Editor in Chief:Shani Blankrot

January 19th 2011Page 1

CO-OP CORNERThings to Remember:• � e Co-op website o� ers

many tips and is very infor-mation. � e website is

engandcompscicoop.dal.ca• Round 1 is from January 6 to

February 14.Word of the Week

Write. Get Paid.Send articles to sextant@dal.ca

I fi rst came to Canada during the summer of 2006. Although

I have been here for almost fi ve years, most people still answer “ Oh, like the Borat movie?” when I tell them I am from Kazakhstan. Either that, or they assume that I am Chinese. Then they hear me speak in Russian and they get confused. In reality, most people know very little about Kazakhstan. Here are a few cool facts about my country:• Kazakhstan, located in cen-

tral Asia, borders Russia (which is the longest admin-istrative border in the world), China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbeki-stan and Turkmenistan

• Kazakhstan has the 9th larg-est territory in the world

• There are about 131 nation-alities in Kazakhstan, 63% of which are Kazakhs

• Baikonur Cosmodrome (the world's fi rst and largest op-erational space launch facil-ity) is located in Kazakhstan.

• According to some esti-mates, Kazakhstan has the second largest uranium, chromium, lead, and zinc reserves, the third largest manganese reserves, the fi fth largest copper reserves, and ranks in the top ten for coal, iron, and gold

Fatima Gabitova(Industrial '11)

Views on Canada from a Kazakh's perspective

Looking for something to do? Not spending enough time mingling with other faculties/disciplines? � en check out some of these events. � ursday, January 20thDal Action Society NightSaturday, January 22ndTwo Hours Tra� cT room at 8 PMTickets are 10$� ursday January 27thEnvironmental Programs Stu-dents Society

Does your society have an event on Sexton Campus? Send an email to sextant@dal.ca and we’ll post it here!Event postings for our � rst issue in January are due on January 1st at 5pm. Don't forget that any society on with activities on Sexton Campus is free to advertise with us.

Sexton Campus Events

Halifax's Best Trivia!

PTFO (v): Acronym standing for Passed the **** out. See Word of the Week used in a sentence in this week's Gossip Geek column. Editors’ note: Word of the Week is a humour column based on popular expressions around Sexton Campus. If you have any complaints or suggestions, please email sextant@dal.ca. Obviously we prefer suggestions!

• Kazakhstan also currently has the 11th largest proven reserves of both oil and natu-ral gas

• Kazakhstan was formerly part of the Soviet Union

• Kazakhstan's two offi cial languages are Kazakh and Russian

I came to Canada in the summer of 2006, through a governmental scholarship called 'Bolashak'. A lot of students applied in 2005, and about 3000 students got accepted that year, and started studying throughout the world. I was sent to Hamilton, Ontario to take English courses with other students from Kazakhstan. After a few months I wrote my test, and got accepted into various schools across Cana-da. I chose Dalhousie, since it had high standards for international students, and I liked the location. I am the only Kazakh student from Kazakhstan at Dalhousie, and as far as I know, the only one in Hali-fax.I learned a lot of things since I

fi rst arrived to Canada, and the fol-lowing are the major differences that I noticed over the last fi ve years:First of all, I fi nd Canadians very

friendly, and very open. I feel that my classmates want to help me, as well as my professors. Every time I don’t understand a word, they are willing to spend a minute, and explain it to me. My classmates always help me when I need them to look through my grammar if

we have a project. However, I re-member one day I asked one of my professors to talk slowly in class since I could not follow him. He responded negatively, saying that I just had to get used to it. Even though I didn’t like his response at the time, I understand him now. He challenged me. That was his way of teaching me, in a way. As a result, I got used to him within a couple of weeks, and wasn’t as stressed out when I took his other classes.In Kazakhstan, teachers and pro-

fessors have lower salaries than in Canada. That is why they some-times want to make extra money; therefore, students can bribe them, and “buy” marks and diplomas. Of course, the government is trying to fi ght it, but you can’t really expect much if the government still hasn’t raised their salary.Another point that I have noticed

is the quality of customer service in Canada. Last week, in one of my classes, we were discussing customer satisfaction and cus-tomer service. It came to my real-ization that customer service does not exist in Kazakhstan. You can never return your purchases back to the store if you are not satisfi ed. It simply does not exist.I like the fact that some schools

