Ingenuous Fools

Poetry - Mime

2010-03-05T12:48:00.000-08:00

Mime

The door just slammed
on that white-and-black wordless man.
His hands are pressed flat
on an invisible fortress surrounding him—

severing his links to the world.

He plays his death a thousand times,
holding his noose with gloved fingers.

Naps, trash and brain pictures in court

2010-02-21T08:51:00.000-08:00

Naps make you smarter: A midday nap markedly boosts the brain's learning capacity
I knew it! As an avid napper, I'm feeling the win here. Also, the ergonimc mouspad at my office is a very comfy pillow.

Garbage = fuel: Orange Peels, Newspapers May Lead to Cheaper, Cleaner Ethanol Fue
It only makes sense. We've been burning and burying shit for ages, and only now coming up with a good use for garbage? Apparently orange peels are where this business is at. Because this new technology was developed in Florida, oh ye land of citrus.

The CSI effect, as per usual: How Far Should Neuroscience Evidence Go in Court Trials?
Neuroscience is really too young to be used as conclusive proof of anything. This lawyer is trying to prove that his client is insane by using a brain picture. It's not like paint-by-numbers, you doofus. Also, correlation does not imply causation. And, eat your vegetables.

Olympics Visitor Warning and the Canadian Ninja

2010-02-12T10:55:00.000-08:00

Woman punches off coyote attack
Mother fought off cougar to save toddler from attack

It is widely believed that Canadians are ninjas. This myth is obviously false, since we have an obesity rate rivalling that of the USA (okay, not really), but when it comes to fighting off large animals, the inner ninja prevails.

Linked above, an article about a woman who saves her dog from a coyote. I have a little dog, and she is always trying to run off to play with the coyotes. She hears them howling from our backyard, and since it would be very not-pretty to fence in our yard, she generally makes a break for it. Luckily, we always catch her before she reaches the forest. Those damned coy-otes are always hungry.

In order to protect from coyotes, make sure to have a guard animal, such as a llama, or a donkey (seriously.). Coyotes aren't that large and generally live off rodents. If you have a dog that looks like a rodent, like I do, then maybe you should invest in a loyal llama to protect your rat-dog.

Cougars, on the other hand, are massive. My parents always told me that if I wasn't careful, a cougar would eat my face. Apparently, they are quite well known for face-eating, though Wikipedia stubbornly claims that they are more likely to jump you from behind (which is also scary). This website insists that only 5 people in the last 100 years have been killed by cougars, and that three Canadians a year die from bee stings.

This is because ninja powers are useless against bees. Unless you can do that trick from Wanted where the nerdy dude suddenly had the ability to shoot the wings off a fly. Except we're not allowed guns in Canada.

This is why ninja powers are important. If your three-year-old got attacked by a cougar, what would you do?

Obviously, you would activate ninja powers and fight back. In fact, the Canadian Ministry of Environment even suggests that you do exactly that (FIIGHT). There were 29 non-fatal cougar attacks in the last 100 years - but remember, the Canadian ninja has a much higher chance of surviving due to extreme ninja skills. In case you are among the lucky who are going to be visiting Vancouver for the Olympics, you may want to take note of these suggestions.

a) Take martial arts lessons before arriving so you will be prepared to fight off attacks by coyotes, cougars and bears.
b) Always carry a large stick with you.
c) Because coyotes attack the head (from behind according to Wikipedia, or perhaps the face) it is best to wear a helmet when you're outside. Preferably one with a mask, like a motorcycle helmet or a hockey helmet.

It also must be mentioned that our dogs are also ninja trained. Sometimes they are too small to fight the animals off themselves, as seen above where the owner was forced to intervene. But they also do pretty well, and are suuper loyal: Retriever saves 11-year-old boy from cougar attack in Boston Bar

“Take All of Murphy”, Cryptic Symbolism Included

2010-02-09T20:18:00.000-08:00

Many students studying anatomy and human biology have to wait years before they are given the privilege of dissecting a full, human body. Until then, substitutes are provided – everything from a frog to a bull – and mostly, students are only given little bits to analyze at a time. The opportunity to learn anatomy first-hand truly is, as Dr. Harrison says in “Taking All of Murphy”, a gift (34). In this short story, which is anthologized in Vincent Lam’s Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures, a group of three medical students are followed as they complete their first human dissection. Ming, Chen and Sri represent different ways in which people react to the task of cutting open a human body by showing how different levels of empathy with their cadaver manifests. Lam creates a maze of imagery and symbolism that doesn’t allow the reader to draw any easy conclusions about the meaning of his work.

