District 9 Review

We have seen this before.  Aliens arrive on Earth and the interaction with them and humans takes its toll.  Humans grow tired and weary of their presence and eventually want nothing to do with them.  But this sci-fi flick is nothing but ordinary.  These alien beings, called “prawns” because of their resemblance to crustacean, arrive in Johannesburg, South Africa of all places and have been there for the past 20 or so years.  Upon their arrival they are very malnourished and the humans (with sympathetic hearts) take them in and place the prawns in an area called District 9.

But after the 20 or so years they have spent in Johannesburg, the humans grow tired of their presence and fear that the prawns will attack at any given moment.  The citizens want them out.  The man who heads up the operation to evict all the alien beings is a young, clueless bureaucrat named  Wikus van de Merwe, played by Sharlto Copley.  He, along with the rest of him team, go into District 9 and start the process of driving the prawns out of their homes.

These aliens have settled into our planet and it is time for them to leave.  Just by looking at these aliens, there is not much to like.  They are ugly, violent and have no business being here other than to annoy the hell out of us and scare us into thinking that they will attack if provoked.

District 9, directed by newcomer Neill Blomkamp and produced by Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings Trilogy), takes the form of a mockumentary about van der Merwe’s relocation campaign, his infection by an alien virus, his own refuge in District 9 and his partnership with the only alien who behaves intelligently and reveals  human emotions.  This alien, named Christopher Johnson has a secret workspace where he prepares to return to the mothership and help his people.  What Neill Blomkamp somehow does is make Christopher Johnson and his son, Little CJ, sympathetic despite appearances. This is achieved by giving them, but no other aliens, human body language, and little CJ even gets big wet eyes, like E.T.

The film’s South African setting brings up inescapable parallels with its now-defunct apartheid system of racial segregation.  Many of them are obvious, such as the action to move a race out of the city and to a remote location.  District 9 does a lot of things right, including giving us “aliens” to remind us not everyone who comes in a spaceship need be angelic, octopod or stainless steel.  They are certainly alien, all right.  It is also a seamless merger of the mockumentary and special effects (the aliens are CGI [computer graphics image]).  And there’s a harsh parable here about the alienation and treatment of refugees.

This film brought out all the guns and it flowed well from beginning to end.  Blomkamp’s vision of making the aliens seem more “human” than the actual humans was brilliant.  Though the themes are universal, the director’s childhood in South Africa clearly informs the film’s sensibility, in this case greatly adding to its distinctive look and feel.  It’s an impressive first feature for the 29-year-old Blomkamp.

Cougars Back in the Dance

The University of Houston Cougars are going back to the NCAA Tournament after an 18 year absence. The Cougars won the Conference USA Tournament, knocking off #1 seed UTEP in the Final. UH, being the #7 seed, won 4 games in 4 days to punch their ticket to the big dance. Aubrey Coleman, the nation’s leading scorer, did not have the performance that he wanted but the Cougars led by Kelvin Lewis dominated the last minutes of the game to pull away. 1992 was the last time UH was in the field of 65 and they will face ACC powerhouse Maryland in the first round.

Campuses Not as Safe as You Think

Sexual assault on campuses are happening more often and not much is done about it.

According to the FBI, one out of four women and one in 12 men will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime.  One of three women will face a threatened assault.

Acquaintance rape constitutes 60 percent of sexual assault for the general population and 84 percent for college students.  This means that the victim knows the person who is sexually assaulting him/her.  You would think that these crimes would go reported.

But the scary aspect of these crimes are that fewer than 10 percent are actually reported.

According the Clery Report, UH had 10 reported sexual assault offenses in 2008.  These offenses occurred either on campus or in residential facilities.

In a report done by the National Institute of Justice, sexual assault is widely considered to be the most under-reported violent crime in America.

“Just under 3 percent of all college women become victims of rape (either completed or attempted) in a given 9 month academic year. On first glance, the risk seems low, but the percentage translates into the disturbing figure of 35 such crimes for every 1,000 women students. For a campus with 10,000 women students, the number could reach 350. If the percentage is projected to a full calendar year, the proportion rises to nearly 5 percent of college women. When projected over a now typical 5 year college career, one in five young women experiences rape during college.”

The NIJ also reported that the vast majority of these crimes – between 80 and 90 percent – the victim and assailant know each other.

“The more intimate the relationship, the more likely it is for a rape to be completed rather than attempted.  Half of all student victims do not label the incident “rape.”  This is particularly true when no weapon was used, no sign of physical injury is evident, and alcohol was involved – factors commonly associated with campus acquaintance rape.  Given the extent of non-stranger rape on campus, it is no surprise that the majority of victimized women do not define their experience as a rape.”

This is one of the reasons why campus sexual assault is not well reported.  Victims do not realize that they have been raped and it is not brought to the attention of campus authorities and/or law enforcement.

How can we combat the fact that our campuses are not as safe as we think?

The Clery report was put into effect when Jeanne Clery was brutally raped and murdered in 1986 at Leigh University.  The Clery Act requires all colleges and universities that participate in federal financial aid programs to keep their and disclose information about crime on and near their respective campuses.  This is one way we can help with the safety of students on campuses.

But sexual assaults are still going to happen and that is just the reality of the situation.  We can have all the correct preparations and plans but nothing will ever combat the crime of sexual assault.  It’s frightening to think that our campuses are not as safe as we think.

Snuggie World Record

Fans attending the Cleveland Cavaliers game not only got to see LeBron drop 40 on the Pistons but also got to be part of history.  The fans of Cleveland set a Guinness Book of World Record for the largest gathering of people wearing fleece blankets.  

Missing Family Member Found via Twitter

This is a great example of how social media can help in disaster related situations.  A woman was able to track down a missing family member who was in Chile during the time of the massive earthquake that rattled the area.  Since the power and phone lines were down, the woman logged onto Twitter and used hashtags to make a connection with people in Santiago where her family member lived.  Many people responded by retweeting the mission person link, created by Google’s Chile Earthquake Person Finder.  You can read the rest of the story here.

News Through Social Networks

Because I am an aspiring journalist, it is my job to inform the reader what is going on and giving them up-to-date reports on the news.  But more and more people are getting their news by social media networks.  Less and less people are reading the paper and getting their news online either through emails or posts on social networking sites.  In a study by Pew Internet, 75% of people who find news online get it either forwarded through e-mail or posts on social networking sites, and half of them (52%) forward the news through those means.  Interestingly enough, relatively few people — only 17% — claim they read news in a national newspaper such as The New York Times or USA Today.

You can read the entire report here.

Canada vs. USA Hockey

Now I am not an avid hockey fan, but after seeing the game between Canada and the United States, I have to say that this was one of the best hockey games to date.  The game was tight all the way until the final seconds of regulation with the Canadians leading 2-1 with less than a minute to play.  But the US scored with a little over 20 seconds to go to send the game into sudden-death overtime.  In the overtime, the face of the Winter Olympics, Sid the Kid from the Pittsburgh Penguins, scored the game winning goal to capture Canada’s eighth gold medal.  Congratulations Canada on winning the gold and to the Americans for putting up a great fight.  Good game all-around!