Hiatus

Hello cyber world. It has been a while since our souls have crossed. That’s sad… But I will have you know that I am still breathing.  When there is time anyways!

This summer I worked for a landscaping company in Bolton, Ontario and started a radio show with two friends. Busy, busy. Landscaping was awesome, I wore a huge straw hat everyday and felt rugged. The radio show is even sweeter! We are on every Sunday night for two hours, the best two hours of my week. We play a lot of amazing music and have tonnes of fun! You can listen live @ www.radiocaledon.com every sunday night from 8-10pm. For more info check out the Radio show page!

I am still at Ryerson University in the T-dot working on my BJ…sheeeet. That’s a Bachelor of Journalism!!! But yeah, I feel as if I’m selling my soul to the devil every time I enter that institution, but it will allow me to pretend I am part of the flock when I try to acquire a job! ya dig!

But let me get to the point of this little dirty dangling post.

On December 10th I leave for Brasil for one whole month! I can’t wait to get home, and see the familia. Terry Indellicato, a long time friend, my roommate, a ryerson journalism classmate, and my fellow radio host will be coming with. It’s going to be a crazy-ass trip folks! We are going to be recording some stories for the show, and I will also be documenting them here. So make sure yall stay tuned to the blog! This will be Terry’s first trip outside of North America and his first time on a plane! Should make for some interesting and entertaining stories.

Talk to you soon

Peace

Aboriginal children fight for a new school

           Everyday they sit in their small portable ready to learn. Some days the furnace works, some days their jackets must stay on. With the winds of James Bay penetrating the cracks on the wall, they wonder when the government will give them a “real school.”
           ”I have never had class in a real school,” said Chris Kataquapit a Grade 8 student who has moved from one portable to another since Grade 1.
           Kataquapit and his classmates have wondered for eight years now. For eight years they have walked from their portable to the gym through heavy snow and the extreme cold. For eight years they have shared their classroom with mice. For eight years they have been refused the right to learn in a safe and comfortable environment.
           They are the forgotten children of Canada; they are the children of Attawapiskat Indian reserve.
           ”I don’t really like going to school in a portable.
           ”When I come out of gym class warm and sweaty, I get headaches from the cold,” said Kataquapit who dreams of one day playing for the Toronto Raptors basketball team.
           The 13-year-old is one of 400 children who have never learned in a proper school. These children attend the only school in Canada made up solely of portables.
           In 2000, the federal government built the portables as a temporary school for the children of Attawapiskat after parents removed them from their old school. The reason; the old elementary school was sitting on top of a diesel spill that took place in 1979. A government fuel line rupture left 30, 000 gallons of diesel seeping into the reserve’s soil.
           According to Carinna Pellett, one of the school’s Grade 8 teacher, the Government only started cleaning the spill in 1995, and never finished the job.
           ”I am sitting on contaminated soil right now,” Pellett said over the phone from her portable that was once the “maintenance shed.”
           She has been told by the elders that the oil has now made its way underneath the portables.
           ”151 thousand litres of oil are still underneath the ground,” she added.
           Pellett, who spent more than two years working as a teacher in Kiribati, an impoverished island in the central tropical Pacific Ocean, says the conditions in Attawapiskat are not very different from the Third World.
           ”I went to Kiribati knowing it was a Third World country, I braced myself.
           ”I am still dealing with the same kinds of problems here, but now I am in my own country,” said Pellett as she looked outside through the 2 inch crack under her portable door.
           She describes the schools current situation as “disgusting.” The teacher who has only been in Attawapiskat for four months already chokes up when she talks about the school’s condition and her students.
           ”I am going to try not to cry.
           “I see so much good in these kids, so much potential,” Pellett said with her soft voice.
           Unfortunately, the potential Pellet sees is diminished by the lack of resources these children live with.
           ”During our break at school we mostly just stand around, we don’t have a playground,” said Marvin Kioke.
           A playground is not the only thing his “school” is missing.
           ”Our library is not really a library, it’s just a bunch of books in a pile,” said the 13-year-old who blames the low attendance of his class on the inadequacy of his learning environment.
           ”They (classmates) don’t like these portables.
           ”If we had a real school more kids would come to school,” said Kioke.
Pellett agrees with her student.
           “My class is supposed to have 17 kids, but I have never seen all 17 at once,” said Pellett.
           Just how low does attendance get when the thermometer dips to -45 for weeks?
           “Each day there’s only five of us,” said Kioke.                                                                                         In 2005, the community was promised a new elementary school. It takes three years for the plans to get approved, so this winter construction was set to begin. The federal department of Indian and Northern Affairs told the residents of Attawapiskat all they had to do was prepare the land.
           The community did everything they had to. This year the land was prepared, and the children were waiting anxiously for the construction of their new school to begin.
           ”When it came time for the government to do its part, they said ‘ we will talk about this in five years.’
           ”If they plan on talking about it in five years, that means Attawapiskat will have to wait eight more years for a new school,” said Pellett.
           In December of 2007, the Federal Government broke off talks for a proposed elementary school. However, on April 1, community leaders met with senior representatives of Minister Chuck Strahl to discuss “steps for getting the school plan back on track.”
           “We made it very clear to Indian Affairs that this school must be built and it will be built.
           “After 8 long years, we want the government to take up their fiduciary responsibility to work with us as partners and not adversaries,” said Theresa Hall, Attawapiskat First Nation Chief.
           The Chief says she is tired of only hearing her government “talk,” and wants to see action.
           “Until we see the shovels going in the ground, we will continue to push forward,” said Hall.
           The staff and students of Attawapiskat say they too will continue to push forward for their right to learn in a proper facility.
           ”Even when I go to high school, I will keep fighting for a new elementary school,” said Chris Kataquapit.
           Kataquapit says he doesn’t want other students going through what he and his classmates have experienced for the last eight years.
           ”Walking outside in the cold sucks, especially for the little kids,” he added.
           Even Ontario’s public school board is joining the fight. The board says it will encourage their 2.1 million students to write letters to the federal department of Indian and Northern Affairs to urge funding for a new school in this northern Cree community.
           The hope is that the Federal Government will hear the plea from the future leaders of Canada and finally give the children of Attawapiskat what they deserve.
           “These children are beautiful people; they have ideas, skills, and abilities which need to be encouraged and inspired as much as any other child in Canada.
           “We need to provide them with a place where they are proud to go everyday,” said Pellett.

