The Bitter Bathroom Battle

In the building where my office is located, there's a bathroom for women on our floor, but the guys are supposed to either go up a flight of stairs or down a flight to use the bathroom. I found it a bit odd when I got here to discover that most of the guys pay no attention to this whatsoever and just use the women's bathroom. It doesn't particularly bother me, but I did think it was a bit strange, perhaps just because I'm accustomed to bathrooms being segregated by gender.

Apparently there is someone who is really bothered by it though, because a few weeks ago some signs appeared on the door to the bathroom noting that this bathroom was for women only and there are men's bathrooms on the first and third floor. It also noted that bathrooms in work places are required by law to be segregated.


The guys responded by removing these signs and covering the permanent sign on the bathroom door with a unisex bathroom sign they had printed out. They continued to use the bathroom.

Whoever it is that wants them segregated did not stop. Someone official from whatever office on campus is responsible for such things came by and hung up more signs (also on the inside door and even the stall doors this time) asserting again that by university policy and law this bathroom was not to be used by men. These signs also cited a contact in case any of the men cared to discuss the issue further. They simply removed the signs again and continued to use the bathroom.

More women-only signs have been placed on the bathroom door. Still the guys continue to use the bathroom, but I think they've gotten bored with removing the signs. Whoever is trying to get things to change has my support. I have to go to other floors in other buildings to use the bathroom. Why are the guys here so stubborn? Plus, don't they feel weird about continuing to use the bathroom when they know it bothers someone? I would imagine that every time they use it, they must wonder whether they'll run into the woman who doesn't want them there.

Wedding Bells

My family is heading to California this weekend for my cousin Brian's wedding. He and Lauren are getting married in Yosemite National Park, so it should be pretty spectacular. I wish I could be there to celebrate with them!

It Don't Feel Right

Cheney calls the use of waterboarding by the CIA a "no-brainer". It's a good description: If one has no brain, one might think it's a good idea. Let's put aside the obvious (and not exactly new) arguments that we shouldn't use torture because it's inhumane and because the only information you're going to get out of it is what the victim thinks you want to hear anyway. Instead, let's just consider the selfish arguments for not using torture.

Torturing prisoners of war (even if you've decided to call them "detainees") is a violation of the Geneva Conventions and, as such, is (supposedly) something for which all individuals responsible are to be prosecuted.

From an article in "The Nation":

No less a figure than Alberto Gonzales, then-White House counsel to George W. Bush and now US Attorney General, expressed deep concern about possible prosecutions under the War Crimes Act of 1996 for American mistreatment of Afghanistan war detainees.

This relatively obscure statute makes it a federal crime to violate certain provisions of the Geneva Conventions. The Act punishes any US national, military or civilian, who commits a "grave breach" of the Geneva Conventions. A grave breach, as defined by the Geneva Conventions, includes the deliberate "killing, torture or inhuman treatment" of detainees. Violations of the War Crimes Act that result in death carry the death penalty.

So Cheney has now admitted that he is responsible for prosecutable war crimes. I'm sure he's not terribly worried though, as there is not exactly a whole lot of precedent for actually prosecuting the atrocities of powerful countries against their weaker counterparts.

Coming from such a musically inclined family, I seek the voice of protest in music. Mostly that search seems to be in vain. Old songs with messages as potent as ever might mean a lot to me, but they don't exactly get a lot of play now. Pete Seeger is, of course, still doing his part, but being, after all, mortal, we probably can't count on him forever. It seems to me that hip hop artists are the only musicians who have the guts to really come out and say something these days.

New Teacher

For some reason, our previous Chinese teacher is no longer able to teach our class, so we have a new teacher who started last night. There are pros and cons to both, but she is the complete opposite of our old teacher. While our old teacher barely opened the textbook in class, she followed it almost line for line. On the other hand, the things she did outside of the textbook were really good. When she came in, she introduced herself in Chinese, even though we hadn't yet done introductions (we did that last night). Rather than just practicing numbers in order, she gave us her mobile phone number to see if we could understand it. She also taught us the hand symbols for the numbers. But sometimes she would just ask us to read something in the text book on our own in class, which I think is not the best use of class time. I can (and do) read the book outside of class. We only have one and a half hours in class each week; I think we shouldn't be using that time to read the book.

I had started thinking to myself that perhaps our "freshers" were getting bored of fire alarms, but last night at 3:30 a.m. the insistent ringing pierced my sleep once again. The fire department actually came, so perhaps there was actually some fire. They kept us outside for about 20 minutes. We were not allowed uninterrupted sleep after that; we were woken by short bursts every hour or two through the rest of the night (presumably testing after resetting the system).

One positive aspect of all this was that one of the other students in my Chinese class found me outside. I had introduced myself to her (in Chinese) during one of our reading times during class. She's from France, studying European studies, and eager to learn any new language she can get her hands on. Perhaps, together, we can keep the interaction up during class so we can get some more practice in.

On a completely different topic: Last night I was talking to my flatmate Imram (from Pakistan) and asked him about the earthquake last year. He said he lost a close friend and described the horrors of helping to excavate afterwards. He also said that, particularly in the more remote areas, many people are in exactly the same condition as the day after the earthquake, and are facing the prospect of another rough winter without real shelter. Eventually Imram reproached me for bringing up such a depressing topic and awful memories.