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Kitsch is a complex thing. It has been understood as describing objects considered to be in poor taste because of their excessive garishness or sentimentality, but it can also describe things that are appreciated in an ironic or knowing way. Basically, it is the reduction of a thing down to a caricature that can be easily mocked or easily accepted.
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October 8, 2007 | Leave a Comment
It is 9:00 PM and Ottawa is winding down for the night. Yet the rather small crowd of about 40 people clustered by the Parliamentary gates on Wellington St. maintain their stance as a miniature representation of what has become the world’s most-watched civil protest—the current unrest in Burma.
After his third night of protesting on the sidewalk in front of Centre Block, Tin Maung Htoo’s eyes look tired, but in the dim light of the candles being snuffed out in the surrounding crowd, his face remains animated. Executive director of Canadian Friends of Burma, Htoo speaks rapidly and somewhat disjointedly about the country he left some 15 years ago, a country with divisive lines that continue to reach Htoo’s life in Ottawa.
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October 8, 2007 | Leave a Comment
If you’re like me, young at heart and unembittered, most of the dealings you have had with active political organs are through the government. Better yet, such dealings are through startlingly complex paperwork, especially at that magical time in the spring when you’re thankful you give all your money to Trinity Western University.
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October 8, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Although the Arctic is believed to contain 25 per cent of the world’s undiscovered oil and gas reserves, not to mention that it is a shortcut from Asia to Europe known as the Northwest Passage, it has been largely ignored by the nations with principal claims to the territory—until now. Due to record temperatures at the top of the world, the ice cover reached an all-time low of 4.13 million km2 this summer. In addition, the ice loss appears to be speeding up. Although previous years have averaged a loss of about 100, 000 km2 per year, this year saw a drop of about one million km2, leading to a Northwest Passage largely free of ice for the first time in recorded history. As the melting continues, the competition for a share of the arctic spoils is skyrocketing.
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October 8, 2007 | Leave a Comment
One of the most revealing facets regarding the academic rigor of the university is its use of space—particularly space set aside for student study. Observe the amount of areas available for students to work, and perhaps you may see a correlation with the seriousness with which a university esteems its academics. However, the less space available might point to a disconnect between a university’s stated goals and its underlying actions.
Many of TWU’s most serious academics resort to driving almost an hour to Simon Fraser University or the University of British Columbia to do their work.
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October 8, 2007 | Leave a Comment
One must consume for nourishment; therefore, some consumption is required for life, but consumption of contaminated material may also be a cause of death. It seems to me the problem of consumerism began, well, in the beginning. Eve is faced with the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. The serpent speaks into her ear, and like a trance she picks the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This decision altered the fate of mankind forevermore. Man’s nature was etched by lack of judgment and the compulsion to stray from need-based consumption.
