Tijuana, here we come
Did you hear the good news, friend? Poverty is on the decline. So much for U of T’s Mob4Glob crew—organizing busses to protests in Ottawa; telling us free trade is bad for the developing world; saying the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are ruthless oppressors. The statistics are in, and it’s clear that the last ten years of trade liberalization have only helped the developing world.
If anything, they’ve helped it too much. Our precious Canadian standard of living is now at risk. We’re being beaten by the Mexicans. The Mexicans! Those bastards. According to the United Nations, 17 per cent of Canadians live in poverty, compared to only 10 per cent of Mexicans.
How do they do it? Well, the Mexican secret begins with knowing the right people. In this case, at the United Nations. The lucky bastards have got the United Nations to calculate poverty in two different ways—one for industrialized nations, one for the developing world.
So in Canada, poverty means the cost of adequate food, shelter, clothing, health and education. But in the developing world, it is measured by lifespan, education and “access to public and private resources.” Needless to say, the Mexicans come out on top every time. Well, they may not have enough food to eat or a place to live, but at least they’re not poor!
Of course, as good as the UN’s reputation is, you really need some more facts. Especially when you’re faced with those pesky globophobes with their threatening “hey hey, ho ho” slogans. Damn, those are catchy. You need backup if you’re going to defeat them (and perhaps remake government and the world economy while you are at it).
For this Mexicans—and their cigar-smoking kingpin friends in the developing world—can thank the World Bank. World Bank numbers also assure us poverty is dropping—and fast. Of course, the World Bank is nothing if not reasonable. They’ve defined poverty as an income of one dollar per day or less (which still leaves 1.3 billion living in poverty). What that makes sweatshop workers sewing Nikes for $6 per day is anyone’s guess. Some sort of Malaysian fat cats, we suspect. Who knew the cardboard boxes they live in were actually fashionable statements in modern architecture, not slums?
And never mind those statistics that show inequality—the gap between rich and poor—has been on the rise for two decades. Those are for the silly few who don’t appreciated the value of a dollar. And by a dollar, we mean one. Apparently, that’s all you need.
Assault with deadly contradictions
There’s nothing like the smell of hypocrisy in the morning. It smells like…U of T
And so the Hart House Rifle Range is shut down when one of its members is found off campus with an (admittedly) rather large stash of weaponry and ammo, but when there is a sexual assault on campus—right on campus—we get platitudes about campus-wide safety issues.
Ostensibly, both issues concern safety on campus. In reality, though, they seem to be exercises in maintaining the U of T brand. Sexual assaults are nasty things to be dealt with on the hush-hush, while gun stories splattered on the front page on the National Post must be dealt with ASAP. The rapid shut-down of the rifle range shows U of T obviously has the ability to act quickly and decisively. Why do so over something that didn’t really happen on campus, yet fail to act as rapidly with an actual assault that occurred to an actual human being in our own backyard?
Yes, UC responded well with dorm security, but surely in the near-two months that have passed we could have put in place better lighting in a number of horribly dark areas, increased promotion of services, and more blue emergency lights. Somehow they’ve gotten their priorities wrong. What’s really needed now is a fair and open discussion on whether or not Olympic-style shooting is a sport that should happen on this campus, and immediate action on the very clear goal of stopping another sexual assault from happening on campus. U of T: you have proven your ability to act fast, now focus that energy in the right direction.
