Author: Abdullah Alhomoud

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Worth a thousand words

While he is a corporate photographer by trade, William Jans’ photography shows are a far cry from the business world. A performer as well as a photographer, Jans documents his travels through Africa, South America and South-East Asia, by combining still photographs with videos, storytelling, music and tactile elements (at one of his shows, he brought giraffe excrement for the audience to touch).

The Vancouver-based Jans began sharing his travel experiences since he began travelling as a child. In 1989, he put together his first show, performing it for his friends. They found it funny and encouraged him to do it again. Since then he has performed for thousands of people, across the country.

Jans tries to reach out to the people he meets on his journeys. “I don’t stand back and watch things happen,” he said. “I kind of try to get in there and participate.” He said many of the people have been very welcoming. “The people that I’m getting to meet seem to have just as much fun by some mzungu, which is the Swahili word for “whitey’, trying to fit in.”

He said that one of the tribes he stayed with in Tanzania enjoyed his company so much that they sacrificed a goat in his honour. “I was offered the honour of being able to eat some of the spinal cord, which is what the elders get to eat,” he said. “And I gotta tell you, Cheerios are much, much better.”

Despite the language barrier Jans said he still tries to be outgoing. “I don’t find it hard to get along with people at all, I find it really wonderful and quite easy. Sometimes it’s quite hard to understand each other, but it’s all very friendly and smiley.”

As he learned some of the local language, he realized that some of the locals were making fun of his baldness.
“Because I was learning more of the language, I would sometimes stop and say, in Swahili, “No, no, I’m not just bald, I’m bold and handsome!’ And they would laugh and I get to make new friends.”

But there’s also been danger in Jans’ adventurous travels. During his time in the Amazon, he shot a video while swimming with anacondas, electric eels and sting rays. He was also robbed while in South America, which also ended up on film and is now part of his show.

Coming to Montreal: Tales from Tanzania, Oct. 14 and Solo in South America, Oct. 21
For more information, visit William Jans’ web site at www.wrjphoto.com.

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Arts

Down to the very last drop

Dealing with one of the most crucial issues of our time, Blue Gold: World Water Wars is a hard-hitting documentary, discussing the human overexploitation of water.

Based on a book of the same title, Blue Gold won the Environmental Film Audience Award at the Vancouver International Film Festival and will be screened by Concordia University’s Cinema Politica next week.

Blue Gold begins with an introduction illustrating, in nerve-racking detail, the physiological effects of having to survive without water. Grabbing the viewers’ attention right off the bat, it demonstrates the slow and painful death caused by thirst.

Through shocking facts, the documentary manages to tell a very dark story that is nonetheless very real. It is also a story very close to home, according to the film Canada has commodified its water resources through free trade agreements. Canada has also expressed opposition to a “right” to water.

Blue Gold shows developing countries forced to sell their water resources as a condition for receiving aid, it is a story of the powerful bullying the vulnerable. Shots of poor, naked children thirsting for water remind the viewer that innocent people struggling to survive.

However, the film depends mostly on statistics to purvey its message. Beyond a few attention-grabbing shots, it lacks the sound and visual effects that would appeal to the viewers’ emotions and thus keep their attention. This undermines the importance of the issue at hand.

Nonetheless, the words of the experts interviewed make the urgency of the crisis clear. Among them is Maude Barlow, National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians.

The crisis, after all, does not only affect developing countries. Even communities in countries such as the United States have been struggling to fight against the commercialization of water.

Blue Gold also succeeds in reminding us that there is a positive side to the story. It shows us that there is, in fact, a way to reverse the damage done, as seen by historical examples. By regulating water usage, protesting corporate takeover, and legislating water as a right not to be privatized, this continued crisis could be ended.

The making of this documentary is well-timed, and well worth a watch. Just remember, if your attention span does not last the entirety of the film, that the issue it deals with affects us all.

Blue Gold plays at 7:30 p.m on Oct. 5 in H-110. Entrance is free, but donations are recommended.

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Opinions

A Just Cause

By choosing to highlight the city of Tel Aviv, the Toronto International Film Festival is demonstrating their ignorance to the suffering of the Palestinian people.

Whether intentionally or not, TIFF is downplaying the crimes being committed by Israel, portraying it as a multicultural, democratic country, and shoving that skewed point of view down the Canadian public’s throat.

