New Holiday For Ontario Residents
Author: Ams
Guess what? Ontario will celebrate an additional statutory holiday this year on February 18th. It’s called Family Day and it’s to help encourage family time. Well I’m all for family time although I’m suspicious of the capitalist agenda behind the decision. However there is another reason for me to be a little upset about this holiday. You might be asking me why since it is celebrated on the third Monday in February, giving everyone a long weekend. Well, it is because that is usually when Reading Week starts. One of the sweet pleasures of being a university student who gets Reading Week is the ability to go shopping and not have to deal with stupid high school students at the mall. Now with this long weekend it will mean more people will be available to take away our precious Monday mall time. *sigh* =P
I came back to Waterloo today and had a lot of things to unpack. Never again will I take 4/5 of my washable possessions home to clean. It’s easy to dump everything into a huge bag, but bringing back all those things back when they are clean is a pain in the butt! So as I was going through all my things I came across a calendar my mom gave me. Like most (if not all) of the calendars I’ve owned, it is a sixteen month calendar. Now to this I ask, what is the point of a sixteen month calendar? Most people get a calendar for the new year, so why do they need September to December? Does anyone know why they do this? Is it an extra, yet useless, selling point? Are people really THAT stupid that having an extra four pages that they won’t need anyway will make them want to buy it more? Do they even sell twelve week calendars anymore? =/
Ok that was random. *cough* So tomorrow is the first day of the Winter term. I don’t have any classes so I am *planning* on running some errands, such as getting a powerbar for my computer because I left mine at home. How am I using my computer, you ask? Well I have magical powers, obviously! However all this computer generating energy has drained me so I shall be off to bed. Good night!
P.S. My roommate has been in the house for a week and didn’t notice a bag of rotting garbage that had been left in the recycling bin. Why was it in the recylcing bin and not the garbage can? Well that is another brilliant move by one of my stupid roommates. So I had to throw out a really horrible smelling bag of garbage once I had time to investigate what the smell was. Why are people so stupid? And what is up with their habit of leaving things to rot?
read comments (5)Hello 2008!
Author: Ams
Happy New Year everyone! I hope that 2008 will bring you joy and happiness, but most importantly, gratitude. No matter what our position is in life we always should thank God for the blessings we have. 2007 was a bitter-sweet year for me. There were a lot of hard moments, such as deaths close to me, having to say goodbye to my close friend Maki, and having to return to school for another year with different living conditions. But there were also many happy moments, like my engagement with Jack.
Speaking of our engagement, we had our engagement party this past Friday. It was a lot of fun and we had a good turnout. We had a lot more food than we were expecting so we had to eat a lot the following couple of days. For the most part it ran pretty smoothyl up until the end. The security guards didn’t tell us that we had to be out of the room by 10:45 so we were frantically trying to pack up everything and get out so they cound finish the inspection. My feet were killing me by the end of the night too. Other than those two things, I had a great time.
Well that’s all from me. Hopefully I will be able to blog more often in the next month. I shouldn’t be TOO busy. =P
Veteran’s Green
Author: Ams
I thought it would be important to put up some pictures of the monument on Veteran’s Green that Jack addressed in his post. Many people walk by this monument everyday without a second glance. It is important to see this monument as a remembrance of those who fought for Canada and those who gave up their lives for our country too. But many do not see that the monument also represents the racism that existed during the war and how that same racism exists today through the portrayal of Canada’s veterans. The monument itself has a plaque saying “Canadian Veterans Memorial”. It clearly is not since the only people who are portrayed in the statue are all White men. This statue excludes women and people of colour. What does that say about the Canada we live in now? Who are seen as Canadian heroes? Who are seen as being worthy of remembering? Clearly the messages state that White male veterans’ stories are more important than those of female veterans and non-White veterans. And by the way, this monument was erected earlier this year, so it is not an outdated statue. It is a 2007 statue.
Oh, and just another nice tid-bit of information. The Kitchener-Waterloo area (which is where this monument is located) is highly populated with residents of German descent. This was even more so during the two world wars. Why is this relevant? Well as far as I know, none of these residents were shipped off to internment camps and stripped of their businesses and livelihoods, like the Japanese Canadians were. I find that very interesting, don’t you?
Why I Don’t Wear A Poppy
Author: Ams
I wanted to make a post today about why I do not wear a poppy. I used to say that I didn’t celebrate Rememberance Day, but after reading a post on Jack’s blog I realized that I do celebrate it, just not the way that people want me to celebrate it. So I am reposting his post because he wrote it very well and I am very proud of him.
Remembrance Day is tomorrow in Canada. These days you see many people walking around with a red poppy pinned to their jackets. We are urged to remember what the veterans did for us during the war. It’s ironic then that Remembrance Day almost completely ignores the many Chinese Canadian soldiers did for Canada during the war. Everywhere you see images of white soldiers, but where are the native Canadians, the black Canadians, the Chinese Canadians? Even at the Canadian War Museum that recently opened in Ottawa, you see no hints that any Chinese Canadians participated in the war effort.
If you dig hard enough you can find some info on the Chinese Canadian soldiers, but most people do not even know that they existed. On the Veteran Affairs Canada website, they do have a section dedicated to those forgotten soliders. Running some Google searches yield a few pieces of info here and there. But they all seem to be unanimous that the period of racism has passed, and the Chinese Canadians, in turn for their heroic service during the war, now enjoy the same privileges as other Canadians.
It’s quite sad that Canada has chosen not to acknowledge the histories of these brave men and women, who fought for the country they loved. Even now, it’s the Chinese Canadians that have to make sure that their history and heritage is not forgotten forever. There is a Chinese Canadian Military Museum in Vancouver that is dedicated to “educating the public of the Chinese fight to repeal discriminatory laws and to earn their citizenship with all the rights and privileges and stand equal with other Canadians.”
The reason why I won’t wear a poppy is because I want to remember. I remember that it wasn’t just the white people who fought for Canada. I remember the ordeals that the Japanese Canadians had to go through. I remember all the excuses given by the Canadian government to justify racism during the war. When I look at images of our war heroes — like the statue erected across from Wilfrid Laurier University, at the Veteran’s Green — I can’t help but feel a bit repulsed by all the racism and ignorance that comes with Remembrance Day.
lest we forget
Halloween Outing
Author: Ams
I went out for Halloween last night with the other grad students. It was pretty fun. Side note: I saw many “ethnic” costumes…I was tempted to say “I’m dressed as a White person. I’m sure people wouldn’t get my point. Anyway, we predrank and then went to the Grad Pub on campus and then to Wilfs (because it was raining). My tolderance for alcohol has definately increased. Before I was super buzzed after one drink, and now I drink 2 or 3 without the giddy shits at the end of the night. I think I was the most sober one, and I had my first experience watching a drunk friend and making sure they got home safely. It’s an experience that has really put me in my place. Can’t really explain my revelation without going into a lot of backstory…but just know that I feel a lot better about things now.
In other news, I e-mailed my property manager to have my blinds looked at because they’re busted. Technically they work, but it takes forever to pull them down because it keeps locking. So I usually have to stand there for a good 3 minutes tugging at the string while the blinds slowly move down millimeter by millimeter. UGH! I e-mailed him two weeks ago and he keeps saying that he’ll send someone over but nothing has happened. And for my previous roomies reading, my window doesn’t close fully and I get a slight draft. WTF! Why do I always have window problems? >_>
[edit] My property manager just came by to look at the blinds and he’s going to get me a new set. W00t. He measured the length of them with his arm span…should I be concerned? [/edit]