It’s interesting and rather coincidental that in the same week as Rosa Parks died and Mahmoud Ahmedinejad called for Israel to be wiped off the map, the “Kashechewan problem” blew up in the Canadian government’s face.

While the mainstream media was quick to point out Ahmedinejad’s racism and Rosa Parks’s contribution against it, there was no mention of the “r word” when it came to Kashechewan.

The fact that Natives have been brutally oppressed, have had their culture and identity stolen from them, and have been overall mistreated for several generations apparently has nothing to do with the “r word.”

As inane and remarkably stupid as Ahmedinejad’s comments are, at least he’s honest. He doesn’t like Israel.

The Jim Crow laws were bluntly racist and didn’t mask their discrimination with flowery words.

In Canada, though, the governments speak of “prioritizing the Indian issue” and moving ahead and this and that and that and this, but they do jack. They talk a good game but their actions are racist to the core.

The problems that face Kashechewan and countless other communities like it right across the country are nothing less than products of racism.

It’s about time someone owned up to that.

Today I actually finished writing an essay the day before it is due. This, of course, is in contrast to my usual practice of finishing the essay the day it is due, typically a couple of hours before I have to hand it in (to allow for transit) or a couple of minutes (if I’m finishing it at school).

I also walked around and reacquainted myself with some people I met while campaigning for the ASSU Referendum, and I met some new people as well. One girl thought I was running for something, she couldn’t wrap her head around why someone in a position like mine would actually go around talking to people unless it had some kind of “benefit.” I had to explain to her that I was doing this because I like it, and because I think it’s a valuable part of my job as a student representative.

It’s sad when students view their representatives with that kind of suspicion, and I’ve complained in the past about the kind of elitism that results from student government. When candidates are running for a position they’ll go around introducing themselves to everyone and taking the time out to chat with them, but as soon as they’re elected they cram into their offices and remain aloof from the typical student (other than at events or seminars that they’re organizing).

In my case I get to interact with students every day when I do my office hours, and I give them the tests and advice and whatnot that they ask for. But I rarely take the time to meet them outside of the office, sticking to myself or with the friend or acquaintance that I happen to be with.

I’m going to try and change that, and I think every student representative should.

How can you purport to represent students if you don’t have to wait in one of the long lines that forms to buy a Metropass, but rather bypass it because of your position? How can you relate to the students if you use your position for discounts on certain things?

It’s a difficult balance between student representation and getting something back for being a representative. In my case, I don’t get paid a cent. But I do get access to photocopiers and computers and printers. It’s difficult for me, then, to relate to a student who has to type up her essay at Robarts and pay 5 cents or whatever the price may be per page off a crappy printer and then run off to hand it in. I have the opportunity to type it up in the comfort of the office, get it printed and stapled and then run over to hand it in.

I also get free ASSU t-shirts. And sometimes from SAC, too.

In December of 2004, in the aftermath of the South-East Asian tsunami, I wrote a piece on the fact that every day, tens of thousands of people die from hunger and malnutrition; yet we barely spare our constant attention on that. However, when something such as the South-East Asian tsunami strikes, it catches our attention and evokes a quick and substantial response.

Maybe it’s just me, but I really haven’t felt as overwhelming a response to the earthquake in South Asia as the tsunami. A lot of people seem to agree (but I stand to be corrected).

I’m trying to place why this is the case — at least, here in the West, and particularly, Canada. (In the Muslim world, the earthquake happened to strike at the beginning of the month of Ramadhan, and judging simply from the MSA‘s response at UofT, it seems that Muslims are giving heartily. Since I’m not there, I don’t know what the response is like.)

Apparently, this earthquake isn’t as Hollywood, or maybe it’s because not enough Western tourists had their vacations upset, or perhaps it’s not right after Christmas and no one feels as guilty, or maybe people are tired of giving for tsunamis and hurricanes, or maybe no one really cares about the Kashmiris anyway.

I’m also trying to grasp why my own emotional response has been so shallow. Usually I’m deeply affected by human suffering (scroll down and see how much I cry). I’m not sure if I’ve become callous or what, but this earthquake really hasn’t moved me to tears yet — and that scares me.

Moreover, I’ve learned more about the political aspects of human and natural disasters. And I have to revise my statement that “every five days, 120,000 people die from hunger — it doesn’t take American bombs … to do it.”

Imagine if India and Pakistan had invested more in their people, their infrastructure, their buildings, their hospitals, their social services and so on, instead of investing so heavily in armed forces and military research and development: Not only would the magnitude of this disaster be lessened in terms of reaching areas and not having shoddy buildings fall, but the utter poverty that many of these people were already subject to would definitely have been reduced.

This is a classic example of the guns and butter paradigm. Eisenhower said it well:

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

Moreover, not all bombs are the type that are dropped from airplanes. The world economy is designed in such a way that it delivers vast profits to the Northern countries (essentially “the West”) by more or less robbing the Southern countries — Africa is a notable example. The causes are complex but rooted in the structure of this world economic order. These policies often lead to the very famines and mass starvations that we see (such as in Niger), and the ones we don’t see. These are not simply “American bombs,” per se, because other wealthy countries participate in this debauchery as well (America certainly leads the charge).

