Subway Etiquette

Public transportation is designed to be an affordable and convenient way to get around the city, but that does not mean that riding the subway in Toronto is always a pleasant experience. Subway cars are often packed like sardines, the plush seats are covered with stains, and strange smells that you can’t quite make out, linger in the stale air.

Crowding during rush hour and occasional delays are unavoidable, but other factors that contribute to the experience are largely controlled by the riders. Whether on your way to work, school or an appointment, your actions impact other peoples' experiences on the subway. This is why good subway etiquette is essential.

Here are a few suggestions that may make the daily commute a little easier for everyone to handle:

1. Move away from the door when the subway stops if you are not exiting. People will be able to come and go much quicker if the doorway is not congested with passengers that don’t blink an eye when the doors open.
2. Don’t put your chewed, stale gum on the seat. No one wants to unknowingly walk around with gum stuck to their butt all day.
3. Never push people out of the way to get to a recently vacated seat.
4. When you have a cold or the flu keep extra Kleenex in your pocket- don’t wipe your runny nose with your hand and then proceed to hang onto handle bar (note: always wash your hands after you’ve been on the subway).
5. Don’t throw your copy of the morning paper or half-empty coffee cup on the floor; hang onto your garbage for the extra minute or two before you pass by a garbage or recycling bin.
6. Make sure your dog is house broken before bringing them on the subway- no one likes to walk through puddles in the subway or the smell of urine.
7. Don’t stare at the person who is sitting a few inches away from you. This makes for an incredibly tense and uncomfortable subway ride.
8. When you are going up or down the escalator obey the simple principle of stand right, walk left.

Although these suggestions seem simple they could be the difference between having a good or bad day for a commuter.

Of Alien Abductions and Sleep Paralysis

Photo by Luz A. Villa

You wake up in the middle of a night. There are unusual flashes of light and a buzzing or a humming sound. Feelings of anxiety and fear take over you as you sense the presence of an unexplained being in the room. All of a sudden your chest feels heavy and you start having trouble breathing. You try to move, but you find yourself completely paralyzed except for your eyes. Your body starts to levitate … How would you respond?

If you have been exposed to enough popular media, you would probably think that you were experiencing a paranormal phenomenon; out-of-body experiences, ghosts, demonic encounters, poltergeists, and aliens… But in fact there is another, more plausible, explanation. Scientist point out the similarities between such enigmatic incidents and sleep paralysis.

During a typical sleep paralysis episode, a person wakes up fully conscious but without the ability to move for a few minutes, which can cause an intense feeling of fear, even terror. The person also experiences hypnagogic hallucinations, generally vivid and unpleasant, which occur at the onset of sleep or before awakening. In this paralyzed state between sleep and consciousness, the imagined aliens and demons will seem extremely real. This experience alone may be enough to create the feeling of having been abducted or possessed. Hypnosis, guided imagery, regression, and relaxation therapies could all make the memories of this real experience (but not real abduction) completely convincing, by lulling the “abductee” into a suggestive state.

It is not clear when sleep paralysis was first noted as a sleeping disorder, but the phenomenon seems to underlie common myths such as witch or hag riding in England, the Old Hag of Newfoundland, Kanashibari (literally meaning: "bound or fastened in metal") in Japan, and Karabasan in Turkey, among others. During the Medieval times, women who were pregnant, but not married, would often accuse an incubus, a demon which supposedly would lie upon sleepers in order to have sexual intercourse with them. This feeling of being smothered whilst sleeping has been known since the ancient times as a nightmare. While in our modern age, we choose not to believe in such fairy tales anymore, there are nearly four million Americans who claim that they have had certain indicator experiences and therefore had probably been abducted by aliens. According to a Gallup poll done at the end of the twentieth century, about one-third of Americans believe aliens have visited us, an increase of 5% over the previous decade. It seems that alien abductions are the contemporary sleep paralysis myths.

Of course just because people believe that they are being visited by aliens doesn’t mean that they are mentally ill. In fact, a study done in 1993, which compared forty-nine UFO reporters with two control groups, found that they were no less intelligent, no more fantasy prone, and no more hypnotizable than the controls. So why are people so susceptible to believing in something incongruous with reason, such as alien abductions? The answer is simple. William J. Cromie from Harward News Office explains, “Some people become so absorbed by what happened and seek an explanation of it. That can lead them into a grab of different techniques well known to those with a rich fantasy life and a distaste for scientific explanations.”


On a side note: If aliens actually arrived on earth to abduct our most successful inhabitant they would look to bacteria. By any criteria which you can judge a successful inhabitant bacteria would win hands down in terms of profusion, diversity, and the ability to live under extraordinary circumstances; even we entirely depend upon them to survive.

Tall, extra hot, sugar-free, vanilla, soy latte...

Photo by Janine

For many people their day doesn’t officially begin until they’ve had their morning cup of Joe. It provides that jump start they need to get them going in the morning and face the day’s challenges head-on.

