Issue 16, January 20, 2010

sPeCiaL dOuBLe issue: MLK COVeraGe On PaGe 8

The A&TRegisteR

nCaTreGisTer.COMWednesdayJanuary 20, 2010

THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF NORTH CAROLINA A&TSERVING THE AGGIE COMMUNITY FOR OVER 80 YEARS

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theSCENEThe GOLden GLOBesWinning ‘Best Supporting Actress,’ Mo’Nique kicks off a night of star-studded appearances and award presentations.

PaGe 7

theSCOREThe PiraTes raVaGe COrBeTTBeing at home couldn’t help the Aggies beat off conference rival Hampton University on Monday, with the game ending in a loss.

PaGe 6

High: 59°Low: 39°

Thursday: Rain | High 39°

Friday: Mostly Sunny | High 52°

Wednesday

WEATHERtheWORDKinG GeTs TOO MuCh CrediTTrumaine McCaskill writes about why he feels Dr. King gets too much credit for the actions in the civil rights movement.

PaGe 5

theYARDseaTTLe Pays iT FOrWard

A class in a Seattle’s Puget Sound Community School’s online course perfoms random acts of kindness for class.

PaGe 3

ONLINEhaiTi: a sTOry OF sTruGGLeSee more of the devastation in Haiti in our exclusive soundslide project online this week.

www.ncatregister.com

HaItI: NatION IN CrISISChaos and

desperation fi ll the streets

of haiti

In just eight days, more than 70,000 bodies have been placed in mass graves. Thousands more are still unaccounted for, and many are buried beneath the rubble.

For the relief efforts on the ground, the sounds of those in need of help are constant, both day and night.

Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere, rests along the Cayman Island fault line. The fault, however, may historically belong to the rest of the “civilized” world.

In 1804 Haiti won its inde-pendence from the French. The French, and much of the west-ern world, placed an embargo on the “new nation of Haiti.”

It is from this moment that Haiti has struggled to dig itself out of the whole the west cre-ated for them.

Now Haitians fi nd them-selves digging deeper to free their friends and families from the devastation of the earth-quake that struck last week.

Even here in Greensboro, the connection to Haiti is strong. Many North Carolina A&T stu-dents have family in Haiti.

Sophomore Keila Alfred, 24, is an engineering major. Alfred was born in the United States, but lived the majority of her life in Haiti. Her parents were in Port-Au Prince when the earthquake struck.

“I was raised in Haiti since I was a little kid,” Alfred said. “I’m 24, and I’ve been here (U.S.) since 2004.

“Haiti...that’s my life, that’s all I’ve ever known. I went to school there, all my friends are there.”

Alfred said she fi rst found out about the earthquake on Ya-hoo when she went to check her e-mail. She said she thought it was just something small.

“When I looked again, and I saw that the (Presidential) Pal-ace had collapsed I said ‘oh my God,’ Alfred said.

“It’s (earthquake trimmers) something that always hap-pens, so I’m used to it.”

Alfred called her brother and sister, who both live in Miami, and they advised her to try and call home.

At fi rst she said she couldn’t get through but wasn’t as wor-ried.

“I called and called, on Wednesday, and on Thursday, the same thing,” Alfred said.

“But when I called on Fri-day my father answered and said they were ok, so that was a relief.”

Alfred said that she and her family have lost everything. There home, her high school, and her community have been leveled.

“We’re trying to get them (her parents) here through the Dominican Republic because there are no fl ights out from

DeXter r. MULLINS & MaLCOLM S. eUStaCHe

The A&T Register

PhotoS by rICK LOOMIS, PatrICK FarreLL, aND CarOLYN COLe • MCT CaMPUs

aFter tHe eartHQUaKe For the people of haiti, the damages to their country have made life extremely diffi cult. tens of thousands have died, and many are still unaccounted for today. See HaItI on Page 2

theYARD2 The A&T Register | ncatregister.com | Wednesday, January 20, 2010

even

ts

20Wednesday

February 1 documentaryMemorial Student Union

Stallings Ballroom 7 p.m.

Thursday

21

new Organization Orientation

Merrick HallRoom 125 Auditorium

5 p.m.

CLM Full Body MeetingMemorial Student Union

Room 209 7 p.m.

young and Gifted Try-OutsMemorial Student Union

Commuter Lounge8 p.m.

The A&TRegisteR

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The a&T reGisTer is published every Wednesday during the fall and spring semesters by students at North Carolina A&T State University. One copy is available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the Register’s newsroom (subject to availability). All subscription requests should be directed to the Business department. The a&T reGisTer has a weekly circulation of 5,000 copies on-campus and in the community and is a member of The Associated Press, The Associated Collegiate Press and the Black College Wire.

MLK Commemorative Program ft. roland Martin

Harrison Auditorium7 p.m.

Friday

22Blue and Gold Ball

Memorial Student UnionExhibit Hall

6:30 p.m.

January 122:42 p.m.Barbee hall Lot-suspicious activityFurther Investigation

January 131:20 p.m. Barbee hall-Possible drug Violationcase closed

2:35 p.m.Mcnair hall- Fire alarmcase closed

3:45 p.m.Brown hall-Larcenycase open

2:05 p.m. William’s Cafeteria-Personal injurycase closed

January 147:43 a.m. new General Classroom Building-damage to state PropertyFurther Investigation

2:20 p.m.aggie Terrace PVa-hit & runcase open

11:50 a.m.new General Classroom (spanish Classroom)-simple assaultcase open

1:30 p.m.B & e-LarcenyFurther Investigation

January 151:45 a.m.e. Market & dudley street-dWicase closed

if you ever see anything suspicious or need assistance call Campus Police

(336) 334-7675

saTurday

23John Wilson exhibit Opening

receptionDudley Hall

Multi-Purpose Room5 p.m.

24sunday

new international student Orientation

Memorial Student UnionStallings Ballroom

2:45 p.m.

MOnday

ediTOr in ChieF: Dexter R. MullinsManaGinG ediTOr: Malcolm S. Eustache

neWs ediTOr: Jasmine JohnsonOPiniOns ediTOr: Kelcie McCrae

sPOrTs ediTOr: Daniel HendersonsCene ediTOr: LaPorsha Lowry

COPy desK ChieF: Anjan BasuCOPy ediTOr: Ashley Reid

PhOTO ediTOr: Kenneth HawkinssTaFF PhOTOGraPhers: Michaela Edwards, Shanté Mathes

ediTOriaL CarTOOnisT: Evan SummervilleGraPhiC arTisT:Cameron Z. SimmonsnCaTreGisTer.COM: Stacie Bailey, (Online Editor)seniOr rePOrTer: Marcus ThompsonrePOrTers: Johnathan Veal, Alessandra Brown, LaRia Land, Sylvia Obell, Ricardo Lawson, Monterius Smith, Kelcie McCrae, Whitney Mack-Obi, Jiril Clemons, Prince AskewPr direCTOr: Kenny Flowers Business ManaGer: Brittany DandyBusiness sTaFF: Carlton Brown, Chad RobertsFaCuLTy adViser: Emily Harris

inFOCUS

Photo by CHUCK LIDDY • Raleigh News & ObseRveR/MCT

Dr. PaUL averbaCH, of stanford University, carries a young boy on his shoulders to a surgery clinic in Port-au-Prince, haiti, where one of the boy’s fingers was amputated, Tuesday, January 19, 2010. averbach has volunteered his time to help victims of the devastating earthquake.

Haiti,” Alfred said. While no flights are getting

out of Haiti, very few flights are able to get in.

Toussaint Louverture In-ternational Airport Port au Prince Haiti, the only airport in the city, has only one run-way. That runway is currently loaded with supplies and large aircraft.

Many airplanes are forced to circle the air in holding pat-terns, or return back for lack of space.

With all of the support coming in, there is still a great need for medical supplies, food, water, and clothing (spe-cifically shoes.)

Here at A&T, the university community has adopted a stu-dent led initiative, involving every organization on cam-pus.

Project Haiti, originally a program with the A&T Chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists, was picked up by the Student Government Association and the rest of the campus community.

The goal of the project is to stuff the university athletic trailer used for transporting the band and sports teams equip-ment with supplies to help.

A&T is just one of numer-ous schools and organizations trying to help Haiti. Even with all the help coming in, it will be a while before Haiti is ever the same.

“I think it will take years for Haiti to fully recover,” Alfred said. “Even though everyone may be helping now, there is more than what $100 million can fix. All the big universities have collapsed, the hospitals have collapsed, it is going to take years.”

HaItI From page 1

25Tuesday

26

MLK CommemorativeObservance


7 p.m.

Concrete TruthMemorial Student Union

Commuter Lounge8 p.m.

aCM Full Body MeetingMcNair Hall

Lecture Room 27:35 p.m.

Top ModelMemorial Student Union

Stallings Ballroom7 p.m.

Couture Productions Try-Outs


7 p.m.

ncatregister.com

theYARDThe A&T Register | ncatregister.com | Wednesday, January 20, 2010 3

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Minority enrollment rising nationwideST. PETER, Minn. — The grow-

ing diversity of college cam-puses can be measured in num-bers, fi gures and graphs. Abdul Suleyman hasn’t seen the pie charts, but he has seen the caf-eteria.

