plain, we are almost constantly and inescap-
out on the town this week to listen to
the normally-inaudible electromagnetically-in-
duced sounds of Providence, and experience famil-
iar spaces with a shifted consciousness.
Radically altering our sense of hearing, Kubisch’s
headphones make a different creature out of the hu-
man—one that responds to the aesthetic qualities
of the hums and rhythms pulsing through our quo-
tidian environment. Substantial in size and snug
around the head, the headphones are constructed
out of original electronics from the ’80s. While
studying at the Conservatory in Milan in the late
’70s, Kubisch discovered the potential of tuning
into electromagnetic induction almost by accident.
She overheard the sounds caught by a telephone
amplifier and, during the decades that followed,
built the special headphones she uses in her walks
today. Nowadays, Kubisch says she does not know
a city until she is familiar with the music emanat-
ed by its trams, security systems, cash machines,
cameras, internet connections, street lamps, neon
signs, and navigation facilities. Her favorite sounds
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rity system at the Centre Pompidou’s library in Paris, which pro- Although the cityscape offers many sound-bearing contrap-
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tions, the headphones can also pick up natural electricity if a pure
landscape, which she calls “paradise” to the electromagnetically enough environment emerges. Kubisch spoke very fondly of a
tuned ear. power outage during a thunderstorm when she reached for her
The aural aesthetic of Providence, according to Kubisch, is headphones (which are never very far away) and was able to hear
“puritan.” Lacking the technological saturation of New York City
or Tokyo, and with an urban area that is largely unlinked to the
Internet, the greater part of downtown Providence sounds flat.
That is not to say that there are not pleasing fields to eavesdrop.
Kubisch excitedly drew us to the buses paused at Kennedy Pla-
za and highlighted the fact that each bus has a unique electro-
magnetic personality. Inside the bus terminal, the now-archaic
television screens broadcasting busses’ whereabouts seduced the
headphone-wearing listener to draw nearer and twist in every
which direction to fully engage with the fields around the screens.
The lottery ticket vending machines just below, too, reverberated
highly intriguing notes. As a group, we attracted much attention
at the Providence Place mall: oblivious to the fellow strollers and
merchandise around us, we pranced around to make music with
the placement of our own bodies. Each security system at every
store entrance had its own rhythm, some jarring and others cap-
tivating. The fluorescents shining on Clinique’s line of skin-col- the subtle sounds of nature’s electric currents.
ored cosmetics were especially seductive by sound. International enthusiasm for this project has brought Kubisch
Though beautiful, the world overheard from Kubisch’s head- and her headphones all around Europe, Asia, and North America.
phones is surprising, and perhaps even worrisome. Kubisch not- She often leads public walks and has initiated the construction
ed the drastic increase of electric noise in the urban landscape of sound maps of the cities with which she is sonically intimate.
over the past decades. When she first employed the coil technol- Kubisch alluded to a desire to escape from her hotel room the
ogy, she sent her own electric currents to the amplifiers to make night following our workshop in order to spend a little more time
sounds and made a deliberate attempt to cut out the minor elec- getting to know Providence.
tric ambience noise that seeped into the headphones. Placing the
headphones around her ears years later in 1999, Kubisch realized NATASHA PR ADHAN B’11 is “paradise” to the electromag-
that there was more than enough sound material in the electri- netically-tuned ear.
cally saturated landscape itself.
THEINDY.ORG
GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER...
The advent
of genetically
PRGL´HG
salmon
by Belle Cushing
S
eared or poached, topped
with corn salsa or over
lentils, sashimi style or
in a maki roll: no matter
which way you serve it,
there’s something fishy
going on with salmon
these days.
AquaBounty, a company based out of
Waltham, MA, has presented a product
called AquAdvantage, a remixed ver-
sion of Atlantic salmon, to the Food and
Drug Administration (FDA). If it gets ap-
proved, AquAdvantage will be the first
FDA approved genetically altered animal
to end up on our dinner plates.
FRANKENFISH
According to the plan put forth by Aqu-
aBounty, the new salmon—or “franken-
fish” as it has been dubbed by critics—is
created when growth hormone from the
Pacific Chinook salmon is inserted into
Atlantic salmon eggs. This added gene,
