My writing/creative energies are being consumed these days with a report for work. For some reason, the writing process is not flowing as it should, and usually does, hence this link today. In any case, please check out this story, which is a stellar piece of journalism and an instructive report on why skilled immigrants are having trouble living and working in Canada. I experienced a bit of this myself when I was trying to live and work in the States. No matter where you are, it is always a bureaucratic nightmare, some countries are just easier than others, I guess. But it never feels quite right to be regarded as a number or a file waiting to work its way to some person who may or may not approve your request. Have a wonderful day!

Last December, a few of us went to the downtown area for a Day of Care, a daylong affair intended to provide services and fulfill the needs of the homeless population. It was a successful day in that this population received some clothes, hygiene items, food and medical care. I took so many pictures, but this one has stuck with me ever since. An old man was holding a Bible (or it could be a daily devotional, I’m not sure) and not much else. It was worn and falling apart. I managed to capture it closely enough to read some of the words: The page was titled: “Where do I start?” and quoted a Psalm: “And in my distress I cried to the Lord and He heard me.” Whatever you believe, distress and a subsequent cry for help to something larger than ourselves is a universal sentiment. We are all in this journey together, no matter where you come from and where you end up. Enjoy your day.

Since last week’s terrorist attack in Boston, I have been thinking a lot about race, its presentation in the media and the reaction of those in possession of white privilege to it. Actually, I think about this topic constantly, but events such as this magnify the issue. This is a good article about how people from various groups reacted. Basically, for the moments prior to the identification of the suspects, everyone who is not considered “white” was afraid. They were anticipating the potential backlash from society once the suspects were identified. The Czech government even went so far as to issue a statement that it has nothing to do with the Chechen region after people started blaming Czechoslovakia.

It is inevitable that in the moments after such an event, commentary ranges from idiotic to cautious to brilliant. Canada Sun chain columnist John Robson wrote that the root cause of terrorism is terrorists. Can’t really argue with that, can you? I guess we can all go home now and quit trying to understand why things happen and whether or not we can ever prevent them.

For me, the brilliant commentary comes from those who urge restraint in identifying a cause. After all, can we really ever fully enter the mind of young men who decide it is a good decision to kill and maim hundreds of people?

Canadian Liberal leader Justin Trudeau even found himself immersed in the controversy after he commented that it is important to find the “root causes” of terrorism. The Globe and Mail’s reaction was decidedly negative.

I would argue that if a leader of a nation had no interest in investigating the causes of major, deadly events, this would be a major concern about his or her ability to think through the very challenging role of running a nation.

The next day, however, Trudeau’s approach was mirrored by the media, which was awash with reporters investigating the terrorists’ background. World leaders also reflected this approach. Even US president Barack Obama stated it is essential to discover the root causes of terrorism. And Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper’s administration is already hard at work on investigating the causes of terrorism with the establishment of the Kanishka Project, a five-year, $10 million program to “invest in research on pressing questions for Canada on terrorism and counter-terrorism.” (Source).

The scholarship on the root causes of terrorism attacks this issue from many angles: psychological, historical, political, sociological and a whole range of a blend of these disciplines. But the bottom line is that human beings are unpredictable creatures and while we can prevent some of these horrific attacks from happening, we cannot foresee everything.

It is also clear that blaming an entire group is illogical. I am convinced that the attitude towards Muslims, “brown” people, or people from the Middle East in fifty years will be equated with the McCarthyism era. During this period, anyone who was suspected of subscribing to communism was questioned and was rendered an outcast. This included anyone from Hollywood celebrities to innocent government workers. Sound familiar? For a contemporary example, witness “no-fly” lists.

In the aftermath of such an event, it is natural to want to classify and file information in order to make sense of it. This professor explains it well, taken from a Washington Post article: “The brothers “don’t neatly fit into pre-existing boxes,” says Peter Spiro, an international law professor at Temple University. “It is a very complex picture,” challenging the psychological need to “set the boundaries of the in-group and treat others differently.””

The dangerous period is now, when information is scarce, people are afraid and seeking certainty. They are operating on adrenaline, ready to react and blame. Hopefully, the confusion and debris will be cleared away enough such than no more people are harmed.