“When I was a freshman, there were only three or four black guys,” said the 22-year-old senior at Gustavus Adol-phus College in St. Peter, Minn. “People would have us con-fused. It went from that to now, there’s maybe 15 of us.”

At Augsburg College in Min-neapolis Tereza Ponce de Leon is part of the most diverse fresh-man class in history.

The color palette on college campuses is changing.

Thanks in part to a big jump this fall, the number of students of color going to college is way up.

From suburban community college campuses to small-town schools like Gustavus, the growth goes beyond statistics.

These students are changing how professors teach and cam-

puses feel.“It’s a fascinating moment,”

said Paul Pribbenow, president of Augsburg College and chair of the Minnesota Private Col-lege Council. “We’re in con-stant conversation about what this means and what a gift this is.”

College was “always a big dream” of Ponce de Leon’s. A program for low-income stu-dents called Admission Possible helped her focus her ambitions. Pregnancy narrowed her college search, but it only heightened her commitment to going.

“I had to think not only about myself, but what would be bet-ter for the future of my son.”

This fall, students of color make up 43 percent of the fi rst-year, daytime undergraduate class at Augsburg.

In total, a full quarter of the college’s undergraduates are students of color _ up from 8.6 percent in 2001.

Augsburg has lots of com-pany. Enrollment of undergrad-uates of color is up nearly 90 percent in the last decade at the 17 member schools of the Min-nesota Private College Council.

Meanwhile, white enrollment grew less than 4 percent.

In the Minnesota State Col-leges and Universities system, the enrollment of low-income, minority and fi rst-generation college students _ groups con-sidered “underrepresented” _ is up 22 percent this fall over last year.

“We had not seen anything like it before,” said Linda Baer, senior vice chancellor for aca-demic and student affairs.

Experts say the economy is one reason, but Terria Middle-brook, a 22-year-old student at Minneapolis Community and Technical College, sees some-thing bigger going on:

“We are getting smarter knowing there is potential for us out there,” she said.

“Our President Obama is one example to us African Ameri-cans showing that we do have potential to succeed, but it’s up to us to move forward.”

The big jumps in minority en-rollment are the buzz of admis-sions offi ces around the country. With the college-age population decreasing and becoming much more diverse, colleges will need

to recruit a more diverse student body to keep classrooms full.

But Augsburg Professor Da-vid Lapakko had heard the buzz one too many times. In early October, he wrote a post on the college’s internal forum:

“I must confess that I’m tired of hearing that the world _ and our classrooms _ are more di-verse than in years past. To that I say, ‘Well, duh.’”

Diversity is one of Augs-burg’s great strengths and “a critical part of a liberal arts edu-cation,” Lapakko said. But with it come challenges that need to be discussed.

Teachers can make some changes easily, he said, like avoiding slang that confuses students whose fi rst language is not English

Not so easy is the “big ques-tion colleges have been forced to take a hard look at,” he said. That is: How much are profes-sors willing and able to change how they teach or what they teach to reach he class that now sits before them?

“It’s kind of like the elephant in the living room,” he said. “People don’t want to talk about

the bad parts of it, the diffi cult parts.”

Getting students in the door is only one part of a college’s job. Graduating them is another. Colleges and universities aren’t as good at graduating students of color as they are white stu-dents.

Black, American Indian and Hispanic students are more like-ly to attend part time and less likely to graduate than white or Asian students, according to the Minnesota Offi ce of Higher Education.

The offi ce’s 2009 report shows that at two-year schools such as community colleges _ where much of the growth is occurring fewer than half of the students of color either complet-ed a credential or transferred to another institution within three years.

“It’s about not only bringing more people through the doors, but making sure that they are achieving and succeeding at the same rate,” said MnSCU’s Baer.

MnSCU is one of 24 public college and university systems that just pledged to shrink the

gap in college-going and de-gree completion between their traditional population and low-income students and students of color by 2015.

Cheng Lee fi rst saw Gusta-vus as a high school senior in Upward Bound, a program de-signed to increase the number of low-income and fi rst-generation students in college.

He thought the hilltop cam-pus was beautiful and liked the idea of getting away from the distractions of St. Paul, where his Hmong family lives.

“They always ask about the diversity _ the numbers, the facts and fi gures,” Lee said.

“But the main selling point is actually seeing students of col-or. If they see them walking by and saying hi to me, they really respond to that.”

The college offers all fi rst-year, under-represented stu-dents peer and faculty mentors. Advisers meet with each student every semester. Tutors set up shop in the college’s diversity center, as well as the individual colleges.

But there’s still room to im-prove, Jones said.

Bucknell professor sentenced to deathPHILADELPHIA — A Bucknell

University professor was sen-tenced Tuesday to death in ab-sentia by an Ethiopian court that convicted him of plotting to as-sassinate government offi cials.

Berhanu Nega, of Lewis-burg, Pa., an associate profes-sor of economics at the Union County, Pa., school, was one of fi ve people to receive death sen-tences for planning the attack in 2005 when nearly 200 people were killed in postelection vio-lence.

Nega, 51, denied the charges and called the sentence an ex-pected move of a terrorist gov-ernment.

“By delivering this sentence they are trying to terrorize the population more than anything else,” Nega said in a phone in-terview. “It is their way of tell-

ing everybody if you fi ght for democracy we will kill you, that is the message they are send-ing.”

Nega said he was at home preparing to take his teenage son to a driving test when he received a phone call with the news.

Nega, an exiled opposition leader, was elected mayor of Addis Ababa in 2005.

He was the fi rst elected may-or in Ethiopia’s history, but the ruling party declared victory, and Nega was among 100 op-position leaders arrested and jailed. Nega was held in prison for 21 months.

“At one point I was in one cell with 350 people,” Nega said. “There was no air to breathe, and I developed a heart condition because of that.”

Since his release, he has urged the United States and other Western countries to back

democratic movements in Ethi-opia and withdraw support for dictatorships.

Born near Addis Ababa, Nega immigrated to the United States in 1980. He earned his bachelor’s degree in econom-ics from the State University of New York at New Paltz and his doctorate in economics at the New School for Social Research in New York.

He joined the faculty at Buck-nell in 1990, but commuted to Philadelphia for three years while his wife, Nardos Minasse, studied at the Pennsylvania Col-lege of Optometry.

Nega and his family returned to Ethiopia in 1994 because “we thought maybe there would be a chance to serve and help our country,” he said. Nega became active in the democratic move-ment, taught at Addis Ababa University, and was elected mayor in 2005.

During Nega’s imprison-ment, supporters including Bucknell president Brian C. Mitchell and university faculty members called for his release, said Tom Evelyn, a spokesman for the university.

“He is a professor in good standing at Bucknell and has a long track record of being a distinguished scholar,” Evelyn said.

Nega and others eventually were pardoned and freed. Nega and his family returned to Penn-sylvania in August 2007, and the professor resumed teach-ing at Bucknell. Last week, the Ethiopian government revoked Nega’s pardon.

Nega is one of four people sentenced to death Tuesday who are living in exile, Nega said. The other is jailed in Ethiopia, Nega said. A sentence of life in prison was ordered for 33 oth-ers.

KRISTIN E. HOLMESMCT Campus

SEATTLE — If you recently found a shiny gold dollar coin in downtown Bellevue, Wash., thank the kindness class. Ditto if you stumbled upon a piece of glass art in Seattle’s Pioneer Square, or a lottery ticket taped to a bus shelter with a note say-ing, “This may be your lucky day.”

Since mid-September, the 250 people in Puget Sound Community School’s online course learned about kindness by practicing it.

Along the way, they took emotional risks, repaired rela-tionships, improved their out-look on the world, and realized kindness is contagious.

Signing up for the class “just felt like the right thing to do in order to step outside of myself and see the world as a help-ful, kind place, as opposed to a frightening place,” said Barbara Kyllingstad, who enrolled as a way to combat the isolation she’s felt since she got laid off from Washington Mutual this year.

“I feel a lot more peaceful and positive about the world.”

The phrase “random acts of kindness” fi rst showed up at least a decade ago, a play on the expression “random acts of vio-lence.”

Since then, books, movies and even national organizations have sprung up to keep the trend going.

Puget Sound Community

School’s kindness class _ now in its 15th year _ is a homegrown example that this year drew a record number of students.

A few were teenagers who attend the small, private school near the Chinatown Internation-al District, which serves grades six through 12, but many were friends and friends of friends who live as far away as Poland.

Class instructor Andy Small-man, co-founder of the school, calls it a “positive virus.”

Smallman offered his fi rst kindness class just to the teens at his school, where creating a nurturing environment is central to the educational philosophy. It was so successful he offered the second class online, inviting anyone, anywhere, of any age, to sign up.

“It was the idea of throwing a little pebble into a pond and see-ing how far the ripples would go,” he said.

The fi rst assignment: Do something kind for yourself. Like airplane passengers in-structed to put on their own oxy-gen masks fi rst in an emergency, we all need to tend to ourselves before we can care for others, Smallman says. The second as-signment: Do something kind for someone you love.

Then for a neighbor. Then for a stranger.

Smallman also stretches the defi nition of kindness. Assign-ment No. 10, for example, was to do something useful.

