the libertine

the whip sheet of the liberal party

issue three / 03.02.2002

zero	a message from the secretary This rather long edition of The Libertine begins with two cursorily related thoughts. Yesterday was Shakira’s birthday; she turned 25. Shakira, for those of you who are not in the know (that means you, Ernest), is a half-Colombian, half-Lebanese pop singer whose intelligent and energetic Spanish-language music has recently found an audience among Anglophone Americans. To celebrate, I listened to “Ojos Así” seven or eight times in succession. Today’s issue of the Times features an op-ed by Yasir Arafat, who writes that he is seeking an accord with any Israeli leader that will allow “creative solutions to the plight of the refugees while respecting Israel’s demographic concerns.” What, I wonder, are “creative” solutions? I’ve noticed in recent months that this word is losing its original meaning of “imaginative; made originally as opposed to imitatively” and is now being used synonymously with “created.” At a wedding I crashed, the ecru-wearing bride, who unsurprisingly wrote her own vows, pledged to her husband that she would “love [him] eternally and creatively.” I laughed, and a guest glared at me. –j.s.f.
one	goings on in the liberal party 04.02.2002 / Monday / 05.30 / Lib-POR dinner mixer For a change of pace, we’ll have our weekly dinner along with the Party of the Right. We’ll still sit at our beloved table, under the portrait of G.H.W. Bush. (N.B.: despite my calling this activity a “mixer,” it is, unlike speed dating or Jewish singles night, strictly about conversation. And, of course, food.) 06.02.2002 / Wednesday / 07.30 / Lib debate What the Berkeley common room lacks in beauty it makes up for in lack of beauty. Nevertheless, we’ll be meeting there this week to debate the resolution “Government aid to the poor should have no strings attached.” What do you think of recent shifts from welfare to workfare? Does taking a handout imply an agreement between the government and the recipient, or are safety nets unrelated to citizen responsibility? Join us. 07.02.2002 / Thursday / 07.30 / YPU debate There is no guest at this week’s debate; instead, the Yale Political Union will host its annual Gardner-White Prize Debate on the topic “The Second Amendment is Obsolete in the Twenty-First Century.” If you have strong feelings on gun control (or even if you don’t), come and sign in for the Libs—and, by all means, speak!
two	the newly initiated green party at yale While we do hope that you’ll visit our debate on Wednesday, you might also be interested in the first meeting of Yale’s new Green Party. Here is a notice from its organizer: “Interested in liberal politics? Want to get involved in the hands-on shaping of a legislative agenda, at both the city and state levels? For all sorts of opportunities to get involved in New Haven issues, come to the first ever meeting of THE YALE GREEN PARTY at 9 p.m. on Wednesday night in the Dwight Hall common room. Contact rachel.wasser@yale.edu for more information, and check out the Green Party website: www.ctgreens.org.”
three	two dwight hall opportunities This is an inordinately Lib-focused Wednesday; in addition to our debate and the Greens’ meeting, Dwight Hall is hosting an information session on nonprofit internships. Here is some information from the organizer: “Are you considering staying in New Haven this summer? Is there a particular New Haven nonprofit or project that you have your eye on? What would you do if you could create your own summer in New Haven? Come to an information session about the Dwight Hall Summer Internship, a paid fellowship to work in New Haven wherever you want. Proposals are due February 15, and fellows will receive $3,000 for two months of work in June and July. Come to ask questions, hear from past interns about their experiences, and learn more about the program! Questions? Contact abigail.levine@yale.edu.” Also, you might be interested in working with SCIPUP, which our very own chair calls “one of the most exciting groups at Dwight Hall.” Here is their announcement: “Looking for something to do besides tutoring? Looking to get to know New Haven better? Do you want to be a part of an organization crafting urban policy and creating real change in the community? Together with Ward 1 New Haven Alderman, Students for Civic Involvement and Progressive Urban Policy (SCIPUP) will be working on a new issue this year: the Municipal Living Wage. For more info, contact lindsay.stradley@yale.edu. We especially encourage freshmen!”
four	artist of the left: arundhati roy, author The Indian writer Arundhati Roy attained instant celebrity from her inventive, atmospheric first novel, The God of Small Things; John Updike, writing in The New Yorker, called it “a Tiger Woodsian début,” and when the novel won the Booker Prize for 1997, blazing past more established authors like Tim Parks and Jim Crace, her newfound fame was cemented. But unlike her compatriot celebrity novelist, Salman Rushdie, she shunned the spotlight and refused to comment on whether or not she would ever write another novel. Instead, she traveled to the Narmada River Valley in India to witness the displacement of hundreds of thousands of natives by government-funded dams. She wrote a long essay, “The Greater Common Good,” which condemned the Indian government for its refusal to acknowledge the political and environmental failings of dam construction. Other essays include “The End of Imagination,” a treatise on India’s nuclear capacity and its psychological effects, and “The Great Indian Rape Trick,” one of several pieces on the elimination of the caste system and the institution of equal rights. Two months ago she published two new essays on terrorism and the American war. In one, “Brutality Smeared in Peanut Butter,” she rips into the American pretension of freedom fighting thus: “What freedoms does it uphold? … Outside its borders, the freedom to dominate, humiliate and subjugate—usually in the service of America’s real religion, the ‘free market.’ So when the US government christens a war ‘Operation Infinite Justice,’ or ‘Operation Enduring Freedom,’ we in the third world feel more than a tremor of fear. Because we know that Infinite Justice for some means Infinite Injustice for others. And Enduring Freedom for some means Enduring Subjugation for others.”
five	a final thought Style is the transformation thought imposes on reality. —Marcel Proust, in Contre Sainte-Beuve