tag:www.schemamag.ca,2012://1 2012-02-09T17:50:26Z Schema Magazine: More Than Ethnic Movable Type Pro 4.23-en SchemaMagazinehttp://feedburner.google.com tag:www.schemamag.ca,2012://1.2754 2012-02-09T20:00:00Z 2012-02-09T17:50:26Z

Last Monday, a new ban on open top outdoor boots came into effect in a middle school in Pottstown, Pennsylvania.

Kait Bolongaro Last Monday, a new ban on open top outdoor boots came into effect in a middle school in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. Apparently students have been hiding their cellphones in their Uggs boots when they go to class. In a strange move, the school principal, Gail Cooper, decided to ban this footwear style instead of cellphones; students can wear the winter boots to school to avoid the cold, but have to change into a pair of sneakers or lace-up boots before entering the classroom. The school already has a policy on cellphones. Students are allowed to bring the phones to school, but they must be turned off and kept in students' lockers during class time. If pupils are caught using their phone in class, it is confiscated. For repeat cellphone offenders, punishment ranges from two-day detention to an in-school suspension. This controversy has created uproar among parents on Facebook. Some parents support Cooper's decision as a school policy. However, most parents are criticizing the move, especially as the school already has a uniform. The comments all follow two similar veins: stop telling me how to dress my child or that the ban should be on cellphones, not on a certain style of boots. While I support a principal's right to enforce school policy, I agree with the second argument made by parents against this decision. Parents are already facing a barrage of education costs in difficult economic times, and another pair of shoes seems frivolous. Instead of targeting a certain style of footwear, the school should change its cellphone policy. Why not have the students each label their phones, and have them turned in as students enter the school? The phones would be kept in locked bins in a secure location and students could claim them with their student cards at the end of the day. This seems like the best solution for both parents and school administration. ]]> http://www.schemamag.ca/archive2/2012/02/booted_out_outdoor_boots_banne.php tag:www.schemamag.ca,2012://1.2759 2012-02-09T17:36:39Z 2012-02-09T17:46:05Z

Archie comics has announced the upcoming storyline for Archie #633. Set in the future and continuing from his marriage with Valerie Smith from Josie and the Pussycats (#632), the newly-weds have a mixed-race baby together.

Jocelyn Gan Archie #633. Set in the future and continuing from his marriage with Valerie Smith from Josie and the Pussycats (#632), the newly-weds have a mixed-race baby together. While inter-racial coupling in Archie comics has historically been reduced to ethnic coupling (the black guy and girl end up together, as do the Asians, Latinos, etc.) the writers and editors at Archie Comics have been keen to push the envelope in recent years. Last year, we saw the release of landmark issue Life with Archie #16 where Archie's high school friend Kevin Keller marries his boyfriend whom he met in the US Military. On top of being a mixed-race couple it was also the first gay marriage in Archie Comics history. In 2010, readers got the chance to witness Archie and Valerie's first kiss, solidifying Archie's first meaningful relationship with a non-White character, an event which well-respected comic scribe Dwayne McDuffie points out would never have happened in an Archie Comic as late as the 1990s. Further, Archie has never had a child with previous beaus Betty or Veronica, making this an even bigger landmark for the comic. Chris Sims at Comics Alliance rightly points out that "the best part is that while you might be able to call it a stunt from a publishing perspective, in the comics, it's just another simple fact of life for the character that's meant to represent America's typical teen." Being a mixed-race kid myself, I couldn't agree more and seeing more of us depicted in popular media (in case you didn't know Spiderman in the Ultimate storyline is half-black, half-Latino) only solidifies the fact that multiculturalism and multi-ethnicity will be an everyday part of life in the 21st century. ]]> http://www.schemamag.ca/archive2/2012/02/archies_new_mixed-race_baby.php tag:www.schemamag.ca,2012://1.2753 2012-02-08T20:00:00Z 2012-02-09T01:39:23Z

What do you, me, a pimp, a polygamist, an altar boy, a white supremacist, a marine, an Elvis impersonator, and an Amish teen all have in common?

