Category Archives: Involvement / Leadership

The UBC Farm

Posted on 22 February 2008 | Comments Off on The UBC Farm

Farming brings to mind the beginnings of human settlements. Ancient, in other words. “Common”. Waking up at 4 am. Hard work. Dirt. Lots of it.  And if, like me, you studied history at any point in your life, lots of half-starved, ignorant peasants.

In my mind, there were only two kinds of farms: the traditional, subsistence farms, and industrial ones.

One of the best things UBC has done for me is to have the UBC Farm. That was my first experience of learning outside the classroom, here. I went to visit it last August as part of my ASSIST (now Jump Start) orientation. For anyone who has ever thought like me, or who just wants a new experience, I really encourage you to go to the Farm.

It’s not in the least bit dirty or foul-smelling, two of my initial fears. The only animals there are chickens and they are very well-behaved. Legend has it that the manager of the farm knows all the chickens by their birthdates. The chickens are there to remove grubs; they’re an organic solution to pest problems. The entire Farm is organic and it’s wonderfully green in the summer.

There is also a Mayan garden, tragically called “Mayans in Exile”. It’s run by two Mayans who left their home. They talked to us about their history and their garden. It’s a grievous story, and you come to admire them so much.

We had different “stations” when we visited and had people talk not just about the Farm, but also of politics and the environment and all the wider issues. The manager, in particular, seems to be on top of everything. My complete ignorance on these topics made me realise how completely naive I was to think that farming isn’t as “intelligent” as other white-collar jobs. The only thing I was right about is that it takes a lot of hard work to be a good farmer — but so does everything. I learned more by going to the Farm than anything I’d learned in “class” at the orientation. Even now, none of my classes draw across so many disciplines to talk about real-world problems and possible solutions as the staff at the Farm did.

The UBC Farm is the only one of its kind in the city of Vancouver. In the summer, there are fresh-produce markets. There are volunteer programmes available, and educational classes for the young. Some courses at UBC are designed to include the hands-on experience and work that you can only get from going to a farm. It is very much a student-driven initiative to maintain the valuable experiences you get from going there, and it’s also a part of the community.

Were the UBC Farm to disappear, there will really be no other opportunity to create a new one again, yet that’s the very real possibility right now. Basically the university is considering to have housing built there. I don’t even know if it’s the university building housing there, or if they’re planning on selling it to a redevelopment company. Although I would like to have housing, I’m not willing to sacrifice the Farm for it.

Before you decide to go along with having housing built there, or even before you decide to side with me and keep the Farm, find out more about it yourself. Visit their website. Get in contact with Friends of the Farm. Most of all, go there in person. Go without expectations. It’s winter; I haven’t seen it and I daresay it’s not as green and lush as the height of summer. Don’t listen to my raving or you might be disappointed. I come from a very non-farming community and the only farms I’d been to before really were the subsistence onces I talk about with so much distaste. Go for a field trip. It’s definitely something different to do on a weekday.

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Posted in Academic, International, Involvement / Leadership, Orientation, Recreation, Sustainability, Wellness

The Art of Choosing

Posted on 4 February 2008 | Comments Off on The Art of Choosing

Finding things to do at UBC is not hard. Finding the time to do them all, on the other hand, is an entirely different challenge.

The wonderful thing about the VP Emerging Leaders Programme is that I get all these heads-ups on interesting workshops and events. The Recognition Event is also an incentive to complete all the components of the programme, though doubtless I’d still try and do them all anyway. The existence of such an event only ensures that I’ll feel bad if I don’t complete them all. I’d hear it silently screaming, “You were too lazy and didn’t plan well enough!”, while I’d silently scream back, “No, I’m not! It just turned out that way!”

My components are vying for my attention. I’m beginning my placement at Trek Learning Exchange tomorrow, so I won’t be going to two workshops I’m interested in. School is also calling my name: I’ll be missing the next Terry Speaker because of clashing classes. The same problem goes for the International Week workshops, much to my disappointment. I don’t think cutting class to fulfil these components was quite what the Emerging Leaders programme envisions us doing, though…

So it becomes a matter of choice. I can do my research for my proposal (which I plan on writing on Thursday, due on Friday), or go to the Unlearn workshop at the Vanier ballroom this Wednesday evening and not sleep for the rest of the week. The latter option is cutting it too close for my liking, though; I’m going to the Vagina Monologues and I need to be up early on Thursday for volunteering.

On the other hand, waking early was the only thing discouraging me from artsWednesdays. Let’s just say that on normal days (not tonight, obviously), I try to be in bed at 8:30 pm and be asleep by 9:00, shall we? So Wednesday evenings I aim for earlier than that. But if I find someone to come with me, I probably will go one Wednesday I’m less busy and just live with a little less sleep. Once every other week shouldn’t hurt me. Shouldn’t. (I discovered, through a most scientific process of trial and error, that I got sick quite rapidly if I slept less than 9 hours during high school — it seems to have increased to 10 in uni — hence my sleeping schedule.)

I guess I’ll just have to risk every other workshop and/or speaker to clash with my schedule and have the recognition event scream at me.

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Posted in Academic, Involvement / Leadership, Recreation

Go forth in my stead

Posted on 1 February 2008 | 1 comment

An interesting series of post-graduation workshops, known as the Work Your BA workshops, are coming up. They range from talking about resumes and interview questions to grad school opportunities. Alas, they are all on Tuesdays from 12:30 to 2:00, the exact time of my American literature class, so they are out of the question for me.

