Just Down From Dundurn

Truer words could not have been written:

And nobody really seems to IM anymore with the advent of Facebook and every other shitty community Web 2.0 outlet that’s turned the internet into some boring self-interested high-school wankfest. Yawn! Tell you what, world, if I’m really interested in seeing nine-thousand pictures of you getting drunk with your friends, I’ll leave you a note. By fuckin’ e-mail. Not on your “wall”.

Captures my thoughts perfectly. Thank you, Pat.

I just saw this article on the Toronto Star website and it left me with one of those weird feelings of uncertainty inside. In short, the article basically says,

From reluctance by professors to reschedule exams missed for religious holidays to racial taunts and inadequate prayer space, Muslim students face daily discrimination on campus, a new report says.

Specifically, this line was the one that made the hamster in my head run the most,

The most frequent problem identified by Muslim students was a failure to accommodate.

At first I was a little worried that my recent experiences at McMaster were unfairly colouring my view, because my initial reaction was one of complete apathy, and even a little antipathy, for the students cited in this story. But upon further reflection, I can’t say I rightly care what religion/culture is in question, I’m having a hard time digesting the idea that accomodation is required, or at least in some of the areas mentioned by the students.

I feel uneasy because my politically correct upbringing and experiences with social justice causes have me thinking “Of course, these students’ beliefs should must be accomodated.” On the other hand, my general antipathy towards religious creep into the public sphere has me also thinking, “What accomodation is truly reasonable, given its costs (both social and financial) and whose responsibility is it?”

For example, citing food choice as an area where Muslim students have not been accomodated, I wonder who’s responsibility it is to ensure that Halal food is available in university-run cafeterias. Vegetarian options are relatively available at most universities, however not without some work on the part of vegetarians on University Services committees. Am I to honestly believe that at universities with high proportions of Muslim students, options are not available? And in the case they aren’t, I find it incredibly difficult to believe that having even a single Muslim student on a senate committee wouldn’t have this rectified very quickly.

Prayer space is another contentious issue, especially for space starved universities with limited funding. Considering the difficulty there was in finding room for the PIRG at Laurier (and it’s eventual location is less than ideal), I unerstand the predicament that universities face in “accomodating” Muslim students. However, universities are a learning environment, and finding space for labs, classes, and study space should, and always will, be a much higher priority. Students should take it upon themselves to find space in which to carry out their religious obligations without expecting that educational institutions will do that work for them. While many universities in Canada have a Christian tradition, I have never attended one with a Roman Catholic church on campus, and if I wanted to worship, I don’t see how it would be anyone else’s responsibility but my own to find a place to do so.

Maybe I’ve just been bitten by the bug that’s been circulating around Quebec lately, in regards to “accomodating” minorities. Even though I feel like I’m risking being labeled a xenophobe by doing so, I’ve been tempted to agree with the pundits and ordinary citizens who have been questioning the accomodation of minorities in Quebec at the expense of traditional French-Canadian culture. Sure, some of the issues are making a mountain out of a molehill, and I think there is a certain beauty in multi-culturalism, but I also think that Canada has many wonderful cultural (and secular) traditions that should take precedence over ones that have come with newer Canadians. Accomodation con only be productive when a landed majority does not feel pressured into extending graces to newcomers that threaten or weaken established values, traditions, etc. It should also involve a moving towards a middle ground on the parts of both the existing and the new citizens, in adopting, sharing in, and appreciating both the old and new traditions without the fear of losing either.

I hope Sherry’s house in Fallujah survived. http://www.borowitzreport.com/archive_rpt.asp?rec=6710

While the 14 yr olds of Canada are spending their allowances on the Arcade Fire’s new album (out today), I’m going to publicly thank Stirling for introducing me to the Besnard Lakes this weekend. They too are from Montreal, and their album The Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse is excellent, and far better than that of their better known contemporaries, and the title of the album is strangely appropriate.

The newspaper says people are talking about elections in Ottawa already. I hate Ottawa. I especially hate any party that makes me vote again this soon. The NDP has already guaranteed it will not get my vote for at least 4 more years until I’m sufficiently not mad about last January, and the Liberals, who had been getting on my good side lately, will soon have a 5 year moratorium slapped on them if they do anything that remotely smells “election-y” to me.

