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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2007-11-15, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2007. PAGE 5.Bonnie Gropp The short of it A step back The int ern et gen iu s wh o set up m y website said “Naturally,you’ll want to include a blog”. “Why?”I asked. “Well,so you can share your thoughts on news of the day with the people who read your newspaper and magazine columns,”he said. “That’s what the columns are for,”I said. ‘You want me to write a second column for free?” “Oh,not for free,”he said.“You could sell advertising on your site and collect royalties.” Oh right,I thought. And that means that I would also get to keep a second set of books. And I would need to pay an accountant to figure out my GST and PST – when I wasn’t rushing to my laptop to share my thoughts with the world on the news of the day. “No thanks,”I told the internet genius. At the time we had th at conve r s at i o n , blogging was shaping up to become one of the oddest phenomena of the new millennium. E ve ry b o dy a nd the ir Au nt Min ni e was set ting up a w eb lo g. In 2 ,00 6 b l ogs were being created at the ra te of 100,000 a day. No longer. Nowadays the internet landscape is littered with the bleached and bloating carcasses of abandoned blogs – more than 200 million of them world wide,according to Gartner Inc.,a U.S. research firm. Wh y? Be cau se a lot o f b l ogg e rs a re discovering that life on the internet is a lot like real life – it takes a lot of work to maintain it. They are also discov ering something that any professional writer could have told them: that writing for free soon loses its charm. The Canadian indie pop sensation known as Feist is the latest celebrity for whom blogging doesn’t seem like such a hot idea anymore. She personally axed her entire website in the most appropriate way – on line. Next to a photo of the musician,a hand- written open letter was posted on the site.A letter that began with “AAAAAAAAGH”– printed in block letters. Reasons? Feist said the site had become ‘robotic’and ‘not beautiful’. “I couldn’t recognize myself in it,”she says. She also blamed her ‘analogue mind’. Mind you,Maria Amelia Lopez of Muxia, Spain would wonder what all the fuss was about. A year ago she didn’t know the internet existed.Then a relative showed her how to go on-line and set her up with a personal account as a birthday present. Now,she’s a full-blown addict. She blogs daily and about everything:her nieces and nephews,the construction of an apartment building next door,miniskirts:“a miniskirt with a good pair of legs – that,I love. But you really need to have good legs.” She loves her blog connections even more. “It’s a whole new universe,”she says. Indeed it is,and Maria Amelia is a big part of it. In the past eight months her blog has had more than 350,000 hits from correspondents around the world. Her fans check her blog fa i t h f u l l y – even if it’s on ly to find out th e lat es t abo u t Mar ia A m e l i a ’s s wol len joints. Did I mention that Maria Amelia is quite possibly the world’s oldest active blogger? Ninety-five and posting. Perhaps blogging isn’t really dying. Maybe it’s just in transition. My newspaper also carried a story about Jody Gnant,an aspiring singer/songwriter in Phoenix,Arizona who doesn’t just share her thoughts on her blog. She shares everything she has. Literally. It’s called Lifecasting. Jody Gnant carries a webcam from wakeup to lights out every day. She videocasts everything she does,short of b at h room tim e and locatio ns wh i ch don’t allow cameras. Payo ff? Gn ant say s lu gg ing a w eb c a m around 24/7 has firmed up her biceps. “Besides,”she says,I never feel alone.” I guess not. But I wonder why the lyrics to Eleanor Rigby keep running through my mind? Arthur Black The reason why Sorbara quit Often you have to take a step or two b a c k wa rd befo r e you can move f o r wa r d. Bu t a proposal bein g considered by the Toronto District School Board seems an alarming misstep,one so obviously heading in the wrong direction,it’s surprising it’s even being considered. In an attempt to address concerns that black students are not getting the support they need w it hin t he s chool syst em,th e boar d is discussing the establish ment of A f ro - c e n t r i c schools. P rem ie r Da l to n McGu i nty,wh i l e acknowledging that the decision ultimately rests with the board,has said he is not “personally comfortable”with the idea. While visiting an area in north-west Toronto recently,the premier rep o r t e d ly said,“My pre fe renc e is th at we continue to find ways to bring kids together.” In light of history,that would seem to be the sensible solution. T he dream of the perfect world is one where all li ve as equals,not identified by ethnicity,religion or gender,but as p e o p l e ,unique but in all th at mat t e rs ,n o t different. D re a m s ,as we know,h o weve r ,die hard sometimes. There will always be divisions that won’t be bridged,hostilities of long-standing that won’t go away because there are those who won’t let them. In the early 1950s public schools in America were racially segregated,with most of the black schools not to the standards of their white counterparts. Oliver Brown of Topeka Kansas wanted his little girl Linda to be able to a ttend the white school close to his home rather than h ave to walk one mile th rough a ra i l r o a d s w i t c hya r d to get to her bl a ck ele me nta ry school. Others soon came on board to join him in the de-segregation battle. The board argued that segregated schools prepared black children for what they would f ace dur in