My coffee vendor of choice is Starbucks- after seven years I can finally admit that I am a full blown Starbucks addict. If I don’t have my regular coffee in the morning I crave it and find myself having two coffees later that afternoon to make up for it.

For some people coffee tastes best in its simplest form, free of milk and sugar, but I have acquired a taste for a much more complicated drink. Something that only the staff at Starbucks can seem to make just the way I like it. Every morning when I ask for a tall, extra hot, sugar-free, vanilla, soy latte I know that it is going to be just what I need to take the morning edge off.

I have tried to cut my Starbucks habit down to once or twice a week, but I find myself making excuses as to why I need one: I’m tired, it’s cold outside, I deserve just one last coffee. Their staff knows how to get you hooked- they become friendly acquaintances, occasionally slipping you a free drink coupon or they increase your drink size to grande to keep you coming back- I always do.

My family and friends are enablers giving me Starbucks cards for birthdays, Christmas and even Easter. It would be an insult if I didn’t use their gift, and I wouldn’t want to be rude. I promise myself that I’ll quit once I’ve used up all of my gift cards but I just need one more tall, extra hot, sugar-free, vanilla, soy latte to get me through the day.

How much should you weigh?

Photo by Nelson Minar

I’ve been dieting for 41 years. I can safely say that I’ve never weighed the correct amount. And what is correct?

There are two popular sources for determining your correct weight, or perhaps more accurately stated, your healthy weight.

BMI – The Body Mass Index table uses a formula to calculate how much you should weigh depending on your height and gender. For the “average” adult this is a reasonable measure of ideal weight. The table also shows at which point you are considered overweight, obese and morbidly obese.

Insurance tables – These were first developed by Met Life in 1943. The tables are also based on height and gender, and also look at your frame size. The size of your frame is determined by the width of your elbow. The bigger your frame, the higher the average weight for your height.

The whimsically named “Happy Weight” chart from Self magazine uses a combination of these parameters. It uses a formula based on your height, a BMI of 22, your frame size (based on your wrist size), age, and a few questions about your parents and your lifestyle. It’s also only for women and perhaps lacks some of the scientific rigor of the BMI chart.

If I plug my measurements into each of these tools, I get roughly the same healthy weight suggestion. A l-o-o-o-n-g way from my current weight.

The best place to help determine your ideal weight is a visit to your doctor. Get weighed. Get your blood pressure measured. Get your cholesterol measured. Your doctor can provide guidance on what your healthy weight should be.

If you’re not at a healthy weight, the doctor can make suggestions on how to reach this weight. Of course, there’s always Dr. Google to help find articles on how to change your habits to reach your healthy weight. Just remember that if you make any changes, you should check with your doctor first especially if embarking on an exercise regimen or changes to what you eat.

Did I tell you I’m big boned?

To the Girl in the Photograph

You haven't met me yet, but I have known you for quite a while now - a little over a decade to be exact. You were my favorite age. Even as a ten-year-old you knew exactly who you were. Don't worry, you haven't exactly changed through all these years, but you did have to grow up, perhaps sometimes a little unwillingly.

• Dance! Dance even when you think you look like an idiot. The chances are you probably do look like an idiot, but you will never feel freer.

• Read. Read anything you can get your hands on because there are no limits to knowledge. As Oscar Wilde once said; "There are no moral or immoral books. Books are either well written or badly written. That is all".

• And while on the subject of Oscar Wilde, know that he died in 1900 and that he isn't the same person as Stephen Fry, although there is an uncanny resemblance. I'm sorry that Madame Tussauds 1997 catalog with Fry posing next to the Wilde wax figure had you fooled, which brings me to my next point:

• If only your English had been good enough to translate the short paragraph under that image you would have figured it out by yourself. Trust me and study the language because you're going to want to read everything Stephen Fry will ever write.

• You will know what it feels to have heroes.

• I don't want to alarm you but you will be moving to another country. And although you won't even be able to locate this country on a map right now (it's right here), know that you will consider it your second home for seven extraordinary years. When you feel like you would give anything to be somewhere else, remember, this is a unique experience that will make you a cultured, understanding, and all together, a better human being.

• You don't have to believe in God. And that's ok. Now can you please tell that to your Religions teacher in sixth grade?

• You will soon learn that mothers are often right, except for the times when they are not (although don't ever let her know that).

• You don't actually want to be in International Relations - just a warning.
  

• Don't stop kissing your parents goodnight.

• On the morning of August 29, 2001, call your grandmother and tell her she will always be your favorite person in the world. Later in the afternoon when you ring her doorbell and she doesn't answer, do not enter the house.

Hang in there ten-year-old self, you're going to be ok.
And don't worry about the future, I'll do that for the both of us.

Room 221B

It is known as "Room 221B" in the library - a small, cluttered room on the fifth floor, furnished in the Victorian style, and named after an address on Baker Street in London, an address that does not actually exist. After circling every floor in the building, I finally spotted the well known silhouette above a door in the far end corner. With a calabash pipe and a deerstalker hat, he is one of the most universally recognizable fictional characters in history. This is the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection in the Toronto Reference Library, a celebration of the author and his works and, of course, Sherlock Holmes.