Green again, it would seem.

More importantly, what ever happened to 24? You know, the show? During the Valentine’s day snow-in the other day, Megan and I started watching the first season again, and by god it is so much better than the shit on these days.

I never thought I’d see someone have a drill run through their shoulder on TV before 9pm, but alas, Keifer & co. are always there to make me gag. Why do I keep watching? I can’t explain it. I seriously can’t. Watching gratuitous torture is against everything I say I’m against, but I’m weak, I’m sick, and I’m bored. I keep saying “one more episode,” or “if he tortures his own brother, I’m never watching again,” but I can never go through with it. Even though the plots are flimsier than ever, with holes are big enough to fist, I keep hoping the inspired moments that made the first season impossible to turn off will come back.

But they won’t. I think they’ve found their audience: Halfway between grade-ten level social commentary and Hollywood-style blockbuster (never let the audience breathe), they’ve found a formula that gets new people watching, and keeps fools like me around. Megan would be a merciful goddess if she just gouged out my eyeballs one Monday night around 7pm, but I’m afraid I’d just sit around waiting to hear the sounds of electrodes on nipples, or fingers being cut off with utility scissors. What is wrong with me?

All I could think about today as I left the washroom at Quarter’s was the time that Greg Smith peed on the toilet seat at Sherry’s place on Lodge, and while she was pulling out the bleach, he defended not wiping it up by stating something about it’s sterile qualities. Then someone else added that it was sterile, not sterilizing, or some such. I laughed the whole way out of the bathroom.

Also, we had frozen pipes galore this past week, but we seem to have dealt with them all, and saved having some plumber charge us $700 to do whatever the fuck he was going to do to “fix” them, which involved running new pipe I assume.

Oh the cold, how I despise thee.

The new Arcade Fire album, Neon Bible, is one of the only albums I can think of that was overrated before anyone had even heard a track. I’ve seen Great Expectations Syndrome occur before, for basically every Radiohead album after the one that people “got” (y’know, the one with the last song they did that anyone heard on the radio for more than a week), but unlike Radiohead, I don’t think that even the reviewers versed in the gospel of hipsterdom will be able to talk about all the greatness that is lying there somewhere under the surface of boring crap.

Unfairly or not, I’ve been hating on the Arcade Fire ever since they hit CHUM FM (yes kids, that’s called musica snobbery, or elitism, or somesuch, and it’s not hypocritical to also bash it in others), and I’ve roundly rejected the idea that any follow up to Funeral could live up to the collective expectations that we, in the horn-rimmed, vegetarian, too-tight t-shirt music universe created for them.

And yes, I will also announce upon listening to Neon Bible, and I am not disappointed, because it is as sucky as I figured it might. It’s not even bad so much as it’s meh. And not even good meh, like the new Shins album. That one doesn’t blow me away, but it’s good, and I’ve listened to it a dozen times already on repeat because for the most part, it’s pretty good. Not even “meh” in the latest Decemberists type of way (which is a ‘we’ve all heard this before meh’). No, it’s a bad meh. Like, what am I supposed to do with an overproduced version of “No Cars Go” which essentially ruins any good memories I had about the original? Seriously, did someone from YTV tell them that 14 year olds like music like this, when a whole band of kids shouts together like a Japanes cartoon, because that’s what it sounds like: No Cars Go re-recorded with the fresh memories of Rebellion in their minds.

Let’s also get a couple of other things clear here, in case there are still any dewy-eyed fans still reading: We all know that Regine’s voice is awful, like really, really awful, and it was tolerable on the first album because everything else was so good, but now it’s just annoying. Sure, folks, it’s cute you two are married, but that doesn’t mean I like hearing someone castrating a cat over top of over-produced, over-orchestrated, sappy pop music. Nothing to dance to either! Don’t you remember why people liked the band in the first place?

Okay, Megan told me to pipe down, because apparently I’ve “been criticizing this album two years before it was even made,” but I think we need to drop this mass-delusion before it even starts. Good bands can be remembered for one good thing, and we don’t have to trick ourselves into believeing Neon Bible is good. And I give full permission for all of you to remind me of this when I begin talking about how great the new Portishead album is in a few months. It’s only fair. Back to the Shins album.