The students signify three different markers on a scale of compassion towards the cadavers. Ming sees the cadaver as a simple object, saying, “‘Hello? Dead? Remember? I don’t have dreams, because I don’t have hang-ups about the stupid corpse,” (40). Sri, on the other hand, cannot help but humanize their dissection subject, including taking the teacher’s suggestion of giving the cadaver a name Sri proposed that they name their cadaver Murphy” (40), and while Ming did not want to assign a name, Chen, the compromiser, “took neither side, suggested that each do as they please,” (40).

Sri represents the idea that there should be an atmosphere of ceremony surrounding the dissection of a human. He sees Ming’s eagerness as somehow impure, and decides to start the dissection himself, because he “felt only fear, which he believed was a better way to begin this undertaking...” (32). Furthermore, after each day’s session in the dissection lab, Sri would completely change all of his clothes, including socks and underwear (39) and he is shown as being someone who might have knowledge on ceremonial burial rights (38). When Chen brings up cultural burial practices, Ming presents the opposing viewpoint when she says, “‘You’re thinking of concrete boots. Gangsters did that,’” (38). The idea that the way in which a person or group of people deal with deadness and death can be placed along a ceremony to criminality spectrum is one that is shown through the attitudes and actions of the three students highlighted in this story.

As disagreements between the group escalate, they become more deeply meaningful to the reader. Ming wants to cut through a tattoo on the cadaver’s arm, following what the manual says, but Sri is put off by the idea of desecrating the man’s tattoo. “‘You should respect a man’s symbols,’” he explains to the group (43). Lam shows the students musing over the meaning of the tattoo, but only Sri really cares about the significance of it, and about preserving it. Ming, focused on memorizing without interpretation, follows the manual without regard to this man’s “symbols”. Later, Ming misplaces the right side of the cadaver’s head, and Sri is outraged at the disrespect that Ming shows to Murphy (45).

A critical reader, one who is actively looking for symbolism, may see the loss of the right side of the head as representative of an absence of right brain activity in the medical students’ learning process. The right hemisphere of the brain is popularly portrayed as being home to creativity and interpretation processes. However, lateralization of brain function is not nearly as simple as it is often assumed to be – a fact that medically trained Vincent Lam would be aware of. Lam does a great job of exploring a tendency which many writers and critical readers exhibit: the over simplification of symbolism.

In the same way, there are hints throughout the text that the story Lam is telling may have biblical resonance. The Dean speaks of expulsion, as from the Garden, as a punishment for distasteful behaviour (33); the bar the students spend time at is named “The Paradise”, but is filled with fire (49); and Sri and Chen analyze the bible verse Mark 16 (51). Lam makes these references problematic by leaving them unconnected, and by tinting them with irony. The students who are portrayed as being respectful of the dissection subjects pour beer into Murphy (52), and yet are not expelled. The students fail to note the disconnect between the name of their bar and the atmosphere it presents (49). The bible verse marked on Murphy’s arm is analyzed, but by appropriating their own meanings to the man’s tattoo, the students effectively negate the true meaning that the man, now dead and unable to correct them, really had for the tattoo (53). The only simple relationships shown in this story are between the three characters; Ming, Chen and Sri have their roles, their opinions, and they remain in their proper places until the end.

Lam presents the reader with a plethora or symbols that only underscore the impossibility of knowing the true intent an author may have had for his symbols. In the same way that the students can never know Murphy’s original intentions for each of his tattoos, Lam has created an environment in which the reader can only speculate how he meant for the dots of metaphor and symbolism to connect. Despite the subject matter being scientific in nature, this story may aim to illustrate to a critical reader how there is no correct answer in analyzing a piece of literature, but only that it is important to always “respect a man’s symbols,” (43).

Works Cited

Lam, Vincent. "Take All of Murphy." Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures Stories. New York: Anchor Canada, 2006. Print.

Drunk people make me laugh

2010-02-07T07:24:00.000-08:00

Wyoming shoplifting suspect mistakenly flees into police station
And drunken shoplifters even more so...

Man arrested after stripping, causing brief disturbance inside Phoenix airport terminal
And people off their meds...

Actor Rip Torn headed for rehab after drunk bank arrest
Actor Rip Torn charged with breaking into Conn. bank while drunk and carrying a loaded gun
And drunken actors contemplating a bank robbery...

But drunk drivers not so much.
No brakes in sight for a serial drunk driver
Maine State trooper suspended after chasing driver into Canada
No jail time for Manitoba driver who killed boy

Canadian Med-Schools and their shaky understanding of "informed consent"

2010-01-29T06:57:00.000-08:00

Gloomy story, gloomy picture

As a long-time patriotic Canadian (that’s Niagara there, folks. I didn’t have any Toronto pictures on hand) I was shocked to see Canada tied up in a pretty nasty headline over at Feministing.

