tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45637659893339899932024-03-05T04:02:25.199-05:00Dr. Christopher's Words of (Un)WisdomKeep Life RandomDr. Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11192464289321739841noreply@blogger.comBlogger2088125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4563765989333989993.post-91734197447443092502022-11-26T02:36:00.001-05:002022-11-26T02:41:36.192-05:00November 10-26: Random Thoughts & Learnings<p> <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; text-size-adjust: auto;">As I’m sitting on a long layover (which isn’t a bad thing) on my last leg of this Zimbabwe and East Africa Tour, here are some random musings that I’ve learned or confirmed from this trip:</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Travel-related:</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">If you have a layover and it’s under an hour between flights, there is a very good chance your bags aren’t going to be coming with you.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Pack everything you need (especially multiple pairs of undergarments and a change of clothes) in your carry-on.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">If you’ve never travelled to the Continent before, pack your patience. In more ways than one.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Travel within your limits and don’t exceed it. If you know you’re the type of person that can’t function without sleep, rest, and good meals, you may want to reconsider maximizing every second of your travels.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">If travelling with a group for work, understand that everyone is on edge, is tired, and the littlest thing can be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Be honest with yourself (and the group) when you know you need to take a break from it all. You aren’t anti-social, but just need to recharge your batteries.</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Hold yourself accountable. Own your mistakes.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Find a hotel that will give you a toothbrush, toothpaste, and breakfast included. Especially if you’re jumping from hotel to hotel, city to city, country to country.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Try to book your flights to land in the late afternoon and early evening. Late night and early morning flights (we did multiple of those) aren’t worth the few hours of added work time.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Mind what you eat and drink. Gut rot is real.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Fanny packs and money wallets are a must.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Country-related:</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">What you see on TV, social media, and ‘stereotypes’ of Africa doesn’t tell you the whole picture of the heterogeneity of the Continent. Yes, there are some serious income inequalities, and people struggling to survive (I can give you legitimate arguments that North America is no different), but to tell a single-story of ‘Africa’ is a product of orientalist essential reductionism (in plain language: racism).</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">If you think you hustle and grind in Canada, you’ve never been to East Africa (I know West/South/North Africans will say the same thing). </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Nairobi is no joke (and shout out to Sankara Hotel - the whole vibe there of Black ‘elitism’ was cool to see).</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Most people I’ve met on this trip speak at least 3 languages fluently. The most of my second language (French) I spoke in 20 years was in Mauritius, and that was mainly Franglais. Canada should really promote at least trilingual language comprehension at an early age, including indigenous languages for non-indigenous people in Canada.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">The hunger for education in this region puts a lot of Ontario/Canadian society to shame. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Capitalism is the (ugly) common denominator that unites us. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Joe & Jill Canada really need to understand that the US is no longer the world-super power. They/we also need a more nuanced understanding of ‘Africa’ and ‘China’ relations.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Kigali (I can’t speak for Rwanda as a whole), gave me faith in humanity, truth and reconciliation, and Black progress/‘excellence.’ You have to see it to believe it and this is a model for me to follow. Sometimes a military dictatorship is the best option for equity.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">***For all those (Black) people that think ‘Africa’ is the panacea to your oppression: it’s not. And if it does, you’ve probably become the oppressor.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Me-related:</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I’m blessed. I’m X years of age and never would’ve imagined being where I am.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I’m a work in process. I'</span><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">m very secure in my identity, but know there is room for growth.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I’m good at what I do, but I can be better.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">***I joke a lot about having maximized my ‘Self’ in Canada and moving away, but I think it might be time.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">________</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Side note: I put *** on these two points because it’s important for me to articulate that I do feel more valued for my ‘objective’ qualifications (e.g. the PhD, the AVP, and the wealth I have) while I’m on the Continent. It’s as if my class status gets an automatic Super Mario boost because of my institutional and individual power. And my colour (dark colour to boot) loses some of its negativity as soon as I step on the red earth.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">But then, my dreads and beard take a hit (not so much the tattoos, oddly enough). As any Dread or Rasta would know, most small c-conservative ‘Black’ societies, do not look at us kindly. Listen to any Roots Reggae (or for those Bob Marley fans listen deep to his songs), and you’ll hear that Babylon (the State) doesn’t accept what locs represent. I’m not a Rasta, for the record, and I had convos in Kampala and Dar es Salaam about this. Rwandan, Ugandan, and Tanzanian immigration officials gave me the hardest times. Searching my bags, my hair, questioning my profession, taking me back in those little rooms for more searches. It wasn’t pleasant.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">On the flip side, I do know (and was told) if I do move abroad to the Continent, I can do more for the (insert Black African country here) than I could back in Canada.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Why?</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I’ve got White man qualifications and credentials, with Black man identities and respect.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">And this isn’t necessarily a good thing. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Why? </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I could do like all the other (White) expats and feed into the capitalism that drives the oppression of non-white people across the globe.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I could move to Kampala (just using this city as an example) tomorrow and get myself a driver, two or three servants, a big house in an exclusive neighbour hood, send my kids to some of the top international schools in the world, and become one of society’s ‘elite.’</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">My parents emigrated to Canada for a ‘better life’ and social mobility, and I could/should emigrate out of Canada to reach another level of socioeconomic ‘success.’</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Funny, ain’t it?</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">It’s been a pleasure having this space to unpack my travels. It’s been a rewarding challenging the past couple weeks.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 9px 0px 8px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span></p>Dr. Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11192464289321739841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4563765989333989993.post-60521542763887923472022-11-22T12:09:00.000-05:002022-11-22T12:09:33.112-05:00November 22: Reflections from Mauritius <p> <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">It’s day 10 or 11 or 12 (I legitimately have a very hard time of keeping track of what day or time it is as we are constantly changing time zones), and I’m in country number 6 of this trip.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Mauritius. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I will admit I didn’t even know where Mauritius was on a map before planning for this trip. I knew it was somewhere off the coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean. But where exactly? No clue.