Hot Topics

Two items for discussion from York University:

First, Teaching assistants (TA), contract faculty and graduate assistants on a work-to-rule campaign as of Monday 19 November. Please read the article for more information. It's a shame we're seeing this situation manifest, given the eleven-week-long TA strike in 2000-1, but the administration has its vision for the university and is dead-set on seeing it through.

Second, Tamil students stage forty-hour protest in Vari Hall, abstaining from eating, sleeping and talking. Again, please read the article for more information. For students concerned with signs being linked to "terrorist groups", be aware who labels whom "terrorist". It's easy for our government to affix this moniker to affiliations it dislikes; it's even easier for us to accept what our government tells us, for it saves us the trouble of exhuming a past the likes of which no amount of sterilization can wash away.

The last "hot topic" in this entry is the debate on "Black-focused" schools in Toronto, a topic contested on this evening's edition of The Agenda. All parties seemed to agree on the notion that the existing education system was failing Black students, among other ethnic students, and that sweeping changes were necessary if we are to continue with an integrated school structure. Naturally, as with most debates, each answer begot more questions, one of the more prevalent ones being thus: in a society in which we are trying to promote tolerance, acceptance and unity, should we be segregating students? Ms. Angela Wilson (whom you will see on the list of guests if you click the above link) raised a very important point: the White establishment only agreed to bus Black students to White schools as a means to convey an image of a people 'no longer racist'. Feel free to share your thoughts on her comment.

While watching the program, something occurred to me - granted, I am a white male raised in affluence, so by no means am I of any authority to speak on behalf of disenfranchised youth of African descent, but I wish to pose the following: could it be that these youth are receiving a head-start on education of the world, something no classroom, regardless of ethnocentric slant, is able to provide? For example, if a young African male in Toronto, or Detroit, or wherever, drops out of high school and enlists in a street gang, is he not doing what the rest of us end up being trained to do? I spent four years in university to end up hustling for some corporation who, at the end of the day, sent me home with my small cut. How is this any different from someone slinging rock on a street corner? Because a cadre of White males legitimized the former? It's time to call a spade a spade: a hustle is a hustle.

As always, I welcome any and all comments. I can only infer so much from what I see through my own eyes; I am always interested to see the world through the eyes of others. Feel free to share your thoughts.

My thoughts on Depression

Foreword: I had read the following passage, but forgot what it had said until I reread it on 11/28. I feel obligated to insert the following into this entry, so as to indicate to you, the reader, that you can receive therapy that pays the context its proper due, albeit, I imagine, at a lofty price.

"Perhaps the closest to a theoretical framework for this particular trend in therapy [mediated learning experience] comes from French philosopher Foucault (1965; 1973; 1995). Michael White (1995a) in his Selected Papers cites Foucault as a theorist who challenged society's tendency to "examine" and thereby reduce individuals to "case studies", replete with numbers, quotients, labels, measures of deviance and disorders. Foucault (1995) argues that practitioners have objectified the person and made psychological syndromes seem inherent within the individual. Instead of looking at the external faults within cultural practices (that cause dysfunction), professionals look to the faults in the patient; they do not take into consideration the dysfunctional contexts."
- Lazowski, B. M. & Luther, M. G. (2007). "Brief Therapy as Mediated Learning Experience: A Primer". Transforming Lives: Authentic Living and Learning (M. G. Luther, P. J. Gamlin, S. Cook & G. Wagner; ed.), 191-216 (bold mine).

I write this with an intrinsic fear of trampling the toes of those who struggle with depression of all forms. My intent here is to make sense of my own depression, if one wishes to dub my feelings as such, and provide hope to the diagnosed who have been told by professionals there is something wrong with them, something only pills can correct. I would love to receive feedback from each and every one of you, be it a critique of my entry, or any experience(s) you wish to share.

I can't remember when exactly I began having these bouts of prolonged, intense melancholy. I know I was consumed by frequent tantrums as a lad, but can only trace the sadness back to around the fifth or sixth grade, and even then, it wasn't all that intense, for I could always escape into my world of make-believe once the recess bell rang, so I suppose the best place to begin is at puberty. No one thought anything of it, likely because I had a knack for concealing my feelings, but, on occasion, my moroseness made its way to the surface. I remember my mother trying to get me to think positively, though, try as I might, the negativity was just too pervasive. I thought I had turned the corner towards the end of eighth grade, as I found myself being accepted socially, just in time for high school. Ninth grade wasn't so bad, either; I was getting along well with many people, though my social awkwardness often interfered with interaction with others, particularly of the opposite sex (more on this later).

The roller coaster of emotions continued during the remaining three years of high school, each year becoming more intense. I think back to my dramatic arts classes, and the incredible highs I felt while on stage, followed by the intense lows afterward, once I was alone again. Thoughts of ending my own life were regularly foremost in my mind, not to mention the intense anger I would feel, anger I displaced onto unsuspecting family and friends. It wasn't until the end of high school - four years of my life of which I'm not particularly proud - that I adopted the notion that perhaps I was afflicted with depression, and that I needed help. Mind you, I did not seek any assistance - I had one session at age eighteen at my parents' behest, after they had discovered a letter written in my hand - though, sometimes, I wonder if I should have.

