Fighting Youth Voter Apathy

I thought that this was really funny and is a good way to encourage youth to vote.

Question of the Week

With the upcoming election, will people actually go out and vote? Voter turnout has been declining. Why is this? What can be done? I really hope that Canadian youth will really go out to the polls and vote, I think it's super important

20 Ridings...

This made me laugh. Voter turnout has been very low in previous years, what can people do to increase voter turnout and to combat voter apathy?

Question of the Week

It's really interesting to see how Ghadafi feels that the war is unjust looking at everything that has happened. It makes me wonder how people justify their actions and how people filter things in order to make decisions that are seen as being so terrible and stupid by others around them. This goes not only for Ghadafi but also our own governmental figures.

Gadhafi, in letter, asks Obama to end air strikes

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20110406/us-us-libya/

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi appealed directly to President Barack Obama on Wednesday to end what Gadhafi called "an unjust war." He also wished Obama good luck in his bid for re-election next year.

I think that it is very interesting that Gadhafi, after all of the terrible things that have been said about him would call this war "unjust". 

Nazi Saboteurs' Spectacular Failure Detailed In Newly Released Spy Files

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/04/pastorius-nazi-saboteurs-british-spy-files_n_844332.html

I have a huge interest in history so I thought that this article was interesting. It's interesting how things hidden away from what seems to be so long ago still resurface and are of interest. What would have happened if these plans would have worked?

Did the American Dream Emigrate to Europe?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-white/did-the-american-dream-im_b_845680.html

It seems that we've been talking about the American Dream a lot in most of my classes lately so the article title really caught my attention. The article ended up being about employment and the economies in Europe and the States, and how Europe is thriving in comparison to here.

I really enjoyed some of the comments, some people really thought that the article was very one sided and that the US is actually doing better than the states. I think I am going to do some more research on this topic.

Class Reflection

It was interesting skyping Kierra Ladner in class. Despite some technological issues at the beginning overall I think that it was very insightful.

Students welcome debt cap, slam other budget moves

http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1237054.html

The article itself was interesting but I felt that the comments below were even moreso.

Comment 1...

Post-secondary education is a privilege and not a right. People seem to forget that... what happened to the days when you only buy what you can afford.
I am someone that went to university and graduated debt free. My parents did not help me. I worked through high-school to save up money. I worked through university and full time in the summers to pay for my school. I didn't qualify for loans but my parents weren't able to help me either.. so I did what I had to do! I took three courses in a semester that I could only afford three courses..
And let's face it. A tuition reduction doesn't make sense. We are below the national average, and if you compare our tuition fees to the States, well, there is no comparison. Not everyone needs a tuition reduction - there are plenty of rich people attending universities. Why would we save them money? What we need is exactly what was in this budget, student assistance.

Comment 2...

How in many European countries, post-secondary education IS a right for those that academically qualify, as are trade schools and technical colleges. It is considered part of the education system and is tuition-free. Countries such as France and Germany also pay a stipend to the students.
Now are France and Germany richer countries? (other than an educated populace)No. Do they have more natural resources? (other than an educated populace)No.
Well, what's the difference? They have an advanced, proportional social democracy that stresses the well-being of the citizens over the needs of a soulless multinational.
Strangely, we can always find an extra billion or two to let our Dear Leader's narcissism and fascist fantasies play out, or 100 billion + to support toys for big boys and the military-industrial complex, but for the people? No. We can build prisons to slake the mouthbreathers bloodlust, but think, THINK. I
If there was a fairer education system, maybe we wouldn't need the prisons. Maybe we wouldn't need more welfare, maybe our taxes would be lower, maybe we'd be a better country.

Comment 3...

I wish university students would quit complaining about funding..if you cant afford it ..DONT GO! Go to Community college..we need more trades people than lawyers anyway.Right now the only loans to ''forgive'' would be med students IF they go to rural areas to work it off.

I thought that these were all really interesting and different views and reactions to this article. With a lot of work and support from my family I was able to pay for my whole first year without requiring any student loans. 

Bullied kids ‘reaching out for help,’ says longtime teacher

http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1236912.html

Four Nova Scotia teens have committed suicide in the past 3 months due to bullying, especially online forms. At least that has been what has made the news. A girl in my own community where i grew up almost committed suicide two weeks ago for the same reasons, although this did not make the news.

I liked this article because it was of a different perspective than a lot of other bullying articles that have been in the news.

Teens Killers Kruse Wellwood, Cameron Moffat Sentenced as Adults, Get Life in Prison for Kimberly Proctor Murder

http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Teen+killers+Kruse+Wellwood+Cameron+Moffat+sentenced+adults+life+prison+Kimberly+Proctor+murder/4556638/story.html?id=4556638

I thought that this whole case is rather disturbing. Since when are 16 and 17 year old boys aggressive sadist necrophiliacs? Ones that act on it?

I really agree with the decision that they get charged as adults, the crime that they committed is horrific and definitely deserves to be treated as such.

Canadian Bar Association

A few weeks ago we did a lobbyist simulation where people were assigned to act as lobbyists in order to effect change while the government is creating a budget.

Me and Laura chose to act as the Canadian Bar Association. The Canadian Bar Association is a group that represents over 37 000 people who work as lawyers, etc. They work towards procuring funds to ensure justice is fair and achievable for all who have to go through the court systems.

