munchies and sacraments

[Griff]

Its 2 am you've just celebrated your sacrament and you've got the munchies. The man is sticking it to you with his metal cooking surfaces.

Akaberi, of South Setauket, Long Island, has followed Rastafarianism since this summer. The religion says its members should follow the ital diet of all-organic foods. The diet is up to individual interpretation, Akaberi said, but he won't eat food with any preservatives or any that's cooked on metallic surfaces.

Before coming to campus last month, Akaberi said he contacted Sodexho, the company that provides food service for BU. The company offered a compromise in which he could call ahead for special meals to be prepared when dining halls are open and have a cook at its late-night cafeteria prepare foods meeting the ital diet. But Akaberi said that chef hasn't been available when he has visited the cafeteria since the beginning of the semester.


CLARIFICATION

Binghamton University offers accommodations -- including apartment-style living -- that do not require students to have meal plans. A story in Thursday's Press & Sun-Bulletin was unclear.

[footfootfoot]

College kids can be such assholes sometimes. Think what you'd be able to do with that cash instead.

I bet he'd find less luxury time for hunger striking when he was working to put non metallic food in his mouth.

He looks a little white to me for a Rasta, maybe he didn't get far enough into the philosophy (or religion if you prefer) to find out that whitey is the downpresser man, even if he is at the mercy of sodhexo.

pfffft!

And Griff, you had me fooled with your title, I thought someone had broken into the vestry and chowed down a few fistfuls of host, you being a Catholic and all.

[glatt]

The article says he transferred from the US Air Force Academy. I wonder what the story is there? Can you simply drop out of the Air Force Academy if you don't like it, or has he been dishonerable discharged? He doesn't look like the military type.

[Griff]

Originally Posted by footfootfoot

And Griff, you had me fooled with your title, I thought someone had broken into the vestry and chowed down a few fistfuls of host, you being a Catholic and all.

Just doing my job.

BU is notorious for unhelpful staff (of course they deal with the likes of this kid all the time) but it really looks to me that he had reasonable alternatives, move off campus or get an apartment on campus, and chose not to be reasonable. They can't have kids in regular dorms off the meal plan because they'd be cooking on nonmetallic surfaces in their rooms and burning the place down. I was impressed that you could get organic food in the cafeteria. The kid just strikes me as someone with a sense of entitlement who has never known a real injustice.

[Griff]

Originally Posted by glatt

He doesn't look like the military type.

That's what they said in Colorado.

[9th Engineer]

Couldn't they just slip this under some clause of Chuch/State? A voluntary religious diet is not a medical need, and therefore is the responsibility of the individual.

[Griff]

...except that they already do special dietary stuff for the Jewish and Islamic students.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Does being Rastafarian mean they supply his pot?

[JayMcGee]

Thats just being silly, oxo-man.


As a determined Northerer, I demand Tripe and Onions
be a compulsoy item on the menu

[9th Engineer]

So stop cowtowing. Why are we supporting ANY religion's dietary restrictions? As you said we can't well conform to one and not all, so just ban every one. Any irrational preference to one thing in an identical group is just stupid. The man can make a rational arument that the school must not cook his food on metal surfaces because they have agreed to make sure certain foods are not mixed with pork juice or other things that would violate kosher for the Jews, therefore the school is stuck having to bow to this ass because they were stupid enough to write another assinine law into the books.

[Griff]

Originally Posted by 9th Engineer

So stop cowtowing. Why are we supporting ANY religion's dietary restrictions?

Probably sheer numbers. BU would be empty buildings without the Jewish kids. I don't know anything about the ital diet, is it possible to eat off a regular menu? The cafeteria probably has a broad enough choice that eating Kosher isn't difficult, but can smokey do the same? I'm just being the devils advocate here. They should have reached a compromise by now that does not include a personal chef.

[9th Engineer]

It's probably true that they have to offer special accomodations to a group of students that comprise a large portion of the school, so I guess they have two choices right now I can see. They can give him whatever accomodations he demands, and then hold him in the spotlight for the public to judge. Or they can tell him that as a single student he doesn't hold enough political power to make them give him a personal chef. I say they take the first option and try to shame the guy into submission or isolate him enough to then take the second option.

[footfootfoot]

I'm agreeing with 9th. I think hard core dietary beliefs are best satisfied in parochial schools rather than public schools.

Isn't that one of the great things about this country? If you don't like the way things are, you are free to sue and cause a stink and make things go your way? No, wait, I mean you are free to start your own school with your own rules and menu. THAT'S what I really meant to say.

[xoxoxoBruce]

He's being an ass...throw him out.
Uh....the student...Akaberi.