</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Flying in, the landscape looked like they filmed Jurassic Park here.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">From when I first stepped out the airport, this country had a vibe that I was oddly familiar with it. It felt (and smelled) like a Caribbean island. The mix of people and languages, but with the Caribbean ‘melting pot’ of ‘I can’t put my finger on what your ‘race’ is or isn’t.’</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">(Side note: this is a product of the ‘cut and paste’ model of enslavement and colonization.)</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Even as the education system here was explained to me, it has a very similar vibe as Barbados. Highly educated pupils, with a government that supports their education abroad with post-secondary scholarships. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I will be learning more about the K-12 system while I’m here and plan to do more research and writing on it once I’m back in Canada. It’s very interesting to see colonial education frameworks from similar environments - literally and figuratively - that are half a world away.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Addendum:</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I want to say thank you again to all the people that made my experience in Zimbabwe, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Kenya, safe, informative, and challenging.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">As I mentioned in my speech at the closing dinner last night, this trip has forced me to come to grips with my failures and limitations as an AVP, prof, and Black Canadian that has access and socioeconomic advantages.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I know what I said may not have been received well by all, but it was important to recognize that we (those in Canada involved in PWIs) perpetuate inequity even if our best intentions are to address them. Our bodies and our position and our passports are markers for advantages over others. Particularly those on the Continent.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">It’s not an easy position to be in.</span></p>Dr. Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11192464289321739841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4563765989333989993.post-61465385410468186432022-11-20T16:56:00.003-05:002022-11-20T16:58:23.057-05:00November 20-21: Kigali to Nairobi<p> <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">If I were to describe Kigali in one word, it would be Wakanda.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Ya, I know that probably isn’t a hot take, but it is very cool to see a Black Future in practice. From how clean the city is, to its infrastructure, to its focus on tech, to how environmentally friendly it is, it is probably the closest thing I would get to do being a real-life Wakanda.</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I think it’s also important for people in North America, and the Americas as a whole, to see ‘excellence’ without the qualifier of ‘Black’ in front of it. Kigali is a dope city. Full stop.</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Imagine you could get a city that every month had every single person clean the streets? Shoot, it even caught me when I saw someone throw something on the ground and I told them to pick it up.</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">That every Sunday for three hours, they don’t let any cars on the road?</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">That police presence is there as sign of safety and not oppression and violence?</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I felt safer in Kigali than I do in Canada.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">And this all culminates with the vibe.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I think the vibe was the biggest thing for me. I even had to ask some of the students at the fairs about it.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">It’s hard to explain, but these youth have a certain way of carrying themselves. You might call it ‘swag.’ Their confidence was palpable, but it wasn’t overbearing, nor was it out of place. They engaged, but were shy. They were forthcoming, but reserved. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">It was almost as if I was watching the future of Blackness that was truly born out of death and destruction. A group of youth that are swimming in the wake of true reconciliation and inclusion.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">To be fair, I’m on the 280 characters of a whirlwind trip of 6 countries in 14 days, so it’s not so easy to get a fair assessment of a city. But I will be back in Kigali and will also have a chance to see some more of the country.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">One thing I do know is, I’ve learned how a people can move forward after such devastation and tragedy. It isn’t perfect, but it’s working. Lessons that we can learn in Canada.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Or, I just move to Wakanda.</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">And from what I’ve seen in short order of Nairobi? This place definitely has a vibe.</span></p>Dr. Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11192464289321739841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4563765989333989993.post-5330826659352959002022-11-20T02:17:00.001-05:002022-11-20T02:17:15.683-05:00November 20: Flights (mini post) This is a mini blog post (too many characters for a Twitter post). <div><div><br></div><div>I'm here in Kigali with a cancelled flight. Only found out the flight was cancelled when we got to the airport.</div><div><br></div><div>If you are ever traveling to the Continent, particularly domestic or international flights within the region, pack your patience. It's inevitable that you will have some kind of travel issue.</div><div><br></div><div>Might be in-flight related (eg your tv screen or seat recline doesn't work). Might be boarding related (eg no space for your carry-on cause people roll with suitcase sized luggage and multiple bags - myself included). Might be customs and immigration related (eg I've been searched and patted down and taken into little back rooms - a post is still coming about traveling in the Continent with dreads and a beard). Might be pre or in-flight food related (eg mind what you eat before you fly and on the flight).</div><div><br></div><div>But at the end of the day, with your malaria pills, pack your patience. </div></div>Dr. Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11192464289321739841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4563765989333989993.post-75920548539366570022022-11-19T07:53:00.000-05:002022-11-19T07:53:43.128-05:00November 19: Colonial Education II - Rwanda & Kwibuka (We Remember)<p> <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">This is my first time in Rwanda and I’ll honestly say this place is one of the best looking cities I’ve ever been to. And I’m not saying the best ‘African’ city, but city in general. The landscape, the cleanliness, the weather, the whole shibang.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">But even when we arrived last night/this morning at 3am, going through the streets to the hotel, something made me feel uneasy. I couldn’t articulate what it was. But it was something.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Some people call Kigali the ‘Europe of Africa’ for its ‘non-African’ qualities (e.g. safety, cleanliness, order, etc.) And they may say it in a very benevolent way, but again, it uses ‘Europe’ or ‘Whiteness’ as the benchmark of what is ‘good’ and ‘acceptable.’</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I started to learn about the Rwandan Genocide in high school, because my Sister had been working on a project that peaked my interest. From then on, I learned about it in a very cursory way. I knew about the Hutu and Tutsi, but it wasn’t at the forefront of my consciousness. The Genocide challenges your understanding of colonialism and Blackness to another level.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><br /><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Then as I was teaching a course on Pan-African History at UWaterloo, the Genocide was a module. I’m not an expert in Rwanda, nor the Genocide, but I was aware of what happened and have the ability to teach the history.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">But it’s different when you’re standing on the site of a mass grave of 200,000 people like where I was this morning at the Kigali Genocide Memorial.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">It was similar, but not the same, to my first experience at the Cape Coast Castle in Ghana. You feel death. You feel trauma. You feel loss.