Photo by Jose Maria Mateos

Perhaps I would have never discovered the ACD Collection if I wasn't given a research assignment on the Toronto Reference Library a few months ago. Until this point I had never been inside a public library. I'm also ashamed to admit that although I am familiar with his stories (thank you ITV!), I had never actually read a Doyle novel.

I was greeted inside by the curator of the collection, Peggy Perdue. A petite woman with glasses, she spoke in a calm voice as if not to disturb the atmosphere of the room. "Let me know if you need any help," she said. I was curious to know why Arthur Conan Doyle? Peggy explained to me that the idea of a special Doyle collection was born in 1969 when the library acquired a collection of fiction by the author and expanded it from there. "And there has always been a great interest in his work," she added. (In fact there are three new Sherlock Holmes projects coming up in the next year; Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes starring Robert Downey Jr., a so far untitled comedy co-produced by Judd Apatow and starring Sacha Baron Cohen as the master detective, and BBC's contemporary remake simply titled Sherlock.)

I was surprised to be the only visitor in the room but Peggy told me I had just missed a group of eight. A man in his fifties entered the room shortly after and Peggy introduced him to me as "Bob", better known as Robert Coghill, a Sherlockian who serves the board of directors of the Friends of the ACD Collection. Upon learning of my interest in the room he took me around to tell me about each object personally. The allusions to the Holmesian world spread all around the room were not meant for a novice like me, but Bob, an aficionado, told me all about the references to the Persian slipper lying on the mantel, the six Napoleon busts lined up on a shelf, and the porcelain boot given as a present to the collection.

The library collects different editions of Doyle's works, along with rare editions and translations in 40 to 50 different languages (which testifies to his world-wide popularity), adaptations, parodies, pastiches, as well as critical and biographical studies. Only a few people come into this room to read, for research or for pleasure, and most of the collection's visitors regard it as nothing more than a museum to be quickly browsed and admired. I wondered how many people who visit this room are even aware that it holds a copy of the first Sherlock Holmes story ever published (in Beeton's Christmas Annual of 1887, one of thirty copies in the world). "A private copy was sold last year for $156000," Bob informed me, before storing the 121-year-old magazine back away in its box and locking it in a cabinet. "It is kept under three different locks so it's safe here," he smiled.

I found it difficult not to become an enthusiast as I was fascinated by the artifacts surrounding me. I promised myself to come back and pull up a comfortable chair by the illuminated stained glass window depicting the character who just two hours before I barely knew anything about. Unfortunately I was soon sucked back into the reality of my modern life and was never able to visit the room again.

At least I know now that the Room 221B exists, somewhere.



The Collection is open from 2:00pm to 4:00pm on Tuesdays, Thursday and Saturdays and by appointment. Toronto Reference Library is located on 789 Yonge St.

To Be, Or Not To Be....Uncool

Flickr photo by tatu43

I am officially uncool.

This moment of revelation came while I visiting an old teenage haunt, The Dungeon. I spent almost every weekend at the basement all-ages club from the age of 15 to the end of high school. Some of my fondest memories happened there, though I would never repeat most of them to my parents even now.

I found myself there again to hear a friend’s band play. Walking in those doors again was surreal because the place had literally not changed from the time I was there, but my group and I did not fit in. We were the oldest people in the room, save for the band we were there to see and the parents of some of the other bands (who we later found ourselves hanging out with in the 19+ section). Our clothes were not skin tight, our hair was not cut asymmetrically, and some of us were even wearing colours.

This wasn’t the moment of revelation though – that came when the band started and the youngsters started “dancing”. At first I thought medical attention was needed due to what looked to be a group seizure, but I was informed by somebody cooler than myself that what these kids were doing was actually a new trend called throwdown.

Noun
Throwdown
(slang, hardcore punk music) A type of hardcore dance in which a person violently clears a space for himself and appears to be ready to fight those around him, while making violent and erratic movements with his body.

- Wikipedia

I grew up during the nu metal period when weird looking people were the norm and I could safely navigate my way through a mosh pit, but I had a sense that night of what my parents must have thought as I was running off to concerts as a teen. That is when it dawned on me, for as much as I thought I was cool back then, I am just completely uncool now.

A Renewed Appreciation or How I Learned to Deal with the Economic Crisis

The weight of it is balanced between thumbs below, and fingertips above. It must be held in the most particular way, not sacrifice its contents. At first bite, it’s soft, then biting further through the layers – saucy, crispy, juicy – its all brought together in perfect combination, to be chewed…savoured…devoured. I nod and release a sound acknowledging my satisfaction. I never knew before just how much I love burgers.

