BLOG THIS | blog.thismagazine.ca: January 2008 Archives

Sigh, repression in Burma continues. Burmese poet Saw Wai has been put under arrest for a love poem he recently wrote. Turns out he hid an anti-government message in his poem "February 14." The Guardian has the scoop:

The eight-line poem in Burmese is about a man broken-hearted after falling for a fashion model, whom he thanks for having taught him the meaning of love. But if read vertically, the first word of each line forms the phrase: "Power crazy Senior General Than Shwe."

OK. Sorry about the downer. Eco-blog Treehugger interviews science personality Bill Nye.

A group of artists have reimagined scenes from the Bible using googlemaps.

Finally, a billboard that I could like.

More entries on: Weekend Links

January 25, 2008

Adding up the cost of homelessness

Posted by tania at 02:14 PM ET | Comments (0)

Is Canada ready for a long-term plan to tackle homelessness or will the feds continue to rack-up the bill with temporary solutions? Estimating the annual cost of homelessness to be between 4.5 and 6 billion, Calgary journalist Gordan Laird provides research to show how the neglect of housing rights has affected Canada both economically and socially.

Laird will be giving a talk in Toronto called "Housing and Homelessness: Adding up the costs; counting the benefits." He will be speaking on Friday Feb 8, 2008, 9 to 11:30am at The 519 Church Street Community Center (519 Church St. (north of Wellesley, take the TTC to Wellesley station).

His solution-based study, calls for action by the Canadian government to consider a "Housing First" approach to the increase in the homeless population, citing affordable housing as one of the main causes. As the number of homeless people rises, it is also diversifying, to include an overrepresentation of youth and Aboriginal people, and an increase of homeless senior citizens in Greater Vancouver by three times between 2002 and 2005.

The fact that it's cheaper to house people than to keep them on the streets where they are in greater need of services such as mental health institutions, temporary shelters and the prison justice system, is troubling, yet not surprising. It is clear that there needs to be a radical shift in government approach to this issue.

Laird's talk will address the housing sector in a broader context, focusing on the costs and solutions of the ongoing housing crisis.

More entries on: From the intern desk

January 23, 2008

Persepolis

Posted by derek at 03:30 PM ET | Comments (0)

Oscar nominations are out! In keeping with the spirit of the event, I would like to personally thank the Academy for its inclusion of the powerful and timely Persepolis, which has been nominated in the Best Animated Feature category.

The hand-drawn cartoon, directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, is adapted from Satrapi's graphic novel of the same name. Autobiographical in nature, the film tells the story of Marjane, growing up as a little girl in Iran just as a revolution against the hated Shah regime is beginning to sweep the country. Through the story of her exile and return, we learn about how today's Iran came to be - a history full of dashed hopes and personal and grand tragedies.

Persepolis is the perfect antidote for the current political climate that depicts people from the Middle East as mindless fanatics. The film is deeply humanizing, recounting how a people's hopes for joy and love and respect and fun came to be smothered, but not extinguished, by theocratic rule.

PHOTO DIAPHANA FILMS

More entries on: Cultural industries | Film | From the intern desk | Religion

January 20, 2008

Reimagining Rosie the Riveter, cellphones in Africa, Nike tries to go green

Posted by ron at 03:03 PM ET | Comments (0)

Earlier this month the Library of Congress partnered up with photosharing site Flickr. They've put up thousands of images to be tagged by the online community. Boing Boing found this amazing image that could have very easily inspired the iconic Rosie the Riveter poster of the 1940s.

If you love archival photos be sure to check out the giant Flickr set.

PSFK looks at whether the $100 laptop will actually work in the third world. They point out that in many developing countries the cellphone, not the computer, is the de rigeur device.

Also, what happens to your cellphone after you're done with it.

Designer Jeff Staple (real name Jeff Ng) is trying to drag Nike kicking and screaming into actually having some environmentally positive business practices. The end result is the Nike Considered project. Next, labour practices. Sooner or later they'll actually make those sweatshops, you know, less sweatshopy.