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">This was different because it happened in my conscious lifetime. And that it happened with people that I’m engaging with on the street. People my age would have been killed or orphaned. The would have seen their parents and siblings hacked to death with machetes. And the Memorial shows you the death. In colour. The death caused by their communities.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">By their neighbours.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">By their friends.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">(If you can remember the Blue Jays winning the World Series in 1993, or the first Raptors season in 1995, you should have known about the Rwandan Genocide.)</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">And what was one of the root causes for this death and murder in 1994?</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Colonial education.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">One main teaching/indoctrination was the ‘Hamitic Myth’ that socially created and reified ethnic differences between Hutu and Tutsi. Colonialism taught and institutionalized hatred. This was not a tribal ‘war’ this was not a backwards state, this was a genocide caused by a colonial power (Belgians at the forefront) to divide and concur a population, based on Eurocentric ideologies.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Ideologies taught and supported by the Church, politicians, curricula, and mainstream media.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Colonial education.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">The same colonial education that we still favour and promote, right here in Canada.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">The Memorial did a great job of highlighting this in the context of Rwanda, but how many people in Canada, in particular, learn the true impact(s) of colonialism?</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">We have the ‘anti-woke’ crowd, and politicians, saying that teaching Critical Race Theory will cause divisions and strife. But didn’t their system cause war and genocide?</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Be mindful of those that want the status quo when it comes to (colonial) education. It’s much more nefarious than they want to openly admit.</span></p>Dr. Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11192464289321739841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4563765989333989993.post-45259305227290496632022-11-18T03:23:00.002-05:002022-11-18T03:29:16.910-05:00November 15-17: Back in Tanzania<p> <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; text-size-adjust: auto;">The last few days have been quite eventful or typical, depending on how you look at it.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Lost luggage. People left in different countries. People getting threatened by government officials to be sent to different countries. Arguments and nearly fisticuffs in airports. Sleep deprivation. Lateral violence. Some serious anti-Black racism. Class distinctions. Traffic. Laughs. Tears. Pure joy. Communitas.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">This is my first time back in Tanzania since I was living here as a grad student in 2011. Here, meaning Mwanza and Arusha. I’ve visited Dar es Salaam, but never stayed longer than a couple nights. And unfortunately, this trip is too whirlwind for me to go back to Mwanza and Arusha and see old friends that I promised over a decade ago that I would be back.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">In 2011, and the reason why this blog started, I admittedly knew absolutely nothing about the Continent. I came with a very naive and romanticized view of ‘Africa’ - a vision that was framed by an orientalist perspective. While I was in Tanzania (and you can go back to the posts I have here), my views and position of why I was there with Western Heads East, shifted completely. I became more aware of the white saviourism (I didn’t have the language to call it that back then) that I was a part of.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">It made me feel icky.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">But that experience (and 2011 as a whole) changed my life completely. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">What I listen to, how I dress, how I engage with people, how I think, how I move, and what I want from life have changed.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Some would say that is the natural progression of becoming an ‘adult’, but if you knew me before I climbed Kill-a-man-jaro, to now, you would understand what I mean. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">And no, I’m not some bleeding heart that went to ‘Africa’ and has now decided to move to ‘Africa’ and build an orphanage (for the record, I do want to move to ‘Africa’ but for completely different reasons I’ll save for another post). I would argue that I’m probably a much more hardcore workaholic now than I’ve ever been. But the way I see this place, and feel in this place, and exist in this place (and at home) is completely different.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Yes, I now have a PhD and onto my third career. I can afford not to eat microwave burritos. And I have a lot more hair, beard, and tattoos.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">It’s important to put that all in perspective in the context of the past 11 years. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I had a student yesterday that was quietly sitting by himself during one of the school visits. I called him over and we started chatting. He didn’t trust me at all. And rightfully so. All he saw was another ‘white’ man coming for something to take away from him and his country. He asked: ‘what’s in this for you?’</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">He was right and made me think. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Then when were speaking, it came around to ‘don’t people hate on you because of how you look? Being Black, your tats, hair, etc.?’</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">He was right and made me think.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">But we chatted for the length of the event. Asking how I got here. Asking what he wanted to do in life. Asking about some of my challenges.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">There is no moral to this story, but to really think how much I (and many other Black people) in Canada don’t get to see themselves. And not through a prism of racism or trauma, but to really have someone force them to see who they are and what their ‘success’ means to complete strangers that have nothing invested in them. And most likely will never see them again either.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">This is now my fourth visit to the Continent. By the end of this trip I would have visited 10 countries here. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">And no moment was more important to me than sitting in a hot auditorium in Dar es Salaam with teenagers teaching me about who I am.</span></p>Dr. Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11192464289321739841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4563765989333989993.post-38666511145357973052022-11-14T03:06:00.001-05:002022-11-14T03:12:15.316-05:00November 14: Colonial Education<p> <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; text-size-adjust: auto;">In Canada, we are now beginning to understand the ‘what’ of Residential Schools. Since the mid-2010s, and in particular since the ‘discovery’ of the graves of Indigenous children on school grounds, some Canadians have begun to understand the ‘what’ of Residential Schools and some of its impacts on Indigenous peoples today.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">But what about the ‘why’? Why did these schools exist? For what purpose? Did Ryerson just send a text to John A. and say, ‘hey, I’ve got a great idea, let’s build schools and eff up Indigenous kids.'</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">They were functions of the (global) British colonial system.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Residential Schools existed (with different names) all over the British Empire. Canada was not unique. But all had similar purposes:</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">To conform/shape/destroy indigenous ways of being to create/destroy indigenous peoples so that the colonial subjects would support the colonial project to the benefit of the hegemonic metropole.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">It’s pretty simple.</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">And raises a lot of my discomfort of being on this trip.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">One problem we have in the space of equity and anti-racism work, is that we discuss the what, but never get to the root of the why.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">And on top of that, since May 25, 2020, we walk in trying to find ‘equity’ or ‘anti-racist’ or ‘decolonial’ solutions to any and all ‘diversity’ problems, without recognizing that the one-hour unconscious bias training we received has given us absolutely zero tools to address these issues.