Then I think of the pills. I think of the diagnosis, of the professional sitting opposite me, behind some desk, pointing a finger at me, telling me there's something wrong with me. Once upon a time, I would have believed this person. I used to think of depression solely as a disease of the mind, that is, until I started examining its etiology. Yes, each of us has a brain whose physical makeup leaves us predisposed to depression, but is this the brain's fault? For us to experience depression, we have to experience the world; melancholy doesn't occur in a vacuum (forgive me for using a tired cliché). What if the world in which we live wasn't so cold, so cruel, so unforgiving? What if we weren't immersed in negativity? What if we were taught to think for ourselves, to use the gifts we were granted, rather than forced some mold unbecoming of who we are in the name of eking out a meager living?

I firmly believe there is nothing abnormal about my brain chemistry, for if there is, then the same holds for every other person on this planet. Forget being "normal", for it is but the product of someone's construal, and serves only to bring you down; be you. Yes, you are more sensitive to your surroundings; all the more for you to appreciate and flourish within them. You have a beautiful mind, one I would hate to see go to waste. If you feel you need help, think of the people who love you, and turn to them for support. Don't let this "depression" win; more importantly, don't let anyone, no matter how "professional" s/he may be in the eyes of society, tell you something is wrong with you.

Epilogue: As always, I doubt my ability to do my thoughts justice, but there they are, in the best terms in which I can describe them. On a final note, I don't wish to create the impression that I'm resigned to the Thomas Szasz school of thought (he is the author of "The Myth of Mental Illness", a claim with which I do not agree, for the debate is not the existence of an illness, but rather its etiology and appropriate treatment).

On this, the day of Rememberance...

Today marks the anniversary of the signing of the Armistice marking the conclusion of the Great War, known today as the first World War. It is a day on which we commemorate the end of "the war to end all wars" that did anything but. Perhaps, if it was up to you or me or anyone subjected to this nightmare, that old axiom would have held true.

Today, you are likely to hear your leaders pay homage to the fallen for the sacrifices they made in the name of "freedom", and trumpet the need for more of us to continue these sacrifices in the face of our current enemy, the foremost threat to said "freedom", one they call "terrorism". They will mark the anniversary of the end of a war by celebrating it - perhaps because the Allied forces were victorious - and every other time they sent and continue to send scores of young men and women to kill and die, while those fortunate to return home will discover the sacrifices they made aren't worth the money it costs to care for them afterwards, though their telephones will be ringing every subsequent November when it's time to parade them before the proletariat.

Freedom. I am sick to death of hearing this word, of seeing it in the newspapers and on the television. The only freedom for which these men and women fought and are fighting is the freedom for this gang of capitalists to pillage and plunder populations, both here and abroad. By doing so, we, as a people, have managed to anger those left in the wake of the destructive path called "freedom", and now, we are told we must destroy these people before they destroy us.

Keeping with the spirit of wordplay, I want to draw your attention to two other, perhaps more important terms:

Script, referring to the notion that one tribe is superior to another, thus dehumanizing the latter, making subjugation and/or annihilation less reprehensible. For Nazi Germany, it was the Jews and the Gypsies and the homosexuals who were "vermin"; for Suharto, the East Timorese; for Saddam Hussein, the Shi'a and Kurds; for the Hutus of Rwanda, the Tutsis; for us, "Injuns", "Niggers", "Chinks", "Spics", "Japs", "Commies", "Gooks", "Rag-heads", "Hadjis" and any other non-White tribe we perceive to be threatening; perhaps more importantly, for men, regardless of ethnicity or religious belief, it is our female counterparts who are inferior, both physically and mentally, and need us to rule over them.

The Big Lie, that which we need to believe to justify our subjugation and/or annihilation of the "other" group, examples of which include: "They are taking away our jobs!", "They are a burden on our society!", "They are the Great Satan who needs to be destroyed!", "They hate our freedom!", "They will drive us into the sea!", "They are Godless!", "They pray to the wrong God!", "They will blow themselves up on our buses and in our marketplaces!", "God hates fags!" - I can continue ad nauseam, but you get the idea.

So long as we have these scripts instilled within us, so long as we keep buying into "the big lie", we will never see the end of war. There are a select few who aim to keep it this way, as they use us for their personal gain. So long as religious leaders take aim at whom they believe to be the "evil" plaguing our world, so long as gun-runners reap astronomical profits, so long as there are commodities to be controlled - such as the world's largest opium patch; the second, third and sixth-largest oil patches; and, soon enough, the world's largest freshwater reserve - so long as we allow all of this to continue, we will never see the end of war.

In Canada, each of us wears a poppy in recognition of the men and women of wars past and present who have laid down their lives, by and large, for love of a country who doesn't seem to love them all that much, for if it did, it wouldn't be so quick to send them into the meat grinder. As far as I'm concerned, pinning a mock poppy to my coat is an exercise in vain without understanding why we fight; how can we honour the memories of the fallen if we are content to let others' names join theirs on the cenotaph? How can we bring ourselves to continue to destroy each other? Even here, in the "land of the free", we are pitted against one another in a struggle for survival, while politicians and corporate executives capitalize on our fear, loathing and self-gratification.