"Apparently in Canada, medical students practice pelvic exams on women who are in surgery without their consent."(Link)

At first I was confused, and simply dismissed it as a headline blown out of proportion. I thought it must be a one-time occurrence, an ongoing lawsuit wherein one drunken medical student made it past security (the intense security that must surround every unconscious patient) and slipped his (or her) hand under some poor woman’s dressing gown.

According to the informal survey presented by the article, 72% of medical students have done an unauthorized pelvic exam on an unconscious surgical patient (Link). A pelvic examination can be either external or internal; it was not specified which act was performed. An internal pelvic exam without consent is called, “penetration of an unconscious person with a foreign object”, more broadly known as rape.
California courts recently found a man on two felony counts, including “rape of an unconscious person” (Link). This sexual assault will result in a man facing “a long prison sentence”; hopefully a very long one.

The woman quoted with regards to the unauthorized pelvic exams admitted that she had performed these exams several times during her time as a student. A repeat offender, so to speak. Maybe some people will see her as misguided, or only as someone who was afraid to speak up. After all, medical school is not a particularly easy or simple place to be, and after four years of undergrad, functioning on an average of three hours of sleep a night – no one wants to risk their chance to finally become a doctor.

She quickly puts this opinion out of my mind, however, but saying, “…it had never occurred to me that it might be unethical.”(Link)

In quintessential Grey’s Anatomy fashion, I ask you—

Seriously? Seriously?

Unethical seems like a gross understatement. If someone sticks something phallic, be it a penis or that little ducky thing that they use for pelvic exams, without consent, they slip off one side of “unethical” and fall deeply into "criminal”.

I may be taking this too seriously, or reacting too strongly. This could be because I’m frankly ashamed to have such a headline tied to the Canadian medical school system, or it might have something to do with all the surgeries I’ve recently been knocked-out for. The idea of some teacher making rounds to my vagina with a bunch of sleep-deprived students watching makes me feel sick to my stomach. If I had been conscious and in a teaching hospital and slated to have a PAP anyway, I might actually said yes. But when someone is chemically unconscious and strapped to an operating table is not an appropriate time to stick a head (and the above noted ducky tool) between their knees.

The only comfort I can take from this is that the last two times I had surgery, I was on my period. I bet that was a gross surprise for those nosy insomniac med-school fuckers.

Smallville and the battle of Clark and the fog

2009-11-19T12:26:00.000-08:00

I know I may be getting to the game a little late on this one, but forgive me -- I don't have a TV!

The episode of Smallville that aired last week was all sorts of epic. I can't even describe to you the feeling that shot through me when Clark's voice scrambler stopped working -- oh shit! Is this it? -- and then Lois's reaction, and of course her shrink visits and I'm in love. Sorry. The rambling. It's unattractive. But Lois and Clark? What's more legendary than that?

The big issue with the episode is the confusion that stemmed from Lois's fall from the Daily Planet roof. I must admit, embarrassing though this may be, I was on team fog at first. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I'll elaborate.

The Wonder Twins were featured (albeit with a little over 5 minutes screentime) in last week's episode. Wikipedia tells me that Zan and Jayna are from another planet, and that they can transform. Zan can become water at any state (sidebar: is this dumb?) and Jayna any animal. When Lois is thrown off the roof of the Daily Planet in typical Lois fashion, Clark decides to try to save her as Clark instead of whirling into Blur attire and zooming to her rescue.

This creates an issue for poor Clark, because by now the vultures have gathered and there are roughly the same amount of journalists below as there are people in Smallville. Clark is forced to make the decision -- do I save her? Or should I protect my identity and let her fall to her painful death?

I fully believe that if she had dropped, then the decision would have been made for him, and he would have ousted himself without a second thought. But now, she's hanging, and he's reaching futively for her, and she's getting all dramatic and offering to die to protect his secret.

Then the fog comes (it's Zan, p.s.) and Clark smiles. He reassures her that everything's going to be alright and she falls, falls, falls.

The next scene shows her landing softly on the ground amidst thick and luscious fog. The fog obviously caught her. Right?

I figured it was a stupid Smallville thing. After all, fog can't catch you, it's clouds for godssake. But maybe Zan could, I dunno, I don't know anything about this dude. But on Kryptonsite, my favourite Smallville forum, a metaphorical storm was brewing over the identity of Lois's saviour. People started to question...

Would Clark really leave Lois's life in the hands of some guy he'd just met? Why would Clark assume that the fog was going to catch Lois? How much did he even know about Zan and his powers at this point?

But also, why didn't the directors show Clark catching her? How was the lowered so slowly to the ground -- wouldn't Clark catching her have been a jolty motion and then a crash, like when he caught Lana that one time? Physics makes it obvious, because at the speed she was moving, there was no way that a typical catch-and-land would have left her alive, in one piece, and still peacefully sleeping.