combined with hormone regulators from
another fish, the ocean pout, allows for
rapid and continuous growth. The re-
sult is a fish that grows to market size
in about half the conventional tim—ap-
proximately 30 months for farmed salm-
on and between one to six years for wild
salmon.
The eggs would be grown in a facility
on Prince Edward Island in Canada and
then shipped to a land base in Panama.
PROGRESS AND PRESERVATION
Interview by Malcolm
Burnley
Illustration by Shay O’Brien
A conversation with Doris Burke, Provi-
dence College Alumnus and ESPN basket-
ball analyst for WNBA, NBA, and College
Hoops coverage.
The Independent: You still live in the RI
area?
Doris Burke: I have a house in South
Kingstown and I have an apartment
here.
I: Do you see yourself staying?
DB: Oh, I’m staying. I was a Jersey
kid through and through, and I never
thought I’d call Rhode Island home. It is
home.
I: How involved are you at Providence
College now?
DB: As you could imagine, doing my job,
which is about 100 games a year, and my
two children, it hasn’t left me much time
beyond those two things. I think the na-
ture of being a working mom is you have
two responsibilities: your job and your
children.
I: Your job at ESPN, on-game color com-
mentary, studio-analyst work, and occa-
sional sideline reporting is endless. How
often are you on the road?
DB: I don’t count how many days I’m
on the road, because it would upset me.
There the fish would grow to their full
size before being shipped to markets
all over the world. Only sterile females
would be produced, thanks to a process
called triploidy, whereby the organism
has three Y chromosomes instead of two.
This would ensure that the bred salmon
will be incapable of reproducing if they
were to escape into the wild or even har-
vested groups.
If the concept seems shocking, re-
member that for the past twenty years,
technology has influenced not only how
we grow and raise our food, but the ac-
tual food itself. Scientists have tinkered
with soybeans, corn, and even oysters in
attempts to make versions that are dis-
ease resistant or more nutritionally ben-
eficial.
SO MUCH SALMON , SO LITTLE
TIME
In this case, AcquAdvantage insists that
the faster growth rate of the genetically
modified salmon is a more efficient use
of capital by reducing feed costs as well
as creating jobs. It has been marketed
as a ‘sustainable’ process—a somewhat
ironic argument considering environ-
mentalist groups are often the ones
against such radical food alterations. The
company champions a reportedly lower
carbon footprint, as production facilities
can be built at on-land sites, reducing
transportation. In theory, the process is
able to be monitored, thus creating a re-
liable food source for the future. But one
must consider the kind of a system we
are trying to sustain—a human-created
infrastructure of laboratory production,
or the natural cycles of growth that the
Earth has to offer.
Meanwhile, fishermen and foodies
around the country are protesting the
There is no working woman today who
doesn’t feel that pull, that tug: “Am I do-
ing the right thing?” But, you don’t know
how many times I get the question:
“What do you like better: the NBA, col-
lege, or women?” And I’m like: “They’re
three entirely different sports.” I love
each and every one of them exactly the
same.
I: What are the differences between the
men’s and women’s game right now?
DB: In the NBA, if a play is diagrammed
for a guy, nine times out of ten, that guy
is going to take the shot. Where women,
they might think of other options. If they
feel like there’s a better option, they’re
likely to find that option. It is starting
to change though. You have players like
Lauren Jackson, Diana Taurasi, and Cap-
pie Pondexter. Slowly but surely, wom-
en’s mindsets are changing, taking over
a basketball game. If you’ve got scoring
ability, is almost selfish not to take over
if you can.
I: The playoffs this year (The Seattle
Storm swept the Atlanta Dream to win
the title) were wonderful.
DB: I think the league is in a good place
from a competitive standpoint. There
were nights when I was paid to watch
it during its first year, as a NY Liberty
Radio announcer, and it wasn’t good
basketball. In the 14-year history of the
league, that has changed. It has been an
16
Metabolics
proposal, citing potential harmful effects
on the fishing industry and infringement
U N C H A R T E R E D T E R R I TO RY
Scientific research so far has turned up
on the market for conventional fished no significant health risks, nor major
differences between genetically modi-
salmon. Critics also fear the possible
propagation of allergies from potential fied salmon and the real deal. However,
allergens present in the introduced gene tenuous words such as ‘unlikely,’ ‘seem,’
or in the feed used in salmon harvest- and ‘uncertainty’ pepper the scientific