So long as we sit idle and let our so-called leaders force-feed us their dogma, I'm afraid these young men and women - children, no less! barely adults! what just and moral society sends children off to kill other children? - will have died in vain. For those who feel we need to take up arms against the elite, have we not learned the pitfalls of fighting evil by evil means? It's time to cast aside the barriers between us, the barriers used to perpetuate war. We are not killing "the enemy": we are killing our brothers and sisters; our children are killing each other. It's time to cast aside our "scripts" and these "big lies", and start seeing each other for who we are: people.

Contrary to what we've been told, God does not take sides, for God not some mythical man in the sky who rules over us and smites our enemies: God is love, and we are all God's children, for we lived, and are alive.

Cash and Cops

Police budgets and statistics for various North American cities (courtesy of NOW Magazine:

Toronto

Operating budget $840 million (requested for 2008, of which 89 per cent is for salaries and benefits)

Percentage of total city budget 24

Total number of officers 5,510 sworn, 1,900 civilian

Officers per capita 1 for every 453 people

Area covered 630 square kilometres

Crime rate 5,020 Criminal Code offences per 100,000 people (second-lowest in the country behind Quebec City's 4,931 per 100,000)

Montreal

Operating budget $526 million

Percentage of total city budget 13

Total number of officers 4,383 sworn, 807 civilian

Officers per capita 1 for every 360 people

Area covered 366 square kilometres

Crime rate 6,912 per 100,000 (lower homicide rate than ours: 1.4 versus our 1.8 per 100,000; but 32 per cent higher property crime rate: 3,642 versus our 2,471 per 100,000)

Atlanta

Operating budget $132 million (U.S.) – A staggering $700 million less than our budget, despite a crime rate that's 75 per cent higher than ours.

Percentage of total city budget 22

Total number of officers 1,796 sworn, 600 civilian

Officers per capita 1 for every 270 people

Area covered 343 square kilometres

Crime rate 8,187 per 100,000

Chicago

Operating budget $1.19 billion (U.S.)*

Percentage of total city budget 21 – comparable to ours, but the qualifier here is that Chicago has almost three times as many cops patrolling the streets and a murder rate (468 last year) 10 times that of T.O.'s

Total number of officers 13,619 sworn, 2,635 civilian

Officers per capita 1 for every 216 people

Area covered 606 square kilometres

Crime rate 5,895 per 100,000

Los Angeles

Operating budget $1.19 billion (U.S.)

Percentage of total city budget 18

Total number of officers 9,621 sworn, 3,000 civilian

Officers per capita 1 for every 400 people

Area covered 1,290 square kilometers (twice the area patrolled by our force)

Crime rate 3,504 per 100,000 (surprise, lower than Toronto's, despite 480 murders last year. L.A.'s come a long way since Rodney King)

Houston

Operating budget $534 million (U.S.)

Percentage of total city budget 32 (explained largely by the fact that this gun-happy Texas town ranks 15th in the U.S. in murders, with 377 last year, 18 versus our 2 per 100,000)

Total number of officers 5,400 sworn, civilians (unavailable)

Officers per capita 1 for every 377 people

Area covered 1,558 square kilometres

Crime rate 7,006 per 100,000

New York City

Operating budget $2.43 billion (U.S.) – twice the budget of T.O.'s force, but NYC employs 10 times more cops, covering twice the area, and boasts half our crime rate

Percentage of total city budget 13

Total number of officers 37, 838 sworn, 18,000 civilian

Officers per capita 1 for every 217 people

Area covered 1,214 kilometres square

Crime rate 2,516 per 100,000

Denzel Washington Loves America

Perhaps, by now, you've heard or read about Denzel Washington's donation to help build a new Fisher House at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas - for those who may not know, a "Fisher House" provides accommodation to families of soldiers being treated at the hospital. Perhaps, like me, you learned about this via e-mail me, as my friend, who received it from a friend, was kind enough to pass the news along to me. I must admit, the story warmed my heart, that is, until I arrived at this particular line:

...and Denzel Washington's Patriotism doesn't even make page 3 in the Metro section of any newspaper except the Local newspaper in San Antonio

Oh, what an utter fool I can be sometimes, for here, I thought this to be an act of human decency - one human being looking out for the needs of others less fortunate than he. I figured, had he been in a hospital in Mogadishu or Montevideo or Mosul or Moscow, he might have done the same thing, but no, this was not for his fellow human being: this was for the flag; this was for America.

What, then, of the "patriotism" of the United States government? Surely, in its 600-some-odd-billion-dollar annual budget, there would be room for a new Fisher House at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio; after all, according to Stars & Stripes, it costs only a million. While we're on the subject of wounded soldiers, is it very "patriotic" for said government, with its multi-billion-dollar annual budget, to allow the Walter Reed Medical Center to lapse into a fetid shit hole?

Denzel Washington, it's safe to say you care more about the American people than does your government. I hope you keep that pen handy, for I imagine there will be a growing demand for new Fisher Houses.