So seems to be the message from Mr. Ruel Reid, principal of Jamaica College. That’s a pretty controversial view, of course. Is there some merit to it?

Here are some of his comments from the Jamaica Gleaner story:

“We have been talking about basic values and attitudes for such a long time and we have not been doing anything. Our politicians are afraid to stand up and say you can’t have children if you can’t afford it,” Reid declared.

“We are at the same place that we were in 1967 and, if people are continuously in poverty, their focus is not going to be on education and the data supports it, because even after we do ASTEP (Alternative Secondary Transitional Education Programme), we still have 10-14 per cent of kids who have serious cognitive deficiencies as a result of those socio-economic issues.”

 

Mr. Reid is making some problematic assumptions. First of all, what does he mean by “poor?” Second, he is conflating poverty as a state of mind with a lack of interest in educating oneself. Third, he is attacking “poor” people and unfairly characterizing them as irresponsible. Fourth, what about the rest of society? Why do government, citizens and civil society groups have no culpability in the situation? After all, Jamaica is a community, a society of people trying to improve themselves. (As a caveat, I must say that we do not have access to the entirety of his speech, so it could be just the way that the reporter portrayed the speech that creates such a negative impression).

There is no shortage of statistical studies that indicate a correlation between poverty and low education levels. But the “poor” are all too often marginalized further in the media as being lazy, uninterested in self-improvement or education and clueless. Therefore, Mr. Reid appears to believe, it is up to government to provide policies that steer them in the right direction.

“We have a very socially dysfunctional society and we are not going to get very far if the policymakers don’t wake up and decide to change our course of direction,” Reid declared.

This attitude is part of the problem as it creates an unhelpful dichotomy between the “poor” and everyone else, and in the process, all are robbed of a sense of agency.

Last night, we attended a talent show put on by the Mountain View Youth Club. This is one of the communities YOU  has worked in, and I was invited to watch the show. It was such a wonderful display of talents of all kinds: singing, dancing, modelling, acting and deejaying. It seems most of the young people from this community turned out to see the show, which got going about 7pm. We then headed over to RedBones to watch the beautiful and very pregnant Tami Chynn perform. A great night overall, from one extreme of Jamaica to the other.

This post is mainly specific to Canada. However, it does have some broader implications in terms of the role media plays in polarizing national politics. A few years ago, Sun TV launched in Canada. People were alarmed and concerned that its introduction would essentially mean the creation of a Fox News North. As far as I can tell, this has not happened. Sun TV’s viewership is fractional in comparison with its national counterparts. And while its anchors and reporters are definitely providing content with a specific bent, it is not having the feared effect everyone predicted. Not being in Canada, it is hard for me to tell just how Sun TV is perceived.

Read the piece I wrote on this subject a couple of years back and judge for yourself. It contains some interesting commentary on how political polarization is often a myth and how we are all really a lot more alike than we think.

Last night, the running group I run with went out to the Palisadoes to run a 10k. It is a sidewalk on the way out to the airport, overlooking Kingston and the harbourfront. It was beautiful to see the lights of the city, the mountains and the water. And we had a warm breeze (the heat of the summer has definitely returned) to push us along. Our group ran in solidarity with a movement of runners worldwide who are supporting people affected by the bombings in Boston. A member of the group printed out race bibs, as you can see in the picture. It is wonderful to see this global support rising. Have a great day!

As much as you can fall in love with a city, I did so with Boston. During the two-plus years I lived there, it stole my heart. This city is a place full of promise, what with so many universities, so much youth, museums, music, research institutions, think tanks and a myriad of folks living their lives in very different ways. Yet even with such diversity, several things unite the city’s residents, like the ridiculous weather, confusing streets that confound all but the most experienced cab drivers, and the Boston Marathon.

The annual event has taken place in April, on Patriot’s Day since 1897. It attracts half a million people, including 27,000 runners. To accommodate this influx of visitors (and celebrate Patriot’s Day), the city shuts down. Most offices and schools close. Most everybody ventures out, at least for a short while, to cheer on those who are trying to make a dream come true. It is a special, joyful day. Ok, it’s also a chance for college students to get drunk and unleash some pre-exam stress. But even that has its charms.

