In my last column, I expressed some of my thoughts on the Egyptian revolution. I was initially surprised by the comments and letters which seemed primarily to be personal attacks on me, my religion, and my political beliefs. But as I read through them, I also found many that were respectfully written and constructively critical.

I did not intend to offend anyone and am sorry if anyone was hurt. I have taken many of the criticisms seriously, but a lot of people took my words out of context, and the message I intended to get across was not accurately received.

I did make an error in a particular sentence, which I would like to correct: I said the “only” thing driving the revolution was food, but I should have said “one of the many things” driving the revolution was food. The use of the word “food” was not meant to downplay other causes of Egyptian unrest, but to emphasize the high level of poverty experienced by approximately 40 per cent of the population, and the low percentage of GDP growth—0.21 per cent, compared to 187 per cent in Jordan and 132 per cent in Algeria. Many people felt I had misunderstood the Egyptians’ demands by mentioning poverty as the central cause of the revolution. I fully acknowledge that Egyptians were demanding democratic and human rights as well as an increase in their poor living conditions; however, it would be naive to claim that food was not a primary motivating factor for many Egyptians. Abdel-Wanis, an Egyptian father of six, when asked what his reasons for supporting the revolution were was quoted in the National Post as saying, “For five years I have been looking for my day’s food, and finally I found people to stand with.”

Yes, I am Jewish, as some people kindly pointed out, but when I mentioned the region’s volatility I was not only referring to Israel. As protests have spread to more parts of the Middle East we have seen countries that have not be able to protest as Egyptians did.

I did not intend to suggest that Egyptians do not deserve democracy. I do not see Egyptians as different from me or anyone else. The point I was trying to make is that democracy is a very expensive and time-consuming process. The costs of implementing a democratic system in a poverty-ridden country must be considered.

What was most misinterpreted was why I believe Egyptians do not necessarily want a democracy. While I was watching the news, I often saw Egyptians saying they wanted liberal rights, namely freedom of speech, press, and religion. I support liberal rights and certainly believe we should stand up for them, but democracy does not guarantee anybody those rights. Moreover, having multiple parties, free elections, and voting rights does not necessarily mean that liberal rights will develop in Egypt, or any other country.

I stated, quite controversially, that I do not believe democracy is a human right. I stand by that statement, though I don’t have the space to defend the idea here. However, I do believe democracy is something a society may strive for. I think that, for now, Egyptians should focus on obtaining liberal rights and better living conditions for everyone.

In my first column of the year, I said that I hope to have open dialogue with readers and to discuss new perspectives on issues we care about. I want to thank the readers who took time to write me thoughtful, respectful responses. I feel fortunate to have had the chance to hear different opinions and I hope we can continue this constructive dialogue and help bridge the gaps in our community.

Every morning when I wake up, I reach down for my laptop, which sits beside my bed on the floor, and I check Facebook. I have already checked Facebook immediately before falling asleep—that’s why my laptop is so close. But as each day brings new possibilities, so I hope Facebook will, too. In reality, it does and it doesn’t. In Facebook’s domain, there’s no horizon—the sun never sets.

I hate that I love Facebook. I crave attention, yet shy away from it at the same time. I covet notifications—little gifts, in my mind—yet I’m often embarrassed to receive them. If I could bring myself to do it, I would paint Facebook red. I would like every video, comment on every picture, join every group, play every game, attend every event. Fortunately, I restrain myself. But really, what for?

Well, there’s my dignity. I do check Facebook every 12 seconds, but you won’t know it unless I leave a trace. But so much on Facebook is innocuous and boring. I think that’s the problem. I know I want more than that—something vague. But let me just look at my profile one more time to double check that it’s not there.

When the Egypt protests started, and so many commentators attributed the revolt to Facebook, I felt sort of emasculated. “Wow,” I thought. What the hell have I been doing with Facebook all these years? Definitely not propelling insurrection or fomenting unrest. Could Facebook actually be cool now? Subversive?

Just in case, I joined “We Are All Khaled Said,” a Facebook group protesting police brutality in Egypt. Wael Ghonim, an Internet activist who works for Google and who was detained for 11 days by the Egyptian police during the protests last month, supposedly created the group.

Now, I imagined, I was doing something, I was being active. But I was still doing it on Facebook. And it didn’t feel much different—or more exciting—than changing my profile picture. I was still in Montreal, going to class, taking notes, making dinner, and the protests in Egypt were going on without me.  