Class members wrote anony-mous compliments to co-work-ers, left homegrown pears out

for passers-by, cleaned street storm drains, picked up trash and slipped a $20 bill inside the next empty cup a barista would pick up.

A woman who lives in As-toria, Ore., bought a $15 Fred Meyer gift card and left it on the windshield for a young mother who had just entered a nearby unemployment/welfare offi ce.

Another kindness student, after running a half-marathon, gave her participation medal to the 76-year-old man who fi n-ished last, because race organiz-ers by then had run out of med-als.

Shortly after the killing of the four Lakewood, Wash., po-lice offi cers, Chris Falskow, a 48-year-old real-estate agent and a board member at Smallman’s

school, went to a Starbucks near his offi ce where offi cers from Seattle’s Harbor Patrol often go, and paid in advance for their next order.

Falskow says he was in-spired by an Edmonds, Wash., man who also bought coffee for police offi cers _ evidence, he says, that one kind act often be-gets another.

“If more people realize what they do with their acts of kind-ness ... we will live in a better place,” he said.

Victoria Clearwater, who has a child at the school, said she was struck by how much these small acts of kindness enrich her own life.

“When a kinder option is chosen, it truly radiates out and comes back to you.”

LINDA SHAWMCT Campus

JENNA ROSSMCT Campus

Kindness a class requirement at Seattle school

theWORLD4 The A&T Register | ncatregister.com | Wednesday, January 20, 2010

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran ac-cused France on Tuesday of us-ing the extradition hearings of an Iranian allegedly linked to the country’s nuclear program to put political pressure on Tehran, which is prosecuting a French national accused of involve-ment in the post-election pro-tests against the government.

U.S. authorities have alleged the Iranian in France, 37-year-old Majid Kakavand, is tied to companies involved in Iran’s contentious nuclear program. His lawyers have denied that. The U.S. requested his arrest and extradition, accusing him of buying electronics over the Internet via a company in Ma-laysia in violation of U.S. trade sanctions on Iran, his lawyer Marie-Laure Bonaldi-Nut said.

“We denounce this trial by the French and we think that they, under U.S. pressure, want to put pressure on Iran,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said at a news conference. He called the proceedings against Kakavand “illegal, insisting he was inno-cent and demanded his release as soon as possible.

The spokesman did not say why he believes France would be seeking to pressure Iran.

But an Iranian court is pros-ecuting a 24-year-old French academic, Clotilde Reiss, as part of a mass trial against op-position supporters.

The trial is part of a gov-ernment crackdown on the anti-government protests that followed the disputed June presidential election.

Iran has been holding three Americans in prison since July and accused them of spying.

But the U.S. insists they are innocent hikers who acciden-tally crossed the border from northern Iraq.

France has helped lead West-ern efforts to rein in Iran’s nu-clear program, which the U.S. and its allies suspect is geared toward producing weapons. Iran denies the allegation and says the program is for peace-ful, energy production.

Iran released a list last year of 11 Iranians it says are being held in the U.S. — including a nuclear scientist who disap-peared in Saudi Arabia and a former Defense Ministry of-ficial who vanished in Turkey. The list also includes an Iranian arrested in Canada on charges of trying to obtain nuclear tech-nology. Kakavand’s name ap-pears on the list, which wrongly claims he was handed over the Americans.

French media have sug-gested Kakavand was one of

two Iranians that Iran wanted to trade with France in exchange for Reiss, who is charged with endangering national security and taking part in the anti-gov-ernment protests that erupted in the weeks after the election.

Another French national, Nazak Afshar, was arrested around the same time and also accused of fanning the unrest in Iran. She was later released from jail and is barred from leaving Iran pending the end of her trial.

Mehmanparast alleged the French judiciary was working closely with the United States and that the U.S. had provided the court with “fake evidence” against the student.

“Kakavand is on trial despite his innocence,” Mehmanparast said.

Iran claims Kakavand is an electrical engineering student. His lawyer calls him an en-gineer, not a student. He was arrested last March when he arrived in Paris as part of an or-ganized tour of Europe.

He appeared at a hearing in a Paris court last week on the U.S. extradition request, and judges ordered a new hearing for Feb. 17.

His lawyers argued in court that Kakavand should not be ex-tradited.

They said he broke no French or European laws and said the

electronics equipment he or-dered was not high-tech or sensitive enough to be used in the defense industry.

The U.S. accuses Kaka-vand of having ordered sen-sitive technology, including capacitors, spectrometers, resistors, sensors and con-nectors, to be shipped from the United States to Malay-sia, and then on to Iran. It says he did so without a re-quired export license.

A U.S. Department of Jus-tice summary of his case says his Malaysia-based compa-ny’s primary customers were “two Iranian military entities, Iran Electronics Industry and Iran Communication Indus-tries, both of which were designated in 2008 by the United States for their role in Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.”

The lawyer and Iran’s ambassador to France, Seyed Mehdi Miraboutalebi, both denied Kakavand is linked to companies involved in Iran’s nuclear program.

His lawyer said he was an electrical engineer for an oil company, though he lost his job after his arrest in France.

On Aug. 26, Kakavand was released from prison but required to stay in France while awaiting an extradition decision.

NAssER kARImIAP Writer

Iran, France tense over nuclear hearings

BEIJING (AP) — China is tight-ening smoking regulations to ban lighting up in any indoor public spaces in seven provin-cial capitals, the latest sign of rising health awareness in the world’s largest tobacco-con-suming nation.

The success of the effort may provide the best indicator yet as to whether broad efforts to re-strict tobacco use can overcome stiff resistance from retailers and some local governments, which profit significantly from tobacco taxes.

Smoking is a huge business in China: 2 trillion cigarettes are sold in the country every year. The country accounts for more than one-quarter of the world’s 1.3 billion smokers, with about 60 percent of Chinese men and 3 percent of women indulging in the habit.

China pledged to ban indoor smoking in public places four years ago under a U.N. treaty, but local laws and regulations have not been changed suf-ficiently for the measure to be properly enforced.

“Our aim is to make 100 percent of the environment in indoor public places and work-places smoke-free in these sev-en cities,” Qu Yan, an official with the government’s Center for Disease Control and Preven-tion, told The Associated Press on Monday.

Cities targeted include some of China’s biggest commercial centers — such as Tianjin on the northern coast and the megacity of Chongqing in the southwest — where smoking and breath-ing in secondhand smoke add to health threats from traffic, in-dustrial waste, and polluted air and water.

Qu said that goal will require enacting or amending local smoking regulations. The CDC hopes to have those changes in place by the end of 2011, she said.

Gan Quan, head of anti-smoking programs for the Inter-national Union Against Tuber-culosis and Lung Disease, said it was unclear how effective the

move would be.“This involves efforts from a

lot of different directions, so it’s very hard to say how confident we are about the program’s suc-cess,” Gan said.

Local governments that rely on the income from cigarette sales sometimes push consump-tion in spite of a partial ban on tobacco advertising.

A rural county in central Hu-bei province last year sparked a public outcry after pushing the sale of more than 230,000 packs of locally produced cigarettes a year to boost tax revenues. The move was called off in the face of public criticism.

Taxes from tobacco sales topped 416 billion yuan ($61 billion) last year, up 26.2 per-cent from 2008, according to a report issued last week by the state tobacco industry regulator. Interest on government loans to the industry added another 97 billion yuan ($14 billion).

“The big increase in tax in-come from the tobacco industry is actively contributing to the security of government financ-es,” a spokesman for the regula-tor, Zhang Xiulian, was quoted as saying on its Web site.

The revenue boost is a di-rect result of the hiking of taxes on the most expensive brands of cigarettes last year. Anti-smoking groups had at first wel-comed the move as raising the cost of smoking, a factor that often lowers demand.

Instead, the government re-quired tobacco companies to absorb the higher tax without raising prices. Meanwhile, tax-es on the cheapest, most popu-lar brands — costing from five to seven yuan (75 cents to $1) — actually fell.

Despite such resistance, there are signs the public is eager for stronger limits on the tobacco industry, said Sarah England, the World Health Organization’s Tobacco-Free Initiative officer in China.

As one example, she cited public criticism that forced or-ganizers of last year’s National Games sports meet to pull to-bacco advertising from venues.

“I think we’re seeing some movement, though it’s early days yet,” England said.

cHRIsToPHER BodEENAssociated Press Writer

China snuffs out smoking in 7 more cities

cARAcAs, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela is seeking to im-prove diplomatic relations with the United States despite long-standing tensions with Wash-ington, President Hugo Chavez said in an interview broadcast Sunday.

Chavez said he has given Deputy Foreign Minister Fran-cisco Arias Cardenas permis-sion to seek a meeting with U.S. officials in Washington to discuss forging better bilateral relations.

“Arias Cardenas asked for authorization to meet with an emissary from the U.S. gov-ernment, and I gave it to him,” said Chavez, speaking during a program broadcast on the local Televen television channel. “We want to talk, so there’s a possi-bility of easing tensions.”

Chavez didn’t explain what prompted his decision to try to improve relations just weeks af-ter he accused the U.S. of plan-ning to invade his country.

“It appears the gringos are militarily occupying Haiti,” Chavez said. “Obama, send medicine, doctors and water — not more soldiers.”

