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March 10, 2009

I'm From Away

Posted by Anna Bowen at 11:49 AM ET | Comments (0)

Ok, so maybe Lisa's TV rehab blog has got me thinking about my own relationship to technology. I mean, sure, I don't own a TV and I don't even have a cell phone (gasp, how do you live?) but I would say on average my laptop becomes an extension of my body for probably about ten hours a day or more. I try to think that I balance my relationship to electronic devices with a healthy engagement with the natural world, when in fact for the last few years I have basically hibernated in front of the computer (ok, also books) all winter and then come out squinting into the growing season in a pretty remote location in Nova Scotia where I have a hard time understanding how anyone could lie to themselves and call the internet "high speed," and where clean water is still an issue. True Torontonians look at me with mouth agape. Where I work in Cape Breton, facebook is a bi-monthly event, cell phones are for snow storms, and movie night means going to Ralph's Dairy to pick up "The Pursuit of Happyness" again (please, no). It's a little manic, in the end.(It's also illegal to drive while chatting on your cellphone, a law I could do with more of here in Ontario.)

Although I was shocked to hear that my partner's students don't know how to find something in a book (Student: Where's the answer? TA: Look in your textbook. Student: Where? TA: Look in the index. Student: What's an index?) recently I have been really trying to remind my brain that when reading a book there is no "Find" or "Search" function. In the same vein, the NY Times just published a piece on the way that cellphone navigation might change the way we (er, you) think.

I try to tell myself that I no longer need to cling to these sticky binary oppositions between nature and culture; that neither has the upper hand, but function interdependently, that neither is pure. Recently I have had a renewed sense of the miraculous and the human in the city - my gawd, how are all these people so squished together and don't want to kill each other? Cities are amazing! But at the same time, when I need something for comfort in times of grief, myspace or facebook obituaries just don't cut it for me. I would much rather see things grow and die and compost in the natural world in order to get a deeper sense of WTF is going on.

More entries on: From the intern desk

January 30, 2009

Profile: Red Thread - Multiracial womens' organization in Guyana

Posted by Anna Bowen at 02:54 PM ET | Comments (0)

pic courtesy of SHAGGY ISAAC
It was a combination of two striking stories in the Toronto Star today that got me thinking about Red Thread. The first was Maher Arar's public critique -- he asks, if journalists aren't looking out for the marginalized, who is? The second story was the gut-wrenching reports of gang rape and religious violence in India in 2008.

During my time at OISE/University of Toronto, I had the opportunity to visit the most inspiring feminists I have ever met. A Guyanese miraculously multiracial women's organization, Red Thread is working on a shoestring budget and does more work than you can imagine.

About Red Thread

Red thread is an anti-racist organization that defends the rights of women, sticks out its neck to speak out against violence against women, and attends to the very basic needs of its constituency - literacy, help during floods, transportation -- everything from helping mothers budget for food to advocacy and protest.

They explain their project as twofold: Bringing together low-income Guyanese women of African, Indian, and Indigenous descent, across race divides; and Developing the skills, information, and other resources [they] need to understand and contest the inequalities that oppress grassroots women.

Presently, they are trying to send delegates to a conference in the UK. They write,

We are currently trying to organise to attend an international set of meetings in London, the UK, next week, and for seven grassroots women from Guyana to attend. The meetings are organised by the Global Women's Strike, Red Thread is the national co-ordinator of the Strike in Guyana.

With the influx of major news stories that cycle through our newpapers, blogs, TVs, and radios, I feel like it's also important to draw attention to smaller groups with less resources, working hard in places that don't always make the headlines.

For more info or to get involved, please contact anna@thismagazine.ca

More entries on: From the intern desk

January 28, 2009

Shooting Star(buck)s

Posted by Anna Bowen at 04:47 PM ET | Comments (0)

It's not just the feds who are releasing their budget this week. It seems that both coffee dealers and buyers are doing an analysis of their pocketbooks and retro snappy purses, including the infamous Seattle-based Starbucks. Because of overexpansion that caused what is referred to as "cannibalization" (starbucks eating starbucks, or competing with itself) as well as competition from fast-food chains, Starbucks is scaling back and shuttering stores.

After initial cuts last year, Starbucks intends to close down 300 of their underperforming stores across the US this year, which could mean a loss of 6,000 jobs (and dental)

that Starbucks has been pumping out since it swept across city blocks a few years ago. Yet another reason to grab your daily dose at a local fair-trade coffee shop. While companies like the big SB are looking at share prices, local roasters are just dealing in beans.

image courtesy of KALADI COFFEE

More entries on: From the intern desk

January 15, 2009

Anti-sweatshop campaign is bum logic?

