Hey, whats up everybody? I know its been a while since my last entry, I've been busy, what with having two weeks of holidays, doing nothing but the obvious... spend time with family, partying, eating sushi with friends, watching shit tons of movies (both in theatres and at home), and playing countless hours on my PS3 (especially Infamous 2, that game is pretty fucking addictive). Now i'm back, after a relaxing two-week holiday.
To be honest, I spent a good chunk of my holidays walking (part of my exercise routine). Walking helps me think about things, things in my life, why I don't want to back to school, why I feel so empty. Don't get me wrong, I find high school to be stimulating in an educational sense, but in a social sense, its not fun. Its kind of sad really, when you think about it, I don't feel so enlightened when it comes to socializing, sometimes I wish I was like Henry David Thoreau and live in the forest, isolate myself from society. Or at least, in any other case, wear a mask to hide myself from people and attention (I dislike it when people look at me or make me the center of attention by putting me on the spot, that's why I suck when it comes to eye-contact).
The reason why I title this entry as "The Horror" is because that's what i'm talking about.... the horrors of high school. I mean don't get me wrong, its not like I don't have any friends at all, I do have friends, I would consider myself to be an ambivert, not an introvert, or an extrovert, but an ambivert... yes its an actual word, look it up you lazy fucks. Basically being an ambivert means that i'm in the middle, i'm both an extrovert and an introvert at the same time, I have both introverted and extroverted attitudes towards things, whether it be working by myself with nothing but quite (or with my IPod on), or the fact that I have a small number of close friends and a large number of acquaintance's, people I just know and say "hi" to on a daily basis, or just once in a while, friends on facebook that I hardly talk to (with the exception of asking about a certain class).
Sometimes I wish my life were more unrealistic, like a National Lampoon or American Pie movie, if there's anything that Van Wilder has thought me, its the mechanics on how to throw a bad-ass party, this and other things in those movies that I can relate to, minus all the sex that you hear about and see in those movies (the goal of loosing your virginity before you graduate is hilarious in movie form, though in reality, I find it to be very shallow). If my life was more like any of those movies, I would take out the sex-part, or in any case, make sure it doesn't happen to me, anyone else but me, choose the square next to me sitting by himself at the party to get his virginity lost, not me, lol.
Sometimes, and I say sometimes, I wish I would socialize more than I usually do, what I do is not enough. Maybe go to friends houses more, see people more, go to more party's, I wish, problem is that when those things do happen to me, I don't feel as happy as I should, i'm usually caught in a web, a web of confusion, all of these people around me, I don't feel normal, I feel tired and confused, which is pretty fucking sad when you think about it. Oh well, i don't know what to do, guess i'll live with it then.
All in all, its a mess, i'm tired everyday, I don't socialize as much as I should, girls still confuse me... that's right, if there's one thing in this world that confuses me the most, its girls. Anywho, socialization is fucking brutal for me, i don't know why, I try to be quite and quiet, its really hard. Sometimes I feel that i'm the wise one, yeah, the quiet yet wise man that walks around the hallways every lunch spitting simple yet wise words, it would be neat if I were some kind of philosopher at some point in my life.
I know when it comes to my writing, in this blog, I don't stick to one specific topic like most blogs. I branch-out to a wide array of topics, whether it be my travels, self-reflections on my life, plans for the future, observing the things around me, etc. I feel though I should be more open with my feelings when writing these entries, a touch to add to my experimental blog, of various topics.
Until that day....
HAUNTING YOUR PRESENCE 24/7!!!
Monday, 9 January 2012
Friday, 9 December 2011
Nightmares
Nightmares, we all have them occasionally, they usually scare us no matter what, mine don't, I think my nightmares are becoming my reality. I always have this same nightmare, here it goes.
In my dream, I'm this lost puppy, who is found by some random, yet pretty, girl, she's this girl who I've never seen before, I didn't know this girl, she wasn't part of my life in anyway, most likely a projection of my imagination. She takes me to her home, giving me the same gestures any girl would to a small puppy "oh, you’re so cute, who's a good puppy?" So things seem great, being a puppy that's getting pampered by a hot girl, right? Wrong, in the evening she was getting ready for some party, after she got ready she told me "you know, it would be great to show you off to all my friends tonight". So then she put me in a cage, and took the cage (with me in it of course) and then we walked to the party which was a block away from her house, she just walked into the house, going into the living room and said "hey everyone, look what I found this afternoon". She then placed the caged puppy me in the middle of the living room floor, and guess what? Everyone I knew, every person from my school, my closest friends, acquaintances, people I see at school but don't talk or hang out with, friends of friends, all circling around me, hysterically laughing, pointing fingers at me. Then all of the sudden, I transform from a caged puppy to my normal human self, wearing ripped clothes, chained to a wooden board, and everyone started throwing tomatoes at me, but not just tomatoes, they started throwing cups filled with beer at me, the DJ thought it would be funny to throw his equipment at me, one girl had the drunk guts to even throw a whole bottle of Vodka at me. It then came to the point where I was drenched in my own blood and everyone's alcohol, and then that girl who found me as a lost puppy then had a lighter in her hand, turned it on, threw it to the ground, and set the whole house on fire, with everyone I knew running out of the party. I was too numb and weak to even feel the pain of being burned or to escape, I was just hanging there, chained to a wooden board, letting myself corrode until I was mere ash.
