Ubiquitous

Tibetan Terrorists and American Hypocrisy

// March 18th, 2008 // 28 Comments » // World for the Week

Free Quebec! Free Texas! Actually just give the whole lot back to the natives! What? That’s a little extreme you say? How can Canada remain Canada without a huge chunk of Quebec? What happened to all the history they shared together? If the public and the media continue to condemn the Chinese government and side with those bloody Free-Tibet protesters, I say our next step is to release Quebec from the evil grasp of the Canadian government and return USA soil to the Amerindians who got there first.

UPDATE: titled changed, yay.

For those who don’t think this is exactly headline news, here’s to quickly fill you in.

Free-Tibet Supporters: Free Tibet! Human rights abuse! Let Dalai Lama go back! No Olympics!
Tibetans: *burn stores* *harrass citizens* *threaten police*
Chinese government: LIES! ALL LIES! I’m giving you a deadline to stop burning things.
North American human rights groups: The Tibetans are suffering! Free Tibet! Shame on the Chinese government!
CNN: HEINOUS ACTS HAVE BEEN COMMITTED IN TIBET, PEOPLE DIED, SENSATIONAL STORIES, OMFGZ!!

(more…)

Popularity: 13% [?]

Apartheid, Coming to a Toronto School Near You

// February 2nd, 2008 // 21 Comments » // World for the Week

Toronto should open its first black-focused public school in the fall of 2009, says a staff report aimed at improving academic achievement among students of colour. (Source)

The black-focused school is a go. After a heated but civil debate, Canada’s largest school board voted 11-9 last night to open an alternative Africentric school to help fight a 40 per cent dropout rate among Toronto’s black teens. (Source)

The Toronto District School Board approved the decision on January 30th to open a Africentric public school in Toronto, projected for January 2009. The school would be open to students of all colour but will have extra curriculum dealing with African culture and history. This is the school board’s response to the 40% dropout rates among black students.

Okay, does anyone see anything wrong with this? Why don’t we have black-only buses? Black-only fountains? Martin Luther King Jr. should be turning in his grave right now because society is progressing backwards. Many of the articles in The Toronto Star lately have portrayed all black kids to be losers/dropouts/stupid gangsters. Who do you think would go to an Africentric school? The smart black kids would be trying to push their way into the REGULAR schools instead. And what do you have by the end of this? Losers/dropouts/stupid gangsters all grouped in one school, the Africentric one.

The price tag of the recommendation is, are you ready for this, $820 000. This money is coming from the tax payers and OTHER education programs in Ontario. Even some black parents are vehemently against the trustees’ decision. This whole promotion of “Black history and culture” is fine and dandy with me - I wouldn’t mind a few Asian studies course in high school - but it’s the outright labels that bother me. Some advocats of Black Schools are horrified of terms like “segragation” and “civil inequality”, but what else to describe these schools? What happened to promoting diversity, for after all, Canada is known for its multiculturalism! We are one, not divided.

Far from being segregationist, Wilson [supporter] said, the school is about making blacks and other marginalized students feel part of the school system.

It’s important that Africentric schools “are a reality for not just black children but all children of all races,” Wilson said. (Source)

Years from now, can’t you imagine walking down Yonge street and showing a tourist, “And here’s the Black school over here, the Jewish playground here, and Aryan Secondary is just around the corner”. If you’re on the other side of the fence on this one, I don’t blame you. The division on this issue is enormous and several trustees (one of them black) who voted against the proposal were harassed and called names. Thoughts?

Popularity: 2% [?]

Tragedy in YVR

// November 15th, 2007 // 15 Comments » // World for the Week

By now, most Vancouverites probably have heard about the taser death of Robert Dziekanski, a polish immigrant who was killed by the police in the Vancouver International Airport (YVR) early October. He was apparently stuck in customs for twelve hours while his mother, tragically enough, waited about 100 meters outside the secured area where he was wandering around. Robert didn’t speak English, and was most likely frustrated by the waiting process. He was shouting “help” in Polish but nobody could understand him (why didn’t anybody direct him to a translating line, the 24/7 service provided by YVR?!)

It draws resemblance to the movie The Terminal, except the ending here was not a happy one. From the tape released a few days ago, we can see that four RCMP officers walked in after Robert threw a computer in frustration. They zapped him two or three times until he fell to the ground, then they all got on top of him to handcuff the poor guy. One officer’s knee was on his neck it seems. A short while later, he lost conscious and died, all the while being captured on film.