 

Rio’s streets get painted red before Carnival

As Brazil got ready to put on the biggest party in the universe (Carnival), Rio de Janeiro’s police laid out the red carpet…of blood.
This past Wednesday, Rio’s police killed six alleged drug traffickers in an operation that made its way through two favelas; Jacarezinho, and Mangueira.Brazil is a country that seems to be one huge party. But in the midst of the music, dancing, and pinga (traditional Brazilian alcoholic drink made from sugar cane) there are a lot of people dying.
Last year 1, 260 civilians died in the state of Rio de Janeiro during police shoot-outs with drug traffickers (Rio de Janeiro State Institute of Public Safety). The keyword here is civilians. These are people who were sleeping and died with a stray bullet to the head. Kids who were coming home from school and walked in the way of a bullet. The examples go on and on.
The fact is that the number of police and traffickers killed in this drug war last year is much, much higher than this.
Brazil is at war, and marvelous city is in this war. A war that is fueled by injustice. A war that has children acting as soldiers. Children who have never had an opportunity. Children who find a way out of “almost starving to death,” by joining the traffic. The traffic is their light at the end of the tunnel. The traffic gives them an opportunity their country never offered.
Until Brazilians stop dancing for a second, and realize that our future is not in bullets and machine guns, but pencil and paper, carnival will continue to be an illusion of a country that does not exist.
The millions spent on this illusion seem to be pointless when you wake up the day after the world’s biggest street party with a horrible hangover, and read a story about a 10-year-old child being killed by a stray bullet.
Well at least for me it seems pointless.

Our Pledge

I don’t know much about Singapore, but have met a girl from this amazing country who has left me curious to learn more.

Diane Tang, told me that in Singapore all races and cultures live in “total harmony,” with one another.

“We are a multi-racial community mainly made up of Chinese, Malays, Indians and Eurasians,” said Tang.

The 30-year-old Graphic Designer believes harmony to be one of the most important factors in the well-being of her country.