The thing that I spoke about was getting more funding so that legal aide is more accessible everywhere in Canada for everything. Laura spoke about a plan to get divorces and child custody battles to happen more rapidly and without jamming up the supreme courts. 

Class Reflection

I haven't really been keeping up with my blogging for this class, but I'm going to be completely caught up by Friday I hope. I've been busy writing term papers and was gone away for a sustainability symposium that I was on the planning committee for.

I really enjoyed Don Julian when he came to speak to the class. He is a really good speaker and I felt that he offered a lot of insight. He seems like he has had a lot of amazing experiences and like he is extremely knowledgeable on a variety of topics. I would have liked to be able to spend more time getting to learn from him.

I also really enjoyed last Tuesday's class on corporate agriculture, I've been doing a lot of research into it, it's an area of high interest for me. I really enjoyed people's reactions. I think that being in a major where things like that are common knowledge, I forget that the majority of people have no knowledge about origins of food and how terrible our current food system is.

Political Art

This made me laugh, I liked the logos of different corporations that were placed throughout the picture. I thought that it related to class because there are such strong ties between corporations and the government and Campbell talks about it in The China Study. He speaks about how actual knowledge about things like diet will never really be well known because there are too many ties between the medical association and drug corporations.

Question of the Week

How will the nuclear plant and radiation issues in Japan affect and influence choices regarding nuclear in other countries in the next coming while?

I like the idea of nuclear, it's a great concept, but I think that it has a LONG way to go before we should be constructing nuclear energy plants. Look at Chernobyl, look at Three Mile Island, or even the failure of Yucca Mountain. I think that nuclear has a long way before it can be considered safe enough to be in regular everyday use.

Canadian Reactions to the Federal Budget Cuts for Environmental Causes

https://350orbust.wordpress.com/

On this blog, 350 or bust, the first post was about how Harper is protecting oil companies while doing nothing for the environment. The post talked about how Canadian crime rates are actually dropping and our money is getting spent on new prisons while closing down rehabilitative farms.

http://www.policyalternatives.ca/newsroom/updates/canadas-military-spending-higher-now-any-time-wwii

On this website of Canadian policy alternatives, I discovered that Canadian military funding is now the highest it's been since the second world war. What is the Harper government doing and why is so much money being put into our military since it's not needed?

http://canadians.org/action/2011/env-can-cutbacks.html

This is an article from the Council of Canadians. It talks about how they cut funding from Environment Canada by 1/5 and moved the money into the military. The Council of Canadians feels that this is out of step with what most Canadians want and show how Harper is not on the same page as the general public.

http://www.ourclimate.ca/wordpress/

This is a website published by the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition. Although I couldn't find anything specifically pertaining to the federal budget 2011, I found a lot on oil subsidies and how they need to be cut.

Canadian and American Federal Budgets 2011

This is an article I found on the Canadian federal budget 2011 cut to the environment:

ACTION ALERT: Budget cuts to Environment Canada are unacceptable March 2, 2011 News agencies are reporting that the Harper government is planning a $222-million or 20% reduction in spending at Environment Canada. This includes a $141 million cut to climate change and clean air initiatives, as well as a $19.5-million cut to a federal action plan dealing with contaminated federal sites, and about $3-million in reductions for compliance promotion and enforcement for wildlife and pollution. Meanwhile, in 2010 to 2011, Environment Canada’s program activities amount to just over one billion dollars while National Defence spending is over twenty billion. This is further evidence that the Harper government is out of step with the views of Canadians. According to recent Environics poll, seventy-one percent of Canadians strongly or somewhat agreed with the statement, "money spent on wars and the military would all be better spent on efforts that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the impacts of climate change.”

This is what I found about the American federal budget 2011 in regards to the environment:

The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives passed sweeping legislation early today that would cut $61 billion from hundreds of federal programs—including many cuts that threaten environmental protections and public health and safety—while shielding oil companies, coal companies, and major polluters from government regulation and oversight. 

H.R. 1 cuts the Environmental Protection Agency's budget by almost a third and hamstrings the EPA's ability to protect the environment and Americans' health. For example, the measure prevents the EPA from protecting communities from mercury, lead, arsenic and other toxic air pollution from cement plants, leaving thousands of children exposed and at risk of asthma, slowed brain development and other neurological disorders. The EPA safeguard that the measure blocks would have reduced mercury pollution by more than 90 percent and saved 2,500 lives each year. 

I feel that both of these cuts are completely unacceptable.  The environment is such an important part of everyone's lives. It provides resources, a place for us to live, clean air for us to breathe, food, etc. We've abused it so badly and these cuts to me show that neither government cares about the environment nor do they recognize its' importance to everyday life. 

http://canadians.org/action/2011/env-can-cutbacks.html
http://environment.about.com/od/environmentallawpolicy/a/House-Budget-Cuts-Threaten-Environment-And-Public-Safety.htm

Political Art

This is a picture of the border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Haiti is the brown barren side, while the Dominican Republic is the forest-filled side. I think that this is an interesting picture because I recently learned of tree-thieving of the Haitians of the Dominican trees is very common and is a huge issue. I think this illustrates the issue of what are countries going to do internationally once resource deletion is finally done?

