This past week I have been working through my thoughts and opinions on how Haiti is represented in The World is Moving Around Me, as this is going to be one of my main focuses in my final paper. As I do more research and track down ways in which the media in first world countries portrayed the earthquake, I am struck with how assimilated all these disaster narratives are. As Laferriere points out in The World is Moving Around Me, images of terror and devastation are expected and delivered through these outlets. If you search images from the Haitian earthquake, the photos are almost identical, focusing on death, destruction and poverty. While I acknowledge the importance of accurate news coverage and the speedy delivery of that news, I also pause on how these first world perceptions are shaping the way in which we understand Haiti’s history, and how we see it as a society today. Interestingly enough, a somewhat new documentary film by Sean Penn is being released to Netflix (my guess is American Netflix). This film called ‘Haiti Untold’ is actually packaged as a film that works to break down first world biases and tell the true story through Haitians’ eyes. This description caught my eye and seemed promising, as my first assumptions about the film were not favourable. You can view the trailer here.

The thing that stood out to me the most in the trailer was that it appeared that the first world stereotypes were still so persistent- it almost read as a Hollywood disaster movie would. In the trailer we learn that Sean Penn lives/lived in Haiti, and he is heavily focused on in the trailer. I can’t critique the film as I have not seen it, but if it continues on with the pattern of portraying Sean Penn as the ambassador of telling the untold story of Haitians, then I find that problematic. To what extent can someone encompass an identity of a group of people without actually belonging to that group? How long do you have to have lived in Haiti to give yourself enough cultural capital to identify as a Haitian?

The answers to these questions are hard to find, but I think that most would agree that Sean Penn does not fit the bill. While I think it is admirable for someone who has power and money to contribute to international aid issues, I find it strange that a person of such privilege would take on the role of representing a group that is known for the struggles they have endured. I would be much more interested in watching a documentary film made about the earthquake from a Haitian filmmaker. The film ‘Fatal Assistance’ was made by Raoul Peck, a Haitian who probably had a stronger ability to create something more truly representative of Haiti. If you have seen either of these films, I would love to hear your thoughts.

My love affair with graphic novels really started when I was given Maus to read eight years ago. Growing up I loved Calvin and Hobbes as well as the occasional Archie comic, but Maus was given to me at a time when I was really starting to explore new mediums of art and literature. I can greatly credit Maus for engaging my interest in history (something I now minor in) and opening a window into so many things that I am fascinated with today. I have not really questioned until recently why Maus had that type of effect on me. What is it about the mixture of art and narrative that is so appealing to such a diverse group?

In my paratext assignment I explored Maus and its online reviews to try and get an answer to this question. The most common theme I found within the reviews was that Maus is relatable, even though it is telling a story that most of its readers can’t comprehend. It was unanimous among reviewers that Maus was also a more realistic and true depiction of the Holocaust (again encountering the idea of what is really truth). This all makes sense, after all, these are similar feelings I must have felt when I first read Maus, as it had such a lasting impression on me. I was determined to see if I could find something to offer insight into how Art Spiegelman felt about these sentiments towards his graphic life narrative. After falling down a rabbit hole of Art Spiegelman interviews on youtube, I stumbled upon this one. Unfortunately the interviewer isn’t that great, but Art eloquently touches on some of the questions that I had.

There are a few key ideas that Art touches on during the interview that I found very helpful. The first is his explanation as to why so many people are drawn to Maus– he describes how the comic format allows for historical information to be connected to the present in a way that is not possible without images. The ability for more information to be expressed through images gives the reader more accurate information. Art is able to depict such specific details such as what places looked like, what people were wearing. His example shows that even the detail of whether the camp victims wore socks or not was easily depicted, while in a non-graphic novel, details like that may be skipped in order to have an appropriate length story. As Art says, we are able to understand the past in the present because the illustration guides us towards a better understanding.

The second thing that I noticed is that instead of speaking about the idea of “the truth”, Art speaks of “a truth”. The sentiment implied is that one cannot expect to understand
the full truth of the Holocaust through one story. Art articulating that Maus is one small version of someone’s truth, allows the reader to connect and engage in the material in a way that is intimate. You can relate to the story in whatever way you want, and perhaps this invite from Art to participate and literally view his version of the truth is what allows for such a strong connection to the material.

