6 THE VOICE, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2014 EDITOR AMY JONES This year make love, not waste hose roses may cost you an arm ; and a leg, but they could be costing the environment even more. Valentine’s Day creates a big demand for imported roses and chocolates, and sends a lot of paper and plastic to the landfills. There’s nothing wrong with celebrating the love in your life, but there are ways to express gratitude for each other that don’t involve a large carbon footprint or a pile of waste. A zero-waste holiday is nearly impossible, but there are ways to reduce your impact by shopping for local products and opting for homemade treats instead of paper cards. Tn 2012 Canada imported 9.8 million bouquets of roses - 14 times more than it f produced. Most of OS south America OPINIO and are shipped RENEE SUTTON by plane, creating a large carbon footprint, just to die on your kitchen table five days later. Houseplants may not scream romance, but they can be a great alternative to roses because they last much longer. Bamboo and cactus plants, for example, require little care and last for years. Cocoa is also imported, but this can’t be avoided when you need to get your chocolate fix. Buying from local chocolatiers reduces your impact} by keeping the J REEN ER manufacturing gift ideas process close to ms 3 louseplants home. Purdy 8 ae instead of roses Chocolates in Pacific Centre Mall and HM cookies instead of Rogers’ Chocolates cards on Granville Island are both B.C. based. Traditional cards are endearing but wm guy from ocal like roses they are often tossed out after the holiday. Bake heart-shaped cookies for your friends or have a get-together and exchange words of admiration instead of paper. Honestly, would you rather have a card or a cookie in your hand? I thought so. So get out there and show your friends and family you love them, but this year make an effort to love Mother Nature as well and reduce your environmental impact. Gift certificate for coffee shops chocolatiers We want to hear from you Did we get a fact wrong? Tell us. Got a different point of view? Write to us. Problems with something we've said? Let us know. Journalism instructor Ethan Baron oversees The Voice. Email him at ebaron@langara.be.ca From R e 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia may begin this week, but they’ve been mired in controversy for months. Rebel groups continue to threaten the safety of the event, its partici- pants and visitors. Johnnie Balfour, a Vancouver man who has been helping design and set up the ski and snowboard courses in Sochi, has reported poor living and working conditions. And now stray dogs are reportedly being trapped and poisoned by Sochi crews in an effort to clean up the streets. Most telling of all controversies, however, is the ridiculous contradic- tion between Principle Six of the Olympic Charter and Russia’s vaguely worded ‘gay propaganda’ law. Principle Six states that “any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Move- ment.” Russian law states that homosexuals and other people of “non-traditional” sexual orienta- tions must not promote their “propaganda” to OPI N ION Russian youth. In other words, BEN ZUTTER LGBT Olympians are more than welcome to participate in the Games, as long as they keep quiet about a deeply troubling and draconian law that violates what they stand for. Thankfully, people across the ussia with hate globe have gathered to openly criticize the policy, as well as the International Olympic Committee’s somewhat neutral stance. Here in Vancouver, many bars have boycotted Russian vodka and protests are planned for Davie Street on opening day. City councillor Tim Stevenson has gone to Sochi to promote gay rights and lobby the IOC for change. Former Star Trek actor and gay-activist George Takei has called for the games to be moved back to the city that hosted them in 2010, Vancouver. So why, after all this, is a country with such backward policies and a reputation for human rights violations being permitted to host an event that is intended to bring the world together through peace, respect and tolerance? Beats me. 1 of these 1 of these For $10 at Langara you can get... SS> >> 2anda half of these 2 of these 1 of Graduation these Form Almost 2 | of these ————— At least Aof 40 of these Grad fees hard to swallow tion! That’ll be $10, please. If you’re like me, having to pay to graduate leaves a bad taste in your mouth. It might seem petty to groan and moan about ten bucks, but it’s really just the principle of it. When I paid my $10 last week, I asked what it was for. “Administration costs,” was the answer. Okay, fair enough. But wait - grad- uation happens every year. Twice. As a routine part of the registration office’s duties, shouldn’t that be part of regular administration? During every year of my post- secondary education, it never fails to amaze me how many ways colleges find to nickel-and-dime on your gradua- their students. The reason it feels like such a kick in the ass is because students are already drowning in skyrocketing tuition costs. A 2012 report from the Cana- dian Centre for Policy Alterna- tives showed that since 1990, average tuition and required fees for students have OPINION. risen by 6.2 per AMY JONES cent each year. That’s three times the rate of inflation. On average, it costs more thanww $6,000 a year to study full-time. That’s before books, supplies, food, and rent. Don’t bother with anything beyond the basics - you can’t afford it. So yeah, when you tell students they have to pay an extra $10 for a bit of paper work, it does feel like an insult. But here’s the real shame: that tiny graduation fee I’m getting upset over pales in comparison to all the other compulsory fees we pay every semester. Full-time students, in addition to their tuition, had to pay the college an extra $450 dollars this year. While half of that was for the student health plan, the rest went to the students’ union’s coffers and the “building legacy fund”. lll leave it up to you if you think you're getting any bang for your buck. The Voice is published by Langara College's journalism department. Editorial opinions are those of the staff and are independent of views of the student government and administration. We welcome letters to the editor. All letters must be signed. They may be edited for brevity. Names may be withheld in special cases, but your letter must include your name and phone number. HOW TO REACH US PHONE 604-323-5396 FAX 604-323-5398 E-MAIL thevoice@langara.be.ca DROP-IN Room A226 Langara College There is a mailbox at the entrance to the journalism rooms. SNAIL MAIL The Voice 100 West 49th Ave. Vancouver, B.C. VSY 226 WEBSITE wwwilangaravoice.com EDITORIAL STAFF THIS ISSUE: MANAGING EDITOR/ PAGE 6 Amy Jones PAGE EDITORS PAGE 1 Kendra Wong PAGE 2 Tricia Lo PAGE 3 Jesse Lam PAGE 4 Nick Eagland PAGE 5 Tyler Hooper PAGE 7 Vanessa Szpurko PAGE 8 Jenny Peng WEB EDITORS Gavin Fisher Bill Everitt REPORTERS Karly Blats Megan Bobetsis Erin Boe Lauren Collins Alissa Crane Edrick Dudang Madelyn Forsyth-Schiewe Mike Hodder Lukasz Jonca Leslie Kam Ash Kelly David LaRiviere Ashley Legassic Edmond Lu Jeremy Matthews Graham McFie Hannah Myrberg Christopher Slater Renee Sutton Ben Zutter Contact us: Online at langaravoice.com Twitter at @langaraVoice