thankfulI'm back. After another 6 hours on the so-called Tri-Chapter Party Bus (it's fun to say), I'm back in the O-town, faced with laundry, homework, yelling at my computer (for deleting several hundred words of the first draft of this entry), and keeping the lessons I learned and the momentum with me. I have so much to think, and say, and do. It was an amazing experience: I learned an incredible amount, I was inspired, and most importantly, I HAD SO MUCH FUN.
Imma try and break this up (though my engineering/organisational skillz are not what they should be) because it's going to be a LOT. If you have any questions about anything I bring up, feel free to pop them, though I doubt y'all are interested, and this is as much for my own personal catharsis as it is for a recap.
( EWB as an organisation: what I like and admire )
( EWB at the conference: what we did )
( EWB fun times )
( EWB best moments: things I'll remember )
( EWB wrapup: all these things that I've done )
"The Sahel is a line.
But it is also a crack in the heart—a tightrope, a brink, a ledge. See how its people walk: straight-backed on paths of red dust, placing one foot carefully before the other, as if balanced upon a knife edge. The Sahel is a bullet’s trajectory. It is the track of rains that fall but never touch the sand. It is a call to prayer and a call for your blood, and for me a desert road without end."
Obviously I'm in a very politicking mood. This is party due to many links on my flist, basically THE ENTIRE MEDIA, and also two of my classes (all of which are progressing very well!). Peace on 9/11, y'all.
First OOB: An article about Sarah PalinSLASHfeminism in politiks I found informative and scary - the author has an obvious bias, but it's definitely worth reading: http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/09/1
Second OOB: I have a freaky statistic:
The USA has AROUND $9 trillion in total debt. Now, $1 trillion is a very large number; $9 trillion is even larger, and it may be kind of hard to get your head around.
But imagine this: if you had gone into business on the day that Jesus was born, and from that day on proceeded to lose $1 million EVERY SINGLE DAY, 365.4 days a year (including Christmas!), it would take you until 2372 to amass $1 trillion in debt. The US has done this damage NINE TIMES OVER, most of that within the last 10 years.
Pretty creepy. Also, my Politics & Globalisation professor is very anti-American, and for all his talk of "seeing through the Matrix" of propaganda, a lot of his statistics have a very propaganda-ish air to them, and are very preschoolish; today was something about imagining 25 Empire State Buildings made entirely of pennies. Whaaaaa...? However, he has some cool info:
The Art of War: since 3600 BC, there have been only 292 years of peace. BUT, there have been
-14 531 wars large and small
-3 640 000 000 people killed (in war, because of war or in or acts of violence, I'm assuming, since he didn't say)
The value of all destruction done by war would buy a gold belt around the Earth 156 km in width, and 10 m thick.
Since 650 BC there have been 1656 arms races, only 16 of which did not end it war - the remainder ended in economic collapse.
Third OOB: My friend Demetrius has figured something out:
"-There have been 61 homicides in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area, for the non-Canucks out there) since January 1, 2008. (source: http://www.cbc.ca/toronto/
-The odds of winning the 6/49 Jackpot are 1:13 983 816. (source: http://www.lottery-results
-Today is day 251 in the calendar. That means the odds that a homicide will happen on any given day in the GTA is 61/251, or approximately 1:4.
-There are about 5 million people living in the GTA.
-That means the chance that I, given I live in the GTA, have to get murdered today is 1:4 x 1:5 000 000, or 1:20 000 000.
-The odds of winning the lottery are 1:13 983 816.
A fine example of media influencing the way one lives their life: I have a greater chance of hitting the 6/49 jackpot than I do of being brutally murdered in the city.
(PS: If I die today, first person to comment gets all my winnings.)"
** NOTE: That's a pretty high number of homicides, and it makes me sad. The latest one (I remember hearing about) was committed by a 16-year old: a stabbing of a 15-year old boy in a field in the Peel region.