In protest to this decision, a group of over 1,000 writers, producers and directors – including Israelis and Palestinians – have signed the Toronto Declaration, an open letter addressed to the organizers at TIFF.

This protest is completely justified, these Israeli films have no place at TIFF.

Tel Aviv, the city portrayed in the films, is not a haven of diversity, as the Israeli government claims. The Israeli state treats Arab Israelis as second-class citizens. Its treatment of Palestinians, whether defined as an “apartheid” or not, are nevertheless horrendous. To promote this city in an international film festival is to disregard these truths.

The timing of the Tel Aviv feature is also suspect. The Israeli government has of late been engaged in a Brand Israel campaign, through which they hope to change people’s views on the Jewish state. TIFF’s decision to feature films from Israel in the midst of a propaganda campaign is questionable.

In Canada, we have a history of keeping a safe distance between the government and culture.

When the Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences proposed the creation of the Canada Council for the Arts, in 1951, the commission made it clear that the Canada Council has to be accountable to the parliament, not the government of the day. This is because they recognized “the dangers inherent in any system of subvention by the central government to the arts and letters.”

This is the direction the Canadian government has been taking ever since it started funding the arts. Maintaining a clear distinction between art sponsorship and government propaganda is central to the Canadian character. The very idea that the Israeli government could be trying to infiltrate Canadian culture with centrally planned propaganda is the antithesis of democracy.

I do believe that Israel can be a force of good in the Middle East – its secularism and individual freedom can be seen as an example for other countries in the region, and I do believe that Israel has the potential to be a truly equal and democratic state – but that does not mean we should turn a blind eye on the current situation there. While Israel may not be the devil incarnate, as many anti-Zionists like to portray it, its crimes should not be ignored or downplayed.

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Arts

Unfinished Art

What Happens When Nothing Happens, currently on display at Concordia’s Faculty of Fine Arts Gallery, is a different kind of art show. Instead of showcasing finished works of art, it focuses on the creative process, showcasing works in progress, doodles and to-do lists.

Organized by Independant Study Group, it is a gallery like no other.

Although many of the objects, sketchbooks, notebooks and videos on display will probably never become a final project, they are all reminders of the long and winding creative process.

Much of the unfinished art on display only makes sense to the artist who created it, because the pieces are in such infantile stages. Some art was so obscure that artists held a conference to explain their creative process on Sept. 12.

Chantal Durand, a Concordia Masters of Fine Arts graduate, whose unfinished work appears in the show, said she has a weird relationship with her notebook. While her final pieces usually end up very different from her initial ideas, she said scribbles in a notebook are a crucial element. A simple doodle could be “a first step for [the work] to become real,” she added.

When commencing a project, Durand said she always chooses the materials before deciding on anything else. The materials she uses are not commonly used in art. Therefore, she must experiment and invent new ways to use them before coming up with a vision for her project .

Durand believes that we mistreat our bodies and likes to imagine that they are entities separate from ourselves.
“I like to think of the body as a stranger with whom we’re forced to live with,” she said. How different it would be, she wonders, “if we were wearing our internal organs outside, on our bodies.”

Another artist whose work is on display is Taein Ng-Chan, a Master of Fine Arts student in Film Production. Chan said she wondered about people she saw repeatedly on the bus and metro. This inspired her to shoot a video of a metro ride, that is purposely blurred to reflect the mysterious lives of public transport commuters.

The short film, entitled Metro, questions how and where people arrive. “It’s so blurry that it’s abstract,” she said, which leaves a lot to the imagination.

Metro, however, was originally a play recorded for radio before Chan made it into a film. Even the focus of the film changed; she originally intended to tell the story of a stranger’s life but ended up with an abstract vision of a metro ride. This goes to show that a final work of art does not always tell the whole story.

The works of these artists, and many more, will be on display at the Concordia’s FOFA Gallery (EV-1.715) until Oct. 2.

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Opinions

The Paranoia Pandemic

Reaction to the H1N1 virus has been blown out of proportion.

If you found yourself in an airport over the summer, you may have seen an infrared camera being used to scan body temperatures of passengers.

