– dean does not come to class to apologize for administration boondoggle
– get a parking ticket despite having paid for parking and displaying the permit on your dashboard (and which you will now have to dispute)
– the varsity runs your article but leaves out the most important paragraph (like submitting an essay without a thesis)
– having an essay worth 30% of your mark due the next day (and not having started)

i wonder if, four hundred years from now (if humans are still alive), someone reading today’s english will say, “bloody hell, why is this so convoluted?” the same way i’m referring to hobbes’ leviathan as i try to navigate through it now …

sleep would be nice

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?

i got to the e.j.pratt library at about 10:00 am, as stated earlier it is probably the most aesthetic library on campus (next to gerstein) — for one thing, you actually get natural light coming in, as opposed to sitting in a fluorescent atmosphere that resembles a fort more than it does a library (although pratt looks like a pillbox from the outside)

i ended up catching up on homework (and i’m still not anywhere near done) till 10:00 pm, leaving the library twice — first to get that water english toffee and crappy boston cream then later to grab a sandwich from subway

so sometime later (after 10:00 pm) i enter the subway and i’m going eastbound — at yonge these rowdy black kids come in to the car (four rowdy girls and one laid-back guy)

from yonge to victoria park (when they sat down) the girls were jumping around and disrupting people, being ostentatious, singing songs (ashanti) and dancing … one girl went to the front of the car and did her beyonce impression as she walked forward

people got up and moved away from them, some people smiled and were kind of enjoying it

finally at warden station i got up and went up to them and told them that (apologizing to the crowd for the upcoming profanity), when i asked them a question they ought to say “they schools don’t teach us shit”

then i asked them “why haven’t you learned anything?”
and they more-or-less replied “they schools don’t teach us shit”
(that’s from a dead prez song)

i then asked them if they knew who malcolm x is and they responded loudly in the affirmative

i then asked them if they knew that forty years ago malcolm x was shot dead

that quieted them down, and i said, that’s right — they schools don’t teach you shit

that’s when a man came up to me and shook my hand and so did one of the girls
i asked if they knew who the dead prez are, and two of the girls said no — but the guy and a girl said yes so i gave them props for that

i then told them to listen to mc nomes, captain nomes, to me:

you put down virtue and you promote vice
then you turn around and say you’re for the passion of the christ
i don’t give a **** about the qur’an or the bible
as far as i’m concerned it’s the fittest who see survival
but drinking, smoking pot and shooting shit in your veins
that ain’t survival of any kind you’re just ****ing your brains
but the corporations love it ’cause they’re making big profit
and your mind is so gone it’s easier keeping you down in shit
and all the while you light up thinking you’re so revolutionary
but you’re just a dumb **** and you’re slowing the evolutionary process….

i ended off telling them to stay away from drugs, to stay in school and get an education because brother malcolm said “without education, you’re not going anywhere in this world” and that’s about when the train got to kennedy

i did all that without being patronizing or condescending, and at the end i got respect from the guy and the girls, and all those people who were at first put off by the rowdiness of the girls seemed to have gained some kind of awe for/wonderment about me (i was quiet the whole time until the train got to warden)

that’s what i would mark as the return of the ttc mc, and i think i’m going to look forward to doing more of it…

(the above entry is disjointed and lacking lucidity because i’m tired from over twelve hours of studying on little sleep)

and speaking of the subway, here’s today’s daily dose of sanjeyan:

ksnite says:
today, i was in the subway
nomes says:
how was it
ksnite says:
kinda tubey

with a (small) cup of (watery) english toffee and a boston cream donut (with barely any cream) in the basement of the (second?) most aesthetic library on campus (alone) in the (eternal) winter (of perpetual discontent) wondering why the hell don’t these chairs have lumbar support?

Students rally for post-secondary education

“Education is a fundamental right, it’s not to be bargained with or traded,” Noaman Ali, 19, of the University of Toronto said. “Its shouldn’t be made into a commodity.”

today, saqib hooked up with sanjeyan and i at the rally for reducing tuition fees (or at least, against increasing them)

it was, for each of us, the first time at a demonstration, and it was a lot of fun

we were carrying ASSU‘s banner that read, “education is a right”

we started out in front of con hall, marched around king’s college circle, then went down st. george street to college, and along college to queen’s park

we took our banner and aligned it so that it was parallel to the marching, at the left side of the march — this way, the cars going on the other side of the road could see what was on it
we also made sure that when we passed by streetcars we raised the banner so that all those inside could read it (and get annoyed that we were blocking their view of what it was that was blocking them) — it was quite “in your face”

once we reached queen’s park, outside the legislature, we found a snow bank and stood atop of it holding out our banner — we sank into the snow at a rate of one inch every eight minutes — we were on the left flank of the protestors