I've had three other renditions of this dream:
1. The burning of me happened on the dance floor of a school dance, it was Halloween, everyone one was dressed in weird costumes which I failed to even remember, while I was burning, they were all singing this drunken lullaby and circling around my burning corpse with cheer.
1. The burning of me happened on the dance floor of a school dance, it was Halloween, everyone one was dressed in weird costumes which I failed to even remember, while I was burning, they were all singing this drunken lullaby and circling around my burning corpse with cheer.
2. I was at an X-mas party, everyone laughed while I was a lost puppy, then transformed into the tortured man, whoopdy-dee, you get the point. Anyway, this time I was chained to a X-mas tree, most of me was attached to the tree by having pine needles stabbed to my back, while I was burning, people gather and sang "O Christmas Tree", then ten minutes later they were all singing and dancing to "Rockin Around the Christmas Tree" and "Sleigh Ride", a girl I knew asked the pretty dream girl "wait, why are we doing this?" the pretty girl then says "meh, I'm out of fun ideas, were out of eggnog and I'm too drunk to care". Guess I was too numb to care about my insides being burnt.
3. Where at a garden party, before prom, I'm at the bathroom fixing my hair, putting more cologne on, only to be kidnapped by these masked guys in white tuxedo's who take me to the dream girl. I say "what the fuck is going on?" she says "oh, you'll find out", she then sedates me. I wake up, only to be drenched in champagne, for some reason everyone is raising their glasses, then throws their drinks at me, dream girl gets a lighter, and the rest is self-explanatory.
Don't you understand? I've been corrupted by the things around me, the real horrors of high-school; they have now haunted my presence wherever I go. And no, to clarify things, I'm not being bullied, everyone has respect for me in my school, I like and respect all my peers, which is weird because a lot of those people I remember, they participated in the act of throwing objects at me in my dreams. Whenever I have this re-occurring nightmare, I wake up wanting to break a mirror/window, smearing the blood from my cuts onto my face, I want to pull my teeth out or gouge my eyes out (to remain blind from all of this) whenever I wake up from this nightmare, or when thinking about all of this during any other time of the day. Usually I don't have the tendency to cry when I have this nightmare, and the impulse to destroy and induce pain to myself only lasts for about 5 minutes, then everything is back to normal. It’s so weird, the effect that nightmares have on people, the fact that my nightmares are merely based on my surroundings, and then my dark conscience gives those surroundings, what I see, what I know, and turns them into the reality I never want to live. But then you think, from what you have seen in your nightmares, when it’s close to your life, you then ask yourself "Am I really this?" I started asking myself "Am I a target for punishment and torture?" "Am I a lost, confused, caged puppy?" I wish I knew the answer, I really do. I guess I can call myself a blood-thirsty animal, and if the demons disguised as people I know try to cage me or laugh at me during a party, I'll jump and have the angry impulse to tear someone’s head off, that's what they get for testing me.
So I guess it’s now a matter of wondering, why do I feel this way when I shouldn't? I shouldn't because I have a pretty normal life, I'm comfortable with myself, I respect others, people respect me, I have my own life goals and I do my own thing, I try not to conform to things that I'm uncomfortable with, people respect me for that (well, at least most people, some people still question my life choices, interests and values, that's fine, all the better to share).
I guess now it’s a matter of time for me to look into this; the mystery behind my somewhat fucked-up dream. I will use my newly developed skill of controlling my dreams (lucid dreaming) to find what needs to be fixed in my dream-verse to prevent these future nightmares.
