Columns

PLOWE | What About the Genocide?

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The center of Asia remains virtually invisible to most of the students here at Cornell. The invisible Asia is the land of Tibet and Xinjiang, currently the site for an ongoing genocide, where there is no religious, cultural, intellectual or bodily freedom. Islam is institutionally targeted as “terrorism” and Tibetan Buddhist institutions are under strict Chinese Communist Party (CCP) control. 

Recently, health workers in Xinjiang expressed that there were positive results as they treated COVID-19 patients with traditional Uyghur medicine, which dates as far back as 2,500 years. This is an irony, as the Chinese government imprisons Muslim Uyghurs for not conforming to Han culture. Uyghurs ought to have the right to practice their cultural traditions without fearing persecution and appropriation.

Columns

MKRTCHYAN | Sometimes It’s Not “Both Sides”

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“Azerbaijan launches a full-scale attack on Armenia” This was what I woke up to on Sept.13. More than 200 Armenian soldiers martyred, nearly 300 soldiers wounded, 20 prisoners of war, three civilians killed, six civilians wounded and more than 7,600 people displaced from their homes.

Arts & Culture

Ukraine Needs Our Help

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I urge you to raise your voice in support of Ukraine and donate if possible so we can spread awareness about this heartbreaking situation.

Columns

WILK | Viral Nihilism, Chronically Coping When No One Gives Us a Cure

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I was in seventh grade and 12 years old, when my history teacher, Mrs. Saylor, paused and turned her attention away from the dirty whiteboard in a moment of realization to say that we, the cluster of restless preteens seated in front of her, had never known life without war. I’m still not sure if that statement was completely correct. I do know that she was right about the list events she subsequently rattled off to try to help us, children supposedly bombarded with unending violence on the very largest scale, understand the stuff we’d been through, the stuff we’d seen: 9/11, the Iran/Iraq War, ongoing military aggressions with Afghanistan, a hard-hitting recession, the Boston Marathon Bombing, constantly-stacking murders by our police force, Sandy Hook Elementary and so many shootings since that it’s far past the point of pathos to try to name them all. It was a lot. I almost hadn’t noticed.

Arts & Culture

Dunkirk: Sound and Storytelling

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So I’ve been trying to write this review without swearing but uhhh… holy shit did this movie floor me. If you’re one of those people who reads only the first couple lines of a review: go see Dunkirk. It’s breathtaking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-eMt3SrfFU

And that’s the first thing I need to harp on — Dunkirk is beautiful. There were more than a couple of takes in this movie where I couldn’t help but think director Christopher Nolan and director of photography Hoyte van Hoytema were just showing off, flexing their cinematographic muscles.