You might have also seen signs informing passersby about ways to prevent the spread of this virus – including such advice as “don’t hug or shake hands.” Maybe you even saw people in line at the boarding gate wearing face-masks. Sure, some of these people may have been erring on the side of caution, but the majority are a tad too paranoid about the spread of the H1N1 virus.

Let’s get things straight. The seasonal flu kills tens of thousands of people in an average year, yet it is never called a pandemic. And there’s a good reason. Maybe we need a reminder of what a pandemic is. It is a global outbreak of a disease. A pandemic does not translate into hundreds of thousands of deaths. In fact, at the beginning of the outbreak, the World Health Organization said it was of moderate severity.

However, in May WHO declared that swine flu had reached pandemic status. This was followed by alarming media coverage, despite the fact that that less than 3,000 people have died of H1N1 in the last six months.

To compare, the last pandemic flu, which occurred in 1968, killed approximately 700,000 people worldwide. Even though the pandemic lasted for two years, deaths peaked about three months after the outbreak.

Many media outlets magnified WHO’s declaration by not covering the flu fairly. For example, some major media outlets broadcasted messages like, “The H1N1 virus has spread rapidly across the globe, and could mutate into a more virulent form.” Hearing news like this makes people become hysteric. It’s no wonder some schools replaced handshakes with head nods at graduation ceremonies last year.

It is perfectly normal for a virus to mutate and infect more people – yet that is hardly ever mentioned in the news. It would seem absurd for a person to refuse a handshake during a normal flu season.

There should be more articles about how most H1N1 cases to date have been mild and treatable, and the global number of deaths is a small fraction of the total number of people infected, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the U.S.

Six months ago, it might have looked like H1N1 was going to kill a great many people, but that did not happen. Sure, the world needs to prepare for the possibility of a strain of flu that could kill hundreds of thousands of people like in 1968, but let’s not jump the gun.

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Opinions

The Misunderestimated Revolution

Just a couple of weeks ago, the people of Cuba went to the ballots to elect their representatives. Paradoxically, Bush urged Cubans not to vote for the Communist “dictator”. This made me wonder, ‘How much say do Cubans have in deciding who rules them, and how much of a “dictatorship” is Cuba?”

Cuba has a unique political model that cannot be compared to any other country’s. At the local level, Cubans meet in neighbourhood councils to discuss local issues. Every couple of years, these councils elect candidates for the municipal assemblies. Those candidates, however, are not nominated by anyone else other than the voters themselves. No campaigns take place and only a single-page biography is printed for each candidate. Voters, however, generally know their candidates, because each neighbourhood council has about 1,000 to 1,500 voters, and the participation level averages at about 90 per cent.

Candidates need at least 50 per cent to enter the municipal assemblies, which then elect candidates for the provincial assemblies. The provincial assemblies also elect a number of candidates for the National Assembly, who require the ratification of the general electorate, and take up half the seats in the Assembly. Other seats are assigned for members elected by mass organizations such as trade unions, women’s and students’ organizations.

The National Assembly elects the President of the Council of State, generally known as the President, who then creates the Council of State, which is, more or less, the cabinet.

What role does the Communist Party play in the elections? Nothing. The party does not nominate any candidates, nor does it officially endorse any. This means that even though, for example, the Liberal Party is illegal, a person with Liberal politics can still run in the elections. In fact, while walking the streets of Havana, or any place in Cuba, one might be able to hear people talking freely about their country’s politics, and even criticizing their government.

The idea that Cuba arrests dissidents is the product of U.S. policies and its ongoing war against the country’s Communist regime. To cite an anecdote, back in 2003, Cuba arrested 75 “independent journalists” whom Amnesty International called “prisoners of conscience.” The fact of the matter is, as Philp Agee, a former CIA agent said “every one of the 75 arrested and convicted was knowingly a participant in US government operations to overthrow the government and install a different, US-favoured, political, economic and social order. They were not convicted for ideas but for paid actions on behalf of a foreign power.”

Cuba, like every other country, has laws against agents of foreign governments who try to overthrow its government. These have nothing to do with freedom of speech, but rather, are in order to protect the country’s sovereignty from foreign enemies. The CIA pays journalists to publish its works as if it were their own, not to mention the fact that Cuba is the target of several American acts, such as the Helms-Burton Act, and dozens of US-funded organizations aimed at overthrowing the island’s government, such as Center For A Free Cuba and Accion Democratica Cubana.