The argument continued. 432 posts worth of arguing. The director of the episode showed up, Glen Winter himself, to settle the argument. Clark saved her, or so he says. But the argument continues! Ten forum pages of continues! Will this argument never end?

I'm now firmly on the Clark team. Team fog doesn't stand a chance, not when you look at Clark's smile before Lois dropped, and the phone call from Chloe-the-Blur after the fact ("I guess this makes up for not calling.). Plus, well, Glen Winter.

In other news, I don't know quite how to express how excited I am for Friday's episode. I've been thinking about it, and let's just say that I spent my shift at work daydreaming about it instead of working. Eight wasted hours, so it better be good!

Push and the Relate-ability of Precious

2009-11-19T11:59:00.000-08:00

Recently, there has been a lot of noise about a movie called "Precious", featuring Gabby Sidibe. As a general rule, I try to read the book before I see the movie (one of the many reasons why I refuse to see the apparent beauty of Robert Pattinson on the big screen) and so I rushed to my nearest book store to buy Push, by Sapphire.

As an English major with a general background in British Literature, I'm usually quite put off by any writing that is less than grammatical. I knew, coming into it, that Push was likely to be upsetting, and not only because of its content. I was actually more worried about if I would be able to force myself through a book where "maff" is the interpretation of the word "math" by a nearly illiterate girl.

I know, I know, I'm awful. Many amazing books have had to be put down because of this very issue. But after a term of Caribbean literature, I've been learning how to read books in Creole, or in a mix of English and Creole, and this addresses my issue nicely. The problem is that I don't hear words in my head as I read, so I get easily confused by forms of phonemic orthography. With some practice I've been improving at hearing a voice in my head, and it was because of this that I found myself very able to enjoy Push.

The story starts out when Precious gets kicked out of school for being pregnant. She seems to embody all sorts of contradiction -- she yells at the teacher, she won't open her textbook (she can't read the numbers). In that same class, she becomes known as the peace keeper, and the teacher appreciates her ability to control the unruly math-student masses.

Without school to turn to, Precious returns home to her abusive mother. Reading about all the hardships that Precious has been through, the inappropriate sexuality, the beatings, the malnutrition, I fully expected the book to come off like a twisted game -- where the author tries to horrify, and in case that isn't enough, here's something worse!! Surprisingly, I was very touched by her stories of abuse. Though the scale was different, every moment was relatable to me, not least the moment when she learns the word for what her father did to her and was able to vocalise it, screaming "rape" over and over.

The social issues laced throughout the book also affect readers in their everyday lives; Saphire takes each situation and makes it into hyperbole. The saddest part is that, for some people, it isn't. As a reader, though, these pictures of racism, homophobia, low-self esteem, poverty and abuse are echoed small-scale through most people's lives. Some particulars may resonate more than others.

I know that some reviewers found the character of Precious to be transgressive and carnivalesque (in a bad way), but I can only speak for the novel. I found the character to be likable and it was her ability to learn and to reason that got to me. She gives me hope that even people who are raised with intolerant beliefs, such as Precious's homophobia, can see the error in such thinking and love people, particularly Ms. Rain and some of her classmates, despite her initial prejudices regarding their sexuality and gender expression.

Great book, and will definitely see the movie. As soon as it starts playing in Toronto... or ANYWHERE remotely near me.

(Update: It seems to be opening at Scotiabank Theatre on Friday. Score!)

Racism and the Impact on the Person

2009-11-08T20:42:00.000-08:00

[OMITTED]
Unfortunately, there is a pervasive attitude and belief that white people cannot experience racism and that it is in fact socially acceptable to make racist comments to a white person. In a tribute to my fellow writer, I will draw on an example an episode of Glee. In episode 107, an African American Glee member turns to the white captain-of-the-football-team jock and calls him “White Boy”.

In real life terms, Barak Obama’s minister Reverend Jackson White preached that Hillary Clinton didn’t understand what it was like to be oppressed and to have descendents that were oppressed. Reverend Jackson clearly needs a history lesson. Women faced oppression also and were repressed by a patriarchal society. In Canada women were not considered persons under the law until 1929 in the landmark Persons Case. Today girls are still encouraged to play a subservient role to men through sex role stereotyping. Women still struggle to show definitions of themselves outside of those traditional female roles.

However, the point of this exposé is not to try and argue which groups of individuals have been discriminated against to a greater extent, but simply to say that because a group has been discriminated against based on race or gender doesn’t give them the allowance to make racist comments themselves towards other groups of people. If we want a society based on greater equality then society as a whole cannot be accepting of any hate language regardless of the race that it is targeted towards or the vehicle with which it is delivered.