So I took out the kitchen faucet to figure out why the hell it wasn’t shooting out cold water anymore, and went to see if there was a way to take it apart to change the cartridge or something, and I see this sight: A screw moved along a dimension that I wasn’t even sure was possible. I have no fucking clue how it got that way, and I know for sure I can’t get it out now, so I guess we have to get a new faucet. Seriously, this blew my mind!!!

I’ve had the opportunity over the last while to have some conversations with friends and acquaintances regarding the never-ending conflict between Isreal and any number of its self-avowed foes. I don’t think I’ve ever particularly had a coherent, or at least consistent position on the whole mess: I’ve always sympathized with any civilian -no matter what ethnicity or religion they’re grouped into- caught in the middle of a simmering and often explosive state of ongoing urban warfare.

Lately, I’ve been quite happy approaching the issue with no particular ideological or historical baggage, as I’ve frequently been put-off by those people I know that seem to adopt an unwavering position on the situation that allows only a black or white interpretation of anything presently going on in the not-so-Holy Land. Once upon a time, I too adopted an instinctive pro-Palestine position, based on equal parts social pressure (hanging out with hippies does that), intellectural pressure from faculty (doing a degree in Sociology does that), and what I thought was good old fashioned knowledge of the situation (you know, being a 20-something suburban kid makes you an expert on all sorts of things).

I think I got over that in recent years as I’d been repeatedly disgusted by all sorts of abuses being perpetrated on both sides of the conflict, and generally being disgusted by people who would defend abuses based on what I felt was shaky historical justification (I still can’t comprehend how land being taken from a people 50 years ago justifies bombing civilians now, no matter how intensely the argument is presented).

The most recent debates I’ve had with others on the issue has revolved around the international community’s quick suspension of aid from the Hamas-governed Palestinian Authority. I am certainly no apologist for Isreali actions over the past 10 years, and I was and am vehemently opposed to wrongheaded ideas like the Security Wall. Still, when discussing these things with some people, I often feel like I’m lumped in with the those same ideologues who write angry letters to the editor complaining that anything describing the suffering of Palestinians amounts to anti-Isreali bias, or worse yet, anti-Semitism.

My position of late has been such: That the international community has every right, and in fact a duty, to suspend aid to the Hamas-led Authority. This is based solely on Hamas’ willful decision to continue to deny Isreal’s right to exist, and to not denounce violence. As far as I’m concerned, the fact that they were democratically elected, that they offer much-needed social support to their people, and that they represent a position that can be cogently argued, is irrelevant. They are now an international player, and if they don’t want to play by the rules that exist independently of them, then too bad. Foreign Aid money is not a right. The entire system of international relations is not going to be re-jigged just for them, even though it probably needs jiggering anyway. (For the record, jiggering is what I have to do to my toilet handle to make it stop draining water after flushing it. Many people who have visited here or Beechwood Palace know that very well.)

In 2007, I don’t think that the legitimacy of Isreal as a nation-state is up for discussion anymore. Maybe 50 years ago you could discuss it (though not likely). It is there, fitted snugly into a region that absolutely loves it, and everyone might as well get used to it, right or wrong. There will be no mass-exodus to Florida anytime soon, and I think it’s purposely divisive and aggravating to make the denial of the Isreali state a central tenet in your government’s new set of policies. I’m no political scientist, let alone an expert in international relations, but it would seem to me Hamas would have a lot easier time if they decided to start playing by the rules, even if they don’t like them.

I don’t see how this is a particularly radical position, and I don’t understand how some people can still act like the international community’s refusal to support Hamas is a great injustice, or particularly bad policy. Sure, you might not like the way it works, or that there is massive inequality in the power to decide what flies in the realm of international relations, but I’m still waiting to hear an explanation of how having no money, and no legitimacy is better than acknowledging your neighbour and trying to work something out peacefully.