As Fidel Castro said in a recent interview, “Down through history, in all times, actions by people who put themselves at the service of a foreign power against their own nation have always been seen as extremely serious.”

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News

Montrealers march for war-torn Northern Uganda

Leaving from McGill University’s gates, hundreds of people participated in Saturday’s Gulu Walk, an event to raise awareness about the war in northern Uganda.

Conflict between the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni resulted in the forced displacement of 1.3 million people into Internally Displaced Person’s (IDP) camps and the abduction of approximately 20,000 children and adolescents forced to kill their own family and friends.

The Gulu Walk, started in 2005 by two Canadians, Adrian Bradbury and Kieran Hayward, attempts to replicate the suffering of Uganda’s night commuters. Whitney McInnis, one of the organizers of the march, described the commuters as “roughly 45,000 [children] a night [who] marched to flee their homes from fear of being abducted by rebel militants.”

“If [the children were] abducted, they [were] forced into child soldiery and child prostitution,” she concluded.

The region today is experiencing relative peace, since Joseph Kony, leader of the LRA, is thought to have gone into exile somewhere in southern Sudan or the Central African Republic.

Kony is wanted by the International Criminal Court on 12 accounts of crimes against humanity and 21 accounts of war crimes.

The charges include murder, enslavement, inducing rape, forced enlistment of children, and intentionally directing an attack against a civilian.

Sylvia Adams, who came out to Saturday’s march, said her son had recently been in Uganda and came back “very interested in coming out to sponsor the Gulu Walk. He saw the conditions in Uganda and realized that they have so little and we have so much, and he just wants to be able to help in any way he can,” she said, “and I’m here to support him.”

Speaking about his experience in northern Uganda, Geoffrey Adams, Sylvia’s son, said, “we visited a lot of the projects in northern Uganda relative to the many issues there, like HIV/AIDS, child soldiers, and night commuters.” He was a member of the Canadian Physicians for Aid and Relief (CPAR), an organization which works in Northern Uganda and helped sponsor the Gulu Walk.

Meddie Katongole, a native of Uganda, also participated in the march. “I know people [who] live there who have gone through the suffering in the north,” Meddie said, saying the walk was more of a personal journey.

According to Jan Egeland, former United Nations Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, the crisis in northern Uganda has not received its fair share of media coverage and remains the “the world’s most neglected humanitarian crisis.”

“No one really knows about it,” said Whitney McInnis, “the media are focused on so many other plights around the world, and this is a forgotten cause … We hope that people learn [more] and pressure their local members of Parliament to raise awareness about it.”

The march, however, seems to have made some people optimistic.

“This is just the beginning. I don’t necessarily think that the reaction [has] been what it could be, and these are the first steps,” said Kirk Newcombe. “At the end of the day, you’re going to have to see some serious political steps in order to change anything,” he said.

Today, the Gulu Walk is a world wide event. “It’s a global awareness march so that people can stand in solidarity with the children of Uganda,” said Sarah Mostafa-Kemal, one of the many participants of the event.

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News

Animal rights activists protest selling of foie gras at IGA

Animal rights activists protested in front of an IGA on Rene Levesque Boulevard and St. Urbain on Wednesday, Oct. 6, condemning the sale of foie gras at the supermarket chain.

The protest was organized by the Concordia Animal Rights Association (CARA).

Lucas Solowey, Co-President of CARA said the production of foie gras is very cruel, “and often times the [birds] will vomit up blood.”

“They have a responsibility to stop selling such a cruel product, and if they don’t stop selling it, they have to be held accountable,” he added.

Foie gras, which is French for “fatty liver”, is made by force-feeding ducks and geese through metal pipes until their livers expand by six to ten times their natural size. It is a popular delicacy in Quebec, with more than 8,000 ducks processed each week.

The protest marked the beginning of CARA’s campaign against foie gras. Solowey told The Concordian the aim is to run a successful boycott campaign, and get a majority of restaurants and grocery stores to stop selling it. He also said that they hope to make foie gras illegal in Canada. “It’s currently illegal in fourteen other nations,” he added.