Posted by Anna Bowen at 03:49 PM ET | Comments (0)

"I know it sounds strange to say, but if we care about the poor, shouldn't we actually be campaigning for sweatshops?"
- New York Times' Nicholas D. Kristof in Cambodia

ENRICO BIANDA WWW.ACTNOW.COM

In Kristof's video, "A Dirty Job: Making the Case for Sweatshops"
the former managing editor for The Times is worried that if Obama is going to make a change for better working conditions, labor standards, and trade agreements for the poor in factories in the South that...

a) It will reduce jobs in Cambdodia?
b) He won't be able to get a new tie for under $50?
c) Factories will close because they can't be competitive unless they underpay and mistreat their workers?

He says "the anti-sweatshop logic is very well-meaning, and utterly misguided." He also states the only alternatives to sweat shops in the world's most impoverished countries are "construction, prostitution, or scavenging."

Although my instinct is to totally shut down Kristof's argument (his narrow perspective does not take into account a larger picture), I do think it is true that in order to be responsible citizens, maybe we need to do a little of the hard work of research for ourselves.

Are travel mugs really better than styrofoam or paper cups? Is buying a T-shirt made in Cambodia always a bad idea? Is buying a "fair-trade" T-shirt from American Apparel always a good one? We really can not be looking for any quick-fix answers.

Often part of the secret to finding the answer seems to be in doing the hard work of checking out case-by-case instances, or reading up on the work of those who have. An aid-worker friend who worked in Bangladesh, for example, told me that it is difficult to make sweeping generalizations about factories - one H&M T-shirt factory in Bangladesh seemed to have everything going for it (childcare, good working conditions, education), but that doesn't mean that the H&M jean factory in (insert country here) offers the same deal.

I think it's also important to point out that we need to support labor rights activists and workers in places where they are locally fighting for better working standards, as well as supporting well-researched campaigns that are making a positive difference.

Kristof's final thought on sweatshops? "I sure wouldn't want to work in one."

http://en.maquilasolidarity.org/nosweat
http://www.nosweat.org.uk/
http://www.oxfam.ca/what-we-do/campaigns/no-sweat
http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/thecityisasweatshop

more comments on this article here.

More entries on: From the intern desk

January 13, 2009

NIMBY attitudes on closing Guantanamo?

Posted by Anna Bowen at 10:10 AM ET | Comments (0)

This past Sunday was the a 7th anniversary of the arrival of prisoners to the Guantanamo Bay detention center. It also marked just over one week until President-elect Obama is inaugurated. In his campaign, Obama promised to close Guantanamo within 100 days of gaining office, but the task is looking a little more complicated than the average person imagines, explained Obama this weekend.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PROTEST 2008 COURTESY OF www.edgeofconsciousness.net

In an interview with ABC on Sunday, Obama softened his promise only a little, saying it would be a "challenge" to close the detention center within 100 days, but the presidential order should at the very least get the ball rolling. Obama will probably issue a presidential order for its closing within his first week in office, suggest his advisors, but according to the NY Times, some analysts suggest it may take as long as a year to transfer the estimated 240 detainees who are being held at present to other countries or incarceration facilities within the US.

Reports estimate that 70 inmates are on hunger strike in protest of the conditions of confinement, potentially in response to the anniversary (January 11, 2002) or to draw attention to their cause in hopes that Obama will carry through with his promise.

What makes the closing of this prison facility so hard are the decisions and complications of who will be moved where and how they will be tried. Rumours that Australia is refusing take some of the detainees who cannot repatriate seem to be true - and the UK is having a hard time agreeing to rehabilitate ex-detainees. How the US will deal with the approximately 15 so-called "high-value" detainees is unclear.

My opinion? Although Obama's promise was to close the prison within the first few months of office, it makes sense that cleaning up a mess like this is going to take longer. It is surprising to me (maybe I'm naive) that the US has spent the last seven years demonizing the inmates and now expects European and Western countries to accept them for rehabilitation. Obviously they're going to have to lead by example.

Meanwhile, as detainees - many of whom are not charged with anything - no doubt wait in agony for news of change, George W. Bush is preparing for his own move, to a new house in Dallas, Texas. There, he hopes to get out of the limelight, avoid more shoes to the head, no doubt keep his own backyard detainee-free, and generally hand the mess over.