“I’m proud that we can all live together in harmony though all of us have different religions, languages and cultural backgrounds.”

“The importance of racial harmony is instilled into us since a very young age through our pledge,” Tang added.

The Pledge that Tang speaks of was written by the deputy prime minister of Singapore between 1980 and 1985, Sinnathamby Rajaratnam. S. Rajaratman, as he is known around the world, is seen as one of the men responsible for the independence of Singapore in 1965.

The pledge was written one year after Singapore gained its Independence and goes as follows.

 Our pledge:

We the citizens of Singapore,

Pledged ourselves as one united people,

regardless of race, language or religion,

to build a democratic society,

so as to achieve happiness,

prosperity and progress for our nation.

Today the pledge is taught to children, and said by all Singaporeans during the National Day Parade.

“These values are instilled in us from a young age and we say the pledge everyday in school,” said Tang.

Ladies and gentleman, this should be a pledge to the citizens of the world. If we followed these simple guidelines S. Rajaratman wrote more than 40 years ago, we would live in a much better place.

I am only 21-years-old and am already tired of seeing how religion, and race divides us. How many lives must be lost before we can begin to understand that skin colour is simply skin colour? How many wars must be faught in the name of religion, before we can realize that all religions are saying the same thing?

“It’s a weird place (Singapore) whereby you can see an Indian temple beside a Chinese temple or a mosque side by side to a church for example. It warms my heart to see sights like this where different religions can co-exist together with tolerance,” said Tang.

I want the harmony that exists today in Singapore to flow throughout our beautiful earth. I dream of a day where children will grow up accepting their brothers and sisters of the world. A day where mankind will live in peace with one another.

To imagine this today is hard for some people. But we must always remember that great accomplishments always begin with a simple dream.

My advice to you is to never stop dreaming.

Happy New Years to everyone!

No internet = no stories…

Hey, I have moved to a farm here in Brazil and am left with no Internet. I do have cows and a lot of coffee trees, but no net… It´s sad how dependent we have become to that little phone wire that allows us to connect with the distant, and disconnect with the immediate. I find myself itching a lot lately, and sweating during the nights. Now, this could be from the fact that it is hot like a Russian sauna, and there are a lot of mosquitos at the farm.

But this distance from technology means that my picture on facebook will stay the same for the next few weeks, and the posts here will stop for a bit.

I am working on a story about Brazil´s forgotten rural children. Should be very interesting, so keep checking the blog for it.

I also have a project to get a child from Espirito Santo do Pinhal´s rural area, and one from the city to post up a weekly journal. I think it will be interesting to see how close they live geographically, but how far their worlds  really are in all other aspects.

Never forget that dreamers change the world

Peace

 

“You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.”This is a quote from the poet, philosopher and artist Kahlil Gibran. As the sun sets and gives room for the moon, mankind looses one more day. With advances in technology, this exchange of light for darkness seems to be moving faster and faster. This leaves us humans grasping for air, and time. Time is a virtue these days.

When people think of helping others, they immediately think of donating money, or their old possessions. Now, don’t think I am making it seem like this is a bad thing. Clothes and money are very important things to give. But I believe that today we need to give more time.

I volunteered at an orphanage in Espirito Santo do Pinhal, Brazil for 3 months. At this wonderful place called Educandario, 24 boys who have either lost their parents to drugs, or the heavens are given guidance and care. Everyday they attend school, and take part in activities such as soccer, and painting.

My time at Educandario was spent teaching the kids how to make and play instruments using garbage. We made drums out of old paint cans, and shakers using pop cans and rice. It was an amazing learning experience not only for the kids, but also for myself.

After a few weeks, these kids were fighting for a finger to hold in my hand, and a space of uncovered lap to call their own. I began to realize that these boys were lacking attention. These 24 boys were not looking for a new T-shirt, or shoes. These amazing kids needed what every child in this world needs; love.

During the three months I spent at Educandario, I only saw one other person volunteering. It was a soccer coach who spent every Saturday morning teaching the kids to play like Ronaldinho. After each practice, the kids were left dripping with sweat, and with a smile bigger than life.

Volunteer work teaches a lot. It is the closest way to really feel how a “problem” affects those who live it. If you don’t understand poverty, help build houses in a developing country. If you don’t understand homelessness, volunteer in one of the many organizations your city has to offer.

