theSpartanDaily.com Volume 131, Issue 46 Serving San Jose State University Since 1934 24MONDAYNOVEMBER BRINGING BLESSINGS TO SAN JOSE 2008 STUDENT CULTUREPAGES 4-5 ‘Twilight’ brings sex appeal to Dracula Students gather in front of Tower Hall on Thursday evening with Don Humberto and Doña Bernadina, CARLOS A. MORENO / Spartan Daily high-ranking Q’ero mystics of Incan descent, in a ceremony to bless the people and land of San Jose. JASON LE MIERE of the Q’ero nation, the descendants of fl owers being placed at the center of an ering, your good spiritual stability.” SPORTS PAGE 6 Staff Writer the Incas, were conducting a blessing arrangement that contained all manner Students were also invited to take With the midday sun providing the ceremony on Tower Lawn on Th urs- of things, including sugar, coca leaves part in the rituals and many of the perfect backdrop, Don Humberto laid a day aft ernoon. and Reese’s Pieces, each with its own more than 60 in att endance did so. one-dollar bill around two fl owers and “He made an off ering to Mother special reason for being present. Th ey were given a set of three coca a ring of coca leaves, a sign that even Earth here,” said translator Fredy “Flowers explain perfection; it leaves and spoke a short blessing into 15,000 feet up in the Andes, the U.S.’s Conde, speaking on behalf of Hum- blooms, it’s beautiful, so for blooming them, along with blowing on them, fi nancial problems are well-known. berto, “to help you and empower you of this place,” Humberto and Berna- just as the two Incas had done earlier. Humberto and his wife Doña Ber- in everything that is required here.” dina said through Conde. “Not just in nadina, the last two remaining elders Th e ceremony involved two small terms of university, also personal fl ow- INCApage2 Spartans SPARTANS SQUANDER BOWL HOPES IN LOSS TO BULLDOGS RYAN BUCHAN drop to 0-4 Staff Writer Th e Fresno State Bulldogs took home a victory, and possibly the Spartans bowl on season hopes as well, in a 24-10 game. SJSU has lost its last three games aft er becoming bowl eli- gible with a defeat over Idaho on Nov. 1. “We are bowl eligible for the second time in three years,” said SJSU head coach Dick Tomey, “but we couldn’t push it over the top.” PAGE 7 Th e Spartans fi nished the season with six OPINION wins, good for sixth in the Western Athletic Conference. Th e conference only gets three guaranteed bowl berths: the Humanitarian Bowl, the Hawaii Bowl and the New Mexico Bowl. Th e Spartans could still get an at-large bowl bid, but it seems unlikely. Th e Spartans would have guaranteed a * bowl berth with a victory on Friday, but they could not hold onto a 10-3 halft ime lead. “Give them all the credit,” said SJSU se- nior cornerback Christopher Owens. “Th ey dominated the second half. We couldn’t stop the run.” In the second half, the Bulldogs ran the *Not ball for 158 yards. In the fourth quarter, Fres- no had four plays that went for less than four yards, two of which were the quarterback Mickey taking a knee. Fresno State head coach Pat Hill said the Bulldogs only ran three diff erent plays in the fourth quarter. “We decided to go with our three- Mouse SJSU linebacker Justin Cole walks off the fi eld as the JOE PROUDMAN / Contributing Photographer FOOTBALLpage3 Fresno State Bulldogs celebrate at Spartan Stadium on Friday following the Spartans’ 24-10 loss. Protesting homelessness, students sleep under stars ANDREA FRAINIER “Th e name and the whole idea of Tent Coast Civic Works Project, Tent City nitions of poverty and homelessness in Staff Writer City America came from us going on America is the third annual sleep-out America. With signs such as “Th e Gulf Coast Louisiana Winter 2,” said Roberto Garcia- held near the statue. “Th e core issue with Tent City is a Toxic Gumbo” pinned to tents, Ceballos, a senior sociology major. In previous years, students slept be- America, besides the tent display, is about 50 students and community Louisiana Winter was a student- neath the statue in a sign of solidarity that we as students have a possible members gathered beneath the Tom- launched campaign to help rebuild with the 7,000-plus homeless people solution to solve poverty in the Gulf mie Smith and John Carlos Statue New Orleans. who live in Silicon Valley. Coast,” said Latu Tapaatoutai, a senior Th ursday night for a sleep-out to bring “Th e fi rst image that we had of Th is year’s sleep-out focused on history major. awareness to the conditions of the Gulf (New Orleans) was coming down the homelessness and poverty in the Gulf For the last two years, the Gulf Coast region. bridge and seeing a