Standing in front of the store, protestors chanted slogans such as, “Force-fed till dead! Boycott IGA now!” and “Foie gras sucks! Save baby ducks!” Some protestors also held pictures of ducks vomiting. Others handed out pamphlets. One protestor was wearing a duck costume.

The protest attracted the attention of many passerbys, some of whom showed support. One pedestrian, on the other hand, deliberately appeared unsympathetic and held up what looked like a canned piece of foie gras in the air.

During the year, a Global Action Network undercover agent infiltrated three of North America’s largest foie gras producers, all in Quebec: Élevages Périgord, Palmex, and Aux Champs d’Elisée. He recorded video footage and kept a diary of the animal abuse caused by employees in those facilities.

“Every time we go undercover we see [employees] violating the law: kicking, punching, and decapitating ducks while they’re fully conscious,” said Solowey.

“With that video footage, we filed criminal charges against all of the individuals seen, and the Quebec police are currently investigating [into the case of] Aux Champs d’Elisée,” he added.

Speaking about whether CARA would be satisfied with just dealing with the charges against the employees, Solowey said, “Since there are lives at stake, any step in the right direction; any improvements in [the well-being of the birds] is a step forward.” Then he went on to add, “But it’s not enough… we’re really pushing for an ultimate ban.”

Some of the countries that have banned foie gras include Switzerland, Israel, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Germany. Some places in the United States, such as Chicago, have also followed.

The campaign against foie gras is CARA’s main project this year, but its members are working on many other campaigns, including ones pertaining to animal testing, fur production, seal hunting, and circus animals.

CARA has had many successes in the past, including pressuring Jacob and Bedo, two clothing companies, to stop selling fur. It also played a role in preventing a bullfight from taking place in the Olympic Stadium, and in banning circuses in the city of Ville St. Laurent.

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News

Montreal joins worldwide protest

Protestors marched in downtown Montreal on Oct. 6 to show their support for the “pro-democracy” demonstrations in Burma and to condemn the violent crackdown against the peaceful participants. The march was coordinated to be part of the Global Day of Action for Burma.

Speaking about the objectives of the march, Andree Sophia, one of the organizers, said, “One of the important [aims is to let] the military know that we support the Burmese protestors; the monks and the people living there, in their quest for democracy. We also want to inform the population here on what’s going on over there.”

Kathleen Hadekel, a member of McGill’s Burma Solidarity Collective, also said, “We’re here first to show our solidarity and support for the men and women in Burma who are standing up for democracy… We’re also here to denounce the violent crackdown by the Burmese government, and to call for the release of all political prisoners in Burma.”

Burma, which was renamed Myanmar in 1989 by its ruling junta, has been, and still is, going through a period of political instability. Thousands of people, led by Buddhist monks, have been protesting against their military regime for almost two months. The protests were triggered when the State Peace and Development Council, the ruling junta, decided to remove fuel subsidies, in accordance with recommendations by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. This caused an increase of 500 per cent of gas and 100 per cent of diesel prices.

The protests, however, go far deeper than that. The military regime in Burma has killed journalists, demonstrators, and refused to step down when Aung San Suu Kyi, an opposition leader, was elected as Prime Minister in 1990. The junta also put Suu Kyi under house arrest.

The participants in the Montreal march gathered in front of McGill University’s Roddick Gates. They silently marched on Sherbrooke St., then turned towards Guy St., stopping next to the Guy-Concordia metro station.

Between Guy and Maisonneuve, grabbing the attention of many passerbys, the protestors chanted slogans like “Human rights in Burma now!” and “Allow peaceful protest!”

Several protestors were holding eye-catching signs of the silhouette of a monk spray-painted on pieces of paper.
After asking her why she was holding one, Daryl Ross, the Concordia University Chaplain, replied, “Because it’s bringing to mind the monks, it reminds me of… shadow people that you see in Hiroshima… Not that there’s been a Hiroshima, but a lot of monks have disappeared, and a lot of monks have been tortured… imprisoned… killed. So this, for me, is just a silent way of bearing witness to that.”

After chanting near Concordia University’s downtown campus, the protestors continued their march. Some organizations, such as the Montréal-Burma Solidaire, a coalition formed to mobilize support for the protests in Burma, handed out flyers to pedestrians to inform them about the political situation in Burma.

