Taking charge of the future
This country depends more on what happens in our schools than what happens in our banks
This country depends more on what happens in our schools than what happens in our banks
Oct 31, 2008 04:30 AM
Comments on this story (7)
Annie Kidder
What is the role of schools in creating the Canada we want?
It's time to start thinking about what kind of country we want to live in.
That was the message of a forum this week sponsored by the Canadian Education Association and People for Education.
Do we want to live in a country of engaged citizens who feel they "belong" to something? Do we want to be a nation of innovators contributing to the rest of the world with our strong environmental policies, our dedication to global citizenship and our examples of social responsibility? Do we want to be able to harness the power of our population's diversity?
Or do we want to continue to lead the world in our rate of consumption? Do we want to watch passively as the gap between the rich and everyone else continues to grow, as we lose hundreds of species from our environment, and as fewer of us choose to vote?
According to Glen Murray, former mayor of Winnipeg, president of the Canadian Urban Institute and chair of the Canadian National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, Canada is at a crossroads. Our population, our economy and our environment are being transformed.
So we have to decide what we want. Then we have to decide how we're going to get there.
Our best chance to influence our country's future may lie in our publicly funded schools. More than 90 per cent of Canada's young people go to public schools (in Ontario, that percentage is even higher) and those schools can be the leaders of the change. As Penny Milton of the Canadian Education Association put it, "Schools should condition social progress, rather than be conditioned by it."
Our schools are doing a pretty great job in their drive to improve students' literacy and numeracy – test scores are up, Canadian students are among the top 10 OECD countries in reading, writing, math and science, and our graduation rates are among the highest in the world. But is that enough? What kinds of students are we graduating? Do they have the right attributes to allow them to succeed? Are they really the creative thinkers and innovators that we need? Do they have a sense of citizenship and social responsibility? Do they all – rich, poor, newcomer, aboriginal, those who live in cities and those who live in rural areas and the North – feel they have an equitable chance for success? Probably not.
Our future is going to be determined much more by what happens in our schools than what happens in our banks. So what do we need to change?
Herveen Singh, one of the panellists at the forum, formerly a "student at risk" and now a graduate student at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, says that first of all our education system has to acknowledge the change in the world around it. "We've got to listen to the voices of students, we've got to build more bridges between schools and the world, and we have to expand our notion of what equity means."
Glen Murray says we've got to do a much better job at breaking the pattern of mass marketing and mass consumption in this country. And he says the only place we can do that effectively is in our schools. We have to figure out how to instill the value of citizenship in our students. In the U.K., for example, citizenship is taught as a fundamental ideal. They challenge students to be critical thinkers; they get them to solve real problems and debate scary things like values and politics. They assume that young people can think independently and can participate in effecting change.
But in Canada these days, in their consumerism, people identify more with the economy than with their country, and our schools have shied away from challenging that.
At the forum, people wanted practical ideas about what needs to be done. Everyone agreed that our hope lies in our schools. And everyone agreed that schools have to lead. And everyone even agreed that the shift in our collective thinking about schools – from viewing them as something that was good for the country to something that was more a private good, focused on individuals' economic success – was part of the problem.
So what needs to be done? The school system itself has to do a much better job at making the connections between schools and the world around them. It has to be less afraid of tackling world issues and values. In fact, it has to see it as its responsibility.
If critical and creative thinkers are what we need in the 21st century, we have to rejig what has become a two-tiered curriculum, where we have relegated the kinds of courses that produce those very attributes to the bottom tier. We have to redefine success in education beyond simplistic targets for test scores, because they don't tell us much about the overall health of our education system. We have to look critically at our focus on literacy and numeracy and make sure that political targets haven't gotten in the way of truly educational ones.
And to answer one of the biggest questions asked at the forum: Why should anyone else (outside of parents and teachers) care about what happens in our schools? Because our country depends on it. Because our schools have the potential to lead the change and the potential to create a brighter future for all of us. But only if we demand it of them.
Annie Kidder is executive director of People for Education, an independent parent-led organization. Clips from the forum will be available on the websites of the CEA and People for Education: www.cea-ace.ca and www.peopleforeducation
http://www.thestar.com/article/527799
Friday, October 31, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
"Against The Clock"
"Against The Clock"
You are working against the clock when you are trying to finish your work within a limited amount of time. Example: "We worked against the clock all day to get that report done by five."....GoEnglish.com
You are working against the clock when you are trying to finish your work within a limited amount of time. Example: "We worked against the clock all day to get that report done by five."....GoEnglish.com
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Proud graduate overcame brain injury
Proud graduate overcame brain injury
After massive damage caused in car accident,
York program assists woman to get degree
Oct 21, 2008 04:30 AM
Comments on this story (1)
Shabnam Janet Janani
Staff Reporter
After Rosanne Wong was in a horrific car accident 11 years ago, doctors said her brain was so badly damaged she would not be able to do anything for the rest of her life.
She was, according to them, in a persistent vegetative state.
Saturday, Wong stood on a podium at York University wearing a flowing black gown as she graduated with a B.A. in sociology. Her remarkable achievement was made possible with the help of York's Office for Persons with Disabilities.
"I never give up," said the 29-year-old east Toronto woman in a phone interview, her speech still slowed by the effects of the brain injury she suffered while living in Apopka, Fla.
Wong had just received a full scholarship from the University of Florida and dreamed of becoming a computer engineer.
Then, on Sept. 19, 1997, she was driving on her way to tutor underprivileged students when she made a wrong turn, into the path of a 16-wheel tractor-trailer.
Wong spent 10 days in a coma at the Orlando Regional Medical Centre in Florida.
Over the course of nine months, despite what doctors had said, she began to regain basic functions. She slowly started to breathe, eat, talk and walk on her own. She was released from the hospital, but it would be two years before her brain could do more complex things.
"Gradually, her ability to read came back," said her father, Ray Wong, "but she had to read a page more than 10 times to remember details."
As her insurance coverage ran out – and the company refused to renew her policy – bills for her medication that reached $6,000 a month prompted her family to return to Canada, where they had moved from Jamaica 30 years earlier.
She enrolled in York University's Information Technology program in 2001, still hoping to become a computer engineer.
"When disabled students register at the university, they meet with case counsellors first," said Karen Swartz, director at the Office for Persons with Disabilities at York. Case counsellors review the students' difficulties and then build a plan based on what kind of accommodations they need to proceed through their university career.
In the 2007-2008 academic year, 2,533 students were accommodated for their disabilities at York. Of these, about 50 had brain injuries, Schwartz said.
Students with disabilities are usually expected to write the same exams and assignments as other students.
After Wong failed courses in the Information Technology program, a neuropsychology assessment suggested that parts of her brain that process information related to math and science had been destroyed along with her short-term memory. That indicated she should change her major.
"She is very hard working and dedicated," said Annette Symanzik, a case counsellor at York.
But before her transition, Wong faced another shock when her mother died from a heart attack.
"She was so close to her mother and was so depressed that she wasn't able to do things properly," said her father.
She received therapy and was eventually able to recover from the grief."It was a big loss for me," she said. "My mother really wanted to see my graduation day."
Wong is independent now, and looks forward to starting a job in her field.
As for the doctor who told Wong's father his daughter would never do anything for the rest of her life, he is still annoyed but said, "We let it go."
http://www.thestar.com/article/520884
After massive damage caused in car accident,
York program assists woman to get degree
Oct 21, 2008 04:30 AM
Comments on this story (1)
Shabnam Janet Janani
Staff Reporter
After Rosanne Wong was in a horrific car accident 11 years ago, doctors said her brain was so badly damaged she would not be able to do anything for the rest of her life.