Step aside MacDonald's and M&M Meats Shops. During the past six months, indulgent burger dine-ins and take-outs have been expanding their reach across the city. Founded on the principals of quality meats, unique toppings (rosemary mayo?) and freshness, made-to-order. A $9-$17 comfort meal is the best way splurge during tough economic times. Eating your emotions never tasted so good.

Earliest claim to the burger creation is Charlie Nagreen who dished-up the first “hamburger” between two slices of bread at the Outagamie County Fair of 1885 by flattening a meatball. Seymour, Wisconsin, has declared their town of 3,000 to be “home of the hamburger” and holds an annual celebration of the bun’d beef.

"Hamburger" now shortened to "burger" has, according to Wikipedia, become a generic term:

...[it] may refer to sandwiches that have ground meat, chicken, fish (or even vegetarian) fillings other than a beef patty, but share the characteristic round bun.

Toronto has many great vegetarian options and I recently enjoyed a delicious “Redemption Burger” – a stacking of Portobello mushrooms on a whole wheat bun – served-up at Sin & Redemption (136 McCaul Street).

Yet is a burger a burger without beef?

Acme Burger at 500 Bloor St. W, is sandwiched in the sushi war-zone of the Annex. It's open late enough to feed the post last-call crowd pouring out of Lee’s Palace and the Ye Olde Brunswick House until 4 a.m. The company opened its first location at Queensway & Royal York in 2006 and serves-up 100% certified angus beef.

Burger Shoppe opened its second location Burger Shoppe Quality Meats (which includes an expanded menu) at 210 Ossington. Burger Shoppe owner, Saeed Mohamed, was "tired of the corporate fast food chains,” (aren't we all?) sparking the idea for a burger venture that uses local ingredients and recyclable, biodegradable utensils and packaging.

Former Burger Shoppe partner, Mustafa Yusuf, left to open Craft Burger (573 King St. W) and in January, opened its second at 830 Yonge St. Their organic beef option is sourced from The Healthy Butcher. The "Craft Blue" (pictured top left) is a 6 oz. fresh - never frozen - patty topped with gorgonzola cheese, avocado, lettuce, tomato, and rosemary mayo...sided with fries and an old-style root beer by Boylan. Priced at $16.50 for the combo, you would never know there's a recession by the full tables and the endless queue of customers.

On Queen West near Bathurst, a papered store-front window declares a new burger business, Oh Boy! Burger Market (flippin' good), is scheduled to open soon. The patrons of Tattoo Rock Parlour and others will have an alternate option to Pizza Pizza.

Summer weekends in northern Ontario are filled with memories of my father; platter stacked and ready, basting brush in hand, barbecue sauce bottle precariously balanced on the edge of the tray. The grill ready to go. Soon it would be time to sit outside in the summer sun and eat.

Stepping outside my Toronto apartment, on a cold March day, a summer taste experience isn’t too far away...no matter the balance in my bank account.

All photos by Nina H.

Privatization: The Big Bad Wolf of Health-Care In Canada

Photo by Vangelis Thomaidis

I love our health-care system in Canada.

I love that I am one of the fortunate ones who has a family doctor, and who can always get an appointment same day. I love that I don’t have to worry about whether I have enough money in the bank to get treatment when I am sick.

But there are problems, of course, as nothing is perfect. When I had my first seizure two years ago I had to wait two months before I could even get an initial appointment with a neurologist. As a result I had another seizure. So what, right? Well it is a big deal when the Ministry of Transportation says you can have an isolated seizure and have your driver’s license suspended for a month, but more than one seizure and your license is suspended for at least 6 months.

So I lost my license for 6 months, which caused a huge strain on my job, my relationship, my family, and my budget. Thank god I am lucky to have supportive friends and family around me, but I wonder what would have happened had I been able to see my neurologist that first week and get on the right medication right away to control the seizures. Considering the fact that I have been seizure free since starting on treatment I would wager a guess that I could have had my independence back far sooner than the almost eight months it took to have my license reinstated. Would I have paid for this privilege? In a heartbeat.

I don’t have all the answers to make a two-tier system work, but I believe it could with the right regulations (I realize that I am probably one of a small majority of Canadians who believe this). I don’t want to take anything away from our public system, again I love our health-care system in Canada - I just want more choice. As I see it, in a perfect world the word “privatization” would be a term worth considering, rather than a curse word meant to be shot down the moment it is uttered.

Is Your Minister a Mentor? (Part 2)

Photo by Carf.

Ministry training must offer healthy mentoring and leadership models. It should provide a mentoring experience that will be so valued by the laity that they will seek other mentors in the future to help them pursue lifelong discipleship. Learning opportunities must be provided throughout a minister's years of mentoring to address Christian responses to new situations, current events and the popular culture of Canada. A recent series in the National Post called the "Virtues of Austerity" have highlighted the trend towards spiritual revival during this current economic whirlwind.

