INDEX
Trojans’ special teams are the focus of this week’s practices. 20
USC students deserve to have Election Day off. 4
News Digest.......2 Lifestyle..............7
Upcoming..........2 Classifieds.......16
Opinions.............4 Sports...............20
WEATHER
Today: Mostly sunny. High 77, low 56.
Tomorrow: Sunny. High 82, low 58.
‘God Sleeps in Rwanda’ captivates ’SC
Election results hit home
Students who campaigned for the midterm election reflect on winning, losing.
Survivors. Filmmaker and photojournalist Kimberlee Acquaro, director of “God Sleeps in Rwanda,” joined USC alumna Stacy Sherman to . film the documentary, which tells the stories of five women in the aftermath of the Hutu, government’s genocide of the Tutsi people in 1994.
Academy Award-nominated documentary screening leaves attendees speechless.
By BLESSING WAUNG
Contributing Writer
After watching a screening of filmmaker and photojoumalist Kimberlee Acquaro’s “God Sleeps in Rwanda” Wednesday night, students and professors in Leavey Library Auditorium were speechless. The response is typical.
The Academy Award-nominated documentary, based on Acquaro’s four-year stint in Rwanda, chronicles the stories of five women in the aftershock left by the Hutu government’s massacre campaign against the Tutsi people in 1994.
Originally, the idea spawned from Acquaro’s notice of lacking coverage about the situation in Rwanda. Acquaro joined forces with USC alumna Stacy Sherman after winning a Pew Fellowship in international journalism, an endowment for underreported issues.
“It seemed impossible to me that the world wasn’t paying attention,” Acquaro said.
Many reflect the same sentiment. Amardeep Vidyarthi, a first-year graduate student in global communication and a native Kenyan, said, “I think the problem is when things happen in Africa, they get ignored because Africa’s not important geopolitically. We don’t have oil, we don’t have minerals.”
“When I went to Rwanda, I discovered that not only was it ignored
during the genocide, but the progress especially. Women’s progress has been extraordinary,” Acquaro said.
Narrated by actress Rosario Dawson, the documentary bears the graphic detailing typical of the story, such as still shots of dead bodies and video clips of beatings.
The film is pointedly different, however, because of the undercurrent of triumph shown by survivors, particularly women.
“(It) handed Rwanda’s women an extraordinary burden and unprecedented opportunity,” Dawson said in the film.
The five women share the common characteristics of the -women of Rwanda.
More than 250,000 Rwandan women were raped, and the testimo-I see Rwanda, page 12 I
“We can make a difference. We have not only the privilege, but the responsibility to do so. ”
KIMBERLEE ACQUARO director “God Sleeps in Rwanda”
More
Coverage
California election results and percentage of votes won for the top two candidates. Page 10
By JOHN LEGITTIN0
Staff Writer
The day after an election is always fraught with widespread congratulation and disappointment for candidates and contributors.
Wednesday morning, some of those people included USC students.
. WhileGov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was able to return to his Brentwood home Tuesday night with a landslide victory, his Democratic opponent Phil Angelides went home empty-handed, without governor or treasurer credentials.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, after a long wait, celebrated the Democratic takeover of the Senate and the House of Representatives and her new position as the next speaker of the House, replacing current Speaker Dennis Hastert.
Countless others share similar stories.
But the USC students who also worked to influence the midterm election said the candidates were not the only ones left either excited or disappointed as the results trickled in Tuesday night.
Sophomore political science major Max Slavkin, who served as the Yes on 87 college outreach director for several months, said the oil tax’s defeat by roughly nine percentage points was not easy to swallow.
The v's on 87 campaign flew him around California to cam^.gn at different colleges and universities, including Stanford this past weekend.
“The first time the numbers came on the screen at the party last night, and I saw we were initially down by something like 23 percent, I was a little embarrassed,” Slavkin said.
“The campaign became such a part of me that when I first saw numbers, it was hard to separate campaign losing and me losing or failing at what I had done,” he said.
He said seeing the results in the paper Wednesday I see Election, page 10 I
’SC researcher advances M.S. disease treatment
Discovery of Par-3 protein might help regenerate myelin, develop a cure.
By EUNICE 0H
Contributing Writer
A revolutionary breakthrough in the formation of myelin, the Substance used to insulate nerve fibers, by a USC professor, might enhance treatment for diseases such as multiple sclerosis.
“It’s a small step,” said Jonah Chan, an assistant professor in the Keck School of Medicine’s Department of Cell and Neurobiology who works at the school’s Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute. “There is no cure available right now, (but) I think it’s a
step in the right direction.”
According to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, about 400,000 Americans have M.S. and about 200 people are diagnosed every week
Demylinating diseases such as multiple sclerosis occur when the body attacks myelin. Myelin is a white matter that forms layers around nerve fibers.
Nerves without the insulation cannot conduct electrical signals to and from the brain.
Chan, who worked with a group of USC researchers, also collaborated with Michel Cayouette from the Institute de Recherches Cliniques de Montreal.
Chan and Cayouette’s study, “The Polarity Protein Par-3 Directly I see Myelin, page 3 I
Alumnus’ donation gives L.A.’s homeless housing
The funding allows project to provide medical services to homeless beginning 2008.
By LAURA YBARRA
Contributing Writer
USC alumnus Sonny Astani’s $1.5 million donation to the Skid Row Housing Trust will enable the completion of a downtown apartment complex that will house 115 of Los Angeles’ mentally ill homeless.
The donation will allow Abbey Apartments, located at 625 S. San Pedro St., to open in 2008. The apartments will provide on-site social, medical and mental services, said Mike Alvidrez, executive director of the Skid Row Housing Trust.
“We provide supportive housing services integrated with prop-
erty management that is geared to the needs of the residents,” Alvidrez said.
The trust was founded in 1989 by community business leaders and activists who were committed to preserving affordable single-occupancy housing in downtown.
Since 1990, the organization has developed or restored 19 hotel properties that have provided affordable housing for about 1,200 people.
“Sonny wanted to provide something to the city that would have a lasting benefit. It is good for all of downtown,” Alvidrez said.
Astani, who is a Los Angeles downtown developer, said it felt natural to help the homeless with housing development.
“I believe when you provide housing, you provide it for everyone I see Housing, page 12 I
November 9, 2006
Vol. CLIX, No. 54
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Student Newspaper of the University of Southern California Since 1912
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INSIDE
Talented cast pays tribute to Robert Kennedy in ‘Bobby.’8