Thursday, 8 December 2011
Looking Back/Epic Hot Dogs/Future
Well, it’s another week of summer past, only two weeks left until school starts. I always enjoy school, this year will be interesting and worthwhile because this will be my final year of high school. I'm still wondering about the mysteries that wait for me this year. Having to be my final year of high school, I'm starting to look back at my past 3 years of high school, thinking to myself, saying "did I enjoy and live through school to the best extent?” I then said to myself, "ya, I did, could have done more but what I've done so far since the end of gr.11, was decent enough". I did what I could to be involved, and I’ll continue to do so, I've been to some of the school dances, school plays, parent teachers nights, sometimes I would even go with my parents for report card interviews with the teachers. Whenever I would stay home on those nights, I would worry if parents would bring pizza for my good work, or poison if I fucked up, or poisonous pizza if i'm doing "okay", shit it’s like that Simpsons episode all over again :P. No, even if I failed or did okay, my parents would never bring home poison, they're amazing parents, most of the time I think of them as my two best friends, I tell them a lot about my day, what I like and what’s going on with my friends and school. Going back to which school events I have attended, sadly I've only been to one Coffee House, but my friend Alex and I are thinking of starting a duo, I think it would be cool if it were a rap/hip-hop duo or even a full band, me on vocals and my limited piano skills (better practice), Alex on the guitar, and finding a bassist and a drummer. Although, sometimes I tend to feel depressed when I see happy people, I don't know why, I just do, is it because I have failed to accomplished what they have accomplished? Do they have something I don't have? The answer is still a mystery to me. I sort of feel that way during every X-mas assembly at school; The only parts that I enjoy are the parts that are put on by the teachers (i.e. they have a band and play kick-ass covers to other songs, funny skits, funny dances, etc), and the Friday Show special put on by Cougar Vision (news show at my school). The way I see it, I was talking to my counsellor about it after the holidays, it seems that the reason why the stuff at the Christmas assembly that actually relates to Christmas depresses me is that we hype and commercialize the hell out of one day, that's meant to be mostly about togetherness. That really in the end it becomes a huge let down, your expectations are not met after all the hype. Which is why I tend to feel that promoting Christmas in a X-mas assembly is depressing, watching school singing groups singing jolly X-mas songs or even students dancing to jolly X-mas songs, with their happy, blushing faces, depressing as the time my fish died when I was 9. Well, obviously they have to include Christmas in a X-mas holiday, what can I do? Nothing, just spend my holidays drowning myself in bottles of Coke, watching classic X-mas specials, sleeping and being with friends and family. I just wish people didn't a big fucking deal about Christmas, but in the end I can't destroy anything, others may want to disagree with me and enjoy their holidays. And besides, at least the assembly's have decent X-mas jokes, like the one with Santa Claus and Tiger Woods, and how at least Santa ends with 3 ho's, lol. Who knows, maybe I’ll invent my own holiday, a holiday of relaxation, doing all the holiday things that I enjoy as mentioned before, and possibly sleep my may throughout the entire holiday.
Moving on.....
My friend Alex and I were thinking of creating our own YouTube channel, similar to EpicMealTime, only instead, we'll specialize in a food that we both value... hot dogs. It may not seem like it, but you can be very creative with hot dogs, we were thinking that like every week, we would post a video of us making all types of hot dogs. To start off, we were thinking of following some of these recipes from this awesome website (http://www.bonappetit.com/magazine/2009/07/international_hot_dogs). We also had an idea for a hot-dog to make around the time of Valentine’s Day, The Sexdog; a hot dog with honey, ginger and whipped-cream.... were using cool-whip, don't worry. Hopefully alongside with the band project, Alex and I can get this project running, for this project we need more of our friends, lots of money and a shit load of various ingredients, including lots of hot-dog wieners and buns, and also...girls, lots and lots of girls. If EpicMealTime can find hot girls on the street that are willing to gorge themselves in bacon wrapped food, then I’m sure it will be easy to find girls we know that are willing to eat lots of hot dogs.
Some ideas on what hot dogs we were thinking of making, for each episode we would make at least 20-30 of each hot dog we make.
And finally....
I know for the past little while since I created this blog, I have said that I'm going to post a new piece every Monday. So far, blogging had been good for me, it allows me to vent out my interests, both current and new, also some thoughts that I have on certain things, definitely not super personal stuff but some inner thoughts, only to allow myself to express myself to the people I know, and to a broader audience around the world, luckily people can easily find blogs by clicking the "next blog" button on the top right corner. I like how in blogging, it’s this whole community of people from all over the world, all walks of life expressing themselves in various ways, Blogger has done a good job of connecting all those people together and to share each other stories, life-experiences or whatever seems to be on someone’s mind, expressing it in text or through visuals. All legit reasons for why I’m continuing with blogging, even during the school year, but there will be changes. Because I will be busy with school (homework, Ultimate Frisbee, after school activities, etc), I may not be able to stick to a new blog post every Monday. Instead I will make a new blog-post, one for each week and post at anytime during the week, whether I post it during the day when I’m at school, or like late at night during the weekend. Either way, just thought I would let you know if you keep up with this blog and follow or read it on a daily/frequent basis. With the stories and events that I will experience this year at school and in my life, more interesting tales from yours truly will come. The future of my blog is known my friend, and it is bright.