The very practice of modeling and mentoring or apprenticing others is a critical leadership characteristic in The United Church. However, it is not accidental; it is a intentional practice of your minister, or instigated by the one doing the mentoring, that takes time and commitment. Is your minister a mentor or is he or she trapped spending the bulk of their time in managing the minutiae of daily church life? Is your minister a mentor or does the lay leadership try to abdicate their responsibilties, taking the attitude that they pay the minister to run the church? Is your minister swamped by details, lost an awareness of a unified vision or withdrawn into survival mode?

Ministers who are mentors tend to be initiative takers who are prepared to accept the risks involved in innovative ministries. They are internally motivated, creative and sometimes gregarious, and they surround themselves with people who share many of these same characteristics.

We were designed by God to need other people in our path: someone to mentor us (Paul), someone to encourage us (Barnabas), and someone for us to mentor (Timothy).

Is your minister the prime influence for recruiting and mentoring more leaders to maintain further momentum toward the kingdom of God? In a postmodern Canadian culture your minister is likely to receive far fewer "strokes" than in bygone generations. Ask whether your minister has mutual mentoring with a theologian, with other successful peers, with spiritual advisors, and with apprentices sharing life lessons and encouragement to the ministries of your church.

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The Fighting Nerds

A man in a small screen on the Web is talking about his brother, puppy-sized elephants, Queen Ranavalona I of Madagascar, and Shakespearean insults. It’s hard to grasp a lot of what he is saying but there is something about the way he speaks that is transfixing. His words are rushed as he often appears to be in a conversation with himself, with the help of fast screen cuts. His sense of humour is infectious. Soon enough you find yourself trying to anagram the names of politicians and adding the phrase “in my pants” after every book title.

Meet John Green. He is a Printz Award winning author whose hobbies include summarizing famous works of literature in lolcat form. His brother, Hank Green, the founder of the Clean Technology website EcoGeek, writes songs about Harry Potter and Helen Hunt in his free time. Together, they are self-proclaimed geeks, who oddly resemble the Scottish band, The Proclaimers.

On January 1, 2007, the two brothers started a video project called Brotherhood 2.0 in an attempt to cease all text-based communication (that means no emails, no instant messaging, and no texting), and instead make daily video blogs. They were inspired by another vlogger (video blogger), Ze Frank, and knew they really wanted to become a part of the YouTube community. The project has helped the brothers restructure their brotherhood but by putting it on YouTube it has also allowed them to affect the lives of many others.

The vlogbrothers’ videos have been watched more than 10 million times in total and they currently have a subscriber list of around 64000 viewers, many of who identify themselves as “nerdfighters” – a title based on John's misreading of the name on an arcade game machine he saw at an airport. But what is a nerdfighter exactly? According to John Green, a nerdfighter is a person who is “made out of awesome”. And these unique people are the reason why Brotherhood2.0 is such a huge success.

With a little bit of inspiration from the vlogbrothers, the nerdfighters were able to create a close-knit community, plan gatherings, participate in online and offline scavenger hunts, and help take over YouTube’s Most Discussed Page on December 19, 2007, and again on December 17, 2008, with videos from YouTubers that all displayed the same thumbnails image “Nerdfighter Power Project for Awesome”, each promoting a worthy charity from Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis to The Uncultured Project which brings attention to the issue of global poverty.

After an hour spent at the Ning, an online forum where nerdfighters like to hang out, it’s not hard to see the impact the vlogbrothers’ project has had on their viewers, especially their teen audience. I ask the nerdfighters at the Ning how they would describe being a nerdfighter and in a matter of minutes my question receives replies from nerdfighters of different ages, from all over the world. Francis, a seventeen year old sci-fi geek from Virginia, talks to me about being made fun in school for using “big words” like reference, and having uncontrollably puffy hair. “Nerdfighters has taught me that it's okay for me to be a nerd.” Another high school student from Manchester, UK, writes “To me being a nerdfighter is like being in a huge family of amazing, unique people, who are proud to be themselves.” Their answers are echoed in countless other replies from Harry Potter fans in Alaska to Doctor Who addicts in Australia.

Although the Brotherhood 2.0 project has ended almost a year ago, the brothers decided to continue posting their vlogs on YouTube. They have recently completed an All-American Tour de Nerdfighting with hundreds of people attending each event. John Green finishes the video by saying “Best Wishes”, another one of the nerdfighter inside jokes, and DFTBA – Don’t forget to be awesome.

A matter of taste

Flickr photo by Jordan Dickson

Packed into cold display cases like a box of Crayola, glacéau vitaminwater is liquid colour you can drink.

Priced at most convenience stores for $1.99 plus tax, it can sometimes cost over $3 at those less-than convenient locations.

Holding the “defense” flavour in hand, a sweet, yet light mix of raspberry and apple flavour and a (tasteless) vitamin combination of C plus zinc, the label (cheekily) describes its benefits as follows:

"if you’ve had to use sick days because you’re actually been sick then you’re seriously missing out my friends. see, the trick is to stay healthy and use sick days to just um, not go in. so drink up. the combination of zinc and fortifying vitamins keep you healthy as a horse.”