Question of the Week

During the mock question period in class, some questions arose in my mind that I hadn't really given too much thought. How can people in power, such as Stephen Harper, make such bad decisions when there seems to be a perfectly logical one right though or if it's not what Canadians want? What goes on behind closed doors that actually influences people to make these decisions?

Class Reflection

The mock question period was just awesome. I think it's been the most enjoyable thing that we've done all semester in this class.

On Tuesday Ali taught the class and gave a small presentation on political parties then we split into our seminar groups and each were assigned a political party of Canada to be. We looked up policies on environment and health and prepared questions and information to ask the other groups.



My group was assigned the Liberal Party of Canada. The Liberal Party is considered to be the natural reigning party of Canada, having produced great Prime Ministers such as Lyon MacKenzie-King and Lester B. Person. What we discovered about their health and environment policies is that they were actually really interesting, especially their health care idea.

On their health care policy ideas, they had one that was an idea on having a plan so that people with a gravely ill family member can take 6 months paid work to take care of them if the need is there. I thought that was a really interesting idea, and could think of people I know that could have helped in the past.

For their environmental policy ideas, they claimed to want to re-establish Canada as an environmental leader in the world. They wanted to put a cap and trade carbon policy in place, and quadruple Canada's renewable energy sources. They also wanted to preserve 50% of all boreal forests in Canada.

During the mock event, there was a lot of laughter and it was just really funny. It was interesting to see what people thought of things or how they tried to play the roles, such as the Bloc Quebecois. I really really enjoyed the activity.

Big strides, but is it a woman’s world?

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/1231869.html


I actually didn't know that it was International Women Day today until I had seen a few Facebook postings about it and then the article being front page of the Chronicle Herald. 


I just think it's interesting because I can't imagine not being able to vote and things like that. I remember in one class I had in high school, our teacher said to us that although feminist is a word that people frown on today or are reluctant to use that if you believe in that women have equal rights, then you are indeed a feminist. 


A lot of the comments on this article were actually really positive. I find that usually people make ridiculous comments on articles and blame everything on Peter Kelly but the comments were light hearted and kind for once. 

Class Reflection:

This week a class was cancelled so we only had one class. I don't really have much to say on it. I had a really hard time keeping up with the pace of the class though on Thursday. I don't know if it's because it's the first week back and I'm still rusty at taking notes or what.

I finished reading the Vanishing Face of Gaia this week. It was a good read although I didn't agree with some of Lovelock's points. I don't think that is a bad thing though because it's just another person's perspective on an issue and knowing the other viewpoint is a good thing.

Question of the Week:

I've been reading a lot of different things on climate change lately between my ESST class and both of my political science classes. It's really interesting the differences between people's reactions to certain events and their opinions on certain events. What is it going to take for the international community to see eye to eye on climate change and collectively take action?

Glue Pour

Last year in my high school art class, we did some stuff on Robert Smithson. Smithson is the credited with being the founder of the Earth art movement. What is Earth art? Earth art is the creation of art using mostly natural and holistic materials. Earth art is usually located in nature and pictures of the creations is what is displayed in a gallery, not the pieces themselves.

This is one of Smithson's pieces, entitled "Glue Pour". It is located somewhere around Vancouver, B.C. I think that although it's not intended to be political art, I think it has that behind it. I think that Earth art images are very moving and they show us how far removed we've become from nature, something that I consider to be one of our issues with dealing with many environmental issues today.

Cell Phones And Brain Cells: Where The Two Meet

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-katz-md/cell-phone-brain-cells_b_828789.html


I thought that this was an interesting article reporting on a study regarding the effect of cell phones on the human brain. It made me think of when they were doing research to see if colony collapse disorder among honeybees in North America was due to cell phone waves and radiation. 


It was weird that although they have found some sort of result that they were unable to interpret it and to give a solid answer to the research that they were doing. I think whether the results show something or not that it shows how as humans we just use stuff because it's cool or helpful and don't think of potential health effects of that technology. 

Wedgeport mom fights IWK to keep baby on life-support

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/1230948.html

I thought that this was a really interesting article because it really brings up some issues. It was explained here that the doctors at the IWK want to take this woman’s baby off of life support and she doesn’t want it to happen. It made me think about life support and at what point should the plug be pulled on life support for certain people.

The fact that the doctors say that Bryson (the baby) has significant brain damage and won’t recover also brought up some questions. The mother of the baby stated that Bryson has been responding to sound and touch. Does this mean that eventually the baby could recover? To what extent though? Would the baby have a fulfilling life in this state? Is there a point where recovery options shouldn’t be looked at because of this concept of life fulfillment? 

You Should Have Stayed at Home

For our first blog entry after reading week, we were given a research quest to do. We were told to watch an episode of The Fifth Estate called "You Should Have Stayed at Home".  I had never even heard of The Fifth Estate before (I'm extremely T.V. illiterate), so I had no idea what this video could have been about. What I ended up watching was a 45 minute long thing about the G20 in Toronto over the summer. 