I’ve deleted my account about three times in the five years I’ve had it. But my furloughs have never been long—two weeks at most. Leaving Facebook was as much an acknowledgement of its power as was checking it incessantly.

If everyone checks Facebook as often as I do—swallow your pride and nod—if everyone is as addicted as I am, then it’s not surprising that Facebook may have facilitated protests in the Middle East. As Nicholas Kristof wrote in the New York Times: “New technologies have lubricated the mechanisms of revolt.”

I’d never considered Facebook a tool of empowerment because it embarrasses me that I have an account. I don’t know if I’ll ever get over that embarrassment because I can’t—I won’t—get off Facebook.

In my boring and un-heroic case, however, Facebook doesn’t really facilitate protests. It facilitates parties. I’ll probably enjoy life more if I attend one of the 16 events I’ve been invited to throughout the week. And in the end, perhaps Facebook is an invitation to get off the computer. But you have to have spent enough time on it to know that.

Until about 5 a.m. on Saturday, February 19, I’d never seen the ocean. I’d seen pictures of it, of course, and I went to Cancun when I was eight years old, but neither really counts. My apprehension towards tropical places was amplified by the hordes of inexcusable “douchebags” I had heard populate such places. If you’ve ever seen any sort of television program depicting spring break, you know what I’m talking about (lots of visors and light beer). The notion of Spring Break was always off-putting, simply because of these images that were conjured in my mind of reckless, annoying young people terrorizing eastern Mexico for a week, leaving nothing behind but spilled alcohol, bodily fluids, and regret in their wake. Dignity is lost, and so is my lunch.

But this past week, as a final hurrah before the inevitable pain of graduation, 19 of my best friends and I went to the Dominican Republic. I was surprised to be met not by the cast of the Jersey Shore, but by hundreds of families, older couples, and two very intoxicated, very sloppy girls, among others, cavorting on a beach. But what I found most interesting of all was how my group and I behaved: very much like university students. We played flip cup, went “clubbing,” and spent as much time together as possible. What I witnessed was not us destroying paradise, but simply doing what people our age would be doing on any given party night. Granted, we were in shorts and summer dresses, and we did it poolside or by the ocean, but I was still compelled to act like somewhat of a decent person. Clean-ups eventually happened. Our room was kept in order. And most importantly, we didn’t terrorize the people around us.

Yes, we received a single noise complaint. But, it’s almost inspiring to hear a father of two say, in a wonderful British accent, “Totally not your fault, so don’t apologize. The resort should have put you kids in your own building. You should be having fun. I’m a partier too!” That was pretty insightful, to say the least.

I realized during Reading Week that young people on vacation mostly act like young people. We are loud, obnoxious, full of alcohol and buffet food, and we just want to have fun. We hopefully won’t be acting this way in 10 years, so this is our chance to be young and stupid and go swimming (sans certain garments) at 3 a.m. just because we can.

This seems like a very spoiled thing to say, but I’ve never been able to go travelling or sunbathing before. For years now, I have worked intensely throughout the summer months, and vacations were just not possible. I work to pay for my education, and when I have an opportunity to see something I’ve never seen, to be somewhere I’ve never been, I’m going to take advantage of it. And I definitely did. There were no wet t-shirt contests or Pepsi-sponsored events: it was just a group of friends, in a warm place, drinking fruity drinks and Brahma while trying to make the best of seven days removed from ice and snow. And believe me, we did. I recommend a Cancun vacation to everyone.

Also, I went horseback riding. That was excellent.

Two weeks ago, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and American President Barack Obama announced new plans to streamline and facilitate trade across the borders of their two countries. While this type of movement may be new to businesses, it’s a familiar reality to those who live along the border.

Having lived my entire life in Sarnia, Ontario, a small city that borders Port Huron, Michigan, it’s still hard for me to conceptualize the United States as a “foreign country.” There are a variety of ways most McGill students are probably familiar with Sarnia: they think it has something to do with an evil White Witch and a talking lion named Aslan, they’ve driven through it and over its bridges on their way to or from the U.S., or, most likely, they recognize it as Michael Moore’s familiar Canadian counterpoint in the films Bowling for Columbine and Sicko. We also had a brief stint as the “Kissing Capital of the World,” thanks to the Guinness Book of World Records, and the area is popularly known as “the chemical valley,” thanks to the profusion of chemical, oil, and gas refineries that form the bulk of the town’s economy.