She was, according to them, in a persistent vegetative state.
Saturday, Wong stood on a podium at York University wearing a flowing black gown as she graduated with a B.A. in sociology. Her remarkable achievement was made possible with the help of York's Office for Persons with Disabilities.
"I never give up," said the 29-year-old east Toronto woman in a phone interview, her speech still slowed by the effects of the brain injury she suffered while living in Apopka, Fla.
Wong had just received a full scholarship from the University of Florida and dreamed of becoming a computer engineer.
Then, on Sept. 19, 1997, she was driving on her way to tutor underprivileged students when she made a wrong turn, into the path of a 16-wheel tractor-trailer.
Wong spent 10 days in a coma at the Orlando Regional Medical Centre in Florida.
Over the course of nine months, despite what doctors had said, she began to regain basic functions. She slowly started to breathe, eat, talk and walk on her own. She was released from the hospital, but it would be two years before her brain could do more complex things.
"Gradually, her ability to read came back," said her father, Ray Wong, "but she had to read a page more than 10 times to remember details."
As her insurance coverage ran out – and the company refused to renew her policy – bills for her medication that reached $6,000 a month prompted her family to return to Canada, where they had moved from Jamaica 30 years earlier.
She enrolled in York University's Information Technology program in 2001, still hoping to become a computer engineer.
"When disabled students register at the university, they meet with case counsellors first," said Karen Swartz, director at the Office for Persons with Disabilities at York. Case counsellors review the students' difficulties and then build a plan based on what kind of accommodations they need to proceed through their university career.
In the 2007-2008 academic year, 2,533 students were accommodated for their disabilities at York. Of these, about 50 had brain injuries, Schwartz said.
Students with disabilities are usually expected to write the same exams and assignments as other students.
After Wong failed courses in the Information Technology program, a neuropsychology assessment suggested that parts of her brain that process information related to math and science had been destroyed along with her short-term memory. That indicated she should change her major.
"She is very hard working and dedicated," said Annette Symanzik, a case counsellor at York.
But before her transition, Wong faced another shock when her mother died from a heart attack.
"She was so close to her mother and was so depressed that she wasn't able to do things properly," said her father.
She received therapy and was eventually able to recover from the grief."It was a big loss for me," she said. "My mother really wanted to see my graduation day."
Wong is independent now, and looks forward to starting a job in her field.
As for the doctor who told Wong's father his daughter would never do anything for the rest of her life, he is still annoyed but said, "We let it go."
http://www.thestar.com/article/520884
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
The wrath against Khan
Liberal defector goes down to defeat after crossing floor to Tories last year,
Oct 15, 2008 04:30 AM 'Tess Kalinowski
Liberal tradition trumped Conservative party favours as Mississauga-Streetsville stayed true to its roots by electing first-time candidate Bonnie Crombie last night
Repeated visits to the riding by Prime Minister Stephen Harper weren't enough to persuade voters to back incumbent Wajid Khan, this time running as a Conservative. Khan won as a Liberal in the two previous elections but crossed the floor of Parliament in 2007.
Speaking to supporters after his defeat, Khan said, "I'm proud of the contribution, the benefits I have brought to Canada through my work will never be diminished.
"I don't believe in making things personal," he said. "We worked hard, but at the end of the day it is the constituents who decide and I respect their decision."
For many observers though, the race was personal in the affluent, diverse riding. Throughout the campaign, Crombie had referred to Khan's floor crossing as a betrayal of voters' sacred trust. Wearing a smart, Liberal-red suit, Crombie told supporters last night, "Together we're going to make Mississauga-Streetsville the best place to live in Canada."
Crombie was flanked by her two sons, a daughter, and husband, Brian.
A corporate marketing expert and fundraiser, she capitalized throughout the campaign on her strong local connections in Mississauga.
Despite the Conservatives' dedicated push to win over ridings like in this one in the 905 region, voters here weren't ready to accept Khan's decision to join the Conservative party after the former Pakistani air force pilot had already been named the Prime Minister's special advisor on the Middle East.
The riding had returned a Liberal to Parliament in every election since 1993. Harper signs were planted next to Khan's own blue election signs in the riding and the former car dealer repeatedly deflected campaign questions to the issue of federal leadership, contrasting Harper's style with that of Liberal leader Stéphane Dion.
"The leadership of Stephen Harper has made this country better. Canadians are confident in their government," Khan told supporters last night.
Throughout the campaign, Crombie had talked about herself as "a Liberal of conviction rather than convenience."
Last week, before TV cameras, Crombie countered Khan's support of Harper by holding up a picture of the Conservative candidate standing beside Dion.
In a riding where the average annual household income is about $85,000 and more than 80 per cent of residents own their own home, Crombie said the Liberals had the best experience to deal with the country's economic difficulties.
"Everyone's interested in the economy, the prosperity agenda, and the people of Mississauga-Streetsville are no different," she told the Star in an interview.
http://www.thestar.com/article/517321
Oct 15, 2008 04:30 AM 'Tess Kalinowski
Liberal tradition trumped Conservative party favours as Mississauga-Streetsville stayed true to its roots by electing first-time candidate Bonnie Crombie last night
Repeated visits to the riding by Prime Minister Stephen Harper weren't enough to persuade voters to back incumbent Wajid Khan, this time running as a Conservative. Khan won as a Liberal in the two previous elections but crossed the floor of Parliament in 2007.
Speaking to supporters after his defeat, Khan said, "I'm proud of the contribution, the benefits I have brought to Canada through my work will never be diminished.
"I don't believe in making things personal," he said. "We worked hard, but at the end of the day it is the constituents who decide and I respect their decision."
For many observers though, the race was personal in the affluent, diverse riding. Throughout the campaign, Crombie had referred to Khan's floor crossing as a betrayal of voters' sacred trust. Wearing a smart, Liberal-red suit, Crombie told supporters last night, "Together we're going to make Mississauga-Streetsville the best place to live in Canada."
Crombie was flanked by her two sons, a daughter, and husband, Brian.
A corporate marketing expert and fundraiser, she capitalized throughout the campaign on her strong local connections in Mississauga.
Despite the Conservatives' dedicated push to win over ridings like in this one in the 905 region, voters here weren't ready to accept Khan's decision to join the Conservative party after the former Pakistani air force pilot had already been named the Prime Minister's special advisor on the Middle East.
The riding had returned a Liberal to Parliament in every election since 1993. Harper signs were planted next to Khan's own blue election signs in the riding and the former car dealer repeatedly deflected campaign questions to the issue of federal leadership, contrasting Harper's style with that of Liberal leader Stéphane Dion.
"The leadership of Stephen Harper has made this country better. Canadians are confident in their government," Khan told supporters last night.
Throughout the campaign, Crombie had talked about herself as "a Liberal of conviction rather than convenience."
Last week, before TV cameras, Crombie countered Khan's support of Harper by holding up a picture of the Conservative candidate standing beside Dion.
In a riding where the average annual household income is about $85,000 and more than 80 per cent of residents own their own home, Crombie said the Liberals had the best experience to deal with the country's economic difficulties.
"Everyone's interested in the economy, the prosperity agenda, and the people of Mississauga-Streetsville are no different," she told the Star in an interview.
http://www.thestar.com/article/517321
McCallum 'grateful to the electorate' for fourth term
Grit keeps seat despite questions over residency
Oct 15, 2008 04:30 AM
Nicholas Keung
STAFF REPORTER
Liberal incumbent John McCallum was elected in Markham-Unionville last night, despite his opponents' dogged accusations of his keeping an Oakville residence and spending not enough time in the riding.