I thought that the episode was really interesting. I work at a summer day camp during the summer and babysit so I usually don't sit down and watch T.V. at all so this is something I knew a bit about but not a whole lot. I found it really resembled the Oka Crisis, but lacked the attention and the care that the Oka Crisis received. What I mean by this is that Canadians aren't standing up afterwards and really questioning why G20 protesters were handled as they were. Maybe because we're all so ethnically different we don't have the bonding and background that aboriginals have? It's interesting to see how passive a country can become over something so violent that happened when it was not okay and stirred a commotion 20 years ago during Oka. 


I was really appalled at the violence that took place, but I must say that I'm not really surprised. I've seen violence from police happen at my school. Clearly not on the same scale, but enough that this didn't really surprise me because I've had negative interaction with the police in high school for doing nothing. 


The temporary jail thing that they had set up was really disgusting, made it seem to me like they were planning to just arrest people and throw them into jail before it even happened. The treatment of people who were arrested was appalling, no dignity at all. There's definitely a difference between being a murderer and being a peaceful protester, but I still think they both deserve to be treated decently and like people. The fact that people were throwing up peace signs and screaming peaceful protest and still got arrested and were subject to police brutality is just awful. 

Nunavut tuberculosis rate decried

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Canada/1227801.html

Government-provided, one-room houses with no bathrooms, or cramped shacks cobbled together from construction debris, provided ideal conditions for the disease to spread.

I thought this was a really interesting article because I thought that tuberculosis was pretty much gone in Canada. At least, I know I've never met anyone or have heard of anyone having it.  I couldn't believe that TB is an issue in Nunavut because it seems like it'd be very preventable and curable. 

"We are a rich, developed nation that has the resources to solve the problem in Nunavut if we choose to employ them," says Dr. Matthew Stanbrook, a respirologist at Toronto Western Hospital. "The fact that we have failed to do so, not just once but over a century, should be an embarrassment to every Canadian."

I felt that the quote above from Dr. Matthew Stanbrook is a good one. It really speaks out to how as a country we've failed to do a lot of things and this is one of them. 

Question of the Week

I know I'm posting these all in a clump but I just have been putting it off. Reading others peoples blogs gave me a better idea of what this really was supposed to be so I feel more comfortable with it now I guess.


Why are such important aspects of life, such as food and nutrition handed over to industries? Food has been so industrialized now, especially meat, it's a sad thing. People have become extremely dis-attached from where their food comes from. I feel like food should be handled personally and should be done better, ensuring healthier, more wholesome food. You shouldn't be eating it if the people making or preparing it had to wear surgical masks in the process.

Question of the Week

Why are the Canada Games not being televised on a more public national scale? Halifax spent tons of money building that new sports facility and thousands of Canadian athletes are there using it and showing off their talents.

Question of the Week

Who decides who is capable of taking care of children ?


I ask this in reference to the article I found on the grandmother who starved her grandson to death by accident. How did she raise her own children if her intellectual level isn't great? Was this taken into consideration when she was given her grandchildren?

Class Reflection: The Constitution

I am finding that I'm starting to get better at taking notes and am improving at using my computer. The last two classes that we've had on the constitution have been pretty interesting. It's making me realize that I don't know a whole lot about our constitution.


Our group discussion I felt went better this week then the last week. We are a week behind everyone though, so maybe as our group warms up to each other it'll be better.

Carrot Mob!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUz0kM1u_jk


I really encourage everyone to watch at least one carrot mob video. It's such a neat concept. The idea is that by making educated or decisive consumer actions, mobs of people can influence stores to change things about how they do things.

Fans of Games unhappy with lack of TV coverage

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/1227408.html


I do not watch sporting events myself, but it does seem really odd to me that the Canada Games is not getting more coverage. What decided this? What's this channel that it's on? I've never even heard of it before. For people who's friends and family are involved in the Canada Games, it must be disappointing to not be able to watch it, especially if you're from far away or are physically incapable to attend. What a shame. 

WHO confirms swine flu vaccine child narcolepsy concerns

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-02-swine-flu-vaccine-child-narcolepsy_1.html


For another class I need to read three different articles a week on different things to help shape my idea of environmentalism and to contemplate the effects of world events on how we view the environment. I came across this article and thought it was really interesting so I'm posting it here.


I thought it was really interesting how they are thinking that there might be a link between Narcolepsy, a sleeping disorder, and the swine flu vaccine. I'm personally really against mass vaccination such as what happened last year, especially with a vaccine that isn't hugely tested. Although narcolepsy I guess isn't a huge serious illness, if the vaccine can be linked to that, then what else could it be causing as an unknown side effect ?

Reading What My Classmates Have Posted:

For our research discovery quest this week we were asked to look at classmate's blogs and to leave comments. I found it actually really fun to see what other people have been looking at and read stuff on over half of them. Here is what I left as comments:


Peter LaMarre:


  Hey Peter, After reading this I clicked on the links up at the top of the post and read the articles for myself that you had sourced. I thought this was really interesting because I'd never really thought or wondered about civilian casualties in Iraq before. It brought up some good questions in my mind about the actual amount of casualties and what that might mean to what effect our occupation has had in Iraq.




Brad Tierney:  


The day before they had announced a tuition cap at 3%, this amounts to a max 185$ increase per year and they decided to keep the bursaries that are given each year to students in Nova Scotia. This is a huge difference from the predicted 86%. Do you think that influenced the decision of students to go moreso than weather or laziness?




