News and Opinion from Montreal, Canada and the World
In what some are describing as the most brazen move of his political career, Prime Minister Stephen Harper admitted in a Parliament Hill news conference earlier this evening that he is, in fact, a cyborg from another planet sent to earth many years ago to get on the airwaves and slowly bore the populace to death.
“I felt that I had to come clean,” Harper told the stunned Ottawa press corps, “I mean, after all, transparency in government is…
The other night I was at a business seminar where my colleagues and I hoped to get advice in order to better ourselves in life and in our industry. For the most part it it was a huge success, as I learned things I might not have otherwise known. However, he dedicated the last twenty-five minutes or so to talking to us about the three forms of liberty, and while his business advice…
Amidst a “day of rage” which dwarfed previous protests, and following Mubarak’s defiant refusal to cede power in a televised statement last night, the Egyptian strongman has finally resigned. At this point details are scarce. We know that earlier today Mubarak left Cairo headed for Sharm-Al-Sheikh (an upscale resort city on Egypt’s coast), and only moments ago Vice-President Omar Suleiman appeared on national television and delivered a terse statement…
Shortly after the uprising in Tunisia, the people of Egypt began to rise up having had enough of the thirty plus years of President Hosni Mubarak’s military rule. The protests are now in their third week with no real end in sight. The protesters have had everything thrown at them from rocks to Molotov cocktails to whip wielding Mubarak thugs on camels and still the demonstrators refuse to budge an inch. Each Friday has climaxed after prayers with hundreds of thousands of pro-democracy advocates crowding Tahrir Square, each one of them holding their breathe for that moment when President Mubarak steps down. Mubarak has promised to step down at the end of his term in September, but most Egyptians aren’t buying his delay tactics. They say he is just buying his time, riding out the present storm in order to cling to power and possibly extract his revenge on the dissidents at a later date. So the time is now as they say.
When you’re up against the big boys like Bell and the CRTC, you only have a few options: make your point loud and clear (check), create a petition (check), convince the politicians that they want to be on the side of the people (check) and, last but most certainly not least, get funny and entertaining. The last option is about to become a reality with the help of a little Gurl Power!
Here in the online peanut gallery we tend to take particular notice of moves that shake the current dynamic of media and information delivery, and today’s tremor certainly has the potential to expand into a full-fledged earthquake. AOL, that stodgy and barely remembered provider of dial-up which used to litter our doorsteps with “free” installation CDs and tried to make the internet proprietary,has announced a $315 million purchase of the Huffington Post.
Every year on Superbowl Sunday I like to open up a beer, plant myself down in front of the TV and continue the groove I’ve been working into the sofa for over a year. Ever so often, however, this former Canadian Lit student wonders why I feel so compelled to saturate myself with American programming? Then I counter, why can’t I just be entertained by the awesome power of the “bread and circus” of my day? But really I can’t help but think of the implications of being in a culture that is so heavily influenced by its neighbor. Although it has happen before; remember that time Carthage got jealous of Rome?
On December 20, 2010, Mohamed Bouazizi, a street vendor tired of having his produce regularly confiscated and with no money to bribe municipal officials decided to burn himself alive in protest. Little did Bouazizi know at the time, his brave act of defiance would spread through Tunisia in a matter of days following his death on January 4th.
When an invading army or the leaders of a coup want to assert their control over a country, the first stop is usually the local TV station. Take control of the airwaves and the rest will follow.
If you’ve been keeping up to date with the goings on in Egypt you’ll know that the Egyptian government, with President Hosni Mubarak still technically in power, gave the order to shut off the internet for the entire country on Thursday. He hoped that this would quell protesters and decrease their power to assemble. What emerged instead was a renewed zeal among the protesters in a fight for their freedoms following a 30 year rule by President Hosni Mubarak. Protesters rallied together using grass roots campaigns to mobilize, such as this pamphlet describing techniques and things every protester should know.