"I'd like to thank the people of Markham-Unionville for electing me a fourth time in a row. I'm grateful to the electorate and will work very hard for the people in the riding," said McCallum.
McCallum had been questioned by the other candidates about whether he actually lives in the riding – an issue that had been raised since the incumbent, a former banker, was first elected in 2000.
McCallum, 58, admitted he does have three homes but, as opposition finance critic, said he travels a lot and mostly split his time between Ottawa and Markham.
Joan McCallum, who campaigned for her son, was elated. "I'm happy for him."
During the campaign, McCallum attacked Conservative candidate Duncan Fletcher, an advertising executive, especially because of his party's "laissez-faire" attitude toward economics and politics.
The strategy seemed to have worked, as the Liberals picked up momentum toward the end of the campaign, with voters turning their attention to an anticipated recession in Canada.
"The problems are real and we need a plan," McCallum had said at a recent all-candidate debate, emphasizing that the Conservatives had done little to address job loss in Ontario's manufacturing sector.
In the midst of economic crisis, Fletcher had focused on the government record of the last two years. The NDP's Nadine Hawkins had preached her party's plans to control price gouging by cell phone companies, withdraw from the war in Afghanistan and rebuild Canada's immigration system.
http://www.thestar.com/article/517317
Oct 15, 2008 04:30 AM
Nicholas Keung
STAFF REPORTER
Liberal incumbent John McCallum was elected in Markham-Unionville last night, despite his opponents' dogged accusations of his keeping an Oakville residence and spending not enough time in the riding.
"I'd like to thank the people of Markham-Unionville for electing me a fourth time in a row. I'm grateful to the electorate and will work very hard for the people in the riding," said McCallum.
McCallum had been questioned by the other candidates about whether he actually lives in the riding – an issue that had been raised since the incumbent, a former banker, was first elected in 2000.
McCallum, 58, admitted he does have three homes but, as opposition finance critic, said he travels a lot and mostly split his time between Ottawa and Markham.
Joan McCallum, who campaigned for her son, was elated. "I'm happy for him."
During the campaign, McCallum attacked Conservative candidate Duncan Fletcher, an advertising executive, especially because of his party's "laissez-faire" attitude toward economics and politics.
The strategy seemed to have worked, as the Liberals picked up momentum toward the end of the campaign, with voters turning their attention to an anticipated recession in Canada.
"The problems are real and we need a plan," McCallum had said at a recent all-candidate debate, emphasizing that the Conservatives had done little to address job loss in Ontario's manufacturing sector.
In the midst of economic crisis, Fletcher had focused on the government record of the last two years. The NDP's Nadine Hawkins had preached her party's plans to control price gouging by cell phone companies, withdraw from the war in Afghanistan and rebuild Canada's immigration system.
http://www.thestar.com/article/517317
John McCallum
Markham-Unionville
2006: Liberal John McCallum won by 18,616 votes),Oct 09, 2008 04:30 AM
Nicholas Keung STAFF REPORTER
The Markham-Unionville race is between the known and unknown, the experienced and inexperienced.
In a riding where 77.7 per cent of the population are visible minorities, the four major parties' candidates – Liberal veteran John McCallum, Conservative Duncan Fletcher, New Democrat Nadine Hawkins and the Green party's Leonard Aitken – don't reflect that.
Yet, they all feel immigration is a key issue here, where only 40 per cent of residents list English as a mother tongue.
"It is important to fight for immigrants," says Hawkins, 51, a business administrator, who has lived here for 20 years and is running for elected office for the first time. She praises her party's platform initiatives on easing poverty among immigrants, investing in career-bridging programs and developing national foreign-credential accreditation standards.
Fletcher, the Conservative candidate, who is also running federally for the first time, says Markham-Unionville voters are looking for a strong leader and a government that won't impose a carbon tax, referring to the Liberals' Green Shift plan.
"This is especially important to new Canadians who we have fought for and will continue to speak for," says the advertising executive, 43, who has lived here for six years.
The Liberal party pledges $800 million to improve the immigration system, including a new "Welcome Canada Pass," a multiple-entry visitor's visa valid for five years that would make it easier for relatives to visit and for foreign companies to do business here.
"Canadians like the idea of having their families visiting them in Canada. We would be letting people in on merits," says McCallum, 58, who has been an area MP since 2000.
The candidates share similar concerns over the lagging social and municipal infrastructure in the fast-growing riding.
The Greens' Aitken, also running for the first time, says the race is about empowering and engaging voters in government decision-making.
He believes all candidates have a good shot at unseating McCallum.
"People should be voting for a chance to see change, to make a point to say that you are not happy," says Aitken, 45, an information technology consultant who advocates for small local businesses.
Despite his experience, McCallum, a former cabinet minister and the Liberal finance critic, has been criticized for dividing his time among his residences in Ottawa, Markham and Oakville.
McCallum is "not engaged enough locally," Fletcher wrote in his email response to the Star's interview request.
OTHER CANDIDATES
Allen Small, Libertarian party
2006: Liberal John McCallum won by 18,616 votes),Oct 09, 2008 04:30 AM
Nicholas Keung STAFF REPORTER
The Markham-Unionville race is between the known and unknown, the experienced and inexperienced.
In a riding where 77.7 per cent of the population are visible minorities, the four major parties' candidates – Liberal veteran John McCallum, Conservative Duncan Fletcher, New Democrat Nadine Hawkins and the Green party's Leonard Aitken – don't reflect that.
Yet, they all feel immigration is a key issue here, where only 40 per cent of residents list English as a mother tongue.
"It is important to fight for immigrants," says Hawkins, 51, a business administrator, who has lived here for 20 years and is running for elected office for the first time. She praises her party's platform initiatives on easing poverty among immigrants, investing in career-bridging programs and developing national foreign-credential accreditation standards.
Fletcher, the Conservative candidate, who is also running federally for the first time, says Markham-Unionville voters are looking for a strong leader and a government that won't impose a carbon tax, referring to the Liberals' Green Shift plan.
"This is especially important to new Canadians who we have fought for and will continue to speak for," says the advertising executive, 43, who has lived here for six years.
The Liberal party pledges $800 million to improve the immigration system, including a new "Welcome Canada Pass," a multiple-entry visitor's visa valid for five years that would make it easier for relatives to visit and for foreign companies to do business here.
"Canadians like the idea of having their families visiting them in Canada. We would be letting people in on merits," says McCallum, 58, who has been an area MP since 2000.
The candidates share similar concerns over the lagging social and municipal infrastructure in the fast-growing riding.
The Greens' Aitken, also running for the first time, says the race is about empowering and engaging voters in government decision-making.
He believes all candidates have a good shot at unseating McCallum.
"People should be voting for a chance to see change, to make a point to say that you are not happy," says Aitken, 45, an information technology consultant who advocates for small local businesses.
Despite his experience, McCallum, a former cabinet minister and the Liberal finance critic, has been criticized for dividing his time among his residences in Ottawa, Markham and Oakville.
McCallum is "not engaged enough locally," Fletcher wrote in his email response to the Star's interview request.
OTHER CANDIDATES
Allen Small, Libertarian party
Voters keep Tories on short leash
Voters keep Tories on short leash
Oct 15, 2008 04:30 AM
Comments on this story (5)
Carol Goar
Canada has the dubious distinction of being the first country to hold a national vote since the global economy broke loose from its moorings.
