Pro-Awareness and Education

This, right here, is your biggest problem. If you want to stop abortions then make students aware of how NOT to get pregnant. Sure some students will wait until they are married. Sure it may be a good idea and one worth teaching. But if that’s all you give people then some of them are going to have unprotected sex and they are going to get pregnant. …and social conservatives, unwanted pregnancies cause situations you really don’t like.

A $166 million US INCREASE in money used to teach abstinance to students. Brilliant.

I am not pro-choice in the sense that I think abortion is a woman’s right. But women and men should be educated about making smart choices. And “unwanted children” is a phrase I would love to see irradicated from our terminology altogether. Just teach, people. That will solve your problem.

I have been taking classes over at the Catholic College, St. Michael’s, this year. The anti-abortion propoganda there has been blowing my mind. One sign says “Countries which allow abortion are not promoting love, but the idea that you can get what you want through violence. That is why abortion is the single greatest destroyer of love and peace.” Like I said I am not fundamentally pro-choice. The idea of abortion makes me queasy in a lot of ways. But THE GREATEST DESTROYER OF LOVE AND PEACE? …you have GOT to be kidding me. Try world hunger? no. War Children? nah. Lack of international literacy? nope. The AIDS epidemic? No silly. …abortion.

Ridiculous people. Get some perpsective.

Observations from a walk

1.) In my city the streetcar cables criss-cross against the sky as if to remind us that by living here we are seperated from the rest of Mother Nature.

2.) People who walk down the street in mid-day with a lit joint in their hand make me laugh. It is as if they are unaware I can smell what they have long before I am close enough to notice that their palm is scooped around an item they are trying to conceal.

Canadians in the First Thaw

There’s nothing quite like Canadians in the ‘First Thaw’ of the year. People poke their heads outside, not quite believing the warmth. The adventurous pull out their walking/running shoes, grab the dog lead and venture out to see if it’s really true. And when they walk by each other, there’s a joyousness they share without words, just with quick happy glances of appreciation– of the sun, the warmth, the ability to leave the layers and the boots at home.

On seeing a Brand New Artist and YouTube

I saw Paolo Nutini live last night. It was awesome, and it really demonstrated (as odd as this may sound) the power of Youtube. See I first heard about Paolo about two months ago when my boyfriend stumbled across this video of his on YouTube…he’d listened to a few songs and said he was brilliant. I’m pretty bad for not actually picking up on trends or things online though…

But then when I was in England my cousin Cath and her husband were telling us all about him, had seen him live, and had his CD. We drove along the coast in East Sussex listening to his music, and I fell madly in love. Then I came home again and I ordered his CD online, and while I waited for it to arrive I played his music over and over on Youtube. And you see it’s not just a few songs people have posted. He has his own page where songs of his are officially posted etc etc.

So anyway, last night, Paolo opened a song by saying, “Hopefully you will hear this on the radio soon. I emphasize ‘hopefully’.” And then he began to sing ‘Last Request’ and we all sang along with him. And when you think about it that’s incredible. He’s from a small town in Scotland. He’s not even on the radio yet, and people know all the words to his songs. That’s a new phenomenon. Because I guarantee not everyone in that building heard about him while they were in England visiting their cousin…people are finding him and falling in love with his stuff over YouTube.

I don’t know a lot about how the music industry used to work. But something tells me this will be an interesting change.

As for his performance: he was wonderful. And it was exciting because this is still new for him…He’d probably never been to Montreal before but he packed out a venue that probably held a few hundred people, and everyone knew all the words to his music…. And while I’m sure having a crowd full of people singing your music to you never gets old, to him it was obviously very new. He would get this gorgeous little smile on his face as if he couldn’t even believe it.

I’m Sick of Fashion

I’m really tired of the girls who walk around my campus with hair meticulously styled and coloured, hoop earrings and makeup, with brown winter jackets that have fur linings, and grey sweat pants and “Ug” boots. Are you going clubbing? Are you going to the gym? Are you a Native American? Please decide.