ing. They are also concerned about the conclusions, allowing room for doubt
infiltration of one of these mutant fish in the future. Although scientists may
into the wild, which could provoke un- confirm for the moment that no signifi-
fair competition between the superfish cant risks are present, there is no telling
and normal salmon, who would quickly what sort of long-term effects may arise
be outeaten and outgrown. Though the PODF
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sterility of the triploid fish would osten- impossible to completely regulate health
sibly guarantee against cross-breeding, and environmental effects of such a syn-
the decimal point percentage chance of thetic product.
creating a non-sterile salmon is enough A 60-day consultation period began
to cause concern. It only takes one for- on September 19. Should approval be
eign fish to wipe out or alter a popula- given, the next issue is labeling. Grocery
tion entirely. shoppers have the right to know what
The taste factor seems to have been kind of fish (or fish-like substance) they
ignored in the FDA’s complicated and are bringing home for dinner. But if no
extensive research endeavors. In fact, in significant differences between a geneti-
a 180-page document issued by the FDA cally modified Atlantic salmon and na-
describing the production methods and ture’s own product are found, companies
testing behind the debate, taste is not would be under no obligation to specify
mentioned once. the presence of transgenic salmon on the
Chefs and foodlovers are not ignoring packaging.
the question of taste. Nino El Gheryany, With arguments on both sides, the
sushi chef at Shark restaurant in Provi- debate largely comes down to ethics. Do
dence has worked with fish for 22 years. we have the right to trademark an organ-
He rejects the idea of genetically altered ism? Do you want your dinner to be the
salmon, or any kind of fish, on the ba- end result of a science project? Is Aqu-
sis that an accelerated growth time aBounty the modern Prometheus, mess-
would surely be detrimental to qual- ing with technology as Dr. Frankenstein
ity and taste. Other chefs ranging from did, unleashing effects impossible to
the Cheesecake Factory chain to haute- foresee? As our scientific potential in-
cuisine restaurants in Las Vegas also creases, and more and more possibilities
expressed concerns over customer pref- become realities, we have to come to a
erence and a commitment to natural, decision about when—and if—it will all
honest food. As AquAdvantage salmon stop.
have not actually been eaten yet, we are
left wondering how much of a difference BELLE CUSHING B’13 is saying no to
there will be. GMO.
easy target for talk show hosts to take Phil’s stomach churns and feels nervous,
a shot at it: “it’s not good basketball.” but he doesn’t show it. Believe me, I was
People have stopped paying attention nervous as heck.
to it. Basketball fans need to take a look
again. I: You seemed extremely comfortable and
even joked when you met the President.
I: If the WNBA had been around, would DB: Oh yes [laughs]. He says: “So you
that have been something you would played at Providence, can you still play?”
have pursued? I said, “Mr. President, I tried to play six
DB: Absolutely. In fact, I had an oppor- weeks after I delivered my second child.
tunity to play professionally, but in the You know the expression ‘the mind be-
final year of my senior season I blew my lieves, but the body won’t follow’” and
knee out. everybody in the room laughs. But then,
he asks me again: “Can you play?”, like he
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evant? President, I think I can handle your left
DB: I have a daughter who is a freshman hand.” And everybody starts nervous
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laughing.
sports fan at all. But, to me, the WNBA is
still important to my daughter because it
represents opportunity for women. And
I’m hopeful the league survives. There
are days when I’m concerned about it. I
think there are days when every player,
coach, and G.M. is concerned about it,
but I’m hopeful.
I: You got to meet President Obama
at the White House this year, when
he filled out a Women’s NCAA
tournament bracket for ESPN.
What was that like?
DB: I was channeling a
little Phil Jackson [coach
of the LA Lakers]. I was
reading the other day that
17
Literary
APOCALYPSE
by Thirii Myint
Illustration by Michael Lapadula
& Andrew Seiden
One day the Apocalypse came and wait-
ed politely on the front porch. There
were two places to sit on the front porch:
a black bench facing the door and a blue
bench fitted with paisley print pillows.
The Apocalypse preferred to stand.
There was no doorbell so the Apocalypse
had to use the door knocker. It was an
old-fashioned door knocker, bronze,
shaped like a lamp. The Apocalypse
knocked. Waited.