Just what I needed, right? Fuel for my self-righteous fire. I already know that I’m smarter than you and your friends, as evidenced by me dropping out of a PhD program (it wasn’t too hard, duh! It was just irrelevant for a brain so bursting at the, uh, seams, or whatever is akin to a seam on your skull). I also know I’m much more beautiful than you, and I got rid of that way-too-hot chinstrap in order to cool off the ladies that have to be around me (I tried to find a picture to prove this, but Megan has burned all those pictures of me with a chinstrap for some reason…maybe because it always made her hot and bothered…). In order to add to all the things going for me right now (I’ve CHOSEN unemployment, as boring as it is, so don’t even say anything, you haters), I’m also amazingly RIGHT!

That’s correct, I needed a little righteousness added to my diet of home-made espressos and gummy-worms, and I got it this past week with a letter from the University Secretariat stating that *I* indeed did NOT harass or discriminate against anyone in my previous role as an executive at the grad student association.

For those of you who are unaquainted with my epic struggles, the brief version is that a certain President of the organization accused me of harrassment and discrimination on racial, religious, an ethnic grounds a few months back. Why, you might ask? No, it’s not because I actually said or did anything, even though some of you doubters must be thinking that right now (especially Sherry), it’s because I called the guy out on being an incredibly poor manager, and asked him to resign. Apparently, however, it’s fashionable these days to play the race card without even bothering to make up a good backstory. In fact, this insulted me a little bit, since it’s a tiny bit harder to act indignantly when some nutcase just accuses you of doing nothing, but then submits it as proof of doing something. I could have gotten a whole lot madder if he accused me of making racial slur, or at least tried to take something I said out of context. Instead he just decided to insist on taking me to a formal trubunal in order to bully and intimidate me.

To the fucked up thoughts could have been going through his head, I can only speculate, but I did have quite a bit of difficulty responding to his formal complaint which mainly revolved around how me asking him to resign made him feel bad. No I’m serious. Like not even “he stated me and others that share my religion are [insert slur here].” No, his case regarding racial harrassment and discrimination revolved around how my incredibly professional email (it’s as if I knew this was going to happen) to him, asking him to resign, made him feel bad. And how that was probably because I was racist.

Well, without dwelling too long on the process (however his attempt to postpone the tribunal by coming into the room with a SARS mask was hilarious), the tribunal took almost no time to dismiss the complaint, and also impose sanctions on him for bringing forward a false and vexatious claim. I will frame that apology letter, and post it here as soon as possible.

Some of you may find my revelling in this situation a little distasteful, but to you, I say: Go blow it out your ass. For almost three months I was guilty until proven innocent, and as this jackass went around accusing me and everyone who opposed him of racism, even bringing lawyers into it; I could do nothing except wait for the tribunal to convene and get back to me. Since Universities obviously run at the speed of light, this only meant weeks of the people I work for (student representatives) acting as though I couldn’t be trusted, and eventually led to me resigning in December because I couldn’t get anything done, and because all those holier-than-thou student reps didn’t want to DO anything because it wasn’t their place to make “decisions” or anything representative like that.

So to add to my sense of righteousness, the tribunal also agreed with me and stated that those powers-that-be involved here really fucked up. The Human Rights officer who’s job it is to act as a gatekeeper for complaints let things get to the formal stage without even having me involved in the process, and without worrying about the impact it would have on me. He even went as far as to tell the tribunal that even though he had the power to dismiss an evidence-less complaint outright, he would never exercise this right because “everyone is entitled to their day in court.” Yeah, that’s exactly what I wanted:. I wanted to formally show what was painfully obvious to everyone allowed to read the complaint: That there was nothing in it that could be considered racial harassment/discriminiation, even by someone with the most active imagination.

So now that I once again can act like a jackass without people thinking I’m a racist, I intend on attending the membership meeting where students are set to recall the crazy bastard. It’ll be sweet.

On the “things that aren’t sweet” front, Splash is still bleeding and will have to go in to get spayed tomorrow in order to determine what the hell is wrong with her. We’re all crossing out fingers that this will solve whatever problem she has, because we can’t really afford the procedure, let alone anything more extensive than that. I also can’t afford the energy audit necessary to take advantage of the Conservatives’ new EcoGreenLoadOfShit plan to give grants to those of us wanting to increase their home’s energy efficiency, but no one seems to be thinking of that either. I wonder if Righteousness can be translated into cash somehow…like maybe now I crap gold or something. I’ll have to go check and get back to you on that one.