I was absolutely disgusted with how the police acted. They definitely overreacted and used force excessively. Robert was agitated (who wouldn’t be, with travel plans boggled up like that in a foreign land… let’s see the RCMP remain calm and collected if we send them to Zimbabwe and have them stuck in customs for twelve hours), but he did not pose a serious threat to the other travelers. All they needed was a Polish-speaker and he’d be out of there in a flash. I think we can attribute part of his death to the language barrier, which breaks my heart because my family met the same obstacles a few years ago.

His mother Zofia saved money for seven years for Robert Dziekanski immigration. She had him come by Vancouver (then bus to Kamloops I suppose) because she wanted him to see how beautiful Canada is. Yet he died, painfully and publicly, with his mother a few hundred meters away waiting anxiously.

The Canadian government should be ashamed.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Question Mark

// August 12th, 2007 // 11 Comments » // World for the Week

If you hail from Canada, you would have heard by now the big news making the headlines: Free-Tibet Protesters Return Home After Chinese Detainment, or some variations of that. These six protesters apparently unfurled a huge banner on top of the Great Wall, with the writing “One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008″. This acts as both a mocking of the Olympic 2008 celebrations and a mission statement of the “free Tibet” organizations that want to give the Chinese province of Tibet independence.

All the Western World’s heard about Tibet are the so-called human rights abuses and the whole Dalai Lama fiasco. To address the latter, the Dalai has agreed to the one-China policy and is welcomed to return anytime his fancies. So what the heck are the protesters trying to do? Both my grandparents and my dad have worked in Tibet on business trips. They don’t talk about the alleged human rights violations and disssent movements happening left, right, and center. No, the only complaint they have about the place is how much the goat shish kabos made them puke afterwards (the blood wine didn’t agree with my dad’s stomach). I guess I’m caught between my Oriental upbringing and my Western influences. One thing I really hate to see is this Olympics game which I’ve so looked forward to turn into a heated political arena. The New York time may be the most accurate…

For about as long as the modern Games have existed, they have served as a stage for politics as much as sport. Berlin 1936 was Hitler and Jesse Owens. Helsinki 1952 was the beginning of the cold war. Mexico City 1968 was the Black Power salute. The blood of 11 slain Israeli athletes stained Munich 1972. Moscow 1980 meant boycotts, as did Los Angeles four years later.

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what this One World One Dream turns out to be. In the mean time…

*Goes to wave little FREE QUEBEC flags*

In other news, the I-35W Bridge in Minnesota is no more. Makes you wonder where all the capitalist tax dollars went eh? Eight people are confirmed dead, among whom is a 23 year-old nursing student who moved to the States from Somalia in 2000. Such a young life, such a bright future, extinguished.

Over in Utah, still no sign of the six trapped miner. Yikes. I’m glad they’re still drilling because I’m still hopeful. My heart goes out to the friends and families.

Half way around the world, the Taliban is still holding 21 young Koreans hostage. Two have been killed already, and two sick women are said to be released in the next few days (rumour, unconfirmed). These are students were on a Christian good-will journey! How cruel can one get?! The families must be miserable knowing they could see their sons and daughters as soon as the U.S. gives the word. But of course, hostages in exchange for Taliban prisoners is a no-deal as the U.S. believes the trade could initiate more future violence. I don’t blame them but I wonder how the stand-off is going to end… probably when the Taliban kills everyone off in a bout of anger. The injustice of it all.

Time for a piece of less-gloomy news, “Greenpeace activists cut a 61-metre-long question mark inside a crop circle in an Abbotsford, B.C., cornfield Wednesday morning, in protest of the absence of genetically engineered food labelling in Canada.”. Or the way I heard it, “un point interrogation” (was watching the 11:00 pm French news on Le Telejournal Colombie-Britannique). It’s quite a nice piece of artwork. Greenpeace said they’ll pay the damage to the farmer whose field they used, lol.

Lastly, what’s this new rumour going around the Angie and Brad are breaking up? Well they can’t! Hollywood can’t lose their poster adoption couple! How can they realize their dream of populating their own country if they break up?! Tsk tsk.

