I just realized - my penchant for slacking and general procrastination has prevented me from writing about issues near and dear to my heart, even as they play out in the media and around the world. This fall, the Occupy movement took hold of cities around the world, protesting a wide variety of issues and ideologies. I was part of the Occupy movement in Halifax, partaking in their various rallies and demonstrations, attending general assemblies and the like. Did I write about it? No. Too much effort. I did, however, use social media to promote and share these events...I even set up a Twitter account! Wild, I know. I was vehemently opposed to Twitter for a long time, believing that it was just a site filled with irrelevant Facebook-like status updates: people sharing what they're doing ("OMG just had a Big Mac, totes need 2 go 2 da gym l8er!"), where they are ("@ da mall wit ma girls!"), and other brain-curdling nonsense. Much to my surprise, Twitter can actually be used for good! I mostly subscribe to news sources and higher-profile people (CBC, Jian Ghomeshi because I love him, Al Jazeera, Occupy-related things, Adbusters, Margaret Atwood, etc).
Since disconnecting my cable in the fall, I've felt a bit out of the loop - I loved watching Steve Murphy every night at 6, checking in with CBC to see what was happening in the world at night, and tuning into Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert providing hilarious insight into American politics and happenings. Twitter has since remedied this void (well, sort of - I still get the newspaper delivered every Friday and Saturday, just so I have a bit more detail about what's happening...and I love the Lexicon). The best part of getting rid of cable? NO MORE COMMERCIALS! I despise commercials. Really. DESPISE. They're always louder than the program, go on for far too long, and repeat twice, sometimes three times, in one segment. Outrageous.
That brings me to my next point (sort of): have you been paying attention to the litany of bills being proposed in various countries (including our own) surrounding intellectual property and online piracy? Because you should be. In the US, SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Personal Information Privacy Act) have been at the forefront of conversations; even Wikipedia had a 24-hour blackout on the website to protest these bills. While the kerfuffle raged in the US, Europe quietly passed their own version of the bill, setting a terrifying precedent for other countries. Canada's version, Bill C-11, aims to make a plethora of activities illegal, including ripping CDs to your iPod, or posting videos to YouTube. The owner of MegaVideo is in hot water these days for illegal uploading and is facing significant jail time (I believe it was t least 20 years? Rapists and murderers don't get that half the time...and she only provided a website where people could upload videos...apparently intellectual property rights are more valuable than our bodies, dignity, or life? I don't quite follow that logic...). For someone who relies on the Internet for most of my entertainment needs, Bill C-11 could make me a criminal. I've made it this far without a record, I don't intend to acquire one now.
With Harper in office set on making Canada into some sort of prison state, we need to stay informed and willing to stand up against these insane legislation...because we don't know where (or if) it will stop. Want to be scared into believing it? Pick up a copy of Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale - a fantastic dystopian novel that is eerily familiar...and plausible.
This is serious. Today it's online information; what will it be tomorrow? With the Patriot Act in the US, the government has complete access to anything (ANYTHING) they want from you. They can even arrest you without charging you, and leave you to ponder life's meaning in a jail cell indefinitely. Land of the Free? More like Land of the Fearful.
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