one of the speakers was mary anne chambers (minister in charge of postsecondary education), she came up and made a speech, after which students from carleton offered her a mock-up giant “promise ring” to remind her to keep her promises
the minister refused the ring, at which point i started a chant “wear the ring! wear the ring!” — yes, i felt proud of that — but she didn’t take the ring

at one point a reporter for centennial college’s toronto observer asked me for a comment (i suppose my comments, if published, will be there in the next edition)

one of the speakers, a representative from cupe, started off with a most excellent introduction, “brothers, sisters, COMRADES!” — he was apparently an arab, very enthusiastic, with an incredible accent and booming voice that made everyone listen

we almost felt like starting a revolution right there and then

and after the protest a reporter from roger’s cable local tv (markham/richmond hill) went around looking for a student from markham or richmond hill, and it seems i’m the only one she found, so she took me away and i gave her an interview
that will be on tv tomorrow, and no one will watch it anyway

after the protest, sanjeyan and i dragged the assu banner in front of the sidney smith wraparounds (front and back) with their floor-to-ceiling glass windows, and got people inside to watch as we walked around

later, saqib, sanjeyan and i used a couple of free lunch coupons we had to get the most expensive food we could from sscaf� — a couple of subs from mr. sub — and had a feast, or a reasonable approximation thereof

after that we went around postering for ut-tern’s movie night (we’re showing big fish — two dollars — all proceeds go to tsunami relief:
monday, feb 7, six pm, ss2118
come out and support, and watch a great movie too)

and after that i went to class, and sanjey and saqib went home

it was a great day, because sanjey typically strikes me as someone who stays away from the political — and it was great to see him chanting along, and i don’t get to see saqib much (i’ve only seen him once on campus by chance before), so it was most excellent, as far as days go

i enrolled late into a class, and so missed some of the first few lectures

one of my friends in the class (whose brother is also in the class) lent me her notes, and i photocopied them and returned the originals to her, quite a while ago

as i flipped through the notes tonight, i noticed a section where there was a substantial amount of annotation missing, and a small note to the side, “get notes from [brother]”

now that’s ironical

and it is now the night before the test

message sent to physics department:

Dear Professor Keys (sic.),

I only now realized an incredible conflict of interest pertaining to the date of the Physics Test.

Unfortunately, the TTC’s 50th anniversary celebrations of Canada’s first Subway line also fall on March 30th.

For those of us who believe fervently — even fanatically — in Public Transit and the TTC, this is virtually a religious conflict.

On March 30th, us believers will firstly gather at the SAC office to purchase our April Metropasses.
We will then indugle in a night-time remembrance of the sacred Red Cars that, though produced in Great Britian, still reflected Canada’s … redness (in a non-communist way), through poetry and physics recitals and, of course, singing the famed TTC Subway Song.
We will then hike — above ground — from Union Station to Eglinton Station to remember the trials and tribulations that faced the people of Toronto before we were graced with the Subway.
We will then take the Subway from Eglinton to Yonge Station, and go west to St. George Station to initiate the final rite: Starting from Bloor and St. George we will take the Subway to Kipling, then go to Kennedy. From there we will back track to St. George, and go north to Downsview. Then, we will go south, do the loop (well, a U-turn, or whatever you want to call it) and go north to Finch. Then south to Sheppard, go east to Don Mills, come back to the Yonge line and come south to the Bloor line and back to St. George.

I realize that this is very short notice, but on behalf of all us Public Transit believers, I request that the test be postponed, rescheduled for another date. (Yes, we know one test is droppable, but we hope to drop one of our earlier tests due to our dismal performances there.)

(Or you could at least announce to the Physics class that March 30th also marks the 50th anniversay of the Subway, and the TTC’s official celebrations are being held at 10:30 am at Union Station.)

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,
“captain nomes”
Noaman Ali

reply from physics department:

Dear Noaman,

I have read with much interest your urgent request and regret to inform you that it cannot be granted. According to the Interfaith Calendar (http://www.interfaithcalendar.org/), worship of public transit, whether of the TTC variety or of any other, is not a faith recognised by the University of Toronto. Furthermore, neither Professor Key nor I are keen to encourage fanaticism in any form whatsoever.

Let me assure you, however, that we are fervent supporters of public transit as an alternative to more private and wasteful means of transportation, such as the so-called sports utility vehicle.

May I suggest that the calm and studious ambiance of a test, so conducive to one’s contemplation of past sins and of the frailties of human nature, would make an ideal prelude to the boisterous revelry being planned for that evening.

Regards,

Pierre Savaria
PHY138Y Course Coordinator