P.S. - Changed themes. Permalink headaches continue. Anyone know how to remove the index.php from the links? I take it out and all the links are broken (yes I tried changing it on the Options page as well). So now… as a precaution, all the links are the FULL path … huge headache. I also added a page on the Juvenile Justice System and a Colour Palette.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Happy Weekends

// July 14th, 2007 // 3 Comments » // World for the Week

In a week’s time, I’d be holding a copy of Deathly Hallows in my hand. In a week and one day’s time, ten years of being called the ‘HP Generation’ would finally come to an end. It’s hard to get my head around it really, millions of us around the world reading the same book at the same time. I’m going to see OotP in a bit with a friend. That’s the first time I watched a movie twice in one week haha. I’ll try not to shout out anything in the theatres during a suspenseful scene.

It still feels weird, coming back to blogging after such a long break. Staring at the blinking cursor, I’m at a loss for words and keep having flashbacks to my dreadful Theory of Knowledge essay-writing marathons at 4 a.m., four and a half hours before the due date. Yikes.

Here goes for The World for the Week

Los Angeles braced itself for the arrival of the David and Victoria Beckaham circus Thursday. In joining the L.A. Galaxy, Beckham says, “Potentially, in the States, soccer could be as big as it is everywhere else around the world. And I’m proud to be a part of that.” Correction: in the States, soccer could be as big as it is everywhere else as long as you’re there David. Now, all we need is a sexy, skilled, English-accent-bearing guy suddenly abandoning all athletic pursuits to turn to the noble sport of curling! It wouldn’t take long for Canada to change its national sport from lacrosse or god knows what. Then, and only then, will I not get a(n) ‘o_______O’ from everyone in the vincinity when I say I have curling practice.

Our ol’ buddy in the South, Bush, is still not giving up on the war in Iraq while the rest of the international community glares disapprovingly like he’s a little boy who’s too stubborn to learn how to behave properly. TIME Magazine put it the best.

Were the White House’s report on Iraq progress and the accompanying presidential briefing a child’s report card, a quick glance at the grades would give the impression that Junior was doing okay. But a careful read of the full text of the report would produce an anxious sweat on the brow of any parent. That’s because Junior’s best grades are in phys ed, music and art, while he’s flunking history, math and citizenship. Even more critically, the teacher seems to be saying that Junior might be able to be advance to the next grade if he and his teacher work really hard at it for a long time to come” but the teacher is facing mandatory retirement, and won’t be hanging around long enough to help Junior make the grade.

I say it’s time to take away Junior’s sandbox and toys and give him a timeout.

This just in. Trust me, it’ll make your stomach growl, in anger. Apparently, Chinese police uncovered a restaurant where the owner used, listen to this, wet cardboard instead of meat as fillings in dimsums (baozi for you Mainlanders)! Hmm… I wonder if you could actually taste the difference. Dimsums are quite delicious actually. If you ever drop by the Orient, do try some… just not… from that particular establishment whose owners faces hefty fines and even jailtime.

I believe congratulations are in order for Baby Rosita in Mozambique, whose mother won a court case that stripped Rosita’s dad of parental rights after he stole and sold goods meant for humanitarian relief. Why did this gain international attention? Well, Baby Rosita was born in a tree where her mother took shelter during the devastating floods in 2000. The pair was soon rescued by helicopters and cameras: “a media event that helped galvanize world support for victims of the disaster … [raising] some $500 million in international assistance following the flooding, the worst disaster to hit Mozambique in almost half a century.” Hmm… if Rosita’s mum told her daughter that she got her from a tree, she won’t be lying! My parents always told me that the nicked me from a trash bin in the back alley, in a dire attempt to stir the conversation away from “the making of a baby”. It’s a bit sad how the international community only rushes to help in disaster relief after they see an event like that. This reminds me of Wag the Dog, that movie we watched in TOK where publicists faked a war in Albania in order to stir the public’s attention from the president’s scandal in the weeks leading up to re-election. All they needed was to film a distrought girl running away amidst the rubbles screaming in terror and holding a kitten. The girl was an actress. The filming was in a studio. The cat was actually a bag of Doritos that digital experts substituted in. Brilliant. I’m so proud to be part of the human race.

All in all, an eventful week on Mother Earth. OotP calls! Until next time!

Popularity: 2% [?]