More entries on: From the intern desk

January 07, 2009

Chernobyl in the Jungle

Posted by Elaisha Stokes at 03:40 PM ET | Comments (4)

Looking for an adventurous and educational holiday to beat the winter blues? Why not tour the chaos and misery of the mess Texaco Oil left behind in the Amazon Basin. For the last fifteen years Chevron Corp, which acquired Texaco Oil in 2001, has been in a deadlock legal battle with the citizens of Lago Agrigo, Ecuador. With the case against the oil giant is set to conclude latter this year, locals are busying themselves touring the public around the toxic waste dump they now call home.

Among the claims against Texaco Oil:
1. Soaking dirt roads with crude to keep down the dust
2. Encouraging local oilfield workers to smoother their legs and scalp with crude
3. Dumping 18 billion gallons of wastewater into unlined waste pits
4. Burning natural gas and solid waste, resulting in deadly air pollution

The result has been over 1400 deaths from cancer in the tiny community, nearly twice Ecuador’s national rate. While it’s impossible to predict who will win the legal battle, local experts believe the payout from Chevron could be as high as $27.3 billion.

For more on this story and other eco-catastrophe, check out forecast earth.

More entries on: Environment | From the intern desk | Global politics | Human rights | Planet Earth

January 06, 2009

Police State, Version 2.0

Posted by Elaisha Stokes at 01:28 PM ET | Comments (0)

Lately, it seems everyone is talking about slumdog millionaire. I haven't seen it, but I've been assured it is the thing to do. Having recently returned from a little overseas adventure of my own, I've been thinking a lot about slums. What does it mean to live in a slum? Or a compound, a favela, a township, depending on your nation state boundaries. I've got a feeling it's not not as glitzy and glam as Mr. Boyle would have us believe. According to this really cool website, 2008 marked the first time in global history that more people are living in an urban than rural setting. In fact, urban slums are the fastest growing habitat on earth, with one billion people calling a 'slum' their 'home.'

And yet governments around the world continue to treat slums as illegal settlements, refusing to acknowledge the community, culture and necessity they provide for millions. Earlier today, The Washington Post reported that Brazil has begun a counter-insurgency occupation in the shantytown of Santa Maria, located in Rio de Janeiro. The government is taking the concept of police state to new and exciting levels, employing a counter-insurgency pilot project that aims to emulate the tactics used by U.S. soldiers in Iraq to stem drug related criminal activity in the favela.

Maybe it's just me, but the whole operation seems a bit extreme. When did being poor become illegal? (I know, I know, governments around the world have always tried to criminalize the poor just for being poor...) I'll be the first to admit that Rio has had its share of crime related issues, but employing war-time tactics in a peaceful country effectively violates the rights of the citizens who occupy the communities. And I stress the word community. Since its inception, the occupation of Santa Maria has successfully stunted local culture, shutting down businesses, dance parties and motorcycle taxis. While citizens report feeling safer, they also lament the days of yore, when you could walk down the street and chat with your neighbour. These days, no one leaves the house for fear of an interrogation, or worse...

It all prompts the question — in taking the concept of a police state to the next level, are we really engaging in a 'war on drugs' or a war on people?

More entries on: From the intern desk | Global politics | Human rights | War and peace

April 10, 2008

Nepal: shining future or end of the path?

Posted by derek at 10:41 AM ET | Comments (1)

Today in Nepal, voting began for a new constituent assembly that may well chart a radically different course for the Himalayan country. The election comes after more than 10 years of warfare waged by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). The main parties squaring off are the Maoists, the Communist Party of Nepal United Marxist-Leninist (essentially social-democrats, counter-intuitively to their name) and the Nepali Congress Party.

The Maoists, still publicly commited to their goal of world communism, have been brought to this point by a number of factors. First, although they have major support in the hill regions, they have been viewed suspiciously by Nepal's urban middle classes, and see winning them over as critical to holding power country-wide. Second, The rapid success of their movement has ran far ahead of similar trends in South Asia, and the Maoists faced the possibility of running the undeveloped country with little or no external support. Third, the people of Nepal have been exhausted by the war and have been thirsting for peace.

The CPN(M) then, sees the push for a constituent assembly as a tactic in a complex dance to move their revolution forward in very unique circumstances.

It's highly unorthodox for their ideological background, and very risky. Anything could happen, from a coup/Indian invasion to Maoist political hegemony, from a new phase in the civil war to the rebels being adopted into the political mainstream.

PHOTO MAOIST SOLDIERS AND CHILDREN IN ROLPA, WESTERN HILL REGION

More entries on: From the intern desk | Global politics | War and peace

March 25, 2008

High heat on Iran

Posted by derek at 12:08 PM ET | Comments (19)

Two interesting, perhaps ominous developments on the "will they bomb Iran" front:

On March 11, Admiral William Fallon resigned as head of the U.S. Central Command. Fallon opposed a military strike on Iran and the word in the halls of power is that his exit may indicate an intention on behalf of Bush and Co. to attack Iran sooner than later.