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">How many university administrators and staff, and in this case those responsible for international student recruitment, fundamentally understand the tentacles of settler colonialism, colonialism, and colonial education? </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">How many are briefed prior to engaging on recruitment trips and admission projects about how X country was colonized and the creation and function of colonial education systems?</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Do we fundamentally understand that our ‘academic rigour’ and ‘standards of excellence’ are built by colonial ways of knowing, the liberal racial order, colonial education as a tool to replicate colonialism in ‘decolonized’ states - <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>states that perpetuate the subjugation and hegemonic oppression of racial hierarchies?</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Why do we want British equivalency for International Students when in Canada not a single 11 year old writes the Common Entrance Exam? </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Why are marks so important for International Students when there is a push for ‘ungrading’ in North American education systems?</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">In Canada, many of us concerned with equity and anti-racism have come to understand that Residential Schools were ‘bad’ and have taken steps to rectify these wrongdoings.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">But let me ask you this:</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Why are we actively encouraging kids to ‘excel’ in a school system built for indigenous peoples in a nation-state built after the Berlin Conference in 1884-1885, one that took kids away from their homes, made them cut their hair and dress in European clothes? (I always find it funny how when I travel abroad and see Brown and Black kids dressed immaculately in school uniforms they can’t afford, but in Canada we got kids wearing pyjamas to class.)</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">A school system that taught them about kings and queens, in a language that wasn’t/isn’t their own, one that didn’t teach them about their past and their histories?</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">How are we to decolonize our university when we, as Canadians, have been so colonized that we don’t even recognize that we are colonial subjects living in a settler colonial state?</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Sometimes we need to understand the ‘why’ even before we begin to talk about the ‘how.’</span></p>Dr. Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11192464289321739841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4563765989333989993.post-7459410829388064402022-11-13T06:44:00.000-05:002022-11-13T06:44:50.038-05:00November 12-13: Innovate Solutions<p> <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Yesterday (or today, I’m working through three different time zones and not exactly sure what day it is today, hence the November 12-13 stamp on this blog), was my first visit to schools and meeting prospective students. It was also a chance for me to speak to officials from the Canadian High Commission in Zimbabwe and some key actors in social business/philanthropy here in Harare.</span></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">It’s no secret that one key barrier to accepting (Black) students from Zimbabwe, and arguably throughout the Black Diaspora, is the cost of tuition.</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Put it this way, for an international student that is looking at studying engineering at UW, it could cost them upwards of $400,000 Canadian dollars (I’d argue this number can push up to $500,000) for the duration of their degree. How many people you know have half a million dollars to pay for their education? </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">University is a business.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">And not sure how much people know about the economy here in Zimbabwe post independence in the 1980s, but long story short, I saw a trillion dollar bank note today. Yes, a trillion dollar bank note. At one point there was 365 million percent inflation.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Add to the fact that I was told that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe should be known as the ‘Representative Bank’ and that depositing money into the bank here is a ‘one way transaction’ even if you are a quintillionaire, you and your family most likely aren’t going to use a Zimbabwe bank to hold your money. This means you can’t prove to the Canadian government/Universities in Canada that you have the funds to come to Canada to study. And a screenshot of money in a bag won’t suffice.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Typically the answer to this is that UW should offer more scholarships to Black and African students. Yes, I agree, and that is much needed option; however, that should be part of a series of options. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I’ve met an individual here (very influential) who is a part of a group that has created a ‘made in Zimbabwe’ solution to this problem. I’ll be incorporating this work/project into a more formal write-up, but long story short, they’ve already briefed government officials and other institutions in Canada. Think of it, in a very simplistic way, as university funding mortgage brokers. All above board, all official, all mutually beneficial.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">But here is the big but. Big but.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Just from speaking to some of these youths and other international students during my tenure at UW, we as Canadian institutions need to be forthcoming and honest about our extraction model of recruiting international students. This is more than a ‘Brain Drain’; it teeters on being a neo-colonial model of predatory and orientalist white saviourism. Admittedly, my livelihood relies on this model, so I’m not fool to say that I’m part of the problem.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">That is all to say, we need to be honest with students and with ourselves. Maybe when a 17 year old comes to us wanting to come to UW or another 4-year degree program in Canada, we ask them what they really want. And if they say ‘I just want to leave home and get my PR status in Canada’ (which, for the record, our government actively promotes through immigration policies tied to post-secondary enrolment), we tell them, hey, save your money and work the system.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Stay home and do your first degree locally (for instance, Barbadian students can go to Cave Hill at the University of the West Indies for free). Once you graduate at 21 (and still very young - they’ve got kids going through the British system and completing at 16), come to Canada for a post-graduate degree (or another undergraduate if you feel like it). By then you’ve matured a bit, have a credential, and can come to Canada and do a much cheaper and shorter programme. You can still go through the same channels for your PR status, but now you’re not half a million dollars in the hole.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Or come, do your first credential in a college, work, get your PR status or citizenship, go back to school at the domestic rate, and do that engineering degree. You still wouldn’t be 30 and also not be knee deep in life crushing debt.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">This isn’t news for people in the post-secondary game, but I think it’s our responsibility to give these young people all of their options. It’s not going to hurt our (yes, mine too) bottom line, cause hey, there are a lot of wealthy people in the Continent. A lot.</span></p>Dr. Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11192464289321739841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4563765989333989993.post-82142309569518785222022-11-11T13:35:00.003-05:002022-11-13T06:45:06.108-05:00November 11: On the Flight from Paris to Nairobi<p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 30.2px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 30.24px; font-weight: bold;">November 11 - On the flight from Paris to Nairobi</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 23.8px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.36px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.36px;">I am writing this first blog entry on the 8 hour flight from Paris to Nairobi. This is after the 7 hour flight from Toronto to Paris with about an one hour layover. It’s officially 7:40am EST on November 11 as I’m writing this and I haven’t slept for more than 20 minutes since 7:00am EST on November 10. But I’ve decided that I’m going to give you all the ins and outs of this trip . TIA.