homeless encamp- Coast region. Coast Civic Works Project has worked Th e event, titled Tent City Ameri- ment of 300 people,” Garcia-Ceballos “I want people to know poverty and to pass HR 4048, the Gulf Coast Civ- ca, was a jam-packed program that fea- said. “Not just men, but it was families homelessness should not exist because ic Works Act, which would provide tured community-sponsored displays, and single women. It was a variety of America is the richest country in the 100,000 jobs to Gulf Coast residents speakers, spoken word, a musical per- people you didn’t expect to be in a world,” said Victor Ngo, a senior soci- and evacuees to rebuild the region at a formance and snippets of documenta- homeless encampment.” ology major. living wage, Tapaatoutai said. ries about homelessness, poverty and Co-hosted by the Cesar E. Chavez Eleven community organizations the aft ermath of Hurricane Katrina. Community Action Center and Gulf sponsored a tent to display their defi - TENTpage2 theSpartanDaily.com 2 MONDAYNOVEMBER News 24 2008 Strengthening Russia’s middle class TENT Assemblyman, alumnus Professor discusses quality of life and other observations of Russia’s working population joined protest at Smith-Carlos S tatue Members of the Gulf Coast 4048 earlier in the day. SELMA SKOKIC “I know the middle class here Russia, she said she made $100 do believe that it is the most real- Civic Works Project want to “Everywhere we go, it doesn’t Staff Writer is going through problems,” he per month as a teacher. istic,” she said. use the bill as a catalyst to show matt er if we go to Atlanta, New Th e middle class could change said. “Maybe we can associate “Now teachers make about She added that people in Rus- the rest of the nation a pos- York or the Gulf Coast, every- the situation and structure of a with each other’s problems.” $400 and it took six years to sia are very concerned with hav- sible solution to end homeless- one’s been supportive (of HR struggling Russian economy if it Sabrina Pinnell, a political achieve that,” she said. ing a high status and a lot of them ness and poverty throughout 4048),” Garcia-Ceballos said. were as strong as the U.S. middle science lecturer and a specialist According to Markku Kivinen, achieve that by buying a car. the country. California Assembly Mem- class, said Guzel Gizzatullina, an in Russian politics, said that be- the director of Aleksanteri Insti- “Do not expect a car to stop “It started from just an idea, ber and SJSU alumnus Jim Beall organization and management cause Russia has a socialist past, tute, the Centre for Russian and for pedestrians crossing,” she and now it’s a nationwide move- also att ended the event. lecturer at SJSU. it doesn’t have a class structure. Eastern European Studies of the said. “Th e pedestrians are sup- ment,” said Joshua Barousse, “I think it’s very important Gizzatullina held a lecture in A census conducted in 2004 University of Helsinki, the upper posed to avoid the cars.” a graduate student in public that the young people and the the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Li- stated that most Russians identi- class in Russia is very small and People believe that Russians administration and co-founder students at San Jose State show brary on Th ursday to familiarize fi ed themselves as middle class, has a lot of power. Kivinen said are apathetic and are naturally of the Gulf Coast Civic Works the way to other people, older SJSU students and faculty with Gizzatullina said. the lower class is very large and drawn to autocracy, Pinnell said. Project. people like me,” he said. “Th e the current state of the middle Tatyana Maleva, a director of has very litt le power and the mid- She said that in Russia the qual- Att endees burst out in ap- way to do it is to empower peo- class in Russia. the Independent Institute for So- dle class is almost nonexistent. ity of life comes before democracy, plause when it was announced ple. … And what bett er way to “I was born in Russia, and I cial Policy in Moscow, conducted He also proposed that the and that democracy is not the fi rst that the New Orleans City do it than in an area that’s devas- never analyzed the situation from a research survey on this topic in most likely scenario for the Rus- priority to most people. Council passed a resolution tated and to give them money to a scientifi c point of view,” said Ma- 2003 and said that 21.9 percent sian economy is to become like “Let us fi x our economy fi rst,” unanimously supporting HR rebuild their own community?” ria Pyatigorsky, a senior fi nance of respondents could be classifi ed the U.S.