Officials at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas could not be reached for comment Sunday. There was no immediate reaction from the U.S. State Department or the White House.

Chavez has accused the

United States and Colombia of spying on Venezuela and con-spiring to topple his “revolution-ary” government. Tensions have been exacerbated by a recent agreement between Washington and Bogota granting U.S. troops expanded access to Colombian military bases.

Last week, Venezuela made a diplomatic protest to the U.S., saying a U.S. military plane re-cently violated its airspace.

John Caulfield, charge d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, denied the accusa-tion, saying a U.S. military air-craft has not strayed into Ven-ezuelan airspace since 2008, when the U.S. acknowledged what it called an accidental inci-dent involving a navy plane.

Meanwhile, U.S officials have criticized what they call Venezuela’s failure to effective-ly fight drug trafficking.

But even as he talked peace, Chavez seemed to fan the flames with his neighbor, Colombia, for allowing greater U.S. mili-tary presence in the region. The U.S. says its soldiers in Colom-bia will be used only to help Colombian President Alvaro Uribe fight drug trafficking and rebels.

With “the election of Obama and the Democrats in Congress, Uribe began to fear he’d lose the support that he had from Bush, and he dropped his pants due to the fear of losing the backing of the United States,” Chavez said in the same interview.

cHRIsToPHER TooTHAkERAssociated Press Writer

Chavez works toward better U.S. relations

Jos, Nigeria (AP) — Religious violence between Christians and Muslims erupted again Tuesday in central Nigeria, and the state government called for more military units to enter the city where rioters have killed at least 27 people.

Security forces issued a 24-hour curfew after police and soldiers tried to contain the violence with roadblocks and searches but apparently failed.An Associated Press reporter could see smoke rising from the north side of Jos and could hear the sounds of gunshots echoing along the streets.

The rioting began Sunday af-ter Muslim youths set a Catho-lic church ablaze. Witnesses said rioters armed with knives, homemade firearms and stones attacked passers-by and fought with security forces, leaving

bodies in the street and stacked in local mosques.

The Minister of Police Af-fairs, Ibrahim Yakubu Lame, issued a statement Tuesday blaming the violence on “some highly placed individuals in the society who were exploiting the ignorance and poverty of the people to cause mayhem in the name of religion.”

Jos, the capital of Plateau State, has a history of com-munity violence that has made elections difficult to organize.

Rioting in September 2001 killed more than 1,000 people and Muslim-Christian battles killed up to 700 people in 2004. More than 300 residents died during a similar uprising in 2008.

The city is situated in Nige-ria’s “middle belt,” where doz-ens of ethnic groups mingle in a band of fertile and hotly contest-ed land separating the Muslim north from the predominantly

Christian south.While religious violence

does happen in Nigeria, it nor-

mally has its roots in local is-sues, rather than influence from international extremist groups.

Sani Mudi, a spokesman for the local imam, said there were about two hours of fighting on Tuesday morning.

“We could hear gunshots all over the area,” said Mudi, who said he saw police mov-ing about the area with soldiers from where he was hiding inside his home.

Mohammed Larema, a local

police spokesman, said that security forces had brought the fighting to a halt and that the situation was under con-trol.

However, the state gov-ernment called for additional military units to enter the city. A major general for a Nige-rian armored division toured part of Jos on Tuesday to see what would be needed.

“The situation is bad and the federal government is yet to deploy the troops request-ed,” said Gregory Yenlong, a state spokesman.

Mudi, the spokesman for the local imam, has said 22 people died Sunday and more than 300 people were wounded in the fighting. Five others died Monday from their wounds, Mudi said.

Local Red Cross officials have said that 5,000 people have been displaced by the rioting.

AHmEd sAkAAP Writer

Religious violence erupts in Nigeria

“We could hear gun-shots all over the area,”

-Sani Mudi

RoB GIllIEsAP Writer

Judge sentences ‘Toronto 18’ ringleader to life

THE A&T REGISTER HAS: FACEBOOK, TWITTER, YOUTUBE.

WE’RE EVERYWHERE YOU WANT TO BE. LIKE VISA.

BUT BETTER.WWW.NCATREGISTER.COM

BRAmPToN, ontario (AP) — A Canadian judge on Monday sentenced the ringleader of a homegrown terrorist plot to set off truck bombs in Ontario to life in prison.

Zakaria Amara, 24, pleaded guilty in October. He acknowl-edged being a leader of the so-called Toronto 18 plot to set off bombs outside Toronto’s Stock Exchange, a building housing Canada’s spy agency and a mili-tary base. The goal was to scare Canada into removing its troops from Afghanistan.

The 2006 arrests of Amara and 17 others made international headlines and heightened fears in a country where many people thought they were relatively im-mune from terrorist strikes.

Judge Bruce Durno said Monday that the attack would have been the most horrific crime in Canada’s history if the plot been successful.

“What this case revealed was

spine-chilling,” Duro said. “The potential for loss of life existed on a scale never before seen in Canada.”

“Zakaria Amara did not just commit a criminal offense. He committed a terrorist offense that would have had catastroph-ic and fatal consequences,” said added. “He did not do it as a foot soldier, he did so as the leader.”

Amara had his head down, staring at the floor during his sentencing. After the judge read his sentencing he said, “I just want to reassure you that the promises I made (to rehabili-tate), I’ll do my best.”

Before he left the courtroom, he blew a kiss to his family.

The prosecution sought life imprisonment, while Amara’s defense asked for a sentence of between 18 and 20 years.Amara will be eligible to apply for pa-role after serving six-and-a-half years in prison, said Durno.

However, defense lawyer Mi-chael Lacy said the parole board is not likely to grant him parole after six-and-a-half years.

The Royal Canadian Mount-ed Police released a statement that said the case “underscores the reality that Canada is not immune to the threat of terror-ism. The extent of the prepara-tions and the enormity of the at-tacks being planned in this case are quite chilling.”

Prosecutors said Amara planned to rent U-Haul trucks, pack them with explosives and detonate them via remote con-trol toward the end of 2006.

Police found he used a pub-lic library computer to conduct searches on bomb-making and the chemicals needed for explo-sives. A search of his home also turned up a bomb-making man-ual, circuit boards, and a device that could trigger an explosion via a cell phone.

Through a police agent, Am-ara tried to buy what he believed was three tons of ammonium nitrate — three times what was used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people.

His personal computer also had recordings of al-Qaida

leader Osama bin Laden and other jihad materials.

The case was developed after the suspects were fol-lowed, wiretapped as well as infiltrated by two paid police informants.

Amara apologized in an open letter to Canadians at his sentencing hearing on Thursday, saying he deserved nothing but Canadians’ con-tempt.

Judge Bruce Durno also sentenced one of Amara’s coconspirators, Saad Gaya, 22, on Monday to 12 years in prison, minus seven-and-a-half years credit for pretrial custody. The judge called Gaya a “helper” in the plot.

Since the arrest of the 18 Toronto men, four have now pleaded guilty and one was convicted after a trial.

Charges were stayed or dropped against seven peo-ple and six men still face tri-al. One man’s trial began last week and five others face a trial in March.

As college students, we have been in school for at least 15 years. At some point during this journey to success, we encoun-tered the famous first day of school speech: ‘Students,’ the teacher would say in a voice at-tempting to be stern and straight forward, ‘if you are caught cheating that means an automat-ic F on the assignment, quiz, or test so don’t try it.

Right now an A might seem like the most important thing, but in the end you are really only cheating yourself.’

They would then smile to themselves with a sense of ac-complishment, but in reality, as those words go in one ear and out the other, only one part reso-nates no matter how genuine or earnestly they were expressed: Don’t get caught!

I have seen everything from girls writing answers on their thighs to my entire class (minus me) yelling across the room for correct answers while a teacher steps out take a call in the office down the hall.

To some this would seem like a public school system in desperate need of assistance, but to me this is what formal educa-tion has been reduced to.

The surprising part comes from the type of students I saw cheating. I went to an above av-erage high school in Chicago, where our average ACT scores

were sev-eral points above the state and national av-erages.

So it was not like my peers could not do the work; they either chose not to or

did not have the time. A new episode of a favorite television show or a last minute request to cover for a co-worker at some-one’s part time job will almost always win over studying.

But that was high school, and while cheating should not be ok then, it definitely should be abandoned as a success mechanism on a college cam-pus. Unfortunately, once again my Aggie peers fail to the get the memo.

Almost every student has heard the phrase, ‘if you’re not cheating, you’re not trying’ jok-ingly coined by business and engineering students around campus. While this phrase may seem funny at first, really, it is a sad depiction of how some students build their collegiate careers. Buying papers, getting friends to take exams on Black-board, or even allowing the tu-tors at the campus tutorial cen-ters to practically complete the

entire assignment is not a way for college students to behave.

I did not understand back then why students cheated, and that continues to be a concept I cannot grasp. Why do you want the teachers or classes that amount to easy A’s? Why do you re-choose the same topics for projects you’ve already re-searched? Why do you recycle papers? Why isn’t each new as-signment a venture to discover the unknown and an attempt to add significance to its dis-course?