Brandon Woo we are all human. With his new book Created Equal, photographer Mark Laita explores this concept while juxtaposing contrasting groups with each other—the poor against the rich, the good against the bad, the feminine against the masculine. You might think "would this not just bring out the differences between groups?" Well, yes and no. In juxtaposing contrasting groups with each other, Laita is also able to highlight the similarities between different groups. A baptist churchgoer and a white supremacist both stand firm in their faith. Amish teenagers and punk teenagers are both still teenagers. A ballerina and a boxer are both athletes. The effect that Laita's work has is not unlike that of Benetton's Unhate campaign. Through his photography, Laita reminds us that we're not so different from each other after all. *** Brandon Woo is a happy high school student at Sir Winston Churchill Secondary whose interests lie in art, writing, current events, the human mind, and sex. If you have any suggestions about something that Brandon might want to write about, send him an email at brandon.woo@schemamag.ca. He'll get back to you.]]> http://www.schemamag.ca/archive2/2012/02/we_are_all_human.php tag:www.schemamag.ca,2012://1.2758 2012-02-08T16:30:46Z 2012-02-09T01:34:25Z

Valentine's Day is coming up! Are you sick of making out at conventional places like the Stanley Park lookout or in your car? Check out our list of places to make out!

Vinnie Yuen Never Been Kissed. 2) At dim sum. You'll feel super badass (like you're defying your hardcore Asian mom) amidst the food carts, the loud Chinese chatter, and the disapproving looks. 3) In a bathroom stall. Even if you don't go all the way, it's fun to make people think you are. 4) In the rain, anywhere. It's Vancouver. It's February. There will be a 90 percent chance it's going to rain. You might as well make it a Notebook moment instead of complaining about the weather. 5) While watching a horror movie. Nothing like blood and guts to make you appreciate your date! At least you're alive and not haunted by some lady in black. 6) On the skytrain or the 99 B-line. Ride it from Waterfront to Surrey Central or from Broadway/Commercial to UBC. True love means being able to ignore the homeless guy with the bag of smelly cans mumbling near you. 7) In front of a yoga studio. Distract people from their zen state with really inappropriate public displays of affection. You're actually challenging their practice and channelling their focus. For reals. 8) At the aquarium. Fat beluga whales and sea otters make hearts melt. It's scientifically proven. 9) At a wedding. Upstage the couple. They'll love it! Okay, maybe they won't. Just tell them you're so inspired by their love each other, you couldn't resist. 10) In front of an adult video store. You don't need to go inside! You've got the hots for each other, not the woman with comically huge breasts or the man with the enormous phallus in those DVD's. ]]> http://www.schemamag.ca/archive2/2012/02/top_ten_unconventional_places.php tag:www.schemamag.ca,2012://1.2756 2012-02-08T03:25:25Z 2012-02-08T04:22:14Z

Microsoft's on the hot seat for being granted a patent on a new app nicknamed the "Avoid Ghetto App". This new app feature uses violent crime rates to map out locations where crime rates are high and offers navigation around these locations to help guide users safely through neighbourhoods.

Ada Lee Microsoft's on the hot seat for being granted a patent for a new feature under its "Pedestrian Route Production" application. This new app feature uses violent crime rates to map out locations where crime rates are high, while offering navigation around these locations to help guide users safely through neighbourhoods. That doesn't sound too bad, eh? It was then revealed that the project was unofficially nicknamed the "Avoid Ghetto App". Though the word "ghetto" doesn't actually come up in any of the official documents, this drew heated allegations that the app is racist and discriminatory. Is it just me, or does the name for the app seem to be straight out of a slapstick comedy? At first, I couldn't quite understand the wave of debates on the app&mddash;is it focused on the casual nickname? To my Canadian ears, the word "ghetto" isn't racially charged. "Violent crime" also doesn't pop up as a race-specific inference. So are reactions based on subconsciously engrained presumptions on violent crime and race? Sarah Chinn, University professor and author of Technology and the Logic of American Racism, argues that the app got racialized because United States is a "very racist country"; by that she means that when people say 'violent crime', the first linkage the public conjures up is a 'dangerous black man or Latino man.' Chinn points out that the myth that black men are more likely to commit violent crimes against random white strangers has become "an indelible part of America's racial identity". This app from Microsoft then, she says, will be used to reinforce racial assumptions about violent crimes that just aren't true. Here's an interesting tidbit: Huffington Post's Black Voices pointed out that FBI's 2010 crime report showed that whites were arrested more often for violent crimes that year than any other race. In that case, how effective will the app be in improving personal safety? How much of it will work with the racial profiling that's already in place in the public? Spatial discrimination is now digitalized—there's an app for that. ]]> http://www.schemamag.ca/archive2/2012/02/safety_or_racial_profiling_mic.php tag:www.schemamag.ca,2012://1.2752 2012-02-07T22:18:24Z 2012-02-09T01:33:27Z

