Week In Review

WIR

BY CHRISTINE LAQUER & SUNISA NARDONE

Prison Hot Sauce: Hard On The Colon

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Illustration by Hilary Falb
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Since Martha Stewart left, prisons everywhere have been a little less lively. How do lifers spice things up these days? They spend two years perfecting their soon-to-be-famous hot sauce.

Allen Boatman, director of the horticulture program at Florida's Hillsborough County jail, told the Associated Press this week that his students' first commercial batch of hot sauce—96 5-ounce bottles that sell for $3.25 a pop—will soon see the light of retail. Jailhouse Fire brand hot sauce was born when a prisoner suggested using the peppers grown as part of the prison's horticulture program to spice up prison food.

"The food here is kind of institutionalized." said Boatman, "So it helps." Sales of Jailhouse Fire have been kind of institutionalized so far as well; priority customers including the Sheriff have already bought half of the first run. Proceeds from the sauce benefit the prison horticulture program, culinary programs, and the canteen fund. Boatman hopes to eventually reach a wider audience with his inmate-raised hot sauce by selling it through an online distributor.

Jailhouse Fire is a combination of Caribbean-style and mustard sauces. It includes habanero, scotch bonnet, and jalapeņo peppers among other herbs and spices. All ingredients are grown on six acres out back of the jail.

According to the AP, incarcerees prefer their own special brand of their own special brand, so the big house sauce is much spicier than the bottled version. Boatman explains in words that should proudly grace the brand's label: "It's a macho thing, you know, `I can eat the hottest pepper.'"

—CL

What Is Chinese? What Is Taiwan?

Twenty years ago a Chinese woman was scared to allow her American boyfriend to kiss her, fearing censure for her interracial relationship back home in mainland China. These days— post Mao, Tiananmen Square, and an economic boom—Chinese newspapers run reviews of the country's first dance group founded by a transvestite openly dating that same American man. Despite such major cultural changes mainland China's views about Taiwan still haven't changed.

Seth Faison, Pulitzer prize-winning journalist for the New York Times, spoke at Brown on Friday evening about Chinese people's feelings regarding reunification. The speech, entitled 'What is Chinese? What about Taiwan?' was part of the weeklong Strait Talk conference on U.S.-China-Taiwan relations. The speakers discussed why, in the midst of economic development, access to more information, and a movement toward an open economy, people in the mainland still hold strongly to the idea of reunification.

Emma Teng, assistant professor at MIT, debunked a popular argument for reunification that claims Taiwan was historically part of the People's Republic of China. As late as the 17th century, Chinese elites regarded Taiwan as a savage and insignificant land. She claimed it wasn't until foreign powers began encroaching on Taiwan that mainland officials were alerted to the danger of having "a launch pad for imperialism," Teng said, just across the strait. Then hyperbolic rhetoric arguing against "severing" the island from the mainland became prevalent.

During the question and answer session, audience members speculated that allowing Taiwanese independence might precipitate a "domino effect" leading to the secession of other states like Tibet, but Faison cautioned against pursuing the rhetoric of a domino effect.

"Fear of chaos" is a Communist party line, he said, used to manipulate a very understandable fear into a tool for control. Despite progressive movements in the mainland a pervading passion for reunification with Taiwan still exists, although the desire is almost a relic of another age. Both Teng and Faison agreed that Taiwanese people should be allowed to resolve the question of reunification in a referendum, with no involvement from the United States or mainland China.

—SN

Slapped With A Lawsuit

The internet, advertised as a medium of equality and free speech, has proven to be a testing ground for the limits of those sales pitches.

Louisette Lanteigne, suburban stay-at-home mom, has learned that sticks and stones may break a person's bones, but words can kill a large corporation. Ontarian Lanteigne started an angry blog in April to alert local officials to possible safety violations in her subdivision. Suburban home development giant Activa is suing to teach her a $2 million lesson. Despite Activa's requests that Lanteigne remove the posts, which it considers libelous, the mom told the Canadian press that she is standing behind her writings. Activa subsequently filed suit, claiming, "the malicious, high-handed and arrogant conduct of the Defendant warrants an award of punitive or exemplary damages to ensure that the Defendant is appropriately punished for her conduct and deterred from such conduct in the future."

For a large company like Activa, image is close to everything, and is worth going to court over, though this decision, too, may draw bad publicity. Lanteigne faces bankruptcy for her actions, but has a large backing among activists and the province's ministries of Environment and Labor. Commending her actions, Environment Ministry spokesman John Steele explained, "Obviously we can't have staff everywhere all the time, so we depend on the public out there as surrogate eyes and ears for the ministry."

But the proliferation of free voices on the internet has led to a slew of libel lawsuits in Canada and the US. Laws have been put in place to protect writers like Lanteigne. Such legislation is commonly referred to as anti-SLAPP, because it is one governmental response to "Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation"—the same potentially hazardous free speech all whiny North Americans take for granted.

In a case with so much money and face at stake, it should come as no surprise that all parties paint themselves as the good guys. Like two illiterate ex-roommates in small claims court, Lanteigne and Activa would both like to get the evidence in front of a judge and on to TV.

—CL

The Statistical Week

The Nation's Report Card

According to the Nation's Report Card for Reading, published by the National Center for Education Statistics, the average fourth-graders' score was one point higher and eighth-graders' average was one point lower in 2005 than in 2003 on a 500 point scale. Averages in both groups were two points higher in 2005 than in the first year of national testing, 1992.

The NCES' divisive statistics not only pit fourth- and eighth-graders against each other, but also report that White fourth graders read better than their Black and Hispanic peers; that students eligible for reduced-price school lunches scored two points higher in 2005 than in 1998, and that girls are better than boys. Both genders are, however, reported to have cooties.

Turning to America's mathematics grades, fourth-graders' average scores increased since 1996, with boys scoring higher than girls. Average scores were higher in 2005 for all groups. NCES' executive summary of the Report Card lauds the ethnicities that count, stating, "The average scores for all three racial/ethnic groups were higher in 2005 than in any previous assessment year." All students surveyed performed at or below the "basic" level when reading and adding the Center's statistics.

—CL

What Does It Take To Get A Kilo Around Here?

According to Drug-Rehabs.org, "part of a non-profit betterment organization," South American heroin is more expensive than varieties from Mexico or Asia. South American heroin can cost from $50,000 to $250,000 per kilogram, while Southeast or Southwest Asian heroin usually costs from $35,000 to $120,000. Mexican heroin is relatively cheap—it runs from $15,000 to $65,000 per kilo. A heroin user can spend from $150-$200 a day maintaining an addiction.

As of 2001, a kilogram of cocaine cost an average of $1,565 in Columbia, compared to $21,500 in the US. These prices mark an inflation-adjusted decline of around 50 percent since 1981, according to the US National Office of Drug Control Policy.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reports that the global illicit drug market in 2003 was worth $13 billion at the production level, $94 billion at the wholesale level, and $322 billion at the retail level, taking into account seizures and other losses. According to the UNDOC's World Drug Report 2005, given these mark-ups, authorities would have to seize three quarters of all illegal drug shipments to make the drug trade unprofitable for growers and dealers. The value of the world's illicit drug trade at the retail level is higher than the gross domestic product of 88 percent of the world's countries.

—SK

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