Electors made a sober choice: They stuck with what they knew
It was not an unequivocal vote confidence in Prime Minister Stephen Harper. For the third time in four years, Canadians elected a minority government.
It was a carefully reasoned decision. Voters picked the Conservatives as the safest alternative and kept them on a short leash by sending a sizeable opposition force to Parliament.
But there is no certainty in these times. For all their prudence, voters are likely to face a quite different future than the one Harper laid out on the campaign trail.
First of all, the Prime Minister's brave talk about protecting Canada from a recession will soon give way to a candid acknowledgement that all he – or any other national leader – can do is react nimbly to the upheavals as they come.
He'll get a few months' grace. According to Statistics Canada, the country is not yet technically in a recession. But barring a spectacular economic resurgence, Harper's second mandate will be characterized by business failures, job losses and a long plunge in home prices.
When they come, what he said on the hustings will be irrelevant. Canadians will want a Prime Minister who can make the best of adverse circumstances and use the power of the state to cushion Canadians from as much hardship as possible.
Next to go will be the fiction that Canada can remain deficit-free.
When revenues decrease – as they inevitably do when businesses falter and taxpayers lose their jobs; and costs rise – as they invariably do when employment insurance claims increase and welfare rolls swell – no government can balance its budget without slashing public expenditures brutally.
The Conservatives may be able to avoid a deficit this year, thanks to the residual strength of the economy. But next year and beyond, they'll be budgeting amid such uncertainty that a no-deficit guarantee would amount to a vow to sacrifice anything to avoid red ink. If Harper sticks to his doctrinaire stance as Canadians appeal for help, he can wave goodbye to his chances of re-election.
The Prime Minister's vision of Canada as an "energy superpower" already looks out of-date.
The world's appetite for oil has shrunk dramatically in the past three months. Since mid-July, the price of a barrel of crude has dropped by 46 per cent. At $79 (U.S.) a barrel, where it closed yesterday, oil-sands producers were barely recovering their costs. In these conditions, it makes little sense to go ahead with expansion plans.
Weak demand isn't the only threat. Next month's presidential election in the United States could propel Harper into the climate-change era much faster than he expects.
Democratic contender Barack Obama has made it clear that curbing greenhouse gas emissions is one of his top priorities. He has also served notice that America will not buy "dirty oil" (which includes the tar-like bitumen from the Athabaska oil sands) if he becomes president.
Relying on fossil fuels to power the Canadian economy through the recession is not going to work.
Finally, the composition of Canada's 40th Parliament could compel the Prime Minister to adjust his agenda.
All three opposition parties, who collectively hold more seats than the Conservatives, want Ottawa to tackle poverty, penalize polluters, invest in green technologies, build affordable housing and support the arts. None of those is a Tory priority.
Harper will have to accommodate some of their proposals to keep his minority government alive.
There is also a possibility that the Liberals, New Democrats and Bloc Québécois could join forces to defeat the government, then attempt to govern as a coalition. But they'd have to overcome tradition and partisanship.
Canadians who voted for Harper because he is shrewd and competent will probably be satisfied.
Those who picked him because they believed what he said are in for a few surprises.
Carol Goar's column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
http://www.thestar.com/comment/columnists/article/517579
Oct 15, 2008 04:30 AM
Comments on this story (5)
Carol Goar
Canada has the dubious distinction of being the first country to hold a national vote since the global economy broke loose from its moorings.
Electors made a sober choice: They stuck with what they knew
It was not an unequivocal vote confidence in Prime Minister Stephen Harper. For the third time in four years, Canadians elected a minority government.
It was a carefully reasoned decision. Voters picked the Conservatives as the safest alternative and kept them on a short leash by sending a sizeable opposition force to Parliament.
But there is no certainty in these times. For all their prudence, voters are likely to face a quite different future than the one Harper laid out on the campaign trail.
First of all, the Prime Minister's brave talk about protecting Canada from a recession will soon give way to a candid acknowledgement that all he – or any other national leader – can do is react nimbly to the upheavals as they come.
He'll get a few months' grace. According to Statistics Canada, the country is not yet technically in a recession. But barring a spectacular economic resurgence, Harper's second mandate will be characterized by business failures, job losses and a long plunge in home prices.
When they come, what he said on the hustings will be irrelevant. Canadians will want a Prime Minister who can make the best of adverse circumstances and use the power of the state to cushion Canadians from as much hardship as possible.
Next to go will be the fiction that Canada can remain deficit-free.
When revenues decrease – as they inevitably do when businesses falter and taxpayers lose their jobs; and costs rise – as they invariably do when employment insurance claims increase and welfare rolls swell – no government can balance its budget without slashing public expenditures brutally.
The Conservatives may be able to avoid a deficit this year, thanks to the residual strength of the economy. But next year and beyond, they'll be budgeting amid such uncertainty that a no-deficit guarantee would amount to a vow to sacrifice anything to avoid red ink. If Harper sticks to his doctrinaire stance as Canadians appeal for help, he can wave goodbye to his chances of re-election.
The Prime Minister's vision of Canada as an "energy superpower" already looks out of-date.
The world's appetite for oil has shrunk dramatically in the past three months. Since mid-July, the price of a barrel of crude has dropped by 46 per cent. At $79 (U.S.) a barrel, where it closed yesterday, oil-sands producers were barely recovering their costs. In these conditions, it makes little sense to go ahead with expansion plans.
Weak demand isn't the only threat. Next month's presidential election in the United States could propel Harper into the climate-change era much faster than he expects.
Democratic contender Barack Obama has made it clear that curbing greenhouse gas emissions is one of his top priorities. He has also served notice that America will not buy "dirty oil" (which includes the tar-like bitumen from the Athabaska oil sands) if he becomes president.
Relying on fossil fuels to power the Canadian economy through the recession is not going to work.
Finally, the composition of Canada's 40th Parliament could compel the Prime Minister to adjust his agenda.
All three opposition parties, who collectively hold more seats than the Conservatives, want Ottawa to tackle poverty, penalize polluters, invest in green technologies, build affordable housing and support the arts. None of those is a Tory priority.
Harper will have to accommodate some of their proposals to keep his minority government alive.
There is also a possibility that the Liberals, New Democrats and Bloc Québécois could join forces to defeat the government, then attempt to govern as a coalition. But they'd have to overcome tradition and partisanship.
Canadians who voted for Harper because he is shrewd and competent will probably be satisfied.
Those who picked him because they believed what he said are in for a few surprises.
Carol Goar's column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
http://www.thestar.com/comment/columnists/article/517579
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Our waning democratic impulse
Our waning democratic impulse
Oct 14, 2008 04:30 AM
Comments on this story (7)
Martin Regg Cohn
Will your vote really make a difference today?
Are you motivated enough to turn out for the likes of Harper, Dion or Layton?
If your local candidate is way ahead, why bother casting a ballot?
Let me count the ways.
There are 192 countries in the world. Only two or three dozen are deemed healthy democracies, according to research groups like Freedom House and the Economist Intelligence Unit that rank electoral freedoms.
Canada – the country – scores high on the list of democracies.
Canadians – the people – rank poorly as democrats.
We should be proud of our country's democratic tradition. But embarrassed by our apathetic inclinations as a people.
A 2002 study by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance ranks Canada 83rd in election turnouts, well behind most European democracies. But even that ranking was based on the years 1945-2001, when turnouts still averaged a respectable 74 per cent.
