nee ers.*.

YOUR FORUM FOR DISCUSSION. The Gem vigorously encourages dissent. and contro- versy and prints all letters to the Editor except those of a malicious nature. Letters must. be signed and include the authors phone number. However, names can be withheld from publica- tion by request. Deadline for letters is Monday, 5:00pm.

Just My Opinion

I attended the hear- ing that the P.L.O. repre- sentative Abdullah Abdullah gave, and must admit, was very frustrated of the turn- out. Both the speaker and some questioners afterwards had immature attitudes.

I felt the speaker was very prejudiced and was us- ing the protest of those civil- ians to serve the P.L.O. rep- utation. He changed an hon- est outcry for freedom into a political weapon.

On the other hand, some questioners answered back in the diplo- matic language..- maybe be- cause some of them attended the international model U.N, conference and got contami- nated in their ‘rational’ way of thinking. Their intention might have been to get a more objective idea of the problem, but the fact is that the speaker took one side and they asked for --or took— the other.

same

The sad result was that the main issue -those civil- Hans and soldiers dying- was

missed.

I am not saying that po- litical actions have no use. This is how Canada’s consti- tution got established.

What I am saying is that

we are humans and right

now other humans are being killed.

The rioters think that they have a cause, just as the Israelis think they are right. But one cannot be right or wrong unless one takes sides.

Is my message getting across? I don’t know how to word it. The world can be separated into countries, re- ligions, races. And it goes on and on... All these facades sometimes fool us by _ hid- ing our indivisible humanity. Let’s not fall into this trap of taking sides, or even of ask- ing for both views on a topic. There should be no need if we don’t sink into these divi- sions and debates, which lead to more division.

Us, students, should know better than that-~ let’s just focus on our humanity. We all have the right to live. Can that be debated?

Mona Nasrallah

For those without

Phones... Dear Editor:

Re: the editorial policy on submissions. ;

All would-be contribu- tors must submit their names and phone numbers. Al- hough not stated in your masthead, it seems that Pseudonyms have now been

anned outright. I wonder hat would happen if, for in- stance, a contributor did not ave a phone number? It ‘ould be a shame to this uni- ersity if the student news- ‘per has been forced to take

such measures for fear of be- ing the unjust victim of pres- sure tactics.

Cynical

EDITOR REPLIES: We have a very flexible’ submis- sions policy. If the dent doesn’t have a phone

stu-

then they may use their stu- dent number, or their ad- dress. The point of requir- ing the phone number.is so that if need be The Gem can contact them and also so we can prove that someone other than Gem staff wrote _the submission.

March 17th 1988

Harassment Survey To the editor: r

Regarding the “general finding” of the Sexual Ha- rassment survey reported in a letter (in Gem, March 10), it would be rather absurd to assign any credibility to the researchers’ sweeping gener- alization that “most students at UPEI have had some ex- perience of

sexual harass-

ment” — for the following rea- sons: Bs The rationale for

random sampling is to ob- tain a representative sample — on the basis of which gen- eralizations can be made to the population from which the sample has been drawn. However, generalizations be-

come more and more haz-

ardous with the loss of ev- ery single case let alone losses greater than fifty per- cent. Yet, some psychol- and ex-models like Shere Hite, seem to have not the slightest qualms about

ogists,

basing sweeping generaliza- tions on totally inadequate returns ~— well below fifty per- cent.

2. Sex research respon- dents tend to fall into three broad groups: the genuine, the gullible, and the gossipy. The problem is that there is no foolproof mechanism for enduring the credibility of the

the questionnaire. Given the

responses given on loaded questions relating to most social interaction situa- tions, finding “evidence” for rampant

sexual harassment

was literally guaranteed. Conclusion: It should be obvious that the generaliza- tion that “most students at UPEI have had some experi- ence of sexual harassment” is In the process of objective measure-

grossly exaggerated. ment, the meaning of sex- ual harassment itself seems to have become completely adulterated. Lronically, such scientific surveys are them- selves reflections of the same kind of objectification that seems to lie at the root of all forms of harassment ~ of men

and women.

Psychologists would be well advised to adopt more humane approaches which do : such objecti-

not reinforce

fication of human _ beings. the public may

that no sound evidence that our

Island

meanwhile,

rest assured there is

small and beautifil University is the hotbed of sexual harassment of Miami Vice!

Mujeeb Rahman

Players not allowed?

Dear editor;

For a lounge and a stu- dent union who is concerned with the improvement of stu- dent participation, I feel the recent decision of a board not to allow two members of the AUAA hockey champs into the Panther Lounge for even one evening was an ex-

tremely bad move. This

that concerns two aspects of

was a poor move university life. First, with a winning team, school spirit gets an automatic boost. There seems to be a togeth- the

students,

erness between team, the fans, profes- and of the

surrounding community (ie.

sors, members

Cont. on page 6

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