More entries on: Weekend Links

January 18, 2008

Introducing The People's Republic of Dave

Posted by mason at 02:08 AM ET | Comments (0)

Dave Bidini first made his name as a member of the seminal Canadian band Rheostatics, but since then has carved out an impressive career as an author--he bears witness to all things music, hockey and politics, infusing his observations with reflections on how regular Joes and Janes fit in the grand scheme of this crazy world.

Starting this week, Dave will be sharing his thoughts with the readers of This twice a month in his new column, The People's Republic of Dave. The first piece, a musing on how the big box phenomenon can be linked to former prime minister Brian Mulroney, can be found here. Keep watching thismagazine.ca for future installments. Welcome aboard, Dave!

More entries on: THIS matters

January 11, 2008

Food combining

Posted by jessica at 12:20 PM ET | Comments (0)

Tata motors of India has developed world's cheapest car, revving engines in news-land. Retailing for $2,500, the tiny, amenity-less car is being compared to the Volkswagen for putting poor folks in the driver's seat. While the vehicles are supposed to be lower-emission than North American cars, the price means there will be millions more polluters on the road, which is not a good thing. The same day the tiny car story broke, the Globe and Mail ran a less-noticed piece about two men who travelled over 7,000 km in a vehicle fuelled by biodiesel derived from chocolate.

The obvious question now is: Can these two technologies be combined? And, if so, where can I get one?

More entries on: Planet Earth

January 05, 2008

Death of the mall, why women's magazine covers hurt your eyes

Posted by ron at 07:44 PM ET | Comments (0)

The Economist has this piece about the decline of American shopping malls. Some of the problems: oversaturation, changing demographics (suburbs are getting poorer or becoming more diverse), online shopping.

Some culture jammers are lopping off the heads of plastic mascots and photos in ads. I'd like to think this is a culture jam, but it could just as easily be an add for Sweeney Todd!

Women's Wear Daily has this article on what makes a blockbuster cover for a fashion mag (toilets are a big no-no, and always use that wind machine, and oh, yeah, photoshop). Wow... no wonder I blackout everyt ime I go near a magazine stand.

Michael Pollan (author of the Omnivore's Dillema) gives his 12 commandments of good eating. Two more than Moses (and God). Who does he think he is. Plenty of food for thought *groan*

Finally, this essay salutes indexers. What? You didn't think the index in that 3,000 page tome on the life of Tommy Douglas did itself, did you?

More entries on: Weekend Links

January 03, 2008

Canada's top CEOs already made your salary

Posted by mason at 01:17 PM ET | Comments (3)

How long will it take the country's top 100 CEOs to make as much as the average Canadian does in a year? Whoops, it's already happened. According to research by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, "Canada's best paid 100 CEOs make the average Canadian wage by 10:33 am January 2."

And that's the average. If you're unlucky enough to be a minimum-wage earner, your entire year's income will have been pocketed by those 100 dudes (and maybe a few dudettes) by 1:04 pm on New Year's Day. In a new site called GrowingGap.ca, the CCPA has underscored this inequality with a tool that calculates how long it will take any salary to reach the best-paid CEOs.

As report author Hugh Mackenzie says in a news release, "We have to ask ourselves, are those at the top of the income heap really worth so much? And are those at the bottom really worth so little?"

More entries on: Poverty

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THIS MAGAZINE: BECAUSE EVERTHING IS POLITICAL

January 27, 2008

Weekend links: Googlemaps as art, Bill Nye, a billboard I could like

January 25, 2008

Adding up the cost of homelessness

January 23, 2008

Persepolis

January 20, 2008

Reimagining Rosie the Riveter, cellphones in Africa, Nike tries to go green

January 18, 2008

Introducing The People's Republic of Dave

January 11, 2008

Food combining

January 05, 2008

Death of the mall, why women's magazine covers hurt your eyes

January 03, 2008

Canada's top CEOs already made your salary