Canada At War

Although we have a election and our officials cannot be actively involved in the war in Libya Canadians still need to have a adult conversation on this.

This needs to be brought up during the election campaign and Canada must come up with a exit strategy. We cannot be left to spearhead this war when we are still trying to deal with Afghanistan.

Robert Munsch's "Love you Forever"

I'm sure many of us have had some of those all time favorite childhood books that we loved as a child as well as now, no matter how old we get. Some of us may have loved books specifically by that one author who always had that charm in his or her books. I had quite a few books on my list as a child..you name it, from "Sleeping Beauty" to "Hansel and Gretel" and "Jack and the Beanstalk". However, one author whom I loved so much as a child and can never forget would definitely be Robert Munsch. There's a never-ending-list of his books that I read as a child and mind you there wasn't one that I would allow my mother to give away or pass on to my relatives even when I grew up. One of the most memorable books that always really touches me deeply is "Love you Forever" by Robert Munsch. Even a few days ago I took it out and started reading it aloud. I know that there's so much repetition in it but despite the repetition I feel so touched every time Munsch repeats the lines "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, As long as I'm living my baby you'll be." The story is basically about a mother who rocked her baby boy back and forth in bed at night time when he's be asleep and she did that even when he grew up and by the ending she gets so old and sick and that's when the son rocks his mother back and forth and repeats those lines and when he has a daughter he repeats the lines in her ear just like his mother did to him when he was a baby.

Now one might think well it's just a normal old children's book so what? To me it just doesn't really end there because if you think about it there's a much stronger message in it which is the message of true love and bonding between parents and children. I would like to reconsider everything that's happening in our Canadian society these days how juveniles are causing trouble and parents getting frustrated at them and kicking them out of the house (I know because I've seen this happen in a family in my old neighborhood). OR parents getting so frustrated at a point where they just use the "silent treatment" but the truth is these things don't help the situation in fact in most cases it makes the scenario worse. I feel that it's love that helps mend distances together between parents and children. You don't believe me? Well go for yourself and pick this book up and see how Munsch describes the son in "Love you Forever" as a rebellious teen and yet still the mother treats him with love and I feel that by doing so she shows the son that she really cares about him and wouldn't ever want him to be harmed and that is why we see the mature depiction of the son when he comes to his mom's house and rocks her back and forth because he knows she's done this the whole time while he was growing up. The lesson here is that the love of parents will touch their children's hearts and they will return....and distances will disappear between parents and their children.

I Know I'm not Alone

I know...I know it's that time of the year again..end of March and well almost beginning of APRIL...and I know I'm not alone. University life around this time is really a killer. I just had an exam today, tomorrow I have a group presentation and the day after that I have my final essay due for a class. Sometimes I feel that I need a break from all of this. Here in Canada we don't even have many snow days like America because there, the students would have snow days like every other day and here in Canada we literally go to school or university even through snow blizzards. Well technically we only had one snow day last month in February but not like I could have caught on much of my school work. It's a little frustrating when I realize that even during reading week I tried to do as much as I could yet it still wasn't much of a "productive" week so to speak. If we had random snow days I feel that I could have used them wisely because I would keep in mind that technically it's a school day but because of the snow blizzard out there I still have to study just as if I were to be at school. I feel that I've fell behind on some of my assignments and it panics me just thinking about it...but I know I'm not alone because many of my fellow classmates and other students at York are going through the same hectic school work load. The professors and T.A's have high expectations for us to get in our assignments on time..to do well on the exams...to contribute for class participation..on and on and on. But..I know I'm not alone. When this time of the year comes about, I feel so overwhelmed by school work and exams coming up that I don't know where to get started...I waste time thinking....I waste time listening to music...I procrastinate overall...and I know I'm not alone.

When I've completed my assignments and handed them in...when I studied for my exams and wrote it the next day..I wait and I wait because now only one thing matters and that's my grades. All kinds of questions like "Oh my God, I hope I did an exceptional job on my final essay.." OR "I hope I got a good mark on my exam!" At this point, all that matters is HOW well I did for each of my classes and yet I still stand because I know I'm not alone. Everybody or at least the majority of my fellow colleagues are in the same boat which gives me hope and encouragement knowing that others are facing the same adversities in their academic life just like me...it calms me down because...I know I'm not alone.

Green Canada

Can this be the year the Green Party through Elizabeth May finally get a seat in Parliament? If nothing changes in Parliament it would be interesting to see the Green Party even with one seat to influence Parliament. The Green Party of Canada has maintained support around 8-10% of the popular vote. Many Canadians, not just environmentalists but citizens dissatisfied with all the mainstream Canadian parties have voted Green.