Voter turnout has been steadily declining in Canadian federal elections since the 1960s, flitting between 60.9 and 64.7 per cent in the last two elections. The provincial numbers are even more discouraging, dipping to 52.6 per cent last year. Municipal turnouts are utterly depressing, typically plunging as low as 33 per cent.
As Winston Churchill put it, "Democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." Sixty years after he uttered that memorable phrase in the British House of Commons, the world is still dominated by repressive regimes that make our vote all the more precious.
I take this issue personally.
As a young political reporter covering Queen's Park and Ottawa, watching fatuous politicians up close, I counted on the revenge of the voter at the ballot box. After 11 years as a foreign correspondent, chronicling people's struggle for democracy overseas, I've become even more fanatical about it.
Covering the transformation of Indonesia – the world's most populous Muslim country – from dictatorship to democracy showed me how far people were willing to go to risk their lives on the streets for something Canadians still take for granted.
In a dilapidated second-floor Rangoon office watched by military spies, I interviewed Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader who briefly emerged from house arrest in 2002. It had been 12 years since she'd won a landslide election, which the military regime simply ignored.
"Our people are very resilient," she told me with a steely laugh. "In a sense, you could say we are battle-hardened."
Which is why I shudder at Canadian complacency about our democracy. I could go on with Third World horror stories, but it's a First World case study that resonated most with me as a Canadian.
From my base in Hong Kong, running the Star's Asia Bureau, I watched a remarkable grassroots democracy movement gain strength in that former British crown colony. No one could have predicted more than 500,000 people would stream through the city's streets for at least two anniversary protests marking the 1997 handover to Beijing.
In a place where the per capita income is higher than Canada's, the people had seemed utterly apolitical and obsessed with property prices. Suddenly they were marching for that most basic human right: One person, one vote.
People power displaced purchasing power as Hong Kong's leitmotif. Unfortunately, Beijing ruled late last year that full democracy won't be permitted until 2020.
The 7 million people of Hong Kong will have to wait another 12 years to exercise the full franchise that we Canadians can enjoy today, on voting day. Right up until the polls close at 9:30 p.m.
Martin Regg Cohn, a long-time foreign correspondent, is deputy editorial page editor.
http://www.thestar.com/FederalElection/article/515978
Oct 14, 2008 04:30 AM
Comments on this story (7)
Martin Regg Cohn
Will your vote really make a difference today?
Are you motivated enough to turn out for the likes of Harper, Dion or Layton?
If your local candidate is way ahead, why bother casting a ballot?
Let me count the ways.
There are 192 countries in the world. Only two or three dozen are deemed healthy democracies, according to research groups like Freedom House and the Economist Intelligence Unit that rank electoral freedoms.
Canada – the country – scores high on the list of democracies.
Canadians – the people – rank poorly as democrats.
We should be proud of our country's democratic tradition. But embarrassed by our apathetic inclinations as a people.
A 2002 study by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance ranks Canada 83rd in election turnouts, well behind most European democracies. But even that ranking was based on the years 1945-2001, when turnouts still averaged a respectable 74 per cent.
Voter turnout has been steadily declining in Canadian federal elections since the 1960s, flitting between 60.9 and 64.7 per cent in the last two elections. The provincial numbers are even more discouraging, dipping to 52.6 per cent last year. Municipal turnouts are utterly depressing, typically plunging as low as 33 per cent.
As Winston Churchill put it, "Democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." Sixty years after he uttered that memorable phrase in the British House of Commons, the world is still dominated by repressive regimes that make our vote all the more precious.
I take this issue personally.
As a young political reporter covering Queen's Park and Ottawa, watching fatuous politicians up close, I counted on the revenge of the voter at the ballot box. After 11 years as a foreign correspondent, chronicling people's struggle for democracy overseas, I've become even more fanatical about it.
Covering the transformation of Indonesia – the world's most populous Muslim country – from dictatorship to democracy showed me how far people were willing to go to risk their lives on the streets for something Canadians still take for granted.
In a dilapidated second-floor Rangoon office watched by military spies, I interviewed Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader who briefly emerged from house arrest in 2002. It had been 12 years since she'd won a landslide election, which the military regime simply ignored.
"Our people are very resilient," she told me with a steely laugh. "In a sense, you could say we are battle-hardened."
Which is why I shudder at Canadian complacency about our democracy. I could go on with Third World horror stories, but it's a First World case study that resonated most with me as a Canadian.
From my base in Hong Kong, running the Star's Asia Bureau, I watched a remarkable grassroots democracy movement gain strength in that former British crown colony. No one could have predicted more than 500,000 people would stream through the city's streets for at least two anniversary protests marking the 1997 handover to Beijing.
In a place where the per capita income is higher than Canada's, the people had seemed utterly apolitical and obsessed with property prices. Suddenly they were marching for that most basic human right: One person, one vote.
People power displaced purchasing power as Hong Kong's leitmotif. Unfortunately, Beijing ruled late last year that full democracy won't be permitted until 2020.
The 7 million people of Hong Kong will have to wait another 12 years to exercise the full franchise that we Canadians can enjoy today, on voting day. Right up until the polls close at 9:30 p.m.
Martin Regg Cohn, a long-time foreign correspondent, is deputy editorial page editor.
http://www.thestar.com/FederalElection/article/515978
Expanadable Posts
Expanadable Posts
Click on Edit Html and first backup your template by using the Download Full Template link. Then scroll down till you come to </head> tag and add the following code immediately above it :
<style>
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
span.fullpost {display:inline;}
<b:else/>
span.fullpost {display:none;}
</b:if>
</style>
Save Template. IMPORTANT NOTE in the layouts template there is a ]]></b:skin> tag just above the </head> tag. Add the above code so that it lies between these two tags. What we did here was to define a class called "fullpost" that will appear only on post pages (permalinks).
"READ MORE" LINKS
The second step is to add the Read More links which will appear after the paragraph summaries. To do this put a check in the Expand Widgets Template checkbox at the top of the Edit Template text box.
NOTE : If you do not put a check in Expand widgets template checkbox at the top of the TEMPLATE CODE BOX you will not see this code.
This is in the Edit Html subtab of Template tab. Then scroll down in the code till you come to the Blog Posts Widget code where locate this line of code :
<data:post.body/>
Add the code below immediately after the above code :
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "item"'>
<a expr:href='data:post.url' target='_blank'>Read more!</a>
</b:if>
Save Template. This link will only appear on the main page and archive pages, and it will redirect your reader to the post page containing the full text of your post.
IMPORTANT NOTE : Do not use any other code or it will give error.
You can also add your Post Title at the end of the Read More link so that it will read "Read More on "My Best Post"!"
UPDATE
A Reader wanted to increase the font size of the Read More! link. To do this add this code instead of the one above :
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "item"'>
<span ><a expr:href='data:post.url' target='_blank'><font size="120" color="red">Read more!</font></a></span>
</b:if>
Increase or decrease the figure 120 as you want it and then save the template. To make the font bold use this code instead :
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "item"'>
<span style="font-weight:bold;"><a expr:href='data:post.url' target='_blank'>Read more!</a></span>
</b:if>
Save Template. To do both use this code :
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "item"'>
<span style="font-weight:bold;"><span ><a expr:href='data:post.url' target='_blank'>Read more!</a></span></span>
</b:if>
Save Template.