The world will only change when you change. It is very hard for a person to fight for equal rights when he or she lives in a first world country and drives a van to work. Before you can put your heart into this fight you need to meet your enemy and those who are left starving.

Give your time to someone who needs it and begin to change the world.

                                                                                                                             

Set your love free into the universe, and it will always come back to you.

President Hugo Chavez Failed Again

President Hugo Chavez received a historic no Monday, and failed to become Venezuela’s dictator for the second time.

The President who tried a military coup in 1992 as a colonel, found out this morning that his efforts to gain super powers in the country was shut down by 51 per cent of Venezuelans.

With only 49 per cent of the votes, Chavez’s dream of creating a socialist regime has failed once again.

For his harsh ways, it surprises me that Chavez put his idialism in the hands of the people. I just wonder if the son of communism will let democracy speak loudly against him?

Keep a close eye on the red barret wearing Chavez.

Hugo Chavez; President or Dictator?

Today the Venezuelan people will get to decide the faith of their country through a referendum that could eliminate term limits for president Hugo Chavez .

Chavez who has an unsuccessful military coup in his resume, dreams of turning Venezuela into a socialist state, with him as its dictator.

Venezuelans will vote on changes to 69 laws in the constitution.

Here are some;

-The president has the power to nominate the mayor of the capital (Caracas).

-Land can be taken by the state without any complaints from the original owner.

-The president has the power to issue an arrest order without a formal accusation.

-The state may censor any media outlet.

Basically Hugo Chavez is trying to end the democracy that exists today in Venezuela.

Sunday Venezuelans will say si or no to a very communist socialism.

Will Venezuela keep its president, or gain a dictator?

What do you think?

Tropa de Elite

Tuesday night, a Bope (Rio’s special police force unit) officer was pulled out of his car and shot six times in Rio de Janeiro. The officer died on the scene.

Wednesday morning another three Military Police Officers were killed in Campo Grande, West side of Rio.

If all of this wasn’t bad enough, during Bope’s operations to find those responsible for the death of one of their members, an 8 year old child was hit by a stray bullet. Fortunately the boy is okay.

This is war.

I watched a movie this week that shows the current situation of Brazil’s police, especially in Rio de Janeiro extremely well.

Tropa de Elite, focuses on Rio’s special Police unit, Bope, who are trained in the war against the drug traffic. When things go bad, these guys are sent up the favela as bullets rain down on them.

The movie shows the reality a police officer encounters working in “the marvelous city.” Their enemy, the drug traffickers, is using armament meant for wars. These farded men are fighting a war trained, and armed as simple police officers. And these “simple Police officers,” are humans who have families and fears.

Rio’s police risk too much, but get too little for it. The average Police officer in Rio makes around $400 Reais (around $200 American dollars) a month. This generates the immense corruption that can be seen today inside the police. If the government will not pay them they will find someone who will, and most of the time this someone is the drug traffickers themselves. In exchange for less hassle, and more liberty in the drug trafficking the drug lords pay off the police.

The situation in Rio de Janeiro is very complicated, but this amazing movie shows that the blame doesn’t always belong on the police officers. The problem goes a lot deeper; The system needs to be blamed. Police officers need to get paid more if the country expects them to do their jobs properly.

When you go up a mountain full of dark alleys badly trained, paid and armed, who do you trust? Do you shoot first and guarantee your life, or ask and risk it?

According to Rio’s Military Police, 104 officers have been killed off duty this year and another 25 in the field. Due to their low salaries, the majority of Rio’s police live in, or very close to the favelas. As soon as the traffickers discover someone works for the police, they kill. Police officers off duty can’t even imagine walking around with anything that would show they are part of the police. They can’t even wash their Uniforms at home. It is “too risky,” they say.

