November 2009 Archives

As part of Stuyvesant High School's annual Culture Festival, students put on a dazzling two-hour show that highlighted the cultural diversity of our school. Performances included fan dances, belly dancing, step, singing, hip hop, martial arts, and instrumental performances. The Spectator's web editor, Victor Ma, and I filmed the performances and picked our top three based on audience feedback. Stay tuned for a companion feature with interviews and highlights. In the meantime, enjoy these top three performances!

In light of the recent arrest and arraignment of junior Mohammed Hassan for starting several fires in Stuyvesant bathrooms last week, I have dedicated this blog post to briefly, objectively, and rather elementarily explaining the process by which an accused person goes through the New York State criminal justice system. This is not a definitive explanation of the entire system but just enough to understand the legal process that Hassan will go through, from arrest to trial to possible conviction.

Disclaimer: The following entry is a work of fiction and a work in progress. Any constructive comments are appreciated.

Bill Paley decided he would order something different this time.

Late at night, he was the only customer in the small, unassuming diner off the Long Island Expressway. It was Bill's routine to drive from work in his midtown office to the diner for a midnight fix. The streets were always quiet and empty. It was an oxymoron; that in the city that never sleeps, Bill seemed to be the only one alive. It was not calming to be alone, not in the least, but it was eerily nice, and he liked it. In the lonely diner, he always ordered the same thing: ham sandwich, a pickle, and a side of fries. He liked the free refills of coffee. French-brewed, his favorite brand. The aroma was addicting, the caffeine even more. He would need it.

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would become known as 'Euro-English'.

Tonight, the City of New York was bought by a billionaire. Incumbent Mike Bloomberg, who spent over $90 million running his campaign, defeated Bill Thompson by a surprisingly slim margin of five percent, 51 percent to 46 percent. That's almost $1,764,706 for every percentage point or, if you want to think about it this way, over $20 spent on each of the city's 4,462,657 registered voters. His campaign expenditures have outdone even Jon Corzine in his bids for senator and governor and Ross Perot for president back in 1992. The large amount of money Bloomberg spent out of his own pocket has cushioned him into another four years running this city but not without consequences.

The furor surrounding an article one teacher wrote derailing his union has added to an age-old debate over who is to blame for our mediocre education and who is responsible for fixing it. With the old United Federation of Teachers (UFT) contract expired, amid a mayoral election that mirrors the fight between the UFT and the Department of Education (DOE), negotiations for a new one are in the works. With this, the classic issues of mayoral control, merit pay, and quality of teaching have once again been brought into the spotlight--and have drawn a surprising number of immature attacks. But missing here is the group whose fate will be determined by the results of these discussion and negotiations: the students.