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 23.8px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.36px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.36px;">It’s Remembrance Day in Canada, and before I left (I was unsuccessful of trying to see it at TIFF), I was watching All is Quiet on the Western Front. And ***spoiler alert*** when the German soldier killed the French soldier and then tried to save his life, it really had me thinking about the Black trauma we (I) have that masquerades as ‘culture’ and personality.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 23.8px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.36px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.36px;">(I’m going to save that for a longer post/piece of writing at some point, but long story short, my entire existence and livelihood is predicated on unrelenting trauma that I choose not to reconcile.)</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 23.8px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.36px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.36px;">Yes, I can get into the geopolitics of WWI, but at the core of it, this - what we remember on November 11 (Vimy Ridge in particular) is how we (Canadians) forged our Canadian identity independent of us as British subjects. That is the narrative we have been told. That is the narrative that we remember/are told to remember on this day. Je me souviens, no?</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 23.8px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.36px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.36px;">But have we reconciled with the trauma that is now our Canadian (white) culture? That politicians sent thousands of young white boys to get slaughtered by other young white boys over dirt and mud? Boys that are the grandparents and great-grandparents of those that shout for ‘freedom’ on the streets of Ottawa? Those that continue to propagate and perpetuate systemic racism and oppression in the name of ‘freedom’? Has there been a truth and reconciliation that (white) Canadian culture is founded in trauma and violence, and the one way to pretend that trauma and violence doesn’t exist is to commit more trauma and violence? Hurt people hurt people.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 23.8px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.36px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.36px;">Enslavement ended in 1834 in Canada.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 23.8px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.36px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.36px;">Canadian boys killed German boys <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>from 1914-1918.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 23.8px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.36px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.36px;">German-Canadian and Italian-Canadians killed Canadian-Germans and Canadian-Italians from 1939-1945.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 23.8px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.36px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.36px;">Ukrainian-Canadians and Russian-Canadians are at war as we speak.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 23.8px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.36px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.36px;">White neighbours traumatizing white neighbours under the Canadian flag.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 23.8px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.36px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.36px;">I’m on this trip to represent the University of Waterloo, but I’m also here to reconcile with my own trauma. My work isn’t equity or anti-racism, nor is it harm reduction:</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 23.8px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.36px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.36px;">It is navigating and reconciling my trauma and shining a light on the collective trauma of other Black/black/‘black’ bodies.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 23.8px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.36px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.36px;">But I can’t do that for the Old Stock Canadians. I can’t reconcile trauma that you all decide to not only forget, but celebrate. Like a festering wound that grows, and the only way to heal is to inflict pain on those that look different from you. Those that can come under phenotypic reductionism of little melanin.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 23.8px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.36px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.36px;">Until (white) Canadians go ‘back’ (and they don’t have to go back very far, geographically or historically), we will continue to fight over masks, over class sizes, over keeping kids in schools, over Critical Race Theory, over Truth and Reconciliation, over equity, over Kyrie Irving, over my ‘rightful’ place at the University of Waterloo.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 23.8px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.36px;"></span><br /></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 18.4px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 18.36px;">I’m travelling the globe to reconcile my trauma, maybe we should be honest about Vimy Ridge.</span></p>Dr. Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11192464289321739841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4563765989333989993.post-81303593086647411602022-10-28T09:33:00.004-04:002022-10-28T09:33:31.718-04:00Christopher is heading back East<p>It took me almost 12 years, but I'll be heading back East.</p><p>Stay tuned for blog/vlog posts in November 2022.<br /></p>Dr. Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11192464289321739841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4563765989333989993.post-44198154236961841992021-07-24T10:11:00.001-04:002021-07-24T10:11:07.227-04:00Voice - Peace of Mind (Official Music Video)<iframe width="480" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/HshF7JiGTA4" frameborder="0"></iframe>Dr. Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11192464289321739841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4563765989333989993.post-40805668774368095102021-07-12T15:50:00.000-04:002021-07-12T15:50:11.156-04:00Draft Intro Chapter on "Rhodee: The Origin Story (Bru)"<p> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA">What a lot of people don’t know is that Rhodee (Queen Rhodesia II –
there was never a first, but I just liked throwing on that double I) isn’t my
first dog. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA"></span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA">(I’m actually writing this as Rhodee lies next to me in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">her </i>spot in my office.)</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA"></span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA">For as long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted a dog. But of
course, in a Bajan/West Indian/Newcomer household, that shit was never going to
happen. And it if was going to happen, a dog lived ‘outside’ and ate table
scraps. That was the beginning, middle, and end.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA">Living in Canada, you can’t be having dogs living outside in
February, so the only opportunity was for me to move out my house to get me
this dog of mine.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA">It was around the first year of my PhD and I was living in grad
school housing (Bayfield) at the University of Western Ontario (it was still
called that when I started my grad life). Kendra and I had always talked long
about getting a dog together. Getting a dog was one of those ‘commitment’
things, where you had to jointly take care of a living thing, but you didn’t
have to get married or worry about diapers and RESPs.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA">So we decided to get a dog.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA">Bru.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA">A puggle.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA">At the time, puggles were the ‘hot breed’ out there. A puggle is a
mix between a pug and a beagle. You turn around, they were all over the
internet and were a perfect ‘fit’ dog for grad students: small, but not too
small; relatively cheap to buy; and, cute.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA">It wasn’t taboo to buy a dog off of Kijiji then, so Kendra and I
looked around and found a ‘breeder’ (really it was a farm in southwestern
Ontario) and off we went.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA">To get Bru.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA">Sidenote: Bru is a spin off
of one of my nicknames. The first time Cara and I went to England, we were in a
shop and saw a drink called ‘Irn Bru.’ I shouted out in a Bajan accent ‘Irn
Bru!’ and we laughed hysterically and the name stuck. </span></i></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA">Yes, I named my first dog after me. A man dog, for the record (I'll probably never get another man dog).