Moving on.....
My friend Alex and I were thinking of creating our own YouTube channel, similar to EpicMealTime, only instead, we'll specialize in a food that we both value... hot dogs. It may not seem like it, but you can be very creative with hot dogs, we were thinking that like every week, we would post a video of us making all types of hot dogs. To start off, we were thinking of following some of these recipes from this awesome website (http://www.bonappetit.com/magazine/2009/07/international_hot_dogs). We also had an idea for a hot-dog to make around the time of Valentine’s Day, The Sexdog; a hot dog with honey, ginger and whipped-cream.... were using cool-whip, don't worry. Hopefully alongside with the band project, Alex and I can get this project running, for this project we need more of our friends, lots of money and a shit load of various ingredients, including lots of hot-dog wieners and buns, and also...girls, lots and lots of girls. If EpicMealTime can find hot girls on the street that are willing to gorge themselves in bacon wrapped food, then I’m sure it will be easy to find girls we know that are willing to eat lots of hot dogs.
And finally....
I know for the past little while since I created this blog, I have said that I'm going to post a new piece every Monday. So far, blogging had been good for me, it allows me to vent out my interests, both current and new, also some thoughts that I have on certain things, definitely not super personal stuff but some inner thoughts, only to allow myself to express myself to the people I know, and to a broader audience around the world, luckily people can easily find blogs by clicking the "next blog" button on the top right corner. I like how in blogging, it’s this whole community of people from all over the world, all walks of life expressing themselves in various ways, Blogger has done a good job of connecting all those people together and to share each other stories, life-experiences or whatever seems to be on someone’s mind, expressing it in text or through visuals. All legit reasons for why I’m continuing with blogging, even during the school year, but there will be changes. Because I will be busy with school (homework, Ultimate Frisbee, after school activities, etc), I may not be able to stick to a new blog post every Monday. Instead I will make a new blog-post, one for each week and post at anytime during the week, whether I post it during the day when I’m at school, or like late at night during the weekend. Either way, just thought I would let you know if you keep up with this blog and follow or read it on a daily/frequent basis. With the stories and events that I will experience this year at school and in my life, more interesting tales from yours truly will come. The future of my blog is known my friend, and it is bright.
Friday, 11 November 2011
Remembrance Day... Lest We Forget
Remembrance Day is one of the most important days in Canada. To me, and to other Canadians abroad, Remembrance Day is a day of honour, honouring those who go out on the front lines, and risk their lives to protect the people. I'm grateful for everything that Canadian soldiers have done to protect the people, fighting in previous wars, and dealing with current global issues. I love Canada, Canada is an amazing county that I'm proud to live in, and it’s a country that has been good to me and my family. While we busy ourselves with school and work and remain protected in this amazing country, Remembrance Day reminds us that while we have all this time in the world, the least we can do is take a small amount of time from our busy lives and remember, remember those who gave their lives to help protect this country, and remember those who still live today, that have done the same. Canada would not be the pristine picture we see today as a free and sovereign nation if we did not have our troops there to defend and risk their lives to help maintain the beauty of this nation. I along with other Canadians thank them for their courage.
