The Bolt !   The Edison Charger Newspaper April 2015

Sexual Assault on College Campuses Julia Stevens At this very moment, an epidemic is pervading college campuses across America. There may very well be a few new cases by the time you finish reading this. It’s not the most recent strain of the flu, despite the inadequate protection provided by this season’s vaccine. It’s not a return  of the meningitis strain that hit UC Santa Barbara and Princeton in 2013. And no, the Ebola virus hasn’t returned to American soil. It’s sexual assault.

The UCLA School of Public Health defines an epidemic as “the occurrence in a community or region of cases of an illness (or an outbreak) with a frequency clearly in excess of normal expectancy.” According to the National Institute of Justice and The Campus Sexual Assault Study conducted by five researchers touting a collection of PhD’s and Masters Degrees, one in five women, and one in sixteen men, will experience sexual assault between freshman and senior year of college. This alarming rate of sexual assault is certainly not what we should expect at higher education institutions, and is “in excess of normal expectancy” for the general public, where rape and sexual assault cases occur among one in six women, and one in thirty-three men. But few seem alarmed. Meanwhile, the opposite situation can be observed when looking at the meningitis outbreaks on college campuses in 2013, which yielded an infinitesimal rise in the infection rate of about 1,000 to 1,200 individuals per year, which is one in 265,000 at the high end, or about .0000037% of the US population. To stop the spread, a bypass of the FDA’s standards was made to distribute an unapproved meningococcal vaccination to students. Federal legislation was rightly bypassed to address a rise in the .0000037% chance of contracting meningitis at American institutions, yet (cont. on page 2)  

Should Peacekeepers be Peacemakers? Kimo Gandall Bosnia, April, 1992. Within the span of three years, 39,684 civilians were killed, primarily ethnic Bosnian Muslims by Serbian forces. Dutch soldiers, deployed by the United Nations, “[Stood by] as the Serbs began... to take girls and young women out of the group of refugees. They were raped. The rapes often took place under the eyes of others and sometimes even under the eyes of the children of the mother. A Dutch soldier stood by and he simply looked around with a Walkman on his head. He did not react at (cont. on page 4)

!  More inside…

• “Tuna: Tasty or Toxic?” Emi

Yasuda, page 2

• “Robotic Surgical Arm Could

Change the World of Surgery”

Kailey Volz, page 3

• “Fighter” Hannah Rozenburg,

page 4

• “School Is Not That Necessary”

Danielle Mai, page 7

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(Stevens, page 1) little has been done to address the 20% prevalence of sexual assault. Sexual assault occurs at every school in the California State system, every school in the University of

California System, every junior college in the nation, every vocational school, every school in the Ivy League, every school in the country. A sexual assault rate of 20% at colleges should be a significant public health and safety concern garnering the attention and action of leadership at higher education institutions, but action has been minimal. Beginning in October 2014, 85 institutions of higher education were placed under federal investigation for the mishandling of reports of sexual assault. This list includes UCLA, UC Berkeley, Harvard College, Dartmouth College, Princeton, and Brown to name a few that may sound familiar. Many colleges just fall in line with the American standard for dealing with sexual assault cases. There are over 500,000 unprocessed rape kits across the United States. These medical kits contain documentation of a full body medical examination that includes taking samples of victims’ hair, urine, blood, and other bodily secretions, as well as victims’ clothing, especially undergarments. The purpose of these kits is to collect samples fit for forensic investigations that could bring perpetrators of sexual assault to justice. But justice rarely comes even when kits are properly tested. Only 7% of sexual assault cases result in an arrest, 3% are then referred to prosecutors, and 2% are convicted of felony and spend time in prison. The failures of the system in dealing with perpetrators of sexual assault leave the >70% of women assaulted a 98% chance of encountering them again. This is a serious possibility, for the Center for Public Integrity records found that only 10% to 25% of students found guilty of perpetrating sexual assault are kicked off college campuses. Senator McCaskill’s April 2014 Congressional Survey on the effective institution of Title IX and the Clery Act found that over 40% of colleges have not conducted investigations into campus sexual assaults in the last five years. It also revealed that 21% of colleges had not provided school staff with any basic training on how to handle sexual assault cases. 73% of schools had no established protocol for working with local law enforcement on reports of sexual assault. 81% of women and 35% of men develop long term or short term effects from rape, including Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Compared to the rest of the population, victims’ likeliness of developing depression after being sexually assaulted is three times greater, development of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is six times greater, alcohol abuse is thirteen times more prevalent, drug abuse is twenty-six times more prevalent, and victims are four times more likely to contemplate suicide. Despite sexual assault rates halving since 1993, a sexual assault still occurs every 107 seconds.