POST MODIFICATIONS
The last step is to modify the post template so that each post when created will show you where to place your summary paragraph and where to place the rest of the post. To do this go to Settings------>Formatting and scroll down to the end of the page to the box for the Post Template. Copy and Paste the following lines there :
Here is the beginning of my post. <span class="fullpost">And here is the rest of it.</span>
Save Settings. When you click on Create Post and then Edit Html tab of Post Editor you will see the following (Click Image for larger view) :
Click on Edit Html and first backup your template by using the Download Full Template link. Then scroll down till you come to </head> tag and add the following code immediately above it :
<style>
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
span.fullpost {display:inline;}
<b:else/>
span.fullpost {display:none;}
</b:if>
</style>
Save Template. IMPORTANT NOTE in the layouts template there is a ]]></b:skin> tag just above the </head> tag. Add the above code so that it lies between these two tags. What we did here was to define a class called "fullpost" that will appear only on post pages (permalinks).
"READ MORE" LINKS
The second step is to add the Read More links which will appear after the paragraph summaries. To do this put a check in the Expand Widgets Template checkbox at the top of the Edit Template text box.
NOTE : If you do not put a check in Expand widgets template checkbox at the top of the TEMPLATE CODE BOX you will not see this code.
This is in the Edit Html subtab of Template tab. Then scroll down in the code till you come to the Blog Posts Widget code where locate this line of code :
<data:post.body/>
Add the code below immediately after the above code :
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "item"'>
<a expr:href='data:post.url' target='_blank'>Read more!</a>
</b:if>
Save Template. This link will only appear on the main page and archive pages, and it will redirect your reader to the post page containing the full text of your post.
IMPORTANT NOTE : Do not use any other code or it will give error.
You can also add your Post Title at the end of the Read More link so that it will read "Read More on "My Best Post"!"
UPDATE
A Reader wanted to increase the font size of the Read More! link. To do this add this code instead of the one above :
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "item"'>
<span ><a expr:href='data:post.url' target='_blank'><font size="120" color="red">Read more!</font></a></span>
</b:if>
Increase or decrease the figure 120 as you want it and then save the template. To make the font bold use this code instead :
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "item"'>
<span style="font-weight:bold;"><a expr:href='data:post.url' target='_blank'>Read more!</a></span>
</b:if>
Save Template. To do both use this code :
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "item"'>
<span style="font-weight:bold;"><span ><a expr:href='data:post.url' target='_blank'>Read more!</a></span></span>
</b:if>
Save Template.
POST MODIFICATIONS
The last step is to modify the post template so that each post when created will show you where to place your summary paragraph and where to place the rest of the post. To do this go to Settings------>Formatting and scroll down to the end of the page to the box for the Post Template. Copy and Paste the following lines there :
Here is the beginning of my post. <span class="fullpost">And here is the rest of it.</span>
Save Settings. When you click on Create Post and then Edit Html tab of Post Editor you will see the following (Click Image for larger view) :
Friday, October 10, 2008
Alcohol creates 'barrier' for Muslims
Alcohol creates 'barrier' for Muslims
Alcohol, food and gender relations are the key barriers to social interaction between Muslim and non-Muslim Australians, a study suggests
The findings emerged from a study commissioned by the federal government to develop better community-based integration programs.
The project focused on Muslims who have experienced racism since the 2005 Cronulla riots.
To determine social barriers, researchers interviewed a group of 10 Muslims who socialise predominantly with other Muslims. They also spoke to 10 non-Muslims from the Cronulla area who did not mix with Muslims.
Among the non-Muslims, it was not well-known that drinking alcohol is forbidden under Islam.
The concept of halal - denoting what is permissible under Islam - was also little understood.
Female Muslim interviewees said they could not understand how drinking by non-Muslims can be seen as responsible behaviour.
Their male counterparts said they would refuse invitations to events where alcohol was consumed to shield the women from it.
Some of the respondents said they felt morally compelled to avoid alcohol, even if halal food was provided.
Experiences of racism, language barriers and social demographics also made the Muslim participants more hesitant to mix with non-Muslims.
The study also looked at community-based programs designed to promote integration and socialisation between the two groups.
It found local councils were doing relatively little to build bridges between Muslims and non-Muslims.
The non-government sector was found to be the leader in building relations. And activities that encouraged contact, like sport, were the most successful.
"There is great scope for greater participation by councils in this area," the study says.
It said local, state and federal governments should do more to engage mainstream community groups with Muslim organisations, fund documentaries that feature positive stories of Muslims, and undertake a "public myth-busting" campaign to promote peace and tolerance.
Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs Laurie Ferguson welcomed the report.
"It is by undertaking and evaluating research such as this that we become more responsive to our community's changing needs," he said in a statement.
"We all have a role to play in making our communities more inclusive and stronger for the future."
In 2006 there were 340,000 Muslim Australians, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
NSW has the largest Muslim population, close to 170,000, of whom most live within 50km of the Sydney city centre.
http://news.theage.com.au/national/alcohol-creates-barrier-for-muslims-20081010-4y8q.html
Alcohol, food and gender relations are the key barriers to social interaction between Muslim and non-Muslim Australians, a study suggests
The findings emerged from a study commissioned by the federal government to develop better community-based integration programs.
The project focused on Muslims who have experienced racism since the 2005 Cronulla riots.
To determine social barriers, researchers interviewed a group of 10 Muslims who socialise predominantly with other Muslims. They also spoke to 10 non-Muslims from the Cronulla area who did not mix with Muslims.
Among the non-Muslims, it was not well-known that drinking alcohol is forbidden under Islam.
The concept of halal - denoting what is permissible under Islam - was also little understood.
Female Muslim interviewees said they could not understand how drinking by non-Muslims can be seen as responsible behaviour.
Their male counterparts said they would refuse invitations to events where alcohol was consumed to shield the women from it.
Some of the respondents said they felt morally compelled to avoid alcohol, even if halal food was provided.
Experiences of racism, language barriers and social demographics also made the Muslim participants more hesitant to mix with non-Muslims.
The study also looked at community-based programs designed to promote integration and socialisation between the two groups.
It found local councils were doing relatively little to build bridges between Muslims and non-Muslims.
The non-government sector was found to be the leader in building relations. And activities that encouraged contact, like sport, were the most successful.
"There is great scope for greater participation by councils in this area," the study says.
It said local, state and federal governments should do more to engage mainstream community groups with Muslim organisations, fund documentaries that feature positive stories of Muslims, and undertake a "public myth-busting" campaign to promote peace and tolerance.
Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs Laurie Ferguson welcomed the report.
"It is by undertaking and evaluating research such as this that we become more responsive to our community's changing needs," he said in a statement.
"We all have a role to play in making our communities more inclusive and stronger for the future."
In 2006 there were 340,000 Muslim Australians, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
NSW has the largest Muslim population, close to 170,000, of whom most live within 50km of the Sydney city centre.
http://news.theage.com.au/national/alcohol-creates-barrier-for-muslims-20081010-4y8q.html
Friday, October 3, 2008
Hindu-Muslim Family’s Choice Of Cremation Arouses Anger
Hindu-Muslim Family’s Choice Of Cremation Arouses Anger
By ANNE BARNARD
Published: October 3, 2008
Friends and family remember Shafayet Reja as an affectionate young man who stayed up late to write poetry, danced exuberantly at weddings and explored the faiths of his father and mother with an openheartedness that led him to declare on his Facebook page, “I never get tired of learning the new things that life has to offer.”
But within hours of his death on Sept. 10 after a car accident, his memory — in fact, his very body — had become the object of a tug-of-war over religious freedom and obligation. It began when his mother, who was raised Hindu, and his father, who is Muslim, decided to have his body cremated in the Hindu tradition, rather than burying him in a shroud, as Islam prescribes.