Aminta Richard: 


 Hey, I actually did a huge paper on this last semester. Did you know that by the time your average woman is done getting ready in the morning she has applied an average of 126 toxic chemicals to her body? Absolutely insane. There are lots of cosmetic companies though along with others that are slowly getting away from it. Things containing phthalates, parabens, triclosan and fragrance (parfum) are all things that should be avoided to limit toxcity exposure from cosmetics. I agree that more should be done to educate people so that wiser consumer choices are made. There are some really good books out there though on the topic. Slow Death by Rubber Duck is probably my favourite.




Daniel Toney:


  I agree with you that this is a ridiculous anti terrorist tactic. Looking at how things like education are getting budget cuts and stuff, spending money on something like this seems rather useless. I would assume that most terrorists don't figure out their attack tactics and plans of terror and scare over social networking sites such as Facebook  


Katrina Katrina: (no last name specified that I could find?)


  There seems to be a lot in the news lately about the treatment of mentally ill people. I can't ever imagine having to keep a child tethered on a line. It really goes to show how mentally ill people are extremely misunderstood and that not enough is done to understand and to try to help them.

Undercover at an Arizona Gun Show

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-bloomberg/undercover-at-an-arizona_b_816381.html


"In that investigation, we found out just how easy it is for criminals and the mentally ill to walk in and buy guns - no questions asked. It called attention to a huge loophole in the law that enables criminals and other dangerous people like drug abusers and the mentally ill to get guns without having to go through a background check."


I thought that this was a really interesting article from the Huffington Post. A group of people went undercover to see how easy it was to buy guns in Arizona. The answer: "As easy as buying fries at McDonalds" was the answer they gave in the article.


The point of this investigation was to show how easy it is for mentally ill people to purchase guns. The death of Gabrielle Gifford is just one example of the harm that mentally ill people can do, especially when given arms. 


I thought that this article was really interesting and that it raised some good points and examples of loopholes in gun laws in the States. I hope that their investigation is something that can be used to help fix these glaring errors in the laws that have been passed. 

Reflection on Class So Far

I feel that class is going well so far. I do find it a bit hard to keep on top on everything just with my course load this semester but I'm trying to keep myself organized and on track. I can at least be thankful that I'm not too much a procrastinator. 


I am a little worried that I'm not right on track with the chapters that we're supposed to be reading out of the Canadian Democracy textbook and that that might mess me up on the quiz that we're supposed to have. I'll just ask about that on Tuesday though. 


I find the lectures a bit hard to write good notes for because I don't always see how things connect and are related as they are presented right away. I just try to write down the notes verbatim though and go through and figure it all out later. 


Our first seminar with Ali was awkward just because people weren't really speaking up and there was a lot of awkward silences. I'm hoping that this week goes a lot smoother though and that people speak up more. 

"I didn’t know grandson would starve" — grandma

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Canada/1226189.html


Jeffrey, who weighed just 21 pounds when he died in November 2002, was treated like a dog. He ate out of a bowl with his fingers and often drank from a toilet when he was thirsty, her trial heard.


I felt that this was a really interesting article in the Chronicle Herald. A grandmother unknowingly starved her 5 year old grandson to death. In the article it says he was semi-comatose for several weeks and died weighing 21 lbs. Later on in the article, it says that the grandmother's IQ is only about 69, which borders on "mental retardation" and makes her less intelligent than around 98% of the Canadian population. 


This raised a lot of questions that weren't answered in the article. How did this grandmother get in charge of her child if this was the case? If she wasn't capable of raising her grandson then how did she ever raise her children and why did they give her their son? At the end they mention that the child was abused by his birth parents but what made the grandmother a better choice? Especially since he was apparently treated like a dog and she unknowingly starved him? 


Very strange indeed.

Dr. Adamson's Lecture

Last Tuesday we were given a lecture by Dr. Adamson about the role the media plays in politics. I wasn't feeling too well though so I kept drifting off and had a really hard time paying attention so I don't think I got as much out of it as I could have.


I did like the last part though when he was answering Peter's question about mental health and how it's dealt with or treated in Canada. I really agreed with Peter that it's something that isn't dealt with property and that it's surprising the lack of proper facilities we have to cope with the amount of mentally ill people that get stuck in the system.

Can You Guess What This Is?

Can you guess what this is?


A closer view:



This is a piece of art done by Chris Jordan. It depicts one million plastic cups, the number used on airline flights in the U.S. every SIX hours. I think that this qualifies as a piece of political art because it puts into one perspective the amount of waste that we generate as a Western society. Anyone should be able to look at this and be wowed, a million of anything is quite a bit, and plastic is a fairly non-renewable resource, especially because it's made from petroleum. We reached peak oil production in the 1970's and it's time to start thinking about things that are more renewable and aren't so wasteful.

Al Jazeera

I actually had never heard of Al Jazeera before, so it was really interesting for me to look up what it is. Firstly I found the actual Al Jazeera website and read some of the articles on it and compared it to what I was reading in some other newspapers. I found it to be pretty in sync with what I was reading elsewhere, especially about what's happening in Egypt. 