Tennessee Governor Stacey Campfield's "Don't Say Gay" law is a recent example of the depravity humanity continues to display on behalf of itself.

Codi Hauka Martha Boggs, a restaurant owner in Knoxville, Tennessee. When Campfield came to dine at her fine establishment recently, Boggs dismissed him faster than a wet dog running into the living room. Having read some of Campfield's embarrassingly incorrect comments on gay issues, including stating that it's almost "virtually impossible for heterosexuals to contract HIV/AIDS," and how unnatural homosexuality is, Boggs decided that she would not serve someone who would say such egregious things. Enraged upon the site of him, Boggs does not entirely remember what she said or how she approached him, but her actions were received with applause from some of the customers. One patron said that they heard Boggs call Campfield a homophobe, but if that's the extent of the name-calling, I would say he got off easy. This time. Boggs said that she wasn't looking to be hailed for her actions and just went with her gut, wanting to stand up for the gay community. If only everyone's gut was as reasonable as Bogg's, we wouldn't have legislation like "Don't Say Gay" or the abysmal revocation of proposition eight after the last presidential election. We wouldn't see people like Rick Santorum running for president, of course, we also wouldn't have the new term for Santorum, which if you don't know, definitely can't be discussed here, but that's what Google is for. Here's to hoping that the events at Bogg's restaurant no longer become a rarity, but even more so to the need for these acts to no longer happen at all, because there's enough room in my white-picket fence for everyone. ]]> http://www.schemamag.ca/archive2/2012/02/we_dont_serve_your_kind_here.php tag:www.schemamag.ca,2012://1.2757 2012-02-07T02:42:21Z 2012-02-07T02:43:46Z

Who is Newt Gingrich? This is a question I find myself asking with each day the Republican candidacy race continues.

Jocelyn Gan Gingrich is the epitome of grandiosity. Period. But I can understand why he doesn't think so, and why he thinks that making an American moon colony is a reasonable enterprise—it's because he is crazy. We're talking double straightjacket crazy. Because I don't think he's thought through this whole moon colony idea. First of all, the moon doesn't have an atmosphere, which would mean having to constantly pressurize it in a vacuum in order to sustain people living there. The highest cost of any space program is moving things out of earth's gravity well, and I can assure a moon colony would require a lot of earth transfers. The next highest cost is keeping people alive in space, which obviously would be difficult in terms of cost, materials and overall anxiety. You also can't grow anything on the moon. There's nothing on the moon. Except the dust. It just gets into everything. And I mean everything. I think that any country willing and capable of establishing a moon base could do so, not just America. But it all boils down to one resounding question: what's the point? It might reignite the space race and push technology, but it would also be a ridiculous amount of money spent on something highly unsustainable and ostentatious. Gingrich seems to be trying to force feed the fading idea of American greatness down the world's throat rather than embarking on a noble revolution. I say that if Gingrich truly wants an American moon colony, then let him have it, because so long as he finances it out of deep and ethically dark pockets, then the world will be a better place without him. ]]> http://www.schemamag.ca/archive2/2012/02/to_the_moon_the_grandiosity_th.php tag:www.schemamag.ca,2012://1.2713 2012-02-06T20:00:00Z 2012-02-07T01:56:34Z

Film-maker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy has become the first Pakistani to win an Oscar nomination for best documentary in the short subject category.