The medicinal ingredients are listed below: vitamin C (ascorbic acid) at 90 mg for the 591 ml bottle, and zinc at 3.75 mg. The bottle also contains vitamin B3 (niacinamide) at 5 mg, B6 (pyridoxine HCI) 0.5 mg, and 1.5 mcg of B12 (cyanocobalamin). The water itself has undergone a treatment of “reverse osmosis” – another way of saying “filtered.”

There's a saying: if you can’t pronounce it, you shouldn’t eat it. Does the average person really know what the health benefits of 5 mg of vitamin B3 is? Eating one orange should supply a person with more than their daily requirement of vitamin C.

In the winter issue of U of T Magazine, Andrew Miall, a U of T geology professor calculated the cost of basic bottled water was 300 to 3,000 times more than tap water – and bottled does not make better quality.

National Post columnist Diane Francis picked-up on Miall’s calculations at the Saskatchewan Festival of Words in Moose Jaw. “Bottled water is the biggest consumer/taxpayer rip-off ever,” she said, declaring it “consumer stupidity”, not to mention the environmental impact of packaging and transporting H20. Yet one excuse for buying bottled, is that convenience continues to play a large part in our grab-and-go lifestyle.

During his recent Toronto appearance at U of T Hart House, New York Times columnist and author Mark Bittman – whose latest book, Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating is a discourse on how our diets are destroying ourselves and the planet – said:

"Basic one-ingredient foods – the foods that don’t have any ingredients, because they are the ingredient – don’t make anybody any real money. No one wants to sell you oat bran. They want to sell you oat bran in a granola bar."

Bittman's statement is easily applied to water-marketing. Why have tap water when you can buy “cleaner” filtered tap-water. Why buy filtered tap water when you can buy “flavoured” and vitamin-enhanced water? Coca-Cola, who now owns glacéau, is counting on consumers drinking-up water containing another non-medicinal ingredient: cane sugar (should we be happy it’s not artificial?)

The brand has staying-power, having launched in the U.S. nearly 9 years ago (in Toronto, it seemed to arrive overnight in one colourful wave), even though the U.S. Centre for Science in the Public Interest has declared it to be nothing more than junk food disguised as a health product.

So choose to drink vitamin water for the ease, the taste, the popularity – not the “health” benefits. To drink to your health, pour yourself a glass of tap water. Read the Canadian Food Guide, and get your daily fix of vitamins from the likes of fruits and vegetables.

Would a celebrity be willing to market that?

Leaders from the Margin

Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, Prime Minister of Iceland, Government of Iceland

In “Shock Doctrine” Naomi Klein's thesis is that in times of either man-made or natural disasters governments will institute policies that favour capitalists. As the world is now undeniably experiencing a man-made global economic disaster, we might also be experiencing another interesting phenomenon. That is choosing leaders usually left on the sidelines. Barack Obama is one of these leaders. The first leader of African-descent elected in North America or in Europe.

On February 1, Iceland’s coalition government chose Johanna Sigurdardottir as prime minister. She will lead until Icelanders go to the polls on April 25. Ms. Sigurdartottir is the first openly gay prime minister.

In the 1930’s two world leaders also came to prominence from the margins. Franklin D. Roosevelt could be considered from the margins, as he was a liberal politician. Adolph Hitler was at the opposite end of the spectrum. Mahatma Gandhi, though not elected to the highest office in India, was a major political and spiritual leader. Nelson Mandela, considered a terrorist for most of his life, was elected as South Africa’s prime minister in 1994.

For many people just saying any one of these names – Roosevelt, Hitler, Gandhi, Mandela – automatically describes an era or a movement that was world changing. It’s early days for Obama, but even now for many his name is synonymous with hope and change for the better.

The election of a lesbian prime minister in one of the world’s smallest countries may not herald the beginning of a run for the highest office in other lands by gay politicians, but at least the door has been opened. If elected on April 25 she will be the first gay politician elected prime minister.

In tough times it seems as if the electorate is more open to choosing the unconventional candidate. Isn’t this counter intuitive? Why wouldn’t the safer candidate be selected? Is it “that it couldn’t get any worse?” Or is it that shaking things up might yield good results?

Is Your Minister a Mentor?

You could have been confirmed, gone to church for years and nobody would have noticed except that a leader got together with you and started mentoring. That kind of commitment developed a mooring for the kind of leadership I imagine for the church. See St. Stephen's United Church.

There are countless testimonials across The United Church of Canada of different variations of that same story. Whether in business, commerce, education, government, or the military, our church's history is full of people who now have a relationship with Christ because of the impact of others on their lives. In fact, not only has it happened in individual lives, we also need faithful modeling and effective mentoring to happen in our emerging church life.