Some argue that in a way, cheating, whether mildly or ag-gressively, is working smart not hard. However, in all honestly, it is crippling. You are preventing yourself from developing into a cultured individual capable and willing to contribute something meaningful to the world.

How do you expect to suc-ceed or even attempt to level the playing field of today’s global society? You won’t step outside of your bubble when it comes to learning.

It is your life and you are allowed to live it any way you see fit, however by taking ad-vantage of a free education by cheating is shameful. Paying for your education without engag-ing the principles of honestly and fairness makes your knowl-edge simply worthless.

Mad about something? Got a story to tell us? Well, write for us!

Contributor’s Meeting Every Wednesday5p.m. at GCB Room 328

theWORD5The A&T Register | ncatregister.com | Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Editor’s note:The opinions expressed on The Word are those of the writers and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the staff of The A&T Register. All house editorials are written and revised with input from the editorial board, staff, and is approved by the editor. All letters to the editor must be sent to [email protected] to be considered for submission and should be no longer than 250 words. Submissions must be recieved by the Sunday

prior to publication at 5 p.m. to be considered. The A&T Register reserves the right to edit all submission content for clarity and grammer. Submissions become the property of The A&T Register and will not be returned.

MLK Jr. receives way too much credit Ever since elementary

school, I have always found it odd that we do not attend school on Martin Luther King Day to celebrate his birthday. I under-stand he was a great man who did great things, but why must we take a day off from everyday life just to reflect on this one person?

Is he the only African Ameri-can who deserves reflection for his great contributions?

Truth be told, if we really wanted to pay respect to this man, we should be in school. That is what he fought and died for after all anyway.

But on a more important note, why is MLK the only Afri-can American man who should receive his very own holiday? Martin Luther King Jr. is such a small part of black history.

He does not represent the beginning, the middle, or the end of black people’s struggles. He is a person who fought and died for the same issues that thousands of people fought and died for. So why just celebrate him and not everyone else?

This was not written to disrespect the legend we now refer to as Martin Lu-ther King. However, I find it odd that we learn so much about

him, and so little about other African Americans who fought and died for the same struggles as he did.

We celebrate this man’s lega-cy as if he was the savior of the black race. Even during Black History Month black people re-flect on the same people every year. African American History is deeper than Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks and George Washington Carver.

Yes, King was a great ac-tivist and speaker, but so were Malcolm X and Huey P. New-ton. Where’s their holiday?

These men may have had

different views than King, yet their role was still vital in Afri-can American liberation.

If America was not willing to listen to King’s non-violent approach, then there were alter-natives.

The alternative to King may have not been so peaceful. However, just because they had different methods on how to go about change, does not make them good, bad, or evil. They were simply human beings re-acting to their environment. King was the same way; he just had a different approach.

I personally support the ac-tions of King, but the non-vio-lence approach would not have been successful if there were not African American men and women who felt that things had gone far beyond words. The fear Gabriel Prosser and Nat Turner put into White America was just as important as the words of Martin. So again the question comes to mind, why is he seen as an angel, and everyone else seen as militant?

Fred Hampton, Patrice Lu-

mumba, Earl Little, Marcus Garvey, and Angela Davis were all either murdered, or sent to prison due to their approach in the fight for equality. We treat their legacy as if it has been tainted due to the fact that they were not non-violent or “well behaved”.

We act as if these men and women do not deserve the same level of respect and praise as King. We walk around with a mindset that if it was not for King, we would still be march-ing and yelling “We Shall Over-come.” What makes his personal struggle better than the struggles of anyone else?

There are thousands of people who died in the name of equal-ity during the course of Ameri-can history, and their names and birthdays will forever remain unknown. For some reason, we attach King’s name to every ra-cial advancement we make.

When African Americans were granted equality back in 1965, we worshiped King. We never stopped and asked about the issues Blacks continued to

face decades following that. When black people send

their first child to college, we thank King for fighting for us to have that right.

We never stop to reflect that it was Charles Hamilton Hous-ton and Thurgood Marshall who stood in the courtroom and fought those battles.

When Black History Month comes around, it’s King who seems to get pushed to the front of the discussions. Yet we rarely reflect on Carter G. Woodson, the actual founder of Black His-tory Month.

We give King credit for marching on the streets during a time of turmoil. However, in my 19 years of living, I have never seen nor heard about King marching by himself. It was a time of national and global struggle, yet he still seems to be the only person who is glori-fied.

Even when Barack Obama was elected, we felt that if it were not for the dreams of King, Black people would have never been given the right to vote, nor

have a Black president. We never stop and think

about people like Sidney Poiti-er, who also had a vision back in 1967 of a mixed child one day becoming president of the United States.

I believe King was a great man who did great things. But many African Americans do great things and die for great causes every day.

King was not the only man assassinated in the name of civil rights. He was not the only man who marched on Washington. He was not the only person who chose to stay up and work, op-posed to going to bed on many nights.

Yes he was a fighter, but he was not the only man who helped change Black America. Martin Luther King Jr. is not the core of Black History. Yet we pretend as if he was the begin-ning and end of our strong race.

He deserves respect for liv-ing the life he did. But, he was not the only one in the fight, and we should stop treating him like he was.

TRUMAINE MCCASKILL

Cheating: Working smart or hardly working?

‘Christian’ televangelist blames quake on Haitians’ successful slave rebellion

Televangelist Pat Robert-son says the earthquake that hit Haiti was part of a curse by God because Haitians made a pact with the devil 200 years ago to escape French domination.

Such rubbish hardly rep-resents the spirit of Christian charity that Robertson claims to believe in. In fact, as devastating to Haiti as the earthquake was, it could end up being a blessing of sorts, if the attention it is receiv-ing can help put it on a path out of poverty.

But that’s for later. Now, the concern is finding and caring for the millions left homeless, hurt, and without food or water, after the earthquake Wednesday that registered 7.0 on the Rich-ter scale, with its epicenter near Port-au-Prince. Tens of thou-sands may be dead.

The carnage was terrifying. Teenage girls in orange uni-forms, their faces smashed, be-ing pulled from the rubble of a school. The National Palace collapsed. Mothers pleading for help for injured babies. Human

limbs protruding from demol-ished buildings. Corpses lying in the streets.

It was heartening to see the rest of the world spring into ac-tion, sending rescue workers and relief supplies a reminder of similar humanitarian ef-forts after a deadly tsunami hit Thailand in 2004. China, on the other end of massive aid efforts after a 7.9 earthquake hit it in 2008, was quick to send a team to Haiti.

President Obama appropri-ately promised $100 million in aid, and was ready to name for-mer Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush co-leaders of U.S. humanitarian relief efforts. Obama should take the further step of suspending efforts to deport Haitians who are in this country illegally.

The $1 billion they send home each year is desperately needed now.

Our countries have had a special relationship, not always good, ever since the former French colony’s slaves success-fully revolted in 1803.

From 1915 to 1934, U.S. Marines occupied Haiti to pro-

tect our business interests. In the ‘60s, we winked at the repres-sive government of President Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier; in 1986 we helped arrange the exile of “Baby Doc,” the son who succeeded him.

In 1994, a multinational force led by U.S. soldiers reinstalled former parish priest Jean-Ber-trand Aristide as president. But by 2004, Aristide was accused of rampant corruption, and U.S. Marines arrived to maintain or-der as he was forced into exile.

With the presidential palace in ruins, current President Rene Preval was among the homeless after Wednesday’s earthquake. His immediate task is to restore some semblance of government that can provide for his people. But he also must build on the goodwill being offered to Haiti.

There’s an old saying: Out of adversity comes opportunity. Here’s an opportunity for Haiti. Most of the earthquake dam-age is in or near Port-au-Prince. While it is being repaired, Haiti needs help agriculturally in ru-ral areas and with other infra-structure in the nation to make it viable.

PhILAdELPhIA INqUIRERMCT Campus

LARIA LANd

Disasters keep coming toward Haiti

It’s been less than a year and a half since Haiti was ravaged by four devastating storms _ Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike, back to back to back to back. The images beamed from the scene were searing. Bodies piled on trucks to be carried to the morgue. Emaci-ated children and anguished adults, crowded into bare con-crete shelters. Rubble, rubble everywhere.

Those images are back. They’re worse.

Schools filled with chil-dren, hospitals filled with pa-tients, halls of government and houses of worship, all leveled by the earthquake that rocked the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince on Tuesday. Bodies stacked along the roadsides. People crying for food, for medical care, for help finding their loved ones.

We won’t know for weeks,

if ever, how many people were killed, how much damage was done to what was left of the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. For most of us, the scale of the disaster is in-comprehensible anyway.

Haiti is home to 9 million people, roughly the same as Chicago’s metro area. Offi-cials fear 50,000 people, may-be more, were killed by the quake.

Haiti’s vulnerability feeds on itself. Too poor to buy oil, Haitians have deforested the mountain slopes to make char-coal for their energy needs _ destroying a natural defense against heavy tropical rains. The cycle of disaster grows ever shorter, so that Haitians have little time to rebuild and recover before their crops and homes are washed out again. And now, a monster earth-quake.

We can almost understand how a 5-year-old or the Rev. Pat Robertson might conclude

that some higher power is out to get Haiti. But the rest of us know better. We’ve seen the pictures, and we want to help. It can be as simple and spontaneous as sending a text message _ the Red Cross has collected more than $4 million already via text.