If you’ve never spent time in a border community like Sarnia or Windsor, you might not realize how connected the two countries are. At the risk of sounding like another high-school cheerleader from a borderland, I can literally see the United States from my house. You’d be hard pressed to find a child in any of the area schools, on both sides of the St. Clair River, who hasn’t asked their parents at some point why they had to drive over the bridge, when swimming across the 100 metre-wide river would just make so much more sense. Many people commute from Ontario to Michigan for work, particularly nurses, varsity and club sports teams often compete against each other, babies are born in American hospitals, and sick Americans come to Sarnia for care (as immortalized by Moore in Sicko). The Americans love our casino, and we love their cheap gas and alcohol. It’s a wonderful two-way relationship.

While Detroit may no longer be the booming Motor City it once was, it’s still home to five professional sports teams, major concert venues, great independent restaurants seriously lacking in small town Ontario, and a surprisingly impressive museum, the Detroit Institute of Arts. Most importantly, however, there’s Target. The reality is that shopping is simply better in the U.S., from food (mostly because of Trader Joe’s) to cheaper books. With Detroit only 45 minutes away, compared to Toronto’s three hours, there’s very little reason for us to travel there.

Other than the shopping, one of the major benefits of living in a border community on the Canadian side is the availability of radio and television free from CRTC regulations. This means when I go home I get to listen to classic rock other than the Tragically Hip and Rush, can avoid shows like Dan for Mayor, Heartland, and Intelligence, and most importantly, get to watch American Super Bowl commercials.

The biggest differences between the two countries are food and weapons. Stop at a McDonald’s only 20 minutes over the border, between Port Huron and Detroit, the heart of Michigan militia country, and you’ll find not only that an American medium coffee is the size of a Canadian extra large, and you can’t get milk, only cream, to go in it, but also a parking lot full of pickup trucks with gun racks in the beds.

In addition to culturally and socially, the southern Ontario borderlands are more closely tied to Detroit than Toronto economically. The heavy industry, oil refineries, rubber factories, and auto plants of the Sarnia-Windsor corridor are mirror images of the Rust Belt Midwest. These intimate ties, while great in the middle of the 20th century, are admittedly a problem today, with the Windsor-Sarnia area having the second worst unemployment rate in Ontario. Any economic recovery plans for the areas will necessarily have to be cross-border in focus and reach as well, recognizing the reality of interconnectedness.

To my friend and fellow editor from “Toronto,” (read: Thornhill) who takes every opportunity to remind me that, “there is no Ontario outside of the GTA,” I will say this: we don’t care about you either. Toronto may think it’s the centre of the world, but those in the borderlands of the province know that despite a tough economy, they still have the best of both worlds.

McGill Tribune

Ambassador Fee Increase—YES

This proposal would raise the SSMU Ambassador Fee from $1.25 to $2.00. The opt-outable fee provides financial assistance for students looking to attend or host academic conferences, competitions, or other events. Such activities improve the university experience for countless students and also help maintain McGill’s reputation, thereby benefiting even students who do not personally use the funds. That the current year’s fund has already been depleted shows that students are actually using the money and that the additional funds would be put to good use. The answer to this first question is a definite “yes.”

 Midnight Kitchen Fee Increase—YES

This referendum question would increase Midnight Kitchen’s fee from $1.25 to $2.25 per semester. The student-run vegan food collective claims that the past year has brought increased turnout and therefore increased demand; that the kitchen requires repairs and replacement of equipment; and that without this fee increase they will have to shut down. Midnight Kitchen has also promised to use the increased funds to expand its catering services, especially to “anti-oppressive” groups. We hope that the collective will define this broadly. All SSMU clubs are mandated to be anti-oppressive, and as all students contribute to the pot they surely have equal rights to benefit from it. Notwithstanding that caveat, this fee increase is necessary, small, and in any case opt-outable. The Tribune hopes it will pass.

Creation of a Fee for the McGill International Student Network—NO

If passed, this motion would create a $0.50 opt-outable fee to fund the McGill International Student Network. While MISN certainly organizes fun events and provides valuable services for students new to Canada and McGill, we are concerned about the lack of specificity contained in the question regarding what exactly the extra funds would be used for. The question claims that because MISN currently has to run its events at cost , this “seriously hampers its potential as a service for international students.” There are many student groups and clubs, however, who run events at cost. We fail to see why all students should subsidize the group’s trips to Quebec City and elsewhere. All McGill services could benefit from additionaly funding; the question as proposed fails to demonstrate why MISN merits this fee above others.