The participants stopped at Dorchester Square, and to the applause of the protestors, some people spoke outagainst the Burmese military regime and in support of the opposition.

Speaking for the Montréal-Burma Solidaire, Jesse Gutman said, “Though the numbers are not precise, we know there have been more than a hundred killed, many many more incarcerated, put in jail. And it’s essential that we, as citizens of the world, really stand in unity with those who are fighting for basic human rights.”

Gutman also reiterated the call for “the release of all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi.”

Hadekel also read an e-mail message she received from a Burmese activist: “I saw a [police] captain open fire straight ahead [towards] the people, but no one was harmed. I think he fired blank shells; if not, people would die. The military were preparing their defense and got ready to spray the people with tear bombs and real bullets. After half an hour, some other soldiers were reinforced to combat the demonstrators… Whatever the military tried to do to the people, the people were never afraid of them. I almost cried to see the event yesterday.”

The last paragraph of the message read, “I will mail you whatever happened today if I can, for nothing is sure here, and I don’t know what will happen to me as well.”

The message is dated Sept. 27, and Hadekel has not heard from her Burmese friend after that.

The Burmese government recently cut off methods of communication, such as mobile phones and the Internet, preventing the opposition from being able to tell the world about the atrocities the military is committing.

After the speeches, the protestors had a moment of silence, and then, led by Concordia’s Chaplain, read out the ‘Karaniya Metta Sutta’, the Buddha’s words on loving-kindness.

They numbered from 100 to 150 marchers.

On the same day, thousands of people around the world also took to the streets in support of the Burmese dissidents. Protests were witnessed in Toronto, Vancouver, London, Dublin, Seoul, amongst other cities.

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News

International Day of Peace fosters hope for a better future

On Friday, Montreal commemorated the International Day of Peace on the Place des Arts Esplanade. Around two hundred people and a number of organizations attended the Pacifest, which was organized by the Circle of Peace of Montreal.

The organizations present were varied, but they all had one goal in common: peace and co-existence.

One of the organizations that had a stall on the esplanade was the World Conference of Religions for Peace-an international, inter-faith coalition promoting religious harmony.

“By ourselves, we cannot do very much. But we have a gathering of different peace groups in Montreal… [And by participating in] an event like this that is public, we are getting to be more known,” said Marguerite Zeitouni, member and former president of the WRCP, explaining why her organization attended the event.

Describing the role the WRCP plays towards establishing world peace, she said that it has members from many religions. “So we gather together, we eat together, we speak together.” She then added, “When we know each other better, it’s a little step towards more understanding.”

Several organizations specifically targeted the younger generations. These included the Pacific Path Institute and Leave Out ViolencE (LOVE).

“We train [the youth] to be leaders in the movement of non-violence,” said Olivier, director of special projects of LOVE. “We work with victims, witnesses, and perpetrators of violence. We bring them together and [get them to use] photojournalism as a means to express themselves and express issues around violence.”

“I don’t think we should ever just stand by and accept violence around us,” he added. “I think we should all make a conscious effort… I think there is hope, and I do believe that conflict resolution and violence prevention is something that we all can do.”

Remarking on the popular belief that youth are too idealistic, he said, “I don’t think it’s idealistic to think that we can live in a world with a lot less violence.”

Benoit Tremblay, CEO of the Pacific Path Institute, also said that the belief that war is inevitable “is a social mindset. And what we’re trying to do is… start earlier with kids to help them help us imagine another world.”

An eccentric presence was also made by a man whose sign read, “Free hugs: The way of the peaceful warrior.”
Martin Neufeld claimed that he has “been offering hugs full-time since 2004!”

After asking him if he believes that hugs would someday stop violence, he said, “World peace begins with inner peace-of each individual… If you find peace within yourself, then you will be more peaceful to those around you.” He added, “You cannot change the whole world; you can only change your world… You bring peace to your world, and I bring peace to mine, and we’ve got that little piece of the puzzle that’s a little more peaceful.”

Later during the day, in the Berri-UQAM metro station, the STM unveiled its Wall of Peace, an artwork with the word “peace” written in 34 languages spoken by residents of Montreal.

The International Day of Peace was created by the United Nations in 1981 with the aim of celebrating and teaching about peace. It is also meant to be a day of worldwide cease-fire.

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