Just yesterday, General David Petraeus, head of U.S. forces in Iraq, blamed a deadly rocket attack in the Green Zone in Baghdad on Iran, saying the rockets were provided by Iran and those that fired them were trained by Iran.

True or not (and likely not, considering the recent track record of people like him) Petraeus's accusation may be an attempt to build justification for a strike on Iran, making an irreversible "fact on the ground" prior to the election of a new president in November.

PHOTO SPIDER DIJON FLICKR.COM

More entries on: American Politricks | From the intern desk | Global politics | War and peace

March 14, 2008

The Dalai Lama on Tibet protests

Posted by derek at 12:04 PM ET | Comments (10)

The Dalai Lama - I am sooo sick of this guy. Commenting on the recent protests in Tibet, the Dalai Lama criticized the Chinese government for, among other things, the "politicization of religious issues." Really?! This, coming from a man who is revered as a God-King, who once technically legally owned everything and every person in Tibet, and whose religious position allowed him to stand at the top of a brutal and oppressive serf-based society...now he says we should keep politics out of religion?

The Dalai Lama has urged his followers (in a statement primarily geared towards international media, mind you) not to resort to violence. This is an interesting irony since the protests in Tibet are commemorating the armed uprising launched against China in 1959, which was initiated by "his holiness" with funds and training provided by the CIA.

The only reason the western media pays any attention to this parasitic clown is because his fantasy of returning to power in Tibet often conveniently dovetails with western attempts to encircle and put political pressure on China.

To quote another famous figure in Chinese history, the Tibetan people may very well have "a right to rebel." It's unfortunate that their just struggles against real greivances are either hijacked and diverted by cynical political operators like the Dalai Lama or are distorted by naive new-agers who romanticize what was one of the most brutal societies on earth.

PHOTO CHRIS GREENBERG

More entries on: From the intern desk | Global politics | Religion

From the frying pan into the fire

Posted by tania at 11:50 AM ET | Comments (1) | TrackBack

To continue with Derek's theme of Afghanistan this week, here is a statement by Malalai Joya, an Afghan MP currently appealing her suspension from parliament.

"After 9/11, unfortunately the United States and its allies like Canada pushed us from the frying pan into the fire," she states, calling on Canada to act independently from the US, and find an alternative policy to the current one.

This current policy, which she calls, "the wrong policy" is Canadian and US support of "the Northern Alliance criminals and warlords," in the name of democracy.

The Canadian mission was to expire in February 2009 but will be extended to December 2011, after a confidence motion passed in the House of Commons on Thursday.

More entries on: From the intern desk

March 12, 2008

Torture and hypocrisy

Posted by derek at 03:00 PM ET | Comments (1)

On December 5, 2002, Dilawar, a young Afghan taxi driver, was arrested, handed over to US troops and taken to Bagram Air Force Base for interrogation. 5 days later he was dead. In his five days in that dungeon, he was hooded, chained to the ceiling of his cell, and beaten repeatedly. His legs were so badly injured that they were described as "pulpified" - like they had been crushed by a truck. Dilawar's story is an example of what can happen to people in places like Afghanistan who are simply judged to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

What happened to Dilawar is unique only in the sense that we know about it - the story of his torture and murder was made into a film, Taxi to the Dark Side, which recently won the Academy Award for best feature documentary. But as numerous horror stories from Bagram, Abu Ghraib, and Guantanamo show, these crimes have become routine.

I was inspired to post this today because of the US State department's release of a worldwide report on human rights, in which they criticize other countries over violations like violence, humiliating treatment, and yes, torture. It is galling hypocrisy, hypocrisy without limit.

PHOTO THINKFILM

More entries on: Film | From the intern desk | Global politics | Human rights

March 10, 2008

International Women's Day: Afghanistan

Posted by derek at 03:51 PM ET | Comments (3)

I am caged in this corner
full of melancholy and sorrow ...
my wings are closed and I cannot fly ...
I am an Afghan woman and so must wail.
- Nadia Anjuman, Afghan poet, murdered by her husband in 2005.

One hundred and sixty-five. That's how many Afghan women set themselves on fire in 2007. It's a desperate act that reflects the desperate lives of women in Afghanistan, whose plight is getting worse.

The outrages make for a long list: Child-selling for marriages is rampant, and many of the new brides haven't even reached their 10th birthday. In prisons and "shelters" women are raped by guards and government officials. Afghan women suffer from one of the world's highest maternal mortality rates: 1 in 9 women die during childbirth. Afghanistan is the only country in the world where the suicide rate is higher for women than for men...and on and on.

