Turn Off Your TV?

I saw this tidbit of info on the Canadian Association of Journalists listserv, but I thought I would reproduce it here. It's particularly relevant given my recent hate-on for CBC's The Hour and for excuses made its name, such as "At least it's getting people involved with politics."

From Statcan:

The study found that the level of political engagement Canadians report is influenced by their frequency of news consumption and the choices they make from the media sources available to them.

Frequent followers of the news participate in more political activities. But the GSS data show that the media that people select does influence participation in non-voting political activities.

Those frequent users who chose only television tended to participate in fewer non-voting political activities. In fact, in terms of their involvement, people who used television as their only source of news closely mirrored those who did not follow the news at all.

This finding supports previous US research that lower rates of political participation are associated with using television as the only source of news.

One Step Ahead; Time to Contemplate

The above picture is one I took of a monkey fleeing a pack of pariah hounds in Udaipur, India. The picture below is of a different monkey, in the same place, taking time to reflect on life and look cool.

Given that this monkey is, at almost all times, in danger of being run down by hounds and torn to lavish tatters, yet still manages to find time to relax, chill out, and contemplate the larger things in life (presumably), I think it might not be that hard for us to do the same type of thinking despite life's stresses.

A Poem

The following is a poem by my favourite Chinese poet, Li Bai.

He is the only Chinese poet I really know, but he is loved by me for dying while trying to embrace the reflection of the moon in a pond, in which he was floating alone in a boat while drinking.

He is commemorated on a fan that I display to Bay Street in my window in Ottawa; a fan hand-painted by a very bizarre man in a public park near Duolun Lu in Shanghai.


花間一壺酒。 Among flowers with a pot of liquor;
獨酌無相親。 I pour alone but with no friend at hand;
舉杯邀明月。 So I lift the cup to invite the shining moon;
對影成三人。 Along with my shadow, a fellowship of three.

月既不解飲。 The moon understands not the art of drinking;
影徒隨我身。 The shadow gingerly follows my movements;
暫伴月將影。 Still I make the moon and the shadow my company;
行樂須及春。 To enjoy the springtime before it's too late.

我歌月徘徊。 The moon lingers while I am singing;
我舞影零亂。 The shadow scatters while I am dancing;
醒時同交歡。 We share the cheers of delight when sober;
醉後各分散。 We separate our ways after getting drunk;
永結無情遊。 Forever will we keep this unfettered friendship;
相期邈雲漢。 Til we meet again far in the Milky Way.

The Things We Forget

For a while now, I had forgotten a lot of the original reasons I wanted to do journalism; things that only pop up when I'm laying the rhetoric on thick in conversations about what journalism should and shouldn't be.

I saw this Marc Kelley CBC piece on homelessness tonight. It was good. I usually criticize the CBC for being too status quo and provincial -- of lacking depth and purpose, of providing comfortable middle class Canadians with conversation pieces. But tonight's was brilliant. It's what journalism should be, in a way.

And then, of all things, I throw on the Amandla soundtrack, which is about revolutionary music and its role in shaking the foundations of Apartheid South Africa.

Which brings me, in perhaps the most ludicrously positive post ever, to Kiva. I read about it in Foreign Policy and it looks incredible. It can transform you into a microcredit lender. I'm going to try it out soon enough (I have my eye on a pretty lady from Tajikistan).