I’m even more tired of the fact that no matter what you wear there’s some statement being made. My winter jacket that I have loved for years began to fall apart and I had to go buy a new one. I didn’t want to. I didn’t want a jacket from any company. I didn’t want 50 other people to be wearing the same jacket as me every day all winter. I no longer even wanted some unique pick from Kensington that said “look at me I’m a unique pick”.

Maybe post-modernism has finally hit my fashion-sense. Maybe I’m just sick of pegging people and of being pegged. Maybe not wanting to choose an outfit is why I don’t leave the house lately.

Home Again

I love being away. I love new places.

This time ’round I stayed with a cousin who lives in Eastbourne on the Southern coast of England, a place I had never been. It was absolutely gorgeous. The buildings all seemed to be lower, and of more earthy colours, built lining hills and amongst tall trees. I had a sense that ‘civilization’ was more established there than here at home. It seemed to exist in a better harmony with the natural skylines and environment surrounding it.

Maybe that’s just because settlements in England are so much older than the ones here. Maybe it’s because nothing could be more apposed to natural environment than the suburban neighbourhoods I’m used to in North America. Maybe it’s because I always seem to filter my view of other countries through a rosey pink looking-glass.

Cellphones

I really hold a very strong distaste for cellphones. I grew/have grown to use and depend on them during my time in Japan and Ireland where they are an inescapable part of the culture, but I have fervently resisted getting one here at home. I resent, however, that as more and more people get one they are gradually becoming necessary. It is slowly becoming culturally inacceptable that I am not available to take and make phone calls at any point during the day no matter where I might be. First and foremost: I resent that. I will crack eventually but I won’t be happy about it.

As for those who already own cellphones, I have a couple of bones to pick with you:
1. Do not answer your phone when you are in class (or in the library, frankly). You make callers feel guilty when in a hushed tone you say “I’m in class”. We end up hanging up feeling flustered and having been unsuccessful in relaying a message to you. You have an answering machine. Let the call go and let us leave a bloody message (or if you don’t have an answering machine you probably have call display…so either way you can connect after class).
2. Do not put your phone on ‘vibrate’ during class. ‘Silent’ is the only appropriote setting. Everyone can hear that your phone is vibrating in your bag. It is annoying, distracting and disrespectful. You are in class. It doesn’t matter if your phone is ringing (see number 1).

That is all.

Exams

This one time I was burried in books for a solid week because I had an exam schedule tighter than I’ve had since highschool. The upside? I’m done now.

Also when I came out of my cuccoon there were timers on pedestrian crosswalks throughout the city. Next haitus I predict flying cars.

Realities and (Somewhat Blissful) Ignorance

A 14-year-old Indian boy has been awarded the International Children’s Peace Prize for leading a campaign against child labour and child slavery.

“After he was rescued, Om set up a network that aims to give all children a birth certificate as a way of helping to protect them from exploitation”

I knew child labour was a very serious global problem. But somehow it never occured to me that children could be denied birth certificates. These children are being forced to work and there is no official record of their birth…. that is truly frightening. How far removed from those situations we are simply by being born in Canada.

I am aware of the conflicts this post could be taken to have with ones I posted with regards to Rememberence Day. Our country may well not have been such a wonderful place to be born if the World Wars had turned out another way. I would like to take ownership once again for a lack of clarity on this issue. On an ideological level I do battle with how I feel about the existance of nationstates, passports and birth certificates: Documents which seem to cage us in to one corner of the World of which we were born citizens. But one thing I do not lose sight of is that I am lucky to be Canadian, and I am grateful for the rights I enjoy as a Canadian, including of course the rights that allow me to think about and discuss these very issues, and indeed the right to be wrong when it comes to them, but to keep thinking and to keep going back to the drawing board.

On Bigotry

A thought from matthewgood.org:

It’s strange when you think about it. Christian groups canvas neighborhoods all the time and, for the most part, when people tell them they’re not interested they do so in a reasonably polite manner.

Now imagine if Muslims were to do the same. Be truthful with yourself and seriously think about the reception that Muslim canvassers would receive.

Ponder that for the rest of the day.