Something that I’ve always wanted and it was finally here.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA">What all the cute photos and ads don’t teach you about dog (puppy)
ownership is that the first 6 weeks (3-4 years) aren’t all shits and giggles.
It’s just shits and more shits. You’ve got to think about it: you kidnap a
puppy away from its mother and litter mates at 8 weeks old, to an alien
environment. Of course it ain’t going to be easy.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA">I wasn’t ready. Not even remotely ready.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA">Kendra and I agreed that the dog would live with me (she had a
fulltime job, and I was a grad student), and she would come down on the weekends
to take care of it. She would finance everything for the dog, and all I needed
to do was take care of it. That’s it. Simple as pie.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA">In retrospect it was pretty easy. I just wasn’t ready to be home
every 2 hours to take the dog out to pee and poo. Nor was I was ready to listen
to a puppy cry all night in its crate. I wasn’t fundamentally ready to be a responsible
dog owner/parent, and after about a week, Bru went back to the breeder.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA">Yup, I was one of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">those </i>people.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA">The official story was that Bru was sick and had to go back to its
breeder. But really and truly, I just wasn’t ready to make the commitment that
it really takes to raise a dog as a fur-baby (I still call Rhodee my ‘puppy-baby’).</span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA">Am I sorry about how it all went down? </span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA">Not really. It was a real relief in the moment, and I’m sure Bru (or
whatever it ended up being named) went to a great home with great people. Bru
taught me about myself, my wants and needs in my life at the time, my
immaturity, my relationship with Kendra, and what it takes to care for someone
other than myself.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA">If the false start with Bru didn’t happen, there would be no Rhodee.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-CA"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA"><b>Sidenote:</b> Life also works
in funny ways: about a decade later we ended up rescuing Gizmolien from someone
that didn’t want her.</span></i><span lang="EN-CA"></span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><br /></span></p>
Dr. Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11192464289321739841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4563765989333989993.post-43407645763688770842021-07-03T12:53:00.001-04:002021-07-03T17:37:32.422-04:00Chapter on Track & Field<p>So I'm writing a book. Yup, another one. But nothing like the other one.<br /></p><p>And similar to what I did a decade ago, I'm going to use this very same blog to drop some excerpts from what I'm working.</p><p>Even if no one reads this, it still holds me accountable to get this thing done.</p><p>Introduction to the Chapter on Track and Field:</p><p> </p><p> ********</p><p> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><h4><span lang="EN-CA">Intro</span></h4>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA">What does ‘track’ mean to me? Everything. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA">And not in the sense of the crazed idea of a delusional sport (ahem
Maple Leafs fan), but the fact that I move through my life the same way that I
run a 400m:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA">Power</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA">Pace</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA">Position</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA">Pray </span></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA">(well I don’t do much
praying, but you will understand what I mean in a hot second)</span></i><span lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA">Power:</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA">I come out hard with everything that I do. When I say hard, I mean
hard. Relentless. Tunnel vision. Without fear.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA">If you’ve ever run a 400m before, I mean sprint, not run, you
understand it is not a race but a test of will. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA">And it takes a just a side bit of masochistic madness to do it. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA">You fully well know that by the end (or near the end) of the race a few
things are guaranteed to happen: your legs will feel like your blood has
coagulated into red cement; you will vomit; and, you will tell yourself that
you will never run that race again. Ever.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA">You will be at the line in those blocks knowing that if you come out
1% too hard, it’s game over for you. Might as well crawl to the finish line.
But you know what you do every single time that gun goes off? Blast off like
you’re running a 100m. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA">I remember at Junior Nationals in 2002, I was in lane one. Mind you,
I was a 15 year old running against grown hardback 19 year olds. Lane 1 is
arguably (next to lane 8) the worst lane to run a 400. If you come out too
slow, the rest the field will walk away from you. The game plan? Come out hard.