TVMcGill Fee Renewal—YES

This question would allow TVMcGill to charge an opt-outable fee of $0.10 per credit. TV McGill is an important service. It is the only avenue at McGill for students interested in video work to get experience filming and editing. It has also expanded its offerings this year, live-streaming events like the General Assembly and SSMU candidate debates. We look forward to seeing it grow further in the future.

Referral Services Fee Renewal—YES

This question would renew the fees for Queer McGill, Nightline, and the Union for Gender Empowerment. These are all indispensable services that provide needed facilities to marginalized students. They are valuable destinations for student money.

It is a dark world out there. A state of war, each against each. You are all alone. It is mere penarchy.

Despite all our progress as a species, despite our eminent legal institutions and our many esteemed documents banning torture, protecting free speech, prohibiting the wearing of a fake moustache in church if it makes people laugh (Alabama), when it comes to possession of writing implements the only rule is that there are no rules. We are no better than the beasts.

The Trib office sucks up my pens. I come with three and leave with none. It is only a room, with four walls, and I imagine that if I’m losing pens it means someone else is gaining pens. I also know that whenever I see a pen lying around unguarded, especially if it’s a clicky-top that is satisfyingly smooth, I take a quick scan around the room and go in for the kill. I feel like an early hominid stealing a rival’s woman when he is out on a hunt. I’m prepared to defend myself with force, if necessary.

The banks have the right idea, as they so often do. Most chain their pens to the counter, recognizing their value and wishing to avoid the lawlessness of the streets and the Tribune office. Thomas Hobbes, the political theorist who originally conceived the idea of an primordial, pre-legal state of nature as a state of war, and famously described life in it as “nasty, poor, brutish, and short,” saw very clearly what this means. Responding to a hypothetical person unsympathetic to his description of the lawless state of nature, Hobbes wrote in Leviathan: “Let him therefore consider with himself … when going to sleep he locks his doors; when even in his house he locks his chests.” Hobbes is unclear as to whether he believes these behaviours indicate that we are still to some extent living in a state of war. I wonder whether he had any anxieties regarding the security of his quill.

Showing up for class without a pen, especially at a school as competitive as McGill, is like showing up for battle without your sword. You ask a fellow to borrow his spare and he looks at you warily. He assumes he will never see it again. You promise he will. And then you forget—honestly, you tell yourself later. It totally escaped your mind.

A recent mass clean of the Tribune office turned up scores of dusty pens, under couches and between cushions. I’m told this disproves my penarchy theory. I remain dubious. Pens are never found precisely where you left them. There are dark forces at work here, and they do not discriminate, clicky-top or no.

McGill Tribune

There is something enormously wrong with older men having the power when it comes to state laws regarding abortion. This idea is perfectly clear considering the recent bill passed by the North Dakota House of Representatives.

One of the most disgusting aspects of this story is that while abortion was legal at the one clinic that exists in North Dakota, laws were already in place compelling doctors to show pregnant women ultrasound images of their fetus with the goal of personalizing what the abortion was terminating. This behaviour is repulsively inappropriate, as the circumstances of the pregnancy could have been traumatizing and this action could be augmenting that terror. Furthermore, doctors were required to tell these women that they would be ending the life of an unborn child, who is a unique individual. This is shocking. Women should be respected and helped with whatever choice they make regarding their body, and their life, and absolutely no one should make them feel otherwise.

The issue of abortion has several different facets: women’s rights and men’s position with regards to this, religious opinions, and ethical approaches. Inquiries into what it means to be a conscious human being or how to define when life begins should be explored, but these are extensive, subjective philosophical debates. I will not touch on the religious issues; we live in diverse countries and each person should be entitled to their own beliefs, but those beliefs should not necessarily extend beyond their religious communities and affect everyone else. Ultimately, I think the importance of women’s views regarding a predominantly females issue surpasses the religious and ethical concerns. Women should be free to choose what to do with their own body and life; it is illogical and wrong to let men decide.

