WORLD & NATION
WWW.GUILFORDIAN.COM
Bush to Iran:
Nukes mean WWIII
By Hannah Richards
StaffWriter
"If Iran had nuclear weapons,
it'd be a dangerous threat to world
peace," said President George W.
Bush in a news conference on Oct.
16. "If you're interested in avoid
ing World War III, it seems like you
ought to be interested in preventing
(Iran) from having the knowledge
necessary to make a nuclear weap
on."
Robert Duncan, assistant pro
fessor of political science, does not
think it is realistic to believe this
threat.
"I think this is a threat to the
Bush administration, not to any sane
American," said Dimcan.
"It doesn't matter who is right
and who is wrong, we can't go to
war with Iran," said Henry Catania,
a first-year international relations
major. "We do not have enough mil
itary forces and Bush is not going to
propose a draft."
Iran denied the Bush's accusa
tions. Iran stated they were not go
ing to create a nuclear bomb and
just wanted nuclear equipment for
peaceful functions such as power
generation.
However, the United States gov
ernment says it's taking a diplomatic
approach against this threat with no
military involvement at the time.
Bush thinks that President VI-
adamir Putin of Russia is trying to
help deny Iran nuclear-powered
weapons.
"When we were in Australia,
(President Putin) reconfirmed to
me that he recognizes it's not in the
world's interest for Iran to have the
capacity to make a nuclear weapon,"
Bush said in a press conference.
Duncan also says that Bush has
been handling the issue wrongly.
"The way to solve the problem is
to sit and t^ it out, not to kick the
stuffing out of the Iranians," Dun
can said. "Bush does not have any
right to talk to the Iranians without
preconditions."
Henry Catania agrees with Dun
can.
"We need to increase dialogue
with Iran," Catania said.
In the past, Russia has backed
two sets of United Nation sanctions
against Iran developing nuclear
weapons. However, Bush is trying
to push a third and Putin has resist
ed these measures.
"Not only should we reject the
use of force, but also the mention of
force as a possibility," Putin said in a
press conference.
President Putin also said that
there is no proof of this even being a
threat and Bush should not be wor
ried about it at this moment in time.
However, without allies in Rus
sia, Bush is trying to find new allies
against Iran. He is currently trying
to rally for Moscow's support.
Bush says this is a threat that will
last a long time and that we should
handle it sooner than later.
Garbage piles up as workers strike
By Paddy Lehane
StaffWriter
Uncollected garbage is piling up on the
streets of Los Angeles County this week as 500
garbage collectors went on strike.
The workers, members of the International
Brotherhood of Teamsters, are citing anti-work
er business practices.
Their employer, U.S. Waste Management,
is accused of paying low wages and forcing
workers to work long shifts.
The average worker makes $37,000 per year,
not including overtime pay. The average hour
ly wage is a little under $18.00 an hour.
Due to the high living costs in L.A. County,
one of the wealtlhest areas in the country, many
of these workers claim they are just getting by
A wage-increase proposal by the company was
turned down as insignificant.
In five years, under the proposal, workers
would be making an average of $21.80 per
hour.
This figure, according to union officials, is
still far too low for the work involved as well as
for living standards.
The company argues that the contract was a
more than reasonable offer.
"This was a good contract," said Waste Man
agement spokesman IQt Cole to United Press
International. "It wasn't peanuts."
Despite the importance of wage increases,
the strike leaders argue that treatment of work
ers is also at the forefront of this conflict.
The garbage collection industry is supple
mented heavily by immigrant labor. The com
pany is being accused of race-baiting and using
intimidation against immigrant workers.
"They play the psychological card against
the immigrant workers, making them think
that there will be raids and deportations if the
workers speak out," said Ron Herrera, Team
ster Local 396 Secretary-Treasurer to the Social
ist Worker. "They try to create tension between
the black and Latino workers."
The union's tactics have come into question
as well. The Teamsters have been known for
decades as one of the toughest and most solid
unions around.
Their tactics on picket lines have been
viewed as extreme and at times counterproduc
tive. This strike is no different. »
Striking workers are blocking the entrance
and exits of the truck yards.
The target is the replacement, or scab, work
ers that were hired by the company to take their^
jobs. The goal is to disrupt business as usual
and cause as much damage to the company as
possible.
"I make each one sit for a minute-and-a-half
before he can come through my line," said Bill
Huff, executive coordinator of Local 396 to the
Union News Web site. "I'm knocking out about
five hours every day. They keep trying to throw
me in jail but I'm still here."