have graduation rings, such as: the Iron Ring representing engineers, St. Francis Xavier's graduation ring, as well as others. There are no graduation rings in Kazakhstan.I like how Canada embraces cul-

tural differences. Every minor-ity is represented and accepted. In Kazakhstan, we don’t have gay so-cieties, or gay parades. We don’t have Black History month. Addi-tionally, we don't have access to buildings or buses for people with disabilities or handicaps.There are also many cultural dif-

ferences. We never call a person by their name, if they are fi ve years older than us. Kazakhstan is a high power distance country, where we highly respect the elder generation. We always give them seats if they are standing. Fur-thermore, the wedding tradition is very different. There are two wed-dings: the bride’s wedding (a give-away party), and the groom’s wed-ding (where his family accepts the bride) - the day of the offi cial cer-emony as well. Couples never live together until they get married.Another surprise to me was

when I realized that spring starts on March 21st. In Kazakhstan, or I should say in the former Soviet Union, we were brought up with the notion that spring starts on March 1st, summer on June 1st, fall on September 1st, and winter on December 1st.I am glad that I studied in a coun-

try so different than mine, chal-lenging me in so many ways. I have met so many wonderful peo-ple, and found so many friends. I am very excited for the coming Iron Ring Ceremony in March and I will proudly wear my iron ring in Kazakhstan!

Comments about Navin Chari's "Oil Sands Solution"Craig: "De� nitely a step in the right direction for the oilsands, but your assumption that he means ethical “encompasses poi-soning the air, water, and land in the vicinity; climate change; dying wildlife” is misleading. What the environment minister is getting at is that Canadian oil supports democracy and human rights much more than purchasing oil from any of the other 10 countries with the biggest oil reserves in the world. Just google oil reserves by country and you’ll see countries such as Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Iran, Libya, and Nigeria. � ese countries all have extremely poor

human rights records and in many cases oil money isn’t seen by citizens at all. I look forward to the day that it will clearly state on each gas pump where exactly the petroleum you put in your car originated from. If anybody has an interest in learning more about this side of the oil sands debate I would highly recommend Ezra Levant’s latest book “Ethical Oil”.Also here is a reuters article which relates to the above article and gives a shout out to Mr. Levant’s book.http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0720997020110107"Patryk: "I � nd this direction obsolete when there are numer-ous technological advancements

available. Only renewable energies with minimal impact on environ-ment are a viable solution. You don’t have to take my word for it, see these videos, research the topic.See for instance “Here comes the Sun” video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLHBFyfvK8A that discusses solar energy with existing models of implementa-tion in Germany.All world’s energy needs can be generated this way, and solar is only a tip of the iceberg. See video about our technical reality and what is already possible as of today http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2nxCp9Hwxs. � e real question is why our governments don’t endorse these solutions. It is not the resources that limits us,

rather obsolete monetary system."Saad: "I agree with Craig’s logic and would also like to add name of United States of America in the list of countires he mentioned. A� er all who is spreading chaos and war in the world for oil? and not in the world but also in their country as well.Also the companies that are producing in these countires are mostly American or British namely Exon, BP etc."Comment about Dilan Watson's article on cow � atulence:Klem: " � at’s right, go back to your steak and you can drive your SUV over to the grocery store to buy some cheap burger for the bar-b-q. Besides, concern over co2 is so 2009"

Letters to the Editor

The Sextant Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article rep-resent those of the author only and do not refl ect the opinions of the editors of The Sextant or of Dal-housie University.

We, the students of Sex-ton Campus are being

deprived of our right to evalu-ate the courses delivered to us. I completed a course with the Earth Sciences department, at the upper campus, which was a solid course delivered in a professional way.The most astonishing thing about

the course was the completion of a student survey form that every student fi lled out. It had ques-tions such as: “were your doubts

� e Sextant is published by the Dalhousie Sextant Publishing Society and aims to represent all of the students studying and living on Sexton Campus.Editor: Shani Blankrot Assistant Editor: Dilan Watson Treasurer: Riccardo CiccarelliIf you have any concerns about the paper, please email sex-tant@dal.ca and we'll arrange to meet and discuss them.Positions on our publishing board are available. Contact us.

January 19th 2011Page 2

Apparel - Belt Buckles (Bronze, Silver and Gold toned), Keychains and T-Shirts!EngiBEERing every Friday a� ernoon in the Design Commons! Wear a sweater vest for a free beer!

Student rights and advancement of knowledge

The Sextant wants students with ideas.

