The South African government Tuesday recalled 20 million faulty condoms passed out as part of its widespread anti-AIDS efforts. Zalatex, the South African company that produced the condoms, allegedly bribed an official in the Bureau of Standards to certify the defective goods as safe. It’s hard enough to encourage condom use in Africa without giving users reason to mistrust their efficacy. In a country with a 12 percent infection rate – more than 5 million South Africans are HIV-positive – fraud like this is despicable. More than 1,000 South Africans die of AIDS each day, and the government hasn’t always been helpful in fighting the epidemic. President Thabo Mbeki has been notably reluctant to accept the fact that HIV causes AIDS, and his former health minister suggested treating the disease not with anti-retroviral drugs, but with beetroot, garlic and lemon juice. For deliberately and immorally profiting from human suffering, Zalatex and the Bureau of Standards get a Fail.
SAT scores are on the decline. The Arizona Republic reported this week that the SAT scores of Arizona high school students have dropped for the second year in a row, and The Wall Street Journal reported that nationally, scores in math and reading are at their lowest since 1999. But before you complain about kids these days going to hell in a handbasket, consider this: Arizona students beat the national average in math, critical reading and writing, and nationally, a record 1.5 million students took the college-prep test, implying that more students are college-bound than ever before. For giving higher education the ol’ college try, the class of 2007 squeaks by with an Incomplete.
For untold years, simply flashing a CatCard has entitled UA students to a free small beverage at Chipotle on University Boulevard. As of this semester, however, you’ll have to pony up a couple bucks if you want to wash down your massive burrito – Chipotle is no longer subsidizing student sodas. For abruptly cutting a critical campus entitlement program, Chipotle gets a Fail.
Recent rankings by the National Science Foundation put the University of Arizona at the top of the list for research spending in the physical sciences. In the last recorded fiscal year, UA science programs attracted a record $530 million dollars in financial support, funding scores of innovative projects and experiments that regularly receive national media attention. For a commitment to serious research and excellence in the physical sciences, the UA gets a Pass.
Asked to explain why one in five Americans are unable to locate the United States on a world map in a random-question round of this week’s Miss Teen USA pageant, Lauren Caitlin Upton, Miss Teen South Carolina, offered this creative response: “”I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don’t have maps, and that I believe our education, such as in South Africa and the Iraq, everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should – our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., or should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future.”” For her unintelligible response, we award her no points, and may God have mercy on her soul. Making American ignorance the butt of a joke watched 8 million times on YouTube deserves a Fail.
OPINIONS BOARD: Editorials are determined by the Wildcat opinions board and written by one of its members. They are Allison Hornick, Sarah Keeler, Connor Mendenhall, Justyn Dillingham, Allison Dumka and Jerry Simmons.