There is still much ground for our nation to cover in addressing sexual assault at institutions of higher education, but it can be done. To quote President Barrack Obama in the “It’s On Us” campaign by the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault in September 2014, “It is on all of us to reject the quiet tolerance of sexual assault and to refuse to accept what’s unacceptable.” I concur. If you or someone you know may be a victim of sexual assault, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE or go online to notalone.gov to find resources that may be helpful. ⧫

Tuna: Tasty or Toxic? Emi Yasuda Since the advent of canned tuna over 100 years ago, this nimble fish has swum from the status of mystery meat to lunchtime essential. With 22 grams of protein, omega-3 fatty acids, and a wealth of Vitamin B, tuna would seem like the perfect choice for a healthy meal. But as pollution increases, so are fears of fish’s mercury content.

A heavy metal, mercury serves no purpose in the human body. Unlike iron and zinc, its only potential effects are adverse. When you ingest mercury it gets absorbed by the small intestine, shipped to the liver, and then is incorporated into bile or blood. During mercury’s time in your body, it can become stored in tissues as long as 90 days, and also disguise itself as an amino acid by binding to cysteine,    2

   

   

allowing it to bypass your brain’s natural barriers. Eating tuna, however, is unlikely to drive you mad. In

adults who frequently consume fish, symptoms of mercury toxicity such as tremors, neurologic symptoms, and sensory problems are rarely reported. It turns out that tuna’s high protein and selenium content counteract adverse effects. Thus, while mercury may lessen health benefits, for the average person, consuming fish is not harmful overall. As indicted by peer-reviewed reports from the Journal of the American Medical Association, and the Institute of Medicine, there exists no consistent evidence that fish-related mercury exposure causes any significant health effects on the average

 adult. However, in pregnant women and young children, fish consumption is best limited to avoid inhibition of nervous system development.

More often than not, fish is a great health choice! Despite the slim potential for mercury poisoning, eating fish will not cause “Brain Rot!” as suggested on the PETA website, and the majority of symptoms are only temporary. The omega-3 fatty acids in fish have well-established health benefits. Anti-inflammatory, and cardiovascular properties such as reduced risk of blood clots and reduced blood pressure have been supported by multiple studies. Fish consumption can lower risk of stroke, obesity, asthma, and even cancer according to Dariush Mozaffarian, DrPH, dean of the Tufts University’s Nutritional Science Department. Fish intake also reduces your risk of a heart attack by about a third. Perhaps it’s a good thing that the U.S. ate approximately one billion pounds of tuna last year alone!

Whilst the health benefits of fish are astounding, it is still good to be conscious of how much mercury you are taking in. The EPA safety level for fish is 0.1 mcg of mercury per kg of body weight per day. But keep in mind that even if you exceed this limit, it is ten times lower than the level at which the EPA states a risk occurs in young children. The bottom line is that the evidence is inconclusive whether or not fish-related mercury exposure has any long-term effects in adults at average levels of consumption, and that even if there are, these are only lessen fish’s overall benefit. Want to find out the best levels of fish consumption for you? Visit the Environmental Working Group’s website to plug in your info and receive custom recommendations. http://www.ewg.org/research/ewgs-good-seafood-guide ⧫  

Robotic Pediatric Surgical Arm Could Change the World of Surgery Kailey Volz Operating on small children is difficult for surgeons, which is why the Canadian Space Agency was asked by SickKids Centre for Image-Guided Innovation & Therapeutic Intervention to develop KidsArm. KidsArm is the first image-guided robotic surgical arm designed for pediatric surgery in the world. The robotic arm can be used for fetal, neurological, cardiac, and urological surgeries.

The surgical arm can’t be used yet though, as there is still more testing to be done. Currently, it’s being tested at Sickkids hospital in Toronto, Canada. KidsArm is designed with tiny, skillful tools that are able to coagulate, cut, apply suction, and use a laser. Also, it has a pair of hand controllers that use high-precision and incredible imaging to help surgeons find the area of concern. Doing this, they can easily reconnect fragile vessels. It can work ten times more faster and it has more accuracy than a surgeon when it comes to intricate, difficult procedures. For making KidsArm, the team used industrial robots, control electronics, cameras, and haptics. One day, this invention could 3

   

   

Fighter Hannah Rozenberg

For this task I wanna be the rider

Please don’t make the ropes any tighter Look at my smile getting brighter ’Cause that’s the smile of a fighter