Power. No fear.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA">And that’s what I did (and the cement started mixing at 200m in).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA">Pace</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA">The next phase of the race, and my life, is about pace.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA">The question was asked, at times subtle and others explicit, why I
wanted to finish my PhD so quickly. People also would question my ‘read a book
a day’ comprehensive exams studying and ‘type 500 words a day’ dissertation
writing (full disclosure: some days I just mashed the keyboard and hoped 500
words came out). </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA">Why the rush?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA">It wasn’t about rush, but pace. You come out hard in the 400, then
you settle in. You get comfortable on the back stretch, and let your legs (and
training) do the work for you. You get in a groove. It is so much harder to
play catch-up on the backstretch (and in life) if you came out slow. You need
to expend that energy when the rest of the field is in cruise control,
preparing to hit the 200m mark and get in position for the finish.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA">Sidenote: what most folks
also don’t know, is that I came out so hard with my PhD and with that work
ethic for a couple big and bigger reasons: 1) I only had 4 years of funding, so
had to get it done (which I did in 3.5 years; 2) my Father had kidney disease
and the doctors gave him X years to live. I really wanted him to see me
graduate, but unfortunately, that didn’t work out as he died unexpectedly from ischemic
bowel.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA">Position</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA">This is where the race, and life, gets interesting.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA">You are over half way done, can start feeling the cement mixer roll
onto the job site, but you know this is where the hard work begins.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA">You hit that 150m mark knowing that the race is won or lost right
here. All those hills, all that studying, all those push ups, all those job
interviews, all those mega 2s, all those ‘we found a better candidate’ conversations,
all those runs in the snow, come down to this.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA">Really, the position portion of the race has already been settled
many months and years in advance. It’s not just the position in that race or
moment, but how <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you</i> put yourself in
that position to be there. In that race. In that moment.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA">But, this is where the dog eat dog comes out. You make the decision
that you are going to win or you are going to lose. You could be running
against your BFF (which I’ve done many a times), but you’re going to try and crush
their will like their middle name was Kunte.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-CA">Pray</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA">If your race went according to plan, this is where the hurt comes
in.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA">My Mother used to tell me all the time, always be alert when you get
near home, cause that’s when you relax and bad things happen.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA">You came out with no fear: power.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA">You paced yourself, planned the race, got in a groove: pace.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA">You settled in for the win, got in the right spot to take it:
position.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA">Then when you can see that finish line inching closer towards you,
the cement truck does its best Dave Chappelle impression and says “gotcha
bitch!”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA">And this where you make a decision. A business decision:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA">Do I fight it, and go slower?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA">Or do I relax into it, trust the training, trust the plan, and trust
the process?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA">I’ve done both in life and on the track. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA">When I was younger, running those 400s with the thoughts of the
nearest garbage can, I would fight it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And win. I believe that attitude has made me fearless to confront any
situation.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA">Western History’s Department tried to fail me (twice) out my PhD? I
said fuck you, bring it. If I go down, I’m going to go down swinging. I fought
back, pushed through the lactic, and won.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA">Waterloo doesn’t want to give me tenure? Fuck you. I’m good doing my
thing.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA">Now that I’m older, I’m trusting the plan. I see situations for what
they are, know that I’ve run the first three phases of the 400 the way that I
wanted, and know that I have the strength to finish. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-CA">And Finish strong.</span></p>
<p><br /></p>Dr. Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11192464289321739841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4563765989333989993.post-31213111796283193762021-04-28T16:06:00.001-04:002021-04-28T16:06:39.186-04:00Alaine - Victory Rock (Official Video)<iframe width="480" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/E1-G0Vh-iJQ" frameborder="0"></iframe>Dr. Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11192464289321739841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4563765989333989993.post-14843651237772445182021-03-30T15:11:00.004-04:002021-03-30T15:16:26.139-04:00New Course Idea - "B[l]ack to the Future: Black Settlements in Canada for the 2020s and Beyond"<p>So, I was reading <a href="https://www.amazon.ca/Devil-You-Know-Black-Manifesto/dp/0062914669/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=the+devil+you+know&qid=1615132417&sr=8-4" target="_blank">Charles M. Blow's The Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto</a> and had an idea. </p><p>Well it wasn't an idea for a course, but I decided to revamp/reconfigure/redesign an existing course ('The Black Atlantic') cause I said, why not?</p><p>I'm always trying to find ways to improve my pedagogy and root it in <i>praxis</i>. I always want to find ways to position history, and my history courses, to contemporary society and Black Futures (a new area for me that I'm very much interested in).</p><p>I'm also trying to find ways to address (not fix - I know the solution, but it ain't all that palatable to the masses) racism. And I believe that we can use the classroom to explore these ideas and it isn't just for 'consultants,' 'public intellectuals,' and keeping it real, social media, to lead the charge in the 2020s and beyond.</p><p><b>Background:</b><br /></p><p>I did a lot of research during my PhD on historical Black settlements across Canada, and mainly in Southwestern Ontario and the East Coast. Lucan, Shrewsbury, Buxton, Dawn Settlement, Africville, North Preston, those spots.</p><p>I also did/do work on 'Back to Africa' movements/settlements from Canada and the US (not just Garvey, but the 19th Century debates between whites and Blacks in Canada and the US), Maroon Communities in the West Indies, and generally have a personal interest in what's happening in places like Ghana with their <a href="https://caricomreparations.org/ghana-offers-african-americans-caribbean-people-the-right-of-return-the-right-of-abode-in-2019/" target="_blank">Right of Return</a>.