You can write a check, or-ganize a benefit, quit your job and volunteer for a boots-on-the-ground relief effort, or any-thing in between.

For suggestions, start here: http://tr.im/KqEp

Haiti is a place of unrelent-ing misery and astonishing re-silience. Despite generations of oppression by foreign gov-ernments and corrupt indige-nous regimes, Haitians walked miles and stood in line for days to vote in the last national elec-tion. Time and again, they’ve rebuilt their homes and institu-tions in the wake of unimagi-nable destruction.

With help, they’ll do it again.

MCCLATChy-TRIbUNE NEWS SERvICEMCT Campus

theSCORE6 The A&T Register | ncatregister.com | Wednesday, January 20, 2010

AGGIESRUNDOWNMEN’S BASkEtBAll

Morgan State 4-0 12-7Bethune-Cookman 4-1 10-7Howard 4-1 5-13Delaware State 3-1 8-7South Carolina State 2-2 8-6Maryland-Eastern Shore 2-2 4-13North Carolina A&t 2-3 6-11Norfolk State 2-3 3-13Hampton 1-4 3-13Florida A&M 1-4 3-14Coppin State 0-4 6-10

NEXt WEEk’S GAME:Saturdayvs. South Carolina StateOrangeburg, S.C. 4 p.m.

Mondayvs. Winstom-Salem StateWinston-Salem, N.C.7:30 p.m.

tEAM MEAC OVR.

WOMEN’S BASkEtBAll

North Carolina A&t 5-0 10-7Morgan State 3-1 7-9Maryland Eastern Shore 3-1 5-8Florida A&M 3-2 10-5Bethune-Cookman 3-2 7-9Howard 3-2 7-9Coppin State 2-2 6-9Hampton 2-3 6-10South Carolina State 1-3 6-10Delaware State 0-4 2-15Norfolk State 0-5 2-11

NEXt WEEk’S GAMES:Saturdayvs. South Carolina StateOrangeburg, S.C. 2 p.m.

Mondayvs. Winstom-Salem StateWinston-Salem, N.C.5:30 p.m.

tEAM MEAC OVR.

BOWlING

Delaware State 46-10Maryland Eastern Shore 56-18Florida A&M 29-12Norfolk Sate 37-24Bethune-Cookman 18-21South Carolina State 15-13 Morgan State 26-30Hampton 34-42North Carolina A&T 12-26Howard 12-43Coppin State 1-29

NEXt WEEk’S MEEtS:Sat 23.-Sun. 24Bowie, MD

tEAM OVR.

AROUNDSPORtSHAItI lOSES AtHlEtESSANTO DOMINGO, Do-minican Republic (AP) — At least 30 members of Haiti’s soccer federation, including an undetermined number of players, died in the country’s earthquake, regional soccer authorities said Tuesday.In addition, the president of the Dominican Olympic com-mittee said he was told by his Haitian counterpart that at least seven Haitian athletes from Olympic sports died.The soccer dead included referees, coaches, administra-tors and medical officials, the Caribbean Football Union said. Haiti’s federation’s head-quarters collapsed during last week’s quake.

______

SERENA’S NOt WORRIEDMELBOURNE, Australia (AP)— A record fine and threat of suspension aren’t going to stop Serena Williams from being anything other than, well, Serena Williams. “That hasn’t crossed my mind at all. ... If I yell too much, it would be a problem,” she said. “I feel like I can always be myself. ... I’ll say, ‘C’mon.’ I’ll get frustrated. I’ll still be human. I’ll still make mistakes. I’ll still learn from them.”Williams returned to Grand Slam play Tuesday for the first time since her tirade against the line judge who called her for a foot fault during her U.S. Open semifinal loss to Kim Clijsters in September.And while the 11-time major winner did seem less effusive than usual on court, Williams didn’t pull any punches after her 6-2, 6-1 win over 18-year-old Urszula Radwanska about what she thought of the punishment.

______

The Associated Press

McNair continues to ‘flag’ successIt’s not even a scholarship

sport on the campus of North Carolina A&T.

But based on the perfor-mance Robert McNair’s flag football squad, it may lead one to thinking otherwise.

The director of intramural sports has been the only coach in any men’s sport on campus to win a championship in the past three years – with the most recent being crowned Champi-ons in New Orleans, Louisiana, as the first HBCU squad to win a National Campus Champion-ship Series title.

After coming into the season off of back-to-back state cham-pionships and losing in the na-tional championship game a year ago by two points, there was only one goal on the minds of the players and McNair.

“Our goal has always been to ultimately win the National Championship,” McNair said in a phone interview Tuesday evening.

And this year’s national title is only portion of what A&T’s Finest has accomplished in re-cent years.

Their resume include – three consecutive North Caro-lina state championships from 2007-09 while earning NCCS national runner-up honors last season and a Regional Cham-pionship.

The product of their success isn’t just dressing into their uni-forms on gameday.

McNair has his squad reach-ing out way further than the football field.

“These players have overall dedication and commitment to the program,” McNair said.

“They aren’t on scholarship. We do community service, go

to church, have social gather-ings at my house – It’s very family oriented.”

Coaching the game of flag football seems to be a craft McNair has perfected.

“You got to teach them how to play in space,” Mc-Nair said.

The game is executed by players wearing belts support-ed with flags.

The same fundamentals of American football are applied in the game and the rules and regulations are very similar.

The main difference be-tween the games is that the players must grab their oppo-nents flags in an effort to keep them out of their end zone rather than the normal tackling done in American football.

“I incorporate principles and adopt them to ‘no con-tact’,” said McNair, “Along with the basic fundamentals of American football.

His strategy is working.A&T’s Finest put together

a 25-4 season, although the path to a national champion-ship wasn’t the smoothest ride in the world. They lost to the University of Central Florida 28-7 in the first pool play game to determine seeding.

This was a reality check for McNair and his players and may have been what sparked their five game winning streak and ultimately their champion-ship title.

“I had the guys do a little bit of soul searching, looking in the mirror, as well as myself,” McNair said.

“ It starts with me and I’m a reflection of the players. After that everything just snowballed into success.”

They went on to beat South-ern Miss. 24-7 that same day in their second pool play game.

The following day, in the

first round of the championship tournament, A&T’s Finest de-feated Augustana and later that day they beat USF.

The final day of the tourna-ment they beat UNLV in order to play in the championship game where they defeated the University of North Carolina Charlotte.

“The title was like the ‘ic-ing on the cake,’ said defensive back and senior Lay Johnston.

“We did it together, with coach leading us and guiding us through the whole way.

“All the hard-work we went through from spring camp to training camp, it really paid off.”

“I’m very happy to bring this national championship back to A&T and also to my coach be-cause that was my goal to get him a national championship.”

And the training to get to this level for McNair isn’t some-thing that he doesn’t enjoy.

“I’m real passionate about it,” the A&T alumni said in reference to coaching his team. “I’m in position to teach these guys about the game and show them what they can do.

“I love being a positive in-fluence on them.”

“The love that I have for number one the students, and the students who play for me – that’s my motivation.”

“And I love the game of football.”

“The only thing I ask from them is give me your all out ef-fort and hard-work and I’ll do the same and we’ll see what happens.”

With one national title under his belt, McNair hopes to keep his players level-headed.

“My expectations will stay the same,” said McNair, “I will not change my standards for no one.”

“I don’t want guys to look to far ahead of themselves.”

A replay of the national championship game will be televised on CBS College Sports Thursday at 5pm.

PriNce Askew ANd dANiel heNdersoNRegister Reporters

On Monday night in Cor-betts Sports Center, the A&T Women’s Basketball Team went head-to-head with the Pi-rates of Hampton University in a much tougher battle than last year’s conference finals.

A&T beat the Pirates 82-81. MEAC Player of the Week Jaleeesa Sams led the Aggies with 17 points and eight re-bounds and Amber Calvin add-ed 16 points.

Tyronnica Alford scored a career high 16 points. Quan-neisha Perry led the Pirates with 31 points and 14 rebounds.

The Aggies got off to a quick start, opening the half on a 21-6 run to lead the Pirates by 15. With 7:25 left in the half, the Pirates pulled within eight.

The Pirates would not get any closer in the half and the Aggies would lead at the half 45-32.

The second half was much different. A&T held on to their 13 point lead for as long as they could.

At the 11:40 mark the Pi-rates where down 60-50, over

the next five minutes they out-scored the Aggies 21-to-14 to pull within 3. The Aggies led 74-71 with 5:19 left in the game.

With five minutes left in the game, Jericka Jenkins hit a three for the Pirates that tied the game for the first time at 74.

The Aggies took a two point lead, but with just over a min-ute to play Perry bought tied the game for the Pirates at 81. Two turnovers forced by the Aggies and a free throw by Ja-leesa Sams allowed the Aggies to hold on and beat the Pirates 82-81.

“Even when they got close, my young ladies kept their composure,’’ said Bibbs, “It says something about our char-acter because we were able to keep our cool.”

Prior to beating the Pi-rates, the Aggies beat Howard University Bison in Corbetts Sports Center.