Those who speak out, or even raise questions, face harsh punishment. Sayad Kambaksh, 23-year-old journalism student, was recently sentenced to death after a trial that lasted just four minutes. His crime? Downloading an article about women's rights that was deemed blasphemous to Islam by the judges.

All of this is upheld by a government that is defended, funded, and propped up by NATO countries, Canada included.

More entries on: Feminism | From the intern desk | Global politics | Religion

February 27, 2008

Algonquin leader faces six months in Ontario jail

Posted by tania at 10:33 AM ET | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Bob Lovelace, an ex-chief and negotiator for Ardoch Algonquin First Nations, is facing six months in prison and was fined $25,000 for participating in an ongoing protest over uranium exploration on Algonquin land, in and around Sharbot Lake, Ontario. He was charged with contempt of court.

The protest was in response to a license the Ontario government granted Frontenac Ventures, giving them permission to proceed with exploratory drilling on land that is part of a 25-year-old land claim. That First Nations communities said that they had not been notified by the government or the mining company about the plans.

Amnesty International released a press release last week expressing their concern with the sentencing of Lovelace and stated that the Ontario government "is ignoring it's own legal obligations without any accountability."

Lovelace, the fifty-nine year-old professor at Queen's University and Sir Sandford Fleming Community College, is serving his six-months at Central East Correctional Facility in Lindsay. AAFN co-Chief and professor at Trent University, Paula Sherman, was also sentenced to six months in prison and fined $15,000. However, the single mother of three has agreed to stop her protest to avoid incarceration.

An additional fine of $10,000 was placed on the AAFN community, even though they are a federally unrecognized community and do not receive government funding.

More entries on: From the intern desk

February 22, 2008

New China's catch-22

Posted by derek at 01:33 PM ET | Comments (1)

For the past twenty years, the Chinese state has been luring foreign capital to their country with the promise of cheap wages, abundant natural resources, good infrastructure, and a massive internal market. The hope is that the flows of foreign cash will spur development that will vault China into developed-country-status by 2050.

The problem, as the Chinese government is finding out, is that capital has no loyalty. As the Globe and Mail reports in a story today, China is facing an influx of foreign goods made in even lower-cost countries like Indonesia and Vietnam. China is also losing some of its garment factories to places like Bangladesh. It's an example of how capital works on a global scale - zipping here and there, setting down roots wherever it can get the greatest profit, and then moving on to the next big score.

It presents an interesting catch-22 for the Chinese-inspired development model. The strategy promises to lift countries out of third-world status, but the very character of the development necessitates their continuing poverty.

PHOTO ALEXANDRA MOSS, FLICKR

More entries on: Economics | From the intern desk | Global politics

February 13, 2008

12 Years of Revolution in Nepal

Posted by derek at 11:35 AM ET | Comments (1)

Today marks the 12th anniversary of the initiation of the revolution in Nepal. Led by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), the revolution, called a "People's War" by its proponents, began with sporadic actions in Nepal's isolated rural areas in 1996 and now sees the rebels controlling 80% of the country. Mystifyingly ignored by North American media, the revolution in Nepal may have wide-ranging repercussions in a region already marked by turmoil.

The CPN(M)'s rapid advance is largely due to their winning over much of Nepal's poverty-stricken rural population - support won by relying on a program of wiping out national, caste, and gender discrimination as well as by implementing land reforms. That, together with a highly unorthodox strategy the Nepalese Maoists call "Prachanda Path" named after their Party Chairman, has placed the maobadi on the verge of country-wide power in the land-locked Himalayan country.

A peace agreement, signed in November 2006, is currently being respected, but things show signs of heating up. The Maoists have just re-activated their rural governments that were dissolved when the peace agreement was signed, and a new showdown seems set for April when elections for a new Constituent Assembly will take place.

PHOTO VILLAGERS IN A MAOIST BASE AREA, NEPAL: LI ONESTO/REVOLUTION NEWSPAPER

More entries on: From the intern desk | Global politics | Resistance

February 12, 2008

Segregation or inclusion?

Posted by tania at 10:31 AM ET | Comments (1) | TrackBack

The recent decision by the Toronto District School Board to open Canada's first black-focused school is being called, by some, a step towards segregation. Though Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty did not use the words himself, he stated that he is disappointed with the board's decision and that Queen's Park will not fund Afrocentric schools. His reasoning: a black-focused school is not in demand and "the best way for us to educate our children is to bring them together so they can come together, learn together and grow together."