While I continue to acknowledge the many Canadians that have sacrificed so much, both in history and now, I still continue to advocate for peace. Don't get me wrong, as mentioned before, I'm very grateful for what our troops have done. These previous wars in history, although interesting to read and learn about, made me realize that war is no longer the answer, and that things can be solved through peaceful, non-violent means (note: the only violence I’m okay with is media violence, basically violence that you see in TV shows, movies, comics and video games, also the violence that you read in books and the violence that you hear in music, because we all know that at least 90% of the violence you see in those forms of media are fake, and that parents should take the responsible initiative for when it comes to their children seeing, reading and hearing violence in the media). That's why I wear and believe in the White Poppy for Peace. It follows the same meanings that the Red Poppy follows, but in addition to that, the White Poppy also symbolizes that while were still thankful, we should learn now that were at an age where people of various backgrounds, including nations, are getting along without settling scores with war, violence and bloodshed. If we can do that as normal, regular people such as ourselves, then maybe we can influence that idea to stop current world conflicts, by using peace. What I love about Canada is that it’s a very multicultural country, and with that we are able to tolerate our differences and easily settle scores in very reasonable ways. I admire that the Canadian Military is doing so by building strong and friendly relations with the regular town folk of Afghanistan, and the Afghan military as well. I also admire the projects that the military has worked on, such as building schools and other important facilities to help give the happy town folk a better life, which is basically a regular life that we in North America are used to, but tend to take for granted (I learned not to take things for granted, for that, I'm grateful for many things). I admire the peacekeeping missions we conduct, a perfect way to build strong relations with other countries and the rulers of those countries. I know Canada has a good reputation for having good, stable relationships with many other countries. So to conclude this entry, I will say this:
I thank those who are dead, and those who are alive that managed to keep Canada safe and stable to this day. While I remain grateful, let’s not make war the first answer (or not an answer at all, only should it be used if all else fails). Instead continue to keep peace, fight for peace, help those countries in need by doing many things that will give the people of those countries a better life, and continue to build strong, sturdy relationships with the many countries that exist among us. Talking, settling negotiations in a peaceful manner is a good approach. Peace is the best answer, war is not.
I thank those who are dead, and those who are alive that managed to keep Canada safe and stable to this day. While I remain grateful, let’s not make war the first answer (or not an answer at all, only should it be used if all else fails). Instead continue to keep peace, fight for peace, help those countries in need by doing many things that will give the people of those countries a better life, and continue to build strong, sturdy relationships with the many countries that exist among us. Talking, settling negotiations in a peaceful manner is a good approach. Peace is the best answer, war is not.
Lest we forget...
Thursday, 27 October 2011
WOAH! Hometown Madness!
Crazy stuff happening at the Gloucester Centre, in Ottawa, the rest will be explained in this article: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/reported+dead+shooting+Gloucester+Centre/5612229/story.html
Monday, 24 October 2011
Continuing With The Horn Of Africa
People are wondering why The Horn Of Africa (a region in East Africa that consists of countries such as Eritrea and Somalia) is in a dreadful state. In order to be fully aware of this situation, we have to look at the factors as "symptoms". which can be split into three separate causes that contain many sub-symptoms. The three main branches of cause include:
1. Natural Causes: Lack of rainfall, extreme weather, destructive flooding, earthquakes, climate change, fire, and other natural causes.
2. Man-Made Causes: war, bad governance, lack of facilities, corruption, lack of support from other countries, bad gov't planning, hindrances facing int'l charitable organizations (e.g. Red Cross), political differences resulting in victimization of certain groups opposed to the gov't, hunger, malnutrition, illiteracy, neglect, poverty, ethnic, religious and cultural differences. An important man-made symptom would be using hunger as a weapon of war.
3. (one cause to consider) Historic Causes: European colonization of these countries. Three countries that were colonially dominant in Africa: Britain, France and Italy. Kenya was under British rule, Ethiopia was largely independent, except for short Italian occupation under Mussolini. Nevertheless, conditions outside of cities were dismal. All three countries (Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia) were drawn by colonial powers hastily, thoughtlessly and without regard to the existence of the tribes and their cultures. It was done to serve only the interests of the colonial powers, not the interests of the people.
As you can see, these symptoms are not recent factors that instantly caused the famine. Rather, it goes back a long-time, what was that time is now history to us. Of these three main symptoms and each of their many sub-symptoms, one important symptom, which is the main cause that started this chaos, is drought. Drought being the lack of water in a certain area, killing agriculture in that area, agriculture being the important factor involved in growing food. You can't grow food or even live without water. Because of the drought in The Horn of Africa, 16 million Africans are being naturally and forcefully steered towards the path of death.
After looking at these "symptoms" which are the causes of this crisis. We also have to look at the consequences of this famine, a "diagnosis" do be exact. Identifying the nature of all this, the consequences of this famine define what the famine is doing, and continues to do to The Horn of Africa. Here are several consequences, that way, it will be easier to see what all the consequences are:
1. Death on a vast scale due to starvation.
2. Spread of disease because of insanitary conditions.
3. Increase in poverty levels.
4. Worsening of refugees across borders.
5. Mass movement of people to cities and increase in pressure on existing facilities.
6. Corruption.
7. Worsening of social and cultural lives of people.
8. Worsening of the civil war as Al-Shabaab in Somalia. Use of hunger as a weapon of war.
9. Lack of storage facilities and rotting of donated food and medicine before distribution to the needy.
10. Hindrances in the way of humanitarian and charitable organizations. E.g.: Red Cross, Catholic Relief Services, UN agencies, and similar international organizations. There have been actual reports of people who work for support groups that were abducted and murdered by the Al-Shabaab (more on that at the end).