Life ain’t no piece of cake

There’s gonna be choices to make But I know that I’m making no mistakes

’Cause this is the ride I want to take

Some think that I might break Sure, there’s gonna be a time when I’m gonna ache

But that doesn’t mean I’m a flake I’m doing this with both eyes open and awake

My choices will make me wiser These choices that are my desire To prove that like the daring tiger

I too am a fighter. ⧫  

(Gandall, page 1)at all to what was happening.” In another incident, with the full witness of UN peacekeepers, “there was a girl, she must have been about nine years old. At a certain moment some [Serbians] recommended to her brother that he rape the girl. He did not do it and I also think that he could not have done it for he was still just a child. Then they murdered that young boy” - Zumra Šehomerovic, survivor of the Bosnian genocide.

Rwanda, April 6, 1994. Within a matter of weeks 800,000 men and women were brutally murdered, estimated at representing nearly three quarters of the ethnic Tutsi population. Hutu extremists systematically raped between 250,000 to 500,000 women, and according to the NGO Survivors Fund, over 67% of these women contracted AIDS as a result, and over 20,000 children were born. And the 2,000 UN peacekeepers nearby? They couldn’t do anything. Darfur, Sudan, 2003. The Arab, pro-government militia Janjaweed or ‘Devils on Horseback’ raid the Darfur region, murdering over 480,000 people, and displacing 4.8 million. Aicha el-Basri, former spokeswoman for the United Nations Mission in Darfur stated that in 2014 UN peacekeepers “watched on” as Janjaweed soldiers assaulted civilians, even taking pictures of the incident. She claimed that Ban-Ki Moon and the Security Council were in a ‘conspiracy of silence’ refusing to share the actual reports of the mission with the public in an effort to maintain to the ‘peacekeeping’ mandate of neutrality.

Incidents like this happen almost daily, and more recently, attacks from organizations such as ISIS have targeted minority Christians in the Middle East and Africa, brutally murdering over 24,000 innocent people. In February, ISIS kidnapped 262 Assyrian Christians, while simultaneously releasing a video portraying the beheading of over dozen Coptic Christians calling them ‘hostile crusaders.’

The problem in ethnic cleansing and genocide is the inherit sectarianism of the entire issue; every single incident varies in nature, but has a single, terrifying consequence- the murder of millions of civilians. However, these atrocities are not all the result of ‘savage terrorists’ in the Middle East or Africa. Many of these organizations, in fact,

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stem from and the deep ethnic tensions created by European Imperialists, and most sectarian strife can be traced back to these roots. To further complicate the problem, current UN forces deployed are prevented from directly intervening in their peacekeeping mandates; these units are ‘observers’ rather than police units directed to keep the peace.

Rwanda is an example of this perfect storm. In 1918, Rwanda, previously a German colony, is given to Belgium under a provision in the Treaty of Versailles. The Belgians split the ethnic Hutu and Tutsi into two Photo credits: European Pressphoto Agency

 classes: the Hutu, who represented 85% of the population, and the Tutsi, who represented about 14% of the population. The Belgians heavily favored the Tutsi population, allowing the minority class to enforce Belgiam rule upon the populace. These two classes began to develop tensions as a result of decades of oppression, and when the Belgians left in 1962 the government of Rwanda was sent into chaos; even after the UN deployed 2,500 peacekeepers under a ‘monitoring’ mandate in 1993 to oversee a ‘power sharing’ government between the two ethnic groups, violence continued to escalate. Finally, in 1994, when President Habyarimana’s plane was shot down over Rwanda, decades of ethnic tensions spilled over into direct violence against Tutsi minorities, sparking the Rwandan genocide. UN peacekeepers, stuck in their ‘observer’ mandates, were unable to take action to prevent the murders.  

UN peacekeepers “watch on” as militia march on towards local villages Photo credits: Dr. Eric Reeves  

Many apologists in developed Western countries continue to point out these faults, claiming that Western intervention is the catalyst of extremism, particularly in the Middle East, where the deposition of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein permitted the development of organizations such as ISIS. Many of these intellectuals, however, have failed to address the root of ISIS. While ISIS has gained power from the weakness of the Iraqi government, ISIS wasn’t conceived in Iraq; instead, the organization emerged as a result of oppression from the Syrian government. In fact, ISIS has existed since 2011, hiding in the shadows of the Syrian civil war; a war that the United States actually supported rebel groups. ISIS, in reality, is simply a Sunni rebel group that, much like a disease thriving in the polluted, filthy refugee

camps of Africa and the DRC, has grown out of control because the International Community decided not to act or simply didn’t care until it was too late.

