“‘The quake zone urgently needs tents, quilt, instant food, drinking water and medical goods,” the charity posted to Weibo, China’s version of Twitter. “Please try your best to donate cash.” In response, hundreds of thousands of people quickly posted emoticons giving the government-run charity a literal thumbs-down.’ – BBC News Why would Chinese people do…
Last week, I was lucky enough to be in China for a Model United Nations conference. What is Model United Nations? Model United Nations, or MUN, is a simulation where participants in a conference are given a country and debate world issues, very much like the modern United Nations today. There are numerous of them…
Often deemed the most persecuted minorities in the world, the 800,000 Rohingya Muslims living in Myanmar’s Rakhine state and 200 000 that have fled to neighboring Bangladesh face one of the most prodigious plights of human rights violation in the world. The Rohingya people were once a part of the Arakan state, until it was…
I have always disliked documentaries (you know especially those ones you watch in social class…ugh), so when my friends were telling me about A Bite of China, I was not too excited about it. “But it’s about Chinese food, you like food right?” “Sure.” I said, clicked on the link she sent me. And it…
Since the 1700s, jobs were sent to whoever could do a task and charge the least amount of money. In the 1980s, jobs that North Americans had previously held were moving rapidly away to cheaper havens in developing countries. These countries charged less tax and wages were significantly lower. In the 2004 election, the Democrats criticized corporations…
Well, another year has gone by faster than we want to believe. It is hard to comprehend the significance of each passing day on its own, but string the hours together in groups of 365 (or 366) and the reality of the speed at which our lives advance dawns sadly upon us. Anyways, philosophical rambling…
After more than a month of hiatus – not to mention the tormented imprisonment in school – I’ve decided to finally embark upon the journey of writing freely again! This summer I’ve spent quite a lot of time volunteering around the city (blog posts to follow…), and with 2012 being the tenth anniversary of GlobalFest…
Wanderlust: (n.) a strong desire to travel. Does this apply to any of you? If so, check out the following photos of places you must visit! Click on the images for photo credits.
For my spring break, I got the opportunity to be one of 28 students who gets to represent the Calgary Board of Education at the International Youth Leadership Summit in Beijing, China. Below is a quick blog post about what we did today during our trip to Beijing. You can find out more about our…
My vote is for the latter. A street vendor in China creates a dragon-shaped lollipop using nothing but a marble slab, a spoon, and some caramel. For something done so spontaneously, where every motion has an impact on the final product, this man is highly impressive. He uses caramel, potentially one of the most viscous…
If anything could make Stephen Harper seem warm and fuzzy, it’s a pair of baby panda bears. Embarking on a five-day voyage to China, Canada’s conservative main man sealed a deal with “panda diplomacy,” a term used in a Globe and Mail article. Beyond their cuteness, these pandas are a sign of progress in the political…
I recently returned from a trip to China and don’t get me wrong, it was pretty great. But along the way, I was hoping to keep in touch with the Western world and my friends, but nah, that didn’t really happen. Want to know why? Because China bans that stuff. It wasn’t until I reached…
Last weekend, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend Calgary’s 2011 GlobalFest Multi-Cultural and Fireworks Festival Finale at Elliston Park. GlobalFest is a weeklong celebration showcasing vibrant cultures from around the world. Each country has a day where they complete their portion of the pyromusical competition (a.k.a. lots of fireworks). After China, Philippines, Canada and…
[youtube NsEdOSYf9x8] I recently came across this video while browsing around on Yahoo! What’s happening is truly remarkable – a mirage of a city is being seen across the Xin’an river from the city of Huanshan, in China. So while we may be seeing reflections of the sky as puddles of water on the ground,…
After finishing my Chemistry IB exam way back in May, our class of 11 Chemistry geeks had the opportunity to learn a bunch of games. It was our little relaxation period after a stressful review period of Chemistry, and boy did we love it. During this period, we played a bunch of games–one in particular…