Shakespeare understood this 400 years ago when he wrote the Merchant of Venice in which his main character delivers this monologue:

“I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?”

All he was trying to point out was that hate is felt universally and emotions transcend all external factors therefore, respect should be afforded to all people simply for being a person. This harkens back to my original anecdote. The reason I felt hurt by the situation was because I would never have treated someone the way I was. What added insult to injury was the fact that I felt I couldn’t stand up for myself. If I had said that to him I would have been labelled a racist however, because I don’t fit in that racialized category there is no societal repercussions and thus, I don’t have society backing me as a platform that would justify me in feeling disrespected.

In closing, Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “men are respectable only as they respect” so think before you speak and treat others based on how they act not how they look.

**********************************************************************************
I have chosen to omit and change original parts of this essay. The omitted sections include a conversation with an individual in which a remark was made to me, which I found offensive on a racial level at the time. Recently, I confronted this individual. The comment made was an off-handed comment not meant as a racial remark. Absent-minded comments happen. Although I still feel the point of this informal essay is valid, I feel that the anecdote used is now no longer valid to this piece and thus I have removed it.

Although my article preaches about making judgements made about people on a racial level and the evils of such judgements, I now realize that unfair judgements can be made about people on more levels than just racial. In this particular case I prejudged the individual referred to in my anecdote and thus was guilty of the very unjust judgement I preached about in my writing.
Had I spoken up earlier and approached this individual in a respectful manner, my approach to writing this article would have been different. This is the second reason why I have omitted/retracted sections.

Lastly, I have retracted the sections because having the respect of this individual and the respective I have for this individual is more important to me than the flow and elegance of the my essay. Although some may feel this makes me less of a writer, I say to you – I am a person first and a writer second.

Health Care and my Fondness for Fingers and Toes

2009-10-29T23:25:00.000-07:00

As a Canadian who has been spoiled with free health care my entire life, I have often been given to wonder whether the constant availability of doctors has made us into a nation of hypochondriacs. But when I compare my predilection to err on the side of caution with a system that allows a 12-year-old boy to die of a toothache (Washington Post Article) I start to think that we’re doing okay.

There have definitely been times when I’ve wasted the government’s money. For example, I probably could have stayed home that time when I *ahem* lost my tampon. Also, I’ve had more than a few panic induced calls to 9-1-1 when I was sure I was dying of nut allergy. There are other times, though, now that I think about it, that me dragging myself out to emerg was the right choice, even when I wasn’t even sure of it at the time.

I worked in a kitchen for two summers, and since I’m a perpetual klutz, I ended up slicing my hands up on more than one occasion. One time in particular sticks out in my mind – I had been using a paring knife in an entirely inappropriate way and ended up cutting a line between the second and third joints of my ring finger. It didn’t look so bad, just like a surface wound running diagonally along the top of my finger. It wouldn’t stop bleeding though, and soaked through bandage after bandage to the point that my Chef asked me to go home.
Heading home, I kept my finger elevated and by the time I drove past my house there was blood down my arm. I slowed down at my side street, but decided I may as well get it looked at. I had some medical tape at home, so I seriously contemplated just driving home and taping it up.

The wait at the clinic was joyfully short, but the receptionist was a little skeptical that I needed to see the doc for a cut finger. She was finally convinced by the amount of blood and a nurse put me into a room pretty quickly. When the doctor came in, he took one look and told me that I was going to need lots of stitches. I actually still disagreed that my finger even needed the work, after all, it didn’t hurt all that much and even though it was bleeding a lot, it just looked like a cut on the top of my finger.

It only took him about ten minutes to sew me up, and I didn’t bother going back to get the stitches out (tweezers and some scissors worked fine), when I saw the scar I realised what a good call it had been for me to go to the clinic – the scar actually started underneath my finger, and the slice had gone right through my finger, nicking the bone.

If I had lived in the States, it’s entirely likely that this would have been covered by some sort of worker’s insurance. My sister lives in the US though, and not getting going to the doctor’s office is more a state of mind. She doesn’t have insurance and even when she’s in Canada and fully covered, we can’t get her to go to the doctor’s for anything.

In a similarly digit-related incident, I had an interesting experience with faulty bandaging and a hematoma after some surgery on my leg went wrong. My toes started to go numb, and since they’d wrapped my leg so thoroughly and so tightly, there was no way I was going to be able to get through the bandages and plaster to check on my foot. By the next night I had lost all the feeling in my toes. It didn’t hurt or anything, just numb.