11. Inflation placing food beyond the reach of people. Local peasants are evicted from their own land. Compensation paid is very little and the peasants becomes a part of the unemployment statistics. In Somalia, there has been no functioning central gov't since 1991. Somalia is fractured along clan and religious lines. Some parts like Somaliland are run by local administration of sorts but the majority of them are caught up in battles between warring clans and militia groups such as Al-Shabaab. Al-Shabaab wants to rebuild Somalia as an Islamist state under Sharia Law.
12. Many donor organizations are unable to operate or interact with each other. Because of war, the break down of state structure and lack of even basic facilities.
13. Decimation of wild-game.
14. There is no incentive for local farmers to grow food because the gov't allows cheaper food to come from other countries.
15. Desertification is an increasing problem for The Horn of Africa and threatens grazing land and water supplies. Arid lands mean that people don't receive rain, have no trees, no grazing land and don't have water. What you get is famine. Many conflicts develop between nomads and pastoralist's over grazing land and water.
16. Huge swatches of land are sold or leased to foreign interests that use it to grow food for their own countries. Both Kenya and Ethiopia have sold or leased agricultural land to agricultural based businesses.
We now know the "symptoms", which are the signs that tell that this famine is real. We now know the "diagnosis", which are the consequences that are caused by the "symptoms" of this famine. It is now time to take a look at an educated solution, a "prescription" that can be used to cure East Africa from its famine based misery. We can't look at this issue as one huge thing that has a "one answer to solve all" solution, because there many branches, each branch is a consequence, all these consequences become the famine when added together. Some solutions to help include:
Rather than sending food to the gov't and wonder if the gov't will actually do their part to give food to the people (fear of corruption and lack of governance), we should deliver the food straight to the people in East Africa. If they are starving at a fast rate and are dying quickly, then rather than wiring it through to the gov't and letting them distribute it across the country, let us send people down there to distribute equal portions to the people in the different countries of that region. Then again, there could be the risk of Al-Shabaab taking the food away and ambushing groups that distribute the food (abduction and murder, rebuild Somalia as an Islamist state, rejecting help from the west). So its possible that the attempt would be hit or miss. Another idea, in order to get rid of corruption once and for all is a major change in gov't. A gov't that has no tolerance for corruption or terrorism, a gov't encourages human rights for the people of East Africa, continuing to stick to the cultural values of the people in that area of Africa. We still have to remember that Africa is a very multi-cultural continent, and that having people from the west come and build a gov't that doesn't represent anything that the African people stand for could be dangerous. Is it possible that these very actions are the reason that the people of Africa seem to harshly question the actions of westerners? But I digress, the final option, one that although sounds crazy, but makes sense, it could work and it seems logical, I would choose this option out of the three. To educate the people of The Horn of Africa, teaching them that they could make a difference, the most reasonable values, ideals and concepts that make a structured gov't. We and possibly the help of other powers, could convince the current gov't's to resign, just for the record; we are not trying to act as a huge western power thats trying to violently take over that area. We are trying to make a new alternative towards the structure of African gov't. We can teach the people how to make a difference, possibly a revolution, much like some European countries did years and years ago. By educating, Africans can restart their way of living in a confident manner. This new gov't can stay devoted towards the original beliefs and cultures of the people there, making this new system compatible and easy to understand and conform to since this structure is designed to make things better and have a gov't that works and is liked by the people. Doing so will then lead to fixing all the other problems that rest in The Horn. Let me remind you that this issue is not in anyway new, recent weather and gov't is not the only thing that is making the famine worse, it's a long line of corruption, terrorism, all the major and minor "symptoms" and "diagnosis" that has been present for decades. If we can prevent those things from happening now, the future of The Horn of Africa will look bright.
The good news is that we don't have to wait until we are older in order to help out in anyway, we can help now. There are many ways that you can help by supporting the cause to end the East African famine. One of the most useful ways to do so is to donate food, money, etc. to any support group near you, whether they are big or small. Some support groups in North America actually have small bases in various spots in East Africa so they can actually be there to monitor and see what needs to be done so this crisis can be averted.
http://www.medindia.net/patients/patientinfo/support_groups/interstitial-cystitis-support-groups.htm#ixzz1Xx9JKL2O
The URL above is a reference site that gathers support groups together, groups that raise awareness and funds to support world issues. Because the famine in East Africa is a recent issue that is still continuing, what better way to raise awareness of the issue by promoting support groups that want to help, help with ending this crisis, issue, madness, whatever word you preferably use to describe whats going on in The Horn of Africa.