His parents, Mina and Farhad Reja, say a small group of Muslims who do not understand their approach to religion are trying to intimidate them over the most private of family choices. “This is America,” Mrs. Reja said. “This is a family decision.”
The couple say that people accosted them at their son’s funeral, that an angry crowd threatened to boycott a shopping center they own in Jackson Heights, Queens, and that on Sept. 13, two men they know threatened to bomb and burn down the building.
The men they accused in a complaint filed with the police — one is a doctor and the father of a close friend of Shafayet Reja, the other a Bangladeshi business leader — say that they made no threats and deny that they have called for a boycott. They say they and others simply expressed their concern about what they see as a deep violation of their religion and of the wishes of the son, who, according to some of his college friends, had recently chosen Islam as his sole religion.
The Police Department’s hate crimes unit is investigating whether the threats took place, whether they would constitute aggravated harassment, and whether they qualify as bias crimes, which carry tougher penalties, a spokesman for the department said. No charges have been filed.
What is not in doubt is that the episode is a source of consternation, from the Queens neighborhoods where Mr. Reja’s parents live and work to their native Bangladesh, one of the world’s most populous Muslim countries, where it has been national news.
The dispute has especially swept up several bustling blocks in Jackson Heights, where dozens of businesses are Bengali. It had business owners on edge during the busy shopping season before this week’s Id al-Fitr festival. The festival marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and brings throngs of shoppers to dine and to buy jewelry and sparkling traditional dresses.
The neighborhood is a place where business rivalries and family arguments often intersect with disputes over Bangladesh politics, especially in the case of Mrs. Reja, a prominent property owner and outspoken advocate of the rights of Bangladesh’s religious minorities. Her 1999 self-published book, “God on Trial,” angered some Muslims in the neighborhood with its critique of Islamic fundamentalism.
The cremation dispute goes to the heart of a debate among Muslims in America about what makes someone a Muslim — to some of the critics, the fact that Shafayet Reja listed Islam as his religion on Facebook is enough — and how to reconcile this country’s freedom of religion with what some Muslims see as a communal obligation to uphold religious observance.
But to the family, the dispute is a frightening imposition that they say violates their civil rights.
“We have freedom of religion, and we have the Constitution,” said the Rejas’ son Mishal, 19, who studies at Washington University in St. Louis. “Why would they bother us? It’s none of their business. Even if he was the most hard-core Muslim.”
To some Muslims, the fact that Shafayet Reja prayed and attended mosques trumps his family’s wishes.
“It was the community’s business because the community knew he was a Muslim,” said Junnun Choudhury, secretary of the Jamaica Muslim Center, one of several mosques around the city whose worshipers came to the funeral to plead with the family. “It is our job to bury him in the Muslim way.”
Neither he nor any other mosque leader has been accused of making threats, and there have been no further protests.
Abu Zafar Mahmood, an adviser to the Jackson Heights Bangladeshi Business Association, said he was disturbed by the cremation but was urging people not to confront Mrs. Reja. “It would be harmful,” he said. “We have a multicultural community.”
Mrs. Reja said she brought up her children by attending both Hindu temples and Muslim mosques. “Humanism is what I taught my children,” she said. “I want to see my son as a perfect human being, and not as a perfect religious person.”
Whether or not her son was beginning to move closer to Islam is another thread in the tangle of hurt feelings and disagreements.
Shafayet Reja, 22, graduated from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 2007. He was living with his parents in Richmond Hill, studying to be a licensed insurance broker.
He was also spending a lot of time at the Long Island home of Dr. Khondeker Masud Rahman — who was eventually accused of threatening his parents — and Dr. Rahman’s daughter, Farah, a friend from Stony Brook.
He was also spending a lot of time at the Long Island home of Dr. Khondeker Masud Rahman — who was eventually accused of threatening his parents — and Dr. Rahman’s daughter, Farah, a friend from Stony Brook.
Farah Rahman said that he had begun praying more often and talking to Dr. Rahman about Islam, and that he had quarreled with his mother, saying she blamed the religion unfairly for the mistakes of some of its followers. He had even, she said in an interview, mentioned that he wanted a Muslim burial. His family members and childhood friends say he would have wanted his mother to choose.
On Sept. 2, Shafayet Reja broke the daily Ramadan fast with friends at Stony Brook’s Muslim Students Association. Afterward, Farah Rahman was in the car behind his when he lost control on a wet road. He was hospitalized, and died on Sept. 10 without regaining consciousness.
When word spread that the family would hold both Muslim and Hindu rites for their son and then have him cremated, the Rahmans and others were upset. Father and daughter both asked the family to give him a Muslim burial. They said the conversations were polite; the Rejas said they were hostile.
Several dozen people, including the imams of the Jamaica Muslim Center and other mosques, came to the funeral home in Richmond Hill on Sept. 12, to attend the Muslim rite and express objections to the cremation. The Rejas say people crowded around them to press their case as they wept beside their son’s body. “I was having my last moment with my son,” Mrs. Reja said. “What gave them the guts to do that?”
The funeral staff called the police in part because the Rejas feared the crowd would try to block the hearse going to the crematorium. Mishal Reja stood in the door of the funeral home, asked the group to leave the family in peace, and promised he would try to get the cremation canceled — just to get them to leave, he said. The crowd dispersed peacefully.
Later that day, Dr. Rahman, an anesthesiologist at Elmhurst Hospital Center in Jackson Heights, spoke to a group of people breaking the daily Ramadan fast at a restaurant across the street from the family’s Bangladesh Plaza mall.
According to the Rejas, and a report in a local Bengali-language newspaper, he called for a boycott of the mall and for shop owners there to stop paying rent, though he denied that in an interview.
Afterward, some of the people from the restaurant gathered outside the mall, waving their sandals in an insulting gesture and threatening to boycott the mall, according to two men who run shops there, who did not want to be quoted by name for fear of damaging business relationships. One said that at least one person in the crowd threatened to burn the building.
In the crowd, according to the merchants, was the secretary of the Jackson Heights Bangladeshi Business Association, Zakaria Masud. Mr. Masud, too, denied calling for a boycott, but said that protesting the cremation was “a social obligation and a religious obligation.”
The next day, Mina Reja held a press conference at the mall, at which she denounced the critics and asked for privacy.
Afterward, according to complaints the Rejas made to the police, Dr. Rahman told Mishal Reja, “We will bomb your building,” and Giash Ahmed, a real estate broker and former Republican candidate for state senator, told Farhad Reja it would be burned.
Dr. Rahman and Mr. Ahmed said in interviews that they never threatened anyone and were not even at the mall that day. Mr. Ahmed said Mrs. Reja’s decision was her business.
Dr. Rahman said expressions of anger at Mrs. Reja should wait: “She should have a time of healing.” He accused her of orchestrating the scandal and fabricating the threat.
Meanwhile, under the neon signs and rainbow lights of Bangladesh Plaza, shopkeepers worry that a boycott even by part of the community will hurt their holiday business.
“Why should they involve people who are not involved? How will we survive?” one of the shop owners said. Another said of the cremation: “It’s a family matter. The parents, they decide.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/nyregion/04cremate.html?_r=1&em&oref=slogin
By ANNE BARNARD
Published: October 3, 2008
Friends and family remember Shafayet Reja as an affectionate young man who stayed up late to write poetry, danced exuberantly at weddings and explored the faiths of his father and mother with an openheartedness that led him to declare on his Facebook page, “I never get tired of learning the new things that life has to offer.”