When I first noticed that Missing Sarah was on the syllabus I was pleased.  While I had not read the memoir yet, I had heard of it and knew that It was on a topic that had struck a chord with me in the past.  I have lived in Vancouver for almost 10 years and in recent years have started to try and unpack how I feel about issues in the downtown east side.  As most people who live in Vancouver know, these issues are important, undeniable and severe.  The marginalization of women in the downtown east side (especially sex workers) has started to get the much needed recognition it deserves,  as organizations and families of the missing woman told their stories.  In the past year, I have been closely following the ways in which many people and sex workers in Vancouver have fought against the laws that have promoted unnecessarily dangerous conditions for women.  I thought that sharing some of this information would not only enrich your reading experience of Missing Sarah, but also create a different dialogue about sex work- something that is a very controversial topic.

Pivot Legal Society is a group of lawyers and workers in Vancouver who have helped sex workers fight against certain laws.  These laws do not make prostitution illegal in Canada, but create a very harmful environment for downtown east side sex workers.  On December 20th 2013, three of these laws were successfully struck down by the Canada’s highest court based on the fact that they violated parts of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  The three laws that were struck down can be seen in detail here.  A very informative short documentary made by Vancouver filmmakers called Voices Of Dignity follows a handful of lawyers and sex workers to Ottawa in hopes of having these laws changed.  If you are interested in this topic and have 15 minutes to spare, I highly suggest watching it here.

On December 20th, when the laws were struck down, it was a huge victory for Canadian sex workers, especially because they were fighting against our relatively conservative government.   This summer our federal Conservative government proposed Bill-C-36, a bill that criminalizes sex work and possibly makes things more dangerous than they were before.  While sex work is a controversial topic, one thing that I feel is important is to realize that these new laws are denying sex workers their human rights.  The laws that have been in place in the past, and are being proposed now, foster violence against women.  The memoir of Sarah allows for us to understand that we need to solve these issues.  My hope is that Canada can be a progressive and forward thinking country and care enough to protect the women who live here.

This week’s learning module made me reflect on issues of privacy and advertising in relation to the internet. While privacy on Facebook has been an ongoing topic since Facebook first emerged, it is shifting in a way that I think is being marketed as a positive aspect of the site. On my newsfeed as well as on Facebook’s newsfeed, I recently noticed many little videos about your ability as a user to have a more customized Facebook experience based on your Facebook use. What is being advertised to you is specifically selected based on google searches , and who and what shows up on your newsfeed is not random or accidental. While Facebook markets this as a unique and beneficial attribute, I think that these algorithms are in a sense disrupting privacy. The “Filter Bubbles” Ted talk showed how this is not only an issue of Facebook, but on other websites as well. It is problematic to have algorithms decide for us what we want and don’t want to. As Eli Pariser discusses, it not only limits our potential experiences, but can influence the truth of what we see.

After watching “Filter Bubbles” I was reminded of an article that I stumbled upon a few years ago that showed how accurate data-mining can be. When you go to Safeway or Shoppers Drug Mart and you use your rewards card, you aren’t necessarily thinking of it as a privacy issue (especially because you are doing it willingly and getting a deal). It is this article in Forbes that gives an interesting view on privacy and shopping : http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/

A teen’s pregnancy was outed to her father due to Target sending her maternity coupons in the mail. Based on her other purchases, Target was able to correctly predict that she was pregnant. While data-mining can be convenient in other shopping situations, this story shows the repercussions of such hidden advertising tactics.

The other issue that I hold with Facebook and other online news sources is that many of the ads are native ads (ads that are sponsored by companies that often carry biased information). While I feel that native ads are a price that we pay to use Facebook (it is free, therefore I understand the need for advertising), I think that native ads can be problematic when people do not understand that they are sponsored. If you are new to the concept of native advertising (as I am) here is an explanation given by John Oliver that is pretty easy to watch: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=E_F5GxCwizc

While I enjoy using Facebook to connect with friends and family, as well as using web based sources to get my daily news, I do think that things are changing, and that as internet users it is our responsibility to understand how and why we are being fed certain information. It not only affects our privacy but the accuracy of our incoming information.

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