On that note, there is also a Career Services Superhero Training workshop that promises to be entertaining. It runs this coming Tuesday from 6:00 to 7:o0. Unfortunately, I again just realised I may not be able to make it; I’m beginning my Trek Learning Exchange placement this Tuesday. Theoretically it’s from 3:00 to 6:00; I’m allowed to ask to leave at 5:00, but I haven’t yet. As it’s downtown, I’m still not likely to arrive on time even if I do leave at 5:00. But you can go for me! It’s run by Angeli(! who is cool!) and Kevin(! who I recognise from somewhere but don’t remember exactly where, so he thinks I’m stalking him! but who is probably also cool since Angeli works with him!).

For those who are not interested in your career yet — though it doesn’t hurt to look early! — there’s a free movie showing in MASS (Buchanan D) for Africa Awareness Week at 6:00 to 8:30. Africa Awareness has a whole host of other really amazing and interesting events coming up.

Finally, for those who are after free food, there will be a crepe sale at MASS on Valentine’s Day at MASS from 11:30 to 1:30. I know I will be hunting it down; I’ve been empty inside ever since Cafe Crepe packed up and left. It will also be V-Day (as well as my last link). The Vagina Monologues are selling tickets for their performances from the 7th to the 9th. I encourage you to go on the 7th because that’s when I want to go.

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Posted in Careers / Work, International, Involvement / Leadership

David Suzuki vs Fermented Barley

Posted on 31 January 2008 | 6 comments

Sci Week gets David Suzuki, amongst many other pretty interesting activities open to all students.

Arts Week gets lots of bzzr. It’s hard to tell from the official website — which for some reason was never really updated or promoted — but there was Mardi Gras, the Poetry Slam, a Performing Arts Showcase, club booths and some mysterious Gladiator event I can find out nothing about.

Mardi Gras and the Poetry Slam were both 19+ events, so I naturally couldn’t go. Even if I could, I’d only go to the Poetry Slam to see what one is; large parties aren’t my favourite thing. Club booths can be discounted because Science students have that too, and I already joined the ones I wanted last term. Since I was running a fever on the evening of the Performing Arts Showcase, I didn’t go. My first Arts Week thus began and ended on a Tuesday evening.

The Gladiator event was still nowhere to be seen as far as I knew.

It’s probably really hard to organise a week for students of such diverse interests. Arts is likely the most varied discipline at UBC. Regardless, it just seems overly tragic to decide what unites Arts students is a love of malted barley. Two out of the only three running events (club booths don’t count) were 19+. That is two-thirds, which is also the majority. What happens if you — just possibly — don’t like bzzr?

You become an outcast. That means a loner. Like me.

My heart is all broke. I’ll go weep in my corner now.

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Posted in Academic, Faculty, Involvement / Leadership

David Suzuki & The God Debate

Posted on 30 January 2008 | 2 comments

On Monday, I shamefacedly left an important Blog Squad meeting in order to get to the David Suzuki talk on time. Who knew that it would already be full by the time I got there? My friend and I gazed forlornly at the unfriendly building that refused to have more of us, and then decided to join the sweeping crowds of students who persisted in going in anyway. We all managed to squish inside the Wesbrook hall, mostly by sitting on the stairs. No doubt it was a fire hazard, but it was worth it.

Now, I only went to the David Suzuki talk because Stephen Lewis mentioned him with great respect, and I like Stephen Lewis. And David Suzuki seems to be famous. I didn’t really know who Stephen Lewis was before I went to the SLC either — I always feel like I’ve heard his name before that but don’t remember how — but he’s famous, and other people are excited about him, so curiosity gets the best of me and I go to listen to famous people.

David Suzuki talked about the internment of Japanese-Canadians during WWII, about the role of genetics and civil rights, and his views on the role of science and universities. It was interesting, and nowhere near as bad or as pretentious as I had feared it might be (having been warned by Genevieve beforehand). It was really quite good and I enjoyed it. (Though not as much as Stephen Lewis.)

Yesterday, the debate, “Does God Exist?”, was also overflowing by the time I could spare myself to go. I managed to get into a room with a screen where I ate my last-minute chicken sandwich dinner from Hubbards in peace.

The debate itself was alright. There were a couple of new points I hadn’t heard of on the theistic side, and I thought the theologian made a good showing. He argued most of his points very well. When talking about other religions, however, he wasn’t so strong. For example, he said the Qu’ran was filled with mostly wild inaccuracies and mythological exaggerations, or something like that (without ever providing any evidence to support the point). This triggered a collective “ohhh” of disapproval in my room; it didn’t seem right for someone who demands respect for his religion to speak in a less than respectful manner of another religion, even if he doesn’t agree with it.

To my disappointment, the atheist — who doesn’t seem to know if he’s an agnostic or an atheist, or if he does, didn’t bother coming up with a valid argument as to why we should not be arguing over terminology and instead settled for evading the attack — didn’t do nearly as well. He tried to use humour, but humour doesn’t sustain weak arguments. He never once presented a concrete argument for why God doesn’t exist, only that the arguments for God’s existence are too weak. But I could easily conclude that I don’t know and that God may or may not exist. He seemed to be taking a leap of faith in believing that God’s non-existence is the more reasonable option. There were some theistic points he could have jumped on and attacked more thoroughly — like the claim that historians (using rhetoric that implies the general community) agree that the Bible is a historically accurate document, far more so than the Qu’ran. I wish they’d got a better atheist to argue; it would have been a fairer debate.

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Posted in Involvement / Leadership, Spirituality