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November 12, 2007

Columbia Hunger Strike Update: Striker Passes Out

2007_11_hungerstrike2.jpg

The Columbia University students' hunger strike to protest Columbia's non-inclusive attitudes about redevelopment and curriculum continues with one less striker. Just after midnight on Sunday, a post went on up on the Columbia Hunger Strike website saying, "This evening, one hunger striker was admitted to St. Luke's hospital. She will not continue the strike for personal medical reasons." The student, Aretha Choi, who attends Barnard, later wrote:

...my disappointment increases as I remember the bitter tears that I forced down while being hauled out of the reading room in Butler library. That trip on the stretcher from room 209 to St. Luke's hospital was one of the longest rides of my life to say the least. Why? Because amidst the whispering voices of passersby, the asking of my date of birth and the flashing lights, I felt defeated. I felt utterly ashamed and I felt that I had let the four other strikers, the many supporters, and myself down. Only 4 days? Only 4 days? Only 4 days? That was the question plaguing me until I was laying with fluids running into my arm...

...Although I will not be able to be out at the tents right away, I do want to say that I will always be in Solidarity via thoughts and prayers until I go back to the tents as a supporter. And, I want everyone to know that although I am unsatisfied with 4 days, this is not the end. I want the adminstration to know that 4 days was obviously too long of a time for me to wait while they are on their little vacations to Cape Cod or wherever they go to escape their responsibilties. I want those students who taunt my fellow friends with nasty comments filled with disgusting ignorance, the member of the cava crew that mocked me and the entire hunger strike as I was hauled to the E.R, the unresponsive administration, and all those who just don't care because "it doesn't concern them" to know: I might have only made it to day 4 but WE, the students who care enough about Columbia University to want to change enough to starve and to hurt for it will remain strong....

The Sun reported that a counter-hunger strike protest group has emerged: "Why We Act, Why We Eat," who will "eat against a group that seems not to care for the well-being of its students or itself." (BWOG says the WWA, WWE group was "evidently intoxicated.")

And some faculty members are supporting the hunger strike, like Barnard professor of political science Dennis Dalton (even opting for an orange juice fast) and Columbia anthropology professor Nicholas De Genova. The Columbia Spectator thinks Dalton's decision to "join" the strike is bold, but "teachers should look for sustainable ways to express their solidarity in the classroom and on an academic level."

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Comments (16)

Someone find Aretha's myspace/friendster/facebook profile, stat!

 
 

holy shit nevermind! here is an article about Aretha Choi's teenage eating disorder.

http://www.audreymagazine.com/April2007/Feature04.asp

this changes things.

 

Holy mack, nice find Nick S. I wonder if Columbia or the rest of the trade rags know that one of their hunger strikers was an anorexic?

 

(BWOG says the WWA, WWE group...

I'm just glad that the World Wrestling Association & World Wrestling Entertainment have finally started working together.

 

oh nick, you scored. Starving yourself in high school hoping that your face would shrink. Getting better and better at what you do, then in college takin' your shit to THE STREETS! LOOK OUT WORLD I AIN'T EATIN' NOTHIN, MAN!

 

wait...are these people really trying to affect change in their school or are they just trying to fit into skinny jeans?

 

Um, I thought that if you were on hunger strike you were supposed to go until death. Wimpy poser couldn't hack it which means she should hsve never been there in the first place.

I guess it was just something trendy to do.

 

I can imagine the taunting she's going to get when she returns: "Hey Aretha, how much weight did you lose?!" "Are you more Western now?!" and so forth...

 

Laaame.

 

Anybody want to send her completely over the edge? Tell her that her feet are big.

 

Poor, poor Columbia students - how do they ever manage to get through life...?

 

I hate asian women students. ALways trying to pick up other people's causes and never their own. what'supwitdat?

 

I thought she'd be able to lose a lot of weight just by running away from Godzirra.


Do they serve beer in hell?

 

hate asian women students. ALways trying to pick up other people's causes and never their own. what'supwitdat?


Whatever cause that gets them the white guy...

 

[13] and [15], why don't you 2 get together, cry over your rejections by Asian girls, and then kiss and make love?

 
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