BOE
UIPVHIU
-PPL
BU
UIJT
GBDF


My room was by the front porch on the
first floor, so I saw the Apocalypse stand-
ing by the door. If my window screen
wasn’t broken, I could have lifted it up
and shook hands with the Apocalypse.
Hi there, nice to meet you. Instead, I
pretended not to see anyone.

XBMLJOH
JOUP
UIF
LJUDIFO

I don’t like mystery novels, I said to my
I thought to myself: The Apocalypse is
here. I hope no one answers the door.
Then I remembered: I’m the only boarder
here. Who’s there to answer the door?
But my Landlady answered the door.
I thought to stop her. I heard her door
open across the hall, heard her footsteps
going past my room. I thought to say:
4UPQ
-BOEMBEZ
*UT
UIF
"QPDBMZQTF
But my porch window was open, and the
Apocalypse would’ve heard me before
my Landlady did.
My Landlady opened the door.
0I
NZ
TIF
TBJE

The Apocalypse said, You leave the door
unlocked. This was not a question. The
Apocalypse sounded surprised.
.Z
-BOEMBEZ
TBJE

:PVSF
SFBMMZ
IFSF I thought to run away. If my window
Yes, the Apocalypse said, can I come in?
My Landlady didn’t say anything. The
Apocalypse pushed past her and entered
the house. I heard the front door close.
The Apocalypse was right outside my
bedroom.
Last September, my Lover asked me what
I would do if the Apocalypse came.
Would you go out to see the riots? my
Lover asked.
No, I said, but I would probably go to the
library.
There would be riots in the library too,
my Lover said.
No, I said, libraries are always quiet.
My Lover said when the Apocalypse came
there would be free love. People could do
it with whoever they wanted, wherever
they wanted to, and it wouldn’t matter
to anyone because we were all going to
die.
I worried that my Lover wanted to die.
You can do it with whoever you want
right now, I said. I don’t mind.
I want you, my Lover said.
Okay, I said. We went into the nearest
library and met in the ladies’ room on
the third floor. I locked the door, push-
ing in the little button on the doorknob.
I giggled.
Be quiet, my Lover said, we’re in a li-
brary.
The doorknob looks like a nipple, I said.
My Lover giggled.
Stop that, I said.
I’m sorry, my Lover said, and lifted me
onto the sink.
The Apocalypse and my Landlady were
having tea in the kitchen.
It was past lunchtime and I was hungry,
but I didn’t want to introduce myself to
the Apocalypse, so I sat in my room and
ate breath mints.
I thought to myself: when they are done
with tea, the Apocalypse is going to come
over and knock on my door.
ping over the broken screen.
screen wasn’t broken, I could lift it up,
climb out onto the front porch and just
MJLF
UIBU‰QPPG‰*E
CF
HPOF
Maybe I’d run to the River and
sit by the water. Where the
road curves back into the city,
the River is widest, and sitting
there at the water’s edge, I’d
feel small, and near-death, and
filled with longing I wouldn’t
know what to do with.
I sat down by my porch window
and thought: My Lover, the
"QPDBMZQTF
JT
IFSF
I thought this loudly and tilted
my head toward the open win-
dow so my Lover would hear.
In the kitchen I heard the clink-
ing of teacups and saucers.
My Lover was gone.
S E P T E M B E R 30 2010 T H E C O L L E G E H I L L I N D E P E N D E N T
It happened overnight. One night, I
went to bed with my Lover, and the next
morning, my Lover was gone.
At first I wasn’t worried, because my
Lover was like that sometimes. At first
I thought: my Lover is making tea in the
kitchen, and I went back to sleep.
I dreamed of a riot that morning. I
dreamed there was a riot in the old riot-
proof building across the street and some
teenagers were tearing down the cement
tower while others watched. Their faces
lit up by bonfires in the street, I thought
I saw myself—my younger self—sitting
on the rubble, pulling others up. I want-
ed to get away. The city was burning and
the old building looked sad without its
tower.
When I woke up, I went to my window
to check if the building was still there. It
was. The tower erect.
I thought: How clever of me to dream up
a riot in a riot-proof building. Wait till I
UFMM
NZ
-PWFS
-PWFS

*
DBMMFE
*
ESFBNFE
PG
UIF
"QPDBMZQTF

But my Lover did not answer because my
Lover was gone.
My Landlady came out of her room and
said, I’m very sorry, my Dear. She took
my face in her hands, and I held my head
very still, so the dream wouldn’t shake
loose and fall out my ears.
The Apocalypse knocked on my door.
I didn’t have a door knocker like the
one on the front door, so the knocking
sounded dull, a bit more like tapping.
+VTU
POF
TFDPOE

*
DBMMFE
I pushed the broken mesh screen on my
window until it snapped in two, and— I don’t know, my Lover said.
QPQ‰ESPQQFE
POUP
UIF
GSPOU
QPSDI

*

climbed out after it.
Excuse me, the Apocalypse said, step- hide.
I didn’t know what to say. I was half in, It’s the Apocalypse.
half out the window, my legs straddling
the ledge.
My Dear, where are you? I heard my
Landlady calling. She was tapping on my
bedroom door.
Sorry, I said to the Apocalypse.
Don’t be sorry, the Apocalypse said, I was
just leaving. I’m going to see the riots.
The Apocalypse had my Lover’s face.
When we were done, my Lover left the
ladies’ room first and I took my time
scrubbing the sink and the mirror with
a wet paper towel until everything spar-
kled. I looked at my face in the clean
NJSSPS
It was as pink as a nipple.
I met my Lover downstairs on the main
level browsing through the mystery sec-
tion.
Lover.
My Lover didn’t say anything.
They’re so predictable, I said.
My Lover closed a book and put it back
on the shelf.
Let’s go, my Lover said.
We left the library hand in hand, but my
Lover’s hand was slack in mine.
You know what I would do if the Apoca-
lypse came? I said.
No, my Lover said.
Guess, I said.
I would climb to the top of that riot-proof
tower across from my house, I said, and
You wouldn’t be safe there, my Love said.

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