In a perfect world, this may be possible. But the reality is that there is a 40% drop out/push out rate in Toronto among black youth and the proponents of this initiative are members of the black community, who are responding to the marginalization of their youth by the current school system.

George Dei, a professor of sociology and equity studies at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto (OISE/UT), describes it best. "There is a meaningful difference, however, between forced segregation and separation by choice." He argues, that while segregation attempts to exclude blacks from society, black-focused schools are an attempt to help minority youth have a chance at education.

More entries on: From the intern desk

February 06, 2008

Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten

Posted by derek at 01:35 PM ET | Comments (0)

Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten, a recently-released film about the Clash front man who died in 2002, opens with a young and fierce looking Strummer in the recording studio. Headphones on, he starts spitting out the lyrics to White Riot: "An' everybody's doing / just what they're told to / an' nobody wants / to go to jail! / white riot - I wanna riot! / white riot - a riot of our own!" After a few verses acapella, the soundtrack slams in. The effect is jarring and exhilarating, kind of like hearing the Clash for the very first time.

At the Edinburgh Fringe Festival two summers ago, I saw a play called Being Joe Strummer. The play tells the story of two friends growing up together, being politicized by anti-fascist struggles, the rise of Thatcherism, and most of all, by The Clash. As they get older, they, like all of us, face many different pulls - towards a "secure" life, "realistic" politics and the like. But Joe Strummer's music is always there, acting as a powerful "bullshit detector" - buzzing them warnings about the lies they tell themselves to make their lives a little easier.

It's this kind of influence that makes The Future is Unwritten a gotta-see for all of Joe's fans. As the film shows, Strummer knew that to change the world, you had to live in it and engage with it, even if this meant a loss of some mythical "purity." Of course this engagement is fraught with dangers and pitfalls - As the man himself used to warn us, "he who fucks nuns will later join the church."

Recounting how the Clash eventually collapsed, sending Strummer into a self-described "wilderness period" before his redemptive return near the end of his life with the Mescalaros, The Future is Unwritten is a loving tribute to a man for whom art had to mean something, in this world, despite the messiness involved.

PHOTO: WWW.JOESTRUMMERTHEMOVIE.COM

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

February 05, 2008

4th Annual Israeli Apartheid Week

Posted by tania at 12:23 PM ET | Comments (2) | TrackBack

It's that time of the year again...Israeli Apartheid Week. Born on the campuses of Toronto in 2005, IAW has spread internationally, this year taking place in Palestine, South Africa, the UK, Norway, and in cities across Canada and the U.S.

The series of events are being held this week (February 3rd to 11th) in Canada, the U.S, and Palestine, and next week (February 11th to 18th) in South Africa and the U.K. The campaign, which includes workshops, lectures, films, demonstrations and cultural performances, is part of a broader international divestment campaign lead by over 170 civil society groups in Palestine, who issued a statement in July 2005 calling for boycott, divestment and sanctions against apartheid Israel.

More entries on: From the intern desk

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

November 29, 2007

Godspeed, Suzuki!

Posted by nora at 12:54 PM ET | Comments (1)

In an effort to humanize our cetacean friends, Greenpeace is currently conducting an online poll of 30 possible names for the humpback whales travelling on the "Great Whale Trail". The names are mostly cribbed from Pacific languages and international dignitaries. That said, anyone with a soft spot for the propogation of Maori culture better get their vote on soon -- "Mister Splashy Pants" is currently winning by a mile.

More entries on: From the intern desk

November 14, 2007

Judy's back!

Posted by nora at 01:14 PM ET | Comments (2)

She's the sassy American philosopher who took Simone de Beauvoir's assertion that "one is not born a woman, but rather becomes one", and brought it to it's logical conclusion in 1990's Gender Trouble. That's right, Judith Butler is totally back and she's blowing minds.

Yesterday marked the launch of Judy's newest book, Who Sings the Nation State? Language, Politics, Belonging. The tome, co-writ with Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, is the latest bitchslap in the face of the political status quo. Publisher copy after the jump.

"What is contained in a state has become ever more plural whilst the boundaries of a state have become ever more fluid. No longer does a state naturally come with a nation. In a world of migration and shifting allegiances - caused by cultural, economic, military and climatic change - the state is a more provisional place and its inhabitants more stateless."

Right?? Touching on Palestine and the Star Spangled Banner [Spanish version], Who Sings promises to be a timely foray into globalization by a tag-team comprised of two of the greatest living Marxist-feminist scholars. Woo-hoo!