I did some more reading on other websites about Al Jazeera and found out that it's considered to be pretty controversial because it lacks a lot of the reporting restrictions that a lot of other newscasting groups have, especially in the Middle East. I thought that this was really interesting because I don't think that I believe in censorship, at least to a certain degree.  I thought it was interesting that other media outlets like CNN and BBC have re-shown interviews and footage that was originally from Al Jazeera. This would led me to believe that it is a solid media outlet, since BBC is one of the finest in our time. This is confirmed again to me by the fact that BBC has signed an agreement with Al Jazeera for sharing information and resources. 

Tuition hikes limited to 3%

http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1225264.html


"I’m glad to see they listened to the opposition and they listened to students," Regan said Monday evening.


I was rather relieved to read this article yesterday. Being a student in Nova Scotia I'm obviously very concerned about the price I'm paying for university. The report that Tim O'Neill released was interesting, but I don't think that deregulating university tuitions would do anyone any good. If tuition was going to go up as much as 86%, I, along with many others would have probably ended up at schools like M.U.N, and the enrolment numbers would have plummeted. 


I didn't qualify for a student loan for my first year and so with the help from many members of my family but especially my father who is a painter, we managed to pay for my entire first year in cash. This definitely would not be possible next year or the following years if the tuition drastically increased. 


Nova Scotia is really moving around it's education budgets this year. Increases to tuition fees and that funding cut of about 22% to public school systems. I don't think this funding cut is going to be particularly useful or satisfy Nova Scotians if it isn't done properly, which often it doesn't seem to be. 

"Your Chums Are Fighting, Why Aren't You?"

This is a Canadian propaganda poster from the first World War. I thought it was really interesting because the artwork was rather neat and the message was so direct.


The red and black and blue colours that were used on the poster were rather interesting. I felt that in the colours were in sync with the perceptions people have about war. The black silhouetted soldiers create a sense of anonymity as to who is serving. This could almost allow the person viewing the poster to imagine someone in the silhouette's places. The black ground does this same thing as well. The red colour I thought could serve to add a severeness to it, almost the thoughts of blood, but victory as well. The blue wind added interest and drew in the eye.


The message was really short, crisp and frank. I think it's simplicity would have made it stick to someone's mind, making it a handy tool to guilt people into being soldiers. If I would place a guess as to when about this poster was released I'd said pretty close to before or circonscription was in place.

Mubarak Tells Egypt He Will Not Seek Re-Election

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/01/mubarak-tells-egypt-he-wi_n_817132.html


I think that this whole thing that has been happening in Egypt and other countries is really interesting. I haven't been reading too much on it, but what I have read I've found intriguing. I thought it was interesting how he's staying in power and is staying in Egypt although it's clear that Egypt's citizens don't want him there but isn't running in the re-election. It's probably about time, I think 82 years old is a little old to be running a country.


However, I feel that websites such as Al Jazeera can give a more accurate viewpoint than websites such as The Huffington Post. I feel that a western world viewpoint on things happening in middle eastern countries is largely inaccurate.  This may be because I'm half Lebanese and my father was in the Phalange for 11 years.   I've been raised with a really different viewpoint on Middle Eastern politics because of this I think. I just don't understand how people here can feel like they can go into Middle Eastern countries and feel that they fully understand the conflict when they see it from the viewpoint of being from a rich and privileged country such as Canada or the U.S.A. I really don't feel that we are in a position to occupy these countries and try to tell them how to do things when we really can't appreciate their long and rich histories and culture.

100 Sled Dogs Slaughtered

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Canada/1225190.html


"Tour operator got workers’ comp cash; he was traumatized from shooting them"


I really don't understand how someone can be "forced to kill" like this man claims he was. To kill ONE HUNDRED dogs seems super excessive. I can see how it could be traumatizing, but I really do not understand.  I worked at the S.P.C.A. in Burnside, and I remember once when we went into a puppy mill breeder to take his dogs away, the man killed his dogs so that we couldn't take them. It was horrifying to think someone could do that. What would ever be someone's reasoning to slaughter 100 dogs? I read that he tried to find homes for them, and it would be hard finding homes for 100 plus dogs, but I still find it hard to believe that he was pressured by anyone else but himself to kill those dogs.


Just horrifying

Guernica

This is a picture of Picasso's Guernica, his depiction of the Spanish bombing that happened in 1937. I feel that even though it is a fairly old piece of political art, it is an important one nonetheless. This painting is known worldwide as being a centrepiece for the anti-war movement and helped spread knowledge around the world about the Spanish Civil War. 


I find the mural to be really interesting. It's really open to a lot of interpretation and it is easily seen that Picasso put a lot of thought into the postures and positions of the people portrayed. The twisted bodies of the people and animals show the pain and suffering that they went through after getting bombed. The horse is clearly screaming in pain. On the left hand side we see a mother weeping over a dead child. 


I don't think that this is what was in mind when he was commissioned to do work for the World's Fair in Paris, but it has had significant effects since then. 

Kanehsatake 270 Years of Resistance

I finally got to watching Kanehsatake 270 Years of Resistance this weekend past. I really enjoyed the documentary and felt that it hit on a lot of good points about Canada and the approaches that people take to things. The scene that really stuck out the most to me was when they were showing how people weren't allowed through this roadblock and this one woman started losing it and started saying stuff like "This is Canada! This is a free country, why can't I go through that roadblock". I felt that it was something that really stuck out because it's true. A lot of people who live in Canada value the freedom that we are given and I don't think a lot of people would know what to do if it was taken away and we lived in a police run state like they did during the Oka Crisis.