</p><p><b>Problem:</b></p><p>Anti-Black Racism in Canada. Not interpersonal, but systemic.<br /></p><p>That's the problem.</p><p><b>Solution:</b></p><p>This course. Duh.</p><p>The idea for this course is for us to explore an 'alternate B[l]ack Future.' The idea is to look back to go forward (<a href="https://www.berea.edu/cgwc/the-power-of-sankofa/" target="_blank">Sankofa</a>).<br /></p><p>We ain't going to talk about defunding the police, or Black Studies programs & curricula, or bias training, or anti-racism training, or hiring more Black doctors/judges/profs/teachers, or any of the 'solutions' we throw around to 'fix' anti-Black racism. Those all of have merit (maybe not the bias training, but this isn't the course for that).<br /></p><p>Feeding off of Blow's book and the few hundred years of 'Black Settlement' histories, we are going to imagine a realistic "B[l]ack Future" settlement, right here in Canada.</p><p><i>Where you ask?</i></p><p>Nova Scotia.</p><p><i>Why?</i></p><p>There are approximately 1.2 million Black folx (as of 2016 census) in Canada. </p><p>There are approximately 970,000 folks that live in Nova Scotia (as of 2016 census).</p><p><i>Coles notes solution?</i></p><p>The massive issues that Black folx face (particularly in Ontario) as they relate to anti-Black racism, fall under provincial jurisdiction: health care, policing (municipal and provincial), judicial, child welfare, and education.</p><p>The idea is that if every single Black person in Canada moved to Nova Scotia (there are approx 21k Black folk already living in NS), we would be the majority. </p><p>Nova Scotia also has a rich Black history and a lot of the <a href="https://ansa.novascotia.ca/" target="_blank">Afro-centric infrastructure</a> that doesn't exist in other provinces. </p><p><i>Meaning? </i></p><p>We would be in the majority of who we vote for and who runs the show. Yes, representation isn't the solution to oppression; however, it's a shift of who has the power to be our neo-colonial overseers. </p><p>And those overseers would look like us.</p><p>We'd have political power.</p><p>And we wouldn't have to leave Canada. We would still pay taxes. As Canadians. In Canada. And contribute to the Canadian narrative. Just in a 'Black provinces' - which for the record, wouldn't be closed to non-Black folks, and also one that we would have to respect the <a href="https://www.onondaganation.org/culture/wampum/two-row-wampum-belt-guswenta/" target="_blank">Two Row Wampum</a>. <br /></p><p><b>The Course:</b></p><p>Clearly this isn't a fully flushed out idea, and that's the point of the course:</p><p>To flush out this idea (manifesto?). </p><p>This is a senior-level course (it <i>is</i> a 4th year History course) for folks/folx that are serious about independent and collective learning, followed by public sharing of their work.</p><p>Students would be tasked with taking on an individual topic (chapter) to create a collective idea (book) to 'imagine' this Black Settlement in Canada. The topics would be historical, contemporary, and futurist issues that we would need to address in order for us to make this B[l]ack Settlement happen.</p><p>The only hard course reading would be Blow's book. Otherwise, students are on their own to make the magic happen. Yes, we would still be meeting weekly to flush this all out, but we're learning for a purpose. As change agents.<br /></p><p><i>Proposed Topics (chapters):</i></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Histories of B[l]ack Settlements across the Globe - focus on North America, the West Indies, and West Africa. With a focus on lessons learned; <br /></li><li>Historical Black settlements across Canada, with a focus on Nova Scotia (i.e. Africville); <br /></li><li>A history and contemporary realities of Settler Colonialism and Indigenous peoples in Nova Scotia;</li><li>Histories and contemporary realities of Afro-Nova Scotians; </li><li>Histories and contemporary realities of political/constitutional structures in NS;</li><li>Histories and contemporary realities of education, justice, child welfare, employment, and real estate for Black folx in NS; <br /></li><li>Climate and ecological impacts and forecasts;</li></ul><p>Pretty much this course is about exploring what is possible, as opposed to harping on what is (im)possible. We are taking a Sankofa approach to this work.</p><p>Let's try something different.</p><p>And worst case scenario? We write a book.</p><p>Or move to PEI. <br /></p><p>Christopher <br /></p><p> <br /></p><p><br /></p>Dr. Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11192464289321739841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4563765989333989993.post-10644726554887632542021-03-20T10:00:00.001-04:002021-03-20T10:00:24.782-04:00Jus D - Where Im From (Official Music Video)<iframe width="480" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/8pw5F8-jknU" frameborder="0"></iframe>Dr. Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11192464289321739841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4563765989333989993.post-71365113473606226402021-02-28T21:39:00.003-05:002021-03-01T09:46:27.580-05:00The Curve with Christopher (Podcast) <p><a href="https://anchor.fm/the-curve-w-christopher">https://anchor.fm/the-curve-w-christopher</a><br /></p><p>Check it out. </p>Dr. Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11192464289321739841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4563765989333989993.post-61605839390455241032020-11-26T09:17:00.001-05:002020-11-26T09:17:54.883-05:00The Teddyson John Project | Caribbean Moscato (A Special Collection) | LIVE<iframe width="480" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/57fbcOxhYMA" frameborder="0"></iframe>Dr. Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11192464289321739841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4563765989333989993.post-88637725977525910362020-10-20T08:58:00.001-04:002020-10-20T08:58:46.506-04:00Koffee - Pressure (Remix) [Official Video] ft. Buju Banton<iframe width="480" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JLcdjysXPgs" frameborder="0"></iframe>Dr. Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11192464289321739841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4563765989333989993.post-78444473187073759462020-10-10T09:44:00.001-04:002020-10-10T09:44:26.690-04:00I Octane - Someone To Love (Official Music Video)<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8luusHgY878" width="480"></iframe>Dr. Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11192464289321739841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4563765989333989993.post-17435423943568368562020-09-04T11:11:00.001-04:002020-09-04T11:11:53.232-04:00Del B, Wizkid & Flavour - Consider II (feat. Kes & Walshy Fire) [Officia...<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OmQvmztKn6E" width="480"></iframe>Dr. Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11192464289321739841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4563765989333989993.post-67879333032179107682020-07-03T10:36:00.001-04:002020-07-03T10:36:12.785-04:00Buju Banton - Blessed<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tzmzKtOaVf4" width="480"></iframe>Dr. Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11192464289321739841noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4563765989333989993.post-80650315763811245372020-06-14T09:45:00.001-04:002020-06-14T09:45:40.761-04:00This is Who We Are - Barbados<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/z_5i1jtLDb0" width="480"></iframe>Dr. Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11192464289321739841noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4563765989333989993.post-34419891361520095642020-06-08T11:47:00.001-04:002020-06-08T11:47:18.237-04:00Sauti Sol - My Everything ft. 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