Could this be the year the Green Party get's their foot in the door? It certainly would be interesting.

Immigrants Attacking One Another

I recently read an article called "Bitches On All Sides" that at first glance appeared to me as a man going through a mid life crisis. The protagonist is losing his hair, always angry, and in a negative place overall. As the setting is centered on a small town, it was easy to connect to the loneliness felt by Ramjohn. Dealing with a massive flood of immigrants from the West Indies to smaller towns, there is a lessened chance of illegal immigrants being caught as well as being disadvanatged in other forms; such as employment. Several issues stood out to me. There appears to be more of an oppurtunity back home despite Canada's ideal of being a place for an immigrant to flourish. Certain migrants such as Ramjohn are excluded as their education isn't recognized by Canadian standards. The government sees race and culture before intellect. A huge contradiction happens seeing as how they are liberal with their want and acceptance of multiculturalism. There is an immediate profiling before an individual is given a chance. This only makes sense to the height of Ramjohn's anger. He is seen as a second class citizen by his peers. Furthermore, every group that does not fit the hegemonic model is ignored and discriminated against. There is a perpetuation of hate. Once this happens, it's not far off that immigrants will start to judge one another in matters of who is worth the oppurtunity. This article highlighted the steps towards "various types of brown" being critiqued. Ramjohn is angered that the women all around him are employed. He feels emasculated that he cannot find work while others can. This plays out in a weird dream sequence where is penis breaks off. Being a prime sign of "what makes a man a man", his maleness is dissapearing. All in all, it was an oddly interesting read. However, the fact that his problems are solved by uniting with a woman of equal nature doesnt exactly challenge the political/social rules that constrict him. Would have been nice to see some form of rebellion.

Religion and its Impact on Individuals

I often contemplate over this whole idea of identity just because it's interesting to consider how different people prioritize certain things in their lives. Now, first of all, to me personally, identity doesn't just end within the boundaries of our name, sex, age, height, hair color, and social insurance number so on and so forth. If you look at identity from a broader perspective then it becomes essential for us to look beyond especially in our Canadian culture where multiculturalism comes into the picture. So if we were to look at the broader picture we would notice how things like our education, cultural background, family, and religion come into play something I will be talking about today.
So religion to me is something that plays an active role in molding part of our lives since it's something we would generally practice IF we follow one. For me as an individual, small things like praying, doing good things in general to other human beings, donating money for new infrastructure in my community are things I do which automatically make me practice my religion since my religion requires me to do certain things if I want to be a good Muslim and a good human being. Religion in my opinion establishes one's moral character because from what I know, I think any religion whether it be Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, and Buddhism (and many other religions that I might have forgotten to mention) generally revolve around primary ground rules that teach the followers of that religion to be good human beings and be kind to others. There are however many other teachings to different religions but of course I'm not going to be talking about them. Anyway the main point here is that no matter what religion it is, I feel that goodness is always there and it's expected to be performed by believers of many faiths. So that performance of goodness on one's part enhances their moral character which in turn leaves a person with a good identity.

Can these Canadian Drivers even Drive?

Sometimes I wonder who even passed these drivers when really their driving skills are terrible! I mean it really makes me stop and wait for a few minutes and think about some people who seriously need to go back and start off right from G1 so that they can learn the proper rules to drive. So that they actually know what each sign means...what they're expected to do on a green light, a red light so on and so forth. I would have many examples to give if I ever got started on this topic. For example, today I was on the bus to York and right at Highway 7 and Interchange Way as the bus was crossing the green light, a car was slowly taking a right turn when clearly the driver could see that the bus had the first right to cross the green light and then the car could have taken a right turn when there weren't any other vehicles following the bus. But no...some drivers are always in a hurry as if they're in a race. Because of a small mistake there could have been a serious accident today, thank the Lord the bus driver honked so loudly at the car and gave a frustrated "what-on-Earth-are-you-doing?" look. Another time one of my co-workers told me how she was at Vaughan Mills and she was taking a left turn on one of the major intersections and mind you those big intersections are very jammed especially during rush hour so you have to drive very carefully. Anyway so she explained how she was taking a left turn and a guy was coming at full speed from the opposite direction she literally thought she would crash into his car because it seemed as if he couldn't even stop his car just because he was driving way too fast. Thankfully she had crossed just in time to let him pass by and crash into whatever he wanted...because quite frankly drivers like that deserve it. these kind of drivers think they rule the roads and they can go over the speed limit but they never consider that this might take another person's life away. However, I can only hope for people to become better drivers so there could be less accidents and less people getting injured and dying.