Michelle Pham Saving Face, discusses the social problem of acid attacks on girls and women in Pakistan. The film follows Dr. Mohammad Jawad's work in Pakistan. Dr. Jawad, a British-Pakistani plastic surgeon, works with ASTI, the Acid Survivor's Trust International, a charity set up to help and assist victims of acid attacks all over the world, from the UK to Nepal and Bangladesh. The documentary takes us around Pakistan as he performs reconstructive surgery on victims of acid attacks. Saving Face is an account of such violence told by survivors going through the recovery and reconciliation process. In a statement to the BBC she said that she was "speechless" to receive the nomination, which was the "stuff dreams are made of...It has reaffirmed my belief it doesn't matter who you are or where you come from, if you put quality work out there, it will be appreciated. I hope I can make Pakistan proud by bringing home an Oscar." Obaid-Chinoy is no stranger to documentary-making. Her work is focused on social justice and encompasses a wide array of subjects such as the Taliban, violence against women, homosexuality, child abuse and natural disasters. Best of luck to Saving Face!]]> http://www.schemamag.ca/archive2/2012/02/citizen_journalism_-_helpless.php tag:www.schemamag.ca,2012://1.2737 2012-02-03T20:00:00Z 2012-02-03T18:35:55Z

Healthy body image is hard to achieve when you're in a beauty pageant, especially when you're eight years old and your mom is making you diet.

Vinnie Yuen Healthy body image is hard to achieve when you're in a beauty pageant, especially when you're eight years old and your mom is making you diet. Jezebel.com reports on the latest episode of Toddlers and Tiaras, a controversial show about moms putting their young daughters in beauty pageants with heavy make-up and adult-like outfits. One mom put her eight-year-old daughter on a calorie counting diet, while another mom put her four-year-old daughter on a salad diet a few days before a pageant so she would fit into her dress. The eight-year-old contestant, named Ever Rose, lost 10 pounds on her 1600 calorie-diet. The four-year-old contestant Adriana lost 4 pounds on her salad diet. Now I've been a chubby kid and I did get criticism from family members and relatives, but I was never put on a diet during my developing years. There is a difference between encouraging your children to eat healthy foods and asking them to count calories. ]]> http://www.schemamag.ca/archive2/2012/02/wtf_friday_mom_on_toddlers_and.php tag:www.schemamag.ca,2012://1.2751 2012-02-03T20:00:00Z 2012-02-03T18:35:36Z

The issue of bilingualism in the Republican race seems to be targeted in many smear campaigns. Candidates who were fluent in languages other than English are targeted in campaign ads as "un-American".

Jocelyn Gan The Star talked about the issue of bilingualism in the Republican race, and how candidates who were fluent in languages other than English were targeted in campaign ads as "un-American". As it seems, bilingualism gets you no votes and much ridicule in the race for a future Republican President candidate. Let me put it in some context for you. Smear campaigns are just as common in the world of politics as Helvetica in hipster blogs and Starbucks in Vancouver. So Newt Gingrich's smear ad against Mitt Romney was nothing special. Except that it was interestingly named "The French Connection", and it ends with a stunner: along with all the other faults, Romney - god forbid - speaks French too. Gingrich insisted that this was just a joke to illustrate the similarities between Romney and Kerry, another politically moderate candidate from Massachusetts. Sorry, G., but I don't see the joke. I love my multi-lingual political leaders—perhaps the ONLY time I would say "love" and "political leaders" together in the same sentence. To add to the fun, we have another YouTube clip that was reportedly uploaded by a Ron Paul supporter. Jon Huntsman, an US ambassador to China under Obama, came under fire for his fluency in Mandarin and his experiences with China. The clip calls Huntsman the "Manchurian candidate" (props to creative nicknames), and questioned his "American" values, at one point portraying Huntsman as a young Mao. The fact that Huntsman has two adopted daughters from China and India was also included in the video, just in case voters needed more evidence of his treacherous connection. It's pretty sad to know that having foreign experiences and fluency in other languages can actually render candidates disqualified for some voters, especially when seeking a political leader of such an ethnically diverse country. In case you're thinking of heading down South and running for Republican office, I'd suggest that you leave your hard-earned skills in Japanese/Arabic/Spanish out of your CV. ]]> http://www.schemamag.ca/archive2/2012/02/vote_for_english_smear_campaig.php tag:www.schemamag.ca,2012://1.2748 2012-02-02T20:00:00Z 2012-02-02T20:28:43Z

Whenever someone tells me that ______ causes cancer, I always respond by saying that everything these days is linked to cancer, so we're just going to get cancer one way or another and we might as well stop worrying about being alive in general.