More entries on: From the intern desk

November 08, 2007

Stephen Lewis, The Hour and This Magazine

Posted by jesse at 07:19 PM ET | Comments (1)

The September/October issue of This was given some airtime on CBC's The Hour. Stephen Lewis offers his insights, and cradles that magazine like a newborn baby. He can't seem to put it down. Check it out here, at about 4:48 into the segment.

More entries on: From the intern desk | Media navel-gazing | THIS matters

October 25, 2007

food for the brain and body

Posted by jesse at 02:04 PM ET | Comments (5)

So you're sitting at your desk pretending to be hard at work, staring attentively at the screen while you put yet another jack of spades on top of the stack to complete your three hundredth game of solitaire. While you're busy looking busy, why not do something useful?

Freerice.com helps to end world hunger and increases your vocabulary at the same time. This highly addictive site donates 10 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program for every word definition you get right. The words gradually get harder or easier as you get answers right or wrong, and the unobtrusive advertising on the bottom of the screen pays for the rice while you improve your vocab. Know what it means to filch something? Go to freerice.com and you could actually put that knowledge to some good use.

More entries on: From the intern desk

October 23, 2007

webcomic relief

Posted by nora at 12:10 PM ET | Comments (2)

One of my favourite webcomics out there is A Softer World -- it's sweet and acerbic and uses real-life photographs in place of drawings. Also, it's done by two excessively talented individuals who are unfurling their artistic fronds in multiple directions. Transplanted Maritimer Emily Horne (pictures) is currently a photographer, blogger and graphic designer in Victoria. Her Toronto-based cohort Joey Comeau (words) has published novels and short story collections. That's totally part of what I love about this burgeoning scene of online comics, that their creators are rarely anything but jacks- and janes-of-all-trades, unafraid of new territory, as well as constantly propping up any neat work their colleagues are doing.

But back to A Softer World. Emily takes pictures and quite artfully zigzags them into panels (sidebar: nothing like the "Comic Life" application that comes on the new Macs, if that's what you're picturing). And Joey writes words over them. The result is dark and adorable, and often LOL funny.

Also on the site is "Overqualified", ostensibly a collection of job application cover letters to major corporations. This premise is more of a front than anything, however, for Joey's inappropriate existential musings. As he sees it, "looking for work is an exercise in selling yourself. You write cover letter after cover letter, listing the parts of you that you respect the least, listing the selling points that make you valuable in a buyer's market ... And then maybe one day you just snap a little. You sit down to write a cover letter, and something entirely new comes out."

Here, Joey urges BBC to can the kookiness and glamorize Scrabble and cold beers for a change.
Here, Joey tells Google executives the story of how his grandmother coerced him into signing up for Gmail.

Joey's most recent collection of short stories, It's Too Late to Say I'm Sorry, came out this summer. Right now he is working on a novel called The Summer is Ended and We Are Not Yet Saved, "about a young boy with special powers and a young lady who is perhaps too violently enthusiastic about environmentalism." He's also working on a book based on the Overqualified letters, which he finds a ridiculous idea, and one that he believes has been going very well. Joey will be reading from his recent work at Canzine in Toronto this Sunday (the 28th) at the Gladstone Hotel. It sounds like a scene, and totally worth it -- either he just photographs well, or Joey's actually hell of cute. Trust me.

photo by e. horne and j. comeau

Nora Tennessen is an ex-pat Nova Scotian and current This Magazine intern. She likes science fiction and comic strips and sexy, sexy secularity.
Current boycrush: Michael Cera
Current girlcrush: Ellen Page
Political compass: Economic: 8.38 Political: 6.31

More entries on: From the intern desk | Interweb

October 22, 2007

Canada takes World Press Freedom Awards (division IV)

Posted by jesse at 07:13 PM ET | Comments (0)

Congratulations Canada, for being ranked in the top 20 by Reporters Without Borders in their annual World Press Freedom index. Canada rocked the competition, finishing just behind Hungary, Austria and New Zealand... no, wait, there was also Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Latvia, Switzerland. They also did better than Canada, but other than that we outshone. That's if you don't count Portugal, Ireland or Denmark either-- ok, how about just all of Europe. Minus Europe completely, in a Europeless world, Canada is the creme de la creme, a beacon of hope for freedom of the press everywhere (AKA 18th). Trinidad and Tobago (19) put up a good fight, but they'll have to ride our coattails yet again as we storm forward, trailblazers of the free press.

Here are some Canadian examples of exceptional merit that other countries can learn from, such as the UK (24. And we used to be part of their empire. Who's laughing now, UK?), the US (I can't believe we share the 49th parallel with a country ranked 48) and Eritrea(169), who nudged out defending champ North Korea(168) by a nose to take the Worst World Press Freedom title for 2007.