This mark of leadership is also a hinge, the point of transition between the commitment already identified by showing up on Sunday morning and further marks of leadership yet to be explored by the laity. When it comes to leadership formation, people need more than a good sermon; people need to be apprenticed or mentored. The combination of mentoring and leadership development equals apprenticeship, which seems to be a lost art in my church today. Case in point: consider the characters in the Bible of Paul, Barnabas, and Timothy. One contributes to the building of our life, another who is a brother or sister to keep us accountable, and a younger person into whose life we can contribute. Each person in the pew needs a "Paul." Each of us needs a "Barnabas." Each of us needs a "Timothy."

The time has longed passed in The United Church when the laity needs power figures or authorized structures to access information. Leaders who are still operating within a hierarchical structure see their role as one of delegating and granting permission. Laypeople today have quick access to a staggering amount of information. Our young people who already function within a network empower and grant resources to those around them without trying to exert control. Controllers bring a mentality of suspicion and inhibit individuals from excercising initiative.

The task of the minister is to serve in a mentoring relationship of mutual accountability so that discernment may be exercised. A mentor identifies the true motivation of the person being mentored while providing wise counsel and spiritual support. The combination of unbridled access to information and diffuse boundaries of truth available from today's technology creates a tempting and potentially toxic environment in which our laity makes decisions about life. I have an eighteen and a twelve-year-old son at home who can find anything available in cyberspace. They can search MySpace, FaceBook, UTube, private chat rooms, weblogs - it's a big world getting closer and moving faster all the time. Just like a parent, the minister can help the laity make their decisions and to help carry the responsibility for the course of action to which they commit themselves.

Barack Obama: Setup For Failure?

Photo by Rusty Darbonne, Sept. 28 2008

The inauguration of Barack Obama has come and gone, and I’m still feeling the same level of skepticism I had during all the pre-inauguration hype.

Don’t get me wrong, I am happy that it seems good change has finally come, and I understand now why it was necessary for George Bush to flounder as he so often did, as I’m not convinced Americans would have been ready for an African-American (or other visible minority) President otherwise.

I just can’t help but feel that Barack Obama is being set up for failure.

This is certainly a less than ideal time to inherit the legacy of the previous administration – with two unpopular wars on the go and a worldwide economic recession that will likely get worse before it gets better. Obama seems to have taken on mythic proportions, which is certainly understandable considering his charisma and magnetism, his innate ability to inspire.

Yet he is still just a man, only now with huge responsibilities that most of us can’t even begin to comprehend. He has become a role model for visible minorities, and while there is nothing amiss about that, I can’t help but wonder what will happen if (and this is a very likely if) the time comes that Obama makes the decision to take military action in the home country of the same people who so idolize him now. It is ironic to me that the parts of the world where he is seen as being the Second Coming are the same places most likely to come under military operation by the U.S. - at the hands of the man who is a deity now.

What then? I fear a severe backlash against Obama, and I have to admit that I find it grossly unfair to the new President. The reality is that no U.S. Administration in the past 100 years has withheld from using military forces to some capacity, and given the current polarization of the world it is unlikely that Barack Obama will be the one to break that record.

Is Your Minister a Mentor?

You could have been confirmed, gone to church for years and nobody would have noticed except that a leader got together with you and started mentoring. That kind of commitment developed a mooring for the kind of leadership I imagine for the church.

Links From Today's Class (February 17)

Toronto Life's website (note the balance of text to ads).

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The Waiting Game

This feeling of exhaustion begins as you step into the waiting room of a doctor’s office; most have the same look and feel - walls covered with outdated, textured wallpaper, small tears along the seams, the trim and chair rail are painted in pale sea-foam green; old magazines - Chatelaine, Reader’s Digest, Sports Illustrated, and National Geographic - seem to be favorite subscriptions for most doctor’s offices, stacked on the tables separating the rows of patients seated uncomfortably close together, covers are torn, and the pages are stuck together with a mysterious glue like substance. The easy listening music of 104.5 CHUM FM playing on the radio is drowned out by the persistent coughing, and sneezing of waiting patients. The receptionist quietly sits behind a thin layer of protective plastic, with a small opening at the base of the counter top, which is reserved for health cards, and new patient forms.

After you check in at reception, the waiting game begins. You anticipate the hours you will spend sitting, waiting for the opportunity to briefly speak with a doctor. No matter what time of day you arrive at the doctor’s office, the waiting room is always packed - full of people who one can only assume would rather be in bed, wishing the doctor made house calls. Every minute feels like ten minutes should have passed; other patients act as your measure of time and, ultimately, how much longer you will have to wait.

Slowly, the nurse picks up a file, and one-by-one calls patients by last name; everyone perks up, hoping to hear theirs called. Once called, they quickly gather their belongings, drop the half read magazine on the chair, and follow the nurse. This brief moment of satisfaction is lost when you realize you are being taken to another waiting area.

This new waiting area is secluded with no way to measure your place in line; there are no magazines, no other patients, just you and an examining table. You carefully listen for the thumping sounds of wooden soles walking down the hallway. As the thumping becomes louder, you know you’re next - your wait has come to an end.