Ultimately the point remains that we don’t do anything about anything. Whether it be bringing about a responsible resolution to the “thousand years” of war that the countries we come from are often set to fight or to the economic policies of the wealthy nations that we have adopted, we do little. We continue to live our lives of complacency, caught up in our busy days and busy ways.

We cannot control natural disasters, but we can prepare for them. We can prevent economic disasters and bring about justice to the way things are done.

We see the news and realize something bad is happening and put some money in a box and hope it will go away. But it never does and it never will. It will keep coming back until we bring about a change to the way things are done and the ways of those who purport to lead us. We have to effect a paradigmatic shift.

… it’s like the elders told me:
No one person can do everything, but everyone can do something.

– “One (Remix),” Immortal Technique

I find it hard to believe that anyone would pay for this crap:

There’s a marketing firm somewhere that’s laughing its way to the bank with a cheque for $4 million.

Anyone who feels excited or rejuvenated about this “dynamic” new strategy is simply deluding themselves. It seems like nothing more than an exercise in self-indulgence and ignorance. Or perhaps all the rhetoric is simply rationalization for having spent millions of dollars on a pile of crap.

I could’ve come up with something more inspiring for eleven dollars and ninety-three cents.

Growing up here in Jerusalem, I think I had a pretty normal childhood. But normal in the Middle East is always intertwined with war.

– B.Z. Goldberg, Co-Producer/Co-Director and Narrator of Promises

I’m having a cry-fest here.

I just saw Promises, a movie about children in Israel and Palestine, on Yaser’s recommendations. Like Hotel Rwanda, some parts of it made me cry. There were scenes where I was laughing as I cried. Not an easy thing to do.

It’s genuine and it’s amazing. To echo Yaser, Yasmine described it best on her blog. If you can get your hands on it, watch it.

Last night, more like this morning, I was watching Hotel Rwanda. It was a very moving film and I think it effectively conveyed its message. Some people criticized it for not showing more gore — but it certainly didn’t have to. I was crying my eyes out at one point.

An excellent film and an excellent performance by Don Cheadle.

Go watch it.

Ontario eyes private cash

“We intend to vigorously pursue opportunities to partner with the private sector in the delivery and financing of public infrastructure. That statement is going to be controversial, but it shouldn’t be,” the minister [David Caplan] said.

The Liberals are no better than Conservatives in red coats. Whether you vote for the lesser of two evils, you vote for evil.

i do not want to be kept alive artificially in case of a severely debilitating injury

i also want my organs to be donated to where ever they’ll be necessary

(does this constitute a living will? wtf, mate)

What is it about our counterparts in Québec? I mean the students. Do they have sticks shoved up their asses? Do they have uncomfortable mattresses? Do their parents feed them tainted cheese, because that�s all they eat anyway?

What’s wrong with them?

Why are the students in the province of Québec mobilizing en masse to protest the province’s cutback of $103 million in grants/bursaries? Why are these students on strike when Québecers pay the lowest tuition in the country, at an average of $1,800? For fuck’s sake, that’s only 10% of my student debt (about $18,000) — and I’m only in my second year.

Ontario’s students pay some of the highest tuition fees in the country. We’re assailed by fat-cat former-premiers who advocate outrageous modes of student loans (income-contingent loan repayment plans � try saying that ten times fast) that everybody first thinks are rosy-cheeky-muah-
love-you-Bob-Rae-have-my-children-thank-you-be-my-university’s-
president — but are more aptly described as life-long debt sentences (for the not-so-rich) that are going to bring in the bling for the banking industry.

If we good Ontarians can apply Vaseline to our asses despite getting butt-raped by $5,000 averages in tuition fees — why the hell can’t those goddamn Frenchies shut the fuck up and sit the fuck down?

Ou, en Francais, s’il te-plait: pourquoi can’t those goddamn Frenchies shut the fuck up and sit the fuck down?

What’s wrong with them?

Why don’t they acquiesce to the privatization and bastardization of social services and campuses like we do? Why do they naively continue to believe that mobilization of the masses with mass support from various sectors among the masses will make a massive difference to the classes that hold power in this state of affairs that some call a democracy, but Malcolm X called a disguised hypocrisy?

Maybe — because it will?

Let’s not be such dimwits as to believe that the Liberals of Québec — led by a man who is balding and was at one point a loser leader of the federal Progressive Conservatives (Jean Charest) — will give in completely to the demands of the students. But even if their struggle does not completely bring about the change they want to see, are they not correct to stand up for their rights? For what they believe in?

What are we, the students of Ontario, going to tell our children when they go to university and face thousands of dollars in tuition fees, massive tuition debts, professors sponsored by ExxonMobil and classrooms sponsored by ING Direct? Hold on a second — what the fuck are we, the students of Ontario, telling ourselves?