Fourth OOB:
The last two History lectures have been about the turn of the century, and various movements that were occuring: mainly, colonialism, imperialism, the 2nd industrial revolution, the demographic explosion, and the intellectual discourse. The prof mentioned that Bismark assembled the major European powers in Berlin in 1884 "to divide the continent of Africa." I got this absurd - and yet probably pretty close to the truth - vision of a bunch of old guys saying "OK, so you have can have this chunk, and I'll take this bit here, and why don't we leave that whole side to you guys..." and I was thoroughly disgusted. Yeah, because it was just there for the taking, and you're the big shots, the fact that they had governments and societies of their own was just disregarded. That one meeting probably did much of the screwing-up of Africa, given that they completely missed the mark on ethnic groups, language, differing cultures and ecosystems, and just drew arbitrary lines in the sand. So now whole groups and families are split, and we've got minorities and majorities and so many different and varying groups of people under one government and set of laws and they're just supposed to LIVE WITH IT? Fuck you, Europe. FUCK YOU. Colonialism just disgusts me: and I don't take that crap about the colonizers "civilising" the populations or improving the standard of living and starting industry - they just imposed their own ideas of the way things should be on people and cultures and lands that weren't in any way similar, and just supposed it would work as well, and took what they wanted while they were at it. And then when they discovered that didn't work, or when they were done with it, or when there was nothing left for profit, they just left the colonies - "you're on your own. That's it, we're out. Nice knowing you! Deal with your own problems. We'll just sit over here and sift through our diamonds."
Also, today in History he asked people to name Great Modern Leaders. We got all kinds from the 20th century, like Churchill, Eisenhower, FDR, Putin (my teacher is obsessed with Putin), Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, Pope John Paul II, Pierre Elliot Trudeau (represent!), Martin Luther King Jr, etc. But then he asked the class to name some Great Leaders who are presently in office, some current people who capture the imagination. You know who we got?
Well, I believe the Dalai Lama (and Obama, though he doesn't actually QUALIFY) was brought up, but other than that all we got were a few half-assed suggestions and a lot of blank looks. And you know what? I don't think we HAVE any political leaders who are really incredibly charismatic and great leaders and don't take crap and who people respect and look up to with the reverence reserved for the aforementioned Greats. This is why I'm feeling blase about the upcoming Canadian election: all the candidates are boring. They seem the same. None of them are charismatic (at least not Trudeau-charismatic), and you know what really gets me? None of them - and no real world leaders - appear to have a "grand vision," like Trudeau or Ghandi had. None of them seem prepared to *make* history, they're just going to file the same reports and deal with their job issue by issue, problem by problem, instead of forging their way and having great ideas - it doesn't seem like we're working towards a central point, merely that we're slogging through life waiting for something interesting to show up on the nex bus.
Well, now that you're all thoroughly depressed, I have some (depressing) quotes for you!
"History teaches us that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap." -Ronald Regan
"We live, after all, in a world where illusions are sacred and the truth profane." -a Pakistani historian, slide changed before I got the name
"Britain has no eternal friends, and no eternal enemies. But we have eternal interests." -Sir Harold Nicholson
I'm out. Peace. I'm sorry to bore you with politicking - if you've got an issue with something I said, I encourage you to let me know and we can have an intellectual duke-it-out in the comments, because I have no class tomorrow, and I'm strangely starting to like talking about politics. Also, sorry if I've forced anything on you - normally I try my very hardest not to.
Love! -c






energetic
contemplativeIs it bad that I... ?
Want to put posters in my room of male ballet dancers?
Am addicted to LJ?
Borrow my dad's cds?
Have had crushes on Sirius Black, Prince Eric from The Little Mermaid and Numair Salmalin?
Own three bookshelves and need a fourth?
Am addicted to Jones Soda?
Don't want a car until I'm at least 25?
Own four Baby Names books?
Pretty much everything reminds me of something from a Zits Comic or SBP?
Have books I've read more than seven times?
Listen to the CBC?
Am addicted to William Moseley?
Think that Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Sideways were horrible movies?
Actually believe horoscopes?
Think the best book is the World Atlas?
Once ate an entire pint of Ben & Jerry's Phish Food for breakfast?
Am addicted to
Dunk my apple-cider donuts in apple cider?
Am reminded of that awful scene in the Van Gogh movie we watched in art every time I look at my hand lotion and see the brand Kiss my Face?
Wish I lived in Narnia?