Jocelyn Gan The bacon explosion is not for the faint of heart, nor those who want their heart to continue beating. Photo courtesy of djibnet.com This link was published by the British Journal of Cancer, which recommends eliminating processed meats of all kinds from your diet altogether. While the risk of developing pancreatic cancer is relatively low, the chances increase greatly for those who consume higher amounts of processed meats on a daily basis. With pancreatic cancer being one of the most deadly and painful types of the disease, the statistics published by the journal are something to seriously consider, especially for people like me who like to save bacon fat and use it later as a delicious spread for other non-bacon foods. Almost everyone in my immediate family has had cancer or died from it, so maybe that's where some of my cynicism about the disease comes from, but it doesn't mean that I can ignore these studies altogether. Maybe I am predisposed to developing cancer, but I don't think that my fate is settled either, which is why even though I joke that everything causes cancer, I certainly make changes to my lifestyle when the correlation is strong or related to something as serious as pancreatic cancer. I know for some people, giving up processed meats might sound difficult, however I already gave up sandwich meat this past summer after watching an episode of How It's Made. It's worth a look, because not only will it change your mind about what foods you put in your body, it might make you consider that cancer is even scarier than seeing a man in a lab coat cram blown up meat into a sealed plastic skin. ]]> http://www.schemamag.ca/archive2/2012/02/beware_the_bacon_link_found_be.php tag:www.schemamag.ca,2012://1.2749 2012-02-02T20:00:00Z 2012-02-02T20:41:13Z

Be careful what you wish for...at least on Twitter.

Jocelyn Gan rest. McDonald's lost power over its own narrative, at least in the virtual world. What about the moral of the story? Maybe it's in the fact that Twitter users rose up through the animosity and gave a good spanking to McDonalds' big fat corporate bum bum. What went wrong for McDonald's? The mere truth maybe. Perhaps social media, at least in this case, can be crowned as some sort of a cyber hero, activist, or knight in shining armour that ploughed through thousands of electronic corridors, equipped with nothing but the flag of truth and the truth only; the truth that McDonald's is, simply put, crap! Maybe we were too quick to judge the self-loathing and self-worshiping qualities of thingies like Twitter, facebook, and etc. ]]> http://www.schemamag.ca/archive2/2012/02/truth_hurts_social_media_gone.php tag:www.schemamag.ca,2012://1.2738 2012-02-01T20:00:00Z 2012-02-02T04:11:57Z

The Lifetime movie The Pregnancy Project is based on Gaby Rodriguez's real-life social experiment, in which she faked her pregnancy to document other people's reactions.

Vinnie Yuen The Lifetime movie The Pregnancy Project is based on Gaby Rodriguez's real-life social experiment, in which she faked her pregnancy to document other people's reactions. Gaby Rodriguez also wrote a book under the same name as her documentary. In the book, she explains that her mother got pregnant at 14 years old and she wanted to bring awareness to the issue of teen pregnancy. Rodriguez angered some people by lying to friends and family about her situation, though her mom, boyfriend and principal knew about the deception. Others praised her for calling attention to the U.S. teen pregnancy rate, which is the highest in the developed world. Research has show that many girls who get pregnant in their teens are misguided about their menstrual cycles. They think that they can't get pregnant when they lose their virginity, or didn't understand ovulation. I personally think what Gaby Rodriguez did was great for raising awareness about teen pregnancy. I also think more attention needs to be put on how teens are being taught about sex. What sort of images are teens exposed to on television? What are movies telling teens about sex? How are educators and parents teaching teenagers about sex? Does only using the age-old "don't do it, you will get pregnant!" warning work? What do you think of The Pregnancy Project? Will this get the message across?]]> http://www.schemamag.ca/archive2/2012/02/sex_in_the_media_the_pregnancy.php tag:www.schemamag.ca,2012://1.2744 2012-02-01T20:00:00Z 2012-02-02T00:58:59Z

On January 29, Canada breathed a sigh of relief as Mohammed Shafia, his wife Tooba Yayha and their son Hamed were found guilty by a jury of first-degree murder.