My mom took me to the emergency room at the nearby hospital, and though it was the grubbiest hospital I’d been at since I nearly died in British Columbia, the doctor was really nice, and he told me about his time working as a doctor in rural China while he cut the wrap off my leg. He ended up having to pry the hardened gauze off of my foot – my surgical incision had bled so much that the blood had fully saturated the gauze and it had gotten steadily stiffer to the point that it had cut off all the blood to my toes.

After all the great adventures-in-China stories, during which he cleaned the area and redressed my leg using a less-likely-to-harden gauze and some plaster to protect the damaged bone, he let me know that if I hadn’t dropped by, even if I’d waited until morning, I probably would have lost my toes. Scary thought. I like my toes.

Nothing life threatening, but I do think I would have been less than pleased to be living my life with nine fingers and five toes. My skiing would have suffered. Also, getting married without a ring finger may have been awkward. There are lots of times when people don’t realise the full extent of their injuries, or don’t know enough to guess the implications of their symptoms. Especially with the swine flu going around, when a fever and diarrhea could spell death, I’m much more comfortable living in a country where I don’t have to worry about draining my bank account for a false alarm. Instead, Canadians can go to the hospital, don a free hospital mask and have their health verified on the government’s tab.

I mean, taxes suck, but I think it's probably worth it.

Glee and the Episode on Crack

2009-10-22T11:50:00.000-07:00

Let me first of all, express how much I love Glee. It feels like someone is finally expressing on film the musical that's been going on inside my head my whole life. Not that I don't have some issues with it, and it's been pointed out all over the place that the auditory version of Photoshop (autotune) sounds like the way that Ralph Lauren photo looks (Yuck). But for the most part, I adore the show.

This week, though, was a different story. It was even more jacked than that episode where the uncertified-teacher's-wife doled out Sudafed to masses of musical students. My problems with the episode -- let's call them areas of confusion -- are as follows:

Must we hear Matthew Morrison rap every episode? It was cute when he did Kanye, but now it seems like they're trying to force this "hipster" look on him. But it's SO hypocritical. Just last week, Will was hesitant to listen to Mercedes and Kurt about adding more diverse music to their repertoire and now we have to hear him rap -- if you can even hear his actual voice through the electronic audio editing. He did some break dancing, even though last week he told Mike Chang that his popping-and-locking style wasn't exactly what they were looking for. Also, if my teacher ever danced around me like that, I know for sure I'd be suuuper uncomfortable. Why does he get to sing so often? I know that when I was in concert band, the teacher never grabbed our instruments and "showed us how it was done". It's a learning process. Assign the part to a student, be a real teacher.
Why won't Will stop dancing? He danced with every female adult (except his wife) this episode. It was weird. It was redundant. It was awkward. We get it, he dances.
Rachel and Puck? Looove the idea, absolutely love it. But I don't get the point of their two second relationship. Was it to show that Puck still has feelings for Quinn? Or to show that Rachel still has feelings for Finn? I think we already knew that. It was kind of a sweet relationship while it lasted, but shouldn't they have maybe held out for one full episode? I think it was some strange version of filler, much like Will's dancing and singing.
Sue and random anchor guy? Though I did not like how easily Sue-the-hardass melted into Sue-in-love, I did adore the Zoot Suit. It was probably the high point of the episode for me.
One word: slushies.

I would like to delve further into the weird sexual implications that the slushies seem to hold, but I think that by expressing again how creeped out I was by Will's character this episode will probably suffice.

Why did the slushies torture just start now? The jocks and cheerleaders who have been in Glee have been there for a while now. Is it because the pregnancy thing got out? In my high school, a pregnant kid would never have been on the receiving end of public mockery, but then again, we didn't have weird cliques like that at my school either. Or cheerleaders. Is this an American thing?

I spent most of this episode confused, which is not a place I willingly choose to be. I spend most of my work and school time confused, and turn to TV in the hopes of things being simple and not laced with LSD. Not that LSD's a bad thing, but the kids were high on sudafed a few episodes ago, and at least then, things still made some sort of sense. Maybe I just watched the episode too early in the morning. Maybe I'll try rewatching it? Maybe my sleep addled 4AM mind was confusing itself. I'll give Glee the benefit of the doubt this time.

Marion Bethel and the Art-Life Conundrum

2009-10-16T07:24:00.000-07:00

The last time I went to a literature reading was years ago, when the brilliant J. K. Rowling blessed Toronto with her presence. It was a record-breaking event, securing my (though anonymous) immortality in the Guinness Book of World Records. This was a decidedly different experience.

This was an intimate occasion, with no more than thirty of us packed into the tiny New College Women's Lounge. She stood on the same level as us, with a small podium to hold her work and a chair for her to sit in after the reading. Dr. Christian Campbell, a professor at the University of Toronto in the English Department, gave the standard introduction ("Marion Bethel is a Bahamian poet, fiction writer and feminist activist...") before delving into his personal history with the artist.

