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Help me help to change the world am â€" an . inquisitive . young ICanadian concerned with global environmental issues. Combined with a desire to travel and make a positive difference in the world, 1 have now found myself involved with the Canadian nonâ€"profit orgaâ€" nization "Youth Challenge International", also known as YCI. This May, I will be spending two and a half months in rural Costa Rica with a group of young Canadians, Australians and Costa Ricans working together as a team, on locally designed and implementâ€" ed work projects. Focusing largely on physical infrastructure projects and educaâ€" tion initiatives, YCI aids in the conâ€" struction of schools, health clinics and aqueducts, conducts youth skills â€" summits _ and â€" scientific research, and provides AIDS educaâ€" tion for rural youth in the countries of Costa Rica, Guyana and Vanuatu. YCI is an integral part to the develâ€" opment of social and physical infraâ€" structure in rural areas of the world. through the work of willing and able youthful volunteers. As a nonâ€"profit organization, a significant portion of YCI funding comes from the fund raising efforts of participants. In 1999 alone, 49 per cent of the revenue generated for YCI came from these fundraising efforts. 1 have joined the ranks of this percentage, and am currently in the process of fundraising $3,450 plus airfare and equipment costs. The participation fee goes directly towards the participation costs of volunteers involved in the projects (food, transportation, insurance) and the cost of the work projects themselves _ (building â€" supplies, tools). As an environmental studies stuâ€" dent at the University of Waterloo, the YCt experience offers the incredâ€" ible opportunity of transforming education into action It is my belief that everybody, particularly thase in less fortunate You said it QUESTION WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE IN A REDEVELOPED WATERLOO TOWN SQUARE? circumstances than our own here in Canada, has the right to clean water, education and health care, and 1 wish to do my part in contributing towards this goal. As Gandhi said, "You must be the change you wish to see in the world" â€" 1 intend to try to do just that through my participation in the Youth Challenge International proâ€" Surely this isn‘t all there is, this brief time spent here going If it isn‘t Ford coming out with a resurrection of the ‘55 Tâ€"Bird, it‘s the popularity of Survivor, a notâ€"toâ€"disâ€" tant look back at our cave days when it was each man for himself. Antiques Roadshow tops the charts and we swoon over the return of Super Mario, not to mention the recent anniversary of Darry! Sittler‘s 10â€"point night. Perhaps the most nostalgic peak was reached with the auction of Ursula Andress‘s bikini for $90,000 Canadian, a suit she wore in Bond‘s Dr. No. It suggests we are more comfortâ€" able living in the past and afraid of what‘s to come, but not as much as we should be. As researchers trumpet the beneâ€" fits of unravelling the human genetâ€" ic code, explaining how this will mean the end of many diseases, we should know in our heart of hearts that those out to make a buck will go too far. Mail order babies can‘t be far away; the harvesting of organs from headless fetuses will be commonâ€" place and genetic discrimination will join the likes of racial, gender and ethnic as companies weed out those with questionable DNA "] would get Liquidation World out of the mall. Something better should be put in, but not a movie the atre. A nicer restauâ€" rant would be nice.‘ "Real nice retail stores need to be moved in and park ing needs some improvement. More office space would also be useâ€" ful." an spends so much time looking over his shoulder, he can‘t see where he‘s Hildegard Himmel O THE CHRONICL] Larry McDermitt COMMENT gram. If you are interested in conâ€" tributing towards my participation in this worthwhile and mutually beneficial program, please feel free to contact me at: Not to be outdone, law enforceâ€" ment agencies may be able to nip crime in the bud by intervening when a child‘s genetic profile sugâ€" gests a propensity to offend. With the past revered and the future "supposedly" in hand, there‘s the troublesome problem of the preâ€" sent with all of its divorce, crime, drug use and stress. Thirty five per cent of our teens smoke compared to California where an effective mix of education and advertising has fewer than seven per cent hooked. While Jean Chretien cavorts among the ancient terra cotta warriors of China, our health care and education systems sputter. The greatest paradox of the last quarter century is that, despite the industrial and electronic revoluâ€" tions, we have less time to care for the important things like family and relationships, wasting ourselves on trivia, afraid to confront the tough issue. It may be that man is a victim of his own inventions, led to believe that nothing is beyond his reach except peace which comes from knowing who you are, why you‘re here and where you‘re going. Surely