The company has called the police several
times accusing the strikers of harassing the scab
workers, As of yet, no arrests have taken place.
The early morning hours of Oct. 26 saw an
act of violence that many argue is a sign of the
strike escalating.
A replacement worker was hit with a base
ball bat, as was his truck, leading many to be
lieve the strikers are getting more serious, and
desperate.
While the union does not condone any vio
lence, many anti-union activists and company
supporters cite this incident as a way the union
gets what it wants.
The possibility of the company hiring per
manent replacements has come up, infuriating
the strikers and causing tensions to rise fur
ther.
"This is a perfect example of the threatening,
intimidating and heavy-handed tactics they use
with their workers," said Local 396 President
Jay Phillips to the Union News Web site.
"That's one of the reasons they're on strike.
This company treats their workers like a com
modity that's easily replaceable."
FANIME
Continued from page I
of Anime Night.
Despite fansubs making no
profit, the legality of this practice
is questionable. The way that most
anime comes to the U.S. is through
a process called "licensing" in
which a production company
agrees to commercially subtitle,
dub, and distribute a series. Once
a series becomes licensed, fansub-
bers generally stop subtitling the
show and ask that fans cease dis
tribution of previous episodes.
"The legality of that is that if
it's licensed in America obviously
you can't share pirated copies,"
James said. "As far as I'm aware,
it's still legal to own a pirated copy
as long as you got it when it was
unlicensed in America. You just
can't share it with other people."
This does not change the fact
that fansubbing is technically il
legal. One fansubbing group in
particular, ANBU, cites the 17th
section of the U.S. Copyright law
and the Berne Convention as the
primary reasons for their zero-tol
erance policy of licensed material.
"Many people try to state that
fansubbing is included under 'fair
use', however it is very specific as
to what constitutes 'fair use' and
translations are not," ANBU said
in a press release on their website.
"ANBU respects the wishes and
license of American companies.
Fansubs in themselves are illegal,
testing our luck when a work has
been licensed in our country is
asking for trouble."
Another frustration for enthu
siasts comes when a production
company obtains the license for
a show, only to edit, censor, and
soften the show's content for a
younger audience. In a situation
like this, some fans still prefer the
fansubs because they address cul
tural references that the official
translations do not.
"A lot of fansubbers are real
scholars of Japanese culture,"
James said. "Tliey put in a lot of
cultural references. There are a lot
of references in Japanese anime
that are difficult to understand.
There are words that have double
meanings, and we (as foreigners)
don't get the joke. The fansubbers
will actually put the cultural refer
ences in the subtitles."
’ The most notorious example of
censorship is 4Kids Entertainment
and the show "One Piece," which
had its comic violence and mild
sexuality heavily edited so it they
could market it to a younger audi
ence. In addition, approximately
40 episodes of important character
exposition and backstory ended
up cut out, causing confusing plot-
holes and continuity issues. Poke-
mon and Yu-Gi-Oh! received simi
lar treatment.
"They strip out anytliing that
isn't approved for someone over
the age of 10," James said. "While
I'm not a fan of Pokemon, I still
think that's a travesty to the indus
try."
In an interview with Anime
News Network (ANN) in 2005,
4ICids CEO Alfred R. Kahn stated
that their motivation for licensing
a series is derived from financial
viability in terms of marketing and
merchandising, instead of priori
tizing accuracy and faithfulness to
the original script. Many are criti
cal of this approach, since it has
led to such extensive editing and
censoring.
"It's too expensive to do the
dubbing and the acquisitions be
cause we rewrite, we re-script, we
re-score," Kahn said. "So it's very
difficult to do that if you don't
have any other revenue streams
and we have to make sure we get
that."
That business-oriented mental
ity turns many anime fans off from
official releases, since they are in
terested in Japanese culture and
the story, not in adapting a show
for American audiences from ages
seven to eleven.
Most anime that receives this
treatment was never intended for
younger audiences to begin with.
The root of the problem is that
companies like 4fods fail to real
ize that animation can appeal to
a wider adult audience, one that
does not need to have every refer
ence to Japanese culture replaced.
Until production companies ad
dress these two crucial issues, they
will continue to have difficulty dis
suading anime buffs from switch
ing away from fansubs.
Join the Online Commnnlty Fornni todayl
Contribnte to pnblic discnssions
Log on to Moodle
Click the "All Courses" button
Click "Clubs"
Click "The Online Community Forum"
Audio recordings (mp3) of Community Senate meeetings
Audio Recordings of Community Forums
Online forum discussions about campus issues
Polls about issues that affect students