Also, if you are looking for online news articles that are related to this issue, or if you would like to stay up to date with recent news that has an effect on whats going on in The Horn of Africa, my suggestion would be to look at the non-biased, highly informed international news site; Al-Jazeera: http://english.aljazeera.net/. If you type in keywords such as "famine" or "Horn of Africa" or even "East Africa", you'll be surprised when you see the many results; such as stories and updates, both old and new that lead to the crisis, including some intense stories about support groups workers that were abducted by Al-Shabaab (as mentioned before).
1. Natural Causes: Lack of rainfall, extreme weather, destructive flooding, earthquakes, climate change, fire, and other natural causes.
2. Man-Made Causes: war, bad governance, lack of facilities, corruption, lack of support from other countries, bad gov't planning, hindrances facing int'l charitable organizations (e.g. Red Cross), political differences resulting in victimization of certain groups opposed to the gov't, hunger, malnutrition, illiteracy, neglect, poverty, ethnic, religious and cultural differences. An important man-made symptom would be using hunger as a weapon of war.
3. (one cause to consider) Historic Causes: European colonization of these countries. Three countries that were colonially dominant in Africa: Britain, France and Italy. Kenya was under British rule, Ethiopia was largely independent, except for short Italian occupation under Mussolini. Nevertheless, conditions outside of cities were dismal. All three countries (Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia) were drawn by colonial powers hastily, thoughtlessly and without regard to the existence of the tribes and their cultures. It was done to serve only the interests of the colonial powers, not the interests of the people.
As you can see, these symptoms are not recent factors that instantly caused the famine. Rather, it goes back a long-time, what was that time is now history to us. Of these three main symptoms and each of their many sub-symptoms, one important symptom, which is the main cause that started this chaos, is drought. Drought being the lack of water in a certain area, killing agriculture in that area, agriculture being the important factor involved in growing food. You can't grow food or even live without water. Because of the drought in The Horn of Africa, 16 million Africans are being naturally and forcefully steered towards the path of death.
After looking at these "symptoms" which are the causes of this crisis. We also have to look at the consequences of this famine, a "diagnosis" do be exact. Identifying the nature of all this, the consequences of this famine define what the famine is doing, and continues to do to The Horn of Africa. Here are several consequences, that way, it will be easier to see what all the consequences are:
1. Death on a vast scale due to starvation.
2. Spread of disease because of insanitary conditions.
3. Increase in poverty levels.
4. Worsening of refugees across borders.
5. Mass movement of people to cities and increase in pressure on existing facilities.
6. Corruption.
7. Worsening of social and cultural lives of people.
8. Worsening of the civil war as Al-Shabaab in Somalia. Use of hunger as a weapon of war.
9. Lack of storage facilities and rotting of donated food and medicine before distribution to the needy.
10. Hindrances in the way of humanitarian and charitable organizations. E.g.: Red Cross, Catholic Relief Services, UN agencies, and similar international organizations. There have been actual reports of people who work for support groups that were abducted and murdered by the Al-Shabaab (more on that at the end).
11. Inflation placing food beyond the reach of people. Local peasants are evicted from their own land. Compensation paid is very little and the peasants becomes a part of the unemployment statistics. In Somalia, there has been no functioning central gov't since 1991. Somalia is fractured along clan and religious lines. Some parts like Somaliland are run by local administration of sorts but the majority of them are caught up in battles between warring clans and militia groups such as Al-Shabaab. Al-Shabaab wants to rebuild Somalia as an Islamist state under Sharia Law.
12. Many donor organizations are unable to operate or interact with each other. Because of war, the break down of state structure and lack of even basic facilities.
13. Decimation of wild-game.
14. There is no incentive for local farmers to grow food because the gov't allows cheaper food to come from other countries.
15. Desertification is an increasing problem for The Horn of Africa and threatens grazing land and water supplies. Arid lands mean that people don't receive rain, have no trees, no grazing land and don't have water. What you get is famine. Many conflicts develop between nomads and pastoralist's over grazing land and water.
16. Huge swatches of land are sold or leased to foreign interests that use it to grow food for their own countries. Both Kenya and Ethiopia have sold or leased agricultural land to agricultural based businesses.