Other scholars attempt to equivalent interventionism to imperialism, but fail to understand the fundamental differences between the two. While imperialism is, by definition, “a policy of extending a country's power and influence through diplomacy or military force,” Interventionism is an “activity undertaken by a nation-state, or other geo-political jurisdiction of a lesser or greater nature, to manipulate an economy or society.” While intervention can be linked to imperialism, it is not necessarily imperialism. In order for an interventionary activity to be considered “imperialist” the final goal of the interventionary action must be to extend the power or influence of a nation. American interventionism has not, especially in cases such as Bosnia, always been created with the single goal to generate a profit; Bosnia is not a major trade partner with the United States, and in fact imports the majority of their goods to Germany, and export the majority of their goods to Croatia (World Integrated Trade Solution). In essence,  

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NATO intervention, supported in large by the United States, was fueled by preserving peace, not benefiting from economic manipulation. While the peace may have alternative motives, the underlying goal “preserving peace” distinguishes imperialism from interventionism.

International academics have attempted to distinguish imperialism from interventionism since the 1990s. In response to the UN ‘conspiracy of silence,’ an informal policy known as ‘responsibility to protect’ has been created by intellectuals inspiring to tackle the costly inaction of previous United Missions, and has been recognized by the UN in resolution A/RES/63/308. Essentially, responsibility to protect is the legal concept that individual states have the duty to protect their citizens from mass atrocity crimes, and if these said states fail to do so, the International Community has the active duty to do so for them. If the situation meets the criteria of the definition of responsibility to protect, than nations have a moral obligation to intervene; such a policy permits nations to support peace, while remaining detached from imperialist tendencies, as interventionism is only used in the direst of situations. Better yet, missions by the United Nations are likely to be impartial; for instance, MONUSCO the United Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo whom employs offensive methods, makes up of over 21,000 troops from Algeria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Canada, China, Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, France, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, United States, Uruguay, Yemen and many others. Unlike individual states taking action, the United Nations represents a group of member states from around the world to cooperatively work towards a solution.  

Soldiers walk past a dead man killed in recent attacks in Darfur. Photo Credits: Lynsey Addario  

Numerous parliamentarian hygienists have also begun to question the actual legality of peacemaking, claiming that the concept of the United Nations initiating offensive operations violates the United Nations purpose, as the UN peacekeeping purpose is defined as “... operations that facilitate the political process, protect civilians, assist in the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of former combatants; support the organization of elections, protect and promote human rights and assist in restoring the rule of law.” In addition, the United Nations specifically states “[the] Non-use of force except in self-defense and defense of the mandate is a vital principle to peacekeeping”.

Many experts however, disagree. For instance, Fiona Blyth from the IPI Global University, stated “[The UN peacekeeping charter]... permits the use of force beyond self-defense to ensure the freedom of movement of the mission, protect civilians, and for the protection of UN personnel and property. Previous field commanders have interpreted their mandates as such to allow UN forces to actively pursue rebel groups and to preempt and disrupt rebel movement ahead of time”; in which, she talks about case studies such as the DRC, in which the Security Council passed resolution 2098 deploying an “offensive brigade”, and the United Nations Mission in Somalia all of which have offensive mandates. Essentially, the United Nations uses offensive peacekeeping to protect ‘citizens’ from future potential attacks, which “assists in restoring law”. Even though the UN holds a principal of only sanctioning force in situations regarding self-defense, they have evidently given up “self defense” for “defense of the mandate” whose central goal is always to protect citizens.

Interventionism has worked in reducing the direct violence of many situations. In Bosnia 1995, NATO began to fly enforcement missions over the region. Operation Deliberate Force, as coined by NATO, initiated a full bombing campaign against Serbian targets, involving attacks of over 388 individual targets. The offensive lasted only a month, until Serbian forces agreed to meet in Dayton, Ohio to sign the Dayton Accords in November of 1995, officially ending the genocide. Such a large political change, many scholars argue, was only possible because of the forceful intervention of NATO; without such action, the genocide may have continued.

The problem stands as is: all intervention is launched on public opinion, and public opinion, especially in the United States with 56% of the citizens strongly opposed to interventionist policies, and only 19% strongly supporting them, is very weak. Many Americans, 26% to be exact, simply did not know, or more realistically, care.