When Bethel was given the stand, she was just so shockingly humble; she spoke some more about Dr. Campbell, and then proceeded to personally thank nearly every member of the audience. It soon became clear that this was a reunion for her.

Bethel immigrated to Canada at the age of ten, sent to boarding school in Toronto by a father who wanted a better life for her. Many of the people at the reading last night were people who had helped her to become accomidated to Toronto: the family that took her in as one of their own, the teachers who fostered her talent. She was also joined by her contemporaries -- other Caribbean writers, artists and teachers. The atmosphere in the room was comfortable and familiar, and those of us who were not formally acquainted with Bethel soon settled into the feeling of intimacy between audience and performer.

She then proceeded with the dedications, during which she was very emotionally moved. She spoke about her mother, Jane Bethel, who is afflicted with Alzheimer’s. Bethel revealed that her mother's spirit anchors much of what she does and fuels her poetic journey. She dedicated the reading as well to the memory of her father, and she noted that his legacy continues to unfold in her life. She also spoke about the aforementioned foster family, who gave her refuge when she first came to Canada and introduced her to the culture that her new home had to offer.

Her readings were done from her newest manuscript, Bougainvillea Ringplay, and it was such a privilege to be given a glance at the brilliance of this work. Since her first book, Guanahani My Love, she has adopted a more jazzy tone, leaving the more formal structure of sonnets and quatrains. Her newer poems took more risks and certainly had more erotic undertones. I'm not sure when the book will be released, but I'm hoping it's soon!

One of my favourites was the first poem she read, called "Tobacco Dove". She introduced it by explaining that a tobacco dove is a species of dove found in the Bahamas; it is brown with a black ring around its neck. Bethel described a memory of the dove that had stuck in her mind -- of when she was taking a walk and saw a woman cradling such a dove, stroking it and trying to coax it to fly again. The poem was told from the first person from the dove's perspective, and was an ode to the desperation that comes attached to being no longer able to do what your body is built to. It had a thread of loss throughout it, and also a sense of defiance.

The next poem that really connected with me was called "Sweet Chariot". As an introduction, Bethel described a young man she had met while she was working as a lawyer in the Bahamas. She was attempting, on appeal, to get this man off death row. He was in his early twenties, and had been in jail since he was 18, but asked her to give up the appeal -- he had made his peace and was ready to die.

This poem was an emotional performance, painting a picture of a man dying by hanging. It was peppered with onomatopoeia and the sense of rapidity, "quick quick", "high high" and then finally "snap". Bethel combined the descriptions of death with shocking erotic images which forcefully conveyed the sense of disparity, the paradox of the situation. His life, she explained, brief and violent though it had been, was far less terrifying than his death.

The poem which, I personally felt, best conveyed her own personal history was the poem "In the Marketplace". It reaches deep into Bethel's memory, to the time when she was sent away to Canada by her father. It reveals how the purpose of her move was to "buy her a new tongue" and shows the regret and sorrow she felt when she lost her accent and characteristic hip-swinging walk. The poem moves through her crisis of personal identity by evoking the image of a marketplace and shows how she felt commodified by the decisions her father made for her. She was being sent for a new tongue. The question inevitably raised is, what was wrong with her old one?

The interview after the reading revealed a lot about her motives in writing poetry, about the class distinctions which shaped her life and the aesthetics of her poetry and how her writing continues to evolve. She spoke about the other artists who influenced her throughout her life and the activists who inspired her. It was truly an illuminating performance; it was honest and felt raw, unstaged. The way in which she was able to find her literature through her career as an attorney really came through to me; so many of us have to fight so hard to find time for our art. For those people who are truly gifted, such are Marion Bethel, no matter where circumstance and politics place them they will always find themselves guided back on the path towards their art. Bethel is taking a hiatus from law now to focus exclusively on her poetry, and I, for one, am thankful for it.

Event: Marion Bethel at the Women and Gender Studies Lounge, 2nd floor, New College, 20 Willcocks Street at the University of Toronto. Thursday October 15, 2009 from 6pm - 8pm

The Nobel Peace Prize and the Highly Confused Masses

2009-10-09T05:47:00.000-07:00

The Nobel Prize Laureates have been a pretty exciting bunch this year. From Herta Muller, one of less than a dozen females to ever win the Nobel Prize for literature to the winners of the Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the first time two woman have ever received the prize. But I think that the choice for the Nobel Peace Prize is going to make the most noise: newly elected President of America Barak Obama.

At first I was shocked at the news, but I was kind of okay with it. Then I started thinking about other people who might have deserved it more -- Zimbabwe's Morgan Tsvangirai for example. Here's someone's who's been an activist in his country since the age of 20, who had to deal with (maybe) rigged elections and extreme violence towards his supporters before he was finally able to come into power in February 2009. He brought democracy to Zimbabwe after generations of violence and dictatorship with little support from surrounding countries.