Given that men seem to dominate most political positions of power, there is the obvious problem of whether the position of a pregnant 16-year-old can be understood by them. This young girl has her whole life ahead of her, and it would not be an easy choice to abort a baby, but it is reassuring to know the choice exists. Children born when they are unwanted are unlikely to live successful, happy lives. As the book Freakonomics proved, there is a link between legalizing abortion and a drop in crime in the United States. This is because fewer children were born into unpleasant environments and thus more children grew up with proper care and nurturing.

You try being pregnant, Mr. 55-year-old-state-representative, at the age of 16, losing your life as you know it, and consequently being forced to spend a vital time of your life looking after a kid you never wanted, not to mention what your family thinks, or what this would mean for the future of that kid. The effects on the young mother and her child are detrimental, and this is the most important thing to reflect on. I hope other states do not follow North Dakota’s move, because that would be a sad step backwards for American society.

Chloe Turner-Bloom is a U2 philosophy and psychology student, and can be reached at [email protected].

It seems like there will be some big changes next year regarding tuition hikes, so what would be your big plan of action to fight them?

There are two parts to the strategy, one which is the more traditional lobbying set of things, meeting with MPs, presenting them with alternatives to tuition increases, things that they can do to finance universities other than through shifting the financial burden towards students. And number two is just getting the word on the street, informing students, thinking about the impact that tuition increases may have on them.

Other than lobbying, what would be your biggest goal for the QSR?

Our strongest stance in on out-of-province and international fees, that’s something that the Quebec Student Movement in general has been able to put aside partly because the majority of students in most Quebec universities pay Quebec tuition whether or not they’re international, so that’s something I would like to work on. More generally I think QSR can expand its policy work with the federal government.

How would you engage McGill students in Quebec politics?

Something that past externals have done is sort of lay out the positions each political party has in relation to post secondary education, provision of flyers so people can read the facts and make up their minds, so providing that kind of information would be a priority if there would be an election. Otherwise beyond party politics, there’s a lot going on in Quebec in terms of social movements, and a lot of the time the problem is that is doesn’t get translated into english both in terms of language and culturally, so I think a lot of my job would be to get people to know about the issues.

Another traditional role of the VP external is dealing with the Milton-Parc community, and it seems as if every year the problems remain, would you adopt any new strategies?

Vis-à-vis the Milton-Parc community I don’t think there’s anything to change in terms of our relations with them, they’re pretty good, there’s this sense of community endeavor. I don’t think that the changes that have to happen are necessarily at the level of our interaction with them, if anything it would be at the level of Frosh, often they feel that students are noisy. It’s not a question of inter-organizational relationships, it’s a question about sort of the culture that students have, and I wouldn’t be the one to change that.

If you were a cocktail what would it be?

 I’d say a rusty nail because I’d like to think I’m tough as nails.

Frosh is going to be significantly different next year. How much do you know about the changes that have been proposed or have already gone through and do you support them?

I’m worried that the change of a Frosh leader is going to have an effect on people who want to volunteer because I know a lot of students who want to be a Frosh leader see it as a time for them to party as well. But I’m worried with “orientation leader” where you now have to take students to Discover McGill, it’s going to lessen the effect that applying for a Frosh leader would have. I think that the VP internal has to stay strong in the advertisement [for Frosh leaders] and spin it in a way that will appeal to students and not let administration completely trample over Frosh.

A lot of people see VP internal as an event planner. What other aspects of the role would you focus on if elected?

I’m really intrigued by the political side. I know that the VP internal is known as being an apolitical position, but I’m a poli-sci major and eventually I want to go into politics, so I’m interested to learn the political aspect of it. Also, the communications aspect, I want to take “Get Ready McGill” to the next level for promoting SSMU events. I want to take that and hype it up to the extreme, making it a branded name, having it on Frosh cups, on tickets, so that when people see the logo, they start relating it to amazing events.

Do you have any ideas for new events next year?

I really want to have a speaker series. In high school Romeo Dallaire came and spoke to our school and that had the most profound effect on me. So I would really like to expand the variety of events that we have because it’s not all about the big epic parties, its about finding events that will reach out to all sorts of students on campus.  

If you could be one type of mixed drink, what type would you be and why?

On my grad trip to Cancun, they had these drinks called the Superman. They looked like a rocket Popsicle. I would say I would be the Superman because I could be a super hero to SSMU and help save all the events and I have different layers to me that combined make an amazing drink.