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That’s where we bring this all back. We bring it back to you; many of us simply do not care, and carry very little reason to. The apathy that accompanies this situation has become such a burden that you, dear reader, likely sitting in class, will simply put down this article and retreat into your isolated world of school lectures. Before you do so, please ask yourself this: do we, as a people of morals and good nature, allow such atrocities to be committed simply because it doesn’t affect us, when we could have prevented such suffering? ⧫  

ISIS beheads a dozen Coptic Christians in Libya as part of a propaganda video. Photo Credits: Reuters  

School Is Not That Necessary Danielle Mai As school expectations have risen to new levels, so has student stress. Today’s curriculum is pushing youth harder than ever before. AP and Honors programs are now open for students to go above and beyond the requirements, making the previously coveted 4.0 GPA a mere stepping stone rather than a great accomplishment. Some students are pushed so far beyond their limits that they just give up on school. Students who take these difficult classes are perceived to be hardworking and well organized, but underneath all of those challenging classes are young people with heavy amounts of stress and anxiety. In order to cure the mental and physical health of students, I propose we just simply ban school and base all of our grades on intuition. There would be less stress and more sleep provided, which will give students a healthier and happier outlook. Another reason to take my proposal into consideration wud b the extra tyme allowed 2 explor differant hobbies and interests. There iz no neid 4 scool, we kan just go straight 2 werk. Scool does not provide any benefits. We should all just go owt and gain expiriance threw werk. my proposal wud also lead too more time 2 apply reel lyfe expiriances rather than waste thyme in scool. Scool has only fostered mental and physical health concerns dat make us want 2 pull our hairs out and sleep in a corner 4 the next yeer or so. Nawt having skool wud force us into the reel world 2 gain common scents threw experience. I hav applied dis proposition to my own lyfe and did nawt attend scool. As a guinea pig of my own idea, I am prowd of da results. I hav becume a successful McDonalds casheer and hav never relyed on wat scool has tawt. Math is unnecessary when deeling with money since I hav a cash registur. Approximately 15% of highscool dropowts become successful, I dun’t knoe much abowt math but I beleeve those odds are pretty gud. Scool was maid to just make the peeple of the world pay more money 2 the govermint. A person hoo has receeved a highscool diploma only gets abowt $60,000 more income then a person withowt a highscool diploma. This trvial amownt of money has nuthing 2 do with knoledge of wat we were supposed 2 lern in scool. Mails hav contributed 2 most of the highscool dropowt persentage. They hav maid da 10% rate of dropowts but hav much less stress compaired 2 mails hoo stayed in scool.

Sum peepul say We cud always limit the homewerk hours to an hour per eech class but that wud still require tyme 2 put into scool. Their cud be a class period given 2 evry stoodent 4 homewerk and tudoring tyme. Butt this notion wud need stoodents 2 hav excessive knawledge of sertain subjects in ordur 2 teech others. More teechers cud be provided to stoodents in a class so stoodents kan get a more one on won lerning expiriance but this idea depends on more peeple pursuing a kareer in teeching. Giving less homewerk that is actually just bizy work and more homework that applies to the reel world cud leed to less stress. This homewerk that applyes to the reel world wud help prepare students for wat is really owt there but students cud easily learn this through trial and error from   7

   

traumatic lyfe events. Kreating a class that teeches stoodents how to balance there academic and social life all whyle managing anxiety and stress cud probably help but hoo needs that? We all can just spend more tyme in the reel world and figure it owt insted of waste thyme in skool. ⧫  

APRIL SUDOKU

Emi Yasuda: Editor-In-Chief Meghan Jacinto: Secretary

Leslie Young: Layout Manager Brett Austin: Financial Representative Joaquin Dorantes: Site Coordinator

Elizabeth Hong: Assistant Editor

The Bolt Executive Staff 2014-2015 Want to write about what interests you?

Join The Bolt! Meetings are Tuesdays in Room 129

 

!  Be sure to check out the Bolt website at

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Movie Pick of the Month

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Michel Gondry Genre: Drama/Romance

After a painful breakup, Clementine undergoes a procedure to erase the memories of her former

boyfriend Joel from her mind. Joel soon discovers that Clementine is going to extremes to forget their

relationship, so in retaliation, he also undergoes the same procedure and slowly begins to forget the

woman that he loved. However, it is only through the process of loss that they discover what they had to

begin with.

Book Pick of the Month

The Bell Jar (1963)

Sylvia Plath

The Bell Jar is the only novel written by Sylvia Plath. The novel is semi-autobiographical, with the names of places and people changed. It tells the story of Esther Greenwood, a young woman from

the suburbs of Boston, who gains a summer internship at a prominent magazine in New York

City.

Song Picks of the Month

“My Type” – Saint Motel “The One ” – Kodaline

  “Gimme All Your Love” – Alabama

Shakes “Let It Happen”

- Tame Impala