Obama has only been in power for 9 months, which is a full month longer than Tsvangirai. He had a whirlwind campaign in which he made promises (as politicians do) and people believed him (as people do) enough to elect him. Nothing against the guy, but he hasn't managed to get the American troops out of the Middle East, and his big-deal health bill hasn't even been voted on yet. He hasn't passed any foreign policies which were successful either. So what's he winning for, anyway?

"his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."

Fair enough.

Now, this might be a bit conspiracy theory of me, but I think this might be a bit of an insurance policy on the part of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. It is one thing to make promises and wave your arms around and talk about nuclear disarmament, but it is another to be given the equivalent of $1.4 million dollars for it. It's not a lot of money in American government terms, and I have a feeling that Zimbabwe could have used it more, but it means something.

The Nobel Prize is one of the highest honours that a person can win. There's a long history of the Nobel Committee choosing people who have already made a difference to the world: Marie Curie and the discovery of radium, Fire and Mello for RNA interference, Ernest Hemingway...

But this time, they made an anticipatory selection. By giving him this prize, especially for his ideas of global nuclear disarmament, they are putting their support behind an idea of a unified and nuclear-free world. And if his Nobel Bio one day reads, "won the Prize for his amazing vision for the future... which unfortunately did not exactly turn out how he told us it would." It would really suck.

Source:
Reuters. "U.S. President Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize." National Post. 9 Oct. 2009. Web. 9 Oct. 2009. .

HIV Vaccine and the Kind of Happy Scientists

2009-10-08T07:42:00.000-07:00

In a tentatively optimistic article, researchers report that in Thailand a study has just finished testing a vaccine that lowers the rate of HIV infection by 31.2%¹. They modestly point out that the vaccine is safe and that it shows some effectiveness. I, on the other hand, find 31.2% an extremely exciting number – it’s not 100%, nor even close to 100%, but when you look at the big picture, even a sort-of-successful trial such as this one should be reason for celebration.

First of all, this isn’t an AIDS vaccine. They’re working on those, too; in Science they just published an article last week about a “surprising” AIDs vaccine which is currently being “pondered” (if only I could gain access to that article! I’ll hack you yet!). An AIDs vaccine is something that the 7,397 people who contract HIV each day are hoping for². And I really hope they find it, but an HIV vaccine offers something more.

If we ignore the social issues which accompany the idea of mass dissemination of an HIV vaccine (such as monetary shortages, etc., etc.), then a vaccine, such as this one, which is currently only 31.2% effective still has staggering implications. Instead of 7,397 people being infected every day with HIV, that number would be closer to 5089.That means that each year, 842,420 people would be saved from contracting HIV.

So maybe it is not 100%. And, despite the vaccine’s promise, it doesn’t actually reduce the viral load in those who do contract it¹. This means that for the 51 people in the study who actually did contract the virus while on the vaccine, there was absolutely no benefit for having been on the medication. It’s an all-or-nothing situation it would seem, though their proof-of-concept study 6 years ago demonstrated its ability to lower the HIV virus count of those infected.

But it’s the positive results that count. Based on the scale of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, numbers really are important. Had this vaccine been distributed throughout the world a generation ago, then 10,296,000 people (31.2% of the 33,000,000 million² people currently living with HIV/AIDS) would not be infected. This vaccine doesn’t stop, or even slow, the process of HIV to AIDS to death, but instead halts this process at its very beginning – contraction. 31.2%? Well, with more research that number is only going to get better.

The science side of things is well on its way. Now we only have to figure out how to make it affordable. How to make sure that people take it properly. How to convince those religious folk that preventing STIs isn’t going to make our little girls promiscuous (I’ll see your condom and raise you a Gardasil!). How to distribute it to people without health insurance. How to get it to Africa, where an estimated 75% of world AIDS deaths occurred in 2007².

Oh silly social issues. What are we going to do with you?

EDIT: was able to nab that Science article. It's reporting on the same study: the "surprising" result was that though clinical trials showed it was likely to reduce viral load *(mentioned above) and therefore protect against AIDS, instead it protected against HIV. Hmm. That is something worth pondering.
(HIV/AIDS Research. Jon Cohen (2 October 2009) Science 326 (5949), 26. [DOI: 10.1126/science.326_26]))

Sources

1. "HIV Vaccine Study First to Show Some Effectiveness in Preventing HIV." AIDS Vaccine Week (Oct 5, 2009): 11. General OneFile. Gale. UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO. 8 Oct. 2009.

2. UNAIDS, Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic, July 2008 .