We now know the "symptoms", which are the signs that tell that this famine is real. We now know the "diagnosis", which are the consequences that are caused by the "symptoms" of this famine. It is now time to take a look at an educated solution, a "prescription" that can be used to cure East Africa from its famine based misery. We can't look at this issue as one huge thing that has a "one answer to solve all" solution, because there many branches, each branch is a consequence, all these consequences become the famine when added together. Some solutions to help include:
Rather than sending food to the gov't and wonder if the gov't will actually do their part to give food to the people (fear of corruption and lack of governance), we should deliver the food straight to the people in East Africa. If they are starving at a fast rate and are dying quickly, then rather than wiring it through to the gov't and letting them distribute it across the country, let us send people down there to distribute equal portions to the people in the different countries of that region. Then again, there could be the risk of Al-Shabaab taking the food away and ambushing groups that distribute the food (abduction and murder, rebuild Somalia as an Islamist state, rejecting help from the west). So its possible that the attempt would be hit or miss. Another idea, in order to get rid of corruption once and for all is a major change in gov't. A gov't that has no tolerance for corruption or terrorism, a gov't encourages human rights for the people of East Africa, continuing to stick to the cultural values of the people in that area of Africa. We still have to remember that Africa is a very multi-cultural continent, and that having people from the west come and build a gov't that doesn't represent anything that the African people stand for could be dangerous. Is it possible that these very actions are the reason that the people of Africa seem to harshly question the actions of westerners? But I digress, the final option, one that although sounds crazy, but makes sense, it could work and it seems logical, I would choose this option out of the three. To educate the people of The Horn of Africa, teaching them that they could make a difference, the most reasonable values, ideals and concepts that make a structured gov't. We and possibly the help of other powers, could convince the current gov't's to resign, just for the record; we are not trying to act as a huge western power thats trying to violently take over that area. We are trying to make a new alternative towards the structure of African gov't. We can teach the people how to make a difference, possibly a revolution, much like some European countries did years and years ago. By educating, Africans can restart their way of living in a confident manner. This new gov't can stay devoted towards the original beliefs and cultures of the people there, making this new system compatible and easy to understand and conform to since this structure is designed to make things better and have a gov't that works and is liked by the people. Doing so will then lead to fixing all the other problems that rest in The Horn. Let me remind you that this issue is not in anyway new, recent weather and gov't is not the only thing that is making the famine worse, it's a long line of corruption, terrorism, all the major and minor "symptoms" and "diagnosis" that has been present for decades. If we can prevent those things from happening now, the future of The Horn of Africa will look bright.
The good news is that we don't have to wait until we are older in order to help out in anyway, we can help now. There are many ways that you can help by supporting the cause to end the East African famine. One of the most useful ways to do so is to donate food, money, etc. to any support group near you, whether they are big or small. Some support groups in North America actually have small bases in various spots in East Africa so they can actually be there to monitor and see what needs to be done so this crisis can be averted.
http://www.medindia.net/patients/patientinfo/support_groups/interstitial-cystitis-support-groups.htm#ixzz1Xx9JKL2O
The URL above is a reference site that gathers support groups together, groups that raise awareness and funds to support world issues. Because the famine in East Africa is a recent issue that is still continuing, what better way to raise awareness of the issue by promoting support groups that want to help, help with ending this crisis, issue, madness, whatever word you preferably use to describe whats going on in The Horn of Africa.
Also, if you are looking for online news articles that are related to this issue, or if you would like to stay up to date with recent news that has an effect on whats going on in The Horn of Africa, my suggestion would be to look at the non-biased, highly informed international news site; Al-Jazeera: http://english.aljazeera.net/. If you type in keywords such as "famine" or "Horn of Africa" or even "East Africa", you'll be surprised when you see the many results; such as stories and updates, both old and new that lead to the crisis, including some intense stories about support groups workers that were abducted by Al-Shabaab (as mentioned before).
Friday, 14 October 2011
My interview with Sir Ken Robinson
Last Monday, I had the honor of interviewing education expert, Sir Ken Robinson. You may have known him through his amazing TED Talk, where he asked "Do schools kill creativity?" Last Monday, he came to Ottawa and gave a lecture on "Why finding your passion changes everything". Before his lecture, I had the pleasure of interviewing him, I couldn't have done it without the help of my fellow Radio Club comrades (thank you Najeeba and Mr. M). Before you listen to my interview I just want you to know, like with all interviewers, I get pretty nervous, I have every right to. Sadly, with my nervous curse, I have the tendency to stutter, which creates a few small instances where I mix words up. Also, more and more I realize that my voice sounds horrible when recorded, my voice may not sound that attractive at all, especially to you ladies, I understand if you feel that way, I still enjoy my single lifestyle :P. Other than that, enjoy the interview: https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=babf58be1a&view=audio&msgs=132de4768102b0ad&attid=0.1&zw
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