Tropa de Elitealso shows how Brazil’s middle and upper class teens are heavily to blame in this war. In one scene the main character, an officer of Bope, goes up the favela and finds some traffickers and addicts sharing lines and puffs in front of a house. The special unit sneaks up and kills two Traffickers, and make all of the others get into a tight circle on the floor. While yelling at the teens trying to find out who was in charge, one of the addicts speaks up and says he is a student from a good family. The officer grabs this boy and begins to beat the crap out of him while throwing the truth in his face. “Your a student? Your a student? You fucking faggot. We come up here and put our lives in risk because of queers like you. People who are given an opportunity, and a chance to become something in life, but choose to use drugs instead. Students like you who come up the favela and provide money for this fucking war. Fuck you student. Fuck you.”

The scene is very strong, but it is real. The rich of Rio, and the rest of Brazil don’t realise how many people die for them to “burn one down.”

 

If you get a chance watch this movie. It will show you a reality that is often left out by the media.

Lack of Opportunity

Tuesday, Dec 5 2006
Panama City, Panama

Yesterday night Chris and I went to a strip club, or “whorehouse,” like the cab driver liked to call it. We wanted to go out but all of the dance clubs were closed, so we settled for the strippers.
As we got out of the cab I spotted a sign that was very appealing to me. The sign read, “Open bar for American citizens only 20 dollars all night.” The only problem was that neither Christian nor I are American. After travelling through Central America for three months you begin to realize that a problem here is never really a problem, especially when travelling with a low budget.
As we entered the establishment that smelled of cigars and Jack Daniels, Christian and I declared our American Citizenship and showed the door man our documents. Christian passed the man who was wearing a suit way too small for his overweight body his Swedish student card, and I handed him my Canadian Driver’s Licence. After starring at the documents, acting as though he actually understood what they stated, he passed them back and asked what we wanted to drink. We both ordered beers and sat down near the stage feeling like a million bucks, or a simple 20 bucks…
As we sat down we realized we had been too busy pretending to be Americans to realize what was around us (Maybe this is why some Americans do what they do around the world…). Spread out in this dark and sleazy club were 32 girls (yes I counted) walking around in white lingerie trying to get one of the rich, fat and bald European or American businessmen to call them over to their tables.
As we worked on our Panama beers, these two girls came and sat next to us. I spent a lot of time wondering what drove those women to two 20-year-olds wearing the same crapy clothes they had been wearing for the last three months; were they not able to smell the stench of broke backpackers coming from our carcasses?
They told us that all of the girls in the club were from Colombia. According to the gorgeous curly haired Colombian who couldn’t pronounce Christian’s name if her life had depended on it, herself and the other girls come up to Panama to prostitute themselves and send the money back to their families.
Panama city is plagued with rich businessmen from all over the world due to the Canal that cuts the city, and the Americas. This creates a very large market for prostitution.
In 2004, the U.S. Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs stated that Panama is a big transit and destination country for girls, primarily from Colombia and the Dominican Republic, trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation.
As I sat back after the girls left realizing we didn’t have $200 American dollars to give them, in exchange for pleasure, I began to think about what she said while overlooking the situation in that club.
Every table in that place was filled with these businessmen who come from the first world to rape this developing country’s economy. The sight was making me feel sick. Old, fat and disgusting men touching, kissing, and whispering in the ears of these beautiful girls who have been forced to sell their bodies to feed their families.
As the night went on, one by one the men would ask for their bill, which includes the drinks and the girl they choose to take back to their hotels. After paying, these men would walk out with one, and sometimes two girls happier then ever.
The women in that club were hanging meat for their rich customers. As they sat down and drank champagne with the men they pretended to have real conversations, and real feelings. The men would lean in as far as their inflated bellies allowed them and whisper something into these young girls ears. The girls would then look at them licking their lips and smiling as though they cared, or even understood what these men were saying for that matter. I felt like I was in a matrix. These people acting like there were real feelings involved in those conversations.
There was no human connection within those walls. Those businessmen were in there doing the only thing they know; business. It was a simple transaction of money for sex.
A transaction between the first world, and a developing country. A feeling that money can buy anything. An attitude that the people who inhabit this less fortunate universe have no feelings.
Just like men, women and children are forced to work in sweat shops for North American companies. Just like natural resources are stripped from the land by European mining companies. Just like international logging companies cut through rain forests. These women are being raped.
And all of this due to one simple reason; lack of opportunity.
Lack of opportunity drives humans to sell their freedom, their dignity and their bodies.
To most first world businessmen this simple reason means only one thing; profit.