Example 1: A recent story in the Globe and Mail states that the Canadian government received 29,182 requests for access to information. They managed to disclose all of the information 23.1 percent of the time, using the "international affairs and defence" exemption to black out information 14.5 percent of the time. Apparently, public release of information generally decreased and slowed down since the Conservatives came to power. In fact, Montreal's La Presse reported that the government responded to one of their access to information requests saying it would cost them $500,000. Way to go Canada!

Example 2: Canada is one of the most concentrated media markets in the world. Only four corporations distribute 70 percent or our dailies, three control most of the tv news market and one company owns the majority of all our radio stations. So what does this mean? A 2006 Senate committee said it best when they stated the "concentration of [media] ownership has reached levels that few countries would consider acceptable." A recent CRTC hearing on media diversity has recognized that our media market is so concentrated that it is seriously damaging Canadian's access to more than one opinion.

Example 3: As we all know Prime Minister Harper loves the media as if they were his own children. To show his love he has plans to build us a brand new press gallery, right in an old shoe store a few blocks away from the current one, where the government can control the whole show. Maybe they can just write the stories from now on and feed them to the newspapers, which should be easy since the same company owns most of the papers anyways. I guess the current press gallery isn't cozy enough, which would explain why Harper's only ever had one press conference in it. During that monumental day Harper had his own people handpick the reporters who were allowed to ask the questions, a practice usually handled by the gallery. Talk about freedom: freedom to only ask polite questions, freedom to sit nice and quiet on your hands while the government dictates who gets to ask questions. I can only imagine how special those few reporters who were picked must have felt, as if it was the first day back to school and the teacher picked them while all the other kids frantically jolted their arms straight into the air, shouting "me me me me me me." Harper's office has said plans to build the shoe store press gallery are off, conveniently after this story came out in the Toronto Star.

So if Eritrea wants to challenge us for the World Minus Europe title next year there's a few things they have to do first. Have one massive company buy all the major media organizations and continually pump out corporate friendly fluff; gradually censor more and more access to information requests, until eventually all government documents look like a giant black line; and hold one press conference a year, dictating who gets to ask what questions. It seemed to work for Canada.

More entries on: From the intern desk

October 17, 2007

Is My Dad Pro Global Warming?

Posted by jesse at 05:48 PM ET | Comments (2)

So my Dad just bought an RV. I have no idea what RV actually stands for, but I have a feeling it might be something like Roaming Village. As I write this my dad is driving back from Cincinnati in his new Death Star, but alot of other things are happening too: two major wars are being fought over oil in the Middle East, the Alberta Tar Sands development is destroying a chunk of Alberta the size of Florida, polar bears could very possibly wash up at our front step any day, and Stephen Harper has said that Canada will not meet Kyoto protocols. That's fine though, my dad's retired, and he definitely deserves it, right?

But...this is no ordinary RV. I'm pretty sure it's a hybrid, so that saves gas. One part gasoline, two parts baby seal pelts. I believe two baby seal pelts and one gallon of gasoline will allow the RV to travel two kms below the speed limit in the passing lane for approximately three kms.

And the features this thing has, never mind the seals, emissions, gas, polar bears, Alberta. It has a satellite dish that picks up over 500 channels! The dish actually shoots a signal into space so strong that it rips new holes in the ozone layer as you watch Dancing with the Stars. As the small planet on wheels drives along, the signal from the dish, like a loose thread on a sweater, gradually pulls the ozone directly out of the sky, allowing us down here to get more direct sunrays. So that's good, isn't it? Winter is overrated anyways.

So why did my dad buy the traveling apocalypse?

Because he can. Now he didn't actually say this was the reason, but I know it is. And the truth is, that's the real reason behind most bad decisions made that will effect us in the future. Take any given man-made problem in the world, and somewhere there is somebody responsible for it who is candidly telling his/her son, Cus I can.

And I accept it, because he's my dad, and blood is thicker than water, even when that water buries downtown Manhattan. As long as people continue to accept this answer, until Cus I can no longer cuts it, I guess we're going to be eternally stuck behind that metaphorical 40 foot RV driving slow in the passing lane.

Jesse Kinos-Goodin is a Toronto-based journalism student and intern at This Magazine. He is counting the seconds to graduation when he can finally fill out something other than student on all those forms.
Current girlcrush: Anybody with the First name Jessica and the last name Biel or Alba.
Current boycrush: Radiohead, for figuring out how to stick to tha Man
Political compass: Economic -8.12 Social -6.00

More entries on: From the intern desk | Planet Earth

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