Kait Bolongaro found guilty by a jury of first-degree murder. They were given an automatic life sentence with the possibility of parole after 25 years. The trio was charged with the murders of three Shafia daughters—Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17, Geeti, 13—and Shafia's first wife, Rona Mohammed Amir, 50, in an 'honour killing'. The bodies of the four victims were found in a family vehicle in the Rideau Canal after a staged accident. This has been one of Canada's most high profile trials in recent memory and there are important lessons to be learned from this case. Along with the majority of Canadians, I was very happy to hear about the guilty verdict. The Canadian legal system has given justice to the victims and reinforced that Canada doesn't tolerate violations of human rights regardless of cultural traditions. Human rights aren't only a Canadian value; Islam doesn't condone honour killings, either. In fact, Canada's Islamic community has spoken out against this barbaric practice and violence against women. The Shafia girls were like any other Canadian teenager trying to find out who they are. This case shows the cracks in government policy. There were two separate calls made to two different child welfare agencies in Montreal about the Shafia family before the murders. The organizations didn't share information and the second was unaware of the first complaint. Now, Quebec has a child abuse registry; but why wasn't this done earlier? Immigration Canada should also be more proactive. Amir entered Canada posing as a cousin on a visitor's visa; she was actually Shafia's first wife, and a servant for the family. She desperately wanted a divorce, but Shafia refused to grant it. It should be mandatory that documents are given to prove family relationships and that these papers are verified. This is important not only to know who is entering Canada, but also to protect everyone who has crossed the borders. I hope this is the last time that there is an honour killing trial in Canada. Murder can't be justified regardless of cultural norms and twisted ideas about family honour. This verdict reinforces Canada's dedication to protecting women from these brutal crimes, but the government needs to be more active in pursuing complaints to ensure that this doesn't happen again. ]]> http://www.schemamag.ca/archive2/2012/02/learning_from_the_shafia_case.php tag:www.schemamag.ca,2012://1.2746 2012-02-01T20:00:00Z 2012-02-02T00:44:44Z

It seems like Weibo is positioned to take over the 140-characters-or-less world. For those of you less in-tuned with what goes on behind the Great Firewall of China, Sina Weibo is China's very own Twitter-like platform.

Jocelyn Gan Weibo is positioned to take over the 140-characters-or-less world. For those of you less in-tuned with what goes on behind the Great Firewall of China, Sina Weibo is China's very own Twitter-like platform. Run by the online giant Sina, akin to Yahoo! and Google, Weibo is complete with tagging functions, hashtags, trending topics, verified accounts, following option, and of course, a 140 character limit. My first encounter with this service began a few years back, but it wasn't until my year in China last year that I used it extensively. Since then, I've become a Weibo-convert. It won my geeky heart with awesome smart phone apps and its ease of finding interesting users and posts. Some functions, such as a conglomerated reply box and an easy-to-navigate layout, makes it more user-friendly than Twitter. Check out the differences. Questions of whether Weibo will become more popular than Twitter arises, but really without any real threat; the reach of Twitter is still wider than Weibo, as the Chinese microblogging platform is only still slowly spreading into the English-speaking world. Be that as it may, Sina Weibo now accounts for 1 in every 100 Internet visits in China. It garners almost 1% of total internet traffic domestically, whereas Twitter only takes up 0.23% in the US and 0.2% in Canada. One interesting thing about Weibo is its censorship. Sina censors politically sensitive terms of the moment. For example, I tried writing "Egypt" at the height of the Arab Spring and my post was 'removed'. Yet at the same time, I still receive tons of news on citizen activity and to my surprise, investigations of corrupt government officials. I guess censorship is just not fast enough for information, especially scandalous ones. So, fellow social media junkies, maybe it's time to jump on the Sina Weibo bandwagon—Tom Cruise did. ]]> http://www.schemamag.ca/archive2/2012/02/re-weibo_this_post_please_chin.php