Ta’Wuana Cook led the Ag-gies with 29 points. Jaleesa Sams recorded a double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds. Lamona Smalley added 15 points on 7-for-7 shooting.

Saadia Doyle led Howard with 29 points and 14 rebounds

and Zykia Brown added 15 points.

The Aggies got to a fast and aggressive start, led by Cook they went on a 17-0 run to lead the Bison 29-10 with 10:00 minutes remaining in the half. Over the next 10 minutes the Aggies held on to their lead and would go into the half with a 42-28 lead.

The Bison opened the sec-ond half on an 8-2 run to come within eight points at the 17:18 mark.

They would pull within four points over the next three minutes. With just over 9 min-utes to play the Aggies went on a 12-4 run to lead the Bi-son 60-51, and with five min-utes to play the Aggies pushed their lead back to 13 on back to back scoring possessions by Ta’Wauna Cook.

“I just wanted to use my speed to get to the basket and finish,’’ said Cook.

“A lot of people look for me to shoot the three. So I have to use other aspects of my game to score.”

Over the last five minutes of the game the Aggies held on to their lead to defeat the Bison 79-69.

Photo by keNNeTh hAwkiNs • the a&t register

roberT McNAir proudly observes his 2009 National Flag Football Championship plaque. he has led a&t’s Finest to three consecutive state titles.

Lady aggies sail past Pirates, remain unbeaten in conference play

aggies suffer winless weekend at home

Home-court advantage has done little to help the Aggie men’s basketball team as of recently.

On Monday night, divi-sion foe Hampton (5-13, 1-4 MEAC) defeated the Aggies 65-55.

The Pirates jumped on A&T early in the game, and although the Aggies fought back they never saw the lead. The Aggies came out flat from the field in the first half and Hampton rarely missed.

They finished the half shoot-ing 50 percent from the field and 42 percent from 3-point range, compared to the Ag-gies dismal 37 percent for the game. A&T head coach Jerry Eaves seemed to recognize the root of the problem. “It was the offense that struggled – we’re missing layups, we’re missing put-backs,” Eaves said.

This was not all of the ele-ments that explained the Ag-gies’ struggles Monday night.

They connected on 52 per-cent of their free throw line compared to the Pirates’ nearly perfect 82 percent effort from the charity stripe.

“Every team goes through dog days,” said Eaves. “You got to work yourself out of it.”

Senior guard Dwane Joshua led the Aggies with 18 points, seven rebounds and three as-sists.

The Aggies weekend loss-es were capped off Saturday after the disappointing 82-77 loss to a struggling Howard University at Corbett Sports Arena.

The Bisons were fueled be-hind 33 points by their sopho-more guard Calvin Thomp-son.

The Aggies came out slow in this game as well trailing by 12 at intermission and by the time their energy turned up in the second half, it was too late. The Aggies shot just 28 percent from 3-point range and missed ten free throws in the game. Senior guard Tavarus Alston led the way for A&T with 19 points and five assists.

The Aggies will face South Carolina State in Orangeburg, S.C. Saturday.

Despite their recent strug-gles, Eaves remains optimistic about his squad.

“Our shots will eventually go in,” Eaves said.

PriNce AskewRegister Reporter

lAureN MorgANRegister Reporter


TyroNNicA Alford stepped up for the Lady aggies at the right moment, scoring a career high 16 points against the Lady Pirates.


TAvArus AlsToN has been leading the way for the aggies through this difficult stretch.

Ambiance, flare, urban décor, a view of the city, and one of the cities most exclusive addresses are things that make “Avenue,” Greensboro’s newest restaurant an attraction to the restaurant connoisseur in all of us. What will turn that connoisseur away, however, is the deplorable service you will receive in this “contemporary American and French” restaurant.

I’ve dined at some of the finest restaurants in the city, and in places just as classy around the country. Out of all of these experiences, there have been some that stand out more than others, both good and bad. But never have I experienced such appalling behavior from an “upscale” enterprise.

It all started with a phone call. Earlier in the week, I had a staff member place a reservation for a party of six at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, and I also asked them to inform the restaurant that I would be coming in to do a food review, which is something I typically don’t do, but wanted to give “Avenue” a heads up so they would be prepared.

The reservation was handled efficiently, and I’m glad I chose to place one. Almost as soon as my party was seated, the restaurant was packed with people. Despite its smaller size, there seemed to be adequate

wait staff to handle the load of patrons. Imagine my surprise when we sat waiting for over 15 minutes to be brought water by someone who wasn’t even our waiter.

When the waiter did arrive, I informed him that one of my guests’ place settings was incomplete, as she did not have any silverware. I was given a response of “I know,” and a dinner fork was provided some five minutes later. “Where was her salad fork?” I thought to myself.

After this, I took note of the difference in service each table received. My table, along with about 6 others, shared the same waiter. There were roughly 15 to 20 tables in the facility, and he seemed stretched thin. This may explain why the remainder of my 2-hour experience only got worse. If there is a crash course in how to properly wait at a high in restaurant I strongly recommend everyone in this restaurant take it. I got to the point of having to seek out a different waiter just to get service, and I had to rewrite the bills by hand twice.

All remarks about bad service aside however, the food was absolutely exquisite. My guests and I each ordered a variety of dishes from roasted duck breast, to lobster pasta dishes, to steak and rack of lamb. All of the cuts were tender and juicy, seasoned appropriately, and full of flavor.

The portions were not large, but that is to be expected in a restaurant of that environment. If you are looking to have a nice drink with your meal they also have a very large wine selection and a bar that can make a variety of drinks.

The desserts, while also small, do pack a large amount of decadent taste and style. We were given a chocolate dish, which was lightly saturated in vodka and then lit on fire to burn off the alcohol and preserve its flavor. This was done by hand with a blowtorch, which gave the service a few desperately needed positive points.

Overall the experience was a lacking something to be desired, but was enjoyable once the food arrived. At a moderate

price point of $22-$45 for a meal, this would be a nice place for a private evening with your special someone. I would recommend, however, that you call and order ahead.

The A&T Register’sguide to what’s going on this week in arts and entertainment.

LEGION, the supernatural ac-tion thriller directed by Pat-rick Schink, opens on Friday. God, believing the human race is no longer worthy of Him, decides to end their existence. The archangel, played by Paul Bettany, has some battling hu-mans, such as Dennis Quaid, Charles S. Dutton, and Lucas Black to lend him a hand. - C.K.

BLOck party, the long awaited 7th studio album from Missy Elliot, is in stores now. After a few false alarms, Elliott finally drops the album that was intended to be re-leased December 2007 with additional songs that were recently recorded for the proj-ect. The collaborations on the album will include Jasmine Sullivan, Teyana Taylor, Tweet, and Lil Wayne.

- C.K.

HOpE FOr HaItI , a global concert and telethon to raise money for victims of Haiti’s devastating earthquake, will be co-hosted by George Cloo-ney and Haitian-born Fugees star Wyclef Jean and air on several stations, such as MTV and ABC. It will include per-formances by Sting, Alicia Keys and Christina Aguilera.

- L.L.

rOLaNd MartIN will be the keynote speaker for the university’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Celebration. The event will be held Thursday, January 21 at 7 p.m. in Harrison Audito-rium. For ticket information, contact the University Ticket Office at 336-334-7449. - L.L.

hotli

stJan. 20th-27th

ON scrEEN

ON t.v.

ON sHELvEs

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Globes of gold highlight the best of acting

The Golden Globes awards show was hilarious fun, full of not-ready-for-prime time silliness and open-bar-primed celebrities.

At least it used to be, back before the Oscars-industrial complex turned it into the official warm-up event of Hollywood’s big night.

Now that it’s treated as a Serious Event, the thrill, not to mention the fun, is gone.

So Sunday night’s 67th Annual Golden Globes was an almost entirely fun-free event.

There were no rambling speeches given by obviously inebriated stars, no winners caught heading to the bathroom when their names were called, as in the glory days of shows gone by.

And the closest we got to the latter was James Cameron, complaining during his speech that he needed to go to the bathroom.

The big hope for fun was the selection of Ricky Gervais as host. The man has built his brand on being a say-anything lampooner of Hollywood, show business, famous people and people in general.

He’s a man with nothing to lose; surely, he was going to make with the fun and mayhem.

Alas, no. He opened the show with a funny enough monologue, taking a shot at host network NBC (following up on his blistering appearance on Conan O’Brien’s “Tonight Show” last Thursday).

Then he made a couple of body-part jokes, poked fun at actors and closed with another shot at NBC.

But after that, he was

little seen, just doing an occasional bit in which he mustered half-hearted snarkiness.

His one breakthrough moment came when he appeared with a glass of beer and went into a routine about drinking.

What seemed like just some fun about the open-bar party atmosphere turned suddenly sharp and spot-on when he concluded: “I like a drink as much as the next guy, unless the next guy is Mel Gibson.”

Zing. With that, he introduced Gibson to present the best director award.

Long and winding acceptance speeches used to be an essential part of the evening’s entertainment.

Woe unto the lesser luminary who dared offer more than a few words Sunday night.

When the music started to swell as “Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner was just beginning, it was a heavy-handed offense.

Especially when Drew Barrymore got to burble and gasp and flutter on and on.