I felt that this documentary really taught me a lot about the Oka crisis and really hit some key issues, such as land rights, aboriginal rights, human rights in general really. The fact that they wouldn't give them any more food shipments, and that news reporter that needed medication for his asthma and they refused him that right was crazy. I can't imagine Canadians being like that, yet there it was, proof that people were like that and it created doubt that Canada is really like it says it is. Though with our current state of affairs I guess there's no doubt that this is being proven yet again.

My Political Ideology

These are the results from the three political ideology quizzes that were emailed out to us today. I felt that the last two are a bit more accurate than the first one. I don't feel that I'm an anarchist in any way, I just gained some riot experience having graduated from Cole Harbour High. 

I felt that the social democrat and political compass results were fairly accurate with my beliefs though. They were both a fair representation. 

United Kingdom - Iraq Inquiry told to "protect US interests"

So for my first non-mainstream media blog I decided to finally take a look at Wikileaks, a website that is intended to post articles of non-mainstream news. Flipping through Wikileaks, I felt that the website was awkward to use and I didn't like how it was laid out. Also, with all the "//SECRET" and stuff like that on the website, I feel like it's just for people who are really into conspiracy theories to help prove their point rather than anything actually tangible. 


The article just spoke of a meeting that apparently happened between some governmental figures regarding the Iraq War.  The quote below is what I found to be the most interesting out of the article I read:  "Chilcot replied, “Discussions and evidence sessions are not necessarily the same thing, and of course we have no power to compel witnesses here, let alone people in foreign governments. Nonetheless, I accept the thrust behind your question, that the Anglo-American relationship is one of the most central parts of this inquiry, and how that was conducted is something that we need to get a very strong understanding of.”"


This quote I felt shows how good people have gotten at manipulating the English language and the various meanings that things can have. I don't think it necessarily surprises me that the government is corrupt to the point that other countries are protecting other governments when it comes to things like this, but it was just an interesting read. 




http://wikileaks.ch/Iraq-Inquiry-told-to-protect-US.html

New bill to help plain folks catch a thief

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Canada/1223566.html

"Chen made national headlines last fall when he was acquitted of assault and forcible confinement after catching and tying up a shoplifter in Toronto."

I can't imagine ever having the gall to catch and tie up a shoplifter, but as the article says, you need to actually catch a shoplifter for them to get charged with the law. I thought this article was interesting because when I at first saw the headline, I was initially like oh jeez. I thought it was going to be something super ridiculous. I don't know if that thought was valid or not though because I felt though that the article didn't share that much about the law that was going to get passed but was focused on Chen and Chan. The only real thing said in the article that alluded to what the amendment to the criminal code may be is what Harper said: "Let’s make sure that hard-working store owners won’t get punished if they try to defend their stores because that’s totally unfair." 

I can see the point of making sure they don't get punished for defending their stores, but I hope this doesn't mean we're going to have some crazy vigilante store owners harassing those who they suspect to be shoplifters but aren't. I remember a few years ago my dad's work van was stolen and used in a robbery of a store and the store owner actually chased after the van and beat it all in with a baseball bat. I understand that he was trying to defend his store, but the damages done to the van weren't covered by anything and came out of my parents pocket which I didn't think was fair. 

The SHAC 7

The Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty U.S.A (SHAC U.S.A) originally comprised of seven animal rights activists that were working to close down a product-testing lab in Huntingdon. Under an act that exists in the U.S.A called the “Federal Animal Enterprise Protection Act” they were charged for their work on this goal with a charge of terrorism. No one has ever been charged under this act before, and the SHAC 7 were charged for their verbal expression of their views on this lab, what would seem to be a violation of the idea of free speech.

I was an employee at the local S.P.C.A in Dartmouth for almost two years. Surprisingly, the fact that something like this would happen doesn't surprise me one bit. I found that traditionally, working at the S.P.C.A, that the government generally supports things like these labs or stores like Pets Unlimited because they generate income and help build the economy. There is such a process in Nova Scotia to be able to take people's animals away or to shut down businesses or breeders without getting in trouble with the law that it makes it rather difficult to do. 

Viola Desmond: Canada's Rosa Parks?

Only 65 years ago, a woman named Viola Desmond was kicked out of a movie theatre in New Glasgow for sitting in the main floor section, an area reserved for white people. She was offered the chance to go sit on the balcony, the area for black people, but refused and instead was kicked out and given a fine.

When she was kicked out of the theatre, her hip was injured. While discussing what happened with the doctor who looked at her injured hip, she decided to take the issue to court, feeling there was a racist seating policy in place at the theatre. The actions that she took helped spread the fact that Canada still was segregated and changed public opinion on segregated seating. By 1954, eight years after this incident and she won the court case on a technicality, all segregated seating laws were gone.

Viola Desmond is compared to Rosa Parks because of her action of sitting in an area where only white people were allowed to sit down. Although just sitting in an area seems like a small action, each one inspired law changes in Canada and in the U.S.A. 

“Black Men in Nova Scotia Still Catching Hell But Surviving Against the Odds”

Last night I attended a lecture given by Dr. Wanda Bernard about her findings on the various research projects she’s done on racism and it’s effects on black men in Nova Scotia. She spoke of black male stereotyping, crime rates, how they cope with racism and so on.

