Last week, I celebrated my first Canada Day as a new citizen. My family immigrated here a little over five years ago and earlier this year, I took my oath of citizenship. Being Canadian offers opportunities, rights, and privileges that being a citizen of Bangladesh does not. Although I received[Read More…]
Off the Board
Off the board: Rethinking the culture of lifehacking
‘Lifehacks’ is a word for “tricks, skills, or shortcuts that are meant to increase a person’s productivity or efficiency in their everyday lives,” according to KnowYourMeme. Entire websites are devoted towards this goal, and best-selling books have been written on the subject. Lifehackers advocate to ‘make everything in your life[Read More…]
Off the board: Gentrification, urban-ecoism, and cultural perspectives
The houses in Kathmandu, Nepal, where my grandparents live are very tall and narrow—there’s not a lot of buildable space in the actual city. My grandparents’ house doesn’t have central heating. It’s wired up to the electrical grid, but the electricity isn’t always there. For several hours a day, electricity[Read More…]
Off the board: “For an Asian” ignores all aspects of individual merit
I used to fill in my name as “Jenny” on my school and job applications, even though that’s not the name written on my birth certificate. Every time the ethnicity question came up, I would often select “Prefer not to say.” My relationship with my own race has been a[Read More…]
Off the board: Broadening the feminist scope – In defence of Lana Del Rey
In a now-famous interview with Fader Magazine, Lana Del Rey was quoted saying, “For me, the issue of feminism is just not an interesting concept,” and that she is “more interested in intergalactic explorations.” This resulted in backlash, harsh criticisms, and a firm ‘anti-feminist’ label on her and her subsequent[Read More…]
Off the board: Our Wednesday night affair
McGill students have recently found themselves a steamy new Wednesday night mistress. It would appear that weeknight beer-drinking types have left Gerts, a McGill institution, in favour of a newer, larger establishment—Ace Bar and Grill. This Winter, Gerts has felt the painful backlash of its once loyal customers leaving its [Read More…]
Off the board: A love letter to Kim Kardashian
Like the comments of a nagging mom, most criticisms of Kim Kardashian transcend time and logic—they’re baseless, they follow her wherever she goes, and they show no signs of stopping. “She’s famous but she doesn’t do anything!” “Her show has no substance!” “Her butt can’t be real!” The animosity aimed[Read More…]
Off the Board: The folly of satirizing North Korea
Satire has often been an effective form of political protest used to garner attention towards raging dictatorships around the world and to provide a common ground upon which individuals can unite to creatively point out the disfunctionalities of authoritarian systems. The latest incident that has incited uproar on media outlets[Read More…]
Off the board: Seinfeld, a show about everything
People are always saying Seinfeld is a show about nothing. Each episode is centred on the mundane, such as parking garages, rye bread, and fruit. (The peach, cantaloupe, and mango are all important actors in the show). But for a show so famous for its humdrum storylines, Seinfeld managed to[Read More…]
Off the Board: The economic and personal degradation of tipping culture
When I worked in the food industry during high school, I hoped the only heat I felt would come from the grill.
