‘Parasite’ at the Oscars and its implications for America
(02/27/20 1:28am)
“By the way, how bad were the Academy Awards this year?”
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“By the way, how bad were the Academy Awards this year?”
Earlier this week, Anna Wolcke lamented the upcoming closure of the Pink House food-share. Indeed, the loss of the Pink House as we know it will be a true tragedy. I recall spending many hours there baking, cooking, and brunching with friends. Even as an underclass student, I felt welcome within the house’s walls, a part of a community focused on sustainable living that I hadn’t been able to find elsewhere on campus.
I don’t believe that I would have liked my first-year self very much. That version of Leora was remarkably set in her ways. She stuck to certain ideas strongly, like that everyone who drank alcohol was bad, regardless of quantity and context. Sophomore Leora softened a bit — she realized some of the drinkers were OK — but she still silently vilified them and thought drinking was a mortal sin.
Princeton says it stands for sustainability. It says it stands for diversity and inclusion. And it says it stands for affordable eating options available for all students, regardless of their socioeconomic background.
Last week, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg participated for the first time in a Democratic Party debate. When asked about his racist policing policies, he disingenuously reflected that the way in which stop-and-frisk “turned out” was non-ideal.
The Editorial Board of The Daily Princetonian writes on its own accord. Comprised of senior editors, the Board lends the ‘Prince’ a singularly compelling institutional voice. We will approach this task with humility, conviction, and resolute honesty. To that end, we will not shy away from challenging topics and are prepared to fracture the unanimity for which we usually strive.
As the repercussions of climate change are expected to be increasingly disruptive in the near future, universities across the country have placed larger emphases on sustainability and reducing climate emissions. To better understand how Princeton measures up against its peer institutions, members of the Princeton Student Climate Initiative (PSCI) have compiled a report analyzing over 75 institutions in the United States, evaluating a wide variety of factors, including carbon neutrality dates, greenhouse gas emissions, and usage of renewable energy sources.
Last weekend, I was fortunate enough to leave campus for a weekend sojourn at my grandmother’s house, reuniting with relatives. Still burdened by a Princeton workload, I brought all of my school supplies with me, remembering in particular that I needed to carry a pencil sharpener, because my grandmother no longer has one.
Spring approaches. Thesis deadlines loom. And the pressure to find a job mounts. Last semester, Exxon Mobil graced the grounds of Princeton campus as part of the Fall HireTigers Career Fair. All the while, the college divestment movement is gathering steam. Georgetown, sometimes regarded as more conservative than many of its peers, divested. Almost 400 members of Harvard’s faculty issued a letter in support.
It’s happened a few times now, enough to call it a phenomenon of sorts: a friend and I head to Firestone to study, find a quiet spot to embark on a 200-page reading due the next morning or reply to a few emails that have been eroding in my inbox for day, and hunker down. I unzip my backpack, unfold my laptop, unlock my academic toolbox (i.e. my pencil case), whip out a book … and then put on my glasses. Even for friends who’ve known me for quite some time, the shock is instantaneous.
Bats get a bad rap, associated with everything from diseases like rabies and coronavirus to vampires and blood sucking. All of these negative stereotypes could explain why in McCosh 50 earlier this week, when a bat flew out from behind the projector, students devolved into a panic.
On Monday, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos ’86 announced that he will donate 10 billion dollars in an effort to combat climate change. Properly identified as an especially abusive employer, according to reports by Amazon workers, Bezos now seeks to turn over a new leaf, or at least to take on the appearance of redemption and rehabilitation. We should, however, regard Bezos’s shallow attempts at building a shiny public profile with both apprehension and contempt. In making this pledge, Bezos claims that climate change is the biggest threat to the future of humanity. In reality, it is the capitalist system, responsible for Bezos’s financial clout, that represents the overriding obstacle to human well-being.
Recent developments in Latin America, such as the transport protests in Chile, which have transcended beyond discontent for high fares, and Alberto Fernández’s presidential victory in Argentina, have signaled a spike in leftist activity in these countries not seen since the decline of the “Pink Tide.” Among other related examples, these events indicate an odd regression for a region which, until recently, had consistently ousted leftist leaders due to corruption, economic instability, and abuse of power.
Finally, after 80 years of post-winter break exams, Princeton will modernize its calendar and allow students to have exams before break. Instead of stressing over exams under the mistletoe or sharing a New Year’s Red Bull to get started on a Dean’s Date assignment, students can truly enjoy the holidays without the cloud of pressure that academia has placed on our lives. Going forward, this change will have myriad effects, including better performance on exams, true rejuvenation from the extended break, and an honest step towards improving the mental health of students.
Last week, the ‘Prince’ reported that two students are working to revive Princeton Against Gun Violence (PAGV). The 2018 “We Call BS” rally, co-sponsored by PAGV, was held in the wake of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. This rally, as many of my upperclass student peers will remember, was one of the high points of student-led organizing on campus in recent years, along with the Title IX protesters last May.
Contradicting election results have become a common trend in recent American politics. The Iowa Caucus for the Democratic primary on Feb. 3 was the latest inconsistent election: Bernie Sanders won the popular vote by almost 6,000 individual votes in the state of Iowa, while Pete Buttigieg was declared the winner of the caucus because of his lead over Sanders in State Delegate Equivalents by just two delegates. The fundamental principle that the individual with the most votes should be crowned the victor has not reigned true in the United States, and particularly chaotic electoral disasters have reignited this central tension. The United States should fulfill the basic promise of its democracy and hold elections that actually represent the will of the people.
If you had asked someone in the winter of 2018 what the Democratic field of candidates would look like now, I doubt many would be able to predict the reality we are watching today. Even if you asked someone last summer, they likely would not have been able to guess.
I was shocked and grieved to learn this week that Charter will re-establish Bicker, a move I strongly oppose. I am a member of Charter’s class of 1976 — and a member of the group who began the fight for Charter to become non-selective and who celebrated when that fight succeeded in 1977.
The climate crisis is with us now, from the floods in Indonesia to the fires in Australia that have been burning out of control since June 2019. Looking ahead, land occupied by 150 million people will likely be permanently below the high tide line by 2050, devastating cities and regions around the world. For instance, modeling predicts that Southern Vietnam “could all but disappear.” The vast populations projected to be affected forebodes the possibilities of mass displacement and surging climate refugeeism.
When I investigated Bicker for The Daily Princetonian two years ago, I distinctly recall an Ivy Club member telling me, “I went to the Lawrenceville School. A lot of people in Ivy went to Lawrenceville.”