I found Dr. Bernard to be a fairly engaging speaker and it’s obvious the passion that she has for the topic she was speaking about. I felt though as if she feels this racism is something that only black males are subject to, and that the stereotyping that is given to black males is the only stereotyping that is done.  This may have just been because of the topic and only having an hour and a half though to speak.

Some of the stories she shared though with the audience throughout her lecture were intended to be shocking but it made me wonder maybe if sometimes it’s not necessarily racism but community reputation and stigma. When she shared the story of her getting pulled over because they suspected her van was stolen, I must say that things like that happen in Eastern Passage where I live and I would say that’s because of community reputation, but not because of skin color.  I agree that police officers can attach stigmas to certain ethnic groups but I wouldn’t go as far as to say that many of them are racist and would go further as to say that there are more connections to skin colors or dress and the area that one is from. Eastern Passage and Preston are both areas known in Halifax area as being rough with a lot of drug violence. So are areas of Downtown Dartmouth, Highfield Park and Spryfield.

I also had the thought during her lecture that in our post 9/11 society that wouldn’t Middle Eastern people be subject to more skepticism and racism than African Nova Scotians? I think that nowadays if you had a black male and a Muslim man go into a store, the Muslim would be more heavily watched, with the skepticism that he is most likely speaks little English and is a terrorist. This makes me then make the conclusion that racism is something that affects all minority groups and not just black men. I think it’d be really interesting to do similar studies on other groups because I think that in many cases you would probably find similar results if not even more racism in the case of Middle Eastern peoples. 

George Elliot Clarke

1933

Steps shear from beefy, rancid houses, T-bone into sidewalks.

Or: ramshackle stairs screw into air, then accordion into heaps

of brick-broken bottles, trash, jalopy remains. Rubble

architects the North End, some left over dying

from '17's Explosion, when seamstresses got mashed

by heavy machines crashing through floor after floor,

and schoolkids' eyes shot out, gaudy with glass.

A Canaan of syphilis: Halifax.

On Gottingen St. - sty of sailors' uncivic vices- 

Indigo Sampson, pop-eyed drunkard,

violet scar raping his Billy-Eckstine-but-darker face,

remembers wharf rats to be so very bad: Like

white gentry promenading in elongated mansions

while black folk pray in taut shacks. This day's not the one- 

he's toxic, shabby, cross-eyed, and tizicky - 

for two white small boys to accost him, zestfully,

as "n-i-g-g-e-r": He's staggering from killing rats.

His ex-boxer fists- used to hauling junk - elevate an axe.

"Let this blade spit! Let your bloods stink!"

Those two boy disintegrated under his blows,

slicking them with red awfulness. Sampson holds

two blond heads aloft like hauled up weeds.

He flings two fair splintered bodies into the gutter.

His eyes have fallen; nobody looks at him:

Doors have always been flung in his face in his face. 

His crimson terrors could have garnished the Somme.

Guts dangled crazily from fence posts.

A child's heart was hashed up by rats' pitiless teeth. 

They put Sampson in what he called the penatenrinary- 

the petty tryanny. 

Gallant, pallid guards played at shooting him.

One morning he was sitting with the Bible

and his head popped open;

his black scalp puffed up fatally scarlet. 

This is a poem from Execution Poems by George Elliot Clarke. This volume of poetry is about his two late cousins George and Rue who were hung for the murder of a taxi driver. The entire volume of poetry is very dark and rather complex but as well as being about his cousins, provides a lot of historical information on Nova Scotia and on Halifax at the time.

Born in Windsor, Nova Scotia, George Elliot Clarke is an established writer and anthologist who has published a variety of works. George Elliot Clarke coined the term "Africadian", a term for the descendants of black loyalists who immigrated to the maritimes. He currently teaches at the University of Toronto and has taught there since 1999. 

George Elliot Clarke is a huge supporter of the study of black Canadian literature and this is a huge focal point in his writing. he has been awarded many awards and honours for his work in this area. Examples are the Governor Generals Literary Award, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award and his appointment to the Order of Nova Scotia.


Sources: 
- http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0010840
- http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/325698.Execution_Poems
- Execution Poems (2001) , George Elliot Clarke

About Me

This blog is going to be for all my weekly work for my POLS1303 class. I thought at first it was rather odd and had no idea how to make a blog, but I got a friend to show me and I think I'm good to go now. 

So, my name is Jenna Khoury-Hanna and I'm from Eastern Passage, Nova Scotia. I graduated last year from Cole Harbour District High School with a French Immersion certificate. I have a younger brother and sister as well as four cats and two dogs, so our house pretty much qualifies as a zoo. When I'm home I have two jobs, working at a store called Jacob in MicMac Mall and working as a summer day camp counsellor for H.R.M. Parks and Rec. 

At Acadia I'm hoping to complete a double major, my main major being Environmental and Sustainability Studies, and the other being Political Science. I don't really know what I'm going to do with such a degree, but I really enjoy both so I figure you got to do what you enjoy, especially with the money that you put into school. Going with that, I also chose to get involved in extra school activities such as sit on my house council and helped start up and sit on the ESST Student Society executive.