The doctor spends a few minutes assessing what often feels like an endless list of symptoms, and scribbles down something on a prescription pad, which you hope the pharmacist will be able to decode, and sends you on your way.

Walking out of the office you feel puzzled, if every patient only sees the doctor a few minutes, why do you have to wait so long?

Catch him if you can

When it was announced earlier this month that President Obama had chosen Canada as his first visit abroad as President, hotel rooms in Ottawa were quickly booked as individuals and organizations like Canadians for Obama were planning pilgrimages to the capital for the February 19th arrival.

The man who inspired millions, within and outside the United States to cheer – “Yes we can!” – is not getting the full state-visit-treatment. A state dinner was held for George W. Bush. Mulroney sang with Reagan. And John F. Kennedy planted a tree. But when President Obama arrives on Thursday, you won’t see him – other than on the evening news.

The City of Ottawa has posted a Q&A for events, traffic and protests (none scheduled) on the day of the visit:

Q: Where can I see President Obama
A: President Obama is in Ottawa on a working visit and may not be speaking to the public or attending public events.

Although Ottawa is also celebrating its final weekend of Winterlude, with only lunch in the Senate dining hall and a press conference scheduled during the 7-hour agenda, there’s no chance we’ll see President Obama sampling a Beavertail on the canal.

So line-up in the projected rain and snow on Parliament Hill…and maybe, just maybe, you’ll see the President exit his Cadillac One.

MPs were also calling for the House to be called back into session in order for President Obama to make an address, such as his Excellency Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations did in 2004.

Why does Prime Minister Harper want to keep President Obama all to himself?

We should be applauding. Only bureaucrats know the true cost of a presidential visit and why spend Canadian tax dollars on dinners and photo-ops during this economic downturn. This will just be the first of many visits Obama may make during his term.

Only weeks ago, the US government’s economic stimulus bill was calling for a “Buy American” provision. The wording has now been modified (thank you, NAFTA).

Our economies are linked and let’s be thankful there’s a U.S. President who is popular enough people want to see him rather than protest him. Let’s also be thankful he’s a President who wants to work with other foreign leaders and Harper, though not a majority favourite, is a Prime Minister who would also rather get to the business at hand.

Safety for subway riders

Don't stand too close to the yellow line on the subway platform today. You won't know if the people around you have taken their prescribed medications.

Two teenagers had a close call last week when they were pushed onto the tracks at the Dufferin subway. A 47-year old man has been charged with attempted murder and assault. Psychiatric drugs were requested for the man during his court appearance.

Less than eight months ago, a man was pushed off the platform at College Station. In that case, no perpetrator was found.

Subway travelers are targets worldwide. In 2007, in London England, a man was killed when he was pushed onto the tracks by a 20-year old man, a voluntary patient at a mental health centre, who was upset over losing a bet on the World Cup. The deceased was not known to the man, who was later found guilty of murder.

Also in 2007, a woman was pushed onto the track in New York's Union Square stop. The woman was not physically harmed. In an earlier incident in 1999, the passenger was killed. The perpetrator, who also had mental health issues, was convicted of manslaughter.

In Vienna, several passengers were pushed onto the tracks by a 28-year old man. Vienna's public transport authorities said "It was almost impossible to prevent such attacks."

Only on some lines of the Tokyo Metro could these events have been avoided. They have platform barriers to prevent passengers from falling onto tracks. Tokyo's subway authority has a publicly available and robust safety program, due in large part to the extensive use of their system (6.22 million riders per day, just slightly ahead of London's ridership) and to the Sarin gas attacks in 1995.

A brief non-scientific survey of public subway systems, did not find any publicly disclosed information regarding how many passengers are injured or killed each year by being pushed onto tracks.

The larger issue of safety for all riders is being addressed by the TTC by installation of CCTV cameras throughout the system to monitor public areas, DWA - Designated Waiting Areas, TTC Special Constables, and now Toronto Police Services, patrolling the system.

Someone intent on pushing a fellow passenger onto tracks would probably not be stopped by any of these measures. Barriers, as in the Tokyo Metro, would be the best way to stop a fall or push onto tracks. But the cost of installing barriers, and changes to subway operations, may be cost prohibitive for most systems.

In some cases, perpetrators have been characterized as mentally unstable. In New York State, a controversial law was passed, Kendra's Law, to ensure patients released from mental health facilities continue to take their prescribed medications. This law was, in part, instituted following the death of the NYC subway passenger in 1999.

In Ontario, there are Community Treatment Orders to ensure those who were under psychiatric care at specific points in the past, can continue to receive psychiatric assistance in the community. There is no indication yet that the accused in the most recent incident was under this order.

It is not the case that all people who neglect their medications go on to commit violent acts in the subway, or elsewhere. It is the case that people with mental health issues, who may become violent, and have had medications prescribed should be more closely monitored. People being pushed out of the mental health system is as troublesome as people being pushed onto the tracks. Falling into the crack or onto a track can lead to a disastrous outcome.