But within hours of his death on Sept. 10 after a car accident, his memory — in fact, his very body — had become the object of a tug-of-war over religious freedom and obligation. It began when his mother, who was raised Hindu, and his father, who is Muslim, decided to have his body cremated in the Hindu tradition, rather than burying him in a shroud, as Islam prescribes.
His parents, Mina and Farhad Reja, say a small group of Muslims who do not understand their approach to religion are trying to intimidate them over the most private of family choices. “This is America,” Mrs. Reja said. “This is a family decision.”
The couple say that people accosted them at their son’s funeral, that an angry crowd threatened to boycott a shopping center they own in Jackson Heights, Queens, and that on Sept. 13, two men they know threatened to bomb and burn down the building.
The men they accused in a complaint filed with the police — one is a doctor and the father of a close friend of Shafayet Reja, the other a Bangladeshi business leader — say that they made no threats and deny that they have called for a boycott. They say they and others simply expressed their concern about what they see as a deep violation of their religion and of the wishes of the son, who, according to some of his college friends, had recently chosen Islam as his sole religion.
The Police Department’s hate crimes unit is investigating whether the threats took place, whether they would constitute aggravated harassment, and whether they qualify as bias crimes, which carry tougher penalties, a spokesman for the department said. No charges have been filed.
What is not in doubt is that the episode is a source of consternation, from the Queens neighborhoods where Mr. Reja’s parents live and work to their native Bangladesh, one of the world’s most populous Muslim countries, where it has been national news.
The dispute has especially swept up several bustling blocks in Jackson Heights, where dozens of businesses are Bengali. It had business owners on edge during the busy shopping season before this week’s Id al-Fitr festival. The festival marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and brings throngs of shoppers to dine and to buy jewelry and sparkling traditional dresses.
The neighborhood is a place where business rivalries and family arguments often intersect with disputes over Bangladesh politics, especially in the case of Mrs. Reja, a prominent property owner and outspoken advocate of the rights of Bangladesh’s religious minorities. Her 1999 self-published book, “God on Trial,” angered some Muslims in the neighborhood with its critique of Islamic fundamentalism.
The cremation dispute goes to the heart of a debate among Muslims in America about what makes someone a Muslim — to some of the critics, the fact that Shafayet Reja listed Islam as his religion on Facebook is enough — and how to reconcile this country’s freedom of religion with what some Muslims see as a communal obligation to uphold religious observance.
But to the family, the dispute is a frightening imposition that they say violates their civil rights.
“We have freedom of religion, and we have the Constitution,” said the Rejas’ son Mishal, 19, who studies at Washington University in St. Louis. “Why would they bother us? It’s none of their business. Even if he was the most hard-core Muslim.”
To some Muslims, the fact that Shafayet Reja prayed and attended mosques trumps his family’s wishes.
“It was the community’s business because the community knew he was a Muslim,” said Junnun Choudhury, secretary of the Jamaica Muslim Center, one of several mosques around the city whose worshipers came to the funeral to plead with the family. “It is our job to bury him in the Muslim way.”
Neither he nor any other mosque leader has been accused of making threats, and there have been no further protests.
Abu Zafar Mahmood, an adviser to the Jackson Heights Bangladeshi Business Association, said he was disturbed by the cremation but was urging people not to confront Mrs. Reja. “It would be harmful,” he said. “We have a multicultural community.”
Mrs. Reja said she brought up her children by attending both Hindu temples and Muslim mosques. “Humanism is what I taught my children,” she said. “I want to see my son as a perfect human being, and not as a perfect religious person.”
Whether or not her son was beginning to move closer to Islam is another thread in the tangle of hurt feelings and disagreements.
Shafayet Reja, 22, graduated from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 2007. He was living with his parents in Richmond Hill, studying to be a licensed insurance broker.
He was also spending a lot of time at the Long Island home of Dr. Khondeker Masud Rahman — who was eventually accused of threatening his parents — and Dr. Rahman’s daughter, Farah, a friend from Stony Brook.
He was also spending a lot of time at the Long Island home of Dr. Khondeker Masud Rahman — who was eventually accused of threatening his parents — and Dr. Rahman’s daughter, Farah, a friend from Stony Brook.
Farah Rahman said that he had begun praying more often and talking to Dr. Rahman about Islam, and that he had quarreled with his mother, saying she blamed the religion unfairly for the mistakes of some of its followers. He had even, she said in an interview, mentioned that he wanted a Muslim burial. His family members and childhood friends say he would have wanted his mother to choose.
On Sept. 2, Shafayet Reja broke the daily Ramadan fast with friends at Stony Brook’s Muslim Students Association. Afterward, Farah Rahman was in the car behind his when he lost control on a wet road. He was hospitalized, and died on Sept. 10 without regaining consciousness.
When word spread that the family would hold both Muslim and Hindu rites for their son and then have him cremated, the Rahmans and others were upset. Father and daughter both asked the family to give him a Muslim burial. They said the conversations were polite; the Rejas said they were hostile.
Several dozen people, including the imams of the Jamaica Muslim Center and other mosques, came to the funeral home in Richmond Hill on Sept. 12, to attend the Muslim rite and express objections to the cremation. The Rejas say people crowded around them to press their case as they wept beside their son’s body. “I was having my last moment with my son,” Mrs. Reja said. “What gave them the guts to do that?”
The funeral staff called the police in part because the Rejas feared the crowd would try to block the hearse going to the crematorium. Mishal Reja stood in the door of the funeral home, asked the group to leave the family in peace, and promised he would try to get the cremation canceled — just to get them to leave, he said. The crowd dispersed peacefully.
Later that day, Dr. Rahman, an anesthesiologist at Elmhurst Hospital Center in Jackson Heights, spoke to a group of people breaking the daily Ramadan fast at a restaurant across the street from the family’s Bangladesh Plaza mall.
According to the Rejas, and a report in a local Bengali-language newspaper, he called for a boycott of the mall and for shop owners there to stop paying rent, though he denied that in an interview.
Afterward, some of the people from the restaurant gathered outside the mall, waving their sandals in an insulting gesture and threatening to boycott the mall, according to two men who run shops there, who did not want to be quoted by name for fear of damaging business relationships. One said that at least one person in the crowd threatened to burn the building.
In the crowd, according to the merchants, was the secretary of the Jackson Heights Bangladeshi Business Association, Zakaria Masud. Mr. Masud, too, denied calling for a boycott, but said that protesting the cremation was “a social obligation and a religious obligation.”
The next day, Mina Reja held a press conference at the mall, at which she denounced the critics and asked for privacy.
Afterward, according to complaints the Rejas made to the police, Dr. Rahman told Mishal Reja, “We will bomb your building,” and Giash Ahmed, a real estate broker and former Republican candidate for state senator, told Farhad Reja it would be burned.
Dr. Rahman and Mr. Ahmed said in interviews that they never threatened anyone and were not even at the mall that day. Mr. Ahmed said Mrs. Reja’s decision was her business.
Dr. Rahman said expressions of anger at Mrs. Reja should wait: “She should have a time of healing.” He accused her of orchestrating the scandal and fabricating the threat.
Meanwhile, under the neon signs and rainbow lights of Bangladesh Plaza, shopkeepers worry that a boycott even by part of the community will hurt their holiday business.
“Why should they involve people who are not involved? How will we survive?” one of the shop owners said. Another said of the cremation: “It’s a family matter. The parents, they decide.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/nyregion/04cremate.html?_r=1&em&oref=slogin
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