That we refuse to mobilize and therefore silently and painfully acquiesce because we believe that action does not bring about change anyway? Are we telling ourselves that, yes, we will go down without a fight — because it’s not that bad — right?

It’s not that bad?

Bitches, I’m in my second year of university, I have $18,000 in debt and I don’t even own a credit card! I make excuses not to go out places, most of my clothes are gifts, my parents try to prevent me from buying gifts for my niece on Eids and her birthday, I sometimes find myself without enough money to buy textbooks, and I shudder before I buy a $2.00 hotdog from those hotdog stands outside Sidney Smith — well, I would shudder even if I were loaded … that last point was moot…. I’ll move on now. And there are plenty of fellow students who have it much worse than I can even begin to fathom.

The fact is that it is bad now. And if it�s not that bad now it can only get worse. Unless we stand up and fight for our rights now, we face telling our children that “we didn’t start the fire, son, no we didn”t ignite it but we, uh, tried to, uh, stop listening to Billy Joel … actually we got burned and burnt out like half-ass pussies rather than stopping, dropping and rolling and then helping others put out the fire.”

There’s nothing wrong with those goddamn Frenchies (except maybe escargots, what the fuck is up with that?). The question we ought to ask is why is our shit not hitting the fan?

There’s something wrong with us when the only reason our voices are not heard is because we don’t speak out. There’s something wrong when we’re more concerned with the hockey lockout than Rae’s report, when we pay more attention to the latest happenings on the Apprentice or American Idol than we do to corporate irresponsibility and American imperialism, when we loudly debate pseudo-reality television but shy away from and feel uncomfortable discussing public policy.

I’m going to tell my children that I stood up and fought for my rights and theirs and those of others, even when I felt like no one stood by me, that even when I lost faith in humanity I did not drop the struggle. I’ll know that at least once in my life I decided to join those “radical” activists and skipped a couple of classes to do the least I could — join a protest or something.

I will not, to paraphrase Martin Luther King, Jr. be disappointed by the fervour of those who were opposed to me, but by the silence and inaction of those who should have supported me.

Even if I lose the struggle, and I think I will, I will rest secure in the knowledge that I never acquiesced.

Et tu?

sometime on march 8, the huge poster of malcolm x in my room fell
it’s right beside the poster of che guevara and above my bed
it fell behind the headrest of my bed

i haven’t had the time to put it back up

sometime on march 8, aslan maskhadov was killed by russian security services
he was the last elected president of chechnya, chechens have been embroiled in a bitter war for their independence from russian hegemony for the past ten years

sometime on march 8, i started wondering why so few people care
there are so many people, yet so many are apathetic, happy with the disinformation they receive and satisfied with the status quo that they can — one way or another — make better but simply refuse to
people who’ve lost their hope in positive action

and i’m honestly wondering why i care
i’m probably more cynical and angrier than most people i know, i don’t naively force myself to believe that waving a placard is going to change anything
but i do know that the less people that wave the placards and refuse to acquiesce to the status quo, the more we will lose our rights and rights to criticize the status quo

i can go through university, accumulate a huge student debt, but i can repay my debt after i graduate and move on with my life
so why do i give a shit about rising tuition fees?
why should i care if some poor guy looks at tuition fees as a barrier to education?
why should i care that someone who doesn’t get a decent job will have a harder time to repay the debt?
why should i care that someone who gets a low-paying job will effectively be saddled with a debt with gigantic interest rates that he’ll spend the rest of his life paying off?
i’m not going to be that fucker — so why should i care?

once i get a job, i’m sure my employer will provide me with decent health, and maybe even dental, coverage
so why do i give a fuck if healthcare is being privatized? let them do whatever they want to do as long as it doesn’t affect me
why should i care if some poor sap has to take out a loan from a bank to get his kid a life-saving operation?
so what?
why do i care?
why should i care?

can somebody, anybody, tell me why i should remain on the arts and science students’ union at the university of toronto and continue to insist that the administration treat students with respect and fairness?
why should i make plans to make the quality of education better for students? to get them involved? to provide better services for them? to make a tangible difference, regardless of how small it is?
why should i care?

why do i care about the fact that aslan maskhadov died? the people of chechnya have no relation to me, i don’t even know anyone from eastern europe, nevermind the caucasus
the chechens are dying and russian recruits are being suckered into a war?
so what? why do i care?

why do i even care about malcolm x?
he died forty years ago as a direct result of fighting for people, who, now, for all intents and purposes are in pretty much the same positions and don’t even give a fuck about themselves
why do i care?

why should i care?

why shouldn’t i just focus on maximizing any and all things i can do for myself? why shouldn’t i view life as a zero-sum game? why shouldn’t i not give a fuck?

adam once called me the “champion of lost causes” — fuck, if they’re all lost, why the hell should i give a shit?

why should i care?