g adult hood. T h ey name d m any i n f luentia l A f rican A m e rican s as proof tha t s egr egate d schools we r e not necessari l y harmful. The j udges i n th ei r decis i on wr ote t hat segregation has a detrimental effect upon black children. “A sense of inferiority affects the motivation of a child to learn.” And now,almost 60 years later,a Canadian school board is arguing that an Afro-centric s c hool wi ll hel p bl a c k st udents gr a d u at e . Proponents argue that the proposal is to teach t he On ta ri o curri culu m and enri c h it w ith m a t e r ia ls t hat centr e on th e positive contributions of b lack people in society.Also,as white students would be w elcome to attend the A f r o - c e n t r i c s chool it i s not consid ere d segregation. Critics,on the other hand,feel it unlikely white students would be comfortable attending. They see such a school as divisive. There may be mor e to the argument for the A f r o - c e n t r i c schools t hat I ’m m is si ng. Admittedly I don’t see the struggles of black students within the system. But I don’t think I’m missing a certain irony here,the very race that won their right to enter white sc hools to improve their life,now may feel they are better served by g etting out of them. Personally,I can’t believe there’s not a better way.An Afro-centric school is not the best answer for addressing the problems of black students who are not making it in the public system. Rather than remove the students,does it not make more sense to bring the classroom studies that would support them into the current curriculum,to be taught to students of every background? Isn’t a greater understanding of their history and issues the best step forward? Other Views Saying bye, bye to the blogs Former finance minister Greg Sorbara has becom e a her o by qu ittin g the second most powerful job in Ontario and saying he would rather be with his family. But this may not be the whole story. Some probably shed a tear when he said he and his wife looked at each other,after her sister died,and thought they can still walk and do things,but the clock is ticking and maybe it was time to go. Sorbara added he has six children and does not see enough of them,and 10 grandchildren, some of whom need to learn to throw a baseball,and he could teach them,having once par t - o wned a mi nor league baseb a l l team. S o r b a r a ha s now sai d to a To ro n t o newspaper,by phone from his home,he is the guy who washes the dishes,sets the tab le, cleans up afterwards,takes out the garbage and likes doing it. Th e p ape r's D ear A b by -sty le co lu mn ist ruled that a man has as much right as a woman to give up a career to stay home and any who might question Sorbara's reasoning (not that anyone has) should accept this. Sorbara's poignant exit has brought him unusual praise,but no-one is likely to criticize a politician who gives it all up for home and hearth. P r o gr e s s ive Con se rvat ive lead er Joh n Tory,who w as not known for saying good things about Sorbara when he was finance m i n i s t e r,s ai d Lib er al Prem ier D al to n McGuinty will be in trouble without him, b eca us e h e was the b rai ns b eh in d h is government. The New Democrats,who used to attack Sorbara daily for not allocating more money to help the poor,said his departure was a huge blow for McGuinty and a Toronto newspaper that had never praised a Liberal before referred to “the stalwart Sorbara.” Sorbara has put more effort into cultivating media than any Ontario politician of recent times. He had a habit of leaving his front row seat in the legislature next to the premier and chatting with reporters in their gallery above and did not do it to ask if they were enjoying debates. When he held a press conference,he would reply to every reporter who asked a question by their first names; just a little touch,but it would have suggested to TV watchers he was on friendly terms with all these impartial observers in the media and they approved of him. No one would suggest for a minute Sorbara totally invented his claim he was leaving to be with his family,but he also is among the most ambitious politicians who never made it to premier. He ran in 1992 and made one of the most stirring speeches in recent conventions,but lost to Ly n McL e od ,who m th e p ar t y establishment err oneously judged would win the next election because it was time for a woman. S o r b a r a h ad h op ed to run a gai n w h e n McGuinty won in 1996 and took soundings to assess his chances,but backed off when he found there was resistance in his party to choosing a leader of Italian origin whose fa m i l y was connected to the deve l o p m e n t industry,as his is. It still has not chosen an Italian-Canadian leader. Joe Cordiano ran and lost,and there is some room for argument Sorbara could have done better,but those choosing leaders know Ontario still has elected premiers only of Anglo origin. Sorbara while finance minister may hav e still h ar bo u red s om e h op es o f be co mi n g premier,but they disappeared when McGuinty won a second term in October. McGuinty clearly is not going to retire much before the 2011 election,if then. Sorbara will be 65 and Ontario has tended to look for yo u n g er lead er s a nd w h e n e ver McGu in ty leaves there will be no shortage of them eager to run. Sorbara may have f elt the home fires calling, but he could not have felt he had mu c h prospect of getting the job he really wanted -- and if there been a chance,he would not have stepped down. Eric Dowd From Queen’s Park Letters Policy The Citizen welcomes letters to the editor. 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