Best speech honors go to Robert Downey Jr., who started by declaring: “If you play violins, I will tear this joint apart,” and went on to say he wasn’t going to thank anyone _ “They needed me.”

Of course, he then went onto to graciously not thank all the important people in his life.

Classiest speech honors are a tie. Jeff Bridges was genuine and touching in his unscripted reflections.

And Michael C. Hall, wearing a black knit cap, a reminder to viewers of his recent bout with cancer, said not a word about it in his acceptance speech, a nice touch of class and restraint at an awards show.

Gervais ended the show with the joke of turning a wish for peace on Earth into a shameless pitch for his new TV show.

But it was too little, too

late. In the end, the best thing about this year Golden Globes’ telecast was that it ended on time.

Photo by Gary Friedman •Los AngeLes Times/mCT

‘precious’ moment mo’nique backstage at the 67th Annual golden globe Awards show at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, sunday, January 17, 2010.

tom maurstadThe Dallas Morning News

rEstauraNt rEvIEw: avENuE

Poor service overshadows great food and ambient atmosphere

cGrade

scENE HEard&

wyclef defends Haitian charity

n e W yo r K (a p) — Hai-tian-born musician Wyclef Jean defended his charity on Monday in the wake of questions about its practices.

He also called on the international communi-ty to enable the evacu-ation of his homeland’s e a r t h q u a k e - r a v a g e d capital.

“Port-au-Prince is a morgue,” Jean said at a Manhattan press con-ference, recounting how he collected the corpses of small children and adults from the fester-ing streets on his re-cent trip.

Tears streamed down his face as he looked into the camera, speak-ing to his countrymen.

Residents should be evacuated to tent cities outside Port-au-Prince to allow for aid to reach them and so cleanup can begin in earnest, Jean said, asking for help from around the world in building encamp-ments.

“We need to migrate at least 2 mill ion peo-ple,” Jean said, promis-ing to draw on his status as one of Haiti ’s favor-ite sons to aid in such an effort. “I give you my word, if I tell them to go, they will go. But they need somewhere to go to,” Jean said.

The musician made the plea for an evacu-ation at the behest of Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive and President Rene Preval, said Hugh Locke, the president of The Wyclef Jean Foundation Inc.

The organization, also known as the Yele Haiti Foundation, has drawn fire in recent days as groups that vet charities raised doubts about its accounting practices and ability to function in a nation dev-astated by last week’s earthquake.

Jean gave an impas-sioned defense of the organization, which has received more than $2 mill ion in donations in just a few days.

An Associated Press review of tax returns and independent audits provided by Jean’s foun-dation showed that it was closely intertwined with Jean’s businesses.

thescene7The A&T Register | ncatregister.com | Wednesday, January 20, 2010

dexter mullins Editor in Chief

20QuEstIONs

Photo by dexter mullins •THe A&T RegisTeR

FlaminG dessert one of the dessert choices at Avenue is a chocolate dish that was lit on fire by the waiter. The food serves as a highlight of the restaurant in contrast to the poor service.

-

1. Did you know Haiti was the only Black country that fought a White military and won, ever in history? 2. Did you know the White military was France, lead by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1804? 3. Did you know the slaves of Haiti threw off their oppressors? 4. Did you know because of that, Haiti is now the poorest country in the western world? 5. Did you know it is estimated right now that some 100,000 people have died? 6. Did you know that is like everyone in High Point, NC dropping dead right now? 7. Did you know approximately 70,000 bodies have been buried in mass graves? 8. How would you feel not being able to go to your grandmother’s grave site? 9. Did you know before the earthquake, Cite Soleil (Haiti’s largest slum) residents were eating dirt cookies because they didn’t have food? 10. Did you know someone set up business selling dirt for poor people in Haiti to eat? 11. Do you think Pat Robertson knows that Haiti is 96 percent Christian? 12. Did you know that it is estimated this earthquake will orphan almost 1 million children? 13. Did you know the Haitian Presidential Palace was destroyed? 14. How would you feel tomorrow morning if the White House wasn’t there when you woke up? 15. Did you know that 54 percent of Haiti’s population lives making less than one dollar a day? 16. Did you text HAITI to 90999 (American Red Cross) to donate $10? 17. Did you text UNICEF to 20222 to donate $10 to UNICEF? 18. Did you text YELE to 501501 to donate $5 to Yele Haiti (Wyclef’s organization)? 19. Do you have five dollars left over from your refund check? 20. Did you know 20 Questions had a serious side?

mo’nique, who is known for her comedic roots, walked away from

the 67th annual golden globes with “Best supporting Actress in a movie” honors for her haunting portrayal as an abusive mother in

the breakout hit “Precious”.

THE A&TREGISTER

NCATREGISTER.COMWEDNESDAYJANUARY 20, 2010

THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF NORTH CAROLINA A&TSERVING THE AGGIE COMMUNITY FOR OVER 80 YEARS

FREE VOLUME LXXXIII, NO. 16

SPECIAL DOUBLE ISSUE: HAITI COVERAGE ON PAGE 1

HIS DREAM IS NOW OURS

Aggies carry on the legacy of service and equality Dr. King left behind through service to the Greensboro community at the Children’s Museum

Hundreds of Aggies offered community service at local events and occasions this weekend, most particularly in Greensboro Children’s museum, volunteering a helping hand with the community’s youth.

While many students celebrated the holi-day this weekend in various idle ways, oth-ers across the campus used their time in a productive manner to benefi t the community and gain community service hours.

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the event was an incorporation of various organizations and Greek life from North Carolina A&T. Students provided a big help with a large number of children visiting the museum on their day out of school on the federal holiday.

The MLK committee put the event to-gether, as well those who volunteered to work with children as part of a requirement of community service for college students.

Teachers and parents from all over the city took their children out to the museum, for an interactive hands-on experience day of exciting learning and fun. The museum was packed with more Aggies than children, with an estimation of over two hundred vol-unteers alone.

Though the college students heavily out-numbered the children, students of A&T took it upon their own behalf to participate in the hands-on activities set up for children.

As one student from A&T put it, “we’re having more fun than the children.” Aggies participated in activities including fi nger-painting, coloring and infl ating countless balloons to children that covered the ceil-ing.

In an all day event, students came and went as others took their rightful positions in a particular cluster working with the chil-dren.

Freshman Portia Combo participated in the event, who in the end said she was sur-prised that she had an interesting time work-ing with Greensboro’s children.

“The event was better than I thought it was going to be, I thought it was going to be boring!” said Combo. “Working with chil-dren was a fun and funny experience.”

Not only did students participate in the event, Chancellor Harold S. Martin senior was in attendance as well.

Martin gave a brief but insightful speech at noon, touching on the importance of MLK day as a reminder of the underlining mean-ing of the day.

Freshman Taylor Williams said there was a lot of fun and excitement working with children. “I had a lot of fun,” said Williams. “It was fun and exciting and the little kids are very funny.”

Fashion merchandising and visual media major Alexius Dorsey said, “The children came out to be taught and play in the mu-seum, but they also came out to learn a little more about Martin Luther King Jr. and what he did for African Americans.”

Instead of taking the holiday off, many students on campus took the time out of their schedule to offer a helping hand for children throughout the community.

Although the event was over packed with Aggies, the afternoon event reached its goal in helping the youth and providing a positive impact on the community.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

THE EVENT: KEYNOTE SPEECH FOR MARTIN LUTHER KING CELEBRATION THURSDAY AT 7 P.M.

THE SPEAKER: AWARD WINNING JOURNALIST ROLAND S. MARTIN

WHERE YOU’VE SEEN HIM: CNN, MSNBC, FOX, COURT TV, BET, BBC, THE WORD NETWORK, NPR & NEWSPAPERS

AROUND THE COUNTRY

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO: PICK UP YOUR FREE TICKET IN THE TICKET OFFICE TODAY

DEREK LINEBERGERRegister Reporter

PHOTO BY KENNETH HAWKINS • THE A&T REGISTER

IN CELEBRATION of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, hundreds of A&T students volunteered around Greensboro for community service projects. Chancellor Martin led the student body as he volunteered at several locations.

theSCENETHE GOLDEN GLOBESWinning ‘Best Supporting Actress,’ Mo’Nique kicks off a night of star-studded appearances and award presentations.

PAGE 7

theSCORETHE PIRATES RAVAGE CORBETTBeing at home couldn’t help the Aggies beat off conference rival Hampton University on Monday, with the game ending in a loss.

PAGE 6

High: 59°Low: 39°

THURSDAY: Rain | High 39°

FRIDAY: Mostly Sunny | High 52°

WEDNESDAY

WEATHERtheWORDKING GETS TOO MUCH CREDITTrumaine McCaskill writes about why he feels Dr. King gets too much credit for the actions in the civil rights movement.

PAGE 5

theYARDSEATTLE PAYS IT FORWARD

A class in a Seattle’s Puget Sound Community School’s online course preforms random acts of kindness for class.

PAGE 3

ONLINEHAITI: A STORY OF STRUGGLESee more of the devastation in Haiti in our exclusive sound slide project online this week.

www.ncatregister.com

Issue 16, January 20, 2010

Documents

Transcript of Issue 16, January 20, 2010