The Sextant wants students with talent.

The Sextant wants students with ideas.

The Sextant wants students with energy.The Sextant wants you.

Paid Editorial and Publishing Board positions are open. Time commitment varies. Inquire sextant@dal.ca

Asmatullah Muhammad (M.Eng Petroleum)

Gossip Geek here, your one and only source into the

scandalous lives of Sexton’s engi-neers. Nothing beats a weekend abroad. But when travelling far from home, it's nice to bring along your whole class. Oh Montreal! Cobblestones and Notre Dame, Super Sexe and the SAQ, Poutine and French accents: While oth-ers stayed home, sang Karaoke and played trivia, our Industrial Engineers were busy dirtying up those New Year's Resolutions in Canada’s Sin City.And while the French girls ev-erywhere you look are beautiful, why not pay to see them up close? Spotted: E partying late into the

night.

Instead of money like E, little J decided to invest time into his search for a French woman. Spot-ted: J with a curly haired blonde. Unfortunately "voulez vous

coucher avec moi ce soir" is not the correct pick up line in French little J: better luck next time.

And then there are those that just cannot handle all the city has to offer.. spotted: W PTFO’d.

Napoleon once said that secrets travel fast with the French. But Gossip Geek travels faster. Vous savez que vous m'aimez XOXO Gossip Geek.Got dirt? Email your scandal to dalgossipgeek@gmail.com

cleared in a timely way?”, “are you satisfi ed with the delivery of this course?”, “do you feel advance-ment of knowledge is enhanced by this course?”, and a few other questions. During my master's, I completed six courses at Sexton Campus and nobody ever asked the students to fi ll out the course survey forms.I checked with a few friends of

mine at Studley Campus, and they told me that these survey forms are a routine procedure at both the graduate and undergraduate level. The students at Studley Cam-pus have the right to evaluate the course delivery, while at Sexton Campus, students fear asking the professor to clarify material re-garding the course. I witnessed a

situation where an intelligent stu-dent asked the professor to clear his doubts about the material and the professor reacted negatively. Another unfair scenario is when a

student asks a professor a question, the professor responds, and the student spends a few days working on it only to fi nd out that what the professor told him was incorrect. When he confronts the profes-sor and says “Sir, you told me the wrong thing. The question is not getting solved as you explained”, the professor denies ever saying that, and instead claims “I never said that. You must have heard me wrong”. What proof does the student have in this case? Does he need to record the conversation with the professor? And how can

he hear wrong this one time, and hear right every other time?The academic needs of students

must be fulfi lled, and the comple-tion of course evaluation forms by students is a good tool that Dal-housie University has implement-ed on paper, but Sexton Campus master's students have never heard about. It is my opinion that profes-sors who try to deliver the course in an honest way will appreciate the students' feedback.I did some research with other

universities and found that a few of their surveys had questions like “did you face discrimination based on religion during the course?”. Such questions help ensure that students have equal rights, ac-cording to the Canadian Charter

of Human Rights and Freedom. We should remember there is a big stream of international students with multiple faiths at Dalhousie, and they pay double the fees and make up a large proportion of the students at the university.We, as students, have to work for

the advancement of knowledge of engineering by ourselves, so I feel that someone should provide us with a good environment. For this cause, I would be willing to donate my hard earned money. Also, I plan to offer a competi-tion in which students can solve general engineering/mathematics questions and the winner be given a certifi cate and cash prize. I hope that it will be the fi rst of many such competitions.

Photo of the week by Laura Weeden. (4th year Civil) A photo of the Ei� el Tower in Paris on a star-� lled night.  Notice the cast iron structure details.

� is past weekend, the Dalhou-sie Industrial Engineers went to Montreal to attend a national Institute of Industrial Engineers conference. By day, they attended lectures by speakers from Air Canada, Bombardier, Trellisys, Telus, Ca-nadian Tire, and more. By night, they partied like crazy (see Gossip Geek column to the le� ).� ey also competed in three competitions against universities across Canada , each team bring-ing back bronze. Listed below are the competition winners:Design Compeition for L'Oréal:Dilan Watson, Jizelle Makhoul, Sean Lucey, Walter WeissSimulation Competition: Rui Cao, Qien Zhen, Khaled Ghazlan� eoretical Competition: Shani Blankrot, Eric Noel, Hilary Hicks, Fatima Gabitova

IE's went to Montreal to compete