For two years in a row, I stood alongside those drunken college students and cheered the runners on. I got goosebumps, teared up a little and vowed to continue to pursue my own dreams. I saw the lean, lithe, little Ethiopians and Kenyans at the head of the pack, the stragglers walking at the back, and everyone in between. How many stories there must be, I thought as I watched those bits of humanity pass by with all different gaits and gear.

Like everyone else, the bombings hit me hard yesterday. When I lived there, I ran those streets every week. I walked around that area frequently. I can still see those deep, russet-coloured cobblestoned making up the sidewalks. It is a beautiful, vibrant part of the downtown area. Hotels, shopping, office buildings and stately hotels are all in the vicinity. Tourists meander through the history-laden streets and suited people make their way to work. These scenes are accompanied by the screeching of the T (the underground subway) and the hard Boston accent. In winter, the smell the snow and hot dogs from the street vendors permeate the air. And the runners. That’s another thing about Boston: there is always someone running, any time of the day, at all hours, anywhere in the city.

The nature of such an attack is that it terrorizes free of discrimination. Every human is fair game. Attacks like this are thieves of security and predictability. The point is that they alter the boundaries and horizons of what we perceive to be possible. They exceed our collective imagination, despite the fact that this is not new.

We have experienced this before-witness the Olympic bombings in Israel and Atlanta. (And in contemporary news, the carnage around the world does not stop: 55 Iraqis were killed yesterday in Bagdhad, and this is just one story.) The result of terrorist attacks on the US seems to be that the nation’s psyche has indeed been altered. A recent study from the University of Maryland found that “Americans think more frequently about the possibility of a terrorist attack against the U.S. than they do about the much more likely prospect that they will fall victim to violent crime or be hospitalized.”

Despite this preoccupation lodged in the backs of people’s minds, the nature of terrorism is such that it is unpredictable, so citizens proceed with their lives regardless. In the minutes before the bombs erupted, how many people around the finish line were feeling fear and vulnerability? Twenty-seven thousand runners gathered in Boston to tackle the marathon because they devoted months of their lives to training. Hundreds of thousands of spectators lined the streets in support. This turnout is proof that people will always venture out into the world, vulnerable, fuelled by a will to live and a dream of accomplishing something. That’s what makes this seem so particularly cruel: Marathon Monday symbolizes an activity that captures the best of what the human spirit is capable of. Striving, achieving, failing and trying again.

Running is arguably an innocent, aspirational activity. Most people are capable of doing it, at least in some approximation. We don’t need to run, but we do so because we can. The Boston Marathon is the penultimate symbol of this aspiration. The result of this is a celebratory, and yes, again, I use the word innocent, mood. Yesterday, this mood was shattered and another layer of innocence peeled away.

Today, I am grateful my friends in Boston are safe, at least physically. My thoughts and prayers are with the city, where people are shaken, heartbroken and traumatized. It is time to rebuild and repair and restore our horizons.

Yesterday was a busy one. I woke up at 4:30 to get to a 5K race in Hope Gardens. It was sponsored by Best Dressed Chicken and I ended up winning third place in my age group. Last time I won second place, but this time I was almost three minutes faster!

Later in the day, I made my way to the Canadian High Commissioner’s residence for the Canadian Women’s Club Spring into Fashion fashion show. I was one of the models and had to wear six outfits from local designers. The fashion show is a fundraiser for the CWC, which does small-scale philanthropic work for non-governmental organizations. For example, the CWC recently provided support to Youth Opportunities Unlimited for an event we had hosting students visiting from the U.S. The CWC has also recently worked with Rise Life Management and Sistren, two NGOs that work with youth and battered women respectively.

By all accounts, the fashion show was a great success. It opened at about 4:30 with music provided by boys from the wonderful Alpha Boys School. People mingled in the yard of the Canadian High Commissioner’s residence with the High Commissioner himself, Mr. Robert Ready. Then, we hit the stage at about 5:30. We had our make-up professionally done, and jewelry and outfits made their way onto our bodies with the help of the designers and dressers. Needless to say, it was hectic. I had a couple of near wardrobe malfunctions, but achieved my perpetual goal of not falling. The other models included two Miss Jamaicas and members of the CWC. Hopefully we raised a good chunk of money for more local NGOs. Have a great Monday!