this isn‘t all there is. this brief time spent here brennanvogel@hotmail.com "Leave it the way it is. [ like all the indi vidual stores." "A big, huge Zehrs, like the one at Conestoga Mall. More boutiques that would pull people in and a nicer restaurant." Ivan MacKinnon Louise Lefebure Brennan Vogel 72A William St. Waterloo, ON. N2L 17 Jim Newton, New Dundee nyone living in or planning to visit Quebec City in April Al‘nust be hoping that Canada‘s peculiar weather systems on‘t bring them a late blast of winter. Why? Because the city‘s of Quebec and Saintâ€"Foy have passed bylaws making it illegal to wear a scarf (or anything else) covering one‘s face. It‘s all part of the draconian crackdown on civil liberties that is already in place for the threeâ€"day Summit of the Americas conâ€" ference, which aims to create a Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), covering the vast area between Terra del Fuego and Alert. Trading away our â€" civil liberties The organizers also plan to install a threeâ€"metre high metal fence around several square kilometres of Quebec City and restrict entry to this area to those with passes, Guarding the assembled dignitaries and hangersâ€"on will be 3,000 to 5,000 police officers, including RCMP and riot squads from across the country. Known opponents of globalization from other counâ€" tries are already being stopped at the border. The closest prison is being emptied out to make room for the many dangerous terâ€" torists and ordinary thugs who are expected to be arrested. According to the aforementioned bylaws, which will be enforced not just during the summit but in the weeks leading up to it j police officers will be authorized to | \N()H l[R ‘ summarily arrest anyone who has ‘ * AHPLiF | their face even partially covered (conâ€" . | VIEW ‘ veniently removing not just protesters .. M@R®®R mm | and people who are fighting a cold | ?. * h NB wind, but many Muslim women in the ‘ i . e | area}. According to the bylaws, those . |IRRIR ie | ‘ arrested will be detained indefinitely | j & o § 8 until they can justify their need to |f f&i’#f “‘Vi"‘i | cover up their faces. ‘ uMess * ’ There‘s no question that a small 4 s minority of the thousands of protestâ€" * ers planning to challenge the summit want to make their statement through SCOTT violent means. The vast majority are || PIATKOWSK planning to do nothing more violent than carry a sign and chant tiresome slogans such as "Hey, hey. Ho, Ho. The FTAA has got to go." These people, in addition to ordinary citizens who just happen to be in Quebec City at the time of the summit, are the ones that are likely to be targeted by police and other authorities. Most of the 500 reserved spots at the prison will be filled by people who have broken no ordinary law. This was the pattern at the Vancouver APEC summit in 1997, at the Seattle meeting of the WTO in 1999, at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The real aim of this crackdown appears to be thwarting legitâ€" imate voices of protest â€" both through actual arrests and through the intimidation of potential demonstrators {some of whom can be expected to avoid the summit out of an aversion to pepper spray, tear gas, water cannon, stun guns and police batons). Existing laws are more than powerful enough to take on any real threats to world leaders. What they fear is democraâ€" tic debate, not terrorism. By turning the sites of their meetings into armed camps and restricting civil liberties of demonstrators and others, they almost guarantee that there will be a confrontation in the streets (It‘s worth noting that the next major international trade meeting is scheduled to take place in the desert kingdom of Qatar, far away from protesters}. As with APEC and Seattle, the media stories will be about "riots" instead of the substance of the issues. That probably suits the world leaders and the corpoâ€" rations that own them just fine, but it should be a concern to everyone who values free debate â€" regardless of our opinions on the merits of globalization. After Davos, veteran journalist Richard Gwyn wrote that "there is something almost engagingly ridiculous in the spectaâ€" cle of corporate leaders needing to be protected â€" by the state, in a neat irony â€" against a few demonstrators saying rude things about how it might be better if the world‘s income gaps weren‘t so obscenely wide and getting ever wider or brandishâ€" ing placards protesting genetically modified foods. There is also something ridiculous, but this time in a very serious sense, in the contrast between the way all those corporate leaders will spend a week telling each other, and the world, about the importance of free markets and free trade and, just about, freeâ€" dom from taxes, and their own fear of free ideas. This admission by corporate leaderts of their fearfulness in engaging in debate with thase who don‘t agree with them represents, I believe, the single most significant achievement of the antiâ€"globalization movement â€" or more precisely, the antiâ€"corporate globalizaâ€" tion movement." s has Eâ€"